#and there are two zeldas except one of them is a dragon

[comixandco]

The four Sages were called back into the past by Terrako and they remember it happening

Tulin got to meet his hero, Revali, and decided to be just like him, adopting his idol’s brash personality and drive. He practises Revali’s Gale and eventually comes up with his own way to show off his mastery of wind, and when trouble hits his home he rushes to fix it on his own to prove how strong he has become and because, like Revali, he can’t stand idly by while he knows there’s still things he can do.

For Yunobo, when he goes back and meets his ancestor Daruk, he is a very timid and reactive Goron. He needs a push from others to come up with ideas and carry plans through, and when bad things happen to him his first instinct is to use his fire magic as a shield, to wait until the threat has passed by or somebody else has come to save him. But when he is sent back in time to Divine Beast vah Rudania, for the first time he has to be the one doing the saving. Daruk encourages Yunobo and is proud of him from the moment they meet, and it’s this support that gives Yunobo the confidence to help fight against Calamity Ganon, and to start YunoboCo when he gets home.

For Sidon, meeting his family from 100 years ago is bittersweet. He is proud that he was able to protect his sister, and it’s a comfort to know there is a version of him who will grow up alongside Mipha because of his bravery and fighting prowess. But as much joy as he got from seeing her, hugging her, and hearing her voice again, it just reminds him of how unfair her death was, of just how young she was when she died and how he is now older even though he’s the younger sibling. And at the end of the war, when he’s returned to their original time, he has to readjust to her absence all over again, and in light of that is it really a shock he’d have her statue moved further away from his home? And it also explains why he’s so desperate to protect Yona from the sludge.

Riju in AoC still a new ruler to her people, despite her accomplishments in BotW, she still feels guilty over the temporary loss of the Thunder Helm and isn’t sure if she can lead the Gerudo. She has a lot of confidence but is quick to falter when things go wrong. Urbosa treats Riju as a capable fighter despite her young age, and teaches her that she should never give up, to keep trying even when her resolve falters. There is always something you can do, even when it’s just stalling for time until help can arrive. Urbosa guides her in mastering the Thunderhelm, and possibly begins teaching her to summon lightning herself after Kohga attempts to steal it, and at the end of their time together Urbosa tells Riju she’s certain she’ll lead the Gerudo well. Riju treasured her time being mentored by Urbosa so much that she considers what Urbosa would do during the Upheaval in her diary in TotK.

I think the entire reason Tulin was added to the DLC was because the TotK team had already decided that Tulin was going to be the Sage of Wind, and that since the other sages were going to meet their Champions Tulin had to as well.

At some point in the years between Botw and TotK Teba, Tulin, Sidon, Yunobo, Riju and Patricia were summoned back in time by Terrako to aid the Champions during the Calamity, and even though those events took place in a parallel timeline and had no bearing on the world they returned to, the Sages’ personalities at the beginning of TotK are because of their experiences during the Calamity and the bonds they made with the Champions.

[cerame]

Artisan’s and Archer’s designs

So a little bit ago, I got a compliment on the two designs of Echoes of Courage I'm proudest of. I do love all these characters, but these two took a bit more creativity on my part, so I'm going to explain them because I am a sucker for design. I will try to remember as many of my own details as I can, but no promises.

Let's explain Archer first.

Behold, the most recent Link! Breath of the Wild took a departure from the classic green, so I kept with that and made his tunic the main splotch of color on him. The browns and monotone colors are subdued in comparison so that the blue can have the spotlight.

In regards to the tunic itself, botw and totk both have significant influence from traditional Japanese culture, as seen with the sheikah taking on a more japanese fashion sense and the dragons being eastern instead of european shaped, so I kept that with the design of his shirt. His tunic was originally the shape it was in botw, but after the calamity, it sustained such damage that Impa was only able to save some parts of the tunic. Using those parts, she repaired it as best she could, but Archer took a liking to Kakariko fashion anyway, so he's perfectly happy with it. In addition, with the looser fashion of the ancient clothes, I changed his belt to a more ribbony shape.

Thinking about how his shirt might have worked during botw. Perhaps he wore it as a haori, or maybe it was damaged, of a shorter cut, etc. and his Zelda made him the current one. Nothing is concrete about that yet, and I think it would be neat if it was different than it is post-totk.

The turtleneck and the leather armor from the new tunic in totk is incredibly charming to me, so I naturally had to keep it, but in order to show it off practically over the tunic I'd decided on, his sleeve got pulled down. I also designed him before totk came out but after the first trailer came out, and from the trailers, we could all tell that something was going to happen to his arm. I had no idea what purpose it would serve or how Link would end up by the end of the game, so I kept his arm covered up but outside his shirt. Turned out to be a good call.

As for his hair, I loved seeing his hair down so often in totk. It feels all free and wild and soft, so I kept it, except it felt a bit impractical to have it hanging all around him like that, so I did a half-bun. He gets to keep his hair down while tying it out of his face. This also lends itself further to eastern style inspiration.

A note on the smaller details: he does wear his amber earrings, and he's got scars across his body.

Now, we have Artisan.

It was a bit more difficult to figure out Artisan at first. I took inspiration from as many links meet aus as I could find, but everything for him is so varied, and while it's fun, it does make it difficult to nail down what does work. Unlike with Archer, I had no real direction in the beginning, so I searched for what made him unique as a Link. I also went back to the original ideas of character design, the most prominent being outlines and silhouettes. I'm still a bit iffy on his silhouette, but overall, he works.

First, the albw aspects: His bracelet from Ravio went inactive after the rifts between Lorule and Hyrule closed, but he still wears it. It's becoming comforting to him. As for the clasp on his cloak, it is absolutely the two triforces, and he got it custom-made in Hytopia. His pegasus boots are also from albw, and since Collector and Forge both had their unique pegasus boots, I had to come up with something just as striking for Artisan..... and then, I looked upon none other than the Zelda cartoon of olde, and I decided that Artisan would absolutely wear over-knee boots. So that's what he got.

Now, his triforce heroes parts. I know the green one is player one and all that jazz, but I wanted to see if I could do something not-green, just like Archer or even Piper. The sword suit in the costume catalogue stood out, and not just because the red link is wearing it in the official art. It's more tame than most other choices, and it's casually royal, which is a strange flavor of style, but I discovered after significant experimentation that when you pair it (or the idea of it) with poofy bardic sleeves (yellow, courtesy of albw's blue tunic) and gloves, it takes on an almost roguish look while maintaining the fancier feel. Also, when I lined him up next to Collector and Scout, I found that their colors together were red, blue, then green, and I couldn't not keep him blue after realizing that.

Notes: his cloak is still a bit weird to me, but I've gotten too used to it. Hytopia pushes the boundaries of fashion anyhow, so he can do whatever he likes. His hair is dyed because that's just fun, and it's braided because everyone else in this AU has short hair or a ponytail, and I wanted him to feel more well-groomed than everyone else. He gets to take care of it, and he has gotten hair care advice from Princess Styla. I didn't originally intend for this effect, but the pale outlines of white and gold on his clothing really make his outline pop. The consecutive dark colors of his tunic, pants, and boots would not work without those lines. His eyes are, in fact, purple! Ravio, in turn, has green eyes. I did doubt the choice of yellow sleeves at first, since it's not exactly the secondary color of my choice, but I went with it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it work so well. Perhaps it was the yellow of his hair and the golden accents, but I am very pleased with it. He only comes a century or so after Collector, so I had to pick a tunic shape that could hold similarities between the two of them, which is why the collar of their outer layer is the same for both of them.

Archive

[theicarusconstellation]

zelda tangled au anyone?

genderfluid link. runaway princess zelda.

imagine ganon knows only link can defeat him so he kidnaps him as a six year old and takes him to an abandoned tower in hyrule forest with the intention of corrupting him and the master sword to get them on his side. zelda has been told all her life that the power of hylia is in her, but she hasn't unlocked it yet, and the pressure is getting too much so she sets off to find the "legendary future swordswoman" who went missing years ago because "if i can't unlock my powers, maybe she can help me."

one day, she finds the master sword (which ganondorf has been hiding near the tower because he's saving it for when he finally figures out a way to corrupt it, harness its power, and take over hyrule). she's like "oh my god what if the swordswoman is around here somewhere😱."

MEANWHILE link is in the tower with their gorgeous long hair (and maybe wolf link as a sidekick instead of pascal?), and every year on his birthday, the leaders of all the villages get together and hold a little mourning/prayer ceremony for her bc signs of the calamity are approaching fast, and they're hoping link shows up soon, especially with zelda's power not being awakened yet. link desperately wants to go see the ceremony (they don't know what it's for, just that there are a lot of beautiful lights and the dragons of hyrule all come together as well), but obviously ganondorf won't let him.

THEN zelda finds the tower and scales it. link is all "HYAH!!!!!!" and the scene where eugene is trapped in the chair with rapunzel's hair plays out between the two of them except it's just a lot of link being like 😡😡and zelda being like 🤭omg this guy's reallly good with a weapon...looks a lot like the descriptions of...WAIT OMG ITS THE LEGENDARY SWORDSWOMAN🤭 link is like "i mean 1/3 woman i guess."

eventually, zelda convinces link to leave the tower with a bargain like "if i take you to the swordswoman ceremony, will you tell me about ganondorf?" (she already suspects it's THE ganondorf ykyk), and link is hesitant because zelda is telling them that the person they've been raised by is evil, but he really wants to see the ceremony, so he goes. they cut their hair to its length in totk and it really validates her gender yk? and when zelda sees how happy link is in her newfound freedom and gender expression she's like "well i have to tell him the truth about who he is"

she doesn't want to because it'll shatter link's worldview and newfound peace, and she doesn't want to put a burden on their shoulders (bc hylia knows she knows what that's like), but she does it anyway. at this point, link is beginning to get flashes of memories from his childhood and realize what zelda is trying to tell her is true, so both of them go to kakariko village to talk to impa (and they plan to talk to the champions after), but once they get there, ganondorf is there waiting in front of the desecrated former village like HEY POOKIE. FOUND YOU. MISS ME?

he takes link captive again and accelerates his plans to take over hyrule. link is trying to find a way out, and zelda is trying to find a way to help him, but it's not working out very well lmao. meanwhile zelda goes to the champions and asks for their help, relaying everything she knows, and the champions make a plan to get link and stop ganondorf. they get to the area where the tower is, but ganondorf was expecting this and takes them captive

as this happens, link doesn't know what's going on and is alone in the tower. he finds the master sword and the secret tower staircase, but it's a trap laid by ganondorf to manipulate link into joining him because link escapes the tower only to find zelda and the champions all tied up and stuff. the bargain is like "join me and i won't kill your friends when i rule, but refuse and i'll kill them slowly and make you watch" (i came up with this on the spot i know it's a rough plot WORK WITH ME😭🙏)

link being link challenges ganondorf to a duel, and ganondorf accepts purely out of amusement bc at this point he thinks "link can't defeat me yet since he's been locked in the tower; he's only a danger if he's been trained." link whoops his ass, but ganondorf harnesses the power of the calamity at the last second (which he was planning to do just to teach link a lesson in obedience and whatever). he whoops LINK'S ass, but just as link is about to get killed, zelda's powers Come To Life, and she saves him. then they all work together to defeat ganondorf and they all live happily ever after

[riverthebooknerd]

LINKED UNIVERSE HEADCANONS BECAUSE FUCK YOU

(mostly wild, time, twilight, sky, and wind centric cuz those are the main games i've played)

they're all trans

people think that time is the dad of the group but nah. it's twilight

four uses "we/us" pronouns (they/them but actually plural)

wild will either cook the most delicious fucking food you've ever seen in your goddamn life or a pile of rocks (canon)

wind can see ghosts. they all know this. however, sometimes he'll say that there's a spooky ghost when there's not just to freak them out (wild knows. he doesn't say shit bc it's funny)

sky can cook one (1) dish and it's pumpkin soup (he learned after he had to work at the lumpy pumpkin to repay them for breaking shit) (everything else he makes is inedible)

most of them are nonverbal (bc autism and also ptsd)

you'd think that time knows sign language but NO because he grew up in a forest around fairies who don't have? visible hands?? i think?? (he learns sign from wild)

also i've seen people say that time Doesn't Cuss which is simply Not True. let him say fuck. he deserves to say fuck.

the only one of them who doesn't cuss is probably sky. but there are exceptions

actually no i take it back. that fucker says fuck too

All Of Them Should Say Swear Words

please they're so tired just let them say fuck

the ones who have a hookshot are ecstatic to tell the ones without a hookshot about the joys of using it (ex: sky showing it off to wild, who has stars in his eyes, talking about how it'd make climbing in the rain so much easier)

speaking of sky and wild- the realize that there's a merchant named beetle in both of their eras. weird as shit. sky is like "wtf" but wild kinda just nods and goes "yeah okay why not sounds about right tbh"

nightmares

nightmares

have i mentioned nightmares? because they all have nightmares

also nearly all of them have had Queer Encounters and they vent about it!!

sky talking about how ghiriham was UNFAIRLY hot

twilight still sad over midna :( (they're gay btw don't question it they just are)

(wind is an exception bc. he's a fuckin child)

wild lowkey bein like "yeah tbh.... ganondorf before he was mummified?"

time has a wife. time loves his wife

wasn't there that one ship with hyrule/ravio?? haven't played that game so idk but they seem gay (edit: oop it was legend/ravio not hyrule/ravio lololol)

fuck what was this post about again?

they all sleep with a weapon under their pillow (or with no pillow!! just weapon! :] )

some of them (sky) are very heavy sleepers while others (time) are very light sleepers

it's a nice balance because twilight and wild will wake up at the ass crack of dawn and then wind won't wake up until noon. they make a schedule

people also portray them as being So Fucking Awkward but i disagree. have you PLAYED a zelda game? these fuckers will waltz into town, fix every single person's problems, and become the new village icon in the span of two hours. they're so fucking friendly omfg

like these fuckers have fought MONSTERS they've fought DRAGONS and CORPSES and the KING OF EVIL they ain't afraid of a little human interaction (except when they are)

hylia will throw them in a room together and they'll all be like "hi!! :] am link i go hyah" "omg no way me too!! :0 look at my shiny sword and my bag of bombs" "sick"

sky would be like so fucking guilty like "im sorry i failed and got cursed by a demon king guys :(((" and everyone else would be like "oh nah don't even worry about it lmao happens to all of us"

maybe i'll make a pt 2 once i finish my homework who knows

[marshallpupfan]

have you played any of the paw patrol video games?

I've only played three of them; "PAW Patrol: On a Roll", "PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay", and "PAW Patrol: A Day in Adventure Bay". The first two on PC/Steam, and the last on Android.

I don't have much to say about On a Roll. It was interesting when I first started playing, but for me, it got boring after a while. I understand it's for a very young audience, but I wish they would've eased up on the tutorials. Restricting Everest and Tracker to the last few stages was kind of silly, imo. Well, if anything, seeing Marshall pull a Super Mario Sunshine across a lake was pretty entertaining. 😄

Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay was a lot better, imo. Switching from a 2D platformer to 3D was a smart idea, and as someone who enjoys collectathons, I had some fun with it. It's still pretty easy, but I understand it's designed that way. With that said, it was surprisingly short, especially compared to the first game, and there were certain tasks that dragged the game down a bit. Still, out of the two, I recommend it a lot more. Including a Pup Pup Boogie mini-game was also pretty cool.

PAW Patrol: A Day in Adventure Bay was cute, since it lets you take care of the pups, play some frisbee with them, etc. There's not a whole lot to it otherwise, but for the price, I can't complain. Admittedly, I played this one once a day for nearly a month, and of course, I always selected Marshall... and apparently the game didn't expect this, as it eventually glitched and kept giving me the same mission every time. Ah well, I easily got my money out of it.

I don't plan on playing any of the other games, except maybe PAW Patrol: Grand Prix. I've been curious about it for a while, if only so I can play as Marshall in his Ready Race Rescue gear & vehicle. I've heard it's also easy, and given I'm used to playing Mario Kart at 150cc, I don't know how much enjoyment I'll get out of it. Admittedly, that's why these PAW Patrol games don't exactly appeal to me, since I'm so used to games for an older crowd (Spyro the Dragon, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Metroid, etc). Thus, I may not be the best person to ask for recommendations in terms of PAW Patrol games.

[finluz]

TOTK Rant: How Much Better Than BOTW?

//major totk spoilers ahead

The Good

Ultrahand is amazing, it's a simple idea with few limitations leading to a lot of complexity and flexibility

Ascend is fucking awesome. im not even gonna like, critically analyze this one. i wish i could jump through ceilings in real life

Being able to throw items is extremely useful, meaning you don't have to waste arrows to get certain effects

Zonai devices are all amazing, same principle of Ultrahand where they all have simple uses with few limitations, meaning that you can create really complex machines very easily

The Music™ 🎷🐛

Rauru's sopping wet man vagina

There's a shit-ton of new enemies, including like-likes, gleeoks, evil rigby mfs that crawl on the ceiling, floormasters, phantom ganon, the assorted zonai creatures, froxes, baby froxes, yigas with driver's licenses, battle tali, damn those trees are WALKIN

Depths exploration is fucking amazing

Depths atmosphere

Sky Islands when they have anything on them

Air travel

60 new side adventures, which are waaay fuller in good content than the side quests or even the main quests lmao

build your own house

the boss fights

the final boss fight

shrine puzzles with Ultrahand

Proving Grounds shrines

Master Kohga

the guy that walks around continually failing to demonstrate any degree of professional signage

the side dialogue is really funny and well-written

the isolated vibe of botw has been traded in for a feeling of togetherness as a kingdom

large-scale battles with tons of monsters and friendly npcs

muddle buds

zonai architecture

did i mention the ost yet

skyview towers > the ubisoft towers

link has his hair down

tauro

purah

short-hair zelda

rauru

ganondorf

mineru

been spending most our lives living in a bisexual's paradise

the lightning temple

the construct factory

the quest to obtain the master sword

dragonhead island

the dragonhead island music

fusing items to arrows and shields

the yiga clan expansion

do the earthwaker link come on quake that shit

the all-clucking cucoo

froggy armor

the lucky clover gazette

all of the new outfits

the dragon-themed outfits

horns on enemies

link let his hair down

the plethora of armor effects that are now also cooking effects, like slip resistance, swim speed, weather-based attack, and more

railgrinding

princess monoke themes doubled down on

gloom

robot arm

I think a common theme in this list is that rather than being different from Breath of the Wild, there is just more of Breath of the Wild.

"No shit, it's a sequel."

Yeah I get that, but this is the first time a Zelda sequel specifically has failed to really distinguish itself from the game before it.

Tears of the Kingdom has everything that Breath of the Wild had, including its flaws. The fact that it's just "more of it" and "better" kind of makes the previous game completely obsolete, which is a first in the series.

Majora's Mask, Link Between Worlds, Adventure of Link, the Oracle Games and Link's Awakening are all direct sequels of previous games, and yet their identity is so distinct that they become standalone entries in the series.

Majora's Mask is not Ocarina of Time 2.

Tears of the Kingdom is 100% Breath of the Wild 2.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and considering the series has been almost rebooted entirely I'm not even opposed to the direct serialization of these games,

but if they are going to go this route,

and there's going to be 6 and a half years between the two games,

You need to do better than the last game.

And so we arrive at,

The Bad.

With the exception of the aforementioned Lightning Temple and Construct Factory, the dungeons, and subsequently main areas and story in this game blow ass.

The Dungeons in this game are just Divine Beasts but with somehow even less creativity. Say what you want about the lack of interconnectedness between and the quality of the puzzles, but they provided a feeling of controlling and manipulating a huge, moving being that sets the game apart.

In comparison, TOTK's dungeons are completely devoid of any original ideas, instead opting to be divine beasts without the movement gimmicks, meaning that they're just "go hit the four or fie switches in any order"

Breath of the Wild traded in the unique and distinct atmospheres of the franchises temples to capture a different feeling that sets it apart. Tears of the Kingdom tries to return to the old temples, but without committing all the way and missing the mark completely.

The Water Temple in particular stands out as completely fucking lazy to me, since it is literally just a bunch of blue platforms in the sky with 4 un-themed and not even water-related puzzles and a boss that is treated as a joke. There's almost no buildup in Zora's domain as well, as you just do a couple of short tasks to unlock the path up and then beat the dungeon in 30 minutes.

It's the worst kind of Zelda dungeon, with generic elemental themes but none of the art to tie those into actually unique places. And considering that there's no dungeon items, no double-backing, or any sort of semblance of an idea of you completing an actual dungeon and not just four shrines in a meat grinder, I would say it's ultimately WORSE than the divine beasts from Breath of the Wild.

The rewards for dungeons

In every dungeon, you get an NPC follower that fights with you and has an ability that you press A on to use. These are used pretty well in their respective areas. When you beat the dungeon, your reward is a blue clone of them that does less damage.

I get what they were trying to do, I really do, and on paper, it's a really great concept.

It's the champions from the last game, except they are actually there and fight alongside you, using that togetherness theming i mentioned earlier.

However, having them out is pretty much a straight downgrade since they are annoyances 24/7.

Their abilties range from mildly useful in some contexts at best to "i would only press a on you by accident."

and trust me. you are going to accidentally press a on them a LOT.

Somehow, they manage to both be in your way when you want to do literally anything else and also never there in the rare circumstance that you actually want to use your ability.

Their AI is complete dogshit, and they rarely swing at enemies, and when they do, the damage is pitiful. Tulin flies through the air, and is mostly behind you when you need him, but everyone else paths along the ground and will often get stuck on rocks, river edges, or random patches of grass sometimes because they lack any intelligence whatsoever.

It's such an easy fix too, just have a "sacred stone" rune in the radial menu where the useless map one is and let me manually select which ability I want. Bam. No more blowing big hearty truffles off cliffs or setting them on fire when im just trying to pick them up.

Fuse does not affect the durability of weapons.

Rather than opting to have the interesting choice of being able to repair your weapons at the risk of losing a rare quality of them, rehabilitating them using items from your inventory,

Nintendo instead opted to have the durability not change at all when you fuse something.

Also, every weapon in hyrule has "decayed," which, as well as being extremely contrived, means that fusing is required for weapons to be viable.

So not only does this not improve the weapon system from Breath of the Wild, it actually makes it more tedious, since now you have to collect not just a weapon, but two parts of a weapon and then fuse them into a weapon.

It's taken every weapon in hyrule, broken them in half, and made you go find the pieces.

This also means that fusing funny stuff like minecarts or logs like they suggested in the trailer isn't viable, since it will only add a few damage points and waste a weapon slot.

In Conclusion

Yes, Tears of the Kingdom is the better game. It not only has more content, but the content is also just better, more experimental, and memorable.

And don't let my huge rant about The Bads misconstrue my thoughts on this game.

This is easily a 9/10, and probably my favorite game of all time.

But it certainly isn't a 10/10.

Breath of the Wild's flaws set it apart, it was easy to forgive them because they played into its unique experience.

Six years later, with an almost identically structured game, it's not as easy to set those aside.

Anyways, this has been World's Biggest Zelda Fan Finluz, and I want to raw link

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Okay, I just wanna say that Ganondorf in ToTK, despite not having Wind Waker’s pathos, is easily the best Ganondorf we’ve had (which is surprising considering some parts of the story). He’s terrifying whenever he shows his mug, he’s active and damn near omnipresent though Puppet Zelda and the Phantom Ganons/gloom spawns, and he’s easily the most unhinged take on the character we’ve ever seen. As for his motives, it’s as simple as turning hyrule into a chaotic hellish landscape where the only rule is that the strong thrive and the weak die, which isn’t really unique, but the landscape and monsters in the game kinda cements how bad that would be.

I get we were kinda expecting another Wind Waker situation, but what we got is great too because Ganondorf was great in Ocarina of Time and he too wasnt anything beyond pure near omnipresent evil.

I mean... I think it's as good as any a time to bring up a really important distinction to the way I critique stuff in general, which is that there's a part of interacting with art that is kind of is... true at a fundamental level? That fundamental level being the emotional response. Nobody can ever be more right or wrong for their emotional response, it's kind of non-debatable.

So I'm really glad TotK Ganondorf did it for you! I genuinely am. I actually loved some things about his incarnation; the musical motifs and the way they are integrated within the story (!!! so good), the concept of Fake Zelda, the actual final fight which I 100% agree is the best one we ever had (still love the TP one, but, the horseback part is a little eeeh and the swordfight could have been harder), his various designs, Gloom Hand and Phantom Ganon which are probably among my favorite parts of the game...

But yeah, I suppose I'm the kind of annoying player who needs a solid thematic framework to relax and accept the scenario proposed (the kind that is driven by mimicry and meaning, which is, I have to admit, especially hard and ungrateful to design for --and so is, often, completely ignored *sobs*). So I would have been completely fine with a Ganondorf without pathos, but one that did fit better within its own environment and countered the themes of the game and developed an ideological philosophy that you could solidly oppose, and not just treating him as an excuse to usher the gameplay forward (I mean, he did betray the gerudos which stranded him while you get to receive everyone's help, but he is not alone in practice! Every monster stands by his side! He may even have a more devoted and stronger support system than you depending on how you play the game). But that goes beyond Ganondorf: I had much trouble seeing past the self-referential and actually enjoy what Tears of the Kingdom had to offer in terms of emotional texture.

But yeah. Could not get behind the writing and a lot of choices in terms of... I don't know, the timing of his maniacal laughter, for example? I feel like a good maniacal laughter needs to be earned, and there's so many times where it just felt completely cheap to me? Even OoT Ganondorf, who had his share of cheap laughter moments, kind of had them work by the simple fact that they were here to directly mock us, the player, and our actions (if I remember well he only has two in the entire game: one after getting his way within the Sacred Realm, and one right before the final battle). We're not going over the extraordinary WW laughter, which is everything to me, but I also really enjoyed the kind-of-unhinged-but-sober take on TP Ganondorf, where he laughs only once and because he knows that he is close to losing probably. I think that was a great characterization, and I'm kind of sad they got rid of it to replace it with [insert maniacal laughter here] sort of approach that isn't specific to the character built over the years (except for the moment where he turns into a dragon, which was the one I liked the most --but it was greatly overused in my opinion).

So I really think his absence of specificy and the fact that his plans are pretty much nonsensical when you examine them for more than a minute, and the fact that he was all over the place and actually sparring with you and building direct grief with you in previous titles, where here I really wasn't sold on why I was supposed to invest myself in the situation besides a vague sense of duty and "that's what the game expects of me" really... didn't sell me the intimidation or the presence. There are a couple of iconic moments that I genuinely loved to see (the whole fist in the throat was GREAT, and perhaaaaps the "come at me" tho even THAT is self-referential grumble grumble sorry to be like this I'm genuinely sorry, the thought wouldn't even have crossed my mind if everything else about him wasn't a strange patchwork, but, it does pile up), but, I needed the framework to stand on its own to genuinely love him in this game.

But I'm really glad if he scratched the itch for you! Most people seem to agree too, which is great. I just... I mean, I am obviously invested in this not becoming the standard of quality. I think we could keep a lot of what worked here and add a scoop of better writing and thematic consistency, and I'd be on board way more already.

[thegeminisage]

i decided to make a list of 15 of my favorite plot devices

i think they're mostly in order but all things are subject to change. time to explain my passions

1. asexuals - self-explanatory. the best number one joy of all time is when there is an asexual person, canonically, and not just in my mind palace. so far no show has managed to do this except fucking shadowhunters (and bojack horseman ig but it's not my thing). i know there are people out there who can write way better than the shadowhunters writing room but i don't know why they aren't getting on this. tick tock. example: raphael shadowhunters

2. amnesia - notably different from dementia, which is depressing and bad (thinking about you, dean winchester). amnesia is only good because eventually they get it back. the best thing about amnesia is that it shows you who your Little Guy (gender neutral) is with everything stripped away from them including their sense of self. do they still go for the same kind of coffee? do they still click with the same people they used to love? can they still fight? what do they stand for? it's very rewarding when your little guy acts the same way without knowing why. it's also especially cool for action heroes bc they'll still be able to win a fight and it's like wow <3 fight scenes with emotional stakes!! also i love that it gives us a mystery to solve. sometimes a partially amnesiac character is amnesiac because they did a terrible crime. and they've got to solve it while accidentally working against their past self. fun! examples: fang from ff13. wolverine. why, who did you think i was going to use

3. brainwashing - for the same reasons as amnesia. it's the same concept: take away everything and who is your little guy? the real little guy is in there and they are working so hard to get out. also they will be sooo sad about all the crimes they did later. example: fenris dragon age. d'avin killjoys. and okay fine one other guy we're not talking about

4. enemies to lovers - what's better than two people wanting to murder each other until they don't......always a good side of bickering with this as well. main draw tho is the process of simply two people getting to know one another in the way that you can tell strangers things you can't tell your friends. it's more work to love someone when you hate them and with more work comes a better reward. also, sexual tension. example: so many. fenris/hawke. fenris/anders. botw link/zelda. john/aeryn. bonnie and damon if the cw weren't cowards and i don't even like damon i think he's unforgivably horrible (derogatory)

5. monster under the bed character - i don't know if this has a real name. it's like the One Guy (again, gender neutral) who has shaped the protagonist's whole life who is threat number one in any given situation. Primal Fear of this guy and all they represent is similar to how little kids are scared of the monster under the bed hence the name. it's not JUST an arch enemy or an antagonist it's like. the only enemy that matters. not a bad guy but THE bad guy. if you can boil someone's issues down and stuff them all into a single person and then also make that person scary. and then also they can fight!! fuck yeah fight scenes!!! if you're really lucky this will overlap with either somebody's parent or somebody's ex. examples: AUGH SO MANY. for dean winchester it's yellow eyes. for sam winchester it's lucifer. for fenris it's danarius. for jace wayland it's valentine. for dutch killjoys it's khlyen. for anakin skywalker it's palpatine. for derek hale it's kate argent. going nuts just thinking about it

6. reluctant assassins - crucially if they don't care about being assassins it doesn't work for me (sorry kassandra asscreed). i went into this in more detail here but your assassin simply Must be compromised in some way so they can regret all their little crimes later. otherwise what's the point?? this overlaps so thoroughly with brainwashed iedk if it should count as its own entry but whatever. examples: fenris dragon age. dutch killjoys. d'avin killjoys. elliot leverage. and the other one

7. two-person love triangle - this is a very specific sub-example of secret identities in general which ARE good except they're usually in superhero media and i am really just so totally fucking over the entire CONCEPT of superheroes. anyway it's when one person has a secret identity and the other person forms a relationship with their "real" identity and their "secret" one. and then they feel conflicted about loving two people at once and having to choose but SURPRISE it's the same person! i like this because it has anti love triangle energy. lots of romantic tension and none of the dumb fucking YA bullshit. (apologies to YA.) example: arthur and merlin (who is also "emrys" at least in fanfic)

8. 4th wall shit - when the piece of media is in your house with you. i don't feel i need to clarify further than this because dr gaster is probably spying on me as we speak. examples: everything toby fox has ever made. s*pernatural, sometimes. i also had a deeply haunted experience with final fantasy x.

9. last guy (gender neutral) standing - part of a team or group that got tragically mcmurder prior to the start of the story and this person is so terribly sad about it. crucially this has to be a side character whose relationships with dead people are more important than or equally important to their relationships with the current living cast members. character deaths you almost agree with because then at least they can be with their fallen buds. examples: auron from ffx, noel from ffxiii

10. immortal characters - for the same reasons as above but also they CAN'T DIE EVER so they don't even have that to look forward to. also sometimes they wind up being science experiments. examples: jesse turner from @cambionverse (sorry jesse)

11. evil doppelganger - usually this is in video games where they just take the sprite or the polygons and recolor them to be black but also you have some mirrorverse/au shit going on sometimes and then there's evil twins, and shapeshifters, and clones...i love when everybody gets tricked into thinking somebody is doing crimes but actually theyre just out here and it's their evil double causing problems on purpose and not even being the one to go to jail forever because of it. also, when the evil double has mind-reading powers or whatever b/s to 1. make them a better trickster 2. to make them better at precision-point roasting of whomstever they look like. also acceptable: when you little guy just suddenly turns fucking evil and/or gets possessed and you have to cure them to get them back. idk maybe that should go under brainwashing. examples: dutch and aneela. link and dark link. zelda and the puppet. soulless sam. demon dean. hullen johnny.

12. fire powers - WHO doesn't love a little arson...i feel like this is the same concept behind werewolves which boils down to "fear of anger" bc with anger comes the loss of control and the devastating fallout... your fire guy (gender neutral but idk any fire girls) has to have a lot of self control or they'll fuck everybody up. they're very dangerous! not unlike assassins. also, fire is pretty. bonus if they have done crimes before either on purpose or on accident. examples: jesse turner again, roy mustang aka the OG fireguy, prince zuko

13. big damn reunion - when two people are split up with little to no chance of ever seeing each other again and then they do anyway. this is why i'm never mad when they bring characters back from the dead. examples: i'm actually totally blanking on these, i feel like it tends to happen in fic so much more often. also i've been writing this list awhile

14. time travel - i love! time travel! i love when people see an apocalyptic future and go back and fix it (chrono trigger, ff13). i love when there's a stable loop (tears of the kingdom) or a paradox (song of storms in ocarina of time). i love visits to the ancient past (skyward sword). i love when there's just an actual fucking timeloop (s*pernatural). it's really good!!! examples: oops i just listed them all

15. body swap - last but not least i think it is so fun when two people wind up living each other's lives. it's more fun in tv when people get to switch which character theyre playing but it's good in any form because what a way to get to know someone and also the endless potential for shenanigans. examples: dreamless (webcomic), your name, various episodes of tv shows many of which are bad (s*pernatural's was extremely bad).

ok, that's the list. originally it was 10, then 13, then 15, so i think i'd better stop here.

[damianwho]

Okay I'm just gonna put some Tears of the Kingdom overall lore thoughts and opinions out into the world cause I've spent to much time bothering @prosebushpatch with them.

I've done the whole story of TotK except the final battle against Ganondorf (which I assume is the end of the story but maybe there's more)

This is just an incoherent list. Feel free to embellish them with your own posts or whatever. Develop your red circle clickbait theory videos. Or, just argue with me about them in reblogs or comments. See them after the see more.

The Dragons look like Zonai. like with their face and ears and stuff. Maybe they are other Zonai that ate secret stones? Maybe Din and Farore and Nayru were Zonai?

Maybe Valoo was a Zonai? I could see him being the "Wind Waker" style version of a Zonai (comparable to WW Rito and BotW Rito)

The Rito Sage really just makes timelineing TotK impossible without just saying Zonai times also happens after everything which doesn't really make sense to me. Could the Rito just have existed and then died out and then came back? That feels also like reaching.

The amiibo hero clothes being in the Depths and signalled by the treasure maps that you get in the sky island make them real canon in a way I was fine with them not being in BotW when it actually was just from amiibos. Timeline theories are weak if they ignore them now imo.

The bargainer statues and the Gloom Resist armor, kinda look like Zant, I think. Maybe they are Twili? Or related to them?

This is not very well examined or supported but, I could see like, other realms being bridges to the different timelines. Like, imagine there is only as single Twilight Realm and every timeline accesses the same one. Maybe that's why the Bargainer Statues can sell you amiibo weapons and clothes.

I think that might be a way to formulate a merged timeline theory using the amiibos clothes as evidence instead of ignoring them.

Some people might have problems with putting the Zonai times part of TotK before Ocarina because of it meaning that "two" Ganondorf's were around at the same time, but the literal first two games in the series have two Zelda's so I'm fine with it. If I was the cosmic law arbitrating when people get reincarnated, I'd get bored watching people sleep.

Why does Beedle exist in the same karmic cycle as, like, Impa and Zelda and Link??? How is he at every stable simultaneously even though complains like he just walked there??? What is he cooking???

Do we think the Eight Heroine is supposed to be an incantation of Link? Or maybe Rauru, or just some other Zonai? or maybe even another Ganondorf? Careful reading of the tablet at the end of that quest gives me evidence for all three I think. Literally saying "the link is severed," talking about light and bravery (but not Courage or Power), implying it's related to the voe ban, plus talking about ears and listening. Just something to think about.

The awakening armor being "canon" is weird cause that implies Hoholint has some sort of metaphysical existence. Similar to Majora's Mask and Termina but harder to swallow.

[lozheadcanonsandmore]

Since I have mentioned potential kid fic already....

Imagine months after the dark dragon's defeat, Link and Zelda get an urgent message from Riju, asking them to please come help right now.

Naturally, they set off - Link filling up on elemental weapons and potions, Zelda making plans for all sort of problems...

It's late when they arrive, the sun beginning to set, but they cannot wait.

Two Hylians walk into the Desert, to the Gerudo citadel.

And when they arrive, Riju presents them with....a baby. An unmistakably Gerudo baby, from tuft or red hair and pointy ears to the tip of tiny toes.

Except this Gerudo baby? It's a boy.

The first in thousands of years. There hasn't been one since.... That Ganondorf.

The one who was sealed in the War of Exile.

The Gerudo Council is an uproar. The vote is unanimous: the child cannot be allowed to live. However, no one can decide how to do it: just leaving him out to the elements is Out of Question (in Gerudo culture and mythology, Bad Things happen to those who neglect or mistreat children, especially babies and infants); kinslaying is very taboo, some think the mother should be tracked down and forced to take care of it herself, others think Riju should do it as their Chief...

Riju decided to put the matter to the Princess.

(There is a flash of guilt in her eyes, like she expects only one outcome. Link's hands clench into fists)

Link looks down into the crib. He who faced the Calamity and the Demon King himself, who destroyed a dragon.... he can sense nothing from this tiny, crying, screaming baby. No malice, no hatred, no evil aura, just... nothing.

Link preaches down and picks him up, cradles him against his chest. The baby immediately starts rooting against his chest, mouthing at this Champion's tunic, his cries getting louder as he gets nothing. He is no different from the babies Link babysat in Hateno and Lurelin and at the stables.

Link's glare could melt stone. At Buliara's command, one of her guards vanishes and returns a few minutes later with a sippy cup* full of milk.

The baby eagerly latches on the beak and drinks, drinks, drinks.

Once he is done, Link expertly shifts him to his shoulder and burps him. He turns a little, meeting Zelda's eyes.

Some people might mistake his look for supplication.

It's not.

It's a warning.

This is where the line is drawn and if someone - anyone, the descendant of the Goddess included - tries to take this child from him, Link is ready and willing to fight his way out.

Do not test me, his eyes say. Not on this day. Not on this.

To be perfectly honest, it's a bit redundant. There is only one way this can go and....well, Zelda has walked harder roads before.

Sometimes it's hard to know what the right choice is. Sometimes it's as clear as daylight.

At sunset, two Hylians walked into the Desert, to the Gerudo citadel.

At dawn, two Hylians and a Gerudo baby walk out of the desert, back to Hyrule.

* sippy cups: examples from the Bronze Age have been found.

[theangelicstoryteller]

This is my entry for the @zelinkcommunity 2023 Zelink week! This would have included an AO3 link, but since the site is down I will update the post with it later.

WARNING: STORY TAKES PLACE DURING TEARS OF THE KINGDOM AND INCLUDES MAJOR SPOILERS FOR IT

Title: Both Here and 100,000 Years Away

Words: 978 Rating - G

Happy readings to you all!

Link woke in his bed in his new home in Akkala. He stretched as he got up, savoring the morning, even if he had a lot to do today. But he liked his new home. It was nice and he liked that he got to make it himself, to a degree. Not that he disliked his home in Hateno, but this… this was nice. Especially as he found himself usually sleeping in a stable or in the wilds again as he tried to save Hyrule from its newest disaster. A bed was nice, especially a new bed, since…

He shook the thought out of his head and quickly got dressed and readied himself for the day. He made a quick breakfast that he shoveled into his mouth before he grabbed his weapons and burst out the door. It was usually breezy and today was not an exception. He took a second to admire the mountainous view, looking over the small Terry Town he had helped build years ago. He smiled as he looked down at it. He was glad he had helped Hudson and that his family and his community was thriving.

He was smiling to himself as he thought about as his eyes wandered over to the construction site below it and then up the mountains. He looked over the mountains, his eyes wandering upward to the sky where he froze.

She was passing through the sky above him. The Light Dragon… Zelda. As it often did when he saw her shining form dancing across the sky, The Master Sword on his back felt heavier. He couldn’t stop himself from gazing at her as she slowly made her way across the Akkala sky. His beautiful, beautiful Zelda… somehow both here and 100,000 years away.

Before he had witnessed her final memory, seen the vision of her swallowing her stone to provide the power the Master Sword needed to both recover from the gloom that Ganondorf had struck it with, but to be strong enough to defeat him, he had always felt the Light Dragon filled him with a sense of comfort and ease. Now Link understood that was Zelda. That her spirit was still watching over them, even now, uncounted milenia after she had lost her mind to becoming a dragon for Hyrule… for him.

Though Link did not want to lose himself in the memories of it all, he could not stop them as they washed over him. He thought to the days they spent in Hateno village, how Zelda had gently made his house a home for the two of them. He thought of holding her tight as they slept in their bed, never getting as peaceful a sleep as when they were holding each other through the night. He wrapped his arms around himself as he thought of even last night, as he had to force himself to sleep even as his bed felt cold and empty without her, even in a bed she’s never seen, let alone one he had shared with her.

He missed her laugh. He missed her coming to him in the night with a notebook and excited words with a breakthrough she had neglected her sleep to achieve. He missed having to gently remind her it could wait for the morning as he guided her to bed where she would still excitedly speak about her research before she would gently drift off to sleep. He missed running after her in the wilds as she found something she wanted to document or capture, writing down notes excitedly.

He looked back up to the light dragon as she passed over him more closely. He saw into those wide purple eyes, where he saw no hints of the woman he loved within them. She seemed as if she was really gone… He wondered if it would have almost been better that she died rather than being trapped in the form she was currently in.

Could Impa or Purah really think of a way to change her back? Was such a thing even possible? And what would she be like if they even could reverse the effects of swallowing her sacred stone? What if… what if she could not remember him? What if they brought her back, but her memories were gone, just like his were when he was resurrected. Even now, years later, many things were hazy when he tried to recall them.

And if she did remember everything… would she forgive him? It was his fault all this had happened. If had been stronger, if he had been faster, if he would have caught her, she would have never had to make such a sacrifice. He could have prevented all this pain, if he had only been better. What kind of a knight could he call himself after failing her again?

Would… would she even still love him?

Link heard a weird noise and it brought him out of his drowning thoughts. He looked around and heard it again, though this time he felt it as well as heard it. Oh… he put his hand to his face, feeling the tears that were streaming down him. I’m crying… The sound came again and he realized it was him sobbing. He took a steadying breath as he tried to calm himself. He looked back up to the sky to see Zelda’s form beginning to retreat. Though he was able to calm his breathing, his tears still flowed.

Goddesses he missed her. Din, Nayru, Farore, and Hylia herself did he miss her. He would give anything to see her smile once more.

[autism-purgatory]

Thanks for the tag @illarian-rambling!

Wip Questionnaire (Grayguard Edition!)

Rules: answer as few or as many as you'd like!

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

The earliest concept in Grayguard is probably the Hellenistic kingdom of Cloria and its Oracle Queen, also the elemental mineral Oriche. Those two have been recycled through at least three scrapped stories before I put it in Grayguard.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

The story is set into four acts, sooo

Act 1: Hollow Knight from the Hollow Knight OST

Act 2: Blue Desire (from Blazblue Chronophantasma)

Act 3: Iconoclast by KOTOKO

Act 4: Kuroi Uta from Drakengard 3

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Not to be too spoilery (since Grayguard will be on AO3 at some point) But other than Emil and Lisa, a certain shapeshifter that appears in act 2 and an antagonist of Act 3, one is an absolute blast to write, the other is the best villain I’ve written in my opinion.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Probably Aurora fans and Zelda: BOTW/TOTK fans.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Honestly I’ve been mashing some plotlines together to make it run smoother because I CANNOT cram that many plot lines into a single act.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Chaos creatures aplenty, including Dragons, Watchers (eldritch Gorgons), Chimera (a result of creatures fusing their Chaos energy to melt into one being) also plenty of plain animals except really big with a few weird details (Deers with crystal horns, Bears with rock spikes all over their body, etc) there’s also giant sea serpents that are sort of like traditional Chinese dragons.

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

Walking, so much fucking walking. If they have a horse that doesn’t die from an ambush (which happens all the time) It sort of helps the journey. Though they get on a giant robot homunculus with a whole city on it at one point so that speeds the journey up for a few weeks.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

Currently editing the hell out of Act 1, I have a few chapters of Act 2 but it’s not free from my wrath either.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

In terms of tropes, fallen heroes, found family, chosen one (who’s avoiding it at every turn) fallen civilizations, and magic robots.

Other than that, I hope it’s the characters that draw people in. It’s very character driven even if the worldbuilding and magic is thoroughly detailed. They’re fun as hell to write about and I love mixing and matching their dynamics to see who loves or hates each other.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

that people like it lol, that’s about it.

I’ll tag @deanwax and whoever else wants to join!

[legofanguy]

ToTK: A princess left behind

This is my entry for @zelinkcommunity Zelink week 2023 day 2 forbidden. The forbidden comes from this being a AU ending of Tears of the Kingdom in which Link kill Ganondorf before he turn into the Demon Dragon and swallow his secret stone. Spoliers for Tears of the Kingdom. Also, Link and Zelda's daughter Charlotte is named after her grandmother.

It has been months since both Charlotte's mother Princess Zelda and her father Link has disappeared and the Demon King has been defeated by the team work of Link and the new Sages. Right now, the four years old princess is on a sky island with her parents' close friends the Sages and Purah the Shiekah scientist. The Sages has last saw Link take a Secret Stone, a Zonai artifact that amplify the powers of the one whose wear it, from the Demon King dead body and strangely request that the Sages guide Charlotte in her duties as heir to the Kingdom of Hyrule and he is sorry for not saving Zelda from a fate. Weeks later, there begins sighting of a green dragon that sudden appear above Hyrule Castle before flying off to the clouds, where the mysterious Light Dragon was waiting for it, and there is no secrets that begin rumors of how the dragons are somehow connected to Princess Zelda and Link disappeared. Among the Sages is the spirit of Mineru, the Sage of Spirit and Charlotte's ancient aunt.

Mineru explains to Charlotte, "Long ago, when your mother end up in my time, in the begining era of Hyrule, I hold Princess Zelda about stories of a forbidden act called draconification. The story goes that 'to swallow a Secret Stone is to be become an immortal dragon... one blessed with eternal life. To become a immortal dragon is to lose oneself.' That is why it is forbidden. After my brother Rauru seal the Demon King at the cost of his life, the broken Master Sword appear in our time and your mother, Charlotte, decided..." and Mineru become sadly, "so that Link could get the sword in time for the final battle..."

Everyone realized what Mineru is hinting at with Purah saying in disbelief, "T-That's nonsense... Zelda would never turn herself into a dragon!" which the Zonai call out, "Maybe that why Link didn't tell any of you when he found out about Zelda's fate! You would have call him mad with grief, when Link was losing his will except to destroy the Demon King as Zelda wanted, just like my brother when his wife Sonia was murdered in cold blood by the Demon King for her Secret Stone! Beside, both he and Zelda suffered a crushing defeat by the Demon King's evil you called Calamity Ganon 100 years ago and it affected their minds!" Purah and the Sages understand that Mineru was right about their possible doubts as Charlotte ask, "What about daddy?" and the Zonia close her eyes and said to the little girl as she open them, "I am... I am sorry, little one... I told you about your mother's fate, because I tragically have a theory about what happen to Link, as he has saw Zelda's memories of me telling her about draconification and her transformation. I see in his face that Link was desperate to defeat the Demon King for something only than protecting Hyrule..."

Sidon made a horrible conclusion and ask, "Please... Don't tell us... Did you believe Link truely swallow the Secret Stone of..." Just then, two roars full the skies and everyone look up to see the Light Dragon and the Green Dragon, both has mane of blonde fur, which are proof of their identities. Riju speak out, "That Light Dragon... she must be Zelda. That mean that other dragon is truly..." and Charlotte speak this terrible realization as well, "Daddy..."

The two dragon sit down to the platform before the gathered group and lower their heads so that their Hylian daughter would touch their fur, just like she would feel their hands. As she does, a glowing light came from Charlotte's hands and spiritual avatars of Link and Zelda appear. Zelda's avatar happily, "Charlotte... oh, my Charlotte..." before she notice Link and realized, "Link... you are here.... but, did you..." and Link reply, "Yes, my love. I defeat the Demon King, with the Master Sword you keep safe for me, and swallow his Secret Stone to be with you."

A few weeks back, Link hold the Secret Stone he took from the beheaded body of the Demon King, seeing that it does amplify the recall ability as he hope, so he is left with his other option to be with Zelda, even if it means forshaking what make Link himself and leaving his daughter and his friends. Link has saw that he has become like Rhoam and Rauru when he learn Zelda fate 10,000 years ago of become a father and king of Hyrule whose lost his wife.

Just like the memoires of Zelda, Link put the Secret Stone and swallow it, which he feel everything fading away as a glow comes from his body before his blue eyes become the eyes of dragon and his Hylian body become a long green dragon with a mindset of finding his mate, the Light Dragon, roaring as it fly from above Hyrule Castle and into the skies of clouds where she waited him.

Link said to his friends with one last look, "Please... protect Charlotte... make her happy... ensure that the Hyrule she will lead will never face another evil like Ganon again." and both Zelda and him said to their daughter as their avatars fade away, "We love you, Charlotte... with all of our hearts." Soon, the two dragons fly out to explore and protect this land, together in eternal union. Mineru sigh and said, "It's a bettersweet ending. My brother and the wife he loved... their Secret Stones has made two lover forshake their mortal lives to be immortal dragons that wouldn't remember their past lives."

In a attempt to cheer Charlotte up, the Sages speak, trying to do so together, "Those of us... gathered here... swear on our lives... to support Princess Charlotte and...." They stop for a brief moment which cause Charlotte to giggle before the Sages try what Link told them before his transformation again, "to support Princess Charlotte Zelda Hannah Hyrule and safeguard the land of Hyrule."

After Mineru's spirit fade away, and Charlotte see that the Secret Stone that is now hers has become the mix of white and yellow to symbol her light and time powers, which her powers and her ancestors has.

[jdetan]

An Overwhelmingly Important Mission

Link finds himself on his most daunting mission ever... finding a hearty durian for his pregnant wife's cravings.

Link looked out over Hyrule Field– the land that was bright, beautiful… and utterly doomed.

The Calamity couldn’t kill me… permanently. The Demon King couldn’t stop me. But this? He sighed deeply. This is a task I don’t think I’ll be able to accomplish. Hearty Durians have been all but extinct since… Well, since I blew up the trees rather than climb them, ate every known durian in Hyrule, and then lit the ground on fire in an ill-conceived plan to boost up a mountain with the updraft. WHY did you do that to me, past Link?

Link shook his head. Regretting his foolish actions would have to wait. He had a mission, and this mission he could not fail.

*** One day ago

“Anything I can get for you, Zelda? Footrub? Heated blanket? Something for your back?” Link ran around like a cucco in a frenzy, tending to his extremely pregnant wife. “Well, I’ve been having a weird craving for the last month…” Zelda said, slowly sitting up. “But I don’t think it’s going to be possible, so… don't worry, forget it!” “Zelda, you know I’ll do anything for you. Just name it, and I’ll scour all of Hyrule for it!” Link snapped to attention. Zelda was seven months pregnant, and to Link’s mind, this meant two things– One: she was not to strain herself under any circumstances and was, instead, to be waited on hand and foot. Two: Only one craving was too extreme– Link refused to let her eat any Secret Stones. Everything else was fair game. Zelda put a finger to her chin. “Alright, fine. I’ve been craving Hearty Durian… but well, they seem to have mysteriously vanished at some point during the Calamity, so…” She sighed lightly. “If you can find one, I’d really appreciate it, but I don’t think any exist anymore.” “Zelda.” Link said, already pulling on his traveling gear. “I will find you a Hearty Durian. Please, wait for me, my sweet! I shall return soon.” He grabbed his Purah Pad and dashed outside, mounting Epona and riding away with a “HYAH!”. Zelda waved from the door as she watched Link ride off, then let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in. “FINALLY, some time to myself! I love Link, but my WORD… I’m not an INVALID!” She walked over to her study, happy to finally have a chance to run some experiments on residual Light Dragon parts. “Alright, let’s see what I can find out about my old form’s secrets…” She chuckled as she pulled out her favorite microscope.

*** Today

Link rode Epona from the Faron Jungle, glum and unsuccessful. “Hmm… so, as I expected, Faron’s a bust. The old places are all empty plains, except for that one that’s an empty plain with ‘Link Wuz Here’ written in bare soil that I made sure to salt so nothing would ever grow again… Goddesses DAMN me, I was stupid and feral back then! Not like now. Isn’t that right, little forest creature only I can see?” “Ya-ha-ha! You should start more fires!” The Korok replied, appearing in a poof of colorful smoke. “Sometimes I wonder if I took too many blows to the head…” Link muttered. “But that gives me an idea!” “Is it to start more fires, mister hero?” The Korok asked, climbing on his shoulder. “I like watching fires! I want to watch the world burn…” “Makar, did you eat malice during the Calamity?” Link asked, raising an eyebrow. “You seem slightly more… wicked than other Koroks.” “It tasted like licorice and hate!” Makar responded cheerfully. “So… it tasted like licorice.” Link muttered, poking at the Purah Pad. “Come along, I’m gonna visit your dad.” “Nooo! Not the Great Deku Tree! He sounds like Teba and that scares me!” Makar screamed as he and Link vanished in a series of blue lights.

*** The Lost Woods

“Thank you for bringing Makar back, Link. And thank you for not listening to his whispers… this time.” The Great Deku Tree said, as several Koroks put Makar in ‘naughty baby jail’ (a small pit with sticks planted in the ground making up a cage). “How can I help you today?” Y’know, Makar’s right. He kinda does sound like Teba. And Revali. And the ancient Rito Sage. Weird. Link cleared his throat, focusing his mind. “I’m looking for Hearty Durians. Zelda wants one, and I’d really like to undo the harm I caused when I… kinda obliterated the entirety of the species during my first adventure.” He blushed slightly. “Do you happen to know where any may be?” “Hmmm…” The Great Deku Tree paused, thinking. “As luck might have it, I have a collection of seeds from all species in Hyrule. I’ll happily provide you some seeds, but as for the fruit itself…” The face of the tree tightened, seemingly searching all of Hyrule. “Ah. I’ve found them. There is but one man in all of Hyrule that maintains a collection of Hearty Durians. His name is…”

*** Kakariko Village

“DORIAN!” Link shouted, kicking the door open. “You said that I could call upon you at ANY TIME to repay that ‘favor’ you owe me, right?” Dorian nodded, trying to comfort his terrified children. “Today is that day!” “Of course, Link… but what has you so agitated?” Dorian asked. “Is there any danger?” He gave Link a quick once-over. “You look like you’ve been beaten up a little.” “What? No, I just killed a few Lynels on my way here– I was bored.” Link shrugged. “I was looking for Hearty Durians– Zelda’s got a craving for them, and the Great Deku Tree said you have some.” “That’s all? Don’t they grow in Faron Jungle?” Dorian asked as he went out to harvest a durian. “You should be able to find them there in high quantities.” “It was… um… the… uh… the Upheaval! Yeah, the Upheaval! They started dying off and now they’re extinct in the wild! Anyway, one durian, please!” Link cheerfully accepted the fruit. “Thanks, man!” Link grinned, tossing Dorian a silver rupee. “See you later!” Dorian looked over at his Hearty Durian grove. “Kids… we’re about to be very rich.” He said, quietly. “Yaaaaay!” The children yelled, happily.

*** Just outside Tarrey Town

“Oh, wow… the scales and shards serve as natural batteries AND amplifiers for light energy…” Zelda jotted down some notes. “I wonder if it would be possible to replicate these artificially…” She jumped as the door swung open. “Zelda! I’m back, and I found a Hearty Durian!” Link yelled, plopping the gigantic, odoriferous fruit down on the table. “Are you doing ok? Do you need a backrub? A heated blanket? Some juice?” Damn it! There goes my thought process… shouldn’t this have taken him more than a day? I thought they were extinct in the wild after I found the last seedlings and sent them to Dorian for safekeeping! Could he have… no, that guy loves them– he eats them for every meal. He’d NEVER give one to Link unless… oh, of COURSE he’d owe Link a favor! Well, I really have been craving them… Zelda smiled and walked over to Link. “Thank you so much, Link! It’s just a shame they’re so rare…” “Not anymore! I recalled the soil outside back five years and planted some seeds! We’ve got a grove of our own now!” Link grinned. “Wait, you still have the power of recall? I thought that was tied to Rauru’s arm!” Zelda blinked in surprise. “Turns out that was one Sage’s vow I kept!” Link grinned. “Probably due to the power of love– it’s a mysterious thing.” “You heard the Stable Trotter’s new song too, huh?” Zelda laughed. “Well, as luck would have it, I’ve just made food, and the durian should go great with it!” Zelda produced a pizza and happily set about slicing the durian open. “Mmm… it’s not pineapple, but it’s so good!” Link stared in horror. Pregnancy led to strange cravings– she’d wanted pickles and fruitcake, honey-glazed curry, and worst of all, LICORICE, but durian on pizza? He shook his head. Our kid’s gonna have an even more impenetrable digestive system than I do… he thought, loading his pizza slice with a sensible topping of bacon, fish, crushed diamonds, fire fruit, and a scale from Farosh. I’ll never understand how Zelda can stand to eat that weird stuff…

[majorasnightmare]

Please elaborate on the Ganondorf Au(s), I gotta know, lol I my immediate first thought was this weird/elaborate Coffee Shop AU where Zelda and Link are running some small-time locally owned franchise (like two, maybe three stores)... and Ganondorf rolls up in some Super-Starbucks trying to take over or push them out of business... why did that come to me so quickly, lmao

OKAY S O

jesus christ this is long

i find ganondorf to be a deeply compelling character. this is in part to the way pre botw zelda games utilized him as both a villain and as this symbolic culmination of evil.

now other games may have done this, but none immediately come to mind, as one of the most compelling aspects of ganondorfs character is that before botw? every instance in every game was the SAME dude (except skyward sword but ill talk about that later). that allowed games with stronger narrative focus to flesh him out in greater detail, while a game with a more cut and dry story but flashier cinematics could really sell his menace, and future iterations could carry the boons of both.

now the zelda timeline is a mess, and the games themselves were not built around that concept. at most youd get direct sequels like majoras mask, or games directly referencing an older title as part of their history, like twilight princess. one should not take the timeline as Word Of God Canon (even though there are multiple official books that reference it), but they all kind of work together to give you a bigger picture. this is especially true for the 2d zeldas, as Ganondorf The Character wasnt really an explored concept back then. you instead had dark beast ganon (who once took human form as dude named Aganhim but hes. separate. like hes canon and important but most of what he contributes to Ganondorf As Character is the dark evil wizard vibes).

in general, when looking at ganondorfs character youll mostly be examining four titles: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Windwaker, and Skyward Sword. skyward sword is unique in a lot of ways because it IS made with the "zelda timeline" in mind, and is the timelines official beginning. here we get the forging of the master sword, the first imprisoning war, and! a guy that is NOT ganondorf! demon king demise is the end game boss here, and while i could dedicate a post to analyzing his limited screentime, whats important to this convo is that demise lays a curse upon his defeat. those bearing the soul of the hero (link, who reincarnates), the blood of the goddess hylia (zelda, who does not and instead has descendants inheriting power) will be caught in a cycle of war and blood with the bearer of demise's hatred (ganondorf!). and THERES the money. that last part there helps contribute a LOT to further analyzing ganondorfs character throughout these games because, as mentioned before, they build on each other!

the plot of ocarina of time is not deep. its an enjoyable game, but like most zelda entries, its a paint by numbers tale of a good hero overcoming an evil villain who kidnaps a Notable Woman as the final build towards the climax, wherein you kick his ass free the girl and kill him. (kind of. ganondorf never really DIES) HOWEVER. twilight princess, windwaker, and skyward sword, by virtue of focusing on this SAME DUDE, end up giving a LOT of retroactive depth! its a really fun phenomenon!

that tears of the kingdom throws in the fucking trash! for!! some reason!! WHY. why the hell would you spend 25 years making a layer cake piece by piece and then throw it in the trash in favor of box mix cupcakes??? I DONT GET IT MAN.

totk isnt. a BAD game per se. theres a lot to enjoy about it.

narrative is not one of those things.

tiptoeing around spoilers here but discussing them generally

the dragon tears are, among other things, about ganondorfs rise to power, to reach his current end game boss state. despite this. he has a grand total of three scenes before he GETS that power. one of which is him laughing, one of which is a poorer retelling of a scene from OoT, and the last one is his introduction where he does fuck all. WHERES THE MOTIVE HERE????

OoT is my least favorite entry of the 4 games listed above. it has a lot of dated narrative elements and systemic issues that continue to plague nintendo to this day (misogyny and racism as per usual). despite this, i find myself returning to OoTs narrative and characterization REPEATEDLY in totk because in so many aspects it just storytells better! yes totk is an open world game with a hands off narrative approach. but botw has that concept down pat and is a more satisfying experience. totk is a more narrative focused botw, and yet its storytelling sucks WORSE than botws and doesnt even measure up to OLDER TITLES. more detailed rants on that are for another time.

so what is a bitch with a special interest in zelda and a fixation on its most charismatic villain to do when presented with an otherwise enjoyable game that is deeply unsatisfying in regards to aforementioned autistic bitchs favorite villain?

obviously make an au thats TotK But Better For Me And My Bros Specifically (thanks @villalunae ily forever)

but if your gonna do that, might as well go full self indulgence, right?

due to aforementioned Ganondorf Characterization Layer Cake, theres a LOT of fun Implied Nuance to play around with, of most importance is ganondorfs relationship with the gerudo, and the gerudos relationship to hyrule. demises curse and the elements of destiny and fate add some fun compounding factors to really amp the tension up, but in my opinion only really ever serve as The Last Straw so to speak. its important that ganondorf is someone who chooses to be this way! but choices arent made in a vacuum, and prying those circumstances apart gives you so many potential ways for this to End Differently.

so seeing that TotK Ganondorf is NOT the OG OoT Ganondorf, the idea here is to further explore the concept of like. WHY is he a villain? villain is a socially constructed category afterall. how do you focus on those circumstances and their effects on a person? how does the political situation of hyrule play into this?

a personal favorite interpretation of mine (and other ppls judging by the plethora of fan content in a similar vein), is this idea of a Redeemed Ganondorf, a variation where ganondorf is NOT the final boss, but instead an ally of link and zeldas. wrt this particular au, that looks a lot like locking everyone in a room together and see who starts throwing things first.

so with that in mind, i just ended up going through scene after scene in totk and thinking of how a redeemable ganondorf would play out. what kind of personality would he have, how would he interact with these other characters, what are his relationships like? whats his driving motive, how committed to these ideas is he, whats his breaking point and why? and then playing with those ideas and throwing them against other characters, how does he interact with the sages, how does he interact with rauru, how does he interact with ZELDA?

a lot of that informs the baseline of how we ended up going through making the au (alongside a hefty dose of writers worldbuilding dilemma lmao) and also serves as the foundation of subsequent sequel aus that as of right now exist solely as amvs in my head.

so in summary theres two?? maybe 3??? that im just marinating in.

the main unnamed totk au, where the triforce trio work alongside each other to put an end to demises curse of hatred once and for all, with a large focus on character dynamics and their relationships to each other (and also plenty of self indulgence. ghirahim got tossed back in there. and fi)

and then, after that, a kind of hypothetical sequel game to totk au. set 100 years after the ending events of totk au, the trio + co navigate a world where the threat of ganondorfs rise to power is no longer the primary problem hyrule suffers, but instead a power vacuum in the realm of demons, leading to a slowly rising threat of demon incursion. focuses on how your "party" (ganondorfs reincarnation, links reincarnation, and a non-princess zelda, alongside naboorus reincarnation, and impa (neither a reincarnation nor a descendant but once again paying homage to impa as a recurring character)) gets along with each other and how, as the years go by (i have. TWO seperate time skips so far), their relationships to each other change, and how their goals and ideals grow and change in response to the shifting landscape of threat in hyrule

the last one, technically, is a modern au that mostly works as background context for triforce trio shitposting.

(ur idea for a coffee shop au is fuckn FANTASTIC btw i love it)

GOD this post got long. thanks for holdin out so long for all this! i can definitely make long as fuck posts about. p much anything in totk and how it gets changed or reinterpreted in totk au, or ganondorfs relationships in that au, because they live in my brain rent free.

[fvedyazai]

points. zelda fan. did you play tears of the kingdom?

i've gotten thru like mooooooost of the main quest (as far as i remember) and tbh i think its like. my favorite zelda game. i love fusing stupid stuff together and making silly cars that don't work at all........ also skydiving.

do u have any like. favorite tloz games? :0 like totk is up there for me but im also very fond of windwaker, spirit tracks, and twilight princess <3

yes omg!! ive finished the main quest in totk and all the shrines and caves and lightroots! just missing some quests and a ton of korok seeds lol. totk is the only game that ive actually kinda completed so as of rn its my fave i think. lately ive just been trying to max all my clothes which has mainly been just harassing the dragons for their scales and stuff hehe i do it out of love <3

ive played through all of botw except for the final boss fight. actually recently restarted my game so i could start over bc its been years but ive been too busy to play T^T cant wait for summer omg

zelda is my all time favorite video games!! i hot young parents who i grew up watching play zelda games. i watched my dad play majoras mask and my mom play twilight princess and skyward sword so all of those have a special place in my heart <3 watching them play it is why i love loz sm. no other video game franchise can compare.

i wanna play more games tho!! i need to find a way to stop all the time passing around me so i can just play zelda forever lol

ive also played part of a link to the past (unblocked on school computer) and part of twilight princess (got the master sword and then just got too busy :((

i also have some zelda manga!! i have 1 and 3 for tp and then one that has both minish cap and phantom hourglass. on the hunt for more hehe

i also have zelda shrine. and a growing collection of printed images of totk ganondorfs on my door. and paper dolls of zelda characters. and OMG MY SLIDESHOWS. i have two slideshows about why ganondorf is objectively hot, a slideshow in progress of all the foods from totk/botw, and a bunch of other wips (loz geography, loz timeline, etc) all in order to educate my poor irl friends. OH I ALSO HAVE A LOZ OCARINA and a little book of songs from oot and other games hehe

aaaaaaa im sorry this is so long i had an excuse to talk about zelda and i ran with it hehe

ok but my faves are totk defintely and then also twilight princess and majoras mask are up there for sure. im so indecisive tho aaaaaaaa. for sure tho the cartoon is NOT up there i do not like the cartoon at all (except for maybe zelda... but i didnt finish the cartoon so who knows)