#botw was how I found out I really like open world games

[rotisseries]

OH DUDE i got botw and totk the other day and just 💥💥‼️ ITS SO MUCH FUN

HELL YEAH DUDE!! HAVE FUN!!! TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT!!!

[blueskittlesart]

did u not like totk?

i LOVED totk. i think it was well-written and did its job as a sequel to botw very well. HOWEVER. i do think it suffered slightly from the commercial success of botw. as i mentioned in my last post, nintendo does this. thing. when one of their games gets popular where every game after it has to be Exactly The Same so they can make all the money in the world via comparison marketing. (and this is a problem with the wider game industry in general but also a very observable pattern in loz specifically.) I know it's been a pretty long time since botw came out, but before (and immediately following) its release there was some pushback from longtime fans who worried that the open-world and lack of traditional dungeons meant that the game had strayed too far from the classic formula that makes a game a "zelda game." this is to say, botw was EXPERIMENTAL. and the devs had no idea if what they were doing was going to be successful or not. the open-world of botw wasn't a gimmick, and it wasn't the devs jumping on the open-world bandwagon. it was what CREATED that bandwagon. the open-world was a deliberate choice made specifically for botw because it reinforced the story that botw was designed to tell. the game is about exploring a desolate world, about making connections, and rebuilding both the broken kingdom and the player character's shattered sense of self by traveling and learning and building relationships. a large open-world map with only minor quest guidelines and lots of collectibles and side quests lends itself perfectly to this specific story, which is specifically about exploration and rebirth.

the problem is, botw was. almost TOO good. it was so good that every other game company on the planet started scrambling to build giant open-world maps into their next release, regardless of how much sense that actually made narratively. and because of that, when it came time to release a sequel to botw, the devs had a lot to think about. they had HUGE shoes to fill in terms of fan reception, but they were ALSO being asked to follow up one of the best-performing games of all time, commercially. totk needed to SELL as well as botw. And, likely because nintendo was worried about that potential commercial value, totk needed to keep people comfortable. I don't know for certain, but I definitely get the feeling playing totk that the devs were specifically told not to stray too far from what made botw marketable and successful--that being the open world and the versatility of gameplay. so in order to follow that up, they made... 2 more huge open maps, and new gimmick gameplay which was explicitly super-versatile.

do i think that the extra maps and ultrahand were BAD choices? no. however, i don't think they necessarily ADDED anything to the game as a narrative whole. one of my favorite things about botw was how everything seemed to be designed AROUND the narrative, with gameplay elements slotting neatly into the story thematically. totk just. didn't really have that, imo. there wasn't a huge narrative benefit to the gigantic, completely unpopulated depths and sky maps. ultrahand was cool, but within the context of the story it meant basically nothing. in some ways, i almost think totk could have benefitted from a much more linear approach to its storytelling, a la skyward sword, because there are a lot of story beats that have to be found in chronological order in order to have the right emotional impact, but because of the nonlinear open-world it kind of became a struggle to hit all the important story points in the right order. an easy example of this is the dragon's tears in comparison to the memories--the dragon tears have a very specific set order in which they happen, and finding them out of order can make the story you're seeing in them feel confusing and disjointed. the order in which they should be found is technically displayed on the temple wall, but most players aren't going to pick up on that or follow it--more likely, they're just going to explore the geoglyphs as they come across them organically, and therefore will likely witness the story in a completely disjointed way. compare this to the botw memories, which ALSO technically have a set order--the order in which they're displayed on the sheikah slate. however, because they're largely just small moments in time, and not one continuous story, finding them out of order has a lot less of an impact on how you as the player experience the narrative, and it's not hugely detrimental to your experience of the story if you find them naturally as you explore rather than explicitly seeking them out in order. If TOTK had been allowed to deviate from the botw formula a bit, i think we may have ended up with a more cohesive game in terms of narrative beats like that. as it is, i just think the game is torn slightly between wanting to be its own new game with new gameplay and needing to be botw, if that makes sense.

[weirdmageddon]

the new zeltik video finally pushed me over the edge and made the connections between the bunch of details i noticed throughout totk seem more significant than i already thought they were. by myself i was hovering around these connections i came upon like “is this anything?” for a while, but after the video i was like “ok this is something”

alongside the theme of hands, i also noticed a secondary and more minor theme of blood and siphoning/circulation

most importantly

rauru rips into ganon’s chest with his bare hand like a badass to bind ganondorf’s heart, suck away and purify his dark magic. (btw and Not importantly ganondorf still has rauru’s finger holes in him and it’s pretty funny)

gloom seeps out from organically branching root-like structurs in the depths. if you watch closely you can see gloom slowly move inside them. they all seem to lead back to gloom’s lair where ganondorf is absorbing them. this is very evident in the cutscene where you finally make it to ganondorf himself and they show a close-up of this through thicker branches of these “gloom vessels”

gloom sucks away vitality from a person. fittingly, whenever a heart container is damaged due to gloom, you hear a heartbeat. gloom hands visibly siphon this vitality in more of a physical way. if you watch them they will sort of grotesquely pulsate when sucking the Juices out of link

is gloom ganondorf’s dark-magic infused blood? when the edge of the master sword cut mummydorf’s face, instead of blood it oozed gloom which boiled after making contact with a chip of the sword. rather than being magenta gelatin like malice, gloom is red and flat, staining surfaces like a liquid

phantom ganon is made entirely out of gloom. the compendium says it’s made from “the demon king’s own flesh and blood”. the dark clumps left behind from the gloom spawn/phantom ganon (with the depths talisman on them i guess to turn it into gloom antibodies lol??) also pulsate like monster guts

my idea is that this all goes back to those roots that pump this back to ganondorf to revitalize him. he was siphoned by rauru, now he siphons others to revitalize himself. there’s a lot of details put into this no way it isn’t connected

btw i didnt notice it at first but the landing pad for gloom’s lair is shaped like a heart like actually. it shouldve been stupid obvious

the gloom system is like a reverse circulatory system. instead of nurturing the periphery from a central location, it drains the periphery and delivers the nutrients to a central location. so like, oops! all veins. apparently after writing this i found an identical point from a forum post made ONLY YESTERDAY

“real world cardiovascular systems deliver vitality to the rest of the body from a centric location, while Gloom drains vitality from its surroundings and delivers it to a centric location”

and this “nurturance” line of thought made me remember how I thought at one point that the lightroots look a bit like hearts and the big roots are like the vessels. it wasn’t really a significant thought at the time until I made these newer connections. if we put them into my analogy, they would be the opposite to the gloom vessel system since they deliver light from the surface and emit it to the periphery (the surrounding area). i associate light with rauru, and he healed/nurtured link, so there’s just parallels and another reason that made me think of the lightroots. also the lightroots heal gloom-damaged heart containers

there are more minor but supplementary details such as

the sound of a heartbeat is featured very prominently in the E3 2019 teaser, and is literally the first noise in the game itself as the opening screens play. so it’s literally the first experiences we have with the game, both the game itself and in the meta about the game.

gaining an essence from a goddess statue, the heartbeat was not in botw (and of course neither was the miasma emitting from link’s entire body every time)

the gloom in link’s body reacts to every shrine of light blessing he absorbs into his arm and the joycons themselves pulse using the haptics

probably more shit i missed lol

the whole thing doesn’t really mean anything significant to the lore at all but neither does the hands theme. but it’s just definitely a pattern, potentially a minor theme, and deliberate choice in setting tone. i think it’s Something. im not a heavy zelda theorist tuber or anything but i’m very observant of patterns and i like to share them for deeper appreciation and contemplation/discussion

[luna-loveboop]

It's all "links meet aus" and "zeldas meet aus", but where's my "companions meet aus"?

I wanna see midna bash fi and navis heads together for annoying her

I mean can you imagine the sheer chaos of all the Zelda companions meeting and going on a journey together? They're all companions/guides! One of thems a talking hat for hylias sake how are they supposed to take initiative?

I think it'd be like Lu where they all just meet up, but can you imagine the chain just somehow finds out this happened (and twilight is just like guys I am so sorry about midna) (but they're also really oddly touched that all their friends met each other too)

Pretty sure midna would be the sort of leader, since the last time she was in a foreign world she just found the nearest dude and started ordering him around. By like halfway through twilight princess she was literally asking LINK to accompany her to get what she needed.

But like. 90% of the group would be fairies. Which can't heal. One is a talking hat who just needs a head? He can't go on midnas cause she throws him off with her magic hair, poor ezlo is just trying to keep up.

They also have these weird green shadows who come around? They don't talk, but there's a rock, a fish, a bird, and a lady who just appear and stab things and shoot wind water fire and lightning.

Also midnas really confused why wolf link just shows up and kills things every now and then (from botw amibo)

Fi is the one who can talk to Hylia and awaken memories and get guidance and information or whatever, but she only does this by ballerina dancing and the others are always pissed at her anyways "WE DONT KNOW WHAT BATTERIES ARE OR A WII REMOTE WILL YOU PLEASE GO BACK IN SWORD FORM ALREADY" "I detect there is a 90% chance you need a key to open this door" "wow. Your perception is unparalleled fi."

Also there's a boat. A boat. Who is also good at taking charging since he's a king, which causes some friction between him and midna, since she has to grab him by her hair to move him half the time.

And with the fairies. Again. They all offer advice mainly. And with the fairies a lot of their main role is speaking and getting attention and pitching in? They come on an intersection and there's a chorus of bells all shouting the same directions. Ezlo is trying to cover the kings ears from his place on the boats head

Also there's this ghost/spirit of Zelda that everyone just feels REALLY strong loyalty to. But she's just like this kid who wants her body back?! They try to protect her but she can turn into a purple knight and stab things so there's that. I think there's also some animal companions from ooa/oos so.

Side quests are nonexistent they don't care about a village or gathering frogs for a kid they are there to save the world on a mission linear plot it is

And it's interesting because you have so many of them who just vanish and then appear to give loud advice. All at once. And the fighting skills basically fall to those weird green shadows that shoot various elements and fight and randomly disappear. Midna and spirit Zelda can fight, and Fi can too (kind of like how she fights as a sword in hyrule warriors). Also up to you if midna is drop dead gorgeous or devilish imp.

By the end they find whatever enemy so they can go back and midna is so pissed by this point that she hears the word "batteries" from Fi and goes full on fused shadow and just obliterates the jerk

***I have not played all the games so do not know or understand all of the companions and probably got some stuff wrong

Bonus: there is a child in a village named Link who does not have the spirit of the hero. He is stalked for three days until Fi decides his vibes are off and they all stop telling him he's the chosen one

[daisy-daze17]

An aspect of totk that I've come to realise really bothers me is its tendancy to take bits and pieces of elements from lots of places and slap them into a game. Don't get me wrong- im aware the zelda games constantly include Easter eggs and call backs to reference older titles, and Totk is jam-packed with it. You search the depths to find a bunch of classic armours and shit from like every single game, the paragliding fabrics, and so much more.

But this game ALSO has a lot of story related or basic game structure that is tied to other zelda games.

1. Wind temple for example is practically oozing with reminants of wind waker-- you're climbing up to this MAGIC BOAT with the RITO (a prominent species in ww) by controlling and managing your wind powers all to make it to a boss with a name and theme song screaming out the most iconic parts of ww (God bless colgeras theme music we will never forget the music).

2. Lots of people found that the main aesthetics and storyline of this game was similar to skyward sword: you wake up on an ancient sky island that is the biggest one in hyrule before finding your way to the surface and descending down to start a search for zelda. I remember it was so similar some even started questioning if totk takes place before ss?? (I do not have the brain capacity to discuss that rn lol). Ganondorf looks extremely reminant of demise with his hair, main sacrifice of the game centres zelda giving up her body for a long long time so she can fight the evil that will come in a long long time, etc,etc.

3. As we all know, this game is a sequel to botw (omg rlly?? Who would have guessed) and it definaltly shows by the amount of game structure taken from botw to put in here. The four tutorial area shrines, the memories, the four main dilemmas for each reason, and ya know, the whole entire map. Totk makes changes to this map but essentially, it is a better version of the map we got in botw. Now it's obvious that nintendo would do this, but sometimes it feels like... they didn't have to?? The main one for this is the memories. The thing is, breath centred around our hero losing his memories and exploring unknown lands to receive bits and pieces that tell him what life could have been like pre-disaster. Totk, however, centres around zelda being in the past and showing link episodes of heavy plot driven cutscenes with every geoglyph he finds. Botw are little fragments of info that you can pieces together in any order to imagine what the main story was. Totk shoves a bunch of plot down your throat in any order because they don't give a shit if your spoil the story for yourself. Both games are non-linear. See where I'm getting at? One set of memories strengthen the nonlinearity of the game and rewards you for finding them. One... doesn't. There have been countless arguments made about this glaring issue that discuss it further, but my main point here is that maybe we didn't have to follow botw's structure to a tea if it doesn't work out for us sometimes.

Zelda games constantly reinvent themselves. Notice how no matter what nintendo does, some people always complaining about a new addition to the series while others love it? Wind wakers cartoonish artsyle, skywards motion controls, major's masks 3 day cycle, botw's open world gameplay? It seems like tears of the kingdom doesn't do that. I'd argue that its main purpose is taking breath of the wild and fixing major complaints made about the game, most of them usually about how untraditional to zelda botw was. That's why this game feels like a weird combination of the two. Nintendo tried to marry open world zelda with elements of older zelda games. It tries to have an episodic plot with major twists and emotion... but forgets that I'm allowed to watch each episode in any order I want and can end up screwing myself over. It tries to have traditional looking dungeons... but doesn't have any linearity to it and gets rid of the mechanics these used in botw, so it ends up being short aesthetically pleasing 4-part puzzles. It tries to have a LINEAR STORY in a NON-LINEAR GAME by making us constantly on our toes about finding zelda and understanding why she's trying to scare the locals shitless by commiting felonies like attacking the zora king, telling the gorons to do drugs, and appearing and disappearing every 5 seconds... but again, it forgets that I can spoil myself and know what the fuck is going on WAY before I'm supposed to.

This is turning into a little hater rant but. What I'm saying is, totk is trying to mix little parts of every game to make all of us happy, but it ends up becoming a confusing soup of unoriginality and "what the fuck in going on with this story". Its trying to make a traditional zelda game in an open world format. The most insulting part is that it tries to honour past games with taking all of their ideas,but totk's main purpose clashes with what those games are about (especially wind waker and botw) which is reinventing yourself to fit with the new generation and not holding onto the past/not obsessing over games that you got really big for (cough cough ocarina of time cough cough).

Anyway it's late and this is literally my first time trying to write out a critique about something on tumblr, so if this makes no sense pls tell me haha :)

[theoldaeroplane]

I inbox you the following: I must know what compels you about Link. I trust that he is Good and Excellent, but I simply yearn for an essay on what little niche trait makes you wanna fandom the fuck out of this little guy. 5-10 paragraphs of hyper fixated ramblings preferred, but not required.

ohhh starkid you've given me A GIFT. a GIFT.

So some background first, I think. I've always liked the Zelda games, in the way you play a mainstream game and are like "yeah that was good!" I played Ocarina of Time and Windwaker as a kid. I played Breath of the Wild when it first came out and had a fun time with it. Yeah. Good games! Fun mechanics. Characters seem a little flat, but they aren't why I'm here. What was the story again? Oh, right---yeah, they gave Zelda an actual personality that doesn't start and end with "princess" in the new one! She's a scientist! How neat.

Then Tears of the Kingdom comes out. I've just gotten a Steam Deck for my birthday and wow, turns out you can emulate TOTK already?? I try it out immediately. It's janky, but I love messing with emulators, so I keep going. I certainly don't have the cash to buy TOTK properly.

And in TOTK, for me, it starts with Zelda. It starts with this young woman barely out of her teens being flung into a horrible, frightening situation, and being forced to make an absolutely terrifying choice. And it turns out if you start looking at her more closely, that choice only becomes more and more viscerally upsetting as you incorporate things about her from the previous game.

It got me invested, and I still adore Zelda. I could probably write just as long a deliberation about her. But we're talking about Link.

I read a little bit of BOTW fanfic back when it first came out. It was almost all Sidon/Link stuff, because I liked the ship for a number of reasons, and one evening after another night of mainlining TOTK I decide to go look and see if I can find some that I remembered being good. I did, and they were still mostly good! But there was one in particular, with one line in particular. "You're Always Almost There," by Polyhexian. (On mobile so no link, sorry!)

'One hundred years ago,’ Link signed, 'A Guardian shot me through the chest,’ he grimaced as if in pain from even mentioning it, 'I died with everyone else, and then someone else decided to bring me, and only me, back to life to fix everything, to save everyone. I have to stop the Calamity. I have to save Hyrule. I have to fix the world. I am not a real person. I am everyone’s unfinished business.’

I had read it before. When I read it this time I closed my browser, opened Typora, and started writing. It wasn't more than a random narrative sifting through half collected ideas, and I neither finished nor posted it, but it got me started. A few weeks later I started writing To Be Well, which among other things directly addresses the idea that Link does not think of himself as a "real person"---and that he isn't sure if he wants to.

As I've written him, I've found more and more about him and his setting that fascinates me. Part of this is certainly that Link is intentionally designed as a "placeholder" character (word of God is he was deliberately designed to be androgynous to make it easier for more people to project on him). At first I was really fascinated by his relationship with Zelda, and wanted to look at that through a queerplatonic lens. In doing that I found myself trying to work through some problems of my own, which it turns out is just how I write fanfiction I guess: projecting! Huzzah! I decided to lean into it, and wrote "You do not have to be good," which is a story that takes some liberties with the canon to explore the subject of toxic purity and the toll it takes. Also, the logistics of kissing someone with a beak.

What makes Link compelling to me is ... what do you do, when you aren't allowed to be a person? What do you do when you've been told all your life things are like this and this and this, and that you must behave thusly?  What if you learn it was never true? How do you go from "perfect" to "real"? What does it even mean, being a person? How do you start? Is it even worth it?

I feel like I'm only scratching the surface, haha. I also love Link for whatever the hell he's doing with gender, and I've been having an absolute blast writing him as predominantly communicating via sign language. I'm playing fast and loose with a lot of things that only get half-mentioned in canon, and having a good old time playing in the sandbox of Hyrule. They're huge games and there's a lot of space for me to set up shop!

[rationalisms]

i realize that part of the open world trend is just straight up because it allows for lazier game design-- as in, studios wanna claim that their game has xyz hours of playtime but can't be arsed to actually provide interesting content so they plonk you in a mostly empty "open world" filled with (often procedurally generated) repetitive time-waster tasks like resource gathering or, idk, hunting the same five animals over and over.

what i don't understand is why people seem to go nuts for it. breath of the wild was touted as the best zelda game of all time by like everyone and so as someone who's played and enjoyed every zelda game but skyward sword so far (couldn't get the wii controls to work lol) i was really excited for it... and i did try my best because i wanted to like it. i played for many hours. and i hated the entire experience.

in older zelda games every location was jam-packed with secrets and fun little quest lines. the square meter to content ratio was tight lol. in botw i could spend like 10 minutes walking across the map and still not have found anything interesting apart from another fucking fetch quest. it's literally a scam!

that's not even getting into how every game has to be made with creating the sequel in mind now, so games can't just tell a finished story anymore, they're not allowed to tie up any loose ends, because that'd make it less financially viable. so we don't get another zelda game, we get breath of the wild 2. guys i'm so sick of it... get me out of here fr

[foibles-fables]

What's that? Random asks? Don't mind if I do!

How did you hear about Horizon that made you want to play it, and how was that first time?

Howdy hello and HECK YES! I love this question.

So--summer 2020. I'd just come back from a decade-long hiatus from fandom in general, and was starting to learn the new ropes and spaces (this former livejournal clown breaking into discord and twitter, etc.). One night, I was scrolling through my twitter timeline and happened to stumble upon the freshly-posted E3 announcement trailer for HFW. And even though I hadn't really played a narrative video game since the PS2 era, I decided to watch it. And, huh! I remember saying, "Badass freckly redheaded archer...seems relevant to my interests." The graphics were absolutely gorgeous and what little hints of the story were present in that trailer (especially for someone who knew nothing of the narrative background presented so far) were compelling.

So I looked up some info and found out that it was a sequel to a 2017 game. Cool. Filed that away for later, deciding to get a PS5 when they released later that year.

Jump-cut to late December. I managed to get my hands on a PS5, and it was delivered a couple days before Christmas. Which was awesome, because life was not going super well and I needed a heavy-duty distraction. At this point I had kind of pushed Horizon to the backburner and was instead excited to play AC Valhalla as my first game! But when I booted up, I learned that my mother had bought me the disc version as a Christmas gift. I was left with a couple of days to try other stuff out before I could dive in to ACV.

So, I shrugged and downloaded HZD instead. And the rest is kind of history.

Went into it kind of ambivalent and really hoping I would like it. I had tried to play BotW and was completely overwhelmed by the open-world aspects, and not in a pleasant way, and I hoped that wouldn't be the case here. I'd also never really been into a ton of action games before, as most of my old faves were turn-based. The gameplay itself wouldn't be the clincher for me--that would be the story.

WELL, good news is, I was hooked from the prologue. I would equate playing HZD to not just watching a narrative masterwork unfold, but being in the driver's seat of one. Each discovery Aloy and I made was enthralling and exhilarating, and I legitimately could not stop playing. Could not stop exploring. Every side quest, every collectible, every corner of the map (besides the hunting grounds after earning my Suns at the Nora one, SORRY TALANAH). The entirety of "Deep Secrets of the Earth" had me staring into the darkness of my gaming room in a mix of existential horror and pure amazement. I wept at the ending. The HZD cast left an indelible mark on my heart, and it really reminded me of just how powerful game stories can be. Still trapped in hyperfixation hell (affectionate) over it.

The fun didn't stop there, though. By the time I finished the game (I took my time!), it was early February 2021. I feel very lucky to have sauntered in when I did, because it really seems like it was the perfect time to join the fandom. Folks were coming out of hibernation from both 2017 and the 2020 PC release, hyped with excitement and theories for HFW. Within those first months I met some of the most fabulous and now-lifelong friends (and more <3) I've ever had.

Bottom line: after playing HZD, Horizon and the fandom pulled me through a very very very difficult time in my life. I'm eternally grateful to this series and the meaning I derive from it. Especially from the first game--its vibrant narrative, and its absolutely fantastic characters. Lightning in a bottle, man.

And no, I still haven't finished AC Valhalla. lmao.

[atwas-meme-ing]

BOTW's Confusing Timeline

First off, please take everything I'm about to say with a grain of salt. BOTW is the only Zelda game I've ever beaten, and I only just beat it a couple of days ago, with a 38.something% completion. (And even at that, I don't think I could have gotten the true ending. Zelda asked if Link remembered her, and I doubt he did, because I was still missing 3 memories). A large majority of my understanding of the history of Hyrule comes from the Zelda Encyclopedia, Hyrule Historia, and stuff online. I could have everything wrong.

I've been trying to figure out which timeline BOTW probably fits into the best, and I'm pretty sure it must be the Triumphant Child Link timeline. Here's why:

Bokos

First, there's the existence of bokoblins. I did a quick google search, and bokos appear in the following games:

Skyward Sword takes place before anything else. According to Hyrule Historia, both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess take place in the Triumphant Hero timeline. Bokos, then, do not appear in the Defeated Hero timeline. So BOTW and TOTK must not be in the Defeated Hero timeline.

So, as sad as it makes me to say it, I don't believe we will see Lorule appear in TOTK. (So don't ask me how Ravio's hood ended up in BOTW. I suppose Ravio must have existed in this timeline, as well, just in a different capacity than how he appears in LBW.) I wish we could- the Dark World would be just so. darned. AWESOME! in an open-world adventure. But I doubt it will happen.

2. Witches

Another point against the idea that BOTW could have been in the Defeated Hero timeline is the absence of witches. To my knowledge, witches appear mostly in the Defeated Hero timeline (Maple in the Oracle games, Irene in LBW, the old crones that fix up potions in LTTP and Link's Awakening). Now, I know Koume and Kotake appear in Majora, but while I haven't finished Majora, I feel like it should be considered an outlier, since it takes place in Termina instead of Hyrule (and besides, it's the same twin witches from OOT).

If there are witches in other timelines, I either haven't found them or don't remember them.

3. Ritos

The Ritos are descendants of the Zora, and Zoras don't exist after Wind Waker. (Also, Ritos don't appear in the Defeated Hero timeline.) It doesn't make much sense, then, for BOTW to take place after Wind Waker, because how did the Zora just magically reappear after they'd gone extinct?

BUT, I see no reason why the Zora and the Rito couldn't coexist in BOTW if it follows Twilight Princess. Just because the flooding of Hyrule spurred the Zora to evolve into the Rito in Wind Waker, that doesn't mean that the Rito couldn't have spontaneously arisen as their own culture in the Child Link timeline. All that would have had to happen would be for a few Ritos to be born all at about the same time (possibly due to a freak genetic mutation in the Zora gene pool a few centuries ago?), decide that they just didn't fit into the Zora's water world, and split off to form their own nation.

There really isn't any reason they can't coexist.

4. Koholit Island

This island drove me crazy for the longest time. How can Koholit be real in BOTW when it was nothing but the Wind Fish's dream?

I have 2 theories for this:

Theory 1: The Wind Fish was given time to awaken and bring the island that it dreamed about to life in the real world.

Theory 2: Someone else, not a Link, landed in the Wind Fish's dream and, after awakening, landed on a very remote, difficult-to-reach island and decided to name it Koholit after the island in the dream. (This same person probably also traveled inland and named Goponga Swamp.)

In either case, it's still unlikely that BOTW takes place in the Defeated Hero timeline.

5. Tears of the Kingdom/Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is probably the one that I know the least about. I've only played just a very little of it. But my understanding is that Ganondorf was executed, and now in TOTK he's being resurrected. Further, people keep talking about a connection between the Zonai and the Twili, which come from TP, as I understand.

Also, most of the special armor in BOTW comes from Twilight Princess or Ocarina of Time, with the exceptions of the Lobster Shirt (Wind Waker) and Ravio's Hood (Link Between Worlds) (there may be other armor that I don't know about). As I said before, Ravio could have existed in this timeline, just in a different capacity. The same could be said for the people of Outset Island, even though Outset Island doesn't appear to exist in BOTW, at least not under that name.

6. The Big Reason Why BOTW Could Actually Be in the Adult Link Timeline

Simply put, it's because the Hero of Time is frequently mentioned in BOTW. And if this game does take place in the Child Link timeline, how would anyone know about the Hero of Time? The whole point of the Child Link timeline is that Link erased the events that happened in OOT, isn't it?

Well, I actually do have a tentative theory about that, too...

7. A Connection Between the Timelines?

Somehow or other, BOTW is a reconvergence of the 3 timelines. Or at least of the Triumphant Child and Adult Link timelines.

Most of the armor and items are references to either OOT or TP. But they mention the Hero of Time. And there's the Lobster Island shirt. And the Ritos. And the Koroks (whoops! almost forgot them!), who also only appeared in Wind Waker, and there is really no reason for the Kokiri to have turned into the Koroks in the Child Link timeline. And there's Koholit Island and Ravio's Hood, which both come from the Defeated Hero timeline, which, as I've said over and over, isn't likely to be BOTW's timeline.

In other words, BOTW covers every timeline. Especially if you look at the DLC.

Flip over to the Tears of the Kingdom trailers (at the time I'm writing this, TOTK is less than 2 weeks away), and it is filled with references to Wind Waker. There's a boat that looks very much like the King of Red Lions, the inside of Hyrule Castle looks exactly as it does in Wind Waker, and there's some kind of a dragon in a tornado. Meanwhile, people who know more about Twilight Princess than I do have noticed lots of TP references.

So. Is TOTK going to converge the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess timelines? Were the EX treasure chests, with their references to the Heroes of Time, of Wind, and of Twilight, a hint or a foreshadowing of this upcoming convergence?

I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks, huh?

[beevean]

I think Frontiers has such low replay value for a few reasons:

While you can traverse the islands non-linearly, there is legit just very little that rewards your curiosity. There's no cool hidden items that you can find if you search for them, at most a few pretty places you probably would have gone to anyway if you want to complete the map for 100% each. So once you've gone and fully completed each map, you've basically seen it all already.

The game can be rather rail-roading: on Chaos Island, for example, there's a few smaller islands you can basically only ever go through in the same one or two ways. Picking the wrong way will bring you to a place where you don't need to go to anymore. Good luck if you can't find the correct paths, though, because it is very difficult to make out just where the heck rails and the like lead you.

Talking about the items: there's like... five, six of them total to be found on the map? You've got the attack and defence fruits, the Koco, the memory tokens, Experience Points, rings... and that is basically the gist of it, even if I feel like I'm forgetting stuff (which is not a good sign at all, since that means it is forgettable). It gets very boring very quickly to have those be the only things you ever find. To bring back BotW, if you went out of your way to go explore the game usually rewards you with a strong weapon or useful item... because it's got hundreds of weapons and items you can collect. Not just a mere six or so on the islands, who eventually become moot anyway if you've fully upgraded Sonic and his skill tree.

The world is just empty. There's legit nobody interesting to talk to, other than perhaps Sage and Sonic's friends, who disappear afterwards from those spots. And furthermore, they have the problem that you can go through their developments completely unhingedly depending on where you find them, so you can easily have Sonic and Sage chat cordially on the final island and then go back to the first and have her be blunt and rude instead. I would have liked a 'good ending' where Sonic helped his friends and Sage through taking the time to talk to them fully on each island before going to the next and a 'bad ending' where he did not do that, but alas...

So yeah, overall the replay value is low because once you've put in some effort on your first run, there is nothing that rewards you for doing more. Everything you get is the same constantly, and if you went and 100% completed the maps and talked to everyone the first time, there's just nothing new to be found on new playthroughs.

Btw I should add that the game has such poor replayability to me that I haven't even picked it up despite the various updates throughout the year already, so maybe things have become better and I just haven't noticed them yet. Maybe😅

As always, huge W for ShTH, King of Replay Value ❤️

I'm starting to think that it's not my issue if I can't watch a playthrough of the game without getting bored lol. But more seriously, it's a shame, because Sonic games have usually high replay value, through their level design with multiple routes or the ranking system, or exceptional cases like Advance 3's gimmick.

Sage was really wasted. Her interactions with Sonic are 99% "you will die" "how?" "go fuck yourself I'm not telling you", until we're supposed to care about her and her NANANANANANA. A sidequest where you have to make the effort to befriend Sage? Teach her what a loving relationship is, making her realize that Eggman doesn't actually care about her like she hoped to? And maybe unlocking her as help during the final boss? It would have been something new and interesting! oh well.

(also yeah I read that part about Khaos Island. It doesn't sound fun. Why rail road part of your open world like that?)

[gikairan]

Mmm so i tried to play some of that Wuthering/*/*/Waves game that came out today

Bc its a Genshin-like and hey its sort of the time of the Genshin update where not much is going on. Why not try it out?

Especially as my pathway into Genshin was "haha, lets see how bad this Chinese BOTW-like is" to "... oh no i'm actually having a LOT of fun"

And... boy i dont think i've ever played a game thats so shamelessly a rip-off of another one, and fails to carve even one iota of its own identity.....

Look, i'll admit. My play time is probably less than 3 hours. Mostly just trying to follow the main story. Until i unlocked the gacha, and tried to run around and see what the open world had to offer for a bit.

And its.... its Genshin. Its Genshin with a slightly more sci-fi skin, made by a company that isn't quite to the same standard of quality.

The combat is different, and i WILL give it the fact that its got good punch. Long term, I can see this being more interesting than Genshin's (Which i admit is a little button spammy and not very strategic anymore - especially as i ignore Spiral Abyss)

..... But its about the only system that i felt had the right level of polish? Jumping felt wrong, climbing felt wrong. I tried to do the fast climbing up a wall and the main character just went into the sprint animation. The subtitles dont scroll down when youre not in a proper "cutscene", and it doesnt seem to be scrollable, so you miss entire sentences. I dont know if you can change the dub language, since I just want to play my games in English, but if you did change your language... thats.... not great? Theres also weird pacing issues with the voice acting, where it seems like they didn't quite give the English voice lines enough time to be said, pause for breathing, and move onto the next line. It feels unnatural. Plus - some of the translation is a little odd? You get a dialogue option like "What happens when someone Overclocks" and the response from the character is "Overclocking is *thing*". Like... the option was "what happens when you do this thing?", not "what is thing (You just explained 2 seconds ago)?"

UI wise, it all felt overly familiar. Everything is in exactly. the. same. place. The pause menu is a little different, but not a huge amount. Many character systems are the same.

Overworld, the bit i explored seemed a little... empty? There wasnt really a lot i could see to do. I found a mechanic that is basically seeles..... I found a domain that had the same kind of UI going on. I found a puzzle that isnt directly ripped from Genshin.... because its the magnesis/ Ultrahand Korok block puzzles from BOTW/ TOTK....

Theres nothing i played that felt unique to this game? Maybe the echo system, which I probably havent played with enough, but i dont think that alone is enough of a draw on its own? It feels like it needs something more significant to really set it apart and let it be its Own Game.

But truly the worst sin - they gave the main character the title of "Rover". Which sure feels like "Traveller", but not. Except.... they dont put an article before "Rover". And the translators really really should have. Because Rover.... is a stereotypical dog name. "The Rover" would sound a looooooot better.

The thing is tho, i bet none of this would bother you if you never played Genshin? A game which, honestly, I do not recommend you picking up if you havent played it yet. Because youre looking at 100+ hours of cutscene just to catch up. This... might actually be a good option if you want to try that kind of game, but are daunted by the amount of content in Genshin? It needs a bit more polish but I dont think its bad. Just obviously a little lower budget, or the team isnt quite as experienced. But i cant play this game and not go ".... this isnt as good as the game that its clearly trying so hard to be???" And maybe if Genshin was a typical story-based game that just released in one go, and i'd finished it, i'd be more forgiving? Like an "oh boy, two cakes!" kind of situation? But side by side... and I can't help but compare and find this new game lacking.

[noorahqar]

ohhhhh that makes sense! i will do an ask game thingo!

ok im gonna say number 8 reoccurring dreams for the questions game & 👊🙉 for the loz one. i think i mightve typed the wrong emoji monkey but WHY IS THERE MORE THAN ONE EMOJI MONKEY ANYWAY

thank u and goodnight <3

Hi Bee!!! I also don't know why there's more than one monkey! Why is that a subgenre of emojis. I kind of get the cats, at least. Altho this guy 😼 has no rational reason to exist IMO.

8. any reacquiring dreams?

Yeah I'm guessing that meant reoccurring. Not really anymore. I never had reoccurring dreams, but I'd have dream sequels two or three years after the original. The only one I remember right now is one that had the titanic in it. Not much else. It was like... 6-ish years ago, tbf LOL

🙊 Unpopular Zelda Opinions?

Zelda unpopular opinions... Hmm. I'm a sheep when it comes to opinions but I can think of one currently.

I don't think every Zelda game from here on out HAS to be open world. I've seen a lot of people view the open world format as the future of all games, but linearity is nice too. I've heard people say that Nintendo doesn't go back once it's found a formula that works, and I'm vaguely scared that'll be the case moving forwards LOL.

Additionally, because my rambles kept ending up here, TOTK's map was kind of mediocre. It was fun seeing how it had developed over the five-ish years since BOTW, but there wasn't much new to explore. The Depths and Sky Islands? Yeah, they're there, but only about 20% of either of those had any actual content. There were a lot of missed opportunities. But the little lore drops were fun! I really liked the contents of the Gerudo depths. I wish it'd been explored more.

Eek. Don't get me started on how none of the civilians recognize Link. Or the repetitiveness of the dialogue and sages. Eughh. As you can see I'm stuck somewhere between adoring TOTK and disliking it LOL

👊 Favorite Zelda Villain/Boss?

Oooooh. I'm gonna have to say the very final boss of TOTK, for strange reasons. Spoilers ahead (It's been a year. Is it still spoilers?)

I saw the name "Demon Dragon" on Ao3 like a week after the game came out and immediately did that thing where I forget spoilers on purpose. (It works so well. I did the same for the Seized Construct and was SO SHOCKED when that boss fight occurred.) But I expected it to be a main boss _before_ Ganondorf. Like Mucktorok or something. I actually thought the Spirit Temple was where it'd occur.

It did NOT occur in the Spirit Temple. It was fucking awesome, LOL. Not a hard boss, more for the spectacle, but the thrill was insane!!

Thank you for the ask, Bee!! ❤️❤️

[rokramble]

Counterpart's Conundrum - a kinda Dark Links meet AU, with bonding, attempted murder, shenanigans and Ravio :D

Or a time traveling nightmare camping trip that Ravio was accidentally invited to, and now everyone has feelings and gets to learn about morals and personhood or some shit. It's very funny to me, so expect the vibes to be closer to a crackfic taken seriously right now.

Also I added totk fake Zelda, because that idea was also very funny to me. <3 I'll put a few details below.

I only chose dark links/shadow links we fight in the games, so there's no SkSw, BotW, MC, WW, or even TP darks (i'm sorry TP). What we DO have are:

Dink - OoT. his name makes him sooo mad, but it grows on him Malachite (aka Mal) - ALttP/FS Azurite - ALttP/FS Garnet - ALttP/FS Amethyst (aka Grimace) - ALttP/FS. yeah there's 4 of them, they're feral Dave - OoA. his placeholder name got stuck </3 he's silly like that, also an annoyance Shade - ALBW+TFH. knows politeness and manners, has decided they're optional, he is down to fight at all times Guard - TAoL. his morals are your morals your majesty ^_^ Gray - FSA. heavily based on the manga. still figuring out feelings Onyx - ST. he's like if a soot sprite from totoro had no fear and could maim you Summon - HW. he is such a violent, angry person but the devotion is insane + Delta (aka Marionette/Mari) - TotK phantom puppet. almost had matching names with Dink, but the guys respect/love her aura of bloodlust way too much for that. + Ravio - ALBW. he's not even slightly evil, did not get himself into this situation and is having a very hard time getting himself out.

The 'how' of their meeting is something or other—some residue of Ganon or Demise's influence, like grease on the timeline if you will—got the brilliant idea of recreating and gathering dark reflections of the hero from previous plots. It misunderstood who Ravio was since Lorule is/was a 'dark world', and thought Delta deserved the chance to actually attack people.

It then used whatever power left to give them an item for time travel. But the ganon grease didn't secure the full group's loyalty, so now they've been let loose on the timelines to track down and kill the Links their own way, without order, with only Ravio and Gray to stop them.

At first it was just about keeping the peace and biding time to escape or take the group out, but after seeing some of them learn and change Ravio is attached and Gray kinda wants to show them the world. It's really a conundrum.

To end it off (I'll probably make even more detailed posts another time), some funnies that came about in the planning stages of this:

Ravio: *accidentally found families your evil doppelgangers*

Delta: what do you have there? Ravio, drink in hand, trying to hide a Link behind him: an evil root beer

Gray, back in his time, kicking Link's door open: LINK HOLY FUCK

Gray: if i had a rupee for every time a violet boy lied to gain my trust and double-crossed me i'd have two rupees. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Gray: what is it with violet bitches and going undercover?! Ravio: I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE

Mal: this is my emotional support cold bastard Azurite: this is my emotional support slippery bastard

Shade: you should be addicted to shutting the fuck up Dave, signing: you wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid

Onyx: (⓿_⓿) Onyx: (◕_◕) Onyx: (◉_◉) Summon: stop Onyx: (ㆆ_ㆆ)

Mal: what do you have?! Dink: A BOMB Mal, Ravio and Shade: NO! Azurite: oh my darkness why does he have a bomb? (Gray did it)

Dink, young adult: i'm having a midlife crisis Gray: aren't you like, five? Dink, young adult?: i'm eleven so shut the fuck up

Delta, referring to the darks: my henchmen

"Wow these people are so weird, thank Ganon I'm the only normal one" - pretty much all of them

[vivinavina]

Sage of Swords Chapter 2: Scars of War/Don’t Be Afraid/Prayers Repeated

Author rambling on the second chapter of my TotK AU fic, Sage of Swords. You can read the chapter here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48501826/chapters/123298054#workskin

So, chapter 2 thoughts. First off, oof, poor Link. A comment said it best when they said Link was doing Bad. Y’all, Link is doing bad, and will be getting worse because her entire world just fell apart. Like, when Zelda got poofed away in the main game, she was totally unharmed, suddenly super safe, and surrounded by a world literally tailor-made for her. Zelda fits in the Ancient Hyrule way more than she does in the modern day. And she can inherently feel that all the things she loves—her friends, the people, etc—are safe because Link is there to protect them.

But Link was literally molded by the modern Hyrule. All Link’s skills are geared towards surviving modern Hyrule, her ability to socialize tied to that open, trusting Hyrule where everyone is banding together happily to survive and thrive. And it was surrounded with things that feel comfortable to Link. She traveled all over Hyrule before BOTW, so things are familiar, if only in that nostalgic way she can’t quite place.

Here in the Ancient Hyrule, she is alone, surrounded by strange people and locations, and she doesn’t have any reassurances that anything else will survive something that nearly killed her. Because keeping the things she loves safe is her responsibility! So she’s dealing with the fallout of all that mess, unaware that the people who could help her are right there!

Sonia and Rauru’s chapters felt a bit rough, but they were really necessary and I had to keep extending them because there were things I needed to include, but Link was not in a mental state to narrate on them. Things like the look of Link’s arm brace and Secret Stone. I do like the portrayal of Sonia with traits more traditionally shared with Link, the impulsivity and fearlessness to run towards trouble, while Rauru is the more measured, thoughtful of the two. They’re definitely not supposed to be perfect analogues, and the characterization will be worked on through the future chapters. But, I hope I illustrated Sonia’s a bit with being the first to run to Link’s aid, and being the one to try and help Link even as she actively gets a sword pointed at her. I probably should have increased the amount of dialogue between them, but it also didn’t feel right to break up what they were doing to speak… eh, I’ll make a note that those sections will be the first on the list if I’m looking to rewrite.

Link’s Secret Stone is fun. I won’t elaborate too much on the mechanics of it besides that it makes sure the Gloom doesn’t kill her. A lot of people write Link’s Stone power to be similar to Zelda’s, or manifestations of the Champion abilities, but I decided to augment her resilience. If surviving near death who knows how many times, her determination and ability to survive are one of Link’s most important traits.

Fun fact, looking up the kanji I wanted to use for Link’s Stone, I found that both the words for healing and courage can both be pronounced yu. This is probably wrong, but I’m going with it. As for which one specifically is on the Stone, I leave it up to interpretation.

The distress signal idea spawned pretty early, just as something Link would do while distressed. But I sort of elaborated the idea, with the Sheikah Slate in BOTW being able to pick up the signal happening nearby it and pinging it off all the other Sheikah Tech or important magic items (Master Sword, Secret Stones, etc) like signal towers. And then that morphed into the idea of Link sending out the signal and it bouncing off of… nothing. Right now Link thinks she’s in a land far away from Hyrule, far enough that it can’t pick up Sheikah Tech to get the distress signal far enough to reach her friends. And… she’s technically right…?

[jennilah]

ok first of all yeah i know most of u finished the game already or whatever but 1) ive been busy 2) its an open world game god dammit and if i rush just to "catch up" im only gonna regret not taking my time at my pace

anyway mid-game TOTK spoiler sillies:

last night I found the Master Sword entirely by accident and im still in awe of how doofy i was and how cool the scene was by comparison

sidebar, i didnt get to play BOTW blindly, so im trying to get through this as spoiler-free as possible (getting increasingly difficult bc of everyone already finishing and assuming everyone else is too, but whatever) so im having a great time having genuine first reactions to everything

so last night i realized i really havent explored much of the sky and i wanted to find more treasure maps and stuff

and i found the Light Dragon and was like omg hi friend!!!

i dont have any light dragon scales or anything from him yet so i thought id get in close and grab something, right?

i spent so much zonaite using autobuild for various contraptions to get high enough, and i was just gonna shoot an arrow and be cool, but i was like "might as well hitch a ride and hang out with my new bestie for a minute" bc i think the dragons are so fucking cool and despite its freaky eyes, I think the Light Dragon is adorable in a weird way

i saw A sword stuck in its head and i was like "omg poor baby who did this to you :,,( ill help out after i grab a selfie ok!!!"

so heres the selfie

i still didnt even realize

and then i actually fell off of his head like an idiot

so i save-scummed to get back high enough. took another selfie. then decided to grab the fucking sword

only THEN did i realize

IS THIS THE FUCKING MASTER SWORD

i wasnt strong enough but i had 4 thingies so i ran off to put another point in stamina and ran back before it could fly somewhere inconvenient. and thankfully it was enough. and i got to enjoy the super cool scene with the baller-ass shot with Link and the dragon and all

man what a fuken gaming moment. caused only by following my own blissfully unaware curiosity. i loved it

[what-aboutno]

you

tell me about your blorbos. i see them quite often and i am Curious

👀👀👀👀👀👀 okay okay so I'll do one for now skdkd I can talk about the other ones another time

They're from the game genshin impact, it's a mobile/PC game that's similar to things like botw, it's an open world rpg. But it's also a gacha game

First there's Diluc he's my favourite.

Let's not look at his in game model....

In the game there are 7 regions in the world of teyvat. The first being mondstadt the city or music and freedom. They worship the anemo archon but he's been absent for years in order to not push his own ideals of freedom "what's freedom demanded of you from an archon?"

So diluc is from mondstadt. He is one of the richest men of teyvat. Running the mondstadt wine industry. He owns and runs the dawn winery, and angels share the tavern in mondstadt.

In this world when an archon recomizes you Ig you would say or they acknowledge your ambition they are gifted what's called a vision. A small glass orb that allows the user to control one of the 7 elements (anemo,geo,electro,dendro,hydro, pyro or cryo)

When diluc was 10 he received a pyro vision. At age 13 he became mondstadts youngest cavalry captain. He becomes a knight to make his father proud, who never received a vision and didn't make it to the knights because of that.

He has an adopted brother named Kaeya. They found him in the woods during some rainy night and adopted him

My other beloved blorbo. They're called the ragbros because dilucs last name is ragnvindr. Kaeya idk if he ever used that but after some lore stuff it's Alberich

Their lore together is so ajsjjajs they make me ill

Everything is like all cool until dilucs 18th birthday when he has to escort his father on this mission for the knights. Uh so halfway through they're stopped by this creature called ursa the drake and it's kinda like this big dragon. It kills all the other knights that were with him on that missions and he tries to fight it off and get his father to safety but he is knocked back.

His father randomly pulls out this delusion which is like a vision but it's man made, and made of dead god remains. It usually kills the user, ages faster, takes from their life force or other unknown side effects

He uses it and it like insta kills but him the drake is gone woo ajsjs uh oh

Kaeya arrives as back up with other knights but it's just took late. It's implied in the game diluc mercy kills his dad to stop him from being in so much pain but in the manga he just kinda disolves???

Kaeya actually feels really relived that his adopted dad died because kaeya lore. He was sent as a spy by his birth father. There's this other nation we're told about called Khaenri'ah. Which was a nation with no archon. It was like the peak of humanity but Celestia (even higher up to the archons) was like nuh uh tkk dangerous look at those machines they're making. And sent the gods to destroy the whole nation. That was 500 years ago. How kaeya is from there is a mystery but he's sent to mond and left by the winery on that rainy night to be a 'spy' according to him anyway. His father told him that he was their 'last hope'

So dilucs had this terrible birthday and kaeya goes to talk to him because he feels so guilty about how relieved he was that their father died. Even if it was for a brief moment and decides to come clean about his past.

This part is very much up to interpretation because their stories don't say much. But they end up fighting. Diluc using his vision. The fanon verisons is he relases this massive fire bird which is his burst in the game towards kaeya. And that moment kaeya receive a vision. Making a sheild around him causing this elemental reaction.

You unlock kaeya sheild at c4 (you get 4 extra copies of him. gacha game moment skdkd)

Some point in the fight diluc injuries his eye covered by the eye patch. Giving him a scar. through this one event we find that he's not blind there and his voice lines say he can see perfectly fine out of it.

But he was wearing an eye patch for no reason before this. Maybe for fun?? Maybe for lore who knows. He won't tell us his lore skdkd not yet at least

They end up fighting. Next day diluc is back at the knights because they're investigating his father's death. One of them who turned out to be a traitor from the fatui (this massive army from one of the nations sneznhaya) he's like yo actually we're gonna cover this up because it's gonna make us look bad if the knights didn't fight but this rich winery owner who has no powers did. Diluc is like fuck this I'm leaving. Leaves his vision and a week later leaves mondstadt.

He decides he gonna go on a killing spree taking on the delusion that killed his father. He disappears for 4 years. Ends up in sneznhaya. Meets some harbingers almost gets killed but saved but this random organization. He joins the organization and ends up being really high ranking too and then returns to mond to run the winery. With apperently no side effects from the delusion???? Hoyo please tell us what happened. Literally the game tells you about the side effects of delusions and how bad they are yet he uses it for 4 years and nothing happens???? What are you hiding

Hes no longer a knight but he still wants to protect people so he becomes a vigilante. People in mond somehow don't know it's him but they call him the dark knight hero

Girl is not even hiding his BRIGHT RED hair. Yeah so that's him.

Personality wise as a kid he was this bright and happy person

As an adult after all that trauma he really keeps to himself. He seems very lonely tbh. Described by kaeya as in his own world all the time. Less happy, seen as grumpy and never smiles :(( he still mischievous in his story quests and is so kind.

Literally his description for his card (from card game in the game)

Ouyghhhh and you see he still deeply cares about mond in his own way. His relationship with his brother is strained and a whole other thing but he still cares about him :((

Anyway beloved blorbo I could talk more about him with lore and theories but I'll do it another time skdkd

He's also so pretty like omg,,,,