#botw is one of my top loz games

[notyonatto]

There’s so much that Nintendo got wrong with the botw /warriors calamity games that i could really sink my teeth into. I’ve been continuously bitter at them for being such cowards with the angst. They had so much potential for a truly horrifically painful storyline that would’ve highlighted the sorrowful beauty and joy in the happy ending. That game could’ve ripped out soooooo many hearts and then tenderly sewn back together, different and scarred but hopeful and healed by the end of the plot. They had the chance and they absolutely fumbled it

[uwudonoodle]

Happy 7th birthday Breath of the Wild!

[minijenn]

Happy first birthday Tears of the Kingdom, you beautiful fucking mess of a game

[jelixpo]

I saw the extended trailer for Loz: Echoes of Wisdom (which you can watch here) today and loved Zelda's Gerudo-esk outfit at 3:34 and since BotW is one of my favourite games of all time I decided to try my hand at combining the artistic styles of both games (or rather, taking the outfit from Echoes of Wisdom and putting my own spin on it).

The chibi style is kind of difficult to make out what exactly the outfit looks like but I thought the top looked either like it was made of feathers or stringed beads, so I went with beads cause I liked the idea of seeing the beads whip around as Zelda fights. I also took a lot of inspiration from Link's Gerudo disguise from BotW for most of the details, along with adding some of Zelda's details from BotW (the hair braid, the hair pin, ect.).

Where is the light source coming from, you may ask? ... shhhhhhhut up

[cooking-with-hailstones]

The Legend of Zelda: stats of the kingdom

A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3

I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So over the past couple weeks, I’ve been making this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the Legend of Zelda fandom on AO3.

Feel free to go explore the spreadsheet. My own observations and analysis under the cut.

TL:DR, Link has a lot of kinky sex. Sidlink and Zelink are vying for who’s the most popular ship. Also, this fandom has a shit ton of sub categories that are truly islands unto themselves and have their own conventions.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of AO3 results (20 fics per page) sorted by:

Hits

Kudos

Comments

Bookmarks

Anything tagged under the Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms tag that was in the top 20 most hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks made it into the spreadsheet. This ended up including 51 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Popular fandom subcategories:

Botw (41 fics tagged as such)

Linked Universe (9, including one mostly set in the world of BOTW)

OoT (2)

(I do wonder what it would be like to run these numbers on other fanfic sites, given the popularity boom of ao3 over the last 15 years or so. But also, Botw was an insanely popular game even by Zelda standards, so… who knows?)

Tags:

Character tags: Obviously, Link was by far the most popular character, but here are the characters that had a minimum of 3 appearances per category. Yay champions!

Zelda

Sidon

Mipha

Urbosa

Revali

Daruk

Story tags: Again, just going by sheer numbers, here are the story tags that appeared at least 3 times in every category:

Slowburn

AU – canon divergence

With honorable mentions to fluff, angst, double penetration, anal sex, amnesia/memory loss, and mute or selectively mute Link, who all cracked above 3 instances in 2 separate categories.

Relationships:

This was a tight race, but shoutout to Sidlink for eking out the win for the most highly rated ship in the Zelda fandom with 13 fics qualifying in my ranking. Zelink is close behind at 10 fics. (That being said, Zelink takes it by volume: 7,797 fics tagged as Zelink vs Sidlink’s 2,193)

Other popular ships:

Revalink (8) (this one surprised me! I didn’t realize my beloved birb was so popular)

Miphlink (3)

Link/Monsters (2)

Sidon/Reader (2)

Ganzelink, Ganlink, Malink, Miphzelink, and Miphzel all made single appearances.

(Pls don’t start ship war discourse in the notes kthanx)

All right, let’s deep dive into the numbers!

Fics in all 4 categories:

Interim - starkraving

Sands of time -tirsynni

Congrats you are officially the most popular Loz fics across all of ao3! at least according to my particular scope of analysis.

Fics in 3 categories:

Displaced - socksock

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

Popular authors (people who show up more than once in multiple categories sorry comments georg)

MarquesGillette

MaryDragon

SilvermistAnimeLover

ObakeAri

Hits:

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Displaced - socksock

Interim - starkraving

To Save Hyrule - orphan_account

Sands of time - tirsynni

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

First page by hits:

Min: 117,917 – Sidon’s Epic Pining Adventure (ObakeAri)  

Max:  189,622 – Displaced (socksock)

Average: 145,385

Average wordcount for fics with the most hits:

140,909

Kudos:

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Interim - starkraving

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

26 Minutes and 42 Seconds - T_5Seconds

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

First page by kudos:

Min: 4917 – Finding Link (Umbreonix)

Max:  10321 – Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (Icka M Chif)

Average: 6981

Average wordcount for fics with the most kudos:

41,136

Comments:

Top 5 most popular fics by comment count:

Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes - KR5

This is an Adjuration - notfreyja

My Art - KR5

Sidon's Epic Pining Adventure - ObakeAri

Priestess of War - KR5

Woohoo! You all get to meet KR5 aka Comments Georg. Comments Georg has long conversations and RPs in the comments of their ao3 posts, which are usually fanart. TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND COOL! I think it’s quite delightful! However, it does completely bork my ranking system because outside of comments, these posts do not have a lot of engagement (like, less than 100 hits and less than 20 kudos) and I don’t think they count towards my analysis of “what is popular in the Zelda fandom writ large”. But they qualified based on my criteria. Which I think speaks to the weakness of my criteria more than anything else tbh…

Anyways, shoutout to Comments Georg for truly showing off what it means to be a statistical outlier.

First page by comments:

Min: 1568 – The Quiet River Rages (MaryDragon)

Max:  43808 - Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes (KR5)

Average: 4131 (which goes down to 2042 if we exclude KR5’s impressive max, which is a full order of magnitude more than notfreyja in second place with 3470 comments. Very much demonstrating the power of a statistical outlier!)

Average wordcount for fics with the most comments:

275,593

Bookmarks:

Top 5 most popular fics by bookmarks count:

Interim - starkraving

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Sands of time - tirsynni

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

First page by bookmarks:

Min: 973 – Expatriate (thehoyden)

Max:  2984 – Interim (starkraving)

Average: 1468

Average wordcount for fics with the most bookmarks:

70,027

Fic Ratings:

G: 3 (literally all fanart from KR5)

T: 22

M: 8

E: 17

Unrated: 1

Observations:

I ran this twice. Once including crossovers, and once excluding crossovers. This filtered out a lot of large drabbles and things like “flash fiction fuckings” which, no judgment, you do you, they just weren’t super relevant for what I was looking for. If you wanna see these stats including all the multifandom stuff that shows up, here’s the link for that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXDKXutIzVC-Iac93fFSDohAkphrn67yV-DmRt9xXmU/edit?usp=sharing

(I’m going to break academic professional analysis here and get on my soapbox for a sec – please don’t post big multifandom one shots where you tag like 20 different fandoms and every single kink that gets written about across 103 different chapters. This is literally what series are for. These kinds of things just clog up the tags, and it also makes it harder for people to find the things you’ve written that they want to read! I know this was a convention on ff.net, but this is not ff.net! We can make authors' lives and readers' lives easier!)

There were 38,427 fics in the tag “Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms” (including crossovers, that goes up to 41,634). I manually added one back in though because it was entirely a botw story, just loosely inspired by another game.

Linked Universe fans comment a LOT. Strong correlation between high comment and Linked Universe fandom subsection. Y’all are very involved and active, and you show support to your authors. I salute you!

Sidlinkers, y'all are horny and I respect it.

Zelinkers, dear god we do love a slowburn.

All the most highly kudos’d fics are very low in the comment count. It’s almost an inverse correlation.

Excluding crossovers increased the correlation between hits and kudos quite dramatically.

There were not very many au’s other than canon divergence. Only one modern au as far as I could tell from a cursory examination of tags.

Lots more clustering, far less disparity between min and max numbers than when I ran this with A:TLA numbers.

Far less consensus on a vibe. Way fewer big writers, but lots of little writers doing their own thing.

Truly a lot of E fics. We are horny bastards.

We need more stuff written for games other than BOTW!!

There aren’t as many fics that are like “oh everyone in the fandom has read these fics”. There are probably those fics in each subcategory of the fandom, or within the specific ships, but there aren’t as many general fics that have entire fandom-wide appeal.

Thank you for reading! This was a lot of fun, and I hope you found it interesting. Shoutout to the Hateno Hangout discord for helping me refine this mess :P

Further shoutout to my partner who helped with writing some SQL to help with tag analysis. Truly partner of the year.

If you want more of this kind of egregious nerdiness, I did this with the top fics in the A:TLA fandom a couple weeks ago: https://www.tumblr.com/cooking-with-hailstones/751749202663669760/statistical-analysis-of-the-most-popular-atla

[mistresslrigtar]

I heard you got a crummy ask earlier so I figured I'd send you a genuine one :) I want to know your top 3 favorite Zelda games!

Aw ty @mailrebel ☺️

Here are my top three Zelda games:

BotW/TotK - they can deny it until they are blue in the face but this is the game where Nintendo admitted that Zelink is real. And the first one since OOT that has made me cry.

ALBW - loved the gameplay and the story of Lorule. I have hopes that EoW is going to be a similar game. (Maybe even in the same timeline a few years after ALBW)

OOT - this was the first Zelda game I ever played and from the moment I started it I was hooked. I loved everything about it, but most especially (being a music major) ALL the music blew me away. I can’t say there’s been another game (Zelda included) like it. There’s a reason it’s a fan favorite and timeless.

I’m tagging anyone who wants to share their top three LoZ games!

[abbyzwrites]

I got tagged by @mailrebel to list my top 3 Zelda games! And even tho this is mainly a writing blog, I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with my writing without first playing LoZ😊

1. Breath of the Wild - I’m very new to the fandom, and I started playing my very first Zelda game (this one) in 2023, a month before Tears of the Kingdom came out. It was because of the begging and pleading of my husband, who wanted someone else in the house to get excited about the new game with. I didn’t even know what the Master Sword was, or who the main villain of the series was. Jokes on him, now half the Zelda merch in our house is from me and I’m constantly telling him about my fanfiction😂

2. Tears of the Kingdom - I played this a few months after finishing BoTW, right after finishing Skyward Sword. By that point, I had done a deep dive into Zelda lore. I read books, watched videos, started thinking about writing fanfiction, and all of my conversations were nonstop LoZ. So I was truly able to approach this game with the knowledge of what games it was drawing from, and get excited about the little Easter eggs it left throughout

3. Skyward Sword - when I finished Breath of the Wild, I called my husband and asked if there’s any game where Zelink is pretty much canon. He said “well, Skyward Sword has it, but you’re going to hate playing it.” (At this point BoTW was literally one of 3 video games I had ever beaten in my life). It took a lot of trial and error, but I was determined to finish it. And the story, the art style, the characterizations - all of it was absolutely perfect!

[shadows-writing-lounge]

Enjoy pig demon/monster stuff. You can tell when I got sleepy of I did not edit it out.

Content: Monsterfuckery of course, inhuman genitalia, hardcore domination?

Reader Info: you/your Gender neutral, body neutral.

General Headcanons

Ganon's Goods

There's multiple types of ganons all are large and have some pig/boarish(with exceptions) attributes but their severity varies. I'm going separate them into categories.

Pigish Ganons

LoZ Gannon, OoS/OoA Ganon, Four Swords Adventures, AltTP/ALBW Ganon (and Yuga Ganon.)

Rounder chunky boys. Piggy faces usually wielding a trident and without Ganondorf appearing in the game.

They appear around the same size and have equal chance of having humanoid cocks vs one more accurate of their pig counterpart. Which has a more corkscrew shape. Feel free to pick and imagine which one you want. They'd probably be around the same length. The human cock being fatter. The corkscrew cock being thinner but curved.

Big balls. That's all.

Imagine them having little pig tails. Tease them a bit over it.

Boarish Monster Ganon

OoT Ganon, Hyrule Warriors,

Sharper features, at least semi humanoid. Welding weapons and are direct transformations of Ganondorf. Also have long tails.

Oot is probably taller with standing at full height since he's bipedal. Hw has a more hunch posture making it hard to gadge.

Same as before with probability of both humanoid or corkscrew cocks. Though I feel Oot is probably more human leaning.

They have good solid horns/tusks so feel free to give them a tug.

Monster Ganon

Calamity Ganon from both BoTW and AoC

Humanoid but clearly monstrous.

BoTW is sort of built like a malice powered drider with extra limbs. I'm torn on if it would have the equipment but you're here for dicks so you'll get them. It's probably fleshy akin to his not mechanical arms. Would a condom protect you from malice? Let's just assume it would. Horny defeats Malice and Gloom. The shape of their dicks could literally be anything. No balls sadly.

Looking up AoC the most common pic you'd see is him literally presenting his crotch so he fucks.

Where's his dick you my ask, genital slit I answer. It's invisible unless aroused and then a dick comes out. People who read stuff with monster/non human characters know what's up.

I want to say he has a ridged cock but it's just as likely to be smooth. No external testicles.

I can't help but think about the Pyronite from Ben 10 when I see him.

Dark Beast Ganon

BoTW Dark Beast Ganon and TP Dark Beast Ganon.

They mostly resemble wild boars. I was hesitant to put BoTW Dark Beast Ganon but decided he was fine he's a demon boar made of malice.

Most likely to have inhuman junk. Though you're definitely not taking BoTW. You can try if you want.

Small Bonus: Agahnim

An alter ego of Ganon that I remembered while looking at sprites and models for Ganons to get sizes and such. He's probably the shortest Ganon adjacent character. Either average height or just breaking above average. Same with his sizes. Probably willing to use magic in kinky ways though.

Ganon's Kinks

-They share kinks with their Ganondorf counterparts though you probably aren't going to top or dominate any of the Ganons though some would like to see you try.

-Really the closest you get is pulling tusked/horned Ganons around maybe guiding them down between your legs.

-(All) Size kink returns as well as power imbalances roleplay. You're so small in his fist/underneath him surely you know your place and will submit. He only achieved this form due to his sheer power you won't win.

-(All) Exhibitionism except without jealousy as a factor he doesn't care as much in these form. He's already the most powerful should he not conquer what's his?

Reader Insert Headcanons

For the pigish Ganons his underlings rely on you to keep him relatively calm. They are grateful even if they have to catch eyefuls of you tending to their master.

-Often any aftercare is done by the underlings. They clean up after you're done. OoA/OoS Ganon has Veran and Onox to care for you. The dark fairy and dark dragon will be willing to finish the job as well if you're unsatisfied. Just don't tell their bosses.

Being Oot Ganondorf's partner and after he defeats that pesky hero of time comes to you in this monstrous form. Adrenaline running through his system and not wanting to admit he was possibly, a mere inkling, worried about his own demise.

-It's not hard to recognize your lover in this form. Easier still is recognizing his arousal. It's probably the most gentle fuck out of all the Ganons. If you wish for roughness there's plenty of time later. Ganondorf is still adjusting to this form after all.

AoC Calamity Ganon stands out in appearance both other Ganons and somehow the blights and BoTW Calamity Ganon. While BoTW Calamity Ganon would spread Malice on contact AoC seems to burn it?

Either way it'll have the same sensation. If you have ever put ice inside a hot drink and drank some and there's a sensation of like swirling hot and cold, that's what I imagine touching Malice feels like. It's warm but also leeching your warmth. So imagine that sensation while getting reamed.

[powdermelonkeg]

I need your opinion on something; the spirit train from spirit tracks.

What material do you think it's made from? I figure the shiny goldish trimming is some kind of metal like gold or brass, the top part of the passenger car is probably wood and glass, and the red roof on both that and the locomotive is wood as well I think? But I'm not really sure if everything that's blue is wood or metal?

So, this is a multifaceted answer, because I have three separate opinions on it.

In my head, it's wooden. The default train you get for the tutorial is wooden, and metal trains to me either look silver or black.

Adding to this theory is the distinct lack of bolts. Compare to the endgame arena, the Demon Train:

Look how many bolts that baby has! Look how shiny it is! This is absolutely made of metal.

In broader Nintendo Lore (NOT LoZ lore), the Spirit Engine IS metal. Look how it's portrayed in Smash:

The passenger car almost certainly has wooden frames around the windows, but on everything else, the edges have been made to look like metal, bolts included. However, I don't consider this design canon in the world of Hyrule, because it was worked on by different artists than the ones that made Spirit Tracks. What likely happened here is that they were shown a reference picture and told to make it into a stage.

Now, let's get into the worldbuilding answer. Based on it being a steam engine (and ignoring the fact that it doesn't use coal, instead taking energy from the tracks it runs on), wood wouldn't make sense to make an engine out of. The steam would warp it, the firebox is a fire hazard, and the damage this baby sustains as it rides would splinter to bits if it was made of wood.

Yes, I'm aware that there's a wooden train, but there's also a dessert train, and unless strawberry shortcake suddenly has structural integrity, we can't take the customized trains to be any more canon than the Nintendo Switch shirt Link can find in BotW.

But it's not plain metal, either. No bolts visible, and it's colorful. And it's something that hasn't been used in ages, a gift from the gods, without so much as a speck of rust on it.

You know what it does look like, though?

Crimsonine, Azurine, and Aquanine.

These metals helped make up the Phantom Sword in the previous game, Phantom Hourglass, and are the only thing capable of defeating the monster Bellum. With the Spirit Train, they could easily be what makes such a tanky-but-speedy, old-but-functional engine. The colors are a little duller than the raw ores, so maybe they patina over time, like copper.

But what about the gold?

I'd like to direct your attention to one more ore of a similar nature.

This is called Master Ore. It's the material in A Link Between Worlds that's used to give the Master Sword more power. It has a similar crystal formation to the three Pure Metals, and channels magic well enough to defeat monsters with more ease than the regular Master Sword, of all things.

Granted, we find it in a different branch of the official timeline. But there's no reason a resource would just not exist between timelines, just not be widely known.

So, in short: I think the most likely answer as to what the Spirit Train is made of is Master Ore, the three Pure Metals, and possibly steel/iron alloys with the above metals for things like the body of the engine, the wheels and drive rods, and the metal of the cannon.

[tnc-n3cl]

Fic Author Interview

Thanks for the tag @unmaskedcardinal!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Five although one of them is really a rough draft of another fic.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

264,548! (There's way more on the way though...)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Amnesiac Hero's Quest (T, BotW AU covering when Link leaves the Great Plateau until just after freeing Vah Ruta (and Mipha), 14 chapters, only finished fic so far) 50 kudos.

Link's Story: Finding Hateno Village (T, BotW AU, pretty much what it says on the tin, Link leaves Kakariko going towards Mt. Lanaryu by mistake and tries to find his way to Hateno Village. This is the one that spawned TAHQ, oneshot, the first thing I posted on AO3.) 21 kudos.

Shifting Tides of Fate (M, BotW AU picking up where TAHQ leaves off, Link and Mipha head to Rito Village to save Revali and free Vah Medoh, 6 chapters posted, WIP) 11 kudos.

The Ballad of Kass (M (originally T), BotW AU starting a week or two before the start of TAHQ, Kass sets out to find Link to fulfil his promise to his teacher, and his sister Kalia tags along. Second thing I posted, kind of the backbone to the whole The Realm Walker saga at this point [cause it intersects with the other stories so I have to time things out carefully], 15 chapters posted, WIP) 8 kudos.

The Tale of the Realm Walker (M, Wind Waker & Twilight Princess sequel with a ton of nods to the rest of the franchise (a LOT of ALttP). Chronologically the first story in TRW Saga, but I'm effectively telling it as an in-universe tale in BotW times, and it's the most recently posted fic of mine on AO3, only 2 chapters posted so far, WIP) 2 kudos.

The first two fics for sure got hit by the kudos bug a while ago. Kudos Georg I guess... Given that they've been up the longest I can see why they've got more than the others.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! If someone took the time to comment on my fics then I'm going to say something back. I'm am very much here for the community aspect. Even though I may not always comment on something I've read (or art I've looked at).

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Well the only one with an ending so far is TAHQ and it's fairly happy. Hm... How to not spoil plans? If it was finished then The Tale of the Realm Walker would be the answer. I'll uh... leave it at that...

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

See above, The Amnesiac Hero's Quest.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not anymore, I had some batcrap insane hypothetical video game ideas that were crossovers, but those have all mostly been tossed. Though I did salvage plenty of ideas from them. The Realm Walker Saga itself came from a LoZ/Final Fantasy crossover, "Project 47" as well. Untitled Castelvania Fanfic Project... Untitled Front Mission Fanfic Project...

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that'd be pretty cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but one of the stories in my Trek fanfic got an editor. Went by the username of USS Da Vinci (IIRC) on Subspace Comms Network (SCN, a now defunct Star Trek and Sci-Fi forum I was on).

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I guess Revalink. Or Picard/Crusher?

14. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

At this point I've more or less made my peace with the death of my Trek and Stargate fics. Do I think about them still? Yes. (I'd give my aliens with the space whale ships Discovery style spore drives... Maybe throw in a Kelpian character or two...) (Had a blast rewatching most of the Ori arc of SG-1 not that long ago...)

15. What are your writing strengths?

Action scenes, quirky humor (I make myself laugh at least), describing what characters are doing in a scene.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Scenery porn. I so rarely mention time of day or anything. I have to really sit down and focus on all that, so lately I've just been hammering out an arc and then going back and fluffing all that up in edits. (Although I am particularly proud of a few scenes in The Ballad of Kass and Shifting Tides of Fate.)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I actually tried this with a little teaser for my Castlevania fic idea. The scene takes place in Austria so I decided to have the opening few lines be in German then switch to English, cause while I did take a couple classes in college, I don't know nearly enough to write a whole dialog chain. So throughout the little snippet there'd be a German line or two. Used Google translate for things I didn't know, but it was giving me something weird for "My name is..." [Also stared at Google Maps of Graz for HOURS picking locations, even though the fic is set 1,071 years in the future after a society ruining cataclysm... I must have some accuracy!]

I have made up words for fics. I've got 11 whole alphabets for the Avestrens (bird people) in "Project 47" and a handful of words. A handful of Rito words. Back in my Trek fic days I was writing in script format and would just put things like [Cardassian curse] rather than trying to come up with something.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Star Trek, it was script based and set 10 years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. Multiple spinoffs were planed spanning a period of 50 years. (I had started writing the sequel before finishing the first fic, and wrote a little bit of some of the other spinoffs.)

19. What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I can't really think of anything. I'd like to do something with my Castlevania or Final Fantasy ideas but I'd need the right mood or inspiration to get anywhere. I'm not much of a shipper to be honest, at least with canon characters I guess? I like making my OC's kiss...

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

Oh that's hard! The initial version of The Tale of the Realm Walker has a special place in my heart, but gods it's all walls of text! How did I ever keep track of everything?! The Ballad of Kass is a place for me to go nuts with Rito headcanons and have fun with the birbs until I can get the Revali centric fics really going. I'm proud of actually finishing The Amnesiac Hero's Quest (I love moment where Link finally meets Purah and is convinced that there's something in the water in Hateno that makes everyone a weirdo and she put it there. He's getting his red string and nails ready...).

I guess just for semantics sake, since "written" is past tense, I'll go with TAHQ as my final answer (this time around) since it's finished.

No Pressure Tags: @critical-birb, @zeawesomebirdie, @readwritebeawesome

[ezdotjpg]

some totk thoughts under the cut! spoilers ahead

okay so far I’ve played through the wind and water temples and I’ve just reached the fire temple, and I’ve gotten like??? half the dragon’s tears memories?? so that’s what we’re working with. 

I need u all to know that at the start of Tulin’s section, I completely missed that I was supposed to go to the top of hebra peak and climb up the sky islands until i reached the storm. so I just decided. that I would hot air balloon all the way up there???? and it WORKED until both the balloon and the zonai platform I was on broke (which. I did not realize could happen for some reason). so I managed to land on the very top island before you start having to jump up the ships, except I guess I got there too early bc Tulin peaced out on me. 

and then I just. straight up could not find him SKJHFJ i looked EVERYWHERE. i went to the quest marker and then the quest marker moved and then I went where it moved and he still wasn’t there. i even got desperate and went on reddit and I still couldn’t find him. I truly thought I soft locked myself until he randomly spawned halfway up the island chain and I was able to continue JHFKDJG so i guess I really wasn’t supposed to spend 15 minutes hot air ballooning to the top 

anyway. besides all that nonsense. my thoughts so far are that the gameplay and quests are really cool but I am. not altogether jazzercised by the story bits I’ve seen so far,,,,,I think for the most part it just doesn’t really work for me as a sequel to botw, even looking past loz’s usual lack of continuity. but maybe I’ll change my mind as I play more ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ 

the depths are rlly nerve-wracking for me and I think it’s Neat that Yunobo’s quest takes you down there instead of into the sky like the first two. I’m glad I’m playing them in the order the game told me to bc if I had done this one first i would have shit my PANTS KJFLKKJGN I wonder if Riju’s will also take you into the depths hmmm no one tell me

[aegon-targaryen]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @embyrinitalics for the tag! 🤗

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

9

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

99, 138

3. What fandoms do you write for?

LOZ my one and only love 🥰

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

If I Falter (at 299 kudos somehow!!!)

In Time

Sunblind

As Dusk Falls

Hollow-Hearted

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, I always say thank you (at least) because it makes me very happy to know people enjoy my stuff!!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely The Rise Before the Fall, but it's not my fault BOTW gave us Link dying in Zelda's arms 😈

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm, I guess In the Light of Morning which ends with TP zelink cuddles!

8. Do you get hate on fics? Nope!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Nope!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? No, they don't really appeal to me

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Would it shock you if I said Zelink

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I sporadically wrote like 50K words of a post-BOTW zelink longfic from like 2018 - 2020 and eventually abandoned it to write As Dusk Falls...I actually don't WANT to finish that ever because TOTK rendered a lot of the plot obsolete! Though maybe there are some zelink scenes worth posting on their own...

16. What are your writing strengths?

Characterization (I hope)...metaphors...horses....

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with writing exposition/explaining plot points in a "show don't tell" way. I also change my mind a LOT and create extra work for myself. Finally, I'm slow!!!!!! I wish I could change that!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Not something I see myself doing...

19. First fandom you wrote for?

LOZ, in (horrifyingly) 2012

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

As Dusk Falls, for sure. TP holds a special place in my heart and that fic is really a love letter to the game and its characters (and its plot holes 😂).

ahhh idk who to tag @ladyhoneydee @skyyknights @aquaticpal @kazraza @linktheacehero @nocturnalfandomartist @korokposting @zellink

[wolffenstien]

Hi! Quick question, since you're my go-to Zelda resource now (sorry!): I had some serious trouble with OoT when I played it on an emulator, and the only other Zelda games I've played are BotW and TotK; what game would you recommend I start with to kind of ease into playing older, more challenging games? I hear the Oracle games are supposed to be amazing, and there are the remakes of Link's Awakening and SS, but I don't know what to start with. And I just don't want to get super frustrated by quality-of-life stuff right away, ya know? Thanks for feeding my hyperfixation 😄

Oh wow, I am honored to be your go to Zelda source!

As much as I love Ocarina of Time personally, the controls definitely have not aged the best. In my opinion, the best way to play OoT is the 3DS Remake, which made some great updates to the controls and telegraphing for certain puzzles where the hints were a bit obtuse.

I would say that's pretty true when it comes to most of the zelda games with remakes. Wind Waker HD and Skyward Sword HD make tremendous quality of life improvements to their respective games!

As for what, I would recommend next, it would probably depend on what you're looking for most with your next Zelda game. I suggest either Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, or A Link to the Past.

If you like the openes of BotW and TotK, try Wind Waker. Like BotW, it takes place in Hyrule generations after disaster has befallen the land. After a certain point, the map completely opens up, and you get to spend hours exploring the open sea and the countless islands that dot it. Recommend the HD version over the original for the Swift Sail alone.

If you want the least frustrating experience possible, I would recommend Skyward Sword. No "old school Zelda toughness" here. Not to knock SS though, I think it has the tightest story of any zelda game! SS is also the first game in the official timeline, so it might make sense to start there. I think the combat and gameplay are super fun. Be warned it is also the most linear Zelda game of all time (besides the ones with literal levels). Again, I recommend the HD version over the original for its quality of life improvements (be careful if you play the original disc version on Wii as there's a way to play that will break the game and I don't think you can download the patch anymore, any digital version should be fine).

If you are thinking about getting into top-down zelda games, I would recommend A Link to the Past. It is probably harder than most of the other top-down ones, but all the other ones are really just taking its formula and twisting. Link's Awakening and A Link Between Worlds are both sequels to ALttP, and the oracle games and The Minish Cap are not as grand in scope. I think if you play ALttP first, it will also help you appreciate how the others are innovating. The graphics are solid, the world is huge, and while not the greatest, the story more than gets the job done. Yes, it does have some "old school zelda toughness," it's certainly not the hardest (looking at you LoZ and AoL), and I think it's not unreasonable.

All this said, every game is designed to be a "jumping in" point, so there's not really a wrong answer. If I had to pick one, though, it would be it would be ALttP as I think it's just a really solid game and makes a great base to then play LA, ALBW, OOA/OOS, and TMC.

Hope this helped!

[samerith-gets-scared]

🎵🎵. . .Socials + Self Info. . .🎧

. [Social Platforms | Age & Pronouns | Hobbies | Interests/Likes | Games & Gaming Platforms | Fandoms | Shows & Movies | Music Taste | Books] . Discord (most active): s4m3r1thgetsscared Spacehey: samerith_gets_scared Instagram (main): samerith_gets_scared Instagram (2nd acc): x._sam_harmful_.x Instagram (fanpage): get.scared.fanatic.antics (get scared band fan acc)

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/samerithspotify ⸸ ㋡ s a m a f i a ㋡ ⸸ Spotify Stats/Stats fm.:

They/Them|18|NB ★

✩ ✩ ᶦᶠ ʷᵉ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵐᵘᵗᵘᵃˡ ᶦⁿᵗᵉʳᵉˢᵗˢ/ʰᵒᵇᵇᶦᵉˢ/ᵉᵗᶜ ˡᵉᵗ'ˢ ᵇᵉ ᶠʳᶦᵉⁿᵈˢ ^^ (16/17-20 only)

Marvel | DC | Playstation 4 | Nintendo Switch | Nintendo DS | Wii U | Wii | Android | Comics | Video Games | Music | Drawing (trad + digital) | reading (comics + regular chapter books) | OCs | Vulture Culture | Photography | Geocaching | Collecting (comics, funkos, figurines, CDs, others etc.) | Kandi maker (mostly single bracelets) | Watching YouTube | Buzzfeed Unsolved | ARGs | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Psychology | True Crime (not in an ew disrespectful way) | Internet Drama | + others

Resident Evil | Kingdom Hearts | Skyrim | LOZ | LOZ BOTW | Super Mario Bros | Super Smash Bros | Kirby | Little Big Planet 3 | Sackboy Adventures | Stray | Toejam & Earl | Noby Noby Boy | Doki-Doki Universe | Magicka 2 | Scribblenauts | Super Princess Peach | Super Animal Royale | Star Wars: Hunters | Pokemon Unite | Dead By Daylight | Black Ops 3 &+ | Dying Light | Infamous Second Son | Watch Dogs 2 | Among The Sleep | Journey | The Last of Us | Shooter Games | Survival Games | Story Games | RPGs & MMORPGs+ | Open World | Online Multiplayer | + Many many MANY other games. I've played & loved so many over my lifetime. Too hard to list, too many to remember off the top of my head. + My old now broken Xbox 360 games too Ponytown... |

Resident Evil: Revelations <3/Kingdom Hearts: 385/2 Days <3/KH2 <3 The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim <3/Journey <3/ Creepypasta | Mystic Messenger | Ever After High | Monster High (Anti-G3. sorry not sorry) | Ruby Gloom | Happy Tree Friends | RWBY | Angel Beats | Fruits Basket | *Also watched and loved Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Doraemon, & Hamtaro when I was younger but that was a long time ago + memory issues I don't really watch anime anymore nowadays* Adventure Time | Regular Show | Teen Titans (not Go!) | Young Justice | Other Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon shows | Marvel & DC Movies & Shows | Train To Busan | Girl From Nowhere | All of Us Are Dead | Zombie Apocalypse moves & shows | Horror movies ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨🎧 ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ Get Scared | Hollywood Undead | Pierce The Veil | Social Repose | Paramore | Set It Off | Falling In Reverse | Three Days Grace | Skillet | Sleeping With Sirens | Fall Out Boy | Famous Last Words | Twenty One Pilots | newhaven | SYCAMOUR | Minds & Machines | Lorene Drive | 3OH!3 | Light Up The Sky | Colorblind | Butane (2006) | Emarosa | Dance Gavin Dance | Isles & Glaciers | Let's Get It | Alexisonfire | Arctic Monkeys | Eminem | + others | Getting into Crown The Empire right now* (+ other bands but more minorly: MCR|MIW|ETF|INK|IDK HOW|Picture Me Broken|I Prevail|Our Promise, P!ATD) + random songs from random bands & stuff outside of rock too Shows Seen Live: ✧ -Fall Out Boy (So Much For 2ourdust): 03.23.24 -Set It Off (Deathless Tour): 04.18.24 ♫♪ ♫♪ The School For Good & Evil | One of Us Is Lying | Nothing More To Tell | Tunnel of Bones | Goosebumps | + more books Fantasy Fiction & Murder Mysteries

. . .

Nick Matthews Vic Fuentes Tyler Joseph Josh Dun Juno Gold Andy Leo..

Stan Lee <3

woooow you made it to the end :0

[deadberrry]

Very Interesting things I noticed in the new TOTK Trailer

1. New Monster

This guy caught my attention, because he was so heavily featured in the trailer and I’d never seen anything like him before.

So, naturally, I cracked open my LOZ encyclopedia and searched through the database for any matching monsters.

Only one looked similar- the Kargarok, specifically the ones from Twilight Princess.

Sure, it’s a different color in TOTK and the face seems different, but the wings, legs, body, and tail fins are all very similar.

One top of that, it’s said in the bio of the Twilit Carrier Kagarok that it’s mounted by Shadow Bulblins, and what do we see our new guy doing?

Carrying Bokoblins around!

2. Ganondorf’s Ears

Honestly, I missed this one at first and didn’t realize it until I saw art of a rehydrated Ganondorf with pointed ears, but Ganondorf’s ears are round.

This is significant because in To Create A Champion, there’s a short passage after “The Great Calamity & The Gerudo” that says:

“It is said that, long ago, the ancient Gerudo had rounded ears… There is a story that the shame that the Gerudo felt after giving birth to the source of Calamity Ganon so long ago…came to have the same long, pointed ears as the Hylians.”

Of course, we already knew Ganondorf was ancient, but now we have hard evidence that he’s at least 10,000 years old. Wild.

3. Green Spirals

These bad boys were introduced to us all the way back in the first trailer, but today’s trailer shows them scattered around Hyrule.

I imagine these will serve as the quick travel mechanism throughout the game if the shrines are gone. And, let’s face it, the shrines are almost certainly going to be gone.

Also, fun fact, the shade of green used in those spirals is the same color of green the monks disintegrated into in BOTW.

4. Various Other Things

First off, I would like to draw attention to the HYDRA that was shown on Hylia Bridge.

Secondly, I would like to draw more attention to the possible ReDead in the trailer.

That’s it. Thank you for reading my rant about the new trailer.

Anyway, half the photos are showing up as Hateno Village on my end for some reason, so hopefully they’ll fix themselves when I post this.

[fvedyetor]

loz ask game!! 🎮🗡️👑👍

loz ask game!! ty for the ask!

🎮: aaaaaa i cant pick just one! top 3 are tears of the kingdom, twilight princess, and majora's mask.

🗡️: mmmm either botw/totk link or tp link. i love how gender link is in both of those. i love my farmer boy but i also love my cross-dressing maniac <3 tp link actually might come out on top tho...

👑: totk zelda probably. she's so cool!! i mean. i kinda have her as my pfp so i think its kinda obvious lol. i love her character growth from botw omg i love her sm <3 <3

👍: ooooohh um. zelda def redecorated the hateno house bc it was too bachelor-y. she's gonna flip when she sees the new house link made either way if it 1) actually looks nice, bc she's seen his work before and she won't believe it or 2) its just a cooking room and several weaponry rooms and she is disappointed in link and wants to redecorate this one too. she doesn't tho she lets him have his space.

ask game