#age of calamity review

[loz-furbies]

Breath of the Wild / Age of Calamity / Tears of the Kingdom Zelda, part 1/2

The final Zelda (so far) of this character review series is the most developed of them all, and probably has more character content to her in just one game than any of the others, and she has three to boot! With full voice acting (I'm JP voice only), a huge and personal role in the story, diary entries, notable relationships to multiple characters and being discussed by many NPCs there is a lot to talk about, but I'm mostly going off of memory and rewatching the cutscenes since it would be too much work to research every mention of her in all three games.

Design

(Ancient dress Zelda model from here)

Not going to copypaste my thoughts on her BotW look since this is long enough already.

It is a pity that Zelda didn't get a full redesign for TotK, but I'll take what I can get. The bob is really cute! And unusual among the Zeldas too, and I guess a nice way to represent that she has moved to the commoner lifestyle.

As for the ancient dress, it looks perfectly fine on its own, but since I value it when the designs have their own unique identity, I wish it wasn't so similar to her white dress from BotW. Maybe there is some connection, like Sonia used to be a priest so maybe the dress design survived through millennia as a prayer dress or whatever, but since that's not actually in the game, I'm not giving credit for that.

The bulkier and sort of unrefined jewelry does a good job making the outfit look ancient, but it's still fancy enough that I can believe it to belong to the royal family. That decorative accessory on the front of the dress is really cool looking and a nice and consistent detail among all the ancient clothes, but man is it a pain to draw. Finally I really like the big earrings and the tear makeup is a great little detail.

When I first saw the Light dragon in the final Zelda memory I thought it looked kind of doofy, with its bright colours, clumpy eyelashes, bulging eyes and borzoi nose, but it has since grown on me. I once read that some Pokemon designer said in an interview or such that if a Pokemon design looks too cool, they add something uncool to it to make it more memorable, and I think it's a pretty good design philosophy. There have been several LoZ designs that have shocked me at first, but eventually I get used to them and they will look just right. They could have given the dragons a more cool or elegant look, but that would have also risked making them more generic. Also the eyes give a good impression about Zelda's state that nobody is home there.

Character

This iteration of Zelda is easily the most fleshed out of them all, since we get to see so much of her relationships, character development, emotional reactions to plot events, and also stuff she does outside the immediate plot.

BotW Zelda's dread over the impending doom and the self esteem issues that rise from it are a large part of the story. There are other Zeldas who also worry about the Plot, but in BotW Zelda's case it's incredibly personal since her failure to do her crucial job in preventing the disaster is at the core of the story. According to Rhoam's diary, she had already internalised her duty at the age of six (and this caused her to not show any weakness even at her mother's funeral), and from there she spent her life trying and failing to awaken her powers. This lifelong crushing sense of responsibility and guilt and the failure to live up to her demanding father's expectations give BotW Zelda a very melancholic vibe that constantly pops up through the game. Though I must say that in the memory where the champions perform their little ceremony and Zelda gives a long speech to Link, her voice acting gets really awkward when it sounds like she's about to start crying with every word.

Once she finds her inner strength, Zelda gets her badass moments as well. I especially like the grand finale of BotW where she, glowing with power, calmly stands before Calamity Ganon's pig form and doesn't even flinch when he charges at her. And in the TotK flashback cutscenes she can apparently be taken to a battle against Ganondorf as a part of Rauru's sage posse.

I called out Skyward Sword Zelda for being a bit too much of an ideal girlfriend, so I'm really glad that the memory where BotW Zelda lashes out at Link exists. It works to prevent her from being just a pure maiden who is victimised by unfair outside circumstances. Or I mean that does happen to her, but letting her display some negative traits (like frustration and jealousy) that she's personally responsible for as well makes her feel more like an actual person and not just a perfect victim.

Even if BotW Zelda's heavy burden is a huge part of her character, luckily that's not all there is to her. And not just because being multifaceted of course makes her more interesting, but also I find it a lot more realistic that not every moment of her life had been constant suffering.

One of her most charming and notable traits is her nerdy scientist side. It certainly sets her apart from the other Zeldas, and also gives her something else to do than just worry about the plot and be a princess. The memory where she geeks over a frog and goes on such a ramble over its scientific properties that she forgets basic social norms is such a great piece of characterisation, and it's cute how her enthusiasm returns in TotK where she's excited over Zonai discoveries, and is also into Mineru's constructs. According to AoC, studying was also apparently something she did with her late mother as a child.

Her research notes also detail how together with Purah and Robbie they discovered various things about the ancient Sheikah tech, but I do think it's a little disappointing how we don't get much anything concrete about Zelda's contributions specifically. There's a lot about her being interested in the Sheikah technology and how she apparently was a part of research group, but all actual discoveries are attributed to different characters or left vague, so as a result she comes across more like an enthusiastic hobbyist who in the end doesn't actually get anywhere. I would have liked it if for example Purah's diary had a line of how Zelda's efforts helped them understand the Guardians better or something like that, but now you have to imagine her contributions yourself. The closest we get is how in AoC she gives one Sheikah artefact to Rhoam, which ends up saving his life, but it's not quite what I'm looking for since Zelda didn't know what the item would do, so it feels more like luck. But even if the execution didn't quite land, I'm glad that AoC took the time to give some kind of resolution to the Rhoam-forbids-Zelda-from-Studying aspect and has to admit that he was wrong. And regardless the Sheikah tech works well to give Zelda her unique identity, and it's also nice how two of her weapons in AoC are based on it.

BotW Zelda also has a playful side, like for example she runs up to play with a dog she just saw, or jokes with Urbosa about how they both had to act all formal in front of an audience despite being long time friends. She is also a very proactive character; thanks to the "find the memories" gameplay, we see her travel all across Hyrule instead of just sitting at her castle, she's the one to handle all business with the Divine Beast pilots (and since they're all high ranking individuals among their people, this makes Zelda pretty politically active as well), and BotW ends with her wanting to work on rebuilding Hyrule.

Zelda being active continues in TotK, where there's a lot of little snippets how she has founded a school, installed memorial monuments, managed survey teams, worked on gardens, and so on. And of course she also immediately volunteered for investigating the Gloom situation at the start of TotK as well, and from the stone tablets we can read how she also got into fiddling with Constructs and fashion in the ancient Hyrule. Obviously it would have been nice to actually see all of this instead of just reading or hearing it second hand, but I understand that not everything can get a fancy cutscene, so it's at least nice that this was included in the game at least in some fashion.

I touched on it in the part about her nerdy side, but let's also bring specific attention to the fact that BotW Zelda also has a delightfully weird and chaotic side to her. She tries to feed a frog to Link, and the TotK stone tablets tell about how she would ride Mineru's construct despite the protests of the chamberlain. And while the recipe she cooks in AoC is a legit BotW recipe, the way the scene is depicted clearly makes her come across as eccentric in her cooking.

AoC also casts her in a leadership role once her powers finally awaken and she becomes more confident. Honestly I prefer the insecure nerd Zelda over the charismatic leader because I don't think she quite has enough credibility to pull off rousing speeches to masses at this point of the story, but I guess it does make sense for the kind of story they're telling

Her powers are pretty inconsistent between games, BotW is obviously all about awakening her sacred sealing power, and the game ends with her saying that she used all that up. And then TotK reveals she had two different powers all along; Sonia's time power comes out of nowhere and Rauru's light power overlaps with her BotW ability a lot. But I can live with a discrepancy like this since I like the story of TotK.

Since I brought up how it's nice that Skyward Sword is implied to have a knitting hobby, I suppose it should be mentioned that BotW Zelda made the Champion's blue clothes and accessories. Though here it feels a lot less important and even a bit tacked on, since BotW Zelda already has so much going on that is more important and meaningful to her character. But I guess crafting clothes is princessy enough of a subject that Rhoam approves of spending time on it instead of prayer practice and even brags about it. A different little detail that I like more than this clothing thing is that we get to learn Zelda's favourite food (fruitcake).

In Japanese Zelda uses polite language, but no honorifics. I'm no Japanese expert, but to me this comes across as keeping a polite distance from everyone, while also implying status ("I'm a princess so I don't need to use a honorific for you"). Also in the beginning of AoC, Link (who at this point is just a random knight to Zelda) kneels in front of her and she doesn't even acknowledge him, so it appears she's pretty used to her standing. The stone tablets in TotK also describe her having an undeniable air of nobility.

[akystaracer22]

Okay, I honestly just want to say this but my siblings and I actually prefer Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

This will be purely about gameplay by the way, so no spoilers on the actual story of either games. I enjoyed both regardless.

Firstly, we both preferred how much more there was to do in HW compared to AoC, and playing the actual levels were a considerably more enjoyable experience. Keep in mind we played both games in two player mode, so that might impact our opinion.

In HW, I was often using Young Link in the levels, and I was my sibling's player two, while they used Link. In AoC, I played Mipha while my sibling played as primarily Revali when they could.

We both found AoC a much more stressful experience for us, and not in the good way. The missions often felt like a slog in some parts where we had to just be everywhere at once with little reprieve. The AI of the allies was also lacking in that nothing would happen if we weren't actively playing them. In HW, my siblings and I would sometimes be surprised by random keeps or outposts being taken or lost even though we weren't anywhere near there. It made the game feel more alive in a way AoC just wasn't.

We also had to struggle with an unexpected difficulty spike in AoC after the master sword was recovered. Suddenly Revali and Mipha weren't doing any damage despite us having a pretty decent level on them. Link also was suddenly taking out entire boss weak point with a couple strikes. It made my experience incredibly poor and made the game feel really unbalanced.

Finally, there's the upgrades for each character. I can only talk about Mipha compared to Young Link though so keep that in mind. In Hyrule Warriors, badges were the main way to get upgrades aside from weapons, and for me personally when playing Young Link the most important aspect was filling my magic and special attack bars as fast as possible to be in Fierce Deity mode as much as I physically can. With Mipha, the only option for upgrade aside from her attack gauge weapons and hearts was how many combos you have. In HW you can increase how fast you take keeps, increase how long your powerups last, increase how much damage you do to enemies with their guard up. There's just... more.

From what I've seen online it's not exactly a popular feeling, but I just think Hyrule Warrior's is a better game than Age of Calamity gameplay wise, for me at least. I felt like I was getting more from HW than AoC.

[sharlmbracta]

astorvember backstory week

i'll probably be able to properly start writing about this (if i ever manage to) after the end of this semester. but the idea itself had been around for quite a while since 2022 or even 2021 i think.

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM," he screamed.

The glow seemed to be coming at him. Glowering.

A strong soul, it hummed. Amusedly.

He only growled. "You will not take them."

It chuckled. A fog seemed to be enclosing around him, it was suffocating. He could barely hear the shallow- even before the fog, already too shallow, she had been so, so strong for him, and now he was losing her he couldn't lose her -breathing of his eldest anymore.

He tightened his grip around her, one arm numb, draped around her shoulder. He felt his vision receding, his breath sweltering, the ragged feeling his youngest had described before he had fallen he should have fled the place with them while he could, he should have sent them away while he could, it was his fault- a screech, sudden, sharp pain in his torso, traveling up to his heart, clamping it tightly.

A strong soul, it echoed, reverberating in his head this time.

He snarled. You will not have it, vile thing, you slaughtered them.

That was not my doing, it laced over, the higher priestess had deemed this area unredeemable, uninhabitable. Declared it to be purged, her well-known prestige allowing it to be carried out. Quite a shame, really, it stroke gently over his heart, I'm only here to pick up from the ashes, of what's worthy to be strengthened, given new power that only the pure and strong can withhold.

He felt himself slump over. He was struggling to keep his senses erect and alarmed, but he was barely able to stay awake anymore. He wasn't sure if it was the plague, the fog, or even the emotional aftermath of sorrow anymore. Still, he kept fighting, he had to. And why should I trust you?

Your children. I can grant them new power as well, new life.

He took a sharp breath. An offer of life, not only of him, but of others, his loved ones, things that were not to be taken lightly. Even yet, he knew better than to trust any god or spirit, after everything he had witnessed in his life. There was never true compassion, free of charge, in this world, he had learnt it all by the hard way. There was always a catch. And the cost?

It grinned in the darkness. You will serve me for the rest of your life.

He snapped awake then. A brainless slave, he bit out. how unoriginal. What about the children? Will you resurrect them and enslave them as well, turning them into mindless pawns of your own? They do not need their bodies to be tainted just to be mere vessels for your bidding, they have suffered enough.

As do you, it cooed. You are failing to realize, that my offer is not a ravagement, it is a gift, a reward for your valiance. You have proven yourself worthy, to serve as my hand, to carry out justice on such transgressions like these. Balance will finally be restored, by your hand. The world will hide from its lies, no longer.

He felt something trickle into his heart. It was burning, but it was only half unpleasant. He felt like boiling over and rage again, this time externally, to everyone who had hurt the children, the horrors they had to endure, while everyone else with the power had turned a blind eye to them, all of them. He flew up, suddenly coming alive, feeling every part in his body and his blood in it, more vigilant and awake than he had ever struggled before. The liquid rage, now being felt in his veins, he wanted to lash out to everyone who had been involved in all the offence, and willful ignorance. The suppressed rage, growing out, coming back to him now, all at once. The sudden power being injected to him seemed to be feeding on his anger and grief, amplifying them more. He could do it, take the offer, and act out revenge- justice. He would serve out justice. He could do it now.

But.

"You failed to answer my question," he snapped, "What about the children?"

Ever so perceptive, it mused, with that unruly tongue of yours. He was about to snark back when he suddenly felt his entire body his blood freezing over, before being lurched forwards it was like his insides were being melted his blood being let go again, he toppled over and vomited.

You ought to behave, voice like knives grazed internally over him, I am not a benevolent god.

"Why not just kill me now and get it over with, god," he spat, "so I can fight you both in the afterlife sooner."

It slammed him to the ground. Mortal. Silly, silly mortal. Articulating into his skull to the ground with every syllable. You. Cannot. Defy. Me.

"I can certainly fight to try," he gasped out.

And your children will be left to forever rot for your insolence, it growled. You may be foolishly brave, perhaps even more than the arrogant King himself, but that does not mean I could swipe you and all of your children out of existence and throw you all in eternal poison while keeping all your minds to last forever, spiraling wild towards the endless loop of insanity.

It paused to marvel at its work of blood, and its success of undoing now prevalent in his eyes. There was still defiance, but now there was a hint of what wasn't there before. Fear. It would serve you well, the voice climbing up into his throat, Do not interrupt me again. Do not make me repeat myself again. I am not a benevolent god. However, the stars have aligned tonight, a natural blood moon, and I am willing to grant you mercy.

Nipping on the edges of his heart. Your children will be let go. Their souls will be intact, while having more vigor than all of you have ever imagined. They would be blessed by my touch, even stronger in the repeating nights of today. They would be safe from, and even thrive in the forces that the tainted ones call "threats."

"And what of me?" He managed to voice out. "Will my mind be ripped away by you? How would I possibly know if you actually would carry out your part of the deal if I'm not there to witness and prove it? How would I know you wouldn't just devour me at the end of the contract?"

You will still have your mind as well, it lingered, as a guarantee. You will be free to choose your most intimate actions, under my eye, but the children will be away from my eye, they would not be chained. All of you, my power granted within the dark, you will thrive. Without my dark, you will be rendered vulnerable in the light. That is the major catch, but it is my nature, and it secures a promise. I will not be able to locate them, but I will be able to sense them, as the essences are of parts of my own. You, will carry on my dark to the light, place the crumbs and sparking stones in the corners of the lightest places, by the usefulness of your physical form, a vessel of the light, while having this contract of duty you hold as my hand.

He let himself relax then, the safety of his children accepted into term. It then slid up to his chin, caressing it. Do you now concur to the contract, the union?

He took a deep breath, and firmed himself. "I do."

Very well. The process will begin.

Excruciating heat exploded from his chin where it was caressing it, spreading first to his brain to numb it, though he doubted it was working, as he only felt an absolute level of burning, as it trickled down his throat and cascaded into his organs, not even able to register his own bloodcurdling screams. There was no space left within him to think, only the white-hot pain filling him to the brim.

A voice, now much deeper than before, vibrated within his entire body, coursing through him like he was a woodwind.

You're taking this very well. Most others would have physically and irreversibly shattered by now. Just a little longer now, keep holding yourself up, and your promise will be fulfilled.

The burning current injected into his body continued to run their individual courses, back and forth, until they settled on the top of his forehead, forming a pus, then an opening, the force being exerted, while the stream settled to a simple oscillation, as if in tandem, they were singing a lullaby. His breathing calmed, it felt like he was breathing underwater, his nerves and mind detached from his body, all already sunk under the motionless layers and layers of tar, but he calmed, nevertheless, like one does when falling near and into the absolute death.

There was a still, he was solid, rooted, numb, unexisting, silence felt than he had ever before.

Then, he was ignite, a burst of flame from his heart and forehead, and he was shot back upwards, beneath the ground, he broke the surface gasping for air as he woke.

You have proven yourself by surviving.

He felt sore all over, but he felt more vigorous than ever before, as if he had been injected a tremendous amount of intravenous fluids.

He felt a warm liquid dripping on his nose, under his eye, down his cheekbones. His forehead felt weirdly cold and empty, but there was something else that stung beneath his hair that he couldn't make out of. As soon as his vision cleared, he stumbled to the children, where they stirred. If they had gone through the same level of pain as well...

Do not fret, they have mercifully been spared, exempt from the test you endured. Your subconscious, while on your metamorphosis, had pulled away the recline of them, from them, into you.

Fell to his knees. He was exhausted, but the renewed warmth in his bloodstream kept him awake, feeling each pump and cycle of his circulation. He looked to his hands, wobbling. His brain felt like it was twitching, in and out, threatening him to snap him out like an overworked power cord any second. All the sheer power would take some time getting used to. He sighed. What have he gotten himself into? This time, there was no getting out of.

The children began to stir from their slumber. A smile grew on his lips. There hadn't been a back-out option after he first decided to take them in, either, he had made himself sure of it. He had promised himself to never abandon them, and do whatever it takes to protect them.

His eldest was the first to break the surface, stabilizing herself, checking each of her senses, before sitting up. She was always determined to be ready, to protect whenever he couldn't, the most vigilant. He was so proud of her, even though he was sad, the guilt always in his chest, because she had been made to take charge at such a young age, and he couldn't do better to fix that.

"Dad!"

In his distortion, he failed to see her coming, and she crashed into him. Her eyes wide, as she knew he had always been keen on the slightest motion. She grabbed both of his hands and looked straight into his eyes, breaking his haze, pull the focus into your eyes when the other is wandering lost, he had taught her, and it had saved her, more than once, to take back her brothers and sisters. She had no idea it would ever occur that she had to use it on him, who had never lost his firmness, even when pushed over, falling down, the determination, which she swore to herself to learn and follow it through, the strength of she now called her father.

She shook herself. No. She would prove her worth, which was her form of gratitude, even when time and time again he had told her that it's okay, which she never understood and always insisted. She felt that more than ever now, especially after she had almost been lost, awoken by her sheer devotion to her family, just for her to wake up to him losing himself. No. She would not lose her family, she would not lose her true father. She would not fail again. She would prove herself to him, and make it right.

"Are you alright?!"

He could feel her, the panic, the resolve, the deeply rooted pain and sorrow he knew she couldn't even properly recognize because she was just so young to be able to process it. He knew, in her age, all the internal turmoil, when it cumulates and breaks, it would all turn towards her for her to blame herself, when it never, ever wasn't.

Emotions lurched up in his throat as he met her gaze. He was going to speak out, in conviction, that it's not your fault- when he found that his vocal cords were locked. Thinking that it was because of the lump in his throat, he took a deep breath and tried again. Locked. In fact, he couldn't move his lips either when he tried to speak to her, her gaze boring into him, her expression turning into one of the uneasy apprehension- eyes nervously darting around acutely noticing his one turning to a grimace -that he haven't seen from her quite a while.

There was a deeply rooted chuckle.

Have I mentioned that you have proven yourself untrustful?

It was his own voice, he realized, as his face turned ashen of dread. No. He couldn't have said that to her. He didn't even feel his lips, nor his throat move, yet the voice had adorned itself from within his body.

Oh, dear. Forgotten about me already?

For a brief moment of his grief, elation, adrenaline, the recede of it, and his dizziness, he had. Unknowingly, his face had contorted into one of shock, anger, and disgust, while he was still unable to tear away from the gaze of the child, her own expression turning into the one he wished he wished to never bloom upon her face his daughter's face again-

Your collateral. As I have granted to you a guarantee, you will yield to me a collateral. Your ability to flit and flick about on your dancing tongue of a show have proven to be too risky to let slide off when it is absolutely necessary for me to keep holding you in check.

-Fear.

He closed his eyes. He couldn't fight back, he couldn't talk. He couldn't snarl, lest he hurt his daughter even further. He lowered his head.

"Dad...?"

That's better, it hummed. No need to be mournful, though. You will only be locked when you try to speak with them. They are already free; why restrain them with your voice even further? No, I could not overlook the very clear possibility you have shown yourself so adamantly that your voice alone was more than enough to turn them, the gift of my own power, against me.

This was all his fault.

"Are you mad at me...?"

Your strongest, who learnt to inherit your voice, I will take them.

His eyes flew open.

If you still manage to teach it, that is. Fortunately for her, she have not completely fortified herself of you, you had wisely chosen to not completely teach her the skills of your flaunt, so she is incomplete.

"I'm sorry, Dad..."

But she is versatile, volatile; clever, dangerous. I will keep watch on her by the eye I have on you, and any one step out of line, I will take her.

"I apologize, Father."

Not only of her, but of the rest of your children as well. Their senses, liable to forfeit, one by one, by the failure to fulfill your side of the agreement.

"It's- it's my fault."

But I would not be breaking my pact, as they will still be free from my rule. These inconveniences that I have spoken of will be in no need of actual use, if, you choose to behave.

"I should have been stronger, more vigilant, to protect them, all of us, like you have, like you have taught us. I failed- I failed, Father. Again."

He shot up, then crumpled on his knees just as quickly. After the one-sided preachment had finished drilling into him, he was violently let go, thrown onto the ground, all the presence of the fog leaving him, the binds that had tightly clasped him together forcefully falling apart, effectively leaving him a broken mess of thick, hungry-sentient blood, swollen flesh, and a bleeding forehead. His entire body was throbbing, vaguely being recalled of the oscillations that had thrummed so strongly within himself mere moments ago. He shook his head, finally shaking himself back into reality, and pulled her close.

It's not your fault, he wanted to say. It never was, and never will be your fault. But he couldn't, he knew now, he never could anymore, and so he held her tighter, coaxing her sobs into him, eventually his mixing into as well, each note he could never soothe anymore whenever she froze up, numb, only able to cling onto his voice as her guidance back out. I'm so grateful you're alive, the mixture of grief and blood dripping on his fingertips, desperately clutched and stroking on her back in an attempt to assure her, oh how he pleaded to assure her with his own voice one last time, I love you. I love you and that will never change. I will never be angry at you, and I will never, ever hurt you. I am sorry it had turned out this way, I should have been more careful, it is my own fault of carelessness, not yours- never yours. Don't you ever blame yourself again. I love you, and I am so, so proud of you. "I am- so proud of you, my daughter." He choked at then, and the last restraint of him broke. He couldn't anymore, no longer had control of his own self, anymore.

Well. At least it had granted him to get that one out. Vaguely, he could feel it, somewhere within his pulse, laughing, cackling, while it was witnessing him come completely undone in front of his children he had been so strong for. He shook his head. No, he couldn't risk anything more that would cost from his children. He decided to be grateful. He had sworn to protect them, whatever it takes. Even if he couldn't talk to them anymore, even if they would come to hate him for not bothering to explain anything to them anymore. Even if he had to let them go, and realization struck him.

He really did have to let them go, didn't he? They weren't safe here, with him, not anymore. When it was watching them through him, their every move, through the newly-made gape in his forehead. He wouldn't dare think of covering it, not because of the pain, but because of the consequences he- the children- might have. His children weren't safe with him anymore. It pained him, to his core, that the words he had needled into others so long ago were coming back to him, piercing him more than he had ever wished upon the false, ignorant adults. It was almost enough to cause a meltdown on its own, but he stayed put. He didn't want his children- would he be able to call them his own anymore when he finally left them for good like all the others who had hurt them, all the same to them in the end he was just the same, no good, another no good to forget -to remember him as the weak-minded rat who fell apart after a measly plague, abandoning them, too afraid to bear the weight, the responsibility of taking care of them anymore. He couldn't do that to them, and so he only firmed his resolve, held her, weeping out only the waves that he just couldn't hold. He felt the child returning the gesture, the uncertainty clear on her palm on his back, but the gentleness she exerted was correct. He managed a titter, then. She was always a quick learner, this part of her care he would never forget. The opposite, he couldn't bring himself to wish for her. For them.

I will always love you, never forget that. Never forget that you are loved. Even when they eventually grow up forgetting himself.

Unbeknownst to Astor, the younger children were staring at him, witnessing him weep like them, fright and sorrow and confusion in their eyes; but also sheer adoration, because he was with their sister, who never cried as well, but together now, both of them crying, but also smiling, which they couldn't understand, but she was smiling too, so it meant that she understood, right? They could understand their big sister, somehow, even when they didn't.

And they could understand that their dad loved them, somehow, different from the other moms and dads that had left them.

[azuresage]

🫡

[ezdotjpg]

Hi!!! Sorry if you've been asked this before but is it possible for you to summarize the Bonus Links' personalities? Just asking because I'd like to get a general idea, apologies if this is too much of a pain to answer 😭🫶🏻

hey! luckily I already wrote up character intros a while back that I never posted to tumblr lol, so I'll go ahead and post them now! under the cut since this is mega long lol

Loft

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Skyward Sword

Age: 22

Height: 5’3”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: World’s Nicest Man Pushed To His Limit. It’s his nature to be light-hearted and easy-going, but ever since the events of Skyward Sword he’s been unable to let the implications of Demise’s curse and Zelda’s connection to Hylia go. He’s usually mild, but he’s got a lot of suppressed anger in him that comes out at inopportune times. He tends towards being optimistic, but has lately been caught in a depressive spiral. As a result of all these conflicting emotions, he hasn’t felt like himself in a while. Before everything, he could have been described as a little bit lazy, but these days a better word would be lethargic. He’s got a mischievous and thrill-seeking streak that often surprises people. He knows he’s powerful, but he’s lost some confidence in the years since his quest. He’s wracked with guilt about the way everything ended.

Slate

Pronouns: tends to use he/him, but really any

Game: Breath of the Wild (ignoring TotK for now)

Age: 21

Height: 5’0”

Communication: Mainly signs, speaks occasionally

Personality: The Reviews Are In: Friendly Guy, Vaguely Off-Putting. He knows he’s not pre-calamity Link, but he’s not exactly sure what he is instead. He’s accepted this about himself, and it grinds his gears that other people refuse to. He’s not sure what to do with all these memories inside him that aren’t his, and that he feels nothing for. He’s become more expressive, but when he’s upset his face goes entirely blank. He has a tendency to be distracted, blunt, intense, impulsive, somewhat abrasive. But he’s not unkind, and can even be outright friendly. He’d offer his help to anyone who asks, and he makes it a point to know everyone in Hyrule. He’s happiest out in nature, and doesn’t mind the solitude. He only ever lies by omission, and otherwise says exactly what he means. There’s something a little otherworldly about him.

Mask

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask

Age: 15

Height: 5’2½”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Local Teen Needs Hug So Bad, Will Bite If You Try. He’s prickly, hot-tempered, moody. He’ll pick verbal battles he probably shouldn’t. Everything is a touchy subject. But he’s developed this behavior as a coping mechanism. He’s kind by nature, and it takes effort to lash out. The person he is with Malon- gentle, more soft-spoken, with a good sense of humor and a love for harmless mischief- is a lot closer to the person he’s comfortable being. He’s a scared kid. He feels out of place, both mature and immature, of this world and not. Sometimes, he gets scrambled between Termina, the Hyrule he’s in now, the Hyrule he left behind, and the Hyrule of the war. He has a lot of resentment for both the gods and the royal family, and all he wants is to be left alone.

Wolf

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Twilight Princess

Age: 23

Height: 5’5”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Thank God I’m A Country Boy. He’s a gentle soul, probably the gentlest out of all of them. He likes to be useful, and he has made being the problem solver of Ordon Village part of his identity. He’s a bit of a mother hen and likes to take care of people. Midna was good at bringing out a little bit of attitude and snark in him. He’s got a bad case of Resting Bitch Face, but he’s not an angry person. However, he’s had a hard time adjusting to life back in Ordon. He’s usually even-tempered, but lately he’s been irritable and easier to anger. He feels isolated by his experiences, and has been avoiding most of the villagers, including his loved ones, even though it makes him lonely. Mostly he just doesn’t want to take it out on them, but it’s also about his pride. He enjoys the company of animals far more these days. He wants a quiet life, and has been avoiding Zelda's attempts to make "Hero" a political role for him to fill.

War

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Hyrule Warriors

Age: 25

Height: 5’7”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally, had Proxi speak for him at one point during the war

Personality: Link “This Is My Jaeger, I Make The Tactical Decisions” Faron. He comes across as a very charming young man, witty, helpful, pleasant in conversation, well-adjusted. In reality, he is constantly doing complicated political 4D chess in his mind at all times, even when it’s not necessary. Many years of being subject to the whims of the Royal Court and pressure to be a perfect symbol have poisoned him: he’s become calculating, manipulative, superficially polite, two-faced. He has to be the one holding all the cards, considering all the variables, fixing all of the problems, because he can’t trust anyone else. If you were to strip him of all pretense, he'd actually be a dry, resigned person, perpetually annoyed with everyone around him. He values status and reputation, and he wants more power than he has. His appearance is important to him because he knows his pretty face is an asset. He holds deep respect for the gods and the mantle of the hero. He has a strong sense of duty, but one that often leads him to justify terrible actions. The ends justify the means.

Mirror

Pronouns: he/they

Game: A Link Between Worlds, Triforce Heroes

Age: 22

Height: 5’1”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Local Link Doing Pretty Well Actually, All Things Considered. He’s just living his life, having a mostly pleasant time. He used to be quiet and reserved when he was younger, but has come out of his shell in a big way. He’s a bit vain, and fond of doing things with a dramatic flair. They like to have an audience, they like to make people laugh, they like to have your attention. Rather than being poisoned by court politics, he thrives in them. He doesn’t pretend to be charming, he just is. They can be on the arrogant side. He’s interested in fashion and art more than fighting these days, but still keeps his skills up to date. He pretends the scar on his face doesn’t bother him, but it does. He’s particularly obsessed with the legend of the hero before him.

Mage

Pronouns: he/him

Game: A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons

Age: 32

Height: 5’3”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Weird Uncle You Just Stopped Hearing From One Day. He’s a difficult guy to get a read on. He comes off as deeply serious, imposing, no-nonsense. He is actually full of nonsense. The fact that no one can tell what is and isn’t part of the bit is part of the bit. He mostly ignores his own problems by dedicating his life to solving other people’s problems. He wanders from place to place, helping people and becoming a bit of a larger than life folk legend in his own right in the process. He’s leaned into learning magic more than the sword, and has built up quite the arsenal of spells. He doesn’t speak often, and is content to let other Links lead despite being the oldest and the most experienced. He’s difficult to rile and even more difficult to get a straight answer out of.

Spirit

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Spirit Tracks

Age: 16

Height: 4’11”

Communication: Mainly signs, speaks occasionally. He has a stutter when he speaks.

Personality: Wants To Be Anywhere But Here, Preferably On A Train. He’s fully given up swordfighting, and basically just wants to go back to being a Royal Engineer like nothing happened. He has no interest in gaining any kind of attention, authority, or power from the mantle of the hero, and would actually prefer that everyone stop looking at him. He’s quiet, sweet-natured and generally non-confrontational, but he’s not afraid to stand up for himself when pushed. It’s just that it’s easier to let Zelda stand up for him instead. He’s pretty mature and in-tune with his emotions for a 16 year old. Seeing spirits everywhere, he has a lot of private thoughts about grief and death that he doesn’t share with anyone. The gears in his brain are constantly turning, and once he’s stuck on an idea, it’s all he can focus on. He often doesn’t give himself enough credit for how capable he is. Please let him tell you about trains.

Mini

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Minish Cap

Age: 14

Height: 4’3”

Communication: Only signs, mute.

Personality: He’s Just A Little Guy, Only 2 Pixels Tall. Mini doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do. He’s not very expressive in the face, and it can be hard to tell what he’s thinking or feeling. Mostly, he’s a little rascal. He likes to root around in the garbage and build strange little machines from what he finds. He spends a lot of time hanging out with the Minish, moreso than humans. It’s a little bit of an escapism thing. He hasn’t really processed what it meant to become the hero so young, and is actively trying to avoid doing so. He’s very independent, and simply doesn’t compute attempts to coddle him.

Wake

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Wind Waker, Phantom hourglass

Age: 20

Height: 5’5”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Everyone’s Favorite Cousin At The Family Function. He’s a fun person to be around. Friendly, energetic, laid back, good-natured, outgoing. He is always up for a good shenanigan. But he can get serious when he needs to, and often plays the important role of mediator in group dynamics. He’s the glue that holds the team together! He seems to take everything in stride, and presents himself as unbothered by the things that have happened to him. Whether that’s actually true, or he’s just compartmentalized everything too well remains to be seen. He has a strange way of being very open, and yet a closed book at the same time. He’s sentimental, and family is important to him

[bossladytae]

Looking for Gintama gen fic?

Writers are often their own PR team, and the same goes for fanfic writers. I like writing gen fic, and so I thought I’d share a selection of Gintama gen fic written by yours truly. Click on each description for a link to the fic. Hope you find something you like!

Mitsuba cuts her own hair and resolves to begin anew.

Itou reflects on the dawn while journeying to Edo.

Hijikata grows obsessed with hunting down a criminal, who may or may not exist, and soon spirals deeper into darkness while haunted by his past.

Takasugi contemplates vengeance and other dark thoughts with a longtime companion.

Tsukuyo and Tae exchange information, assist one another in battle, and enjoy tea and cake and each other’s company.

In the forest, long before the group of young men are ever known as the Shinsengumi, Shimaru teaches a pouting Sougo how to skip a rock on the water.

In a timeline where almost everyone has perished in a great calamity, Kamui journeys through the world alone, trying to ignore the void within his soul while hunting down the enemies who killed his sister and father.

Moments in the life of Sasaki Tetsunosuke, as he finds his place in the Shinsengumi and at the side of Hijikata Toushirou.

Hijikata is unsettled by what he perceives to be a false peace. Tae is exhausted from picking up the pieces again and again. One night, they share in a drink and contemplate war and the future. (Mostly gen, as I explore both of their characters within the Two-Year Timeskip.)

The Shinsengumi navigate the effects of rapid aging during the Ryugujo arc.

Last, but certainly not least, Katsura stars in a series of misadventures: - publishing books and dealing with “mixed reviews" - orchestrating an elaborate plan to capture Matsudaira and Kondou (this story is told from the perspectives of 20 main Gintama characters) - getting stuck in a broom closet with Sacchan and Madao - tracking down a lost video game cartridge

[anneapocalypse]

Canon review for fic purposes is ever ongoing and rewatching the cutscenes where you first meet the Scions I am struck by how... simplified, I guess, Minfilia's introduction of the Archons is.

Tell me, does the name Sharlayan ring any bells? It used to be one of Eorzea's six city-states, and was situated in the northwest of Aldenard. The Sharlayans were the keepers of wisdom both old and new. Their mastery over magic and aether was unsurpassed, and even the Garleans knew to fear them. Among their number, there were a noble few who devoted their lives to safeguarding the future of Eorzea. When the realm began its descent into chaos, and their countrymen fled for the motherland, they alone chose to remain here. These noble men and women were called the Archons. Those same brave souls stand before you now.

Like it's not not true but it also really does not convey the lore that we get later or (to the best of my understanding) what actually happened in 1.0. When she says "When the realm began its descent into chaos, and their countrymen fled for the motherland," that sounds like she's talking about the Calamity, except the exodus from the Sharlayan colony actually happened in 1562 of the Sixth Umbral Era, 15 years before ARR (Twelve preserve me, the dating system gives me a headache).

For context Urianger is 29 in ARR, meaning that at the time of the exodus he was approximately 14 years of age. :P I think needless to say, he was not one of those who "chose to remain here" when his countrymen fled; he was still a kid at the time, and only joined Louisoix's Circle of Knowing as an adult (unless there's some absolutely buckwild Urianger lore I'm unaware of and Alphinaud wasn't actually the youngest kid to enter the Studium). Lyse is 25, and Thancred is 32. Y'shtola's age seems to be subject to some canon discrepancies according to the wiki, but she's at most no older than Thancred.

But Minfilia's intro really makes it sound like it's these Archons, in this room, who stayed in Eorzea when the exodus happened, and it's just really weird. I also don't know why they made it sound like "Archons" refers specifically to Louisoix's group (when it does not), and didn't just reference the Circle of Knowing. It's not like that was later backfill; I'm pretty sure that was in 1.0.

All of which led me to wonder: what about Moenbryda?

And this led me to her wiki page, upon which I realized I've apparently been laboring under a misconception this entire time. I had thought Moenbryda and Urianger grew up in Old Sharlayan. But this is straight from Encyclopedia Eorzea:

...eventually the two grew close, and were often found in the Great Gubal Library reading tomes and eating cockatrice meatballs (p. 191).

That's the colony, not Old Sharlayan! So, were they both born in the colony? It certainly seems like Moenbryda was, as her bio begins "Born in Sharlayan..." and in earlier canon that's always used to refer to the colony, and since they met as children, presumably they both were.

Both of them would have moved to Old Sharlayan at 14 when the exodus happened, and then they both went to the Studium, so that's all fine.

Here's where I have questions!

After striking a talent in aetheric research she became an Archon and was in the Circle of Knowing, however, Louisoix told her to stay in Sharlayan, an order she followed with great difficulty.

Which Sharlayan?

At this point I'm just not sure how literally to take Minfilia's introduction. So many other pieces of canon state that no one stayed in the colony after the exodus except Matoya, so by "chose to remain here" I assume that Minfilia doesn't mean the colony but Eorzea generally. By the time Moenbryda was an Archon and part of the Circle of Knowing, there was no more colony for her to stay in. But it also says "stay," not "go back."

So are we meant to understand that the Circle of Knowing were traveling back and forth between Old Sharlayan and Eorzea for some time in that decade before the Calamity? Or, given that Alphinaud has dialogue about Urianger being frequently present in their home when they were growing up, did Louisoix in fact go home with the Exodus, and only return to Eorzea years later? I feel like that must be it, even though it makes Minfilia's introduction a pretty drastic oversimplification.

It's early game exposition, so I can let it go, but I just have to remember not to really treat it as reliable canon.

[bahbahhh]

begin again

a lot of change happens in between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. let’s fill in the gaps. zelda pov | zelink | totk spoilers | multichapter| rated T zelinkweek2023 | @zelinkcommunity [story index] [also read on ao3 ]

Again, I can't thank @zeldaelmo enough. It has been an absolute honor to have your eye and your ear! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

chapter 7

for zelink week "free day"

Her cot is gone. 

Zelda stares at the empty spot on the second floor of Purah’s Lab, adventure pouch dangling on the very tips of her fingers. She caught it just before it dropped onto the floor. She had meant to deposit onto the cot, eager to relieve the extra tension from her tired shoulders when she noticed it was missing at the last second.  

She narrows her eyes and glances about the room, everything ordinary and untouched, save for her trunk of belongings, which is also missing. She frowns at this, having wanted to spend her free time reviewing Tauro’s research notes again. In addition to possibly connecting the Thyphlo Ruins to the Zonai, he recently presented evidence that the Labyrinths in Akkala, Hebra and the Gerudo Desert are Zonai as well and hypothesized that the Zonai maintained a presence in the sky and below the ground.  

Something about the Zonai has caught her attention, a tug on a line from the depths of the past. Sure, it could just be her energy shifting from one technologically advanced civilization to the next, but whereas the Sheikah Technology felt more like an escape, the Zonai and their ruins feel like a calling. 

Who knows. The fact of the matter is, right now, it's all missing with the rest of her things. 

Recently, Purah has been reorganizing parts of her laboratory at random. She claims it’s another bizarre side effect of her re-aging. Symin thinks it's the result of being held responsible for cleaning up after herself. 

Zelda sighs and back peddles to the stairs, pulling the strap back over her shoulder.

“Purah?” 

Zelda descends into the main floor and nearly trips over a box of scrolls. Dozens more clutter the space; filled with papers and construction parts and other miscellaneous items. Zelda spots fishing nets, a dozen yellow paper lanterns, and massive coils of hollow wire, but her belongings and the Sheikah Director are nowhere to be found. Link isn’t here, either. Not that she was expecting him, he told her early in the day he would be with the Hateno monster defense team, helping to clear out a hoard of bokoblins that moved into the Milda Woods to the west of the village. Since he’s teaching them how to properly handle the monsters and safeguard the woods with traps more efficiently, he estimated it would take a while. 

She, on the other hand, spent the majority of the day helping a man Bolson with the final touches at the school. Zelda originally commissioned Hudson to help her build out Hateno School, but he wrote back with the recommendation his former boss be the one to handle it as he was responsible for the revitalization of Hateno following Calamity Ganon’s attack. 

There is something to be said about starting something and being able to see it through, you know? Hudson had written. 

Zelda formally nominated him for a position of leadership in New Hyrule the same day. 

Bolson showed her how to put together the small chairs, explaining where to put the nails to create a lasting, sturdy joint. He also taught her how to hold the nails to minimize the risk to her fingers under the glare of a hammer. When they were done, he shook the sawdust out of his thick fur collar, kissed her on the cheek, and handed her the blueprints so she could put together more in the future. She’s got a few splinters she’ll need to dig out of her fingers, but they come with a sense of accomplishment and hope she hasn’t known in over a century. 

Zelda peers into the kitchen. “Symin? Purah? Hello?” 

The lab is completely empty. She crosses the room, pushes the door open, and steps back out into the fresh air. The village of Hateno is always busy in the afternoon. Today, there is a nice breeze turning the giant windmill blades lazily. There has been recent talk about updating the village face, specifically the market front to entice more travelers. There is a rumor that a new business owner, a fashion designer, has proposed integrating mushrooms into the architecture.

Zelda wonders if the windmills will stay.

She has a few books at Link’s place, so she decides to head that way while she looks for Purah. She’s almost immediately stopped by a group of children, the same she will be teaching once the school is open. One of the children asks about the first day of school and another formally requests - please, oh pretty please, Miss Zelda! - they have a designated time every day for coloring. Zelda sends them on their way, slips into Kochi Dye Shop, and asks if Sayge can donate some dye for her to make courser beeswax crayons. 

“Basic colors, okay? Or, I could experiment and come up with an extensive palette for you, if you like?” Sayge says, filling up five small vials with concentrated ink. 

“I think this is a great start, thank you so much. Perhaps you would be interested in presenting to the class in the future? I wo—”

“Say no more! An opportunity to share the traditional craft of Hateno dyeing with the younger generation? It would be my honor! ‘We live–”

“To dye!’” Zelda smiles and takes the vials. “I’m writing out a curriculum with Symin. I’ll let you know when it makes sense to have you come in.”

“Splendid! Oh, and–” He looks over her shoulder and she knows he’s searching for Link. Sayge continues in a hushed voice. “About that order we discussed. I’ve almost landed on the correct shade of blue. Should be able to replicate the tunic exactly. I do have additional armor I’d recommend to go with the piece, in order to protect it from wear and tear moving forward. How do you feel about leather?”

“If it will offer protection without restricting mobility, I think that’s great.”

“Come by in a week or so. I’ll send Link on an errand and then I’ll show you what I’m thinking.” He winks at her.

Zelda tucks the ink away carefully and smiles. “Perfect.”

Pruce waves her down as she passes the East Wind. He anxiously invites her into his shop, shuts the door to prospective customers, and immediately asks for her thoughts on phasing out the bomb arrows. Apparently, he had been threatened with a fee by Reede for improper dangerous weapon storage. Zelda can tell he’s offended and embarrassed, having previously displayed the explosive arrows in a straw basket for anyone, including a curious child, to handle. She gently reframes this as an opportunity to be a model business owner and that seems easier for him to stomach. He donates his entire stock of arrows to her for Link and the monster defense efforts. Luckily, she has a quiver in her adventure pouch that she pulls out and attaches to her belt so she can carry them safely. 

Prima catches her just outside the shop and enthusiastically introduces Zelda to her fiance, Worten. They’ve met, many times, and Zelda was made aware, multiple times by Prima, of the engagement, and still she smiles and waits for Prima to finish telling the story of how he proposed. 

She makes it a few more steps before a Zora warrior stops her. There has been more traffic from the Zora through the village in recent weeks, a source of massive curiosity with the children (and most of the adults, too) who had never seen the “fish people” from the north, except for during the Restoration Summit almost two years ago. They come up from the Necluda Sea from Hateno Bay, restocking supplies, sending messages back to their Domain via courier. Divine Beast Ruta was put to rest in the deep waters of the ocean, an arrangement struck with the settlement of Zora that call the seas home. Apparently, Prince Sidon had been hidden away there for protection for a time during his youth after Calamity Ganon’s siege and Mipha’s death. He formed a strong bond with the Princess there. 

The Zora shares, rather cryptically, to be on the lookout for “exciting” news from Zora’s Domain, regarding Prince Sidon. There have been rumors of leadership following in Impa’s footsteps, whispers of the great Zora King finally stepping down from the throne. The Rito are already turning feathers. Most recently, Zelda heard Teba was the popular choice to ascend. 

She parts ways with the Zora, who heads back in the direction of the bay, and picks up her pace to convey urgency. Not that she minds the interaction, she sees all the hands reaching for her now, and finds great purpose in the quiet ways she can nurture Hateno Village especially, but sometimes it takes her an hour, like today, just to walk from one side of the village to the next. And now that Purah has seen fit to move all her things without much consideration to the very specific order to her chaos or the possessiveness of what little Zelda has to her name, her cot feels more impermanent and insecure than ever. 

If only she had a hidden place, like her study in the tower, where she could keep her things and be with her thoughts in peace without worry of interruption…

She spots Link’s house on the hill.  Zelda glances to the west, at the empty spot in the horizon atop Marblod Plain where the Hateno Sheikah Tower once stood. When the shrines were finally all gone, they realized the blue flames inside the towers and the furnaces were dying off. Without power, the towers began to crumble in on themselves, leaving a pile of rubble and dust that will be dealt with in time. Purah intends to go through what remains to see if anything can be repurposed for the new towers, but by the looks of her laboratory, the design is better suited with materials that are new and synced to her Purah Pad. The skeletons of the Sheikah furnaces will be tossed off the cliffs and into their respective surrounding sea by the Sheikah this summer.

Like pyre ash. 

She’s so distracted by the finality of it all and the comfort she feels that she almost runs into him.

“I’m sorry!” Zelda exclaims, and then upon recognizing who it is, grabs Link by the shoulders to steady herself. He laughs, a sound more frequent and unburdened since the Great Plateau, and steps into her, threading a hand up into her hair at the base of her neck.

He kisses her until she’s dizzy. 

She’s not sure she’ll ever get used to this, or if she even wants to. The luxury of this closeness, the casualness with which he always seems to reach for her, like it’s always been the easiest, most obvious thing in the world for him to do. 

“Hi,” she says when he finally pulls back. His eyes linger in a hungry way on her mouth, long enough to twist her stomach pleasantly.

“Hi.”

“I thought you’d still be gone? Did you clear all the monsters already?”

He tucks her hair behind her ears. “I lied.”

Zelda blinks. “You lied?”

He nods, looking a little smug.

“What do you mean, you lied?”

He steps back enough to sign. ‘I wasn’t taking care of monsters in the woods today. That’s tomorrow. Are those for me?’ Link slides his hand down the length of her side to her hip where the quiver full of bomb arrows sits. She shivers.

“The arrows? No–well, I suppose yes. I finally convinced Pruce to remove them from his store front. Bit of an odd and hazardous mix, you know, wheat, eggs, goat butter, explosive arrows. I suppose you can have them for the monster defense…which you said now is tomorrow?”

‘Always has been.’ He turns and starts walking them up to his house. Zelda follows him curiously, still a little too giddy from the kiss to be cross with him.  

“Why lie about that?”

‘Didn’t want to spoil the surprise.’

“Surprise?”

Link pulls out a key from his pocket and unlocks the door. His house has been almost completely gutted. The weapon mounts are gone, a few empty picture frames hanging from the nails in the wall. The furniture has been cleared out, the table empty. He’s added a stove. She can see a few boxes under the stairs, perhaps where all of his things are tucked away or the restart of provisions storage for next winter.

“You lied so you could clean out your house?” She furrows her brow at him.

“Your house.”

“W-what?”

“It’s your house. Here.” He leads her around the space and then up the stairs. The bed is there, tucked in the far wall, still under the lone window for natural light, and guarded by painted vase on the nightstand with a single flower- a daffodil - to watch over her.  She’s a little surprised it’s not a Silent Princess or another blue nightshade, but it's the first of the flowers to bloom after winter. A symbol of new beginnings.

“Purah’s going to forward all your correspondence until word gets around. I already wrote to Tauro and let him know he can send the next batch of his research here. Riju, too. You can keep the furniture or swap it out for something different. Bolson offered to help redesign the interior. Whatever you like.”

Zelda stands shell-shocked in the center of the loft. There is a desk to her left. She can smell the freshness of the cedar. He built it for her. Across the top, her research notes and books in the same chaotic order they were kept in on the cot at Purah’s. Her trunk sits ready at the end of the bed. 

“It’s really mine?”

“Your home,” he says plainly. Like he’s giving her a cube of sugar for her tea. “I’ll leave you to it. Probably should survey the bokoblin camp before the team head’s out tomorrow. Make sure a Moblin hasn’t joined them.” 

She feels him starting to move, but she can’t take her eyes off the bed. It's more vast than any cot she’s ever known, even with its twin frame, with four sturdy posts and modest pillow; there is enough room for two people to lay side by side comfortably, so long as they fit together. 

Is having a bed what makes you feel rooted to a place? Is it the memorization of cracks in the ceiling to count when you're tired, or having someone who helps you heal the cracks buried deep inside you? Is it a kitchen to escape to in the middle of the night for a slice of fruitcake or a bowl of meat and rice, or having someone who knows how to make it just for you? Is home just having the people you love simply love you back? 

She glances from the bed to the flower to Link and her heart leaps into her throat.

Zelda doesn’t feel any guilt this time, none at all, when she reaches for his hand and tells him:

“Stay.” 

[meatball-headache]

Future speculation.

So, this lowercase-kay "key" is the key to the next major story arc, obviously. This thing can enable cross-shard travel in ways that Syrcus Tower could only dream of.

Let's review what we know: the key appeared in our world when it was given to Gulool Ja Ja along with baby Krile; it was used by the Lalafell of the lightning dimension to escape an ice-based calamity in their own dimension. Aha! Paving the way for future ice dimension expacs, right? Well, no, because you and I both know the clarifications we received in Living Memory: the tropical paradise the lalafell once lived in and the ice calamity that ruined it, their use of arcane magic, and the timing all matches the Aloalo civilization in our own world. So the key actually came from the Source, not one of the shards. (Why do I think the word is "shard," by the way? The game exclusively uses "reflection.")

So, who made it? Not the Allagans; it far exceeds what they could only barely manage with the entire Crystal Tower. And, we get a very clear sign: when you use the Azem crystal at the final battle, Azem's symbol lights up on the key. And this makes sense, because with the infinite power of creation magic, surely they could whip up something like this...

...only, wasn't Azem sundered along with everyone but Lahabrea, Elidibus, and Emet-Selch? A sundered person couldn't possibly hope to have this kind of power. In fact, at the beginning of Shadowbringers, Emet-Selch seemed impressed that the Allagans had the ability to do it at all. Emet-Selch himself had to orchestrate these massive calamities to get worlds' aether to spill into one another on their own. And here's a key that can just fuse worlds at the push of a button! The Alexandrians somehow have the power to just get a rejoining on demand.

With the power of the key being so extreme, it seems unlikely that a sundered person could do it. It seems almost to be beyond the ability of the Ascians themselves. But, we've been surprised by dynamis, so, perhaps there's some still-greater magic at play.

But, with Azem's symbol on it, there seems to be little doubt who could have had a hand in it. Pre-sundering, Azem would have no reason to build this thing; post-sundering, Azem would have no power to build it.

Maybe it wasn't made by Azem; maybe it was made by Hydaelyn or even Zodiark, or one of the other Ascians? Perhaps it just showed Azem's symbol because it was reacting to Azem's crystal being used; it would show whatever symbol for whatever crystal was used nearby.

Now, I'm pretty dumb, so speculating never gets me anywhere. But, the whole game is full of dramatic twists. No one was playing in Garlemald in Endwalker and thinking, "I bet we'll go back in time to the age of the ancients, and find out that the original Fandaniel used a secret emotion-based magic to create an envoy to other worlds, which got so sad when it found them all in a state of strife that it decided to end our world, too, and that's what caused the Final Days. Also he wiped everyone's memories once he sent the envoys." Certainly while playing Dawntrail I wasn't thinking, "I bet inside the bubble is a fused world made from another shard that has the technology to cross the rift at will, and also all the people are immortal and powered by other peoples' souls, and later I get to be in a play with the captain of the knights."

But, I reiterate: when we go to the water dimension, I want blitzball, I want a /blitzball emote, and I want to fight Sin. Hymn of the Fayth orchestrion roll? Al Bhed raid weapons? If they make the Calm Lands a zone I will die instantly. After what they've done for FFIV and FFIX, it's not out of the question!

[loz-furbies]

Breath of the Wild / Age of Calamity / Tears of the Kingdom Zelda, part 2/2

Role in the story

BotW, AoC and TotK stand out among the LoZ games in that they're specifically Zelda's stories in a way only Spirit Tracks can rival. Or Skyward Sword also did a similar thing where you first try to figure out what the deal with Zelda is, but I'd say that in that game Link's own journey to becoming the hero he needs to be is just as important, while BotW Link's is feelings about his adventure are more implied that explicitly shown in his games. While the actual story of BotW and TotK is pretty similar to most loz titles as far as Zelda is concerned (she is in some kind of trouble through the whole time and only clearing the game can help her, and she has minimal impact to the actual gameplay of the final fight), since we get to see so much of her own story, her contributions still feel a lot more meaningful than just doing something fancy in a cutscene after the player has done all the actual work. And despite being absent for the whole game, Zelda still has a lot of presence, since searching cutscenes about her is the main quest, and so many side characters talk about her.

I prefer Zelda's story in BotW over TotK, because in BotW she has internal conflicts and character development, while in TotK she is more about dealing with the external conflict that the plot throws at her. Or you can say that she is unsure about what to do at first and has grown more confident by the final Dragon Tear cutscene, but I don't think this was motivated by any personal growth about her. Also I'm not a fan of how the Master Sword just shows up on its own in the past, because it makes it feel like she's just acting on someone else's plan and the whole draconification is pushed on her. The scene where she eats the secret stone is really good, but I would rather have had her also intentionally pull the Master Sword to her after she comes up with the dragon plan to give her more agency about the whole thing.

TotK also has the issue that while the scene where Zelda sacrifices her humanity in order to restore the Master Sword is incredible, when it comes to gameplay impact, it comes across as underwhelming. Like this is a reincarnated goddess who gave up her all and has been pouring her strength for a billion years into this sword as a culmination of the dramatic flashback story, and what you get out of it is... a base power 30 weapon. I get why it is like this for obvious balance reasons, but from a pure story perspective, there's so much narrative weight on the Master Sword that at this point it should be able to one-hit-kill anything that isn't Ganondorf.

Showing the cutscenes about Zelda in mostly random order is a somewhat risky way to tell the story. I got a satisfying story in both BotW and TotK, but I figure that your opinion about Zelda might be coloured if the first BotW memory you see about her is the one where she acts rude towards Link. But I do like how any of the memories being optional naturally plays into the ending of the game where Zelda asks if you remember her; how well the player knows Zelda probably factors in how they feel during this scene, so I'd say that each player gets the ending they deserve.

Meanwhile in TotK I feel that after getting the geoglyph where Zelda makes the decision to turn into a dragon, the rest of them become less meaningful when the mystery about where she disappeared has already been solved. And speaking of which, I really wish the game handled the mystery about Zelda in the present time better because all red herrings about her become incredibly awkward when Link already knows where she is. I can still sort of buy that he wouldn't want to discuss this with Penn, but the main story missions really should have had an alternate version if you already did the Dragon Tears quest. And puppet Zelda in Hyrule castle towards the end doesn't work too well either, like what am I expected to feel about this suspiciously behaving Zelda when the game has already made it clear that it can't possibly be her?

Also it should be noted that as has become somewhat of a tradition, Zelda also gives you the Bow of Light in BotW. Which feels a little superfluous there since it's not really related to the rest of her story, but whatever. She also takes part in the TotK final battle as the Light Dragon, though she's not a very active participant when she just automatically carries you higher when you fall down enough, and later she has no memory of her time as a dragon anyway. But it's nice that she was included in some way at least.

AoC tells a similar story about how Zelda goes through failing to awaken her powers to confidently wielding them in a battle, but it feels completely different since the player is present through these events instead of seeing them in a flashback cutscene. And I would argue that Zelda just flat out is the main character of that game, sure you start as Link but Zelda already becomes a playable character in chapter 2, and story-wise Link is feels very much like an afterthought.

AoC makes her a badass fighter like all the other characters, which is totally at odds with the rest of her characterisation, but it's just something you have to accept for this type of game. And of course it would have been super disappointing if she wasn't playable. I like her Sheikah Slate and Bike movesets, but I never liked the bow for too complicated for me to handle (and somehow the bow tutorial is like the hardest level in the game?)

In the golden ending of TotK the sages pledge their loyalty to Zelda, and the scene cuts to a flashback of the ancient sages doing the same for Rauru. Honestly I don't really get what they're trying to say with this; Zelda doesn't have any kind of character arc that would need to culminate in her becoming a leader or accepting help from others, and while the ancient version of this can be taken as everyone joining forces to fight evil together, at the end of TotK the world has already been saved so I don't see what the other races would get out of, I dunno, reinstating the monarchy that fell a hundred years ago? And the sages are already personal friends with Zelda anyway so the whole scene just feels weird.

Relationships

In addition to having a lot of development to herself as an individual, this Zelda also gets to have a lot of relationships with various NPCs that are worth mentioning.

As usual Link is among the most important relationships for Zelda. Zelda and Link obviously have the connection that they both have a predestined role in the Ganon thing, and the fact that they have such different starting points (Zelda struggles at her job while Link is pretty much already ready for his) gives them an interesting contrast. And when they eventually start getting along better they’re probably the only people who can understand each other’s situation properly.

Out of the Zelda and Link duos I've seen, I think this one has the most well defined relationship. For comparison SS Zelink comes second, and while I do like them a lot and I think the game makes it clear they care about each other as people, I don't think there's much else to their relationship than "childhood friends". Or like stuff that makes them unique among the many anime childhood friends. Meanwhile in BotW we get to know some actual specifics about their relationship (at least from Zelda's side), primarily about their shared fate. Zelda being jealous of Link's success at his job is a notable part of the story, and this comes up a lot. In her diary she describes how she is unhappy about the king appointing Link as her knight, how she is unnerved about how he is so silent and unreadable, and how she speculates about how he must despise her for her failures. And her jealousy doesn't just affect her own self esteem, but also impacts her behaviour when she lashes out at him for just doing his job.

Once Link saves Zelda from the Yiga clan, she becomes more friendly towards him, apologises and puts an effort in getting to know him more. I think it's a cute detail that the first thing she learns about him is how gluttonous he is. Eventually Link confides in him about the pressure he feels about his duty and Zelda presumably talks about her own fears (or at least she writes in her diary that she wants to and I assume she eventually did). So I really like that they get to connect at a very personal level and open up about their insecurities, and the game explicitly points out this connection.

I do have some issues with how the turning point of their relationship where Link saves her from the Yiga clan is executed. Like the reasons Zelda starts to see Link in a more positive light is because he did the one job he had as a bodyguard, like that comes as a surprise to her. On an intellectual level sure I can get that it's different for her to know that Link's job is to protect her from theoretical danger and actually experience that moment, but I don't think the story works in the moment. The scene itself is pretty weak, like Zelda writes in her diary how Link put himself in danger for her sake, but it's just two Yiga footsoldiers so as a player it's hard to relate to the idea that Link was at any kind of risk.

Age of Calamity changes Link's character significantly in that he finds the Master Sword during the game after he has already been appointed as Zelda's knight, and this also changes their relationship to a less interesting direction. As someone who is on track with fulfilling their role in the grand plan, Link still works as a foil to Zelda who struggles with hers, but all of this is depicted as Zelda's frustration at herself and all the the envy and animosity towards Link is missing. In general Link is pretty boring in AoC and most of what he could be able to contribute towards Zelda have been moved to Impa. But I do like how consistently he acts as her bodyguard in AoC, there are multiple scenes where he moves in front of her to protect her. Which of course is very appealing to someone who really likes the princess-and-knight trope.

Ultimately I think Link and Zelda make for a good couple not just because they have so much shared history together, but specifically because both are canonically kind of weird. Zelda makes people eat frogs, and Link is someone who eats rocks. I prefer to imagine that even before the Calamity Zelda could fully be herself around Link. And in TotK it's clear she has a high opinion of Link, considering how much she brags about him to Rauru (which was a super cute scene).

Since we've been taking note of any hand holding instances between Link and Zelda it should be noted that there's some of those here as well, though none of them are what I'd classify anywhere near romantic. As the bodyguard Link drags Zelda by the hand when they run away from enemies, and the ultimate hand holding game TotK also gives one hand holding moment to Zelink too (though Link holds hands in pretty much every important character in that game). And we also get a little princess carry moment at the end so that's cool.

While I don't think any of the games confirm that they are canonically a couple, I think there's a lot that points in that direction. Kass relays his teacher's observation that Zelda was in fact in love with Link, and while this is third-hand information and either Kass or the teacher could have misunderstood something, but that just feels like a really strange thing to put in the game especially when it isn't challenged in any way. Then there's the TotK house debate which has been discussed to death, so I'll just state the often listed things that Link can only sleep in the bed of this house, and if Zelda lived alone she wouldn't have as much need for a private study. And also the process of elimination: the game doesn't really give Link any other house where he would have lived during the years between BotW and TotK.

The previous Zelda dads have been pretty boring (either just generically nice or lacking any proper characterisation), so I welcome King Rhoam to this group. He's a pretty hated character for obvious reasons, but I like him because even though he was a terrible father, as a character he is interesting. The story also has more bite to it if everyone isn't just besties with everyone, and Zelda's distress feels more personal when her inability to awaken her powers doesn't affect just faceless masses and instead the constant reminder of her failures has a face. There are many scenes where he impedes or belittles her research or forbids it altogether, and in general the two appear to have a pretty formal and distant relationship.

Many in the audience want Rhoam's head on a stake for his horrid parenting, but I'd say that in canon Zelda is more willing for reconciliation, at least if AoC is anything to go by. According to his diary, Rhoam had been a strict father ever since the queen died (so Zelda was six) and there is little material on them actually having any positive interaction, but I figure there must have been something at least, or at least Zelda appears to value his approval. I do wonder how Zelda feels about her dad after the events of BotW since she probably got to read his diary and Link must have told him about the "old man".

In TotK Zelda gets more competent parental figures in Rauru and Sonia. It's a shame the game itself doesn't bring this up, but at least there is an interview that compares Zelda's parents to them. Through the power of magic and plot convenience they instantly sense that Zelda is trustworthy and become incredibly supportive of her. It really makes a huge difference for Zelda when she gets some actual guidance for unlocking her new magic powers, and unlike her BotW experience where she's constantly reminded of how necessary her contribution is to saving the world, this time she is told that this is not her fight and she is allowed to focus on her own issues. She eventually becomes a part of Rauru's inner circle and anti-Ganondorf team. I really like how Rauru treats Zelda, in that he consistently acts like the adult in the relationship and always remains supportive, but also doesn't baby her either and lets her make her own decisions.

While the other Beast Pilots primarily have a notable relationship with Link, Urbosa is more about Zelda as a mother figure or a "cool aunt" type. Urbosa is consistently supportive towards Zelda; she consoles her when her powers fail to awaken, was present to help when kid Zelda almost passed out from praying in cold water, puts her hand on her shoulder when she's stressed, and tries to do something about her strained relationship with Link. It's clear that the two are very close and go way back and Zelda has opened to her about her feelings. Zelda also acts more relaxed around Urbosa, like in the cute scene in Champion's ballad where they laugh together about having to put up a formal act in front of an audience.

Zelda also writes that she was surprised that Mipha was quick to learn to control her Divine Beast, whatever that means. Other than that Zelda doesn't share much of a specific relationship with Mipha, and Zelda's situation isn't contrasted with Mipha's at all even though both are princesses who are in a conflict with their king father. Even if Zelda does share personal and character-focused cutscenes with all champions, in general there's not much to say about her relationship towards the non-Urbosa Beast Pilots; while each of them has their own unique feelings about Zelda, from Zelda's side it's more just that she considers them her friends.

AoC Impa is in a similar boat. Impa's title in the game is "Royal advisor, loyal friend", and she indeed is included in many of Zelda's scenes where she's troubled over her lack of progress with her powers. Third-wheeling the Zelink from a shipper's perspective, but makes sense from a narrative perspective to have someone for Zelda to play off so she doesn't have to monologue for an entire cutscene since Link (or Terrako) doesn't talk as usual. So Impa gets to deliver some important pep talk to Zelda, so she can continue to trudge forward despite all her failures. Still this is mostly from Impa's side and I don't get a lot out of Zelda outside obviously seeing Impa as a friend.

Mind you even if I don't think Zelda's relationship with Impa or the Beast Pilots is particularly special, I'm not really complaining. Like there is effort to put them in character focused scenes and have them have some sort of connection with each other, and in almost any other LoZ game they would be a high point in Zelda's relationship list. It's just that the bar is way higher with this iteration of Zelda, so stuff like this becomes even worth mentioning.

The TotK sages have disappointingly little to do with Zelda, even though they should have known each other for years. We get nothing from Zelda's side towards any of them, and the sages are primarily concerned about the environmental disaster affecting their homes (which okay is fair) and Zelda is just a footnote in their story. Only Riju brings up Zelda being her close friend, and is the only one to refer to her as Zelda, while the other three use princess Zelda.

AoC gives Zelda her own companion character in Terrako, which I guess is fitting if you see her as the main character of the game. Unfortunately for me Terrako inhabits the character type that I categorically dislike and is my least favourite character of the franchise, but is still relevant enough that it warrants a mention here. And if Zelda has to have a mascot, making it a little robot is a good pick. We even get to see a flashback where kid Zelda builds Terrako, which of course ties well into her characterisation as a scientist. Through the story Terrako is present in Zelda's important moments encouraging her, and Terrako being (temporarily) destroyed just before the grand finale is the final big moment for Zelda where she repeats her resolve to win the war. And of course the true ending of AoC has Zelda set out on her own with just Terrako, which I guess helps to really sell her as the main character of her own life (compared to if she left with her whole friend group or a bodyguard).

Purah is brought up together with Zelda a little; apparently Zelda used to cover for her when her research got too explosive back before the Calamity, and Zelda took part in the ancient Sheikah technology research and writes in her diary how she thinks it's best not to try to argue with Purah. But since being a scholar is such a big part of Zelda's character, I really wish her relationship with Purah was more developed. She doesn't get much out of Mineru either other than a mention that she visited her and rode her construct.

We also get to know about how the public perception of Zelda, in BotW Rhoam tells about how there are rumours spreading about her inadequacy, but in TotK there are NPCs in every corner of Hyrule who have something nice to say about her. I think this is cute development, and I find it believable too given how much of the talk about her is how she actively goes around helping people.

[biconickyoshi]

I know taatfp come first, but I just want to let you know that your zukaang tgcf au definitely has a waiting audience.

As someone who ship zukaang and is in mxtx fandoms, I remember thinking "what brought this on???" when I first saw your fic but I was and still am curious about the premise. Then months later while brain rotting about how Zuko seriously worshiped Aang, the answer slapped me in the face and I could finally put one and two together.

So yeah, I have a mighty need to see where you want to go with that tgcf au

Aww thank you so much!! :) I’m happy to hear that, especially since that fic is not nearly as popular as TAatFP. I definitely have a lot of interesting ideas floating around in my head for TFoTLA, and I’ve got a whole document with a bunch of stuff brainstormed for how each AtLA character would fit into the world TGCF. I just need to figure out a direction for it lol.

Even though I don’t have any more chapters written yet, here are some of the plot ideas I have so far:

- Instead of butterflies, Zuko can summon silver dragonflies. E-Ming can also be split in half to be his broadswords.

- For the Ghost Bride Arc, Ju Dee would be Xuan Ji, General Fong would be General Pei. Haru would be Pei Jr. “Kya”, “Lin”, and “Bumi” (Katara, Toph, and Sokka) would be sent by Suki (Ling Wen) to help Aang for this mission.

- For the Banyue Arc, Meng would be Banyue, and she and Haru would have been friends long ago. This is where Zuko, appearing as his 16yo scarless self, would first show himself to Aang. This is also where Aang would eventually meet Mai and Ty Lee (Ming Yi and Shi Qingxuan), disguised in their male forms at first.

- For the Ghost City Arc, Sokka, Ty Lee, and Jet (Lang Qianqiu) go with Aang to Ghost City, where Aang sees Zuko’s true form for the first time as The Blue Spirit ghost king, the way he looked when he died at age 19. Aang and Ty Lee find Mai in a dungeon on Zuko’s property, injured.

- Don’t have a lot written down for the Fangxin Guoshi Arc, other than Jet is pissed bc he thinks Aang killed his family. Aang and Zuko meet the Yellow Calamity, Ozai (this story’s Qi Rong lmao)

- There’s a lot of arcs I haven’t written anything down for, but for the Blackwater Arc, it’s gonna be: Azula (the Shi Wudu equivalent, but not related to Ty Lee) sabotaged Mai’s ascension (by somehow making her family go destitute), and Azula and Ty Lee ascend together. In this fic, Azula would have had feelings for Ty Lee and been jealous of her closeness with Mai. Eventually, Mai would die and become a ghost, but like HC in the novel, still be able to ascend even after death. So she does, and Azula is like WTF but she can’t do anything about it, and Mai isn’t aware that Azula was the one who ruined her life. However, Mai eventually finds out and plans her revenge on Azula, but it won’t end as tragically as in TGCF lol. Azula would be the one to get her divine status revoked and banished to the mortal realm following this, while Mai and Ty Lee would remain gods.

Now that I’m reviewing all of my brainstorming stuff, it’s making me want to work on this AU again 😭 But I really need to finish the next couple chapters of TAatFP first lol.

We’ll see if I have the brainspace and energy to work on TFoTLA in my free time once I finish that, though…

[crazylittlejester]

I'm glad that you enjoy daily brainrot as much as I do. :) I look forward to 7:00 pm every day because that's when I start typing things up in your askbox. I even have a designated section of my notes app to make sure I don't forget things before brainrot time rolls around.

Also, the fic that I wrote about Warriors having low blood pressure/low blood sugar has bitten me in the butt because now I'm under official orders to solve the exact same problem with almost exactly the same solution that was proposed in the fic. The Ao3 author's curse has finally gotten to me.

I'm fine, it's just very funny to me that literally a month ago I poked around and made up a fantasy Gatorade recipe that I forced upon the poor guy. To be honest, I wouldn't trust Wild and Sky's first attempt, either. Anyway, since I don't trust my own fantasy Gatorade recipe (look, orange juice and salty water can't taste very good) I'm going to try and get something from the store or at least some flavoring from the store.

Getting on to proper brainrot territory, I've been thinking about the suggestion you gave me about writing Time (that he's just the older version of Mask) and I think I'll be able to swing it if I can just get my paragraphs in order. I have some nice snippets here and there that I've written out, it just needs to be organized and properly lined up.

Related to that, I have been considering the development of STEM in the different eras (the arts can wait for another day). Slightly off-topic, the main reason why there's so much Warriors & Sky & Wild in my Emotional Support Loftwing fics is because I feel that they'd have the most medical knowledge because they're knights. Warriors was a soldier in charge of 2 kids, knights in Skyloft were about as close to first responders as you could get, and Wild was the personal knight/bodyguard to Princess Zelda right around the apocalypse.

The others also have fairly good reasons to know stuff, but I feel like the overlap of knight training and the information available in their eras is significant enough to make a difference. This is a whole thing to me, and I will die on this hill willingly.

But back to the point. I think that Warriors' era was probably the closest to the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, or whatever it's called. That period in time when people were learning stuff left and right. The scientific method has been thoroughly established, people are starting to consider technology more, medical knowledge is being expanded to better society, and the war is making all of this happen at an accelerated pace because that's what happens during war. It's a documented phenomenon.

Skyloft, on the other hand, is much smaller and more isolated. They're very self-contained, so I feel like their knowledge is more likely long-term accumulation of information. There are fewer people to study subjects and peer-review things, so I think they've got more advancements in subjects like math and certain types of engineering and architecture. Medicine probably sticks closer to treating injuries from accidents and management of acute and chronic diseases.

Of course, Wild's era is really weird so it's kind of hard to say what all they have exactly, but I feel like most of their STEM stuff leans into technology, engineering, and the natural sciences (biology, geology, etc.) based on what I know of Purah and Flora. I think most medical knowledge or other hyper-specific information would have been salvaged based on the whole apocalypse thing with the Calamity. I also don't know exactly how the Shrine of Resurrection works, but I don't think he'd have forgotten how to do things like math, he just lost his memories. So he'd still have any first aid knowledge he got during his training. And I've seen some cool ideas in fics about the Shrine of Resurrection and the Slate using data for the magic-y stuff, and if that's the case, then maybe the weird blue Shrine juice was just liquid information. Maybe Wild knows a little bit too much about certain topics that Flora is 99% sure weren't part of his training program. (I also think Wild's era has the most information on seizures, but that's because of ✨the vibes✨ and not a specific detail.)

I look forward to 7:00 pm every day because that's when I start typing things up in your askbox <- ALDKDWKKFL I start frantically checking my askbox around 8 😭

The Ao3 author's curse has finally gotten to me <- NOOOOO im so sorry 😔

I have some nice snippets here and there that I've written out, it just needs to be organized and properly lined up <- oooooooh thats good!!

I feel that they'd have the most medical knowledge because they're knights <- YESSSSSSSSSSSS YES YES YES

Warriors' era was probably the closest to the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, or whatever it's called <- IM SO WITH YOU ON THIS

They're very self-contained, so I feel like their knowledge is more likely long-term accumulation of information <- I SO AGREE

I feel like most of their STEM stuff leans into technology, engineering, and the natural sciences (biology, geology, etc.) <- yes yes yes yes i love how you broke all this down and the different areas of knowledge you’re so right i agree with you 100%

THANK YOU FOR THE BRAINROT :3

[noirandchocolate]

I'm super late to the Hyrule party (just picked up BotW like ... 8 months ago) but you're on your way to convincing me to pick up Age of Calamity next.

(I've finished BotW only once, but I've started like 4-5 games. The final boss fight interests me so much less than, for example, getting Tarrey Town up and running.)

Age of Calamity is a very different kind of game from other Zeldas, with its beat-em-up missions instead of puzzles and dungeon exploration, so there’s that. I’d say to watch a little gameplay by somebody else before buying the game, just to make sure it’s a style you like. Or maybe you already play other games like it and know you enjoy that kind! ^.^ (I wasn’t sure I’d like the gameplay but it turns out I do!)

I really can’t recommend the story and characters more highly. AoC gets some flack in the greater LoZ fandom sometimes for “not being canon” (debatable since the Zelda timeline is so branching and warped anyway and there’s stuff in the game that definitely influenced TotK) but to be honest, as I said in my tags on that reblog, it does SO MUCH with the characters especially, to show their personalities and relationships. Even tiny details like messages that pop up from characters when you get 1,000 KOs in a mission or what they say when you put them on a team together in the character selection screen, are delightful. Just watching cutscenes gives the overview and most important story moments, but so much more is revealed through the actual progression and dialogue during missions, too.

There’s even some mission maps where you get to go inside locations that by botw time are just ruins or that are much more closed-off to you in botw!

So…yeah! That’s my glowing review! If you do end up playing, I hope you’ll enjoy it too!

[pooka-dragon]

https://x.com/pookadragon/status/1790614874600649200?s=12&t=ZzaE6W5Nw0NnVUXy_sFLNw

I’ve been hearing mixed reviews about how Revali in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a little difficult to control because he has two ways of fighting; one on the ground with some basic attacks and the other using his Gale and perform more airing attacks.

But I honestly don’t have a hard time playing as him. He’s been on the journey throughout most of the game (except for certain parts of the story) and I have fun playing as him.

[gemsofthegalaxy]

i'm still DEEP in the Zelda Zone and thus decided to watch Arlo's Big Review of Breath of the Wild and I find what he says a funny contrast to some of the things I've seen on reddit

now. i did only see one post where someone was saying that nobody plays Zelda games for "the story" but it had a few other people chime in. one of Arlo's biggest complaints is that the story of BOTW was really lacklustre and what little story did happen in cutscenes was repetitive and not that engaging. I don't really agree with that, I liked Breath of the Wild's story and I liked how it focused on Zelda's struggles to connect to her powers. Would I have liked more story from it? sure, yeah. but the fact the game is not linear makes it hard to tell a story like that at all and I think what they did with it was good. to be fair he also said Skyward Sword's story sucked and that, imo, should be illegal. jk lmfao but I liked SS anyway.

the even more ironic thing I saw him say is that Breath of the Wild is by far the hardest 3D Zelda game because in the rest of the games, enemies are very easy to take down. I cannot really agree with that because BOTW is the only 3D Zelda game I've completed because OoT was too hard for me lmfao. The diffculty of OoT wasn't just because of the monsters but the controls in general. Now, I don't disagree that the combat in BOTW is challenging, because it is to me, but I see sooooooooo many people complain that it's not difficult enough. Bro, it still took me 3 times yesterday to beat ONE lynel in botw and today I tried 3 times in TOTK and then gave up. Now, I'm admittedly not very good at video games in general, I get stressed and the buttons escape me and I'm impatient and it's genuinely hard for me to learn complex attack patterns, a lot of the time I DO just want to mash my sword button until the enemy dies (I really enjoyed Age of Calamity btw lmfao). So i'm glad BOTW is only as hard as it is and not harder. I would not be mad if the enemies stayed at lower levels for longer or permanently, sorry, lol and don't care that there isn't that much variety. I do enjoy when I can learn an enemies attack and get good at it, but, it's a lot of effort to do it for a whole lot of enemies and stuff. I was just surprised for someone to acknowledge BOTW has hard combat at all in the first place let alone not grumbling about the fact it isn't harder

[russeliarat]

In regards to Cia in a lot of the LU fanon space (aka fics and headcanons), I feel like she's being portrayed far worse than she actually is in Hyrule Warriors. I do think that Wars would have a lot of trauma regarding her considering she's the whole reason a war was started in his name. I do also think that starting said war is pretty bad. But I don't think she really deserves the black-and-white viewpoint most people have of her, it undermines the (attempted - it was a bad and rushed attempt but an intentional attempt nonetheless) redemption of her character arc. I say this as someone who owns the game and has combed through it for hours to attempt to rewrite that bullshit game.

But I think a lot of people are missing the part where Cia actually had control over her one-sided love for centuries as she only watched each hero and never interacted, but it was when Ganondorf came in and corrupted her that she started the war. She was under Ganondorf's influence throughout most of the game, even when she defected from him and attempted to gain the Triforce. She eventually made attempts to redeem herself after becoming free of Ganondorf due to Lana. There's also an element that Cia herself was exploited for Ganondorf's own power fantasies, it was likely that he manipulated or even told her to go to such extremes as making a war to get the Triforce and just used Cia's quiet yearning as a motive.

As dogshit as Hyrule Warriors is as a game and story, I think the idea that Lana is this perfect good is a great foil to Cia's unwavering evil, both forced to these extremes because of Ganondorf, who then regained their humanity once Cia finally broke free of him, though is more subtle in Lana is actually expressed kinda well compared to the rest of the wonkiness of the game. I think there's something to be said about Cia treatment as a antagonist compared to others like say Shadow, the way they're treated as being redeemed villains who were manipulated by Ganondorf for his own gains is vastly different across the fandom. Idk if there's a reason but it feels so distinct and I can't answer why.

This isn't to say that I don't think Wars would have a lot of issues surrounding what happened, its quite obvious he would have a lot of relationship problems on top of everything going on about the war. Its more a ramble about how people portray Cia post-HW/during LU. I myself don't understand how it happened, but as a DLC that was added for free in the Definitive Edition, Cia was revived and re-evilised, so yes she is technically alive still. I don't blame people for thinking she's some mega evil seductress that wants to capture the hearts of all the Chain, she seems very one-sided as a character at first without either getting the game and playing through yourself or skimming every website about the game (which is surprisingly few compared to its Age of Calamity counterpart - which also has its issues) and analysing the very misleading text in wiki pages and reviews. But no, she's not portrayed as a rapist (wtf literally where in the game is it even implied) nor is her character shown to be a pedophile (each hero she has been shown to fawn over are very explicitly the adult heroes).

I'm fine with headcanons, but the kind of stuff I see passed around in LU fanon is basically character assassination. It's kind of sad to see Cia just absolutely obliterated. I'm fine with some of the tamer headcanons, but some of the aforementioned like her being a rapist or a pedophile is so gross to me (and yes I've seen both multiple times in many more words to try to soften the blow of the writer/headcanoner's implications). I don't really like her character myself but I feel like I've analysed her and reworked her and picked apart her character too much to even consider humouring these kinds of ideas. Saying things like she's hypersexual or playing into her seductress image and appearance is fine because it's almost canon, I'll even agree with people calling her a stalker because she definitely was one during the war, but saying anything close to her committing anything more extreme is just not it for me.