#and then a sequel game to that would be the era of this link zelda and champions and botw

[amiharana]

some of my thoughts on link, zelda, and the champions

this post actually started off with me trying to answer the last part of this anon's ask, and then it spiraled into something else, so i'm going to have to make another post about the actual idea 😭 for now, you can have this long-ass fucking thinkpiece i typed up because i love the champions dearly and i wanted a much larger presence from them as i played botw. this post is really long so if you want to read it, please sit down and have a snack while you read.

so the last part of anon's original ask was about the champions singing together and the idea of a found family—

anonymous asked:

Also: imagine all champions, Link and Zelda hanging out on one of the Divine Beasts and singing a song together (i am very weak to champions being a found family)

like you're so #real for this anon. i honestly do hope we get more champions content in TOTK because nintendo completely missed on not expanding on a found family dynamic between link, zelda, and the champions. sure there's the champion's ballad DLC and age of calamity (i haven't played either of these. sorry. i will soon!), but that's not.. they're still dead in the DLC and AoC isn't considered canon i think it's more of an alternative timeline? so that doesn't really count.

me personally i think daruk and urbosa are very mother and father, and they probably were if riju and yunobo are their direct descendants (which is a whole other rabbit hole in itself; urbosa and daruk died most likely leaving little children and spouses behind ㅠㅠ). and maybe that is the point; daruk is the rock (because he's a goron lol) that keeps the family together and in the botw memories is seen to be taking initiative to lead and tell the other champions to get to their divine beasts when the calamity awakens. he’s steadfast and encouraging and jovial and that’s very father of him! as for urbosa, she straight up mothers zelda and link in-game, she's basically zelda's maternal figure after zelda's mom dies. she's not a stepmom, she's the mother that stepped up 💪❤️

mipha bears the Eldest Daughter Curse™ and revali is the moody teenager who’s Not going through a phase, it’s a LIFESTYLE MOM!!!1!1!1!1 and imo link and zelda kinda give goofy twin siblings (imagine like the pine twins) vibes to me

i like the headcanon that link had a younger sister pre-calamity, but i’d like to add my own twist to that. assuming that link used to live in hateno village, what if link's parents split after the birth of his younger sister, with his father taking link and moving closer to hyrule castle to fulfill his duty as a knight, and his mother not wanting to get involved with the war against the calamity and taking his sister to stay in hateno? link must have been really young at the time and barely remembers being able to play with his little sister :( so even if he had a sibling, he was basically raised alone for most of his life. and if his father was a knight of hyrule, i doubt that he could have been the most present father to link either... with zelda's mother dying when she was young and her father being a complete dick, that makes both link and zelda the "only child" kids that were raised in less than desirable familial conditions. and so, i think link and zelda would have their own difficulties integrating into this found family dynamic with the champions.

now i'm not an only child (i have demons for siblings tbh), but i think both link and zelda are very independent people who feel like they can only rely and trust themselves with the way they've been raised. it takes a lot for both of them to learn to be vulnerable and trust others, and they're very much not used to the mismatched deck of personalities they have to deal with within the champions, that being jolly father daruk, very cutthroat mother urbosa, sweet and soft-spoken mipha, and dickhead ass bitch bird revali. how can they navigate through these relationships with their lonely childhoods swept up in prophecies of old? it's much easier than you think and it has to do with anon's idea: strengthening rapport with each other by singing together atop a divine beast >:]

ok i'm joking, i think that's more the apex of the roadmap to becoming a found family, but it's a very cute idea 🥺 after link and zelda are finally cool with each other, there are so many opportunities for each of them to bond with the other champions individually. there's of course zelda falling asleep on mama urbosa in vah naboris, link and daruk have their father-son bonding time by daruk protecting link from getting smashed to a pulp by volcanic boulders, etc etc, but what about mipha taking zelda to all the monuments that detail zora history throughout the domain so that zelda can study them? what about revali teaching link how to use the paraglider so that he can actually hit targets at the flight range and get a chance to finally settle the score between him and link? i actually like that idea a lot, because then we could get an explanation as to why the paraglider even exists in the botw universe (revalink for the win ehehe). nintendo, my dear friend, there could be so much more to this world that you've introduced to us.

on one hand, of course botw is narratively focused on link and zelda and calamity ganon, and mechanically about the open-world map, shrines/divine beasts, etc, that break free from traditional zelda conventions. but it leaves the champions to only be side characters that, though they played critical roles in handling the divine beasts, are nothing more than ghostly figures with a handful of one-dimensional character traits that only create a further disconnect between the current world of hyrule vs. its pre-calamity past. which is why we get champion's ballad and age of calamity, which both somewhat expands on the champions as characters, but never more than giving them a few more traits and interactions that, to me personally, feel empty and inadequate. i want to have these intimate interactions with the champions as characters in the botw map, ones that i can walk up to chat with as though they were sidon or beedle or a random npc traveler. i want to feel close to the champions, and nintendo, though with weak attempts, doesn't give me that.

the picture that purah takes of the champions is so important to me. this right here is peak found family, a group of the most mismatched individuals that somehow meld perfectly together and balance each other out, and we only receive it through the DLC. that's so stupid. sorry nintendo, i want more than three minute long memories of a singular moment in a past life, i want more than npcs telling me who i used to be. i want king dorephan to tell us about the time zelda fell off of a waterfall and mipha immediately jumped after her to save her clumsy ass. i want to look through historical records of the gerudo and find one about urbosa launching daruk at the mouth of a molduking and daruk chewing her out for it later. i want elder kaneli gossip with me about an old rumor about how revali and the hylian champion of the past used to be found asleep together on the floor of the flight range's hut after a long night of training. i want the world of botw to give me signs and stories about how close the champions were with each other and to make my heart ache, to wish desperately to have known them, instead of like, 20 memories that only serve the plot, or honestly don't at all. but i digress!

i know for some people, the presence of the champions were meant to teach link about tragedy and loss and the effect of war and ruin and evil and cherishing your loved ones or whatever, but i simply did not get that message. that was not what i perceived the champions to be, because to me, the game lacked showing the relationships link and zelda had with the champions. like okay, you died and you also happened to know me. what if link doesn't really remember them at all? then what?

you receive twenty or so memories about the champions when including the DLC, and yes i do concede it gives us some more insight about their characters, but it doesn't do much more than that. the cutscene where mipha moves vah ruta to ready its lasers at the castle, where she wishes to see her father and sidon one more time, especially is an excellent example of emphasizing their significance to the people around them, to us as players and spectators to this hyrule... i want more of that.

i could be wrong about some of the stuff i've said, so disclaimer again that i haven't played the DLC or age of calamity, and maybe you do feel closer to the champions when you play those games! fanmade fic and art and headcanons have been really great ways of helping me view them in a multi-dimensional way, but going off the game's content itself, the champions feel like hollow spectres of people we never truly remember or get to know. maybe that's what they're supposed to feel like, but i don't want to feel that way about them. i'm too attached to them now, and i want to get to know them! curse you nintendo!!!

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Guys. Why is there even a debate here. Some of the games were explicitly written to be connected, some of them weren't. Not everything has to fit into one cohesive timeline. As a matter of fact, they can't. Now, there is some more nuance to it. Read below for my explanation (infodump) plus a more nuanced chart.

Red and blue lines are canon within the games' text. Ambiguities are filled in with green. I'll get more into that later. Let's first explain the two completely separate mini timelines.

The Four Swords miniseries stands mostly alone. The Master Sword and the Triforce are present in every other game or (mostly--looking at you, Master Sword in LoZ and AoL) have a good reason not to be, but they are not present at all in these three games. Instead, we have the Four Sword and Light Force. The only wrinkle is that Ganondorf shows up in FSA... so I don't know about that one. I don't think anyone does.

As for BotW and TotK. Oh brother. What do we do with these. Skyward Sword is intended to take place seemingly millennia, or at least several centuries before Ocarina. We see the founding of Hyrule with the first monarch and her chosen knight, the cycle of recurring evil and heroism being established, and the forging of the Master Sword

Wait. What about Rauru and Sonia? I thought they were the first rulers of Hyrule. And if the Zonai were around long before Hyrule, where is any of their presence in Skyward Sword? Huh. Alright. We don't know how much time passed between the first Calamity and the second, but from the past era of TotK to its present, we can account for at least 10,105 years of history. We don't even need to get into how Zora and Rito coexist or anything smaller like that. There's just no fucking way these two games fit with any of the others. Fine, that's fine. Moving on.

There's also a little hiccup around the Oracles. Nintendo seems to go back and force on whether the Oracles feature the same Link as in ALttP and LA, but if they do, it probably makes more sense that Oracles happen before LA (the linked Oracle game ends with Link boarding sailing off on a small ship and LA starts with him on one). So like... I guess they fit there?

Either way, let's take a second to look back at where this idea of a timeline split happened. Remember that WW and TP both clearly take place after OoT. That isn't theorizing, that's in the actual text of each game. The thing is, they're mutually exclusive. TP has Ganondorf being executed, as he would have been after the Hero of Time goes back to his original era and warns Zelda that her plan to get to the Triforce first isn't going to work (which is implied to be what happens at the "The End" screen of OoT). WW has Ganondorf coming back by breaking the seal put on him, and the Hero of Time didn't appear to stop him again (as would happen if Link was sent back in time). Fans started theorizing way back in 2006 that OoT created separate timelines, with WW and TP being mutually exclusive sequels to it as the evidence.

Some fans have asserted that Nintendo just "took" the fan theory. But come on, put everything together here. The texts of OoT, WW, and TP HEAVILY imply the timeline split. The only reason we called it a theory is because the writers didn't literally say "And then the timeline split in two". The texts are pretty clear though. It's the only thing that makes sense. That isn't to say that there needs to be a cohesive timeline, and that the split is the only way to fit it together. No, OoT is connected to both WW and TP no matter what. That was the intent. It's just that the explanation for OoT to have mutually exclusive sequels actually fits neatly into the texts of the games.

And now we come to the tricky part. Put yourself back into the 90s real quick. ALttP seems to have been written as a prequel to Zelda 1, showing Hyrule before its period of decline. Alright, let's just accept that because it may as well be true. The lore at that point was so thin that it made enough sense. I kinda slapped Zelda 1 and 2 at the end there to show it, because we do have a cohesive timeline from ALttP to TFH. That's fine, all well and good.

Likewise, OoT seems to be written as a prequel to ALttP. We see conflict over the Triforce, the origin of Ganon, the seven sages, and an earlier iteration of the Master Sword. Back in 1998, we had no reason to not believe it. These are tenuous connections that are not explicit in the games' text, so I've paired them with green lines to show it.

But wait. ALttP is ALSO mutually exclusive to TP and WW. Oh brother. What do we do about this? Even after figuring out the timeline split in 2006, fans didn't know what the fuck to do with the first four games of this franchise. They could go after TP, but that's even messier than putting them right after OoT. Yuck. This doesn't feel good at all. Oh yeah, and then there's the Four Swords games that don't fit anywhere.

Now you can imagine the position the writers of Hyrule Historia found themselves in when they were tasked with creating an official timeline. Some of the games have certain explicit connections, as detailed in my first chart. But they had to cram everything into one timeline. Well. They knew they had a timeline split in OoT, because that's what the texts of OoT, WW, and TP collectively say. The lore of ALttP also mentions seven sages (or wise men, but let's call them sages), but not a legendary hero. So... if you really stretch your brain out here... it kinda makes sense that there's a timeline where the Hero of Time died fighting Ganon. Maybe. Kinda. Not really, but kinda. And then there's the Four Swords miniseries. Fuck it, throw them in randomly.

The two-way split doesn't disagree with OoT's text at all, which said that Link won. The three-way split does disagree with it by asserting that Link lost. But if we're really trying to fit everything into one timeline, that is the cleanest place to put them. Some people really hate this, but it does seem that those are the same people that demanded that there be an official timeline in the first place. ie the same people who were gonna be pissed off with anything Nintendo gave them that wasn't exactly their own theory being confirmed.

Alright, real talk. The producers of the Zelda series have said time and time again that they think of what would make a fun game then write a story that fits around it. The Wind Waker devs wanted you to sail around the ocean. Then the writers decided "oh, we could put this after Ocarina! After all, weren't they left without a hero? What if Ganon came back with no one to stop him? How would that problem resolve itself? What if the gods just flooded the world?" Then the Twilight Princess devs wanted a spiritual successor to Ocarina, with an epic adventure on horseback across the traditional Zelda kingdom setting. So the writers went "hey, in Ocarina, Link warned Zelda about Ganon, right? What if he was executed then, and then the world was never flooded?"

We have to realize that trying to put games with this design philosophy into a neat little timeline is a futile effort. It's never gonna work because it wasn't designed to. More so than any other storytelling medium, video games take so many approaches to continuity. The Halo games were all meant to be sequential and fit neatly into a strict timeline. Pokemon is all canon within itself but the ties between games are less important than the stories of each game. Mario essentially has no canon except for recurring characters and settings. Zelda is gameplay first, canon second. That's why the two most recent mainline games don't even try to fit in the canon of the previous eighteen. That's just how it works and we're gonna have to accept that.

[skyloftsword]

Understanding Tears of the Kingdom

I'm seeing a lot of hate being thrown at Tears of the Kingdom again that really just gets disproven by the game itself. Yes I know this is like my 400000th post defending the game but its fun. I have in game evidence so spoiler warning!

TotK is a SEQUEL! It is NOT an alternate timeline nor is it an alternate universe! People who say this stuff clearly did not pay attention to literally anything considering...

As you can see, there is a lot of evidence that this game is connected to Breath of the Wild as a SEQUEL. Here's the biggest connection.

Breath of the Wild is summarized in its entirety! Symin even acknowledges the fact that Link already knows all of this because of his experience with the Calamity.

Now onto why Zelda was transported back in time. As we know, Zelda is a descendant of Rauru and Sonia (yes they have at least one child, they just aren't mentioned or brought up at all from what I have seen so far in my time with the game, nothing disproves them having a child however) so Sonia is where she got her time powers from. Now why did Zelda get sent back to that era specifically? Well its because that era was still in her mind. Link and her were just done looking at the murals from the past, not to mention the Demon King himself from that era was right there. So of course, all Zelda was thinking about was the ancient past of THIS Hyrule.

Moving on, the Sheikah tech excuse Aonuma/Fujibayashi stated in an interview is actually brought up within Breath of the Wild itself.

This of course specifically referencing the Shrines/Towers, now what would excuse the Divine Beasts? Easy. They were breaking down at the end of Breath of the Wild, meaning they were getting ready to disappear alongside the rest of the Sheikah tech now that their roles were fulfilled as well as them being broken.

I have gone over the ending in SEVERAL posts so I'm going to keep this section brief. According to the Molduga geoglyph Tear, others can amplify a person's power by putting their hands out. Because of this, Rauru and Sonia amplified Link's Recall ability and not only brought back Zelda's mental and physical state to right before transformation, but they also brought Link's arm back from pre-Ganondorf attack and got Rauru his arm back from Link. This was only possible due to the amplified Recall.

Now, the Triforce is actually in game and the Secret Stones do NOT replace it. The Triforce is the source of Zelda's light powers just like how it was in Breath of the Wild.

Its hard to see, but you can see it on her hand on the left. The Secret Stones themselves only AMPLIFY a person's powers (it also doesn't grant them sudden mastery of their powers). This is mentioned during the Mineru's Counsel Tear. So yeah, the Triforce is still very relevant and extremely important to the game.

So yeah, that's my millionth TotK defense post. Thanks for reading.

[rgbstatic]

i think nintendo should do another multiplayer zelda game and actually advertise it.

they’re shutting down online, so triforce heroes won’t be playable. and honestly i’ll defend that game with my live it’s so fun, the story is silly, it’s supposed to be like a “what does link do after he defeats a big bad ganon” and the answer is he gets silly with it in new kingdoms defeating lesser bad guys and having fun as fuck doing it

and like it’s genuinely a fun game

and like four swords wasn’t well received either, and that may be the timeframe it came out but from what i’ve gathered it didn’t have the same level of advertising as other games did either?

and they could make such fun multiplayer loz games, like multiplayer puzzle games are so popular, but they would need to just advertise it right.

and story wise? they made a four swords sequel before. as far as we know, that sword still exists.

they could make a post game game, like triforce heroes

or make something the fuck up! it’d be fun! make it a spin off like age of calamity and involve time travel to involve links from different eras

or, fuck they could do so much

but oughhh they just need to make something and advertise it

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

So I feel like at this point im becoming kinda known for having a very enthusiastic, positive voice when it comes to Tears of the Kingdom. Because of that, I do want to delve into things I hope the DLC will touch on and points of the story that are indeed weaker and I wanted more of! And… then I’ll go into why I’m not completely upset about it.

First and foremost, the sages of old. While we have seen old sages for mere moments in the past, the reason I feel differently about totk’s sages is that we have a character actively interacting with them, aka Zelda.

The sages of old are faceless (which may be a result of opting to utilize headpieces and reusing avatars due to them focusing on the rest of the game) and all have the same cutscene. It was incredibly repetitive and boring by the fourth time we saw it. Zelda’s scene with them is similar as well, which is fine but having an added variety and flair would have been nice, especially as I’m going through the game again.

Overall, the critique is the lack of details in the past. I wanted more and I understand the direction they took, a balance between botw’s open world and a linear story game. It’s more in depth in Botw but not absolutely required like the rest of the Zelda games. That in general is a commonly shared negative critique.

For me, I actually thoroughly enjoy the open world, not entirely linear storyline. That is of course not the case with everyone, but that was the entire concept of botw and ultimately its sequel; they delivered games with entirely open world concepts and a story that is followed through the player’s choice rather than a requirement. And both are fantastic. Botw was light on the plot, totk was much heavier and does have a more distinctive storyline.

Love or hate, they did it well in ToTK. Not perfect, but pretty damn well. It ultimately comes at the sacrifice of story details, especially with characters like the old sages. It’s disappointing to say the least, but it is simply a product of how the games’ concept affected the story.

Another thing I am not entirely a fan of— Nintendo establishing a whacky timeline and then completely abandoning it. Of course, so many people can theorize and speculate but I feel like a lot of common criticism of the game would be helped with them officially stating where this game appears in the overall timeline. Especially if they say “botw and totk are the skyward sword of a new timeline, one so far into the future the remnants of old legends are rare to find”.

That’s how I’ve taken botw and totk. Rauru and Sonia are the first to establish a new Hyrule. They have no connection to Skyward Sword and the rest of the series, because they are so far along in time that tens of thousands of years have passed. The Zonai, the secret stones, and the Sky Islands are all pieces from a time and era we were JUST introduced to. I’m anticipating more knowledge, lore, and history to come to light in future games. I’m okay not having ALL the answers. Because I recognize that botw and totk are the start of a NEW era of Zelda games.

That angers some people, some dislike it, others are fine with it, and some even love it. I’m okay with it because I have enough faith that this will all be explored more in depth in future games. But it is a flaw in ToTK, one I understand, and it’s completely okay that it’s one I don’t necessarily like! Patience is key my loves.

Something I do not love at all is Nintendo’s firm standing on Link being the ‘link to the player’ rather than his own character. I find some of the best Zelda stories have a strong, expressive Link! In botw, I do get it! But in totk… I wanted more. Because then I remember Wind Waker and Skyward Sword, two of the absolute best stories in the Zelda franchise (in my opinion, twilight Princess is also up there) and I get a tad disappointed.

Totk is still open enough that there are people that DESPISE Zelda for ‘stealing’ Link’s house and are vehemently against the idea of Zelda and Link being together, when it is all but stated in the story and the details we got. I feel like half of the emotional appeal of totk’s story truly comes from Link’s wish to bring her back home to him, safe and smiling. It was his entire motivation in Botw, to see her smile again, so taking that perspective and really appreciating Zelda brings that strong emotional reaction totk’s story targeted.

So yeah. If I go on more, I’ll just be talking about how people have the right to dislike Zelda but if they do, then they won’t get the emotional connection to totk and its story the way players are intended to. And that is their right, but it’s not how Link canonically feels about Zelda so yeah. If we just got small expressions from Link, maybe some of that could be avoided.

Alas.

The depths— insanely cool the first time I dived down! But they’re repetitive in their own way, to the point that I have not gone back down once since completing the side quests (bargainer statues, Kohga, Mineru) and lightroots. Though whoever said “let’s make the lightroots connect to the shrines on the surface” I want to give you a forehead smooch bc you are a beautiful genius and I love you.

I think that getting to fight the final bosses for the temples and the Gleeoks are super fun, which makes up for the repetitive landscape. I’m not insanely bothered by this, but I do dislike that a third of my maps are completely ignored now that I’m done with it story wise.

A commonly shared opinion is the stupidity of having to run up to one of the Sage avatars to activate their power. I replayed botw and the sheer joy in getting to take out a Modulga by using Urbosa’s Fury only to remember that it takes much longer now made me very thankful. But yeah.

Tulin is Perfect. The rest? Nah. Give me a Sage button rather than a map in the wheel. Like geez, it shouldn’t be so difficult to call your avatars over. Even when I whistle, I’m chasing Sidon down and he’s useless so I banish him.

Overall, I wanted more DETAILS. But I understand the concept; I got enough to make me excited for when we get more. I can live with the flaws because I can celebrate all they did right! I love Zelda, I love the new sages, and I love the side quests that brings Link closer to characters like Hudson and Penn.

I adore the little communities, Link’s side adventures, and the new landscape changes. I love the sky islands, because they’re just really fun to create whacky Zonai flying contraptions to try and reach the ridiculously far ones. Yeah, they could of had more of an impact in the game but as someone who can and would travel the surface level of Hyrule 1000x and not get bored, I didn’t mind how little I spent in the sky once i did the lightroots and side quests pertaining to the sky.

Overall? The game is pretty damn amazing. The new lore, the characters, and the quests are all so fun. It’s a brilliant game with a phenomenal emotional storyline that had me actually distressed for DAYS. No other game has done that to me for as long as this game did.

So yeah it’s precious to me and I am a Totk enthusiast and a Zelda enthusiast and a Zelink enthusiast. I am a ✨supporter✨

[tirsynni]

BotW/TotK Hylian Royal Family meta ahead. 

These are my headcanons based on what I’ve seen from the games. Obviously, everyone has different thoughts on it. No bashing in it and possibly Rhoam-critical but not Zelda-critical. Just headcanons about how the role religion played in Royal Life pre-Calamity.

Also, I’ve barely touched AoC, so this meta is based more on BotW, TotK, OoT, MM, TP, and SS, with the full understanding that this is headcanon and no consistent canon on this matter exists and will never exist... not even between BotW and its direct sequel, TotK.

A major plot point in BotW is Zelda’s inability to connect with her powers. There is no indication that she can do the things Link takes for granted in BotW, like see the Koroks and dragons. I would be surprised if she could. She’s young, frustrated, and her father -- her only living parent -- is pressuring the hell out of her to connect with her powers. It’s clear in the flashback and in his journals that he isn’t acting like a parent and he’s aware of it. He’s acting like a king who knows that he needs a specific weapon and is given a rough rulebook on how to access the weapon. Per their history, Zelda has Goddess blood which gives her access to a weapon which can defeat this grand evil; her ancestor was able to activate it, so obviously Zelda should be able to do the same; Zelda is failing to activate the weapon which should be automatic to her per some ancient rulebooks. It’s unknown how detailed the guidelines for activating this power is or the King is just assuming that of course this is what Zelda needs to do to activate this power. I mean, it was 10k years ago (which seems insane to me, but whatever).

Here’s where more headcanons come into play. I think the power of the Goddess -- and honestly, pretty much everything spiritual -- is completely disconnected from the Royal Family in this era. Per their records, the last time the holy power was needed was a long time ago. I would be shocked if something else hadn’t happened in the meantime (seriously, it’s one hell of a time difference), but for them, the power of the Goddess Blood hasn’t been needed any time recently. Zelda has made it clear that she has no personal connection to it. Her drive is scientific. She has no internal motivation to be connected to the Goddesses. Her motivation to connect to her powers isn’t because she wants to connect to anything on a spiritual level. She wants the power to protect her people and, honestly, because she’s experiencing so much pressure and backlash. Again, per BotW (and TotK, really), we don’t see her do any of the spiritual/divine/extra stuff Link does. Link talks to multiple divine statues. He plays games with the Koroks. In the BotW flashbacks, she is happiest when she’s doing Science(!), and in TotK, she focuses on highly practical things with no stories (that I’ve seen so far) of her doing anything with a spiritual slant. Her focus is rebuilding a school, not rebuilding a church.

It makes sense, though! I think the Goddess Blood and its associated power is more academic than anything. They know Zelda has it. Hell, the Hylian Royal Family relies on that Bloodline to claim their divine right to rule. They know that the power of the Goddess was used by previous princesses to protect the family. With all that said, there is no indication in canon that it has any modern role in their lives. Hell, there is no indication that spirituality in general has any role in the lives of the Royal Family. It seems like the Goddess Blood has two primary roles pre-Calamity: to ensure Divine Right to Rule and to awaken to protect Hyrule from the Calamity. That’s it.

In at least one previous game, it was said that the Hylians’ ears were shaped that way in order to better hear the spirits and the like. We don’t know Link’s own abilities when it comes to this pre-Calamity. I personally enjoy the headcanon that he could hear and see far more than Zelda but didn’t want to say anything because it would hurt her. Would also match with the concept of “keeping his mouth shut helps keeps his ears open.” But there’s no strong evidence that spirituality or anything play a strong role in Hylian daily life pre-Calamity. It might have been something which was also lost through time. That is a major theme in many Zelda games: that important things, including connection with the divine, have been lost. The Zelda games love showing ancient, forgotten things, things whose stories can never fully be told again. The original stories are long lost, and all that exists in the BotW/TotK are modern interpretations, fairy tales, prophecies, etc. For further examples, see the Zonai Survey Teams and how they are excited about their discoveries but can’t connect to them in the way Link casually does.

I read a story once about how a pastor once invited an enthusiastic member of his congregation to lead a prayer one day. He didn’t ask her beforehand. She was always highly motivated, highly social, and a strong believer. He didn’t think anything of his request. It should have been fine! Instead, she walked up to the front of the congregation, stood there for a moment, burst into tears, and fled. Later, he discovered that while she was very religious, she was never taught how to pray. Prayer was a major part of their religion, and as such, it was expected that everyone automatically knew how to do it! Not so! He realized an important lesson that day and didn’t take it for granted again.

Prophecy and Divinity play a significant role in the Royal Family, but do they actually know what to do with it? Zelda is told to pray and she’s told to do it for a specific reason: unlock her powers so she can help defeat the Calamity. We never see the King pray or do anything religious at all. He obviously believes in the prophecies and such but doesn’t actively do anything himself: Hylia favors their family, Zelda has Goddess Blood, etc. etc. etc. Very matter-of-fact things. Nothing he needs to do, actually! Because according to the Prophecies, he just needs to make sure the players are in place! Actual knowledge and practice doesn’t come into play here. No actual internal spiritual beliefs: just practical applications.

So that’s my headcanon as to one of the reasons why Zelda struggled. Would knowing how to pray have helped in the end? Unknown. When her power eventually arose, she was still pretty disconnected from it. It seemed like in BotW and TotK that she never fully connected with it: just used it to fulfill her goal, which was stopping the Calamity from destroying her people. Maybe her daughter or granddaughter or whoever would connect with their spiritual heritage. Overall, King Rhoam, who had probably never really prayed a day in his life and had no real connection to Hylia himself, looked at his daughter, told her that the only way to awaken her powers was to pray, and never thought for a moment that if he didn’t know how to pray, how the fuck should she?

[loopy777]

So there's going to be a live-action Zelda movie.

(Let's leave aside that no one from the creative team inspires any confidence.)

In celebration (?), I'm going to dig out my old idea for the only way a LoZ movie can be anything other than a cheap rip of Peter Jackson's LotR movies. See, I don't think LoZ has much to recommend it as fantasy itself. It doesn't have very many characters, and most of them don't have any personality beyond the most generic archetypes. There's no story that isn't just about collecting some plot coupons and fighting the big bad. Visually, there are few unique recurring memorable icons, just the Gorons and Zora, and Link in the green clothes; the triforce is just a triangle and the master sword fits in a little too well with all those cheap unofficial sword props they sell at conventions. Everything else varies too much to be iconic.

They could play it safe and adapt one of the more memorable games. But there's a reason why fanfic novelizations of those very rarely get very far, and why the manga adaptations usually last one or two volumes and spend most of their pages covering the initial premise and interactions with the quirkiest side-characters. Sure, it's possible to put together a good movie out of such a thing, but in that case, would the final product be all that much different than the recent D&D movie that underperformed despite being nicely entertaining?

I've long said that the one thing the Zelda franchise really has going for it (outside of being fun video games, which is actually the most important part but of no use in this conversation) is the way it uses repetition of its own iconography. It often retells the same stories, even when the stories are sequels to each other, and there's always a Link and always a Zelda and always a bow'n'arrow and always a moblin and water dungeon and a flute, etc. When a game does something unique, that stands out even more because of the context of the formula.

I also want to combine that with a fun mechanic in some of the games where Link solves puzzles by flipping between worlds/times. In 'Link to the Past,' he can go back and forth between the Light and Dark Worlds to make progress. In OoT, he can set things up in the past to solve problems in the future. In the Oracle GBA games, the dungeons themselves have puzzles which require taking actions in certain seasons and time periods in order to solve them.

So my ideal Zelda movie has multiple simultaneous stories going. One based on OoT, one based on Twilight Princess, one based on Breath of the WIld, and a mix of the NES games. They would each have a completely different acting cast, including the Links played by different actors. Scenes from each one would have different directors, ideally, but that may be unnecessary if the art teams can really do a good job differentiating them. The storylines would intercut to show their similarities and differences, and would sometimes even replace parts of each other's stories so that the lines between them blurs. At least one fight scene should be so intercut that literally every cut changes which storyline we're in, but it combines to create a single continuous and discernible fight scene.

As I've thought about this idea over the years, I've decided the storylines should swap characters as they go. The actors should stay the same- TP!Zelda should always be played by the same actress, for example, even when she's in the OoT storyline. Otherwise it would just get too confusing.

The theme we're going here is the nature and purpose of legends. We want to show how this one basic story reflects the societies that tell it, so we want the various storylines to make a big show of the setting of Hyrule in each era. We want to hint that the various elements in the story, including the characters, say something about the people who tell and value the legends. And we want to highlight how this changes as Hyrule changes.

It all culminates in all the storylines converging in the final battle against Ganon(dorf), with all the Links and Zeldas and sidekicks teaming up for a massive fight against evil. But the critical part is that all the populations of Hyrule are observing this fight, and the soundtrack is their shared million-person chorus recounting The Legend of Zelda, an epic poem chanted in a manner that puts Duel of the Fates to shame. I'm torn on whether the poem should be in English, or some made-up language that has to be translated via subtitles, complete with translator notes about untranslatable stuff and words where we're not sure of the exact meaning.

I admit it's possible I'm missing the entire point of a Zelda movie.

[duckapus]

The first five MRU universes

So again, gonna be a while before these actually happen because I want to actually write out the process of Piper stealing the HMG research, some of the preparations for Launch Day, and the actual First Activation, and I'm waiting until after I finish the Wonder Arc to write those so I don't end up abandoning it half-finished for months. But I at least wanted to list them out.

Again, universe 1 is basically the Test Universe, while 2-5 are in one batch that gets activated all at once.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Anchor: Link

Supervisor: Trinity

MRUs: 0 and 1

To justify having references to every game (because why wouldn’t it) Time Portals appeared basically everywhere at the same time the Memes did. Also, the Internet Graveyard got merged with the Wild-Era Sacred Realm (which was obviously never visited and is at the current End of the timeline so it doesn’t mess anything up and I can do whatever I want with its aesthetic). Yes, whoever did the setup had to get every Korok seed so the Key Items menu couldn’t canonically update and potentially break something. They did, in fact, get a raise for that.

Hamtor Tubez

Anchor: Doc the Hamtor

Supervisor: GIF

MRUs: 2 and 3

A puzzle game about leading Hamster-like creatures called Hamtors through elaborate tube mazes. Doc is a Mad Scientist and the leader of the Hamtors and is training them for when he will one day TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!, and there’s other unique Hamtors with special abilities that get introduced throughout the game as new puzzle elements.

Beneath the Faerie Mound

Anchor: Frida

Supervisor: Quazar

MRUs: 4 and 5

A metroidvania about a Changeling who gets Taken Back and has to fight her way out of Faery Country so she can return home. She initially thinks that MRU5 is another faerie who's come to try Taking her again.

The Fairly Oddparents!

Anchor: Timmy Turner

Supervisor: Spreadsheet

MRUs: 6 and 7

Look, making the Pokemon Anime universe part of the AU has set the precedent for also being able to use cartoons as SMG/MRU universes instead of just Games.

Interestingly, the Memes changing things to make the universe more entertaining undid a lot of the later season retcons, especially the Season 9 ones, so a lot of the characters are actually less Mean and Stupid than before. I'm using kid Timmy because he's the Real One so the live action movies and That One Spinoff aren't canon outside of memes, but Nicktoons Unite and its sequels are. So are seasons 9 and 10, 10 because I happen to like Chloe (or at least what she had the potential to be) and 9 because I think it would be funny to have Sparky be The Thing We Never Speak Of among the characters who would know about him.

Janitor of Heart: Stain Rising

Anchor: Rodney Teegan (Champion Form only)

Supervisor: Connectivity

MRUs: 8 and 9

A Magical Girl Beat-'em-Up that's actually a tie-in to an in-universe comic series called Rodney Teegan: Janitor of Heart.

The premise of the comic series is that a girl named Mina Reynolds who is Exactly the sort of person you'd expect to be a Magical Girl Protagonist gets her chance to when her school is attacked by a goop monster (part of an eldritch being known as The Stain) and she finds a magic bracelet containing the Spirit of Heart, Harmony, who chooses her as the Champion of Heart. But, when she tries to transform, some wires get crossed somewhere and the bracelet's power instead flows into Rodney Teegan, a 57-year-old janitor who Mina considers a close friend and who was with her when she found the bracelet. And because the transformation is based on what Mina wanted to look like as a magical superhero, he ends up in the body of a teenage girl with a cute poofy pink outfit. Whoops.

In his Champion form, Rodney has the expected enhanced strength, and can heal very quickly, but his main power is being able to turn cleaning supplies into weapons. It can be something as simple as a broom (in fact his signature weapon is a spear made from a push broom) or as massive and complex as a street sweeper truck. Also, Harmony isn't just a Cute Mascot Character and actually joins in fighting, mainly using super-strong punches and kicks and acting as a healer. Mina still has the bracelet (it actually can't come off at all) and needs to be nearby in order for Rodney and Harmony's powers to work. I have not come up with what Rodney's hero name would be.

Anyway, the game depicts the events of a particularly large Stain attack, this one being an invasion of the whole city, but other than the larger workload it'd be a fairly normal day (since by this point the three of them are more-or-less used to this since it's been a few months) if not for someone new joining the fray. It turns out that Harmony isn't the only Spirit in town, because we're introduced to the Champion of Storms, Thunderbird, and her Spirit partner Zap. Thunderbird has weather control powers, usually favoring lightning, and has a strange transforming mechanical construct that she uses both as a weapon and mobility aid, usually mechanical wings, giant electrified gauntlets, or supersonic skates. She's fighting the stain too, but has apparently decided to start a rivalry with Rodney's team instead of working with them just 'cause. Also, when her machine isn't in Skate Mode it's revealed that she has a translucent magical construct in place of her right leg.

She's eventually revealed to be Hazel O'Brien, one of Mina's classmates. The machine is her wheelchair, which transformed along with her because why wouldn't it?

Interestingly, Connected Cosmos Company were the ones who made the game, and also the ones who came up with Hazel and her Thunderbird persona. However, due to the terms of the licensing agreement the comic's creator owns the rights to the character, and has made sure that the specific designer in CCC who made her gets the royalties for the character being used in the comic (because the game is canon to the comic and Hazel's now a major character), rather than the company as a whole. She's the one character created by CCC that Jayin doesn't own, and I like to think that grates on her, especially because she can't do anything about it without damaging her company's carefully cultivated reputation.

Anyway, as far as the MRU stuff goes, there is one odd quirk about Rodney's Anchor Status: due to only his Champion Form being playable, his Anchor code is dormant in his normal form. Thankfully this doesn't cause problems for the Meme Cycle or the universe's stability, and it doesn't have the same negative effects as actively suppressing his Anchor Tendencies would. It does, however, make it so his Champion form has a different personality (bubbly airhead with occasional violent tendencies) than his normal form, which is very much Not A Thing in canon.

[crowroboros]

kinda tired of always seeing the "waaah Zelda lore and the timeline is so confusing/messy!!"

not really!! you're just inattentive !!

A lot of the connections are either directly stated in the games (Like LoZ 1 and 2. OoT, MM, TP, and WW. WW, PH, and ST, etc) or through meta connections (like how to avoid religious references, Triforce of the Gods was renamed to A Link to the Past because it was written to take place before the events of Zelda 1 and 2 and then A Link Between Worlds getting the name Triforce of the Gods 2 in Japan cause it is a distant sequel to ALttP). Like come on y'all, just pay attention. A full timeline could be formed without looking at the official one ONLY using information in the games and chances are you'd be mostly right.

"Oooah!! but Ganon??!! how does he keep coming back??" Literally always gets explained in games. OoT was his first appearance, Adult timeline: he is sealed away in OoT. breakes free of said seal using the Triforce of Power between OoT and WW (literally stated in the prologue of WW). He is then killed in WW. Child Timeline: OoT is prevented by Link being sent back in time (which we see at the fucking end of OoT) sealed in the Twilight Realm, killed in Twilight Princess. Downfall Timeline, sealed in the Sacred Realm during the sealing war, breaks free of seal in ALttP, killed in ALttP, resurrected in the Oracle games, terrorizes Hyrule in ALBW and LoZ1 and is killed in LoZ 1 like FUCK it is literally shown in the events of the damn games. pay attention!!

Half the shit I see that you all are confused about is due to your own misunderstandings, either cause you didn't understand what was being said or because you just missed it and came up with some interpretation so off base that of course it would confuse you when trying to fit it into the series at large. And half of these misunderstandings wouldn't even be a thing if yall were open to being wrong and changing your interpretation. but alas that's not what we see, instead you blame the games.

No, most of the Ganon appearances aren't different Ganons. they're all OoT Ganon(dorf) EXCEPT FSA Ganondorf cause OoT Ganondorf is killed in and isn't resurrected but rather reincarnated (as FSA Ganondorf). FSA and its manual even states how Shadow Link is created from the Dark Mirror giving form to FSA Ganon's hatred of a Link who killed him in a past life. Of course it has to be after one of the times OoT Ganondorf is killed for good like how are you all stumbling over this??

No, Zelda doesn't get reincarnated unlike Link. All Zelda's are descendants from each other, but they're not the same person or soul.

NO not all Zelda's are incarnations of Hylia, ONLY SKYWARD SWORD ZELDA IS! They share a blood connection to her through SS Zelda, but they themselves are not Hylia.

No, Twilight Princess isn't a Wind Waker retcon idk how anyone is even coming to that conclusion?? Zelda in OoT makes it VERY clear that Link being sent back seven years and closing the door of time will separate the past and future of OoT, meaning that whatever he does in the past (the child era) won't affect the future already created (the adult era). like this is dialogue said in OoT, read what is being said I'm BEGGING you.

While we're talking about the timeline split...

The Downfall Timeline makes complete sense. Do I think it was what they intended when writing OoT? No. Definitely not. I don't even think they conceptualized it until 2002 or so. But its clear that once they wrote Wind Waker that they realized that the story of the Sealing War matches OoT better (which if you remember, OoT is meant to tell the story leading up to the Sealing War.) in a timeline where Link fails to stop Ganondorf. Otherwise Wind Waker and Twilight Princess wouldn't have been written to explicitly follow the adult and child endings of OoT. As the prologue of ALttP states, Ganondorf entered the Sacred Realm, raged war against Hyrule, becomes the Demon King Ganon using the complete Triforce and was sealed away in the Sacred Realm by the Seven Sages. That doesn't line up with either of the endings we explicitly see in OoT but it sure as hell lines up with what Ganondorf said he'd do if you lose the fight at the top of Ganon's Tower. Yall act like the downfall timeline is some massive horrible failure of writing when its really just the most logical conclusion of what is presented in the games. Never in OoT does Ganondorf obtain the full Triforce. his whole goal in the second half is to kill Link and take the Triforce from him and Zelda. The Seven Sages are there to seal him away, the Sacred Realm is open and has been corrupted by Ganondorf's influence. Hyrule was been ravaged by war. Ganondorf hasn't transformed into the Demon King Ganon yet. Almost everything lines up for the Sealing War, Link just needs to die for it to 100% work because Ganondorf doesn't have the complete Triforce. And he won't get the full Triforce if you win against him. How are you gonna argue that it makes more sense and matches ALttP better if Link wins?

And I've seen way too many people calling TotK a BotW retcon cause of Ganondorf's existence?? Even saw one guy on twitter somehow under the impression that TotK was a prequel? as of the entire game hasn't been advertised as taking place 5+ years after BotW? As if the Castle and Castle Town isn't in ruin? All because Ganondorf is there in human form? Guys, Calamity Ganon is nothing more than Ganondorf's power and hatred leaking from his body as he and Rauru rot underground. Calamity Ganon is essentially the physical embodiment of TotK Ganondorf's goals enacting his will while he remains imprisoned. This is made so clear in his in-game character profile, which also makes it clear that he only broke free of Rauru's seal on him due to the extreme earthquakes and damage that the Calamity caused. It was also fucking obvious ever since the 2019 trailer. This was spoonfed to us and some of yall still missed it? Seriously?

The ONLY extreme oddity in the overarching lore is how BotW and TotK fit in beyond "it's at the end", but even that has a few solid possibilities and isn't anywhere near as egregious as people want to make it out to be. You all want to talk about how you love theorizing and shit but are completely incapable of having a theory deeper than "botw/totk Link and Zelda are romantically involved!!!!"

(^not a dig at zelink at all, I'm just saying that a lot of you so called theorists only try your hand at "theories" that are so strongly implied that they're practically canon rather than trying to solve actual mysteries and questions. you don't want to do any research into the lore and try to piece shit together. something will be even the smallest bit ambiguous and you all tap out)

There's more but fuck I'm not looking to scour the internet to disprove every damn misconception and mistake.

Do I think they planned everything since the beginning? of fucking course not. this is a series with 20 canon games at this point and more on the way. there is absolutely no chance all of this was conceptualized 37 years ago. All im saying is that the overarching lore and connections that have been weaved over the course of nearly four decades isn't the clusterfuck that a lot of you try to paint it as.

[francostrider]

The Lost Culture of Handhelds

I got my Gameboy Color for my birthday in 1999. It was a bit late as far as that handheld went with the Game Boy Advance just a year or two away, but it was not an uneventful time. Pokemon Gold was coming out soon, Link’s Awakening DX was released the year prior, and Nintendo was riding high after notable titles, especially The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in ‘98. And as is often the case for a late comer, I had an extensive library to choose from for my Xmas and birthday lists, from Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2 to Bionic Commando.

But even at the time I did not realize the impact that birthday gift would have in the years to come. I am the youngest of three brothers, and we were close in age. As a result, while I did still enjoy my console games, we were still dividing TV time between the three of us. So, when the TV was occupied, my gameboy was readily available. While the middle child also got a GBC, handhelds were always more my thing than anyone else in the household.

By its name, Game “Boy” has a rather diminutive connotation. This wasn’t for the big games, surely. This is the stuff on the side, while the bigger games were doing their bigger graphics and bigger presentations. Where there was Ocarina of Time, the handheld had the smaller Link’s Awakening.

In a manner of speaking, this was sort of true. There were a lot of side stories and spin offs on the hand helds. The aforementioned  Mega Man Xtreme 1 & 2 was typically forgotten in the main line Mega Man X games (except for X6, of all games), and Link’s Awakening was carrying on Zelda’s tradition of weird spin offs to their main event games (such as Majora’s Mask). And, of course, these games were made at lower costs than anything on consoles.

But this was not just the diet coke version of gaming. Pokemon was strictly a hand held title, save for some addons like Pokemon Stadium or spin offs like Snap!. Several series were exclusive and expected to be handheld. This was not the usual casual game you see on phones nowadays. The GBA would have Boktai, a game specifically designed to be carried outside in the sunlight as part of its core gameplay.

In fact, the Game Boy Advanced is where, for myself at least, things really got off the ground. This is where Castlevania continued its Metroidvania style games (and which introduced me to the series). A whole sequel series to Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, was released on this platform. The west was more formally introduced to Fire Emblem through Eliwood’s game on here. There was Golden Sun, an RPG which mixed turn based combat and Zelda like puzzles, and even had a system to carry on levels, inventory and other information to its sequel, much like a Bioware game. Metroid’s main series was carried on through Fusion. And, because I would not forgive myself if I forgot, we had Ninja Five-O, a great game that was in stores for about two minutes before being pulled from shelves.

Besides Golden Sun and Ninja Five-O were these mainline games in their respective franchises? Well, that’s an interesting question. Two Castlevania games were released on the PS2, but are often considered inferior to their GBA counterparts. Mega Man X on the PS2 suffered a similar legacy, next to Zero and Battle Network. Fire Emblem would have Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, which was well received, but the series would continue to shine on handhelds, through the 3DS era and into Three Houses. Metroid Prime is often considered superior to Fusion, but Prime is also in a weird position of spin off/separate continuity.

But on the other side of the coin, the GBA would break a lot of traditions from the main line series. Only one of the three Castlevania games would star a Belmont, and none of them played like the original games. Mega Man Zero was an action platformer, but is far less defined by the classic tradition of stealing a boss’s powers. Fire Emblem on the GBA had nothing to do with Marth or the other areas around Archenea.

So, while it would be unfair to brush these handhelds as “side content”, they were often breaks from form. They were a lot more experimental within the already established franchises that were released on these platforms. And not just the established names either. The aforementioned Boktai did things only a handheld could do.

But it’s not just experimentation that defined this subculture of gaming. With the push to 3D in the PS1 to PS2 era, allowing for more cinematic presentations (such as Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid), the GBA was still using 2D gameplay and graphics. While the GBA was a graphical improvement over the GBC, they were still not where the biggest budget was going toward. So, with less time and effort toward cutscenes, the hand helds were very gameplay focused.

This is telling in Golden Sun. This game was meant to invoke the RPGs of the SNES, but it does not take long at all to get to the meat of the game, between its puzzles and its combat. Mega Man Zero basically throws you into the action after a very short cutscene. The Castlevania games take a precious few moments to exstablish setting and characters before your first enemy encounter. While Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, and Final Fantasy were spending a lot of time with their cutscenes, the Game Boy Advance often cut to the chase.

The lower costs also led to a larger library and more frequent releases. Mega Man Zero had an overarching story across four games with yearly releases. Each of the three Castlevania games were released fairly close to each other and had their own twists on the formula, and three more would be released for DS. Across three handheld platforms (GBA, DS and 3DS), Fire Emblem had 8 releases. Fire Emblem Fates (that mess) had three whole game length scenarios and was released only a year before the much superior, more narratively consistent Fire Emblem Echoes. Meanwhile, the Switch only had one, and there is talk of the console being retired soon. And these are just the ones I was into. I haven’t even mentioned the many Mario, Yoshi and other properties that were released here. The turnover rate for quite a number of series’ was remarkably quick. 

This mix of lower costs, freedom to experiment, and immediacy granted handhelds their own culture in the gaming world. Before the indy-game market took flight, this was the place to find the smaller titles that were low on presentation but dedicated to their gameplay loops. While 3D graphics would be introduced a generation later, this culture carried on. The DS would introduce a touch screen, exploring more avenues for controls and options. Castlevania would carry on through this platform, and Mega Man Zero would get a sequel series in ZX. While the Wii had an overall mixed legacy, the DS was still carrying on what we loved about hand helds.

And then things started to change during the 3DS era. Now, let me start by saying that some of my favorite titles are on this platform. While I did get Eliwood’s game when it came out, it wasn’t until after playing Awakening did I go through the whole series and fell in love with it. Fates sullied that a bit, but Echoes redeemed that so fair’s fair. I loved Shinobi 3D, it introduced me to Monster Hunter, and this is where the series would get a lot of its success.

But here’s where things changed. The 3DS was also a major system for remakes and rereleases. Two Dragon Quest games were rereleased. We had the remakes of Fire Emblem Gaiden and Metroid II. Xenoblade Chronicles would get a release here after its Wii tenure. And there was also a very active Virtual Console (and the rerelease of many much older games) on this system through its store. A lot of ports, but not a lot of new exclusives. Castlevania really went downhill during this time, and Megaman basically imploded due to a lot of internal drama, resulting in the suddenly cancelled Megaman Legends 3. Those are two major forces that had made the handhelds fun with very little to show during this generation. There were the first party games, but the third party I fell in love with had little to show.

Now, I loved Dragon Quest VIII, the rereleases and so much about the 3DS. The immediacy was still there. But it was a point where things started to converge. Suddenly, there was very little limiting a handheld as graphical fidelity became more accessible on smaller systems. More and more gaming was digital only, and the divide was slowly melting away. I used to think that the DS was a transitional period, but, no, that honor went to the 3DS.

And then we had the release of the Switch, and the two worlds had truly met. There was no more divide between Nintendo’s main line and the experimental. The line is two blurred with the switch acting as both console and handheld. This begs the question: Has the culture truly been lost?

Before I try to answer this, I am trying not to be a nostalgia blinded downer. There are games I am looking forward to, of today and yesteryear and I don’t think the medium will ever truly die. It has its ups and downs, like all other mediums.

The immediacy has remained intact. Breath of the Wild is notable for cutting through console-Zelda’s endless tutorials and throwing you into the action. As did Metroid Dread. But Fire Emblem: Three Houses has added a lot of unnecessary fluff and I not would call it a step forward. But overall, I feel that the massive wad of tutorials and long intro cutscenes had been downsized in favor of more immersive, elegant ways of easing a player in.

With the indy game market now the way it is, the Switch does have a larger third party than a number of its predecessors. The Switch store is becoming like steam with the number of indy titles that come in. And, yes, they are gameplay focused, lower budget affairs.

But what really changed is what the major publishers are doing. And this does not just apply to hand helds. The major publishers are not as willing to do smaller projects as before. There are indy projects and major releases, but the middle class is basically gone.

Example: While Breath of the Wild has a sequel on the way, I do not see another Link’s Awakening, Link Between Worlds, Phantom Hourglass, Minish Cap or other small experimental game coming to the series anytime soon. Yes, Majora’s Mask was one of the more interesting Zelda titles, but there was still a difference between that and Link’s Awakening. Too much money goes into a release from a major publisher to indulge the weirder projects.

But it would be unfair to say that the current audience is deprived. It’s not so much that games of these sizes are gone. Instead, its more that the landscape has changed. The barrier to access for indies has basically diminished. Where you would need a major publisher before, all you need is knowledge and expertise to get something out there. It is a flooded market, granted and the meritocracy has its ups and downs. But search long enough for a given genre and you’ll find something you’re looking for. 

And while Nintendo might not be as interested in small projects, the middle ground budgets are not entirely vacant. Kickstarter has had a mixed history, but things like Bloodstained captured that era very well. While the times are fraught with looter shooters, skinner boxes, and the toxic side of gaming, there is still a demand for various other genres. So, no, the culture is not lost, just transformed. Like how the internet has dispersed cultural norms from what was being enforced by TV, it has done the same to gaming.

It is hard to describe in words why I feel the end of the classic hand helds when, objectively, access to games has never been easier. Yes, I will admit it is mostly nostalgia. But the point of this article is not to decry the downfall of gaming (even if I have my own gripes on the current state of things). Rather, it is to give a perspective on a specific subculture in gaming history. It is to give light upon a era that the youngest of us had never even seen. And, perhaps, give a little context for the path of how gaming got to this point now. I could go over the whys and hows, but those are subjects in and of themselves.

There’s probably a number of kids in the back of their parents’ cars, on a switch with a brand new game they got for Christmas. And they’re hopefully not going through it with the same stigma against them as my generation. And, honestly, good on em!

Thank you for indulging me on this nostalgia trip. Happy Holidays!

[sailorsnightmare]

When and where does Hyrule take place in TOTK?

Spoiler warning for the game below (I haven’t finished it yet, just got through all the memories)

We’re back in the era of “how the fuck does the Zelda timeline work” again and I’m here to contribute as I’m just as confused as the rest of you

I finished the Tears of the Dragon quest a few days ago (I feel no joy anymore) and its been making me question when exactly, or even where exactly, Sonia and Rauru’s Hyrule takes place.

I’ve got two very messy ideas:

First, their Hyrule takes place a few generations after Skyward Sword. I personally theorize Sonia is a descendant of Skyward Sword’s Link and Zelda if this were its placement in the timeline but I’m not exactly sold on it being around this time period. In Skyward Sword, we saw the zora begin to evolve, compared to how they resemble the modern zora in TOTK. Not to mention the Rito’s presence within the memories in general, who we know evolved far later on from the Zora due to Wind Waker. Were Hyrule’s first founding to have taken place after Skyward Sword, Hyrule itself wouldn’t have been established for hundreds to even thousands of years after the people of Skyloft began to settle upon the surface again, not to mention the time it takes for a species to evolve to the extent shown in the memories. Is it possible? Sure, but it just doesn’t sit right with me. There’s also Zelda herself, who we know transformed herself into an immortal dragon to restore the master sword for Link in the far far distant future. Were Sonia and Rauru’s Hyrule to have been established after Skyward Sword, there would have had to be two master sword’s present at the same time: one following the original zelda timeline and the other held by the light dragon herself. This is the only way I could think of the following games working out with this addition to the timeline and the master sword’s new placement (and extreme damage).

Second, it takes place after all the previous games but before Breath of the Wild. For this, it would have had to take place significantly before what was present in the tapestry 10,000 years ago. My thoughts for this follow what’s present in Wind Waker and it’s following sequels. Hyrule itself has a history of kinda collapsing into ruin during the destined fights between Link, Zelda and Ganon. A few examples of this being whatever the hell happened in the “hero remained in the future” timeline from Ocarina of Time, Hyrule castle literally exploding in Twilight Princess, and most importantly to this point, Hyrule itself being completely submerged in water in Wind Waker. As shown in Wind Waker’s era, Hyrule itself moved! Immigration to another land and the establishment of the same kingdom, just not within the same area, is possible. I feel as if Sonia and Rauru being recorded as the first king and queen of Hyrule within history doesn’t actually mean they’re the first of the first. They very well could be the first king and queen of the newly established Hyrule rather than being the first overall. I feel this idea makes a bit more sense as it falls more in line with each species evolution, land establishments, and even how there can only be one master sword present at a given time.

I haven’t gone through and analyzed the rest of the games again to make this theory more sound, so I very well could have missed something I couldn’t remember off the top of my head. If anyone else has anything else to add or any new ideas in general, I’d love to hear them!

[thetrueshan-blog]

My long winded thoughts on BOTW before TOTK

So TOTK (The legend of Zelda: Tears of the kingdom) comes out next friday. I am 100% going to get it. It’s a zelda game after all. In fact a rare time nintendo ever does a direct sequel in the zelda franchise. I believe Majora’s Mask was the only ever direct sequel to a game (I mean at least in the sense of continuing pretty close to the previous game anyways). There is also Spirit Tracks.

Full spoilers for BOTW btw.

So, I’ve been thinking about BOTW a lot these last few weeks. I’ve enjoyed the game for the most part when it first came out but I slowly grew to resent certain parts of it. This culminated until I could only remember the parts I hated, versus the parts that I liked.

So, to see if my feeling of hate for BOTW were true or just false memories, over the last 2 weeks I played through BOTW again. Not a 100% playthrough (I’m not that insane) but just enough to finish the 4 guardians, get the master sword, and beat gannon. It took me around 28 hours. And overall I would say I enjoyed my time with the game. Though I will say at the end of my playtime I was starting to feel done with the game again. I was ready for it to be over. My first play through took around 80 or so hours. And I recall being even more sick and tired of BOTW back then, then I do now.

I’ll be honest here. I have a lot of gripes with BOTW. It feels like a tech demo to me in a lot of ways. But still I come out of the experience having enjoyed it for the most part. I don’t like to give numbered reviews, but I would say it’s a solid game. Game play is great but story was a bit lacking. Though there were some parts that could have been better refined.

That was the short summary. What follows is some of my more in depth ramblings(?) of BOTW.

0. My background with the game

BOTW came out as the first nintendo switch game in march of 2017. If you were getting a switch on launch, you were basically getting it to play BOTW. In fact I can even tell you the exact time I picked up my copy of BOTW since I still have my receipt. March 3rd, 2017 at 12:08 pm from a cashier named Joseph apparently. Thanks Joseph. March of 2017 was an interesting time for me. I was a senior in high school. Wrapping on my high school studies while also taking some college classes at the nearby community college. It was a transition period for me. For that I will always remember BOTW as a part of that transition period. It was the time for my hopes for college after high school and hopes for better stuff from nintendo after the WiiU era (Though I was a little more focused on the college part). Since then it’s actually been just over 6 years. I now have finished college and work full time. So it’s been interesting watching the switch transition from the “BOTW console” to the switch we now know in early 2023. For better or worse. There’s been rumors for years now about the switch Pro. But I doubt that will happen anytime time soon.

Anyways enough about my self. Back to my gripes about BOTW.

1. The English Voice Acting

The very first thing you hear in this game is Zelda telling link to “Open your eyes”. This is one of the few if ever zelda games to incorporate voice acting into a Zelda game. And boy do I wish they hadn’t. Oh geez the voice acting in this game. It’s not necessarily bad. But I just can’t get behind it. The english voice acting varies wildly. It’s either really forced or actually pretty good. Unfortunately most of the voice acting sounds so forced and rigid. The main issue I have is with Zelda’s voiced lines. She sounds like she’s forcing herself to be British so badly. I wouldn’t mind this except Zelda’s voice is the one you will most likely hear for the majority of the game. I know others have issues with the voice acting as well so I won’t linger on this point too much, but the voice acting being as jarring for me as it is might explain a bit for my disdain for Zelda’s character.

Speaking of -

2. Zelda and her one character trait (Aka the story of BOTW)

I never really go into a Zelda game expecting the best story. There are games with some highlights of course. Majora’s Mask and dealing with the impossible, Skyward Sword’s hints of Romance, Wind Waker’s story of old grudges and Twighlight Princess with Midna to name a few. But I wouldn’t put BOTW’s story in that list.

BOTW’s story is fine. It’s serviceable really. However it could be told instantly in 20 minutes. For those that haven’t played BOTW. The main way to get story in BOTW is through flashback sequences. What’s bad about this kind of story telling is the fact that the player has to hunt these out themselves. But the player could find these in any order. Which means the flashbacks have to have a constant retelling of events from other flashbacks. This leads to a lot of the flashbacks feeling boring or just overall disjointed. I remember watching so many of them and thinking “Didn’t I already see something like this?” Only to see that it’s something just slightly different but with all the same story beats.

The main crux of the story in BOTW is how Zelda fails to live up to her legendary purpose. She’s supposed to be a decedent from the goddess Hylia and have the power to seal “the calamity” away. But Zelda never really understood how to control or even feel these powers. As the one and only mentor she had, her mother, died when she was young. So as Zelda feels she can’t rely on these powers she seeks other methods to potentially help prevent the calamity in the forms of the guardians and shiekah technology dating back 10,000 years ago (BTW keep an eye on this fact of 10,000 years ago, I think TOTK is going to be about this, maybe with some time travel shenanigans). Ultimately this backfires on everyone though when the calamity takes over all the shiekah technology and wreaks havoc on everything. Including killing all 4 of the guardians, nearly killing Link, and damages the master sword greatly. This is a tragic tale about how a girl couldn’t live up to the literal god like expectation thrown onto her.

But... as I mentioned before, you get all that info I just gave in a paragraph over something like 15-16 flashbacks that are scattered throughout the game. If this was given out as a main linear story I don’t think I would be as harsh on it. But it’s so hard to relate to a character’s tragedy when I 1) can’t stand the voice acting, 2) can’t tell when events were supposed to happen and 3) grow sick and tired about hearing how Zelda couldn’t fulfill her end of the legend. I get that’s the point of the game. Zelda finally has her powers and has been holding gannon back for like 100 years just in time for Link to be resurrected again. (Which BTW I kinda hate the fact that Zelda is still alive. I would have much preferred if she was a ghost like the other guardians.) But the end resolve of the story is the fact that Zelda now has her powers and seals gannon away (to the sacred realm?) at the end of the game. However you don’t even get that as a satisfying conclusion because -

3. The worst timing for an ending

The game just ends after you beat the final boss. You do not get to enjoy the world in peace. You do not get to hear people being thankful to you. You do not get to pass Go. You do not get to collect $200.

I understand that most Zelda games don’t have a post-game. Heck I can’t even think of one that does. Most of the time, Zelda games end when there is no more evil to conquer over. Makes sense in a lot of ways. However, the end beat to what little of a story we get in BOTW is the fact that Zelda now can use her powers and stops Gannon with Link. And we get that for like a minnute or two? It just didn’t feel satisfying to me. Like imagine there’s an post game content where Link guides Zelda to kakoriko village and Zelda then sleeps till TOTK because she must be exhausted and never really slept for like 100 years. Bam! Now you have the rest of the game to still explore as post-game content. Instead the game just reverts you back to your last save before going into the final boss arena but gives you a little star sticker on your save file for doing your best. What?! That’s it?!

With BOTW being a giant open world game I think Nintendo dropped the ball a bit by having no post game. Which now seeing that TOTK is going to be a direct sequel I can kinda understand why BOTW has no post game content. But I wonder if TOTK is just going to make BOTW feel like a prelude story. Like something that can be skipped with a quick summary on a fan wiki page or something.

But I’m getting side tracked. See, this is the pure reason I wanted to write this before TOTK came out. My opinion is already changing on BOTW because I know TOTK might *MIGHT* fix some of the story issues I had with BOTW.

4. Quick List of complaints I had in some way of the Game Play

Alright now with most of the complaints I had with the story out of the way I will now quick fire my complaints I had with the game play I noted while replaying:

Durability system is wack. I get what they were going for, but it does seem weird that weapons can break so easily and fast.

Rain stops all exploring if you need to climb. It’s just not fun.

Combat feels slow and clunky. Never really got a hang of it.

No passive upgrades to anything except to health and stamina.

Dungeons are neat. But way too small and I wish the guardians didn’t speak during them. Just let me bask in a cool place nintendo. Stop talking my ear off.

Shrines all feel the same. Also randomly the walls aren’t climbable in shrines? Just put barriers to stop link from climbing on them.

No themes in shrines or dungeons. They all look the same. At least the music is different in the dungeons at least.

There is no way to see the durability of weapons until it is about to break.

You cannot get a full set of hearts and stamina. You will always be missing one. (this might have been fixed in the DLC?)

If an enemy can guard your attack then you can’t damage it until you break their stance. Even if they are facing away from you.

Koroks... so many koroks... but eh kind of a pro/con situation. Don’t need to worry about getting them all, but at the same time feels so boring getting them.

Blood moons. Freaking blood moons. They appear at the worst times.

Thunder blight fight. I have no idea why this one fight is so hard compared to the rest. Each blight and including the final boss I beat all on the first try. With thunder blight I died like 15-20 times on. It’s just tough as nails. You need to dodge instantly otherwise you get hit so badly. Like here’s a link to me beating it: click here. It’s by far the hardest boss in the game for me.

If something needs to re-charge (master sword, or guardian powers) it needs to fully deplete before re-charging. Which is a bit annoying.

It’s the tiny things that bug me about BOTW’s gameplay. Overall I love it. It has some great moments to it. When you get in the zone and just start wandering around is the best time in BOTW. Until it starts raining anyways lol.

5. Cartoony Nature (no not the artstyle)

Yeah not the artstyle. I actually really like the art style in BOTW. What I don’t like are the random bits of cartoony or goofy bits, practically everywhere in the game. Of course I don’t mean literally everywhere, but it starts to become such an issue that I start expecting there to be a non-serious moment or gag everywhere I go. Like the biggest example I can recall of this is the Yiga clan leader. When you're doing the guerdo divine beast quests. You have to steal back the thunder helm from the yiga clan. Which is a decent stealth mission where if you are caught and hit you die instantly no matter your stats. But it turns out the yiga clan is crazy for bananas. So you can use those to lure guards in certain directions. A bit goofy but also works mechanically. So you're going through through all of it. And finally get to the end. Where you have to face against the yiga clan leader. Are they a huge brute that leads with power? Or are they a smart quiet like assassin? Nope. He's just a dude with a big pot belly and goofy antics. You don't even do the final blow on him. He summons a giant metal ball that pushes him into a pit and kills him.

Like that's a memorable interaction. And is pretty funny. But it's also like a giant let down? Like what was the joke? The leader is so incompetent that he ends up ending the fight by himself, even though his followers are so good that they stole the thunder helm without the geurdo guards noticing? I think I would have preferred if the fight was a legit serious one but you could still distract him with throwing bananas around. And then eventually ending the fight by something weird like accidentally blowing a hole in a wall revealing a giant horde of bananas that you can then trap him in forever or something.

Again this is fine mostly. It's just most of the game's tone is like this. Unless it's talking about the calamity. Everything else is some weird goofy thing that happens. It's not bad just gets dull after putting in a lot of hours into the game. I'd prefer if the goofier moments were more sparse.

6. The Unneeded DLC

I know some will disagree with me on this but I thought the DLC was neat. But really felt like something that should've been included with the base game and not extra dlc. The rewards weren't that great as well. Just lower times on the champion's powers and the mastercycle (which controls really badly. The turn radius is so bad and slow). But what really didn't help was at the end of the dlc zelda still yaps to link about how he's the only one who can defeat the calamity and has shown that he can. And it's not like I already did that or anything.

So overall the dlc was neat and a bit challenging, but yeah not really something I would say people need to do or finish. All it does is give some flashbacks of the champions. But not even like new developments but scenes you can pretty much guess that happened from knowing other stuff.

7. The Romance I Don’t See And Memories Forgotten

I see a lot of people talk about the romance between Zelda and Link in this game... and I just don’t see it. And yes, before you ask I have read the entries in Zelda’s Diary. But I don’t see that as a sign of them having feelings for each other. I see that as a sign that Zelda had feelings for Link. Whether Link had feelings for Zelda or not is not something I can tell. The main factor for me is Mipha. I always saw that Mipha and Link shared a bond together. I would agree that Zelda has feelings for Link, but I always thought Link had feelings for Mipha not Zelda.

But beyond that lies a question of whether or not the Link we play as in BOTW could be considered the return of the Link that Zelda and Mipha knew. He lost his memories after all. He does recall a good amount. But even if he recalls events happening it could be argued that Link is a different person now. Which might be possible to get a good answer from it if Link wasn’t mute the whole game. Wait... he does speak. Just not to us the player. Hell we even choose some dialogue options for him. What the heck Link? Just tell us what’s on your mind man.

Eh, whatever. I sure in TOTK we will get a definitive answer to if Link X Zelda in BOTW is real or not. I’m sure the game is just going to go that way anyways. To my dismay. Also the real ship is Paya X Link. Since the feesh is now dead I guess >:(. Thanks Nintendo. Always removing the fish love from the Zelda games.

8. Conclusion

So there’s my long winded thoughts. Some of these might look familiar to my friends as some I took some of the text directly from my discussions with them.

I might have had a lot of negative stuff to say about BOTW. But I still had fun with it. The biggest gripes I had were with the story and some unrefined moments in the game play. Hopefully TOTK will improve on this a bit. But I’m still expecting pretty much the same. An overall fun time, but with some gripes.

[easternmind]

Pocket prayer book of youth

I possess neither the will nor the resolve to contest the assertion that the original THE LEGEND OF ZELDA is - and will assuredly remain - the superior entry from among the vast and varied compendium of creations which constitute videogame’s most hallowed and perennial franchise. Where early entries in similarly longstanding intellectual properties may deserve recognition for presciently paving the road to the confirmed greatness of its sequels, this very first glimpse of Hyrule already carried with it the complete spectrum of the series’s identity. Yet for all the unassailable merits of this, the action role playing game paradigm of the ages, it was its portable counterpart which came to constitute an enduring chapter of my life in games; of which I keep memories so precise and so vivid, the emotions elicited by them far outmatch the descriptive competence of my meagre vocabulary.

Some context is thus required to adequately set the scene. Readers of advanced years should be at an advantage here, having lived through these times when access to emerging technologies was fettered, either as a result of a stagnant economy and ensuing low purchasing power; or as the consequence of a poorly interconnected geography characterised by varying degrees of access to products and services. We find ourselves transported back to a moment in history when the vast majority of households owned but a single television, imperatively situated in the common room. The highly coveted access to screen time was, itself, the object of truculent negotiation among family members. Accordingly, my generation’s instant fascination with the fledgling domains of pocket electronic gaming was not in the least fortuitous. The untapped degrees of liberty permitted by these often shoddily manufactured, gaudy and strident machines were tantamount to a lifeboat rescue from the sinking vessel of dysfunctional households.

But therein lied the rub. For most of my childhood, the notion of portable game play was synonymous with an initial sense of excitement and novelty, soon followed by the dismaying apprehension of how lean, how finite their content was. In retrospect, it would be no exaggeration to affirm the emergence of the Game Boy as one of the most significant technological advancements of the not so distant era. Reductive and deficient assessments of the day place this phenomenon in lines parallel to what role the Walkman played for music listening, misguided perhaps by the parallel operation of interchangeable cassette tapes. A closer inspection should place it nearer to the introduction of the pocket transistorised radio from the mid-twentieth century, in that it first permitted music and radio programming to be accessed from virtually any location, at a safe distance from the quarrels of the living room.

My deep-seated infatuation for LINK’S AWAKENING cannot be dissevered from my obeisance for the system itself, the former representing the most carefully weaved and delightfully balanced specimen of what the latter’s five by four centimetre dot matrix with stereo sound could possibly offer. What few full-screen animated frames could be fitted into the tiny cartridge made for a spectacular opening I seldom skipped. The ever-expanding scale of the world therein played the thousand tricks with my mind, the console feeling increasingly heavier every time I stored it in my schoolbag or coat pockets. Inexplicably, it lived and breathed the same as LINK TO THE PAST, the monochromatic scale only further highlighting the stylish contours of Arimoto’s (et al) endearing artwork.

More importantly, it was where it dared parting ways with the canon where the tiny cartridge was at its most effulgent; for this was a project whose guiding principles were founded on a reductive design approach seeking to confuse and amaze the player by renouncing the very elements and symbols that had thus far categorised the former trilogy - the Triforce, Hyrule, or the fabled princess herself. Standing in for them was a bold new iconography: a gigantic egg resting atop a mountain, a circular assemblage of eight noble instruments from the ancient world, the indecipherable runes etched in stone, evoking the myth of a flying whale clothed in majestic naperons and of a talking owl not what it seemed.

LINK’S AWAKENING was as the proverbial dream within a dream. Whether I chose to play it in the park sitting on a bench, or standing by door of a classroom during school recess, I was all the while befuddled by the seeming impossibility of it all; that a machine smaller than most books I’d known had the capacity to elicit such an intense sentiment of déplacement, my surroundings barely holding together, wholly eclipsed by the signals emanating from its ghostly grid of liquid crystals. What wonders unfolded before my wide eyes of youth were perceived as an encounter with the transcendental.

[thezeldapagan]

Ganondorf as the Repressed Shadow

In my previous post I made connections between the dragons of Tears of the Kingdom and three aspects of the self: the unconscious, the conscious/outward, and the higher self. I am by no means a psychologist or otherwise a mental health professional, but I do find psychological frameworks helpful in my spiritual path, as I don’t see how the two can really be separated. When serving a deity, or finding a deity within yourself, or striving to make the world a better place through a spiritual path, I consider it imperative to also be tending to your own personal struggles and showing yourself the same love and care that you do to those around you.

With that in mind, I did want to further this discussion of the self by looking specifically at Ganondorf’s role in TotK, and how he serves as an example of what can happen when we neglect our unconscious self.

Again I note that spoilers galore are ahead!

As previously noted, the unconscious self in general is represented by the realm of the Depths. As an area visited and inhabited by all the ancient races of Hyrule, the Depths are a fairly neutral area, just one that happens to be underground and out of sight. As a symbol of the unconscious self, the Depths are home to what Jung called the Shadow, the parts of ourselves that we are unaware of or that we ignore because they don’t align with how we see our conscious selves. Ignoring the Shadow can lead to an array of issues within the conscious self, and an important aspect of Jungian psychology is acknowledging and accepting one’s Shadow so that it can integrate with the conscious self.

In the era of the wild, Ganondorf emerges as Hyrule’s collective Shadow.

The Origins of Shadow Ganondorf

As we learn in TotK, Rauru was not successful in eradicating Ganondorf after his uprising in the ancient past, so instead he sealed Ganondorf away within the Depths using his light power, basically putting a Band-Aid on the situation with the full knowledge that future generations would eventually have to deal with his decision. So Ganondorf has been lurking in the subconscious realm of the Depths for millenia, held physically in place by Rauru’s magic. We learn that his existence was purposely hidden from the kingdom by building Hyrule Castle over the location of his imprisonment, and Zelda mentions in the opening scene that subsequent generations of the royal family were told never to go below the castle.

The imprisoning of Ganondorf became the darkest secret of Hyrule, and it was so well hidden that it eventually became entirely forgotten. So the royal family in this case acts much like the conscious self, suppressing the unsavory bits of history and hoping for the best. As we learn, though, absolutely nothing was solved by leaving Ganondorf in the Depths, as he still manages to cause problems on the surface such as the Calamity Ganon in BotW and the spreading of Gloom prior to the opening of TotK.  His dark energy continues to leak through because he was merely suppressed, not destroyed. It was not until the events of TotK and Link’s journey through the game that allows for a resolution.

Link’s Journey through the Three Selves

Like the three elemental dragons as previously discussed, Link’s journey brings him to all three realms of Hyrule, and just as he is the avatar of the player, he also serves as a model of how to develop the three parts of the self through his journey.

It is helpful to remember that TotK serves as a sequel to BotW. By this I mean that while the game starts in the realm of the unconscious, the mundane world of the surface has already been established in the previous game. As the player, we have an understanding of what life in Hyrule is like, as well as some idea of a status quo for existence of its people. Calamity Ganon was a problem that sprung up every so often, but it has finally been eradicated at the start of TotK. So from a Hyrulean perspective, we can understand that there is a sense of the danger having passed, of this sudden onset of Gloom years later being perhaps some small lingering effect, or another minor issue entirely.

But the fact remains, there is a problem that no one can identify from the surface. Something is manifesting from below, and Link, with Zelda, takes the first step out of the conscious self down into the depths of the unconscious. Here, they discover ancient structures, various hints of a Zonai past, and an important glimpse into the earliest days of Hyrule from the mural depicting Ganondorf’s rise to power and his eventual imprisoning.

The information found here at this point is enough to shake things up and send Zelda into a tizzy of research euphoria without causing overt distress about what she is discovering. There are secrets down here. Secrets that have not been known for a very long time. Secrets that are surprising, but not yet problematic.

However, the cause of the current problem on the surface has not yet been discovered. So instead of turning back with these newly unearthed secrets right away, Zelda and Link continue on, further downward into the foundations. And eventually, as you know, they discover Ganondorf, still somehow alive though not necessarily thriving, the Gloom that has been creeping up to the surface positively oozing out of his abdominal cavity now that Rauru’s seal has finally failed.

This discovery sets off a chain of events that lead to everything getting much worse. Ganondorf breaks the final hold on the power keeping him here, the chamber and the castle are destroyed, Zelda falls into time-jumping oblivion, and Link and his sword are physically mutilated.

Zelda’s journey takes her through time, but Link’s takes him through the three realms. When it becomes clear that Zelda’s divine light is what will finally eradicate the darkness of Ganondorf, Link travels very purposefully to the sky to retrieve the light-imbued Master Sword from Zelda in her Light Dragon form. By journeying to the realm of the higher self, he acquires the item he needs to bring to the realm of the unconscious self in order to face and destroy what has been festering there.

(It should be noted that Link’s journey through the Depths includes activating light roots, shining enough light to at least see what he else is up against down there. The light roots are not strong enough to dispel Ganondorf or his Gloom, but activating them allows Link to explore what is there and assess the scale of the problem, which is a crucial first step to the healing process. The point is, it is not enough to simply be aware of what the issues are; additional action must be taken to work through them. You can be aware that you have addictive tendencies, but simply knowing that does not make them go away.)

As a result of Link's, Zelda's, and the newly awakened Sages' efforts, Ganondorf is successfully driven out of the Depths in his Demon Dragon form. He is forced from the hidden realm of the underground/subconscious into the light of the surface/conscious self to be dealt with properly. He is exposed for all to see throughout Hyrule, the secret of his existence and imprisoning now not only known to the royal family, but to all. It is a moment of reckoning not only for Ganondorf, but also the whole kingdom as this darkest of secrets finally comes to light.

The final battle moves higher into the sky, where the Light Dragon assists Link in destroying Ganondorf in this new form, the divine light of the Master Sword doing what it was meant to within the realm that it was granted its power. Not until the Demon Dragon is destroyed can the kingdom finally move on to what Zelda describes as “eternal peace.”

Applying the Three Selves to Our Everyday Lives

It is no stretch to compare Hyrule’s royal family literally burying Ganondorf to any one of us ignoring our problems in real life, or to avoiding our trauma (or even blocking it out as a coping mechanism), or to ignoring the parts of ourselves that we dislike because we can’t bear the shame of looking at them head on. We take our personal Ganondorfs and bury them in our Depths to never look at again. But they will always find a way to manifest, like Gloom or a Calamity, whether it be through psychological issues, physical symptoms, or unregulated emotions. And this is precisely why we must strive to explore our unconscious, in order to have a healthier sense of self.

More often than not this must be done with the guidance and support of professionals. While I discuss here Zelda’s divine light as being crucial to Ganondorf’s ultimate demise, I do not mean to imply that one can simply pray away their problems or that everything can be solved by communing with deity. Link still needed actual tools and help from others in his mundane life to destroy the rot within Hyrule.

Nor do I mean to imply that all problems can be completely eradicated. There are things that will still linger, despite taking all the right steps to addressing them. Nor did Jung intend for the Shadow to be destroyed, but instead embraced as a part of oneself that will always be present, a part of the self to be brought back to the conscious and accepted as a part of the whole person rather than villified. Unlike with Ganondorf, we do not want our Shadow to blow up and make fireworks in the sky.

And as we see in the beginning of TotK, with the destruction of the Master Sword and Link’s arm, finally facing certain issues will actually make things worse before they get better, and it takes real courage to make that first step. Mere discovery of the big dark secret is a whole other type of trauma, but one that is necessary so that healing can finally start. Because it is at this point, of course, that Link and Zelda are both positioned to finally put an end to what Rauru started millenia ago.

[galaxyofhair]

BOTW/TOTK 3?

So since this is around the time was stragglers in the TOTK craze are starting to beat the game and spoiler tags are becoming less common--the question that continues to haunt me is “What’s next?”

Obviously some Spoilers for TOTK but I think my previous post sorta busted that door in.

On the one hand: 

DLC. I feel like there’s plenty of DLC opportunities for TOTK and I really hope it isn’t just another challenge mode with a motorcycle at the end.

But the big question I am thinking of is: Will BOTW/TOTK get a third game?

Points to Yes: 

Because like, that’s the obvious next step right? Most of the time a highly successful sequel like TOTK immediately begets an often disappointing third--and there’s plenty of clues in TOTK that point to what a third game might cover: The mysterious underground race that Josha discovers who are never named, the fact that Zelda’s time powers are forcing everyone to re-evaluate whether or not depictions of other Zelda’s are actually just her, the revelation that the ancient hero of the Calamity wasn’t Hylian--much like the barebones Zonai ruins of BOTW, it feels like TOTK is priming us for another lost civilization to explore and I would love it if the next game actually involved travelling back 10k+ years to different eras.

There’s a ton of creative directions you could take a third game, and since it seems like the developers are building a new canon for themselves based on the building blocks of older games my hunch is that a third game would have to include some sort of LttP style mechanic where Link travels into an alternative Hyrule throughout the story.

It would give the developers yet another chance to re-use the map of Hyrule--which I support for the most part--and it would be a really creative way to solve puzzles despite the time shenanigans.

Points to No: 

Could this end up as a Duology? Yeah, absolutely. For one thing--how do they top this?! Are they going to have vehicle building and mech riding in one game and then just... not in the next game? A BIG factor that points away from a threequel is the massive corner the developers have both written and designed themselves into. This game is ridiculously big, and ridiculously complex. Obviously it’s not impossible--Link can always get another maguffin that gives him a similar or even the same set of powers, and they can always (maybe) put the zonai devices back into the game (maybe supplementing them with Shiekah devices?) But at the end of the day the shear scale and complexity combined with the self contained nature of the game means that a threequel isn’t a necessity, and it would be expensive to make.

It goes without saying that even if a threequel got made, it’ll be a minute before we even hear about it’s development. Realistically another top-down game will come out between now and then (LttP remake would be cool and popular I think).

But even in the event that Nintendo decide they want another full 3D game with adult link, they might also decide that the monumental task of replicating and building upon the immense complexity of TOTK just isn’t worth it and the that the wiser investment will be to update the engine, and reboot all over again with a new hyrule, a new Link/Zelda, and a new story that isn’t restricted by two games worth of canon. It sounds incredulous--but it happened to OoT and MM. OoT and MM were wildly successful, but when it came to upgrading to the Gamecube’s tech the developers hit the bit reset button.

Conclusion:

Obviously this is all speculation upon speculation, so only time and updates from Nintendo will tell. If Nintendo decide to not make a threequel and they instead reboot it would have incredible ramifications on how we think of Zelda canon (I think the Timeline is/would be caput)--and if they DO do a threequel it would be a monumental conclusion to the new series they’ve built for themselves. In the meantime, I am going to build more Korok rockets, ciao!

[koralatov]

A Link to the Past

Yesterday, my friend finished a nine-year-long quest to play all of the mainline Zelda games. (By my count, 16 separate games, none of which is small investment of time.)

This achievement – one of the headiest peaks in his autobiographical gaming journey – ended up not saved for posterity by standing proud and eternal on his blog, but as a solitary tweet. What should have been a flaming beacon, bright and strong upon the battlements of his own castle, instead became a party-popper in someone else’s fireworks display.

His idiotic decision is becomes even more galling when one considers the games he’s spent nearly a decade exploring and enjoying: these are some of the best games ever made. Not the best Nintendo games – the best games. No qualifier. Some of these are works of art nearly without peer: masterpieces in iterative, wonder-filled game design and world-building.

I say this as both an impartial and extremely partial observer: four of these games cover the most important era in my own personal gaming history. Spanning roughly 1994 to 2004 across three consoles, the period is bracketed by A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker. Incredible slices of bread between which Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask are sandwiched. Good luck finding a game and three sequels that are this good.

Thinking of these games, I remember fondly a shop long-closed. Opposite Blockbuster, also closed, on the wrong side of the river and within walking distance of my house.

I remember it well: small, clean but spare, with game boxes on shelves, split into the competing platforms. (I never bothered to look at the Mega Drive section; why would I?)

I was 10, perhaps 11, and the owner was old. Fully an adult, maybe 24, but at that stage in my life, ‘adult’ was a category with only two subcategories: ‘old’ and ‘grandpa old’. He was in the former, and kind, patient enough to tolerate me calling him “Mister” and my terrible track record of spending hours there asking questions without ever buying anything.

But one day, I did buy something: I bought A Link to the Past.

It cost £15. I remember being a little short, and Mister let me off with it. He recommended the game to me, and he made sure I could take it home that day despite being a pound shy of the label. He knew that in the mid ’90s, pocket money rates being in the range of 20p a week, and five weeks an eternity, that I might never be able to buy it, and he chose to let me have it rather than miss out on it forever. (I told you: patient and kind.)

Of all the kindnesses anyone has ever done me, this ranks high on the list: it forever set my gaming tastes and put me on a path that led to me writing this. Without that recommendation, without that generous discount, without his encouragement, I wouldn’t have spent the last 15 years of my life sporadically writing about games in depth. Without those things, I probably wouldn’t have played Ocarina of Time.

I remember vividly, a few years later, the final battle with Ganon: the upwelling of pride and gratitude when Navi, annoying little Navi, overwhelmed in the earlier bout, vows to fight alongside you. I remember sweaty palms against two legs of the N64’s tripod controller, the click of the joystick as you rush to dodge Ganon’s attacks.

And again, a few years later, the creeping dread of the moon getting ever closer across the third and final day… and the horror of watching it smash into Termina for the first time, implacable grin never wavering as it grinds the clocktower to dust.

And again, a few more years later, a new Link, stark and cleanly drawn, fishing for treasure chests in a bright technicolour sea. The joyous swing on a grappling hook through a waterfall. A new world of adventure, floating high above the old world I’d saved half a decade earlier.

Such a breadth of experience, of wonder, of happy memories spread across those four games which span a decade of incredible change – for both me and gaming in general. As I grew, matured, and explored new ideas and ways of living, so did the Zeldas: we grew up together.

I’ll never play every Zelda game, and I may not ever play another, but those I did play, I’ll carry with me forever.