#botw stone talus

[ninebaalart]

Talus Trove [Vol 2.]

2nd round of Taluses! In this collection, we have the Endstone Talus, Lapis Talus, Amethyst Talus, Dungeon Talus, and Mycelium Talus, and Gold Talus!

[blueskittlesart]

Do you have any theories/thoughts on why the last dragon tear is on the Rist Peninsula? Like..lore reason wise? Or did they just pick that spot cause it has a fancy spiral? This thought hasn't left my brain for weeks.

this question got me thinking, because there are quite a few spots on the totk map that are significant lore-wise in that they mention locations in other games and/or were significant in botw, but rist penninsula isn't one of them. of the locations that the geoglyphs and tears fall on, a few of their names appear to reference characters and locations in other games, which is a common theme among minor location names on the botw/totk map. aside from the naming conventions, though, none of these places share distinguishing features with any map locations in other games. there ARE certain locations on the botw/totk map that are very clearly meant to correspond to the maps of other games/cycles, but those locations will almost always have both a specific name referencing the other map's location AND distinguishing features which mirror the features of the other map very closely if not identically. the geoglyph locations pretty clearly aren't that, so the names are likely just easter eggs. these locations also don't have any significance on the BOTW map from what I can tell, aside from the occasional shrine location, which is less important to the point i'm trying to make here but this is already full of useless information bc i did the research so i might as well give you all of it. the important point here is that none of the dragon tear locations are present in any other map of hyrule aside from the botw/totk iteration.

why is this significant? because it means that botw/totk era-hyrule is the ONLY hyrule in which these locations exist. this fact, combined with the fact that certain locations seem almost designed with their respective geoglyphs in mind (the most prominent example is cape cresia's shape being perfectly fitted to the scimitar glyph, but to a lesser extent the tabantha snowfield ganondorf glyph and the NW eldin mountains master sword glyph both finding large, flat spaces suited to their respective shapes, and, of course, the final tear dropping perfectly in the center of rist penninsula's spiral, suggests that these geoglyphs and these memories were tied specifically to the version of hyrule that we see in botw/totk. Whether this has greater implications as to how the timeline of totk plays out or if it's just an indication that zelda was holding on to her memories of the version of hyrule she grew up in is up to you.

that's all i've got in terms of concrete lore, but on a more artistic level i think there is definitely a reason the last tear falls in the center of that spiral. totk continuously uses an ouroboros motif--a snakelike dragon eating itself in a continuous circle. the four dragons circle the map in continuous loops, repeating the same route endlessly, likely for thousands upon thousands of years. the spiral of rist is somewhat reminiscent of that repetition to me, but with one key difference--it ends. there is a concrete end point at the center of the spiral. once you go around it a certain number of times, the circular motion stops. you're free of the cycle. the final tear, in which zelda begs link to come to her, to find her, to SAVE her, falls at the center of that spiral, at the end of a repeating pattern of circular motions. zelda, like the other dragons, has been trapped in an ouroboros cycle for thousands of years. unable to speak, unable to remember, unable to do anything but follow her same circular path through the sky. but zelda's fate is not actually so bleak and unchangable--she's not in an ouroboros, she's in a SPIRAL. all she has to do is make it to the "center"--to wait it out until link can find her and save her, and she will be human again, and that circular motion will finally stop, and she'll be free to live her life again, to truly move forward. the act of journeying to the center of the spiral to get the last tear is forcing the player to adopt that same circular motion that zelda has been experiencing all these years, and to find the relief at the end--a microdose of the bigger battle zelda has been fighting, and which they will soon have to fight, to get her back once and for all.

[confess-for-botw-totk]

The first time I faced a Talus in botw I was screaming "IT'S A GIANT ROCK, I LOVE IT!" and then I proceeded to spend the next 30 mins battling against it bc I didn't know (yet) that it had a weakspot on his... back? Head?? Best rocky thing ever!!

_*_

[aliencreole]

Posing with a cool rock i found! ...what's that rumbling??

[villanelleskiss]

i want TOTK to be the first game i ever 100% but damn do you have to work for it

[loz-chainsofcorruption]

Aaaa ty for the tag!!

What's your favorite Zelda ost?

I'm a terribly indecisive person bcuz I really really love the Gerudo Valley theme and Lost Woods from OoT, HOWEVER almost every single song from Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks slaps (ST is seriously underrated you guys, the music in that game is SO good)

However I will pick Wind Waker, which is probably a bias choice since I've actually played that game (it was my first Zelda game actually!

Pls attach your fav song(s) from that ost!

I was so torn between Dragon Roost Island and Molgera battle but Dragon Roost won at the end. Come to think of it, I might just have an affection for clicky, groovy songs bcuz both of those have that sound/energy and the Gerudo Valley song in OoT does too LOL itches my brain just right or smth

(Honorary mention to file select from WW bcuz it might be my fave version of the fairy fountain theme!)

I'm gonna try and avoid double tagging so I checked and I think I already saw most of my moots tagged by other people, so I'll just tag @corpsefromwoods ! But anyone is welcome!

new tag game!

what’s your favorite Zelda ost?

my favorite Zelda ost is Skyward Sword. I love orchestral music in general, and this game satisfies all my orchestral cravings. it’s so beautiful :D

please attach your fav song(s) from that ost —>

this is basically the first song in the game, it plays as the camera pans to skyloft between Link and Zelda’s loftwings. it’s a bombastic, beautiful version of Crimson Loftwing (one of my fav Zelda songs) and then includes a bit of Zelda singing Ballad of the Goddess at the end. :D

no pressure tags!! @elementaldragon47 @rrainydaydreams @thatlittlebird @the-sage-of-aura-and-shadows @itsa-thing @portraitofalinkonfyre @penguinly @palmolli @angrypinkbunny @azulezen @amberstone-16 @sprite-and-the-bunnydragons @sunfloo-wers @fithesworddweller @fizzywigs @greennoobartist @lizzable @loz-chainsofcorruption @cabbagewizard @blupeeblep @blaircrissette @mmelete or ANYONE ELSE!!

[scollncrossbones]

The way I would be so comfortable living in Hyrule. Like, throw me into BoTW/ToTK and I’m good. I’m set for life. No horrible economy, no stress about taxes or politics, no feeling like you’re in a dystopian hellscape because you physically can’t be chronically online…

I would just so love to live my life foraging and hunting while farming or taking on some other peaceful job to make ends meet. Perhaps I’d put down roots in Hateno Village or Tarrey Town and travel to far away lands when everyday life begins to bore me.

I haven’t decided to ignore the fact that there are real, life-threatening dangers out there, though. By no means am I saying it’d be easy to live in Hyrule in either BoTW or ToTK, but it can also be reasoned that, if you played your cards right, the chances of being attacked by a monster can be slim to none.

Sure, you may be especially susceptible to attacks while traveling, but as long as you’re spatially aware and well-equipped, I’m sure the average joe would be fine. Standard Chu chus are pretty easy to dispatch (despite appearing suddenly) and, if you have the right weapons, so are Keese and Red Bokos. Just make it a point not to actively encroach into the territory of stronger monsters and I’m sure you’ll be fine.

The hardest dangers to avoid, however, are Stone Talus and Gloom hands. It’s hard to avoid a danger you can’t immediately see. Even Guardians are easy to spot, but Gloom Spawns just appear out of nowhere usually at close range. Talus camouflage into their surroundings and can surprise unwary travelers, but they’re not too hard to run away from. On the subject of camouflage though, Lizalfos have the ability to do the same, but they’re generally easy to spot if you’re paying attention (a bit harder in snowy and sandy regions though).

Essentially, I believe I could live and thrive in Hyrule and would almost prefer to live in that world, especially considering the state of ours…

Anyone have any other thoughts about this?

[emo-eyemakeup-evildude]

Astorvember day 5 - Village

I'm gonna use this as an excuse to post my headcanons about some of the settlement ruins in botw/aoc. Also here's the results of last year's poll

West Nabi Village: West Nabi Lake, my beloved, a small settlement on the north bank of the Squabble River in the plains east of Dueling Peaks. There's not even a village ruins marker on the map for this one, but there is a small line of houses with a series of jumps between them. There's also a stone talus nearby that's called the West Nabi Lake stone talus. My headcanon is that this is a small village that raised horses. My oc Vala from Long Road To Ruin grew up in West Nabi Village, and it will be the setting for a fic I'm currently working on. Much like other settlements close to towers like the citadel in Akkala it was subject to repeated monster attacks.

Deya Village and Goponga Village: There is more canon information on these villages but I want to include them anyway because I see people asking how they flooded all the time. Deya Village is settled in the highlands across the river from West Nabi Village. The Squabble and Hylia Rivers flow into Lake Hylia, which is very deep and surrounded by tall hills and so more than able to absorb standard floods. It is also my headcanon that Lake Hylia flows into Cora Lake and the Menoat River and eventually into the Faron Sea, albeit very slowly, but that's why that particular lake and river are so deep. Goponga Village is in the wetlands downriver from the Lanayru Great Spring, and wetlands are great at absorbing water. Unfortunately when Ganon took control of the Divine Beasts it caused Vah Ruta to flood Lanayru, which flooded the wetlands and the rivers south of them far past their usual capacity, impacting both villages. The floodwaters did not drain from Deya Village so it was not able to be rebuilt. Goponga Village fared better but re-flooded frequently, never reaching its previous equilibrium. When Vah Ruta reactivated around the time Link woke up in Breath of the Wild the Zora knew exactly the kind of impact it could have and feared that it would spread even farther since no one really knew why Vah Ruta eventually stopped producing rain, and before Link showed up there was little hope that it would stop on its own again.

Central Hyrule: All of the settlements in Hyrule Field form a metropolitan area around Castle Town. The Windvane Exchange handled matters of trade, Gatepost Town processed traffic traveling east and west through south Central Hyrule as well as to Castle Town and the Great Plateau. The Kolomo Garrison, Outpost, and East Post were villages serving the royal army outside of the knights and royal guard, who lived within Castle Town and the castle itself. Mabe Village formed around Mabe Ranch, which supplied food to the castle. The unnamed ruins east of the Great Plateau housed people who worked on the Great Plateau, which was a spiritual center hosting the Temple of Time and an abbey. Central Hyrule had other such abbeys, like the Sage Temple. All differed in their beliefs but most of them served the Goddess.

Ridgeland: The main village here is the Maritta Exchange, which processed trade largely from Rito Village, Tabantha, and Ridgeland itself. In Long Road To Ruin Astor was born and raised in one of the small homesteads that dotted the plains northeast of the Exchange and the stable. There wasn't enough traffic that way to justify a true village, but a few families settled there anyway. Fun fact, the exact house he lived in is the one at the far north end of Tanagar Canyon, just above the Forgotten Temple and the one that has Gloom in its well in Tears of the Kingdom.

Tabantha Village: This village formed around the eventually inactivated Sheikah tower during the Calamity 10,000 years before Age of Calamity. When the Sheikah tech was ordered hidden they were left only with the legacy of having been of great importance during the last Calamity. It remained a large village due to being the only other large village in Tabantha and Hebra besides Rito Village. There was more infrastructure in Hebra before the Calamity, allowing people to traverse the mountains and reach the hot springs, but when Tabantha Village fell following heavy attack by monsters and Rito Village was occupied with Vah Medoh maintenance fell by the wayside, leaving travel through Hebra very difficult.

Gerudo Desert: The entire desert was once full of settlements, but like Hebra they all fell into ruins after the Calamity. West Gerudo Village once stood in the shadow of the highlands where temperatures were a bit more stable, and wooden stalls and tents sprawled around the walls of Gerudo Town. This is where husbands would live since they weren't allowed inside Gerudo Town, where they could also enjoy ceremonies and events at the structure north of the town and sand seal races to the south. Infrastructure and frequent travel also made it easier to visit the Southern Oasis and Arbiter's Grounds, which had long since fallen into disuse. More on that in Long Road To Ruin. With Vah Naboris out of control and making passage into the desert very dangerous most visitors fled the desert and the Gerudo moved entirely within the town, leaving newlywed vai to live with their husbands outside the desert until their daughters were old enough to live within the town for several years.

Bonus: You know that set of ruins on the hill west-southwest of Outskirt Stable? I'm working on a completely different fic about a group of magicians who live in a massive, old manor house up there.

If I missed any that y'all want to hear my thoughts on, let me know!

[zeelady2004]

Let's play Tears of The Kingdom! First playthrough. Part 25

Hello hello 👋 Welcome back to my first playthrough of TOTK. We just tried to use the garland to get past Calip and that failed...he's pissed me off enough. I want revenge!

I feel a little better, but goddamn I want to fling him Skyward! I will find a way. Until then, he will get ACME'd every time I see him now.

So... I think we did all that we could in Kakariko for now. What to do what to do. Well, besides the rito village. Which I do want to do very soon. I got a special post planned for that, though. I'm actually very curious to see if Symin is in Hateno, AND I wanna see my house for that one picture. Y'all know the one. I gotta know if it's there. I want to see if doing a second playthrough of botw was worth it.

East I go! There will very likely be some distractions along the way. Like shrines, koroks and doom hands. I'm hoping to run into a stone Talus. I want mineral deposits.

Huh... I never noticed that. Smoke coming out of the horse's mouth.

🤨 will I ever use that?

Epona! Wanna go for a ride? It'll be faster with you. 😁

Monsters respawned at Fort Hateno and almost killed my baby!

Thankfully, by sheer luck, we managed to escape.

Here girly. A nice armload of apples for you 😘

Shoulda known iI woulda found a paired korok. Across the river no less. Well then that'll be no problem with the return of

Bridget!

After completing the puzzle, I discovered a cave where the little statues were. It was easy to get turned around in there but I managed to fight off the monsters, get the gem and this awesome piece.

I'm excited to find the rest. Anyway off I continue to Hateno and my horse takes a wrong turn to that one riding course. Yay 🙄

I find that one house and I go inside and to look for anything interesting. Just a chest with a phrenic bow but when as I come out, I hear a noise and looked around. I again panicked and didn't take a screen capture. As soon as I saw those gloom hands, I booked it behind the house. What I wasn't expecting were the hands to come investigate and hurt my poor horse! I'm so sorry Epona! 😭

I didn't want to leave her behind so I snuck back around and got back on her and hauled ass. I dunno if the hands DE spawned or not but I wasn't gonna slow down to find out either. As soon as I felt we were a safe distance away and safe, I fed her more apples.

We made it!

It definitely looks different...

....Mushrooms... NO!!!!

Those fuckin' ladies with the mushroom hats! JFC, it all started here?!

Personally I'm not a fan of mushroom fashion aesthetics but having two ladies turn their nose up at Link because of his choice in clothes (or lack thereof in this case 😏) is a major put off on me wanting to talk to them at all.

I immediately got outta my clothes. Let Link's underwear be a fashionista deterrent! I gotta find my house.

At least this area looks untouched.

It was nice to see the champion's photo again

(❁´◡`❁)

Is Zelda staying with us or what? The interior design looks nice. I bet she told Link to remove the weapon mounts.

ಥ_ಥ

I think I hit my 30 image limit but I have things to say.

I wanted to test out my recording set up. I used my phone stand in hopes it would work with what I wanted to accomplish and that was be able to play while recording hands free. The tricky part is the piece that holds my phone. It covers up a portion of what I can see through my phone screen. Instead, I kinda have to crane my neck around to look at the switch screen directly. Which would explain my hand eye coordination was a bit off. I also had a very short time period of when I could record without disruption since I was recording in our room (mine and hubs room). I don't have the luxury of a recording studio. I'm sorry if I sounded a little quiet and hurried. Again, I didn't have much time and I'm also used to using my "indoor scream."

When it comes time to do the big recording that I really want to do, it'll be when I can be louder and no chance of a disruption.

[ninebaalart]

Talus Trove [Vol 3.]

I messed up regarding Diorite/Granite Talus, so I figured I might as well correct that and include the other two stone types that it belongs in as part of a correction for this collection.

But that's not all! This collection includes Deepslate Talus, Blackstone Talus, Prismarine Talus, and Emerald Talus, with Diorite, Andesite, and Granite Talus in tow, corrected and accounted for!

[maryellencarter]

have discovered that i can fish in the animal crossings with Considerably Less annoyance if i do two things

(1) hold my thumb about an inch above the A button while the fish is nibbling, so i can have twitchy thumb without failing the catch. the exact ideal distance probably varies with the speed of one's reflexes, but i got my 100 catches in a row yesterday with this method

(2) use two pairs of earbuds. bluetooth sound on the switch lite is crap on a stick, it pops and crackles and cuts out, so i have a pair of cheap wired earbuds, but i also generally listen to youtube on my ipad on my good wireless earbuds while gaming with the sound off. but for acnh fishing you Have to hear the sound, or at least i do, i can't react to the visual cue in time.

so! today i tried. using One wired earbud with the acnh sound and One wireless earbud with the ipad youtube sound. (i'm just watching botw 100% speedrun streams, so there's rambling chitchat and audio cues i know very well, mainly "yahaha".) and it's working surprisingly well! i wouldn't be able to watch the same game i'm playing, i don't think, but when i'm simultaneously hearing stone talus boss music i don't have to care about and fish sniffing noises i do have to care about, i'm processing them much better than i would have expected

so far i have 120 fishing tourney points and i'm considering time traveling to bunny day for water eggs after i knock out the 300 points and four seasons fishing tourney requirements

[loquaciousquark]

BotW & TotK Stream Archive

As I'm wrapping up Tears of the Kingdom, I wanted to again collect the streams & descriptions here as a resource for myself. The Breath of the Wild streams do not yet have summaries either on Twitch or here, but will soon. Probably. Eventually.

Breath of the Wild: Link to Master Playlist

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16 - Story Finale

Part 17 - 900th Korok Seed, remaining side quests

Tears of the Kingdom: Link to Master Playlist

Part 1 - Features landing in Hyrule, leaving Hyrule, exploring the skylands, acquiring Ultrahand, Fuse, and Ascend abilities.

Part 2 - Features finishing the fourth prologue shrine, returning to Hyrule, some minor exploration, meeting Purah, seeing Zelda briefly, unlocking the first tower, receiving the glider, and fighting the first block construct.

Part 3 - Features exploring Hyrule, killing baby's first Battle Talus, clearing the Popla Tower, exploring the jungle, clearing the Sahasro Tower, clearing a handful of shrines, meeting Naydra (again), and visiting Hateno Village & Link's house.

Part 4 - Features exploring Hateno Village, reaching the depths for the first time, more shrines, Bringing Peace to Hyrule, STRUGGLING with a pinball shrine, opening more towers, the first geoglyph, meeting Sonia, meeting Hestu, exploring Rito caves, beginning Tulin's quest.

Part 5 - Features completing the Rito/Tulin questline, tower exploration, opening the first fairy fountain, shrines, more tower openings. Power outage, then shrines & towers.

Part 6 - Features tower completion, a bunch of shrines, reaching Kakariko.

Part 7 - Features exploring Kakariko Village & completing various side quests, both in Kakariko and beyond.

Part 8 - Features koroks, a handful of shrines, the second Stable Trotters quest, a little Depths exploration, more shrines, resoliving the Hateno Village mayoral question, the Lanayru Penn quest, the Lanayru Hinox Brothers quest, and more shrines. Ends with reaching the Zora Domain.

Part 9 - Features shrines, reaching Hebra's fossil, baby's second geoglyph, Kilton, finally finding Hestu, reuniting with Sidon, the Zora/Sidon quest & temple resolution, more shrines, discovering the Dark Statue & the Soldier's Armor, discovering and pursuing the Light Dragon, recovering the item held by the Light Dragon, the Johsa Depths quest, first Frox fight, touching the Desert Oasis, and acquiring the final Purah Pad upgrade/Robbie's lab.

Part 10 - Features shrines, the last Purah Pad upgrades, all geoglyphs in a terribly wrong order, the Oasis/Riju fight, more shrines (including making Moose very sad around 2:30), more Penn stable quests, gliding dive challenges, the final Dragon's Tear (5:20), the third fairy quest (7:08), the first Gleeok fight, exploring Hyrule castle a little, reaching the Korok grove & the Deku tree, and a battery upgrade.

Part 11 - Features ancient Hyrulean stone slabs, some shrine quests, school with Link, more shrines, meeting Rhondson and Hudson again at Tarrey Town, a beautiful sendoff for Mattison at 2:45, beginning to build a house, more school with Link, the Hebra colossal fossil, more shrines, the Yiga at Rhoam's house, more shrines, and destroying the monsters at Lurelin Village.

Part 12 - Features restoring Lurelin Village, more exploration of the Great Plateau, some chasm exploration. Power dipped out at end of video; then more chasm exploration, shrines, the sanctuary at Gerudo Town, and the Lightning Temple.

Part 13 - Features shrines, the first labyrinth, more Hyrulean stone plinths, more Yiga clan infiltration, the last fairy quest, and the first pumpkin harvest from Hateno.

Part 14 - Features the King Gleeok fight, shrines, the Yiga chasms quest events, the lynel gauntlet coliseum, a few more Lurelin quests, the Tarrey town race, more shrines, Gerudo desert exploration, more shrines. Power again interrupted at the end, then the Zonaite Forge Island, showing off the completed house, meeting Koltin again, completing the last Yiga clan missions, shrines, the horse trailer race, catching the big white horse, the Kilton diorama, more labyrinths, more shrines, the Goddess statue of courage, completing the Gerudo Town ball quest & Eighth Heroine questlines.

Part 15 - Features shrine quests, visiting Hestu, completing the quests surrounding the Deku Tree (including the two shrine quests), the Temple of Time glider fabric quest, Sayge's dyes, some Goron City sidequests including the marbled rock roast fetch and Simmerstone Spring, and the leadup to the Fire Temple and Death Mountain. Power again goes out at the end, then the reveal and fight of the first Death Mountain miniboss, followed by the Fire Temple, some armor collection quests, some shrines, house show-off again, return to Lookout Landing, and storming Hyrule Castle.

Part 16 - Features shrines, picking up a few Goron City quests, investigating the Ring Ruins, the follow-up river quest with Tauro, exploring the Thunderhead Isles, completing the Construct Factory quest sequence, regrouping with Purah, the final shrines of the game, a few sidequests in Lurelin Village, and a few sidequests in Goron City.

Part 17 - Features a handful of side adventures (including Hateno's Sun Pumpkin defense and the Bring Peace! series of quests), endgame, and about an hour of thoughts/final discussion afterwards.

Part 18 - 900th Korok Seed, final Bubbulgem, final Addison, final glider fabrics. 100% completion.

[zapsoda]

hullo!! to me diesel is the kinda guy to have a pet rock. is he/has he one?

if diesel did have a pet rock i think he would eventually forget about it and look at it one day and think "tf why do i have a rock in my house"

i think this is a cute idea though because he is gray and rocks are often gray..... thinking about like. the rock monster from veggietales or the stone talus from botw. i think it would be silly if he had a mini one a little friend....

[ghostsinthecellar]

today's botw session involved heading northwest out into Gerudo desert, fighting a lot of lizards, crawling around on a bunch of biiig skeletons, stumbling around lost in a sand storm, finding a shrine (and finishing a shrine quest) despite missing the whole passel of stone ladies pointing at it, scooting around an outcropping to get into the Karusa Valley, launching myself up on top of the pillars because I knew they had to have something on top of them, delighting the hell out of myself by exploding a bunch of lizalfos, making my way down the canyon, being judged by a lot of frogs, putting lots of bananas in lots of bowls, getting attacked by Yiga losers literally seconds after saying how weird it was that the Gerudo had such a hard time getting in, picking up so many duplex bows, meeting Barta, realizing (painfully) that getting through the hideout is pure stealth instead of stealth and killing, sneaking through and getting caught no less than three times before figuring out the stupid secret wall, beating the snot out of Kohga and retrieving the stolen helm, getting frustrated by the sensor telling me I missed a chest but not being able to find it, throwing myself up the canyon wall into the Highlands, stomping around in the snow, getting bullied by a frost talus, melting a big ol' ice cube to reveal a shrine, trying not to melt an ice cube inside the shrine (hated that), shooting a bear many many many times, avoiding a second talus, picking a million berries, and stopping for the night just on the other side of a rock from a blue lynel.

[shatteredages]

Figuring out how long the Adventures took

BotW Journey (the bold parts have explinations, story stuff and other interesting facts under the cut)

Great Plateau: 27 days

Getting memory quest set up: 12 days

Buying a House: 6 Days

Basics with Purah!: 18 days

Spring of power memory: 7 days

Getting Champion tunic: 3 days

Visiting Robby: 8 days

Vah Ruta: 14 days

Lanayru region: 4 days

Kass (Master of the Wind): 1 day

Back to Kakariko: 2 days

Hyrule Castle (failed attempt): 3 days

Sanidin Park memory: 2 days

Mount Satori: 4 days

Kass (Two Rings): 1 day

Vah Medo: 13 days

Hebra: 9 days

Kass (Under a Red Moon): 5 days

Kakariko again: 4 days

Korok Forest (failed MS): 4 days

Vah Rudania: 15 days

Eldin Region: 3 days

Terry Town: 6 days

Kakariko again again: 3 days

Kass (Crowned Beast): 1 day

Naydra: 3 days

Hateno: 1 day

Kakariko (picking up horse): 4 days

Fleeing Guardians memory: 2 days

Kass (Serpent's Jaws): 4 days

Faron: 4 days

Kass (Song of Storms): 3 days

Lurelin Village: 4 days

Malanya: 4 days

Vah Naboris: 11 days

Kass (Sign of the Shadow): 2 days

Gerudo Desert: 9 days

Guess what? Kakariko: 5 days

Korok Forest (failed MS): 2 days

Hyrule Castle (failed attempt): 5 days

Blowing off steam: 6 days

Continue Terry Town quest: 19 days

Acquire Master Sword: 3 days

Calamity Ganon: 5 days

Total: 264 days (~8.8 months)

I've tried to create that journey as realistic as possible. Meaning, all nighters were a rare occurrence. Still, on the days that he did travel (sometimes he was forced to take a break because of injuries or weather...) he travelled roughly 14-15 hours a day.

Now for some details, memorable moments and story stuff (points with a * in front of them didn't happen in this particular playthrough. But they were just so memorable/interesting that I had to include them):

Great Plateau: Technically it only takes about 13-15 in-game days to do the plateau. But once the old man realized that the feral hero didn't understand a single word, he decided to give Link a crash course. For fourteen of the days, Link spent the first half of the day learning to understand the Hylian language (not how to use it himself), hunting, a little bit of fighting and whatever else he needed to survive. The other half of the day he was left to his own devises, but still stayed near the hut. He did the Bomb shrine during those days, though.

Getting memory quest set up: Baby's first Thunder storm! Thank goodness he had found a random fairy on the great plateau. (it was definitely interesting to act as if I was playing for the first time)

*Buying a House: Did you know that the Yiga can wander around, disguised as an existing npc? I sure didn't until seemingly one of the Hateno Villagers followed me outside the village. I thought it was a glitch or whatever, so I approached them. Imagine my shock when the word “Traveler” stood where the name was supposed to be. Sometime later I then started seeing double as another disguised Yiga (again on the path to Hateno) was following the very npc they were disguised as. The only difference between them was that one of them was on a horse. Never encountered that phenomenon again since then. (Edit: I'm currently playing through the “with Zelda” part, and it finally happened AGAIN on the path to Hateno. Look)

Basics with Purah!: Realizing how bad Link's amnesia really was, she continued his education. Mostly by teaching him how to read and write, so he can communicate with others by writing on a notepad, and some basic maths. However, as Symin soon found out, she was teaching him Sheikah script. Something that was not gonna help him at all! So he took over. And since he had so much fun with that teacher gig, he also included some geography and history. Just like with the old man, half a day was spent in “school” and the other half doing whatever (Shrines, Hateno sidequests, Stone talus...).

Getting Champion Tunic: After getting the Spring of Power memory on his way to Robby he immediately teleported back to Kakariko. However, he had a very negative physical and emotional reaction to the memory. As in, he just barely managed to teleport back before collapsing on the shrine pedestal, where he was found by Olkin. He spent the next three days in bed with a high fever. (Every memory he got afterwards didn't get nearly as much of a reaction. “Just” some Headaches, nausea and distress). He only wears the tunic once. During his fight against Calamity.

Divine Beasts: For each of those are a couple of days added where he just recovered and took things slow and/or some fight training with his new friends.

Several Kakariko visits: After each Divine Beast, he went back to Kakariko to give Impa a status report. For story purposes. The second time he does the Kakariko quests and successfully pisses off just about every woman in the village. (it was not his fault they were acting suspiciously while he was hiding in that tree!)

Failed Hyrule Castle attempts: He tried to finish the game at several points and failed for story purposes (technically I absolutely could have done it on the second attempt, but well... story).

Hebra: While exploring on Brion Snowshelf, Link found a small snowcoat fox being attacked by Lizalfos. After rescuing the poor animal and giving it some meat (because it looked so hungry) the fox started following him. After several failed attempts at shooing the fox away, Link decided to keep it and named it Brion. Since he has no idea whether teleportation is save for more than one passenger, he rather doesn't risk it. So from now on that function is out of the question whenever Brion's with him. (he has a makeshift papoose made out of belts for when he has to climb or glide)

Failed Master Sword: I know how many hearts Link needs to pull the Master Sword. But he wouldn't. So he tries several times. And every time his sense of selfworth as a hero gets worse. (OMG. THE DEKU TREE'S DIALOGUE CHANGES DEPENDING ON HOW CLOSE YOU ARE TO HAVING ENOUGH HEARTS!)

*Malanya: Funny story. While getting the Akkala Citadel Tower, before the first Devine Beast, I left my horse right on the end of the broken bridge. But then it took me several days to complete the tower, because rain and a lack of stamina potions made it near impossible to get onto the tower. During one of those nights a blood moon happened. And when I finally came down again to get my horse, it was gone. It didn't respond to whistles, it didn't show up on the map, nothing. Why? Turns out the Moblin on the bridge had respawned and scared the horse into jumping off the bridge! That's why I went to Malanya. Let this be a lesson to always be careful where you park your horse.

Blowing off Steam: After recovering from his injuries at Woodland Stable and highly frustrated at another failure, he leaves Brion behind in a stable and teleports away to take out his frustration on some sidequests, monsters, and ore deposits. (he technically has more than enough shrines unlocked at this point, but Purah told him that “Zelda was really desperate to get into one of these”. So he left a bunch of them uncompleted to show them to her later.)

Continue Terry Town quest: Not daring to try again quite yet, he continues helping Hudson with his project and does a couple more shrines on the way. He continues with that until Hudson announces his upcoming marriage in a couple of weeks. He still didn't remember all that much about Zelda, but he knew enough that he desperately wanted to give her good experiences after her rescue. And that included that wedding! So after informing Bolson of the wedding and grabbing some specific weapons from home, he leaves Brion at Riverside Stable and high tails it to Korok Forest for one last attempt...

Calamity Ganon: In this au the fight went a bit different. I'll take a bit of inspiration from AoC there. Meaning, every time Ganon fled onto the wall, one of the blights showed up. So half of the time, Link had to fight a blight while Ganon was taking pot shots at him from the wall.

[vivacia-18]

This was getting to long for the tags, hope you don't mind me commenting directly!

asdlkjaada The freaking Dondon quest - I totally did that one by accident, and all of the reveal was totally overshadowed by the fact that I felt equal parts bad and annoyed finding out that they were unkillable NPCs when I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to murder the herd for meat X'D

But yeah, overall while I don't look for much depth in a video game (if I want it I'm cool to come with a shovel myself later) totk really lacked cohesion overall. Certain parts of the story and characters were enjoyable, but it definitely didn't pull itself together very well.

One thing I wanted to see way back in botw, and that I think could have tied in well to this game - and maybe even the Dondon quest! - was having the monsters actually be part of Hyrule. As in like, people that are meant to be there. Its stated multiple times that the blood moon summons lost spirits who are cursed to wander the land and fight and die in eternal cycles of damnation. We also know that dead/undead and transformation into other species is a thing in Zelda (the Stals in OOT anyone?) completely unrelated to Ganondorfs whole deal. What I wanted SO BAD was for post game after getting rid of the blood moon, the curse would be lifted and the monsters would be normal again. So you could barter for stuff (bokoblins, etc), or battle for prestige but not to the death (Lynels), or like sneakily harvest things (Hynox, Talus) but you wouldn't be killing them anymore - because they're among the people you were trying to save, they're a part of Hyrule too. And now the warrior dead can rest in peace once more.

Until we accidentally bring the blood back in totk and they're summoned/cursed again, whoops! But anyways, I felt like that would have been both good gameplay and good depth, and now I kinda like the tie in of the Dondons only being known as they were cursed under the blood moon, and it's only recently that they've shown to be naturally pretty docile, or something along those lines.

I also think that could have tied in well with explaining Gan too, and how the fuck he was still around when the Calamity was supposed to be banished and they made an explicit point of saying he had chosen to forgo the chance of reincarnation, so shouldn't he have been gone forever? Finally broken free of the cycle and allowed to rest?

I haven't thought this part through quite as much, so bear with me. The blood moon reads as a curse to me, but not so much one cast BY Ganondorf, so much as it is the manifestation of the curse UPON him. It truly seems like in this game duo especially Gan is destined to fall to madness, and one headcanon I've gotten rather fond of that ties into the Light and Darkness thing is that its because the power of Light is incompatible with him long term, just as the power of Dark is incompatible to Zelda (if we really want to reach we can link it back to the schism between Hylia and Demise in SS, but that's optional).

Any long term exposure to their opposite will have detrimental mental effects - basically a magical autoimmune reaction. I think he can interact with certain aspects - note that both he and Zelda seem compatible with Sheikah tech/magic, which is fun conceptually as they are a people/Sages of Shadow - but not pure Light. I think Zelda would go equally mad should she ever try to use Dark magics long term.

Fortunately for her and unfortunately for Gan, Light being the magic of the main ruling family makes it much more prominent and easy to find for someone who is naturally driven to seek Power. And when he does his magic becomes... sick, for a lack of better terms. This culminated into terminal illness upon bonding with the soul stone - cruel in the way of tuberculosis, granting a flush of power and vibrancy before death, this created the blood moon - a warped representation of death and rebirth, light and dark, twisted into something foul. And contaminated magic is what we see manifested as the blight/gloom in later years. The Calamity was his spirit, broken free of Rauru's seal, yearning to be reunited with its body. And in totk we see his flesh revived, though his spirit was thought slain and the curse of the blood moon broken. It wasn't though, just briefly contained once more, because the source of the blight - the soul stone - was still bonded to him, and he couldn't rest until it was removed.

...Wow, this got far longer than I was intending, guess I really brought that shovel afterall X'D

tldr; I agree with OP that totk had the potential to be much deeper and more narratively satisfying than it was, even within the realm of what one would generally expect from a mainstream video game (which is not too much). And a big part of that for me would be a tweak to the monster mechanics post-game, and a little more actual backstory to Ganondorfs backstory to they actually make narrative sense.

The Dondon Post (or: the bizarre TotK's side content counterpoints to its main quest's immuable binary morality)

Speaking of strange TotK Choices, I think I have one singe post left in me about this game; and it's about the Dondon quest, "The Beast and the Princess".

(and about other stuff too, you'll see, we'll get to them)

More specifically: about how... strange of a thematic point it feebly attemps to make in the larger context of the storyline, and how it seems to be yet another mark of a world that, perhaps, once tried to be more morally complex that it ended up becoming.

Buckle up: it's a long one, and it gets pretty conceptual.

(good gem boys notwhistanding)

The Princess and the Beast

So, a couple of things about the setup. We are investigating potential Princess sightings; but at this point, either because we have already completed a bunch and know the general gib, because we have met a couple of wild Fake Zelda shenanigans, or through the simple fact that we are completing a side quest, we know there's a good chance it won't lead to an actual Zelda information. So when we ask Penn about what is going on and he replies with the ominous "we saw the Princess riding some kind of beast --a frightening one with huge, brutal tusks-- that the princess seemed to control", we get Ideas. Then the sidequest is registered: "The Princess and the Beast".

So. You know me. And if you don't know me, here's what you should know: my brain immediately flared up with the thought there was no way in hell this wasn't some kind of wink towards Ganondorf's renowned boarish beast form, especially given tusks were given so much focus.

My first assumption was: that's a miniboss right? I will get to fight some small boar-like thing that Fake Zelda rides sometimes. Cool! I didn't hold too hard onto my hope that the relationship of Zelda and/or Ganondorf to the natural world, or to each other would be expanded upon, since I had already been burned before, but my interest was piqued.

You have to understand how starved I was for any hint of complexity or mystery or ambiguity at this point. I was extremely eager for the game to throw anything at me that would surprise me, enlighten something pre-established, make the exploration lead to a meaningful discovery or deepening of characters, world or themes (and not just slightly cooler loot, or a bossfight, or a puzzle devoid of emotional context --cohesion and depth is what motivates my play sessions, especially in an open world game that I want to believe is worth losing oneself into). This was about the most intriguing task on my to do list at the moment, and so I plunged in immediately.

After really REALLY misunderstanding what I was supposed to do (I stalked every corner of every forest surrounding the tropical area at night or during blood moons in hope to see something --which was very much the wrong call), I arrived to the other stable, then was guided to the other side of the river where Cima awaits and explains that these creatures are actually a new species discovered by Zelda; that they are gentle and kind and not at all scary ("Dondons aren't beastly, they're adorable!"), and even somehow digest luminous stones into gemstones. They like the company of people and liked Zelda in particular.

I was... I felt two different ways about this conclusion, and I think it's worth to explore both: disappointment and some sort of... "huh!" Hard to describe this emotion otherwise.

I'll get the disappointment out of the way first, because it's the least interesting of the two. While I think the little emotional arc I was taken on was not devoid of interest --I was indeed taken on by the rumor and intrigued by its implications-- I wanted, well. A little bit more. And if the creatures were to be Zelda's pet project, I would have loved for them to be actually terrifying and feisty, and for her to develop an interest for these creatures in particular regardless. It could have been very interesting characterization that veered out of the perfect princess loving the perfect world floundering around her, always bringing her clear, practical benefits from the interaction.

(I have made another post that speaks of my discomfort that Zelda does everything everywhere and everyone loves her for it --I get what they were trying to go for, but it either lacks conflict for me to buy into that dynamic at the scale of several regions, or they went on too hard for my taste, as she is, at once and in the span of a couple of years at most: a schoolteacher, a gardener, an animal researcher, a scholar, a traveler, a military expert, a knower of landscape, a painter, a horse rider, an infrastructure planner, a [...] princess --at some point it begins to sound made up, "Little Father of the people"-esque to rattle the hornet's nest a little bit, especially if it's not shown as either a clearly godly characteristic or, even more necessary imo, a negative trait; another expression of her killing herself at work to compensate for a perceived flaw she's trying to earn forgiveness for, like she did in BotW. But that's another topic, and the clumsiness of her character arc has been well threaded by basically everybody disappointed in the story already.)

But, if I decide to be a little graceful, I'd like to explore my "huh!" emotion, and take it apart a little bit.

I think there's something interesting to have such strong parallels to setting up a story about the relationship between Zelda and Ganondorf ("The Princess and the Beast", like come on guys that's the conflict of over half the series), or at least Zelda and the concept of Evil since Ganondorf pretty much represents it in this game, and then have it go: actually, there was a horrible monster that everyone was afraid of, but Zelda was wise and patient enough to approach it and realize its potential beyond the tusks, what beauty can be brought upon the world if one makes the effort to look for what exists underneath. It says something a bit deeper about the world and about Zelda in particular. It intrigues, at the very least.

Is it a reach? Probably! Is my first interpretation that the quest is actually about "eww you thought Zelda would be interested in *disgusting vile monsters* and not sweet and gentle and human-loving animals that literally shit jewlery when cared for? jokes on you, she never would feel any ounce of sympathy for anything that isn't Good and Deserving" uhhh definitively truer? Probably! But I also don't want to dismiss that the quest made me think about it. If I had completed it earlier, I might have even felt like it was (very clumsy, not gonna lie) setup about the main conflict.

But that's also a good segway into my next section: the arbitrary limitations between the animal and the creature, the monstrous and the human.

And the fact that TotK points directly at it.

A Monstrous Collection

(these two guys are just. doing So Much and being So Valid despite being massive weirdos the game wants us to be slightly repelled by. I, for one, respect the Monster kinning grind and their general Twilight Princess energy.)

So. These two guys. There is so much to say about these two guys. I don't think I have seen the Trans Perspective on Kolton on tumblr, and I would love to get it because. I feel like it's a worthwhile discussion (just, how gender and identity is handled in TotK overall, I feel like it's a very complicated conversation and I have not seen super deep dives and I'd be very interested in hearing more).

Beyond the throughline of voluntary consumption of magical objects to turn into less human creatures being a weirdly prevalent plot point in TotK (Zelda, Kolton and Ganondorf casually transing their entire species for funsies --Ganondorf being particularly relentless with Fake Zelda, mummy/phantom shenanigans, Demon King and then literal dragon), I want to focus on Kilton a little bit.

Kilton is genuinely the only NPC in the game willing to acknowledge the inherent personhood that monsters have (the game does showcase them picking up fruits, mourning their boss if you kill them, being cutesy and happy to identify you as one of their own if you wear the appropriate mask --and that's not even getting into creatures like the Lynels, who seem to really edge on the limit of being a conscious creature with a system of honor and property and many other things). He does encourage us to think of monsters as more than a species whose only worth lie in how fun it is to eradicate them; even more, gameplay-wise, he does give us a reason to interact with them in other ways than just our sword with his museum. He does encourage us to see that beauty for ourselves and then select what we think is coolest/most intimidating/cutest/eight billion ganondorfs in every pose imaginable

The fact that Ganondorf is considered a monster was a great win for this feature in particular, and is very funny, but it's also... A lot, if we dig at it a little more than warranted. Beyond all of the Implications and all of the things of representation and political conflict and values already discussed ad nauseum: when did he stop being considered a human? What does that mean about the flimsiness of what is a monster and what is a creature and what is an animal and what is a person and what is even a hylian, as sheikahs got absorbed into the definition in this game? Especially with the stones taken into account, how profound changes in nature are a huge part of the plot (even when reversed and ultimately pretty meaningless): how easy it is, to make that slip? Who decides when that slip has been made? What is acceptable to hurt without remorse? What is beautiful and worth preserving? What is both at once? What is neither?

And again, in a classic Zelda conundrum (appreciative(?)): who the fuck gets to decide that, when, and why?

The Bargainers and the Horned God

(major shoutout to these big guys for being the sole and only providers of actual depth to the Depths, and for looking cool as heck)

So. Let's move the conversation to the Depths.

Conceptually: what an interesting idea!! And so well executed (initially)!! A mirror world to the surface, dark and hushed and full of unknown creatures; haunted by gloom and sickness and the unknown. Not a first in the series, far from it: from ALTTP to ALBW, and even taking the Twilight world of TP into account, this idea of a Dark World acting as a deforming mirror to Hyrule and revealing many interesting aspects as we get to explore both is always a very interesting take on corruption and envy and fear/weakness and/or some sense of darkness looming under the perfect exterior. I'd argue even the Lens of Truth of both OoT and MM's serve a similar function, both gameplay-wise, but also in terms of theme: not everything is as it seems. In the world of Light, darkness must hide itself; but darkness also possess its own beauty, its own hardships, and will stare back at you without blinking if you go seek for it. It's, in my opinion, one of the series' most compelling conversation about the cyclical nature of fate, the coldness of godhood, and how small one feels in the face of a universe that is more complicated than it initially appears --which is why Courage must be invoked to push forward regardless.

The Depth's otherworldly ambiance is truy wonderful, whether in the plays of light and shadows, the creatures native to the environment we meet there (wish we met more!), the soundtrack, the strange aquatic/primordial plants, the fact that the dragons visit this place and connect them to the outside --invoking ideas of balance and interconnectivity, that the tree branches look like veins. The coliseums, the mines, the zonai facilities and the prisons do seem to poke at many things about what the relationship to the past was to this place; was it ever truly a place? Did it look like this back then? Why was it buried? Why did it come back? But in spite of it all, I think the Depths struggle overall to question or reveal anything about the surface that we couldn't already assume going in (that the only thing congealing there is Ganondorf's gloom, his lonely domain of Wrongness, only shared by Kohga and the yiga --the only naysayers of Goodness and Light, contemptful and blinded by self-importance and rage). The zonite is mined by gloomy monsters --why, what for?-- so any notion of greed and over-expansion that could have been associated to the zonai is now reabsorbed into Ganondorf's general evilness, since it needs to be reminded he is everything and anything bad with the world: darkness and conquest and greed and capitalism and pollution and bad weather and sickness and darkness and violence and war and death and betrayal and fakeness and lies and patriarchy and exploitation. No matter that he never does a single thing with zonite in the game; rather set up elements of conflict that never go anywhere than, for a second, let the foundations of absolute goodness and absolute evil risk becoming shaky --and you coming to this unwelcoming dark place that hates you, killing the miners and taking their resources for yourself is, on the other holy, royal fur-covered hand, utterly legitimate. The resources were once Rauru's after all, were they not?

And this is what I would say, except... except for the dead. The fallen warriors, the poes, and, most important of all: the Bargainer statues.

The Bargainers are, in-universe, godly creatures guiding the fallen to a place of final respite, regardless of moral alignment. The poes are all, fundamentally, cleansed of judgement: they are lost souls whose past reality does not matter anymore, and all deserve that peace regardless. In spite of the heavy paradise/hell parallels drawn in that game, with Rauru/Zelda/Sonia as the guardians of Light where Ganondorf gets to become a Devil-like figure, it is confirmed here that no such thing exists when you actually die in this universe.

It almost feels as if the fabric of Hyrule itself, in a brief moment that refuses to elaborate on its own point, goes: "yeah, whatever is happening here between Light and Darkness, it doesn't actually matter. This conflict is futile and doesn't understand the real nature of being alive, dead, a god, a person, a monster, an animal. The truth lies elsewhere --but you will never be told what it is."

It's: wild.

One of the game's most striking traits of narrative brilliance in my opinion --to the point where I'm wondering whether it's there on purpose or was effectively an oversight since every other aspect of reality breaks its own back trying to reassure us that everything is at its correct place, receiving the appropriate treatment by the universe in a way that is never to be questioned.

Another case of that ambiguity being allowed to exist without being immediately crushed and repressed is the case of the Horned God (interesting parallel to Ganon's actual horns that he develops in this game in case the hellish parallels weren't clear enough already): a demon Hylia sealed into stone and pushed far from humans in a clear case of questionable behavior since, while the Horned God isn't exactly nice, does propose a different philosophy you are not punished for exploring; and yet, a proposal that has seen itself persecuted in a very real sense by the goddess of absolute goodness, patron of hylians, Zelda, and many more. Pushed away from view.

Interesting.

And Yet, Light Must Prevail

Okay, so, after all of this, we're left to ask... What the fuck is up with morality in Tears of the Kingdom?!

What do we trust? These half-breaths in the occasional sidequests that Light and Darkness is just the wrong frame of reference, that nature cannot be this simple, is ever-shifting and can be recalled or reaffirmed by arbitrary forces, and might even not matter at all in the universe's fabric, despite having so much of its lore soaking in the dychotomy? Or... everything else about the game, this insistence that Good must not only be assumed as whatever tradition the kingdom has passed down for thousands upon thousands of years, but remain utterly unquestioned the entire time? That Bad is without cause, graceless and unworthy of investment?

Are the Bargainer's statues the only thing worth listening to, that morality is a fable the living tells themselves --or should we be moved when Darkness destroys Light, when Light suffers to preserve itself and the world --but not when the Other is rightfully slain?

Was Kilton correct to see beauty in the monstrous? Was Kolton onto something when he let go of his previous form because there is no clear distinction between what should receive an arrow to the face and what shouldn't? Or should we rather focus on Zelda losing her human form as a beautiful and tragic sacrifice --but something that never actually altered her nature as a hylian, the descendant of a lineage of Good Kings meant to rule forever?

Is the Dondon good because it always was, or was it worth Zelda's love in spite of the fear it initially provoked?

Either way, at the end of the game, evil is slain. Ganondorf is, not killed, but --like his angry BotW boar counterpart-- destroyed, as monsters tend to be. He explodes over the lands of Hyrule, freed from Darkness; freed from everything wrong, since the foreign menace that embodied it all was wiped out in one fateful sweep of a holy blade cradled in sacrificial love. Nothing wrong remains. The Sages reaffirm their vows to protect the kingdom forward, and a very human --hylian-- Zelda smiles: Hyrule now forever and ever basked in eternal Light.