#botw analysis

[aleakybiro]

I stumbled across this video, it's about 10 minutes long if you have the time, but honestly it perfectly illustrates my feelings about botw/totk

I feel quite an isolation from fandom stuff because I haven't been able to love totk the same way I do botw, and this is kind of why.

Totk is a good game, objectively, without doubt. It adds so much. But honestly I don't like that there's so much to do. I'm not a particularly engaged gamer, coming from the likes of animal crossing, so the open air and easy vibe of botw appealed to me. I found myself overwhelmed by the endless tasks, resource collection, and places to revisit in totk that it felt a bit more like get to the end than enjoy the atmosphere as you go.

I feel like the negative space in the game gave the fantastic atmosphere space to breathe, and made the more engaged parts of the game feel more exciting by comparison.

I do feel as though totk could have done a lot more if it hadn't been stuck on structurally following botw. In botw, the vast map, fragmented memories and link's silence fit with an atmosphere of isolation and the aftermath of a great tragedy. (I may also personally be biased cause I'm a depressed bastard and I like those themes...)

But totk has a different story. It's about rebuilding, and community. I don't feel as though the focus on the past worked as well as focusing on the future could have. It felt somewhat repetitive for reasons that didn't benefit that specific story, where they could have done something different.

Anyways, no hate to totk, it's a good game, but I just wanted to share this as I was surprised to come across a video saying exactly what I've been thinking when I couldn't even say it.

[currantlee]

Get Your Tissues ready! We're Analyzing the German Dub of Zelda's Awakening (BotW)

Translation: Enough... It is useless. English Localization: Link, save yourself! Go!

As a Zelink shipper, I actually really love the English version of this line, where Zelda tells Link to not die for her. However, as a writer, I prefer the German version. See, in the English version of the game, Zelda strikes me as almost blind to the reality of the situation. Meanwhile, in German, she is desperate because the situation is, quite frankly, hopeless - note how she even states that it's useless (to fight) here. I'm going to come back to this later, so keep it in mind. For now, let's move on.

Translation: I beg you... You mustn't die too... English Localization: I'll be fine! Don't worry about me!

Zelda uses the expression auch noch here, which technically means too. However, it implies something happening on top of everything else, in this case, after everyone else has already died. This also serves as a transition from the previous memory, in which Zelda states (in German) that everyone is dead because of her.

Again, my Zelink heart loves the English version, but I think the German version has its own appeal. Considering that Zelda blames herself for the deaths of the four Champions, and that she doesn't want Link to die too might not sound Zelink-y at first, but consider for a second. The Champions were Zelda's friends, and one of them was her mother figure. Her father is also dead. She pretty much has only Link left at this point - and we can guess from the other memories (as this is the final once you find in the game) that even though they had a rough start, he is extremely important to her. Even though it's not as explicit as in English, I think it's still a really nice moment that shows how important he has become to her, as more than just a bodyguard.

Translation: Run away! English Localization: Run!

I really like the contrast between the scene in which Link protects Zelda from the Yiga, and this scene. There are some obvious parallels, only that in this scene, Link is too severely injured to save Zelda anymore (and in the end, she saves him instead). He tries his best though. I very much appreciate the effort that was put into his expression in this entire scene!

Translation: No!!! English Localization: No!

... Three exclaimation marks, guys. Three. Exclaimation. Marks.

Okay, but seriously, I kind of love his moment where Zelda throws herself inbetween Link and the Guardian. It contrasts nicely with how Link protects her from the Yiga earlier in the game's backstory, and also with how he tries to defend her (even though he's gravely injured) in this scene.

Translation: Was... Was that me...? English Localization: Was... Was that...

I really love that Zelda's Lullaby is sung by a choir after she purifies the Guardians. Also, the fact that she is shot from bottom view here, which makes her look greater, and also reminds me personally of the Goddess Statues a bit. All of this invokes awe, and really conveys that something very powerful and important has just happened.

On the localization note, I like that Zelda specificalls asks if she herself just did that in German. After blaming herself for pretty much everything that went wrong throughout the entire backstory and feeling useless, this is a very important moment for her, and the German localization makes it about her, both as the wielder of the sacred power to seal the darkness, and Zelda as a person.

Translation: What...?! English Localization: The power...

I like that we get a shot of the back of Zelda's hand too, showing that the triforce that appeared earlier has disappeared again.

I like that Zelda is more stunned and confused as to what just happens in the German version. In English, she seems to know what's up right away, but I actually like that she seemingly needs some time to process (which she won't get unfortunately - someone give this girl a break!) what just happened. Really helps reinforce the gravity of this event!

Translation: Oh no... Oh no, oh no! English Localization: No, no...

Despite the fact that she would need time to process what just happens, Zelda immediately looks after Link when he collapses 🥺 If that doesn't show you how much she cares about him at this point, I don't know what does.

Translation: You can't die! English Localization: Link! Get up!

Zelda uses the same phrasing (darfst nicht) as before, but this time, it's much much desperate. While before, she was trying to get Link to run, she is scared for his life now. Before, she used the phrase more in a sense of "if you keep going, you're going to die like everyone else, and you must not do that" in an attempt to get Link to run. Here she is using it more like "this can't be happening", desperate and unwilling to accept Link's impending death.

Julia Casper's (Zelda's German VA) voice acting is also phenomenal here. You can hear a little sob when she says this line, and it really conveys her despair.

Translation: Please, don't die... English localization: You're going to be just fine...

Again, same phrasing as before, only that this time Zelda is explicitly begging Link not to die in the German line. I think it's both impressive and authentic that they used the same line three times, but each time with a different connotation. Zelda is completely exhausted and stressed in this scene, so she wouldn't have time or energy to think about how she expresses everything she wants to, so she just repeats the same core thought over and over: she doesn't want Link to die.

In the English version, she seemingly tries to calm Link instead. While on its own, I do like this line (especially as a Zelink shipper!), I do not like it in the context of this scene.

Remember how I said I was going to come back to Zelda seemingly not understanding the severety of the situation or being in denial about it earlier? Yeah, this is where the scene becomes... Weird to me in English. See, we never see her realize that actually, things do not look well, and no matter if you're going with the not understanding interpretation or the denial one, this causes a break in the narrative for me. Her view on their situation seems to change in-between lines, without an actual indicator of the change. It very much comes off as unnatural to me, especially with what happens next.

No text here, just sobbing. I wanted to note this because Julia Casper's voice acting in this particular bit of the scene sounds like she is actually crying. You can hear her sob and whimper (the really quiet one she does right after Link falls unconscious always gets me the most), and it's absolutely heartbreaking. It actually had me cry too every time I saw this scene in my playthroughs of Breath of the Wild.

Translation: There... Is still hope?! English Localization: The sword...

Julia Casper makes this line (and the next one) sound like Zelda is still processing things once more, and I think it is very fitting.

Translation: Link can... Be saved? English Translation: So he can... He can still be saved?

I do like how this line and the previous one feel completely different in German and in English contentwise.

While the implication in English seems to be - at least in my opinion - that Zelda sees that the sword is still glowing, and comes to the conclusion that Link can still be saved by herself.

Meanwhile, in German the implication seems to be more that the sword tells her that Link can be saved, and she somewhat confirms this in her conversation with the Great Deku Tree later.

Translation: Princess! English Localization: Princess!

... I do not like this line. It sounds like they're playing hide and seek, not like they just found the princess who has probably gone missing in all the chaos and who probably a lot of people were worried for. In both German and English (it actually does sound a little bit better in English IMO). Kinda disturbs the scene a bit.

I do like that they actually have Zelda gasp in response to this though.

Translation: Princess! Are you alright? English Localization: Princess! Are you all right?

Yeah, that line is better.

Also, look, Zelda still has her hand on Link's chest 🥺

Translation: I have an important mission for you! English Localization: Take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection!

Zelda sounds suddenly really confident and serious with this line in both languages. My guess is that it's because she knows that if she doesn't act, then Link will die, but also because she has trouble opening up. We learn this from her diary, and we know from both that and from other memories that she feels comfortable to show her true feelings and worries around Link (who is unconscious).

Translation: Take this man to the Shrine of Life as fast as possible! English Localization: If you don't get him there immediately, we are going to lose him forever!

The Shrine of Ressurrection is called the Shrine of Life in German, possibly because the localizers thought that Schrein der Wiederbelebung or Schrein der Auferstehung sounds too complicated or too much like Link is a zombie now.

Also, Zelda calls Link a man in the German dub at this point, which actually caught me by surprise when I first played the game since Link just looks so young. I guess it's a reminder that they are already around 17 in this game, and that Link is a full-fledged knight. I also think it shows respect for Link on Zelda's part.

I actually prefer the German version of this line, simply because I think it works better in tandem with the shot we're shown. The delivery of the English line is great too though (and I say this as someone who usually doesn't like Zelda's English voiceacting that much).

Also, look how Zelda is supporting Link's head 🥺

Translation: Hurry! English Localization: Is that clear?

Two different lines here, but I think both work. I also like that we get to see the reaction of the two Sheikah guys.

Translation: Before his light of life... English Localization: So make haste and go!

Lebenslicht (Light of Life) is a more poetic way to say someone's life in German. It's not the same as light of someone's life.

Translation: ... goes out for all times! English Localization: His life is now in your hands!

Using the plural of the word time like this is actually quite common (even though using the singular wouldn't be incorrect), and I will admit that I have never really thought about why we do this before. I think in this particular case, it might be to emphasize the gravity of the situation, but this might be interesting to look into in general.

That being said, I actually prefer the English line over the German one here. I think it just provides the better ending to an overall very grave, very serious scene, that's pretty much the direct leadup to Link waking up at the beginning of the game.

In general, I think this is definitely one of the most impactful scenes in Breath of the Wild, and both the English and the German version do a great job at conveying this. The camera also works with the localizations (more or less) to improve its impact. Overall, analyzing it was very interesting.

What are your thoughts on this scene? Tell me in the comments, reblogs or tags if you want to 🙂 Thank you for reading!

[aikoiya]

Oooo!!! This is an interesting theory!!!

Hc accepted!

So I noticed something while looking through the "Creating a Champion" art book. (Not sure if this has been touched upon before sorry).

Spoiler: they were planning to have a side quest where you meet Cottla and Koko's mom, who was killed by the yiga clan in Kakariko village. Because of this, they were going to show her spirit.

What interested me, however, was the number of spirit flames she had around her. I know it's not exactly canon, since it was cut from the game, but I find it interesting how she only has 2. I'm guessing this has to do with her being an ordinary Sheikah.

But compare this to the champions and to the king: MORE SPOILERS FOR FINAL FIGHT

I'm guessing that the spirit flames indicate the level of spiritual power a spirit has, which is pretty cool!

The champions each have special ability linked to their spirits, even after death. Note how Daruk directly mentions that his protection is "from the depths of his soul"

I'm guessing that the spiritual power that the champions had played into how they were able to pilot the divine beasts. So their spirit flames indicate this power. It's a cool detail!

Edit: it's kind of ridiculous how many spirit flames the champions have if we're actually comparing the two lmao.

They're basically walking bonfires at this point.

[blueskittlesart]

just. little things. specifically right now it’s the fact that they even managed to narratively incorporate and retroactively explain the video game Instinct To Collect. like yeah you the player collect things that sparkle when you get close because you are Playing A Game but. think about it. link, fresh out of a hundred years of sleep with near-total amnesia, instantly notices and instinctively picks up edible plants and mushrooms throughout hyrule without really knowing why. and only later do we learn that he loved to cook. he knows what is and isn’t edible and what is worth collecting instinctively because he’s used those same ingredients thousands of times before. breath of the wild you are the only game that matters ever

[petrenocka]

The "Lore Accurate Link" videos on YouTube, of players doing insane combat tech really got me thinking about the threat levels in BoTW and ToTK.

Because we see in Tears from the ally soldier npcs, that a regular ass bokoblin is a real deadly threat, not even to a Hylian civilian, but to an armed militia member. I'm pretty sure the bokoblin even wins this 1v1 more often then it looses.

In Breath, a regular, base, no armor no nothing lynel is terrorizing the Zora Domain. And the Zora civilization is holding up pretty well, you would assume their soldiers significantly outclass hylian counterparts on experience alone. They should be fine, yet they still couldn't deal with the monster. Like, I get it, you have a type weakness against its arrows, for it to be this much of a deal?

To an avarage person living in Hyrule, a normal lizalfo is like a god damn Xenomorph. A single silvered bokoblin can probably massacre an entire village through the sheer factor of shrugging damage off like the Terminator.

And you, as Link, deal with these casually.

I don't remember if in BoTW the hearts and stamina are Link healing to his pre Calamity health, but even if not, in the hands of a player who felt a joystick at all before, he's canonically an absolute menace, the best swordsman who has ever lived at the age of 10. And the Link form those YouTube videos isn't a canon Link, it's Link who spent 1000 years in a time loop. The monsters beating your ass are just that horrifying.

And for me this changes the whole perspective on these games. A band of bokoblins spotted near any settlement is a legitimate cause for paranoia, maybe evacuation. And those are everywhere. People are praying when they moon comes up that it's white, because ngl, I would have a sobbing breakdown every 10th Blood Moon at least if I lived like that. Every single cave or crevice is a death sentence.

Link is actually working full blown miracles through his swordsmanship. The Divine Beast lasers and the massive explosion of the Demon Dragon, aren't comically oversized compared to everything else in the games, they just match the power our protagonist weilds.

And the implications this has for other characters. How do Champions stack up? The Yiga? Their athleticism and speed are fully superhuman. Master Kohga is a bafoon, but he is a bossfight for Link, that's still an insane level of power relative to the rest of the world.

BoTW and ToTK are horrifying. "The Legend" part of the name is fully accurate to its scale. Our POV is just ridiculously above it all.

[lizardanya]

a lot of people have already pointed out how totk has a lot of themes of imperialism and generally leans conservative ideologically, but what i think is interesting is how totk subtly redefines what a “researcher” is.

zelda wants to be a researcher in botw, and what this means in the context of botw is largely someone who works with sheikah technology. she wants to figure out ancient sheikah tech, she has an interest in botany and otherwise nature and biology (the whole silent princess and the frog thing), robbie and purah, the two characters who are the closest to us seeing what a researcher in the context of botw is are basically inventors. in totk, however, the main researchers who are presented to us are all historians.

this is an interesting pivot, because in botw zelda is not really interested in history. if anything, the one who’s deeply concerned with history is rhoam, wanting to preserve historical tradition and his uncritical reliance on said tradition and historical precedent is what leads them to their doom. in botw, zelda is narratively opposed to history, if anything, all the ancient tech backfires on them and traditions fail to awaken zelda’s power. zelda’s urge to be a researcher is in wanting to understand the world around her, not just blindly follow ancient plans but rather have agency within them.

totk, however, is obsessed with ancient plans. the only real moment where zelda gets to geek out in totk is her getting all giddy about finding out more about the divine origins of hyrule. all the researchers in the game are concerned with finding out more about the zonai. since all the mentions of ancient sheikah technology are scrubbed from the game purah and robbie read more as strange outliers, the sheikah slate is no longer, now it’s the purah pad, a product of purah rather than something larger. the whole game is literally about following an ancient plan, a plan most characters don’t fully understand as they sign up for it. totk’s main story is built on confusion, on the characters not knowing what’s fully going on but having faith in ancient sages telling them what to do. in botw, following ancient plans you don’t fully understand was the thing that doomed you. in totk, following ancient plans you don’t fully understand is the gimmick.

that juxtaposition between the two games has an ideological through line: botw posits that progress is necessary. mindlessly relying on tradition doesn’t work. prophecies are omens, not instructions. history must be learnt from, not repeated. the ancient sheikah aren’t a group to be emulated, but rather to be learnt from, considering their machinery backfired and the royal family betrayed them. totk, however, is obsessed with the mythical history of hyrule, a time where everything was idyllic until one bad man showed up, a time we must emulate in order to win. i already talked about how the past in totk is zelda’s life pre calamity but better here, but that also plays into the idolisation of that era and its royalty. in botw, even the myth of the first calamity preserves the fact that the yiga clan has origins in the royal’s family persecution of the sheikah, even the time when they successfully held back the calamity is tinged with mistakes that still affect the world ten thousand years later. in totk, ganondorf’s origins are nebulous. nobody provoked him, nobody did anything wrong, he’s just evil because he is.

a lot of right wing ideologies are hinged on preservation, but more than that: the belief in the nebulous mythical past in which everything was better. “make america great again”, the fascist’s idolisation of ancient rome which is represented largely inaccurately, look at any conservative rhetoric and you’ll see people complaining about how things nowadays are ruined or are being ruined, how in the past things were this way and they’re not anymore, which is bad. the belief in the fact that in some past period we were great and are not anymore, and the strive to emulate that past is a trait highly typical of right wing ideologies. and in totk the past as a great era is an idea presented completely uncritically, the narrative is entirely controlled by the game and doesn’t dwell on any of the inconsistencies in this idea.

now, obviously, not every story in which a great ancient era exists is fascist, right wing or conservative. but to me what’s interesting specifically in totk is this shift between the two games: botw is critical of the past. it’s critical of arrogantly repeating history, it’s critical of having blind faith in great relics of the past. totk isn’t. totk idolizes the past, totk tells legends and tells you to believe them without any doubts. botw believes researchers are those who seek to understand the world, innovate it and solve problems without relying on ancient ways. totk believes researchers are those who discover ancient instructions, ancient ways and relay them to great men in the present to be followed. the four mainline regional quests in botw are about discovering four ancient relics that are terrorising the land and fixing the mistakes of the past. the four mainline regional quests in totk are about discovering four ancient legends are true, and receiving instructions from an ancient sage on what to do.

totk is not simply neutral, it is ideologically conservative in stark contrast to botw, because of the things it chooses to leave uncriticised, notably the things botw was very poignant about examining critically. the way totk redefines what is a researcher is indicative of this, indicative of the way it chooses to idolize or present as an unexamined good that which was nuanced in botw. totk isn’t just conservative in the sense that it presents uncritically a “good king” and “evil conquerer”, it goes deeper, it’s notable because botw was starkly opposed to the thematic axioms totk presents.

i just think it’s very interesting that they made a sequel to botw, and completely redefined or otherwise ignored botw’s thematic core.

[ovegakart]

Hello yes I adore your Hylia design could we get more of it? (Skyward Sword is my favorite game) Also what are your thoughts on Fi?

we'll see about the more hylia content, depends on my mood.

My thoughts on Fi? Great character, in concept, poor execution in game. I played the wii version when it came out and while i liked her, i wish she would stop me less to tell me very obvious things in the game. Probably would have worked better as a voiced character so she can ramble about whatever without completely interrupting the player. I think they fixed a lot of that in the switch version.

[l1ve-l4ugh-lov3craft]

HI, CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT THE AKKALA CITADEL?????

Yes? Wonderful. Come, friend, have a seat. I have...a lot to say lol

Eight years later and I am STILL not over how absolutely genius this fortress is, like are you kidding me????? Everything from location to design to its inside defenses is just *chef's kiss* PHENOMINAL, and so because I have no filter, I am going to barf all my thoughts I've had on it in the past many many years.

Before we begin, shoutout to the WONDERFUL video by Zeltik that touches on this a bit and gave me a wonderful basis for my brainrot in the first place. Definitely go and watch it it's fabulous NOW! Let's get into the madness shall we? First let's talk about the location cos OHHHH MY GOSH. This was, hands down, THE best place they could have possibly put a fortress of this magnitude in Hyrule and I am going to tell you why. First of all, allllllll along the northern and northwestern border of Hyrule, there's those massive canyons

Passing over that in a way that would be effective military-wise is kind of impossible, so it provides a natural defense from invaders from those directions.

If you were to come from the South, you would hit the Gerudo desert and not only have to face the might of the Gerudo military, but also cross this EXPANSIVE, scorching desert before you can even make it to Hyrule field, and by that time, the royal leader could have very easily sent an army to intercept anyone trying to attack, so that's right out.

Which leaves coming from the Faron region next which is okay??? I guess??? but that's a LOT of swamp and forest you have to cross through, AND you go right past the Great Plateau where any army would have been seen and intercepted eventually. This takes us closer to the eastern coast of Hyrule, and you would be hard pressed to try and travel through Necluda, cos just l o o k at all these mountains you'd have to cross:

Horrible. And you probably don't want to go through Zora's Domain cos that's yet another heavily fortified and well prepared city in and of itself (please ask me about this one too I beg of you I love talking about Zora's Domain)

Any military leader with a brain isn't going to go through Death Mountain for obvious reasons, so really, all that leaves is this tiiiiiinnnyyy vulnerable spot in Akkala

And where did they put the citadel??? Right at the heart of that vulnerable spot >:D Like a boss.

AND SO! if invaders came in from that coastline, they have three options: They can take the path through the Akkala Highlands, they can go through the Torin Wetlands and up to the pass it connects to, or they can take the trail up to the Sokkala Bridges. All of these are TERRIBLE OPTIONS Akkala Highlands path: If they come up this way at the start

this will work allll the way until they get about here:

once they get here though, you are now not only bottlenecking an entire army meant to invade a kingdom (so probably roughly 1,000-1,300 people), but you're also directly under the shadow of the Akkala Citadel. There are archers there to fire on you, and they had a canon post on that side to potentially fire either at the incoming soldiers or fire at the opposite canyon wall to rain debris and rocks on them.

TERRIBLE for the other army.

And even if some did manage to survive, it would be painfully easy for the infantry at Akkala Citadel to send foot soldiers down below to cut them off.

SO THERE GOES THAT OPTION (and admittedly, I think it's probably the worst of the three)

Next option is to go through the Torin Wetlands and up into that same pass by the Citadel

this is ALSO a bad idea because the Torin Wetlands are a DELIGHTFUL tactical advantage for Hyrule. Once you get to that pass, you have the same problems as option one, but now you first have to pass through this wide marshland to get there. This will immediately slow down your army, and if that wasn't bad enough it's also in clear freakin view of the citadel and so they would be able to send their entire militia of archers and potentially even cannoneers to fire on the advancing army and take a bunch of them out before they could even make it to that pass.

So a smart general may say the best option is to go around the long way.

now this eliminates the pass and also slowing down at the marsh, and you could even make it almost all the way to the citadel without hardly any losses probably BUT! The first hurdle is those bridges. Wonderful for Hyrule, terrible for the opposing army. The three Sokkala bridges are SMALL, even smaller than the pass an army would have to go through with the other two options. This military leader would basically have to send their soldiers single file unless they have a way to expand the bridges to make them wider (which, admittedly, could be possible with a bit of foresight, but for now for simplicity's sake let's just assume they didn't think that far ahead).

This brings in an EXTREMELY slowly advancing army right to the heart of the Akkala Citadel's battery.

There are three locations with canons we see in BOTW that cover pretty much the entire open area the opposing army would come in on. And when you look at the amount of space each post covered

There is not a SINGLE spot in that valley a cannoneer couldn't easily reach. And, of course they would continue to have archers to pick off individual soldiers as well.

And if SOMEHOW

BY SOME MIRACLE

enough soldiers make it through that hell to be enough of a problem, there are plenty more soldiers in the citadel to cut them off as they come up the hill AND IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH! there was this:

by the time we get to botw, it has been destroyed, but that is ANOTHER smaller stronghold that was probably pretty well manned in and of itself.

AND WHAT'S MORE

There's even this long cliff road with very little room to operate, so it would be extremely easy for the citadel to send over some soldiers to post up there and cut off anyone who tried to make it past. And with so little room to operate, it would not go well.

Ain't NOTHING getting past the Akkala Citadel, guys.

And that isn't even touching on the fact that the whole thing is build of solid stone??? And carved into a mountain??? The entire reason it fell in the first place was because the Guardians had enough of fire power to destroy the citadel that they had never seen before (also they could climb walls but that's a side note). This implies that no one in Hyrule or the neighbouring kingdoms had even CLOSE to that level of destructive power, so to try and raze it to the ground would have been impossible.

AND!! it was the most heavily fortified fortress in Hyrule second to the castle itself, and to most likely their military personnel would have been equal too, if not slightly more than even Hyrule Castle. That's A LOT of people!! With most likely endless support and resources from the castle and villages nearby as well.

It was placed geniously, it had impenetrable defense, it had a potentially endless supply of resources and people to use said resources, it was just

argjfbdkjgbks You guys don't understand how much I THINK about this place aghhhhhhhhhh

[nikibogwater]

Been replaying Tears of the Kingdom lately, and I guess this is probably a hot take of some kind, but Ganondorf is a legitimately frightening villain to me. I suppose some of that could be due to the fact that TotK's story presentation is generally more cinematic and moody than its predecessor, but he's also conceptually scary the more I think about him within the wider context of the Breath of the Wild era.

Like, Calamity Ganon was what I would call an Objective Evil--not so much a character as much as a physical manifestation of various destructive emotions and forces. It doesn't need to be a real character in order to function in BotW's story. It's enough for us to know that it's just a big ball of hatred and murderous intent. It's creepy and gross-looking, but the evil of Calamity Ganon is ultimately generic and impersonal. It's just a symbolic representation of Bad Things that the Good Guys need to overcome.

Ganondorf, though, is in a whole other league. It's a little too easy to miss, since BotW only offhandedly mentions it once or twice, but Calamity Ganon is an extension of Ganondorf's rage. His hatred of Hyrule was so intense, that it coalesced into an independent force of evil (I do think TotK should've put way more emphasis on this point, since it made me appreciate Calamity Ganon a little more as an antagonist). But even with as powerful as it was, Calamity Ganon was merely a shadow. Ganondorf is the real deal, the complete package. Just knowing that much already makes him scarier from the get-go, but then you have to factor in his human nature. From the very beginning, Ganondorf doesn't fight like the Calamity did. His attacks are targeted, personal, and just as often psychological as they are physical. He doesn't just bust out of Hyrule Castle and start murking people right away. He starts by parading a false puppet version of Zelda around the kingdom. He breaks the trust Hyrulians have in their leader, which would likely dampen their resolve to resist his coup. And when that doesn't work, he redirects his attention to Link, who he knows is both fiercely loyal to and protective of the princess. The climax of the "Crisis at Hyrule Castle" questline is genuinely chilling to me, because by that point, both the player and Link know that this isn't the real Zelda calling to him--but it doesn't matter, because Ganondorf knows that Link will always come charging after his princess, whether because he thinks he can save her, or because he's hellbent on outing the fake and preserving Hyrule's trust in the real Zelda. Ganondorf straight-up toys with Link, torments him with these glimpses of a lost loved one, and the life they used to have in the castle. This isn't a mindless force of evil anymore, this is someone who understands the human heart and how to manipulate it. Because he is human, at least in a strictly biological sense.

I totally get where people are coming from when they say they found this iteration of Ganondorf disappointing. I can understand finding Wind Waker's more nuanced and complex Ganondorf more interesting as a character. But the lack of human complexity in TotK's Ganondorf is actually the thing that makes him such an effective villain to me. There's something so viscerally unsettling about a man who knows exactly what love is, but never feels it. One who doesn't stop at simply rejecting it, but actively wields it as a weapon. And that's what makes his ultimate defeat so much more satisfying to me.

[gothic-soda]

> Becomes a Champion

> Is the only one without magic or a special glowy sword

> Just a guy that flies good and shoots bomb arrows

> First interaction with the main character is challenging him to a duel in a place he cannot reach

> Dies

> Calls the guy who defeated his killer lucky

> Girlies on tumblr decide to ship them, is one of the most popular ships in the fandom

> Becomes simultaneously one of the most loved and most hated characters in the Zelda franchise

> Still has a group of loyal fans despite the last game he was even in being released over 3 years ago

> Refuses to elaborate

> Leaves

[ophanim-vesper]

Random thought but do you ever think about how Zelda possibly can't view Hyrule Castle the same ever again. She literally experienced its origins for herself. The home she grew up in, the stone walls she was born in and have seen for almost her entire life was not a home. It was never a home. It was a grave. A stake that keeps the evil at bay. A tombstone that weighs down what lies beneath its grounds. The kingdom's mistake. Its dark past. Imagine finding out THAT'S what's been under your feet since the moment you learned how to walk. What generations of your family have been living with just above its seal. And even before TOTK, too much had happened there for Zelda to even reconsider living there again. It's where she grew up in, yes, but it's also where she was pressured to save the world at 17. It's where she endured the last grueling 100 years. It's where the Calamity was born-- arguably an evil that had plagued her life most physically, emotionally and mentally, to the point she questioned if she even deserved being Hyrule's princess.

What do you do when you have a house you want to love, but too much has happened in its walls that it's no longer a home?

[confess-for-botw-totk]

Am I the only one who thinks “royalist/monarchist propaganda” is a tad dramatic and just a bit much? This game is in many ways comparable to classic disney films in it’s depiction of a fairytale monarchy. I don’t think it is trying to make a serious political statement about real world monarchies. That isn’t always what the goal is in storytelling. Sometimes you just need a conflict in that world.

And this is a tangent that I know for a fact will be a hot take, but… just because you, as a player, are anti-monarchy, doesn’t suddenly mean the characters are or need to be? I even think that to state Revali is entirely anti-monarchy isn’t necessarily completely true as by the end of aoc’s story or botw’s memories he likes Zelda herself as a friend (evidence being things like appreciating the scarf). This is, however, especially OOC when it’s applied to Link and Zelda. Link chose to remain Zelda’s knight according to fujibayashi and Creating a Champion, and well, just look at the design of the Champion’s Leathers. He is wearing the crest of the royal family twice on his body and it’s his clothing of choice when we have no control over him. Everything about the design screams *pride* in being a knight linked to the royal family, not shame or hatred. The other symbols are the same as on his royal guard gear. It not only has a sentimental meaning, it commands respect, a level of authority. I don’t think this would be his primary clothing choice if he supposedly wanted to just up and abandon it all?

Then when it comes to Zelda, it’s less that she “didn’t want to be a princess”, and more she felt like a *failure* of one, completely unable to help her people. If she didn’t want to princess anymore at all, she could have abandoned her title completely after botw, but she didn’t.

Sometimes the characters in a story chose or act differently than you would in their position, have different values and wants than you do. Personally I’m cool with that.

I think this kind of discourse also stems from an inherent cultural disconnect western players have with the culture this game comes from, but I’ve rambled enough for one ask.

_*_

[jxsterr]

back at it again but this time i’m worked up thinking about zelink and sleeping as a way to deal with all of the trauma of immediate post calamity.

because, realistically, they are both going to be beyond exhausted. that fight took everything they had within them and more—link had been preparing for it for months on end without so much as a proper night’s rest, and zelda had been slaving away for the better part of a century using every ounce of energy within her to keep this beast at bay. so it’s pretty reasonable that the first thing the pair of them are going to yearn for is a bed and some damn good sleep now that blood moons won’t be knocking on the window every few days.

but just hear me out. for the first couple of days going on weeks link’s only priority is making sure zelda is okay. he cooks for her, makes sure she’s drunk enough water, and keeps the bedsheets clean and comfortable for her to collapse into them whenever she wants. she’s essentially bedbound for the first week, only ever able to really sit up to eat for a bit before the waves of exhaustion call for her to come crashing back down against her pillow—whether or not she wants to. she’s in no fit state to do anything, bless her, and he recognises that. he’s exhausted beyond reason himself but someone has to be the one sat beside her bed, ready to soothe the night terrors that inevitably creep their way into her unsuspecting mind. he doesn’t really care either. the woman who has haunted everything he’s come across in this world, whose presence has touched almost every memory he can conjure up, whose spirit he just can’t seem to shake because he knows there’s something there, a reason as to why he can’t help but heed her call no matter what he does, has just returned to him. the only surviving remnant of his past, the only face he so desperately wanted to see smile again for reasons he couldn’t dig up—of course nursing her back to health is his first priority.

but she worries about him too, about her knight turned friend who just won’t stop doing things for her despite the fact that she can see the very consequences of his fatigue etched deep into his skin. she wants so desperately for him to stop for a moment and sit with her and let her do something in amongst it all. he’s so much lighter than he used to be before he died but by hylia herself has he not shed the skin of a warrior. he laughs more, talks with a little less restraint, and pulls out all sorts of ridiculous things he’s accrued across his travels for her to marvel at while sat up in bed—all for shadows to have set so deeply under his eyes and his face to have lost a little bit of that roundness she’d grown so fond of. she can see how much he needs to sleep too, to rejuvenate again even though he would simply argue that all he’s done is sleep. she sees it when she peers over the loft banister and finds him, face against arms, asleep at the kitchen table, or when she wakes up and realises he’s fallen asleep sat on the floor with his head against the mattress again and all she can do is feel guilt that she has his bed and not him.

so one day she has enough. she waits until she’s settled into bed with him on a stool at her side, book in hand, otherwise he’ll fall asleep himself, and she plucks it unceremoniously from his hands and discards it on the bedside table. she waits until he looks at her thoroughly bewildered for her to finally muster up the courage to say, “i need you to sleep, link. i see how exhausted you are, i see how much you push yourself. i feel awful for being the only one in this bed, so please, do me a favour, and sleep beside me,” and stares at him with enough conviction to move mountains that her own eventually concedes and climbs in next to her.

it’s nothing more than two bodies sleeping next to one another for the first few days, but it’s enough that it makes a visible impact on the pair of them. zelda sleeps better, more soundly, with a considerable dip in the number of night terrors, while link himself finally just sleeps for the first time in what feels like years. it does them wonders. so much so, in fact, they sleep away the first two days entirely. link wakes up, groggy, and turns over with the intention of getting out of bed because goddess knows what time it is and she probably needs something to eat—but a sleep-ridden hand moves quick enough to land on his shoulder with something mumbled about ‘don’t leave’ and it’s so sincere and desperate that he gives in and turns back over, only for said hand to only still once it nestles itself against the palm of his hand. he’s too drowsy to even think much of it so he just curls his hand around hers in return until that signature hum of hers rings out to signify that her wants have been quelled.

it continues like that, small increases in physical affection, until it’s the norm to absolutely entangle themselves in one another. until zelda is able to do more around the house but potters down the loft stairs in search of him to tug gently at his arm and tell him that she’s tired—a silent ask to come to bed with her even if it’s the middle of the day—and he obliges every time. it’s nice, being this useless to the world, enough where they can gather as much of themselves as they need to by merely sleeping the days away. until their mornings are signified by the raise of the moon and the slow bleed of pinks and oranges into the sky signalling their retreat to bed.

every nap goes the same, too. zelda scoots herself into the inner side of the bed and lays with arms outstretched, waiting for her knight to come clambering in between them so she may wrap them tightly around his warm body and pull him close until his face is nestled deeply into her chest, protecting him the way she’s always wanted to. she may not be able to wield a sword, but she can protect his open heart for as long as her hand weaves through his locks until she feels his body go slack against her. she likes her corner, he likes the safety of her arms, it works perfectly.

impa doesn’t appreciate just how long it’s taken them to realise they’ve been sleeping away the days for over a month now, and thus are visiting late, but it’s hard to object when her princess is sparkling and link looks more like himself than he ever has.

[distantkairi]

I like the subtle way TotK shows that Link has regained his memories, grown older and more mature. While he is still a goof sometimes, he jokes much less overall (it also better fits the tone of the story that he's less often in a joking mood). TotK Link always handles the Master Sword seriously, while BotW Link does so for a whole of five minutes before proceeding to essentially show off. It's subtle things like that that show how one is a teenage boy (and one with memory loss) and the other a young man who very much knows who he is.

[blueskittlesart]

*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?

tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.

[descendant-of-truth]

Few things drive me insane like the claim that "3D Zelda was getting stagnant anyway, so even with its flaws, Botw was a necessary change for the series"

What stagnancy?? Was 3D Zelda stagnant when they gave Link four separate, unique social standings in his hometowns across each new version? Or when they flooded Hyrule in one game and had it be an undiscovered land in another? Was it when they turned Link into a wolf for half the game, or had him fly around on a bird, or sail the seas, or transform between three different species by swapping out different masks?

Did 3D Zelda effectively showcase stagnancy when it gave every single entry a completely unique, visually striking art style and atmosphere? To the point where even Majora's Mask, famous reuser of assets, is impossible to mistake for its predecessor?

Everything I've heard to justify this mindset that Zelda somehow "needed" such a drastic change falls completely flat in the face of just how much the series was thriving before Botw came out. Every single major 3D release was just nonstop back-to-back bangers, and yet somehow people are acting like they were just OoT copy/pasted several times.

And they always end up reaching for the most, just... inane things to use as evidence for this supposed lack of originality.

"They were reusing too many of the same items!" Yeah because the items were cool and people liked using them. Also they were very much adding new items to the familiar pool each time, so I fail to see the issue here

"The story is always the same! You start somewhere with lots of trees, then you go to the same old locations with water and lava, blah blah blah you're the chosen one and have to go save Zelda and fight Ganon" Hey you know what other game you're describing the plot of. Breath of the Wild

(But honestly it was hard for any of that to feel stale for me when the execution of each of those steps was different each time. y'know. the thing that actually matters in storytelling)

"The intros in Zelda games used to be sooo long, but now I can even run straight to Ganon if I want!" So what you're admitting here is that not experiencing the story is a positive thing for you. In a game series that heavily prioritized its narrative up until now. I mean, based on that statement alone, being able to skip the majority of the game is supposed to be a positive? In a game THIS gigantic?

Also, let's not act like Botw's intro is better just because it can be completed quickly. It doesn't even hold up narratively compared to the others. There's intrigue, yes, but in terms of your immediate activities? Nothing particularly bombastic to write home about.

Ever notice how every other 3D Zelda before Botw has an inciting incident whose consequences are immediately followed up on? But sure, go on, tell me more about how boring they were because they dared to develop things before tossing you to the monsters.

And no matter how you might try to spin it, switching to an open world is not inherently a "natural progression" for the series. It's just something completely different from what it was doing before. That's like saying Battle Network was a natural progression of the original Megaman formula - neither one is bad, but nobody was playing Megaman and thinking "man, if only this was a pseudo turn-based game with a deck building mechanic and my movement was restricted to a grid"

Anyway, join me next time for when I talk about how Botw Link is far and away the worst-written Link despite my personal enjoyment of him, and how sick I am of people acting like this is when he finally "got a personality"