#I'm the same age as OOT

[veggiecorner]

Honestly, I think that guy is just really autistic... and I say this as an autistic person. He obviously has no filter at all. I wish he would stop tagging people all the time and starting things constantly under every single post. There will never be the hard confirmation he wants, like you say totk and ss is as far as it will probably ever go.

Like, I really can't see them *ever* doing more than the strong subtext they put in totk. I'd be surprised if they even get *close* to doing something similar again. Having the princess move into his house and having Link bridal carry her shirtless, etc, was already honestly kind of explicit by E for Everyone Nintendo standards lol. I never even expected them to go so far with it. I expected them to have destroyed the hateno house with sky island debris, or had her live with Impa, or something like that. I wasn't expecting straight up fanservice for all the post-botw fanfiction and fanart made over the years. Someone on the development team was clearly browsing zelink on pixiv (well, some old totk interview even said that the team loved all the botw fanart and it kept them going through totk's development, so I'm like 99% sure that's actually true even lol). But they'll never just come out and say "this is canon" straight up into the camera and we need to accept that.

Honestly, I'm guessing they will probably make the next zelink more platonic if anything after how much they pushed them with ss and botw/totk. I'm a huge romantic zelink lover, botw/totk zelink is my favorite, but I honestly *want* the next versions to be platonic so that there is an actual contrast between versions of them between games (and ok, maybe part of me selfishly doesn't want my beloved enemies-ish-to-lovers tragic royalty x servant to domestic fluff zelink to be upstaged by a zelink that acts obnoxiously less subtle with their feelings and therefore have people call them "better" but that's irrelevant)

I haven't honestly looked into his account - but tbh he's not the only one? I just notice it with him a lot and i'm like "please please separate Zelda from shipping. u can appreciate Princess Zelda outside of her theorized relationship with Link" (this is more of like...a dig at people in general who make shipping be everything when it comes to a character..especially female characters because now I'm struggling to still do a deep dive into Mipha's character without people immediately screaming about how her relationship with link is canon)

anyways fandom behavior aside lowkey i agree? The thing is that even if developers came out and was like "We intended zelink to be canon" people are still gonna argue about it (like "wELL THEY DIDN'T HUG OR KISS ON SCREEN") so tbh its not even worth fighting about it - coming from a fire emblem fan lmao yes I still remember the sumia incident

I lowkey want the next "zelink" to be platonic because...idk the same reason as you. Changing it up. I miss WW zelda and Link's dynamic because to me they're besties and are goofy. if the next one is romantic then they better get a hell of a good story because they already covered the childhood romance and the dramatic slowburn with skyward sword and botw/totk (and tragic "what ifs" from OoT but you didn't hear it from me!!!!!). That being said I would be disappointed if it was on the level of Twilight Princess so idk some sort of connection between them would be nice

[turbofanatic]

The Goat versus the G.O.A.T.

Back when I first played Twilight Princess I never really got the impression that the Hero's Shade stuck around because he wanted to be known or that he thought his skills were that important. Rather, I had the impression that he knew or suspected something bad was coming and wanted to make sure whoever faced it next was prepared. And considering what the Hero of Time went through, yeah that makes sense. So Ordona's going to have to deal with him sticking around.

You may notice he doesn't have quite the same speech patterns as Tiny, there's a reason for that!

I think I'm going to go with Roman influences for Hyrule in the age of OoT/MM, and use more Celtic influences for Twilight Princess.

[bonefall]

what do you of "the man who sold the world" for fallenleaf? friend is getting me into nirvana and i cant do anything without thinking of the Beasts

Hmm... honestly? I think it fits other characters much better!

Man Who Sold The World always reads to me as like... a dangerous character, could be a demon, could be an evil parent, could be a more literal villain in some kind of story, who has unambiguously gotten its ass kicked and banished. In its defeat, it realizes that it can turn it around; by trying to convince one of their Victims to join them.

And succeeding.

(and it's why Nirvana's version is my favorite, Cobain's voice is just the right amount of hoarse that makes me feel like the Victim Character has lost a lot of sleep over it. Vulnerable and open to the offer of the Villain, possibly on the brink of desperation in their own life. It has that sort of angsty-young-adult madness that makes choosing bad decisions sooo much easier. Bowie's and Ure's versions are also fantastic, but imo they're a lot more dreamlike, like the victim is being more entranced than convinced!)

The song isn't about breaking out of that cycle. It's about "laughing and shaking his hand," returning home almost unaware of any change. But over many years, in tiny little ways that add up into even bigger ones, slowly the Victim becomes another man who sold the world.

They doesn't even realize when they died alone along their quest, just that it must have been long, long ago.

Some of that fits Fallenleaf, but it's not quite the same vibe. She killed Ashfur in revenge. She sought out Sol and took his deal for power, and tried to kill her own brother. She subjugated an entire Ancient Lake society-- and the only thing she can really blame Sol for is how it got bored of her and kicked her out of her own body.

Those were things she did. And they're things she lives with. Trickery was less a part of it than she might have wanted to believe at some point in her long, guilty life.

NATURALLY I'm inspired by Cheecat's really great animation they made with Brambleclaw and Tigerstar, and I think it fits Tigerstar to a T, but who I always think of is Hawkfrost.

Especially in BB, where RiverClan raised him to lean into his legacy. Not Clanborn, from a young age he had to work twice as hard, prove that he and his sister were "worth" keeping around, told that they were only protected by that diluted Tigerkin blood that trickles through their veins and that Tigerstar was an ideal to live up to...

Only the thinnest veneers of, "Be what he was, without his flaws" to hold him back from fully adopting everything his father ever stood for. A father he never met, who hurt his mother, who killed and traumatized countless clanmates.

And then Hawkfrost sees him. The song kicks in. "I thought you died alone, a long long time ago."

"Not me. I never lost control." It means that those "flaws," they weren't so bad. "You're face to face with the man who sold the world" and I can teach you the value of that.

He leaves that exchange feeling warm. "I laughed and shook his hand." He goes through the destruction of the forest (looking for form), the great journey (and land), and eventually finds himself in all the conflicts of TNP. No one knows at what point he stopped being the noble young warrior who stood up for Reedpaw against his tormenters, or when wanting to protect his sister became abuse and belittling.

But at some point, he died alone, long before his heart stopped beating on that stake.

He ends up in the Dark Forest with his father, preparing for the change that's coming in OotS, but not by the end of the song. At the end of the song his father has successfully dragged him down to his level, singing the same tune, trying to pretend that his dad getting him pointlessly shish-kebabed for a petty personal dispute wasn't a critical L to the chest.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

whats hollyleaf like in your au?

I'm gonna be completely transparent. With all the talk about canon!her recently, I'm terrified of talking about WCR!Her. But, screw it. Let's be brave!

Hollyleaf

Well, let's start with the basics! Hollyleaf is a large, long-legged, pure black molly with a rip in her ear post-OOTS, long, soft fur, a big bushy tail, and pale green eyes.

Yes, Post-OOTS. Hollyleaf manages to survive the Great Battle when Dovewing slams her full weight into Thistleclaw, who is attacking Ivypool for being a 'traitor'. Since she isn't attacked by a Dark Forest cat the way she was, she makes it through the battle.

Hollykit is born to Leafpool and Crowfeather, and given to Squirrelflight and an unknowing Brambleclaw to raise alongside her 2 brother, Lionkit and Jaykit.

From an early age, she is inspired by her father and wishes to be the best cat she can be for Thunderclan.

She is initially ambitious about being a Medicine Cat, with the freedoms and power the position easily applies to its holder. She and Lionpaw are both assigned to Leafpool, but with Hollypaw being squeamish and Lionpaw being... Lionpaw... They're both reassigned. Lionpaw is assigned to Brightheart, and Hollypaw is assigned to Ashfur...

Ashfur is an AWFUL mentor. He constantly berates Hollypaw, drilling Starclan and The Warrior Code until her as hard as he can. When things come down to it, I'm not sure if Hollypaw fights him or Lionpaw steps in to try and help his sister, only leading to that horrible fight... But I know that no matter what happens, Brambleclaw STILL fails to see the real problem, and Hollypaw STILL takes guilt on board and begins to obsess over being a "thinker", a politician, someone who will fix a problem, no matter the cost.

When Swallowkit, Thistlekit and Sedgekit go missing in the tunnels, Hollypaw, Lionpaw, Jaypaw, Heatherpaw and Breezepaw go through said tunnels to find them. However, there is now a twist to it. Lionpaw tries to keep things a secret, and Jaypaw has doubts that kittens would go into such an eerie place, but Hollypaw?

Hollypaw can hear them. She can hear a lot more than she wants to, and she can't control it.

Hollyleaf! Third cat of the Prophecy! The Clairvoyant, capable of hearing and sensing things over a great distance. Lionblaze's eyes turn red, Jayfeather's turn silver, Dovewing's turn blue, and Hollyleaf's eyes turn a bright amber... The same colour as Leafpool's.

She has the hearing power until her mental breakdown, where she begs Starclan to take it away from her and give it to a "better cat". Starclan picked Dovekit, and swapped her would-be power. The ability to sense disaster. For any Pokemon fans, think Absol. Can sense when a disaster is about to strike. Time stops, just for a moment, and she can sense what is about to happen. When she controls this, it can give her a major advantagetk strategically think about her move, but she'll have to do it quickly. You can feel when something will happen. This doesn't mean you can prevent it. Hollyleaf is no longer The Clairvoyant, the title goes to Dovewing. Hollyleaf is The Sighted.

Before this happens though, she goes back into the Tunnels to hone her power, making friends with Fallen Leaves and getting close with the ghostly trans molly. She connects with Fallen Leaves and the two care deeply for one another. At first Fallen Leaves is apprehensive, it's been so long since she's had a real connection with anyone, and Hollyleaf could just leave... But when Hollyleaf gives her reassurance that she will always come back, and that she really does care, it allows Fallen Leaves to not only get closer to the entrance of the tunnels, but to begin aging alongside Hollypaw/Hollyleaf. Finally beginning to not only accept her death, but heal from the traumatic experience of it.

She stays in Thunderclan after the reveal and her murder of Ashfur, but her mental state is frail and all eyes are on her, she suffers hallucinations, flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts... She is given Dovepaw to mentor, the kid who Starclan gave Hollyleaf's power to. Hollyleaf does her absolute best to support Dovewing, and she's doing a better job than Lionblaze is, especially as he is now Ivypaw's mentor.

Hollyleaf and Dovepaw go on the Beaver Journey together, and from that point on it solidifies Dovepaw's place as the 4th Prophecy cat.

She and The Three work together, gathering information on Starclan and The Place of No Stars, while also trying to get through life in a time of heavy political unrest. Ivypaw and other Dark Forest trainees are manipulating political figures into battle.

Hollyleaf had no idea how bad things were getting for Ivypaw, how deeply she was falling into a trap. She ripped into Lionblaze, who had been neglecting his apprentice a bit to focus on Prophecy work. If she could do it and still be a mentor, so could he.

Hollyleaf is kinda popular in Thunderclan, her attitude mellows throughout OOTS as she learns to be a member of her community rather than a servant of Starclan.

It starts with the new Novella-turned-Super-Edition; Hollyleaf's Nightmare. Hollyleaf is in a small, safe tunnel with Fallen Leaves after losing her overstimulating hearing power. Only a single day later. They head deeper into a tunnel, when Hollyleaf suddenly gets sleepy. Fallen Leaves promises she'll wake Hollyleaf up.

"I will wake you up when you've snored 100 times!"

"Thanks, Fall, I.... Wait a minute, I don't snore!"

"Hollyleaf. You could wake the dead."

So she has a nap, and during this time, her new disaster power is about to come through... but... The Tunnels are not a place that is easy for any spirit to reach. Starclan or Beyond.

Hollyleaf dreams about a swirling misty field, but it's cold, and gray. There are no signs of life aside with the tiny plants that seem to struggle in the thick, heavy air... She steps through, only to no-clip fall through the ground and into The Dark Forest, where she is quickly ushered by an invisible force into one of the many prison cells.

By this time, Hollyleaf's sleeping body is in visible distress. Fallen Leaves is unable to wake her, and demands that Rock, the God of Time, do it. When Rock refuses, Fallen Leaves uses a tiny tunnel to get to Midnight, God of Dimensions. She begs Midnight to help, to do something, anything...

Midnight, seer of different dimensions and teacher of Fire to the cats, sends Fallen Leaves into the Dream World, to rescue Hollyleaf.

But Hollyleaf is clever, and able to escape the prison, setting off a riot. She and Fallen Leaves escape; though... When she gets out of the tunnel... The Lake looks quite different.

She and Fallen Leaves have gone back in time, as time and space are unstable in the tunnels. She lets Fallen Leaves go and see her family, though they will not be able to see her, while Hollyleaf stays and heals from an injury she got escaping Hell.

In the meantime, a baby Badger wanders up to Hollyleaf, starving and scared. Hollyleaf starts a fire, just like her mom... Aunt... taught her to, and cooks up some grilled pheasant. The baby Badger is thankful, and says so, startling Hollyleaf. She asks Hollyleaf how to start a fire, and when Hollyleaf shows her, she introduces herself... as Midnight.

The young god goes along her way, leaving Hollyleaf alone to think about her aunt. Her mom. Her other mom.... What even is Squilf to her anymore?

It's a lot to think about, and even more to miss.

When Fallen Leaves comes back, she and Hollyleaf head into the deepest tunnel to get back home. Hollyleaf heads back to Thunderclan, and finally sits down to have a talk with Leafpool.

Later, during Squirrelflight's Freedom, when Squilf steps down as deputy in a final act of defiance, Bramblestar chooses Hollyleaf for his second deputy. She knows what game Bramblestar is trying to play, and she's not interested. She takes his offer, but not his apology.

During TBC book 2, Hollyleaf sprains her leg BADLY. She was just out hunting when some thawing dirt gave way and the next thing she knew Jayfeather was fussing over her while his new husband Fuzzyleaf (Fuzzball) was gently massaging her hip. He confines her to her bed and Squilf is made temporary deputy against her will... She does it for Hollyleaf.

In time, he legs heals up, and she is torn between doing what is easy (killing Bramblestar's Imposter, as many times as it may take) or doing what is right, which is letting him at least have his body back. She dislikes her former father, but she isn't cruel. She knew if it was her in that situation she would be desperate for help from anyone.

She helps him, because helping people is the right thing to do, even if you dislike them.

During ASC, everybody is gunning for her to be leader. Dandeliontuft most of all wants another cat to replace her father, and places down the very first Thunderclan Leader Vote.

Bramblestar hates it and lashes out against them all before Starclan's divine intervention strikes hard and fast...

Hollyleaf quickly made aware that going to the Moonpool is not any sort of option to take. Something has cursed it, and no cat an get through. Breezepelt was mauled and may not survive, simply for trying to claim 9 lives.

Until things settle, Hollyleaf will call herself Hollystar, and will fight against Berrystar and Splashstar with clever tactics while others try and see if they can break the curse that withholds Starclan's blessing.

In the meantime, she'll be training Bristlepaw, and keeping a close eye on her as Starclan's angels close in to choose another "special" young cat...

[blueskittlesart]

I know you're not fond of Twilight Princess, but what would you think if they brought back worldbuilding elements from it (the Twilight world and Midna, mainly) to a newer game? I'm not familiar enough with the series to know a whole lot, but that stuff at least seems really neat to me from my secondhand knowledge, but if Twilight Princess was as bad as you say... I would love to see them revisit it somehow with the BotW/TotK continuity.

i have this. thing about twilight princess. we know this. but genuinely even looking at the lore from an objective standpoint i think trying to pull any of it into other games is a bad decision at best and actively detrimental to the new game in question at worst. there are two main reasons for this:

the first is that mainline, non-sequel zelda games have a general rule about standing alone. in order for the games to remain accessible to players of all ages and backgrounds, every original (non-sequel) zelda title has to be able to function as an introduction to the franchise, meaning any lore required to understand the story must be exposited WITHIN the story of that game. the few lore-points that HAVE been adapted from other games (sacred realm, oot ganondorf, talking sword) are generic enough that they can be explained briefly within the story without taking too much time away from the player's journey. while those of us who ARE versed in the lore might have a deeper understanding of the overarching implications of these elements, NOT understanding the history behind them isn't going to impede your understanding or enjoyment of the game. for example, this is likely the practical reason why fi was never named or appeared in botw beyond her generic sound effect and the glowing of the sword, because even players who don't KNOW fi are able to tell from context that the sword is magical and is speaking. not knowing who fi is doesn't impede your ability to understand how and why the sword is speaking, given the rest of the context of botw's story. the two elements of tp that you mentioned, the twilight realm and midna, are VERY difficult from a writer's standpoint to work into a game without requiring the player to understand the plot of twilight princess. neither element easily fits into a new cycle's story without requiring a ton of expositional explanation which will inevitably take players out of the story, and relying on convoluted lore that new players won't even be familiar with to drive your story just sets you up for failure.

the second reason is that, from a writer's standpoint, neither midna nor the twilight realm were well-written enough in TP to be compelling. lmao. If you're going to adapt world-altering lore like the twilight realm into consistent canon, you need to have a firm grasp on the implications of adapting it. even the writers of TP had no fucking clue what the twilight realm was or where it came from or how it tied into the existing world of hyrule at all. literally the first sentence on the zelda wiki for twilight realm history is "The Twilight Realm's full history is incomplete." adding something like a new dimension to your consistent canon is world-altering. when you do something like that, it HAS to be thought-out and for good reason, or you're just confusing your audience unnecessarily. IF the twilight realm was to be brought back, it would HAVE to be with explicit knowledge of of how it effects the narrative and theming of the story its being written into, something that wasn't even present in the game where it was introduced. the same goes for midna; if you bring her back, she needs a reason to be there. she needs narrative weight and thematic consistency with the entire rest of the game, things that were barely present in her original story. ripping these elements out of their own game and tossing them into another only makes them more likely to feel out-of-place and confusing to players. And to be completely honest, almost anything that writers wanted to accomplish with the twilight realm could be done just as easily utilizing the sacred realm, an element which is already in consistent canon and is much easier to write into a given story than something as mysterious and confusing as the twilight realm. with midna, almost anything that she would accomplish could be accomplished by a game-specific guide character, which is already staple of loz anyway. using a game-specific guide character would also remove any potential confusion for new players who lack the context of midna's past appearances. the only reason you might NEED midna as a character is if you ALSO have the twilight realm and specifically require a twili guide character to explain it, but. for all the reasons stated above. you shouldn't have the twilight realm. lol

[goopi-e]

There's no canon answer, so I'm curious what the fans think.

[bluesdesk]

People. 50.6% of 87 votes are exactly 44 votes. And 49.4% is 43 votes. Tears of the Kingdom lost to Alttp for ONE VOTE

Anyway, I decided to yeet both off the poll! Let the 9th round begin! There are 8 games left, and these are really the best. I still have one game I want to vote but then the choice will be harder!

As I've written many things about totk but I don't want to give unwanted spoilers, this time the rankings are here and my opinions on the games are under the cut!

<< Previous round

The CDIs

Triforce Heroes

Zelda 2

Hyrule Warriors / Legends / Definitive

Cadence of Hyrule

Zelda 1

Four Swords Adventures

Four Swords

Oracle of Seasons/Ages

Age of Calamity

Phantom Hourglass

Link's awakening/LANS

Spirit Tracks

Tears of the Kingdom

A link to the Past

Soo! TotK and AlttP. I played AlttP shortly after BotW on nso, when TotK still wasn't out. I liked it a lot at first, but I have to say I didn't complete it. It was technologically advanced for that time for sure, but I don't think it aged well. The dungeons didn't leave me anything valuable to remember, like other games did, the items weren't equipped easily and the story was too simple and banal.

As for TotK. Oh TotK. I got to play botw another bit before returning it (I had borrowed it from a friend), after quitting alttp. And I still liked it! Then I bought TotK and at the beginning I was extremely surprised, it looked so great. I thought Rauru was the same first sage from OoT and he had a "goat disguise" to not be recognized, like his owl form. Of course I was wrong and then I was so disappointed, i left it almost one year ago and don't have any urge to play it again, I probably will though and give it another chance because something was really good like seeing grown up characters or finding those "Zeldas" or building things or finding amiibo costumes. - the story is great for a standalone game, but for zelda? The zonai make no sense to me and contradicted everything we knew. In the past right after sksw the gerudo weren't known, the zora and rito didn't exist, the gorons weren't on death mountain. They should have made another antagonist and not Ganondorf. Zelda's sacrifice was honestly a so great part, but the ending was awful. - the "dungeons" were copies of each other. And short and banal as heck, and the dialogues after each one were always the same. - People didn't remember Link. Only some of the major characters did but the majority of the npcs didn't know him. And Link didn't have the majority of his clothes. I know the outfits weren't mandatory to get in botw (nothing was mandatory tho) but at least the most known could have been left. The gerudo outfit, the climber set, the hylian set, the luminous stone set! They made up a story for the zora tunic and that's a good thing. - The depths were empty and too dark, even after the light roots were lighted. It was too easy to get lost. - the ultrahand and fuse mechanics are amazing as well as the ascend, but they should have made them mandatory at least for some parts of the game, to give them more spotlight. - I would have loved to have way more sksw references, this isn't a flaw of course but a personal preference! Also I would have loved to have Wolf Link as an ally again, instead of the spirits of the sages. - personal experience: the game crashed after I defeated Ganondorf for the last time. I was about to see the final cutscene when the screen went black and it never played (I saw it on youtube). Everything else on the swotch worked perfectly so it was just the game. Of course it doesn't autosave or let people save the game after entering the zone before the first fight with Ganondorf so I'm back there. I hated it.

[maybeher0]

games that I also still have to play but not listed: - Z1 and Z2: planning to play absolute last bc I'm genuinely terrified - Link's Awakening HD: that one is waiting till spring for proper mood - Age of Calamity: don't own yet - BS Z1: same as normal Z1 - Four Swords: that one is multiplayer only, and currently has problems with emulation - Four Swords Adventures and WWHD: i want to drag a friend into this but this will happen later as rn we have plans

[angelichavenhasideas]

Age headcanons for the LU boys

So, for Gift Of Family I need to know all of the boys ages for when they're adopted and when the last of them is adopted. However, this meant that I had to figure out not only their age order but how close I could get the boys to their canonical ages as possible. So, I'm going to share with you my findings of not only how old I think each Link is in Jojo's comic but also how old I think they are in each of their games based on vibes, official nintendo art, Jojo's art, and Jojo's past QnA stuff. Let's begin.

Time

Time is both the easiest and trickiest. To avoid the trickiness, I decided to ignore his mental age and just focused on his physical age.

For Ocarina of Time, I've put Time as 9/16. First of all, we know he's a kid, maybe the youngest of all the Links, though I doubt it. But most of my reasoning for putting Time at 9 when he starts his adventure is simply because, ever since I was a kid, I thought it was a canonical fact that Time was 9 when he left Kokiri Forest. I don't know where I got this information, I can't find any proof of this being true, but nostalgia is very good at her job and I haven't seen anything from Jojo disproving this fact. So Time starts OoT at 9 and travels seven years in the future, making him also 16 at the same time.

Majora's mask was much easier. I hadn't made Time age up from 9 to 10 during OoT and, when MM opens, Time is actively trying to hunt Navi down. So i don't believe Time can be any younger than 10 when he runs into the Skull Kid. In fact, I believe he is ten during the entirety of MM, seeing as it only takes three days and Time doesn't really look any different then he did in OoT except maybe a little bit more maturity in promotional art. So, Time is no younger then 10 but no older then 12.

During LU I'd bargain that Time is exactly 30 years old. Jojo has stated that not only is Time the physically oldest of the Chain but she's also stated that it's been around 20 years since the end of his last adventure. I took the 20 year limit literally and decided that it'd been exactly 20 years since MM ended. And since I figure that Time was 10 at the time, Time is now 30 years old. I can see an argument for both 29 and 31 but there's not much of an argument outside of that.

Warriors

Canonically the comic's second oldest Link, Warriors is also one of the oldest heroes in his own game. Asuming that his only game inspiration is Hyrule Warriors, Definitive Edition not included, we can assume that Jojo's statement of Warriors being "about 6-7 years" out of his initial adventure is the only numbers we need.

We'll be basing Sky and Twi off of Warriors age scoring too but Warriors age actually came down to US military ages. While you can join the military at 16 (as far as I understand it) most people in training are 18 or older. While Hyrule is a fictional nation, we can assume that their age of maturity is either 17 or 18, seeing as BotW is very dependent on the Calamity arriving on Zelda's 17th birthday because she can only go to the Spring of Wisdom at the age of 17.

So with the numbers 17 and 18 to work with, my new moto was established. "When in doubt, go for the higher number." With this moto in mind, I decided that, as a recruit/trainee/whatever Warriors is at the beginning of his game, he's probably 18. And, with the idea that HW took around a year to finish, if not longer, then Warriors would end his adventure at 19.

So with Warriors at 19 by the end of his adventure, we can take Jojo's higher break number (BN for short), Warriors would have had 7 years between HW and LU. So one simple math problem later, I've figured out that the most likely age for Warriors to be is 26. I would have personally liked him to be a year older so he can be even closer to Time's age but he's more likely to be 25 than he is 27, so 26 it is.

Twilight

The third oldest, this is the first big age gap of the Chain (not taking Time into account because there was always going to be a large gap for him). Now, despite how old he seems in TP, I don't actually think he reaches the age of maturity, which, for the context of the Chain in particular, we will not be counting as anything younger than 19 because of Jojo's words early on in LU's existence.

I don't believe it's Nintendo canon but when I was younger I'd heard somewhere that Twi's age was 16 and, later on, learned that he was more likely 17. So I decided that 17 was the number I would be going with. Twi's BN was 4-5 so I took the 5 and made 17 into 22. Therefore, Twilight is the easiest Link to figure out and sits as a young adult which, yes, contradicts some of Jojo's earlier statements but I've taken Jojo's latest QnA as gospel for most all of my headcanons and anything that contradicts that is free game to be thrown out the window. Besides, it's not all a contradiction for Twi because...

Sky

Sky was another big dictator for the Chain's ages as a whole for one big reason. Early on, Jojo had considered Sky and Twi to be of similar age but Twi was probably older because he acted more mature. So, for a long time, I just considered them being the same age but, after doing the math, I have come to realize that Jojo has a little more grounds in saying that Twi is not part of the young adult gang. Not a lot more ground, but still more.

My first clue to this was that Twi's BN was 4-5 while Sky's was 1-2. This seemed like a large problem but then I remembered that Sky is one of the oldest canonical Links, if not the oldest in canon games (not counting Wild in TotK, who is an actual adult).

My next clue for Sky's age was the Knight's Academy. Though I could have gone with military age like I did with Warriors, as Sky is a newly minted knight, I decided to go by the educational system. In the US, high school ends at 12th grade, which makes most every student 18/19 when they graduate. For the Knights Academy I compared it to your average boarding school with high school grades. So that would make Sky, at youngest, 18 at the start of his adventure. And, to stay with my moto, I decided he could age to be 19 during his adventure.

With Sky now at 19, we can now add two years to make 21. Not as old as I would like Sky to be, as I love thinking about Sky and Twi being twins, but it's a lot closer then I could have hoped for in any form of canon.

Wild

The Chain's perpetual middle child, he is both, very technically, the youngest and the oldest of the heroes depending on how you look at it and how you count his age. However, since we're going for physical age, it's actually easy to figure out Wild's age.

Though there's an argument for everything from Wild being 16 during BotW all the way to being around 20, I believe he's actually 18 when he wakes up in the shrine. This is for three reasons.

The first is that Wild can't get a noble pursuit, so at the very least he is not past the age of maturity.

The second reason is that he is allowed to go to the Spring of Wisdom with Zelda. While he doesn't go into the spring himself, I doubt he would have been allowed near it if he wasn't at least 17. We've seen that Zelda had other people to travel with when Link was unavailable, as seen whenever she's in Gerudo Town without enemies pursuing her. It's clear no one was expecting the Calamity to start on Zelda's birthday, so there wouldn't be an immediate need for Link to break tradition just to protect Zelda.

The third reason is that adults flirt with Link after he wakes up. This may seem strange to point out because flirty characters are in many Zelda game but in BotW it's almost like there are no weird connotations, it's just adults interacting with each other. Still suggestive but it's silly and relaxed in most cases instead of a gross joke or something to appeal to teen boys. This implies that Link is at least recognized as an adult. And since, in BotW, the age of maturity is 17 at the youngest, I went a year higher and decided Wild was probably 18, maybe being 19 by the end of his adventure.

With the added fact that LU starts a handful of months after BotW, Wild can be no younger than 19 in LU. However, as the moto goes, older is always better and, because I think BotW takes nearly two years for Wild to finish, I decided that Wild was more likely to be 20 by the beginning of LU.

Legend

The last of the young adult squad, this guy was a challenge to pin down. He's done so much and it's so tricky to just choose time periods for him, it was nearly impossible to decide where to start or end. However, to make things simpler, I decided that each adventure takes a year to complete and the next adventure will only start around a year later. the exception to this is me mixing OoS/OoA/LA together for one long year of crazy adventures.

First thing's first, let's start going backwards. Jojo says it's only been around a year since Legend's last adventure, which is where I took the 1 year BN rule from. So, with that in mind, I wanted to find a number that kept him as young as possible while still making him undeniably an adult in the LoZ canon. So, 19 was my ending number for his age in LU.

After that was ALBW. Subtracting one year, he would be 18 by the end of that. And because of all that goes on in the story and that fact Legend is still very close to Ravio, I decided they knew each other for at least a year during that adventure. That puts Legend at 17 when he first encounter's Yuga and Ravio.

Subtracting a year from that, we get LA and Legend is now at sweet 16. This was honestly a surprise because I thought for sure Legend would be too young at this point to feel genuine feelings of romantic love but when I did the math I got 16 and it finally made sense why Marin would have such a big impact on him. As a person who struggles to have an understanding of romance, 16 was when I started understanding why people got crushes in the first place. So this makes perfect sense to me and matches Jojo's Legend sketches from this time period, as well as Jojo's design of Marin.

Now subtracting a year, which I will explain in a moment, we have Legend at 15 for the Oracle games. This came as a relief to me because seeing Din and Nayru for the first time, I immediately thought they looked too old to be shipped with Link. However, this feels slightly less creepy, but only slightly. Now, I subtracted a year because I had lumped these games together, and combining that with the two ocean travel times, decided that the ocean trifecta games had probably passed his birthday before he ever got back to Hyrule. So Legend is 15 when he lands in one of the countries.

Subtracting a year, we're all the way to the beginning with Legend being 14 when he defeats Ganon for the first time. However, I wasn't satisfied with him starting at the age of 14. Despite Nintendo's official art having Legend look like a teen in ALttP promotional material, art for later games in his story have him looking vaguely, if not noticeably younger. So I decided to play it safe and hack off one more year from the poor guy, making him unlucky 13. I honestly thought he would be twelve but him landing on a notoriously unlucky number just felt right and, honestly, it felt like it was destiny. Legend probably hates the number 13 now.

Before you ask me where Triforce Heroes comes into this mess, please don't. Not only does that game have three Links, not just Legend, Jojo has confirmed that Legend is not one of the heroes from Triforce Heroes. So let that mess stay in it's own little corner of the universe. We can question it another day.

Hyrule

For Hyrule, I actually have a semi-canonical age to work with. I can't find the evidence anymore because I forgot where it was, but in AoL, Hyrule is 16 when he saves the sleeping Zelda. And with Jojo's confirmation that LU takes place around two years after his adventure ended, that makes Hyrule 18. Hyrule is the entire reason I have such a weird maturity line, because Jojo categorized him as a teen but he's more likely to be considered an adult in Hyrule by now. Whatever.

The tricky one is the original LoZ. In promotional art he looks significantly younger but there's no way to cross reference this with Jojo's work because all of her Hyrule art is from AoL and after, as far as I can tell. So I had to get creative.

The age I think of for most Links in the LoZ universe is 12. This is for a specific reason I won't get into (Wind) but essentially all of the Links look like kids and teenagers, especially the toon Links and the pixelated Links. So I debated putting him at twelve but, when comparing the official art to the 12 year olds in my life, I decided he looked slightly older and settled on him being 13.

Four

Our next age gap, Four is a tricky one. He acts super mature and confident for his age but he's also super small for his age. So literally any age could be argued for him. In fact, I've seen arguments for everything from 12 to 30. So I had to start from the canon.

Jojo has stated that it's been two years since Four finished his last adventure. From this point forward, because Four knows who Ganon is, we'll be assuming that FSA is one of his adventures. So, assuming Four took one year between adventures, Four starts adventuring at 14. This is the oldest Four could be when he started his first adventure, not considering the times it took to complete his adventures and considering that out maturity age line is 19, Four being categorized as a teen with Hyrule and Wind.

Moving on with the number 14, I decided to start adding the adventure times. MC canonically takes a day, so that was out of the equation already. I don't know the canonical time progression of the FS games so I decided that they would each take half a year because they're rather short games. This now leaves our highest number at 13.

Now, unlike Legend, a one year break between games doesn't make sense for Four. He's more relaxed then Legend, with his confidence coming from him working on himself rather than from experience like Legend. So Four probably had a little more free time. So I added another year for each of our two free break periods. This now brings our biggest number down to 11.

Still, I wasn't satisfied. Four didn't strike me as being 18 when reading LU and he didn't strike me at 11 when studying MC's promo art. He looked younger. Much younger than any other Link, even considering the toon style and naturally short figure. So this was when I decided he was around Time's age when he started. But, to make things funny, I decided Four was 8 during MC.

Now with a starting age and two year BN rule established, my job became simple. Four would be 10 at the start of FS and, for the fun of it, I said he could celebrate his birthday halfway through, making him 11 by the end. Then, for FSA, Four would be 13 at the beginning of his journey. That leaves him at 15 by the time of LU. Maybe if we push he could be 16 but I'm not going to because I've already fudged his age enough for the hell of it.

Wind

Absolutely easiest of the bunch, we already have all of his canon ages. In WW and PH he's 12 years old, Nintendo certified and everything, seeing as WW happens on his 12th birthday. By the time of LU, Wind is canonically 13, going on 14. He is the last and smallest age gap for the chain but that just makes him even younger in all of their eyes. No wonder the chain tries to baby him. He's nearly a decade younger than Twi and nearly two decades younger than Time. Geez kid, slow your role! You don't need to keep defying the laws of the universe to show the other heroes how cool you are!

And that's the list. Honestly, I have more ages I could share, specifically the two Links we haven't met yet that I think I already know the identities of, including which hidden Link is which of the remaining Links in the timeline. But I'm not gonna do that because those two have little to nothing confirmed about them and trying to give you anyone else's ages without any Jojo support at all would have me pulling my hair out within seconds of researching. Therefore, this is where I end it until more information is available. Though I can tell you that Legend and Ravio are basically twins in all but blood and Malon is likely to be a year or two younger than Time because of her in game models in OoT. That's all I've really got though.

I hope you enjoyed this rant and have a lovely day!

[wc-wild-rewrite]

Leaders

A fairly straightforward role, a Leader is the cat who primarily runs and speaks on behalf of the clan. They make final decisions, perform ceremonies, and are gifted 9 lives by Starclan.

In clan history, a leader's reign is an Era. For instance, if a cat wanted to refer to The Great Battle from OOTS, they'd say "From the end of The Fire Era" as, obviously, there's more than one historic event called The Great Battle, as thats a broad name. If there are leaders with the same name in the same clan's history, they'd usually use the second leader's suffix. Tiger Era vs Heart Era.

Stepping down from leadership is rare, but does happen. Pinestar is the biggest example within semi-recent clan history, depending on the arc. The most recent is Rowanstar, though under different circumstances than canon.

Until sometime after Arc 4, there was no age in which a leader is forced to retire, which can go very badly if a leader's personality changes due to age-based issues. Mistystar was the cause of this change, as she started forgetting her own lineage and banning half-clan cats from Riverclan near the end of her reign. Eventually, her son Reedwhisker talked her into retiring early. I'm not sure who replaces her, wether its Reedwhisker or someone else, feel free to suggest.

When a leader is not available to make decisions, wether from sickness, injury, or physically not being present, the leadership is passed onto the deputy. If the deputy is unable to take it, then it passes down to the medicine cat(s).

However, there is The Medicine Clause, created by Shadowclan post-Broken Era and adopted by other clans, that states that if a leader is significantly breaking the code, and the deputy is not willing to argue against it, the Medicine Den cats may be looked to as leaders until the current one is overthrown, replaced, or killed.

The leaders of each arc are as follows (may be subject to change):

Arc 1 - Bluestar, Firestar (TC), Brokenstar, Nightstar, Runningnose (temporarily), Tigerstar, Blackstar (SC), Tallstar (WC), Elmstar, Leopardstar (RC)

Arc 2 - Firestar (TC), Blackstar (SC), Tallstar, Onestar (WC), Leopardstar (RC)

Arc 3 - Firestar (TC), Blackstar (SC), Onestar (WC), Leopardstar (RC)

Arc 4 - Firestar (TC), Blackstar (SC), Onestar (WC), Leopardstar (RC)

Arc 4.5 - Brackenstar (TC), Rowanstar (SC), Harestar (WC), Mistystar (RC)

Arc 5 - Brackenstar (TC), Rowanstar, Cloverstar (SC), Harestar (WC), Mistystar (RC)

Arc 6 - Bracken/Ashstar (possession), Ivystar or Cherrystar (TC), Cloverstar (SC), Harestar, Applestar (WC), ???star (possibly Curlfeather) (RC)

[callyris]

well i made a promise to post here the stuff im too nervous to post on main so.

a list of media fates that, while horrible, are also kind of mutuals do this to me:

- tulip 15. or just darwin in general but especially tulip 15

- smile for me Big Event

- appointment with dr birdbrain

- ^^^ extrapolate

- big glass of fuel

- false prophet

- oots soul splice

- oots greg incident

- actually just. in general meeting a vampire

- cabinet man (doing the same thing)

- soft fuzzy man (meeting him)

- isekai'd to inscryption like that one kaycee comic

- sburb

- sburb (glitch faq style) (read: significantly worse)

- house of leaves (going there. i simply would fall in love with the house)

- rat god helps me achieve my wish

- aperture science test subject

- on a blaseball team (preferably the shoe thieves or The Breath Mints. or the wild wings)

- on a blaseball team, but then vaulted by lootcrates (worse)

- on a blaseball team, but then vaulted by lootcrates, but then playing for the vault legends (worse still)

- on a blaseball team, but then playing for the rising stars, but then vaulted by lootcrates (worse than before but not as bad as NOT being vaulted by lootcrates)

- on a blaseball team, but it's the shelled one's pods (SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE THAN ALL OF THE ABOVE) (but.... idk)

- shelled

- turned into marketable plushie

- fulton recovery'd to mother base

- gnome

- in a situation that involves meeting the fae

- weirdmageddon

- chillin in 17776

- in the EXIT

- nestor-10 (in dr calvin's place)

- herbie from the same series (in dr calvin's place)

- cutie from the same series (on the ship)

- the brain from the same series (on the ship)

- on snaktooth island chowin down on bugsnax (i havent finished the game i have no idea if this is going to age poorly dont spoil me)

- kidnapped by bowser

- kirby's epic yarn (i'm a boss battle)

- helped to win the second season of the show im in by an interloper who can speak in a frequency only i can hear

- stuck in the plane

- stuck in the constant

- stuck in the good place even though i aint great

- stuck in the infinite ikea

- stuck in the habitat

- member of team galactic

- lategame inscryption

- stuck on the be not afraid game show We Have Fun Here

- whatever happened to head of lettuce

[bahbahhh]

Congrats again on the milestone!!! For prompt requests how about OoT Zelink cuddling?

Again, you think I won’t make this angsty?

Thank you! Hope you enjoy- first time writing oot! This is offered up to @zeldaelmo who wrote one of the most beautiful fics I’ve ever read - Someone That I Used to Know which I read to actually try and prepare for this request. Having never written OoT and many years gone by since I last played the game all the way through, I wanted to lean on an author I trust to help get me get in the right headspace for OoT. I remember seeing this fic during zelink week last year and it had long waited in my Ao3 queue. 

And when I say writer I trust, I mean because I have such a soft spot for the literal children in OoT and how traumatic their lives are...it is hard for a writer to capture all that. Cut to Zelmo…this fic is beautiful. A work that reminds me WHY I read fan fiction. Zelmo does such an amazing job honoring these characters and a thoughtful handling of their healing. I hope you don’t mind Zelmo-this is meant to be a heavily influenced unofficial prequel scene of sorts, 5 years before the events of Somebody That I Used to Know. What got her started on her journey to step away from the throne and find Link? Here's what I think....

Word Count: 418

(I teased it down from 650+ because I'm trying to be better about sticking to the word limit.) 

Zelda jolts upright in her bed. It's happened so many times, she shouldn’t be this rattled, but these dreams shatter any piece of her that dares to begin healing. It's like someone reaches inside her and shakes her soul. 

A reminder, that after all these years, she is inescapably broken.

She’s come to realize her dreams have deeper roots; that she’s become a bit like the Lost Woods herself. When she closes her eyes, she sees the same scenes, over and over again, snapshots of lives that are hers but not, pathways and turns she doesn’t remember taking, only to wake up in a swirl of misty sleep, transported back into the misery of now. Twenty-five years since they saved Hyrule. Twenty-five years since she gave him the Ocarina and said goodbye. 

He left with a promise she still waits for him to keep. Twenty-five years.

She’d seen him since, but only in her dreams—no, remember they are visions, she tells herself, brushing her fingers across the dagger tucked into her garter. 

But this had been different. It is why her heart thunders still, untamed by the cool steel that's become an anchor in her panic. In the vision, her fingers, ungloved and weathered, weaved into golden hair and pushed his face back from hers. And he, fatigued by age and trial, scarred like she’d never seen—close, impossibly close—smiled at her. And then he hugs her, his body fully pressed against hers, hands splayed across her back. All of him. He holds her for a long moment and then he whispers:

Maybe time is finally on our side,

But it can’t be a vision. It can’t be a memory. Goddesses, was she finally dreaming again? Could she drop back into that moment if she closed her eyes now? 

It feels too real to be fantasy, but again, every path in the Lost Woods looks like the right one. 

She gets a crazy swirl of spirit, energy she hasn’t felt in, well, twenty-five years, and glances down at the mark of Wisdom burned into her hand.  In five years her son will be of age. She could relinquish the throne, disappear over the hills...only if... Zelda throws her sheets off and scrambles over to her mirror. She finds an angle where she can see her shadow in the moonlight. It shifts for a second, the shoulders broader, a flash of red where her eyes should be. Sheik’s still there. After all this time.

And he’s been waiting.

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 212 Trivia (Part 1)

Oot-nay!

The 8 years is an error that Inagaki Sensei has already corrected here, so don't worry, your timeline of events is fine!

Jasper, Turquoise, Mirai and Oarashi are all petrified here but none of them have been shown revived yet. Have they been woken up? Also why is Oarashi's helmet petrified??

Could they be keeping Mirai petrified for longer, until her brother returns for his space mission? Or maybe until he comes back from that?

Is this… cannibalism? 😨

But seriously, what a downgrade on the kabob! The metal skewer is pretty nice, but what happened to those huge slabs of meat!

The photo manipulation in this image is pretty nice, but the trucks and tent in the background are jarring compared to what the mobile lab looks like. Ukyo also looks like he's trying to wave you over and hand you a "gift" because of how he's hiding his other hand behind him...

The people of the Tsukasa Empire take after their parents, since they're all rather muscular. I'm not sure exactly, but one of the kids may have been following the KoS for a while. The other, despite the mention, isn't the same one because the father looks different.

This special mission was mentioned in the extras of volume 18, published (in Japanese) almost a full year ago!

We knew Ruri was a strong person constitutionally, but it looks like she's also strong physically! The sulfa-drug and petrification really healed her up to her full potential.

I wonder who would win in a bout now, Ruri or Magma…

Chrome's birthday is in February, which would have been right before the second major petrification. Ruri's is in April, and she's 2 years older. It's been a little less than 2 years since Chrome got depetrified, so they're around the same age now.

Ruri also noticed Chrome get older, but not Suika? Maybe she didn't recognize her? 🤔

Gen can barely contain himself at this reunion, and apart from the "A d-dam?!" comment, everything he says from here on is about Chalk and Sagara.

I think he really likes animals :)

The baby boars here look like a bunch of watermelons thanks to their stripes. They obviously take after Suika!

Dogs can have babies their whole lives, but it's riskier the older they are. For pigs, I couldn't find anything conclusive but they seem to still be fertile at 7 years old, so I think Chalk and Sagara decided to build the wall to protect their old family, then made new families.

This fisherman caught a giant bluefin tuna and is flying a tairyō-bata, or fisherman's flag. These flags are flown by boats returning to port to show they've caught a tons of fish. Tairyō-bata translates to "big catch flag", and can also be decorative or used at festivals.

Francois' nigiri sushi making setup is based on true sushi chefs' layouts, except for the lack of a visible water dish to ensure the rice doesn't stick to their hand. The rolling motion they're using to compress it also seems to be a stylized version of true techniques.

Kohaku seems to be turning into a very large blueberry after all that sushi.

(Next part)

[bonefall]

can clerics be lawyers? if so, maybe cinderpelt being the lawyer for squirrel & leaf? who are the options that you are thinking of?

I've got a rough outline of the Trial of Squirrelflight's Horror in mind with some neat new deets, let me toss them together so you can see what I'm trying to do here. I'll also post a "Wanted Ad" of traits the cat needs to display

But to quickly answer directly; Yes, Clerics can be lawyers. However, Cinderpelt might not fit specifically, because this lawyer needs to be equally antagonistic as well as protagonistic. This won't be a Lizardstripe situation.

BEFORE THE TRIAL;

Squirrelflight's Horror is a book that is setting up the events of TBC.

First of all, it's setting up how no one immediately caught Bramblestar being replaced by an impostor. He is not a popular leader, with a long list of controversial choices.

(unfortunately, the fact he was suddenly good at making names stood out more than his cruelty.)

Second of all, we're going to set up some tumult in StarClan.

When Squirrelflight and Leafpool die this time, it's actually their uncle Iceheart who "fetches" them.

He died in the Battle of the True Eclipse, having a rematch with Tigerstar. So they haven't seen him in a while.

From him, they learn there's been delays in StarClan cats coming up and down. But he'll walk them up. (Iceheart replaces a cat named Blade completely.)

Squirrelflight really doesn't want to go, since her grandson Hollylark (from Fallenleaf x Cinderheart) just died, leaving her apprentice Sparkpelt (from Bramblestar x Jessy) alone with newborns.

There's also been a couple shuffles in the cats they meet up in StarClan, let me go over them;

Squirrelflight is barren and had a miscarriage, back in Po3. She was only a moon pregnant (equiv: 4-ish months in a human)

She never gets back with Bramblestar after his treatment in BB!OoTS, he has Spark and Alder with Jessie.

SOOO I don't actually have a place for Dandelionkit and Juniperkit because I really do not want BB to have Angel Fetus Children like canon lmaooo

Flickerkit and Larksong are here though! Their new names are Flickerflame (starclan-given) and Hollylark (to show that Larksong and Hollytuft have been combined).

Shrewpaw, now Shrewface, has been Squirrelflight's guardian angel for her whole life. She learns this here.

When apprentices and kits die, they get full names and the ability to choose the age they appear as, barring certain circumstances.

Hollyleaf, now Fallenleaf, is not dead so she is not here.

Squirrelflight's mentor was Goldenflower, not Dustpelt. They are BOTH here though.

When Squilf and Leafpool get to StarClan, they learn that they've lived VERY controversial lives, and now need to be judged. That brings us to...

LEAFPOOL'S TRIAL

Actually does not go over as harshly as it did in canon. Squilf is going to be the one getting interrogated, sorry girlie

The main purpose of this one is to show how the trials work for Squilf later. I'm also planning for the same Lawyer who handles Leaf to handle Squilf too.

However, Leafpool is still grilled. The line, "Why do you think you're worthy of StarClan?" is used.

Breaking the code to be with Crowfeather is brought up, countered with "she came back and stayed, because the Clan did not have a Cleric."

When the Three are brought up, it's addressed with the Queen's Rights. She "did what she was supposed to," giving her children to Squirrelflight to raise.

She spent her whole life obeying, even at personal pain to herself, and served her Clan loyally despite momentary lapses in judgement.

It was a traumatic thing to go through, but still results in an easy ruling; Worthy of StarClan.

Leafpool chooses to stay in StarClan, and they watch her body die down on Earth, plus the following vigil

Squilf's Trial is a lot more complicated.

SQUIRRELFLIGHT'S TRIAL

Fire Alone, as an ideology, involves a TON of codebreaking... which she has done, often. Especially during the events of Squirrelflight's Horror where she has been forced to defy Bramblestar's direct orders several times

She's lived her whole life with the knowledge that unjust laws MUST be defied.

I think she should also kill someone in defense of the Sisters tbh. Like let's really make this worse than canon and give them something worth interrogating her about. WAS it okay to kill that person in defense of someone outside the Code?

It's not just Squirrelflight that's in question here; it's Fire Alone itself. WILL StarClan accept the idea that the Code applies to outsiders as well?

VERY IMPORTANT: This is why I do not want the Lawyer to be someone who is a Fire Alone supporter. Squirrelflight is defending it, AND herself

Iceheart, Firestar, Sandstorm, Bluestar, and all of her allies grow more and more agitated as the Trial goes on. Her enemies do as well.

Before the ruling, the entire jury is in a FEVER PITCH. Thunderstar, the Judge, cannot roar loud enough to get them all to quiet down. In fact, he makes it worse

Ashfur is one of the named "enemies" of Squirrelflight, and one of the loudest for her damnation.

The court cannot calm down enough to cast a ruling. It's starting to break out in actual fighting, Squirrelflight casts a glance at Leafpool

She's trying to yell that she needs to go home, people need her, she doesn't have time for this

And then she feels a squeeze on her ankle

Yowling with alarm, Squirrelflight feels herself sliding down into the clouds, away from the furious chaos that is engulfing StarClan. It becomes a shining speck on the horizon as if she's falling out of a dream

She's screaming for Leafpool, reaching out her claws for StarClan, convinced that she's just been damned and is being dragged down to the Dark Forest

BACK ON EARTH

She awakens in her nest, back in her body

With her son Jayfeather next to her.

As she stirs and begins to raise her head, she hears Lionblaze bellow, "YOU GLORIOUS BASTARD YOU REALLY DID IT!!" before dogpiling her

Jayfeather looks surprised that it worked at all at first, before huffing proudly

Jayfeather: "never ask me for anything ever again"

The last of a golden glow fades from his eyes; he has used the last drop of power he had left. He later shares that he doesn't think it would have worked if Squilf hadn't still been hanging on.

Fallenleaf rushes in next, followed by grandchild Ivypool, her first apprentice Rosepetal, her best friend Daisy, and by that point the Cleric's den is bursting.

Bramblestar is poking his head in, but realizes pretty quickly that he is Not Welcome, and stares longingly.

After her cuddles and hugs, Squirrelflight brings up Sparkpelt. She NEEDS to see Sparkpelt. Sparkpelt needs to know she's okay, and that her mate and poisoned child reached StarClan.

SO... LAWYER WANTED AD:

The lawyer can't be someone who's entirely on Squirrelflight's side. It's someone who is challenging her, but not entirely unsympathetic.

It needs to be someone she knew in life. Lawyers are never people who are strangers, which rules out Yellowfang who I had been heavily considering.

Ideally it's the same lawyer between Squilf and Leafp, just so we can spend plenty of time with the character and use Leaf's trial to show their personality.

Hmm.... you know, now that I'm thinking about it... what if it was ASHFUR?

Maybe even have him blackmailing Squilf... "I'll be fair, for you, of course... just promise to do whatever I say, and I'll save your sister. This is your chance to make up for everything you did to me..."

That could be pretty fun. AND be good setup for BB!TBC.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

RUBY IS SMOKE SO BASED HOLY SHIT. thoughts on that?

I'm absolutely a Ruby is Smoke truther.

She is Firestar's half-sister, and Scourge boots her and Socks off of Bloodclan turf without a meal. He wants nothing to do with his siblings. He won't forgive them until later in his life.

Ruby and Socks wander the area, but sadly, Socks passes from starvation. Ruby's loud crying attracts the attention of a kind elderly woman who just lost a cat herself. She takes Socks' body and buries him in her backyard, while taking Ruby in to care for her. Not knowing Ruby's name, she names her Smoke.

Smoke takes to it well, the old woman is nice! She's got great food, and when Smoke is good, she gets chicken off the woman's plate!

But... It's scary. What if she's abandoned again?

When the old woman's mind begins to fail, feeding times get inconsistent, and Smoke panics. It's going to happen again. Maybe being a housecat isn't so great, maybe being wild would be nicer. Her new friend Onewhisker's always going on about how great and heroic Windclan are... How everyone is so wonderful and always takes care of each other... It must be perfect!

She has no idea Onewhisker is lying, making up hero stories not only to look better but to feel better. He hates being in Windclan, and longs for the safety and security that being a kittypet would bring.

They clung to each other, they were never in love, they loved what the other one would bring.

When Smoke gave birth, she only had a single kitten, Darkkit. She brought him to the Windclan border, and Onewhisker, thinner than usual, told her no. That she and Darkkit couldn't join Windclan, not now, not ever.

She didn't understand, and Onewhisker didn't admit why. Rabbits were sick, the moor was being destroyed, she would be safer away from the moor, and he wanted to go with her but... Tallstar was so sick, so weak, he couldn't handle Onewhisker leaving, he was still strong enough to keep helping, keep hunting... And the political atmosphere in Windclan at the time was very unaccepting of outsiders. Onewhisker's father Mudclaw was deputy.

He needed to be mean enough that Smoke wouldn't come back.

Smoke raised Darktail with love, and hate. She was always telling him he was better than other cats, that one day he would destroy the Clans and make them pay for their unfairness... But to also be a good boy, be kind to others, help others out. Everyone is as important as Kin.

He would twist these words.

Smoke dies around the time of late OOTS, her age catching up with her. Darktail's heart was broken, the only cat he ever loved was his Mama, and he would destroy his father in her name.

Her spirit resides in the same realm all Kittypets get to go to, she hangs out with Socks, Quince, and Scourge, as well as the kind elderly woman. She is sad her son turned out the way he did, and wishes to see him again one day.

[blueskittlesart]

ooo i’m here for another google doc essay thesis on all the zelda trans narratives <33 lol cited sources and everything (if you have time of course, i love reading all of your headcanons on loz)

god. okay this is every mainline game ive played (excluding sequels with the same characters) except skyward sword because i forgot about it at first and now im tired. here

oot/mm

Basically the entirety of oot is a super-intense wartime coming-of-age story, dealing specifically with the trauma of losing one’s childhood to war/being a child in wartime. Any coming-of-age can be easily analyzed through a trans lens imo, but oot lends itself particularly well to this reading.

For the first nine years of his life, link is told that he is a kokiri. He spends all of his childhood trying desperately to fit in with the kokiri, even though he and the kokiri he grows up with can tell that he is out of place somehow. When he leaves the forest and grows up, it clicks into place that he was never kokiri. And it HURTS. He was lied to. But he suddenly finds himself BELONGING for the first time, among hylians. One of the most impactful npcs in the series is, imo, malon, who link bonds with, feels connected to, and who GROWS UP just like him. She is a representation of everything link gains by leaving the forest. The chance to grow up, and the chance to be among people like himself and understand for the first time who he truly is. 

I don’t think i have to explain the subtext i'm getting at here. Replace kokiri with gender-at-birth and you have yourself a trans story. 

There are also, of course, points to be made about link’s lack of bodily autonomy throughout the story and his reclamation of it in mm. Link is, in the eyes of basically every adult in oot, a pawn to be used to win a war. He is something to be molded into the shape THEY need him to be. This is a common conflict in loz--the hero NEEDS to be the hero, and so he is given no room to define himself otherwise. 

Again. Do i have to explain the trans reading of this?? Adults who feel entitled to you for whatever reason refusing to let you define yourself in a way that doesn’t appeal to them, and viewing you as an object to be shaped into THEIR perfect image. Classic trans kid experience. 

Zelda i think is even more obvious because she literally physically transes her gender in the game. For no reason. A female ninja would have been fine. Female ninjas exist in this world. Impa is the obvious example. Zelda became a boy because he wanted to be a boy. This is factual, canonical story. I dont even NEED to go on but i WILL because i can.

The subtextual reading of trans zelda is even more fun imo. This is a kid who grew up functionally powerless. She KNEW ganon was going to destroy hyrule but she could not make adults hear her, and when things went wrong it was her fault. Sheik is, in many ways, a rejection of zelda. She does away with the ancestral name denoting wisdom because she was not wise enough to save her kingdom from ruin. he chooses sheik instead, a name derived from the historic guardians of hylia, and by extension hyrule. he reclaims the power he lost by, again, defining himself where he was never allowed to before. 

Personally i consider oot zel to be nonbinary and use she/he and the names sheik and zelda interchangeably. I really love the idea of a kid who grew up with so little control over anything in her life taking it all back and then deliberately fucking with some established rules anyway, just as a little show of power now that he has it. It’s what she deserves. 

Alttp

A LOT of my reading in this is totally rooted in subtext/analysis rather than actual canon material. If you haven’t read my analysis of alttp in my analysis doc i suggest you do bc some of that context may be needed to explain what i say here, since alttp is an older game so there’s much less actual canon characterization to go off of. 

There is a moment in this game, once you have gone through several dungeons and claimed the master sword and fought the secondary antagonist twice, where link is transported into the dark world. A mirror dimension in which his human form is distorted into a form that “reflects his inner self.” He looks into the mirror and he does not recognize the person looking back at him. 

The form he takes is a rabbit, which is, in my opinion, a reflection of his inner fear and the fact that he doesn’t want to be a hero. This link is a young boy who basically loses the only family he has and is then instantly thrown into the midst of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand. 

There are two points to be drawn from this. The first is the distorted self-image revealed in the dark world, which. The connection to transgenderism should probably be obvious from here. I’d say looking in the mirror and not quite recognizing yourself is a near-universal trans experience. 

The second is that, although this game is much less obvious about it, this link is in a very similar situation to oot link, in that he has been thrown into a conflict he doesn't understand and doesn’t really have any stake in, in order to be used as a pawn to win a war. (worth noting that if we follow the timeline, oot link has to DIE for this game to happen. They never fucking learn ig) so we have a repeat of the same situation in which link’s autonomy is taken from him by adults who want him to be a hero. Ive already explained the trans reading of this. You get the idea

Im skipping zelda in this one because it came out in 1991 so zelda is barely a character. Shes trans because i say so. Next 

Tp

Twilight princess did not do very well on a multitude of things. We all know how i feel. HOWEVER. There is something to be said for the fact that when link approaches people in wolf form they recoil in fear and disgust. And he canonically doesn’t expect this. It disturbs him. He KNOWS these people. He’s still the same person inside. Nothing has changed for him except the way he looks. But now no one will so much as look at him. 

To be quite honest. The wolf form was a bit of a thematic L in my opinion. I don’t think it had much narrative purpose and my best guess is that it was there to give tp a “brand-new fun gameplay” draw. But the fact that everyone is TERRIFIED of you was a good choice imo. I wish it had been followed through on thematically but I digress. There is transgenderism here. When you go back to your hometown and nothing has changed, as far as you’re concerned, but people avoid your eyes now. You haven’t changed, not really. You just look a little different. But the people either hate you or don’t recognize you now, and in some ways you’re glad, but in other ways you feel… alien.  

Zelda also isn’t a real character in this game but it doesn’t get an excuse because it came out in fucking 2006. We knew women were people by then guys come on. Anyways shes also trans because i say so. I dont feel like thinking about twilight princess any longer lol sorry

Ww

Im going to start with zelda/tetra here because i have a lot more to say about her lmao

Tetra is a wild, loud, stubborn, angry pirate. She is the exact opposite of what your average hylian might imagine a goddess-blood princess to be. She’s rude, she’s volatile, she looks out for herself and no one else. This is an image she has curated. But she is also kind. She lets link on her ship when he begs her to help him save his sister. she slips him a good-luck charm before he storms the fortress. She takes aryll home and never asks for payment. She is a pirate, but she does these things that seem so strangely… at odds with herself. I think a lot of her tough exterior is a curated image, for the benefit of her crew, yes, but also herself. If she is stubborn and loud and angry and unlikable then she is less likely to get hurt.  

Tetra learns who she is, and she is suddenly a new person, a different person. She’s zelda. And she’s so CONFUSED. She tries her hand at being a princess. She sits and waits patiently for her hero to come back to her. But in the end, she can’t even do THAT right. Things go wrong again, all because of her.

During the final battle of this game, zelda fights alongside you with the bow of light. I believe this was one of the first games in which she does this. 

This is a nonbinary narrative. Tetra tries so hard to fit into one box or the other, princess or pirate, but can never quite master either. During the final confrontation, though, she finds a happy medium. She is kind, wise zelda, in her regalia with her hair untied, but she is also stubborn, angry tetra drawing her bow to fight alongside link. She will not be defined. 

she/they tetra ftw lol. anyways

Wind waker link honestly has much less textual evidence for me than like. Any other link because imo wind waker is almost completely a clear-cut coming-of-age. It’s very easy to read (almost) any coming-of-age as a trans narrative but much less easy to actually explain that read. 

My stance kind of boils down to this: link has a clear-cut arc of growth in this story from a weak, inexperienced kid into a soldier who is capable of taking on ganon. This arc is kickstarted by him leaving home and no longer being confined by the limited perspectives of the people he grew up around. Unlike other links, this one doesn’t have too much pressure on him to be a hero. In fact, I would consider his growth into a hero to be framed very positively in this game as it gives him the agency he lacked at the beginning. This is an interesting departure from most other games in which link lacks a lot of agency. 

Basically, i think that while most other games can be read as kind of… tragic trans stories, about the struggles of not being allowed to define yourself, etc, wind waker link is the story of a kid who is finally GETTING to define himself. It’s more similar to Majora's mask in that way, in that this kid has already HAD the chapter where he’s confined to other people’s expectations and is now beginning to break out of it and reclaim his own identity. 

Botw

Jesus. God almighty. Okay

Like. not to keep beating a dead horse but this link is the most obviously negatively affected by the expectations and perceptions of those around him. He explicitly goes mute BECAUSE he knows people expect him to be a hero above all else, and it will be easier to conform to that expectation if he keeps quiet. This poor boy is so terrified to be imperfect, to be something that hyrule might not like, that he SHUTS DOWN. he is essentially nothing BUT what hyrule wanted him to be, because he never allowed himself to be anything else. 

I have already explained the trans read of this. Reread ocarina of time’s segment. Holy SHIT. he is so transgender. Also he’s 5’2 and has shoulder-length hair come on

Side note but i think botw is cool because it explores BOTH facets of the usual loz narrative (lack of agency/reclamation of agency) within the same game, while most other games go for one or the other. When link loses his memories he is FORCED to define himself, as he has nothing to go on anymore, which is a reclamation of the agency he had lost pre-calamity. Essentially pre-calamity is the oot segment and post-calamity is the mm segment of the narrative. It’s cool. Anyways

Zelda. GOD.

She is not the daughter her father wanted. She knows this. She tries SO HARD for SO LONG to be the daughter her father wanted. But she can’t. She will never be good enough in his eyes. Eventually she gives up on doing exactly what he wants. She hopes she can win his approval in other ways, with things she is good at. Things she CAN do right. But it’s never enough for him because all he sees is the daughter he wanted. The daughter she should have been. He doesn’t care that she can’t. He only cares that she Is Not. she knows she will never win his approval but she keeps trying anyway. 

Do i really need to explain this. Babygirl you are so trans gender