#he doesn’t care about Ganondorf or demise or hylia

[smilesrobotlover]

I haven’t done anything with villain squad in forever so I’m adding Bellum to it cuz I like his character and want to play with him more. So remember when I shared a random Linebeck descendant design here? Well I decided to sacrifice him to be bellumbeck rip. Bellum doesn’t talk so he uses Linebeck descendant to talk to Ghirahim. Bellum kinda does his own thing in the ocean and only cares about what he wants, which is overthrowing Oshus and stealing force to become powerful. I’m trying not to make him goofy cuz Bellum’s scary silence is more appealing, but I am having fun 😔 like Bellum doesnt eat, drink, or sleep so having to suddenly take care of his “vessel” is a challenge to say the least.

[dullweapons]

okay so since there are a few hylia’s ( i can count about four ? 2 new & 2 from mutuals on side blogs or side muses … im sure there will be more , hell i wanna write a hylia too lol ) so imma write out how ray actually feels about hylia as clear as i can . i don’t really have a problem with hylia myself ? my only problem with her is her being added late into the games but skyward sword is old like me now so im over it . ( i do dislike that we just forgot demise but imma pretend he’s still here hush— @harbingered for my demise 👀 i will pay attention to him i swear )

ray HATES hylia . perhaps the most out of the gods & deities of the world . he curses her & blames her for a lot of things even when she clearly isn’t to blame . he uses her like a scapegoat . someone to point the anger he feels at when there is no one else to blame but himself . he’ll blame her for the troubles zelda goes through , or link or even ganondorf . because he knows hylia . seen her . felt the sting of her magic . saw her bring up the humans to their safe haven in the sky & leave him down there . she didn’t care .

as a child he was taught to worship hylia, as all the children of skyloft settlement were. his family had small statues of her that they gave offerings too . he would pray to her just as his mother told him to . so he was fine with her … maybe a touch annoyed — but that was mostly towards his mother being quite religious & making him repeat hail hylia when he was naughty ( which was often af )

upon being forced into the ancient battle ; his views were forcibly shifted by his father . not by any commands but more due to his father talking about how hylia cares not for him nor any other demons . lamatar believes demise would do right by the demons & monsters ( was that true ? who knows ) . he would beat this idea into ayrin until he began to think it himself .

“ hylia doesn’t care about me. if she did, she would’ve stopped me from joining this war . she wouldn’t have me here …mama says hylia loves us all but no one loves me. she doesn’t either .”

continuing on, ayrin was stuck by the goddess blade causing a horrible scar that glows similarly to TP! ganondorf’s scar. due to it being a holy blade , it couldn’t go away as easily as death or other wounds for the demonic weapon & he was out of battle for weeks. ( visual ref of rays scar here ! ) i have been debating it be hylia who struck him , but it can just be the first link . regardless , he sat there — scared & angry , not just because he failed his father , but hylia hurt . her blade hurts so so much . hylia is pain .

further down the timeline ; he continues to see princesses & queens struggle with their magic or are forced into horrible situations of the cycle born of demise . he sees link , so young forced into battle & losing his childhood only to become a shell . he’s seen ganondorf turned into a monster of anger & greed for what was once a king has become nothing but a pig . if hylia stayed a god perhaps things would be different . perhaps not . regardless, he blames them all : the golden goddesses , hylia & demise . none of them are free from his hate .

but hylia worship has grown strong again by botw & by then — he is a tired , cynical old man . he works hard to make sure his solders are ready for the war that is coming against calamity ganon . he sees the princess struggle to awaken her powers . he scoffs at her & wonders if the blood of the goddess is finally gone from tainting the royal family.

& he prayed to hylia to save them from the calamity when the calamity came & took over all the sheikah technology & his men died trying to get to akkala .

& she did not answer .

so for the hylia rpers i totally understand if you’re like “ damn he a hater idk if i wanna interact “ because he’s never ever gonna warm up to her . also if you wish to discuss what happened between them during the ancient battle please feel free to DM me ! my default does not need to be canon minus 1: ayrin / bby ray going to the war & 2: ray being struck goddess blade . those two are the only requirements — im flexible with anything !

[avionvadion]

Here’s a sketch for the AoC AU, lol, before I pass out for the night.

Even in both universes, she ends up with a red giant. 🤣 One is just a fish man with red scales and the other a Gerudo with flowing red locks.

Anyways.

The basic idea is that the Golden Goddesses/Hylia took pity on Ganondorf for being Demise’s puppet, unable to escape the cycle and the hate, and salvaged what they could of his soul and slapped it into a new body seeing as Demise is clinging to the ten thousand year old corpse Ganondorf used to be.

But where to have him start over this new life? Who would be better to keep him on the straight and narrow, than the very descendant of the hero who had originally defeated him?

Amnesiac Ganondorf literally rescues (coughs kidnaps cough) the twins and Iliandra after seeing the abuse their parents put them through, and they make a new life in Hateno, lol. It’s very domestic and cute.

Sarian and Medkah nickname him Garnet since he doesn’t remember his name, and he teaches them sword fighting and archery, and how to care for horses, because he still knows how to do those things, it’s muscle memory, instinct, but he is very protective of Iliandra- though she does… cause him great unease at times for reasons he is unsure of.

Him living in Hateno is gonna be so freaking funny because he just towers over EVERYONE. Bolson makes it his own personal mission to build a doorway that even the tallest Gerudo can walk through.

Ganondorf is like… early 30s here. Iliandra is 21.

He probably washes up in Lurelin the night she was about to run away.

[divineprank]

I accidentally opinion’d all over myself, and I quickly ran out of character space to respond. I didn’t want to have to type like eight comments because I wasn’t sure if you’d get pinged with a bunch of notifications you don’t want, so I decided to just post it all as one big post if that’s okay!  Maybe it's just because I'm far too invested in my own muse and therefore struggle to release the image I have of him in my head. xD But that voice, to me, sounds really off for the character its portraying. It sounds like a cheap anime dub: like it was just someone hired to get the job done quickly. It was very generic, very ‘monster-of-the-week’; something we might have seen back in the days of the FOXBox or Kids WB. To me there was just no real depth to the sound of his voice. Ganondorf is thunderous, he's grandiose -- he's BIG! Granted, we only got a small sample, but the emotion projected through his vocals was just very weak, too. It was as if the actor wasn’t at all invested in the character he’s reading for. When Ganondorf talks about Hyrule, we should be able to hear the seething hatred drip off of his tongue as if speaking the very name “Hyrule” is like poison in his mouth. This is a Hyrule that has literally driven him to know nothing else but rage and hatred and malice: this is a Hyrule that has stolen his very people away from him. The Gerudo turned their back on their own king and as a result have aligned themselves with Hyrule. This is the ultimate knife in the heart, we as fans have an opportunity to hear a glimpse of how much pain Ganondorf should be in regarding Urbosa and Riju’s very deliberate defiance of their own king and their people’s bloody history... The performance we get, for some reason, invokes images of that “while you were partying I studied the blade” meme. Like, he sounds like some edgy senior in high school that took himself too seriously and suffered a temper tantrum in the middle of the gymnasium because he feels disrespected by the other kids, or something. Like, yeah I’m being a little funny here, but what I mean is the performance is underplayed: like he’s acting with restraint, he’s holding himself back. Whether it’s because of Nintendo’s direction, or he’s a newer voice talent, or he genuinely doesn’t know the character well enough to know better -- I don’t know... And I’ll be totally real: my personal impression of this interpretation of Ganondorf could very well just be confirmation bias. I don’t think so, but I’ll acknowledge that it COULD be. I made a crude remark about how Ganondorf has been neutered by this presentation we got -- which I should be fair and acknowledge the fact that there ARE fans out there who have mentioned how they like the casting, voice, and performance -- but the truth of the matter is, Ganondorf has been in some really bad shape since Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword made some huge retcons to existing Zelda lore by introducing us to Hylia and Demise. Now, I like to write and study and analyze characters, but one doesn’t really need to be any kind of writing genius to understand how Demise’s existence and his actions by the end of the game completely rob Ganondorf of his agency and undermines the guy by overly-simplifying his motivations and by breaking down any dimension he previously had as a man, a leader, and a human. Ganondorf used to be such an interesting character: he wanted so much for the people he ruled over, cared about, and loved. Him and his mothers and his sisters experienced pain every day and saw that not far from their desert was a country protected and thriving off of a fair wind. His heart motivated him. His people motivated him. Pain motivated him. Wind Waker made it clear that his intentions were beautiful before Ganondorf had fallen to his own humanity. He took a knee to his own greed, and power was a seductive mistress.  The reason why the character Ganon eventually took the shape of Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time in the first place was so they could write stories that had a more human element and could thus encourage the player to consider that while the Triforce might represent black-and-white principles, the world itself is much more complicated than that and tends to be much more difficult to navigate which gives rise to more interesting adventures for Link to go on, and morally and emotionally complex challenges to face. But now that Demise’s stupid curse has stripped Ganondorf of any kind of meaningful nuance, Ganondorf has been tragically reduced to a character that’s feeling around in the dark: his culture and history has since turned its back on him so now his feet walk with no meaning. So, to compensate, Breath of the Wild saw the stakes raise and they went the route of the Oracle games where they re-introduced the idea where Ganon is now an evil that is just SOOO EVIL that it literally couldn’t fathom anything else EXCEPT rage and hate, as well as inflicting pain and suffering by lashing out in blind desperation to cause hurt and spread chaos. But then Nintendo went and struck that down just as fast as they re-introduced the concept in Breath of the Wild. So now we’re are quite literally left with a corpse: an empty husk of a really important character that once knew how to impact you with his time on the screen. This nearly unrecognizable shadow of Ganondorf demands that his followers “leave no survivors”, which is particularly disappointing to hear because it’s indicative of the underlying problem that’s been haunting this character since 2011. 

(These three screenshots demonstrate a very important facet of Ganondorf’s character that Nintendo seems to have gotten wrong right off the bat in that trailer. He doesn’t want to destroy everything and leave no survivors. He wants to dominate and take what he feels rightfully belongs to him.)

But I really don’t mean to get into this huge whine-fest about Ganondorf, I’m just... I am just really bummed out because it’s the first time that we’ve seen Ganondorf (NOT Ganon) in a mainline Zelda game in almost seventeen years and it’s hard to see his return take this kind of shape. I love this character to death, I have so much adoration for Ganondorf in my heart and I know for a fact that this is gonna be a great game; I know Nintendo will absolutely not waste our times with Tears of the Kingdom, I know I’m gonna have a total fuckin’ blast playing the game and being able to come face-to-face with Ganondorf for the first time since I was eleven years old will definitely be a thrill of a lifetime.  But it sure as hell won’t be the same.

[ganymedesclock]

concept: botw 2 comes out, demise is the main villain, but instead of a boss fight, calamity ganon just lasers him to death.

I know you’re just having fun anon but I have to admit my response is “it’d, really depend on how they handled that.”

Because I know what I’ve said and implied but also, like...

Here’s the thing: I like Ganondorf as a character.

Ganondorf is an angry person. He has a lot of reasons to be angry. Some of them are good reasons. Some of them are not good reasons.

I would be over the god damn moon for Ganondorf as a morally ambiguous or even heroic character, but, and this is the big catch- I’d want that to be under some kind of sense where he’s being met in the middle. Not “that the heroes become more okay with Doing Evil” but rather examining the stuff that Ganondorf actually has a point about, e.g. in Wind Waker when he one-sidedly interrogates Link’s faith in/subordination to ‘the gods’ when they abandoned Link’s ancestors in a largely resource-less wasteland that other people confirm is in fact a fishless sea, and a more sparsely inhabited worldspace than Breath of the Wild which is explicitly post-apocalyptic. 

That’s only become more relevant considering breath of the wild, and the message that “the good goddess(es)” seemingly think it’s okay if Link dies and Zelda spends a century suffering because Hylia just really, really didn’t feel like talking to Zelda, or even asking Link to relay messages if something else was blocking her communication with Zelda.

It’s just, really really hard to not think of “Your gods destroyed you!” to watch Zelda weeping in a pond begging a higher power to tell her what’s wrong with her. The games have to decide if this ain’t okay and we’re supposed to feel bad for Zelda (I sure do!) or if it was all fine and Rhoam and Hylia both are beyond culpability or if Rhoam was wrong it’s something he can just be vaguely sorry about in his diary.

I’m not saying adding Ganondorf would be a perfect fix fic because nobody is, but I feel like a lot of “good guy Ganondorf” just attaches him to the heroes’ extant status quo, and uses Demise as a way to just say “this guy is not really the same as all of those other evil previous Ganondorfs, because Ganondorf’s evil comes from being possessed.” I think if Ganondorf is possessed by something, frankly, it’s what he talks about in Wind Waker about starvation and death and his feelings that the gods aren’t listening and don’t care- feelings that don’t grow from nothing. 

I think the thing about Ganondorf is he’s angry at the world and frankly there’s a lot we as players see that Ganondorf doesn’t that tell us that y’know what? Link and Zelda should be angrier at the world. In Breath of the Wild alone, think about how many of the memory flashbacks involve Zelda suffering while Link watches or sits there, not acting, not reacting- and these things are burned into his memory. I find it very hard to imagine that mister iconic hero didn’t sit there with his stomach churning feeling awful about being a witness to this, especially when it’s explicit canon his voice tends to lock up when he’s upset.

BotW Zelda has frankly hit a point where she’s the equivalent of Zant pounding his head on the balcony in Twilight Princess and we are told, constantly, that this is good, this has to happen, and she has to stay there, alone, until things get worse. And I get it, good storytelling tends to have this ‘always darkest before the sun shines’ moment, but... for Zelda, her powers manifesting weren’t the sunrise. They were the sun setting on a long, brutal, cold night. When you finally get to where she is, she’s sorry she couldn’t hold out longer. She’s not even happy you’re here, happy her pain is finally over, happy she’s not alone.

She’s just sorry.

So I’d LOVE to have characters have more complicated relationships with Ganondorf in part because I think he has a point of view our heroes need, and I think they also have points of view Ganondorf could need (he has not exactly been a great friend or mentor to his various lieutenants or subordinates and in many games it’s implied his desperation and anger are leading him to stand ‘for something’ less and less), and that’s the main reason I balk at, “oh, we’ll make Ganondorf good by just making there be a bigger evil out there that was culpable for the things Ganondorf / Ganon / the Malice did so that Ganondorf himself can easy slide into being a good guy.”

...But all of that said anon. I can’t deny that it’d absolutely slap to have a LoZ boss-tier kaiju fight where we also brought a boss-tier kaiju. Someone play the Pacific Rim theme on an ocarina.

[bxstiae]

⚜ ; [ GANONDORF'S DEMISE / HC.3  ] WORLDBUILDING │ META

i honestly didn’t know how to go about this making this mainly because there’s so much to talk about for this topic. while i want to talk about ganondorf’s demise in Twilight Princess & the after effects of it, i should also point that that if affects link a lot more than it should -- mainly because it has to deal with the triforce of power and ‘the brand.’ let it be known, link is severely affected by the battle of ganon & absolutely has survivor’s guilt from it. 

first & foremost: i do NOT support ganon as a character for is he absolute EVIL & only wants to conquer the light. he is an antagonist! and if you think i support the antagonist, then please go to a corner to think about what you just assumed. I do not support him!!! but that doesn’t mean that i don’t consider him an important character. he is! he is one of the primary 3 of the triforce, without him, you cannot have the link or zelda. now, without further ado, let me get into this.

ganondorf could be considered a victim of circumstance if you look at it. no, i don’t think he should be pitied, but just consider everybody in the triforce:

link → courage zelda → wisdom ganondorf → power

each one has something special about them, which i will go into some other time, but for the sake of this headcanon, lets look at ganon. ganon is the wielder of power: he represents it! therefore he seeks out only to defend what he represents. Just look what he says in Twilight Princess:

"Your people have long amused me, Midna. To defy the gods with such petty magic, only to be cast aside… How very pathetic. Pathetic as they were, though, they served me well. Their anguish was my nourishment. Their hatred bled across the void and awakened me. I drew deep of it and grew strong again. Your people had some skill, to be sure…but they lacked true power. The kind of absolute power that those chosen by the gods wield. He who wields such power would make a suitable king for this world, don’t you think?"

just look at the fact that while ganon represents power, he also can represent pain, anger, & anguish. zelda, in a way, is supposed be the middle ground, while link is supposed to represent hope. ganon is fear. it’s also important to note that ganon is considered very unlucky in many cases. both zelda & ganon remember their incarnations -- this is a given for ganon because he literally says the following: "Do not think that this ends here... the history of light and shadow will be written in blood!" he knows they are constantly reborn. & zelda knows because she’s the representative of wisdom. link is the only one who is lucky to not remember is past incarnations. it’s set like that for a reason. because he cannot be tainted with the past. he cannon have doubt in his actions, he can only live in the moment. but i dirgess. back to the point: ganon is power, therefore is power-hungry. & he remembers all of his past lives and how he was foiled by link. 

ganon is a man of pride. there is nothing like that, but he resents link because link has it all. link has the god’s gift but link is also loved. link is incredibly humble. he doesn’t know the pains of royalty, he doesn’t know what it’s like living on the streets. he’s been lucky to be raised by people who care for him -- he grows up innocent. ganon doesn’t have that luxury, so yes, he resents link for what link has. but consider this: the brand is both a blessing & a curse. 

they will always be stuck in a battle with each other for all eternity. Their lives are intertwined forevermore. so while ganon spends his lives knowing his past ones, and spends each life trying to take what is always taken from him, link goes in not realising any of this. link legitimately goes in 100% blind at the fact that he will take what ganondorf struggles to have. & in the moment, link is only doing what he thinks is right. he has to take down ganondorf to protect hyrule. he has to. He’s never given a choice: he is told. 

he’s told by the spirits. he’s told by midna. he’s told by zelda. he’s told by everybody. the goddess hylia herself is telling him to because he has to. yet.... while he never questions the WHY, he does feel a sort of emptiness when everything is all said and done. after all, he took down one of the pieces of triforce. he’s fufilled his task, yes, but.... at what cost?

for link, it feels like he’s taken a part of himself too.

( never mind the fact that midna also goes home too and destroys the mirror of twilight as well, that’s another piece of him taken, but i’m focusing on the triforce here )

consider this: link had to kill a man that was like him.

there are only three people that can relate with one another in hyrule: link, zelda, & ganon. even more so with ganon than zelda tbh. like ganon, link still has to go through trials. link can relate to ganon because link has to go through a lot to prove his worth. he’s not given anything like zelda and ganon, and like ganon, link struggles.

so after he kills him.... he realises what he’s just done. he’s killed somebody who was pretty much like him. both are bearers of the brand, but they both didn’t have it easy ( not like zelda ).  he doesn’t realise this like immediately. no, he realises it after the fact. it eats at him. link has seen a lot and has witnessed death, but it’s ganondorf’s death that hits him the most. & yes, he feels somehwat GUILTY that he had to go & kill the only person that could understand him.

honestly, somebody told me that link looks so sad all the time. yes! he is actually! aside from being so absolutely tired & often times grumpy, he very much is sad. he feels used. he’s no longer innocent from the cruelness of life. he sees the world for what it is. the world is not nice. nothing is easy, & you have to sacrifice so much to obtain happiness. but in the end was it worth it? for link: no. 

link is not happy. at all. yes, he’s glad that the people he cares about are safe. he’s glad that the world isn’t ending. but he cannot go back to his normal life in the village as a ranch hand. he was ripped from that life & he cannot go back for the fact that he has all this experience under his belt now. he’s restless, tired, sad, & feels really empty. 

his heart is broken in more ways than one. he lost his best friend -- a friend that he didn’t really know he had or loved until she left and destroyed the only thing to visit her. he lost somebody who could have been a mentor of sorts. ganon could have been a friend to him absolutely, he could have been a teacher ( if he wasn’t such an asshole ). but that didn’t happen cause he had to kill him. he lost a bit of trust in zelda for the fact that she just let things happen & never told him anything. link is extremely jaded after everything & built his walls incredibly high up because he’s just afraid of getting hurt again. note: afraid, not scared! there’s anxiety in him that he’ll lose more of himself. 

lets also not mention that his entire journey was hell. he’s been poisoned, electrocuted, burned, etc.... like as much as he has a high pain tolerance, he’s had many moments where he could have died if it were not for the fairies and midna. not to mention that people have mistaken him for a monster too -- he doesn’t have self-esteem issues, but its given way to the fact that he finds hylians are extremely ungrateful. 

he feels that at this point,nobody really understands him. which sucks cause not only does he suffer from survivor’s guilt, i would say that he has a mild case of ptsd as well. he doesn’t sleep well anymore. he relives his battle with ganon all the time ( ganon image seems to torment him constantly ). he panics when he considers what would have happened if he just let ganon go too. link is not pure anymore. yes, he still represents hope, and yet, he can’t help but to look at things from a neutral stance.at the end of the game. link does, in fact, go from a neutral good to a lawful neutral position.

in a way, it’s all thanks to ganon. his death/end changed link. honestly, i would want to say its for the better. link isn’t a child anymore, & you can thank ganondorf for that. 

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of Hyrule | Chapter 57

All eyes were on Link. Revali looked the angriest, but the others simply regarded him with wary curiosity or sympathy.

“All right,” he grunted. “It's not like I knew that would happen.”

“I can't confirm for sure if that's what happened,” Zelda said. “But based on what I've read from other events, it is a very real possibility.”

“So, what?” Daruk asked. “What does this mean? How do we close it?”

“It's possible that it can't be closed until the sword is returned,” Zelda said. “If that is the case, it can't be closed until Ganondorf is defeated and he is sealed away.”

“But there's still one other portal,” Urbosa said. “Right?”

Zelda nodded. “We should find it and close it as soon as we can,” she said. “Then, if time allows us, we can focus our efforts on researching the Yiga Clan some more. As long as we can, we should be proactive in keeping Ganondorf's forces as minimal as possible before he makes his return.”

“Do we have any clue where the next portal is?” Revali asked. “You know, maybe we can get ahead of this before more chaos ensues?”

Zelda shook her head. “We don't have any clues to the next portal right now,” she said. “Impa would tell me if she knew something.”

“Would she?” Urbosa asked skeptically.

Zelda hesitated. “I've taken matters into my own hands,” she said. “I'm not relying on Impa. But that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing, either. I don't even know where to begin searching for the next portal.”

“Maybe we should look at the other two,” Mipha suggested. “They were at the Citadel and the Temple of Time.”

“The Temple of Time supposedly used to once protect the Master Sword,” Zelda said.

“So, there's a lot of history there,” Mipha concluded. “It's an important place.”

“But why put a portal there?” Daruk asked.

“And a fake Ganondorf,” Revali muttered.

“Maybe it's like Harry Potter,” Urbosa said. “And the Hor-thingies.”

Mipha giggled. “Horcruxes?”

Urbosa pointed a finger at her. “Yeah. Those.”

“Sounds right,” Link said. “Ganondorf is a huge Harry Potter fan, didn't you know?”

“There's some legitimacy behind that,” Zelda said. “I mean, the idea of Horcruxes. There was once a lot of power there. It only makes sense that Ganondorf would be able to utilize that to his advantage. I don't think the portals are placed anywhere by accident.”

“What about the Citadel, then?” Daruk asked.

“There's a lot of mystery surrounding the Citadel,” Zelda admitted. “But, thousands of years ago, it did remain Hyrule's last defense during the age of the Great Calamity. Hyrulean soldiers and Knights made their last stand there, where they were ultimately destroyed. I mean, completely annihilated. They didn't stand a damn chance.”

“Sounds pleasant,” Revali muttered.

“So,” Urbosa started. “Sources of power and history. That's what we're looking for in the next portal.”

“There's got to be a ton of places like that around Hyrule,” Mipha said.

Zelda nodded. “That was my thinking, too. I've narrowed it down to a few places that I think would be worth checking out.” She unrolled a map and pointed to a few marked locations. The first place she pointed to was to the north-west of the city, just on the edge of the distant mountain range in the Hebra region. “This is the location of the Forgotten Temple,” she explained. “It holds a large Goddess statue that is thought to be as old as Hyrule itself, dating back to when Demise first placed the curse on the kingdom.”

“Seems logical enough,” Revali said.

“What are these other places?” Daruk asked.

Zelda's finger moved across the map to the other marked location. “Spectacle Rock,” she said. “Supposedly, it was once Ganondorf's lair.”

“Lair,” Revali echoed. “How medieval.”

Zelda continued. “And this,” she started, moving her finger once more, though she hesitated. “This is a shrine,” she said softly. “Actually, I don't think anyone knows of its location. No one but the Sheikah.” She pulled her finger off the map and straightened. “Impa was keeping this a secret.”

“What's so special about it?” Urbosa asked.

“It was known as the Shrine of Resurrection,” she said. “It was apparently used during the Great Calamity when the hero fell.”

“Used?” Mipha asked, her brows furrowed. “Resurrection?”

“It could bring back the dead?” Revali cocked his head to the side. “That could be useful.”

“I hardly think it has any magical healing properties,” Zelda said.

“What if it does?” Urbosa suggested. “It was used, wasn't it? Successfully?”

Zelda hesitated. “According to the Sheikah notes I found, yes.” She continued quickly. “But that was thousands of years ago. And clearly the Sheikah have made it a point to keep it a secret.”

“Why would they want to keep that a secret?” Mipha asked.

“Because they're all part of the Yiga Clan,” Revali said, crossing his arms. “Of course they don't want any of us to survive this war.”

Zelda was hesitant. She bit the corner of her lip. “Impa isn't with the Yiga Clan.”

Daruk narrowed his gaze on her. “Can you say that with complete faith?”

Zelda pulled her gaze away and did not answer him.

“Well,” Urbosa said, leaning back in her chair. “Maybe we should check out this Forgotten Temple, then?”

“It's a start,” Daruk said with a nod.

“Can it wait until after finals?” Mipha asked with a careful smile. “Please, Hylia, just let me pass this year.”

Zelda smiled. “Sure. As long as Ganondorf doesn't have any plans between now and then.”

*****

For the first time in his life, Link opened his text book and actually studied – or attempted to study – the equations on the pages. What better time to turn over a new leaf than the day before finals? He still couldn't help but to feel that it was all for nothing – that he would never survive the war for any of it to matter. And learning about the Shrine of Resurrection didn't make him feel any more confident in his abilities. But, for a moment, studying gave him purpose – a different purpose. A purpose he could – for the most part – control in his life.

However, he wasn't more than a page in when his phone went off, alerting him of a text message from Zelda.

We need to talk.

Link pondered the message for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he typed out his reply.

Are you breaking up with me?

Her response did not take long. Yes. Our heroic partnership is over.

Thank the Goddesses, Link typed back. Guess I have to start putting more effort into my life now.

Can you come over? Another text came through immediately following that one. No, this isn't a booty call.

Well you just take the fun out of everything. He paused after he hit send, then typed again. I'll be over in a few.

He didn't exactly feel like going out. In fact, he was quite happy to pretend to be a normal high schooler, even if only for a day. But there was something on her mind, he was sure of that. Something she didn't want to say in front of the others.

Link closed the textbook almost regretfully, then grabbed a fresh t-shirt from off his bed, exchanging it for the one he had on. Outside, it was raining, but he didn't bother to wear anything more to protect himself from the elements. He grabbed his father's keys from the counter, holding them in the air as he moved through the kitchen to indicate that he was leaving.

“Oh, sure, go right ahead,” his father said, looking over at his son from his seat on the couch. “Take my car. Take my wallet too, why don't you.”

“Thanks,” Link called over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

It only took him a few minutes to navigate the city, hitting mostly green lights as he made his way to the palace of the royal family that rested just on the northern border of the city. It seemed the security guards were expecting his arrival, as they let him right through the tall gates when he approached. He was slightly disappointed that he didn't have more hoops to jump through. An iris and finger scanner, for example, to prove his identity. A special badge that needed to be flashed as he drove up. Something to make him feel just that much cooler. As if being welcomed into the palace wasn't cool enough.

Zelda was waiting for him when he was brought inside. She immediately dismissed the guards, then without a word, turned and walked down the hall. Link hesitated before jogging to catch up with her.

“Is that how you greet all your guests?” he said.

“You're hardly a guest,” she said, keeping her gaze straight forward. “As Hero of Hyrule, you can come and go as you please.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Within reason,” she said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

“So, I can just swing by tomorrow and raid your fridge?”

Zelda shrugged. “If it pleases you.”

“You're being weird,” Link said.

Zelda pulled at his wrist as they turned quickly down another hallway. Her pace quickened and she kept close to the wall. Before he realized where they were going, he found himself back in the dark underground tunnel they came through when they stole the sword back.

“You said this wasn't a booty call,” Link said.

“Listen,” she hissed. “There's security all over this damn place. As far as I know, there isn't much around here, but we need to be careful where we talk and what we say.”

“Okay,” Link said slowly, his voice hushed. “What's going on?”

“I think there are still members of the Yiga Clan,” Zelda said. “Sheikah who are working for my father. Whether it's Impa or someone else. There is a mole.”

Link narrowed his gaze on her. “Do you know this for a fact? Or are you making an assumption?”

“I'm putting the pieces together,” Zelda hissed. “You know I'm the last one to jump to this conclusion.” She averted his gaze and looked down the dark hall. “Impa came to me after you guys left. She pulled me into the library. She warded it.”

“Warded it?”

“I don't know much about their powers,” Zelda said, “But I know she did something. I could feel the pressure. Whatever she did, it stopped the security cameras. It would have stopped any devices if the room was bugged. It probably would have been enough to throw off any other Sheikah who may have been watching us.” She turned back to Link. “She warded it. And she told me to stop looking into the Yiga Clan.”

Link blinked at her for a moment. “So, obviously we keep looking into it,” he said.

Zelda shook her head. “No. We can't. Not yet.”

Link's gaze hardened. “Are you insane? That's all we need to know that we should be looking into it.”

“I trust Impa,” Zelda said fiercely.

“How can you trust her?” Link's voice raised.

“Because she's all I have!” Zelda hesitated, then lowered her voice. “My mother trusted her with everything. When she died... Impa practically raised me when my father was simply too busy. Everything I know about the history of Hyrule came from her. She never kept secrets from me. If she's keeping secrets now... there has to be a reason for it. When the time is right, she will tell us. She'd never keep us in the dark, not at the risk of our lives or the future of Hyrule.”

Link said nothing for a moment. The silence was heavy between them as Link considered her words. Finally, he spoke. “What do you want us to do?”

“I think,” she started, “we should continue to focus our efforts on the portals. I think we can try to find the next one. Maybe it is at the Forgotten Temple. It's worth taking a look. We need to be completely focused on stopping Ganondorf. Everything else can come after.”

Link nodded once. “Alright,” he said, his voice steady. “I trust you.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. “I needed you to know. But I couldn't have everyone else know. Not yet.”

Link grit his teeth together. “They won't be happy.”

“I'll cross that bridge when we get to it,” she said. She lead the way out of the passageway and back into the palace.

“I don't know what will happen,” Zelda continued. “But I have a feeling Ganondorf has been plotting out every move. And when he makes his appearance, it will be quick and sudden. I know you don't want to hear this, but we will have to rely on our army to keep our enemies at bay. We'll need people to have our backs while we finish this. This has gone way beyond what the six of us can handle by ourselves.”

Link listened quietly as he walked beside her through the halls. He nodded when she finished, but offered nothing more. When she stopped walking, he looked up, surprised to see Mipha, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali standing before them.

“What are you guys doing here?” Zelda asked carefully. “And how did you get in?”

Link met Mipha's gaze questioningly, but she tore her eyes away.

“Revali pulled the 'Do you know who I am' card,” Urbosa said, crossing her arms.

Revali smirked. “I am one of Hyrule's Champions, as appointed by the princess herself. You would think that means something.”

Zelda turned her gaze to the ceiling and a smile pulled at her lips. “Oh. Right. I guess I forgot to give security the memo.”

“I thought they were going to shoot him,” Daruk said with a grin. “Too bad they didn't.”

Zelda shrugged. “So, what do you want?”

“Since no one responded to our texts,” Urbosa started, narrowing her eyes, “we felt we should come and warn you.”

Zelda raised a brow. “Warn me? About what?”

Urbosa turned her gaze to Mipha, hesitant.

“My parents,” Mipha said softly, her gaze on the floor. “They're... not happy.” She shook her head. “Ever since the media blow up,” she continued. “They refuse to accept that I have any part of this. They've been arguing ever since. Talking about how King Roham betrayed them. I don't know what's going on, but they're on their way here as we speak.”

Zelda's brows knit together. “I won't say we don't need your help, Mipha, but -”

“It's more than that,” Mipha said quickly. “I think we're in deeper than we realize.”

Zelda opened her mouth to speak, but it snapped shut as her father rounded the corner, his gaze hard and angry. Beside him, a man and a woman stepped forward, their gazes equally as angry.

[singingvio]

I’m gonna talk about Shadow’s GIGANTIC family (from the FS modern AU) for a few minutes.

*deep breath*

SHADOW’S FAMILY

His parents are divorced. Demise and Hylia.

KIDS WHO LIVE WITH DEMISE:

Shadow (twins with Shine) (14)

Dark (20)

Zant (18)

Midna (18)

Hilda and Ravio (twins) (10)

Ghirahim (17)

Sheik and Pink (Zelda) (twins) (7)

KIDS WHO LIVE WITH HYLIA

Shine (Shining Link) (twins with Shadow) (14)

SHADOW’S UNCLES/AUNTS

Veran

Ganondorf (not biologically related, good friends with Demise)

Onyx

Impa

Agahnim

SHADOW’S COUSINS

Vaati (10) (adopted by Ganondorf)

Gufuu (14) (adopted by Ganondorf)

Ghanti (Agahnim’s daughter)

- Shine is Shadow’s twin, but they never met and Shadow doesn’t even know he exists because they were separated at birth. Shine was taken in by Impa temporarily because he was blind and deaf. Impa is good at handling things like that, and they didn’t want to pay for therapy. When Hylia and Demise got a divorce, Hylia took Shine with her. She didn’t like Shadow, so he stayed with the rest of his siblings, and Demise.

- Demise has a giant mansion, so all of Shadow’s siblings (except Shine) live there. Hylia has an apartment because she travels a lot. She has plenty of money, but doesn’t want a house that’s high-maintenance when there’s only her and Shine living there.

- Demise and Hylia divorced on good terms. They’re still in touch but are now more like friends that barely see each other (again: Hylia lives far away and travels a lot with Shine)

- Shadow first meets Shine (who is still blind but you can barely tell because their other senses are amazing, and they have hearing aids) and Hylia after he meets and makes friends with the Links and started dating Vio.

- Shine is the only person Shadow and Dark aren’t able to scare because their hearing is too good.

- Ghirahim is a trans male. Shine doesn’t use labels but doesn’t mind if people refer to him with he/him, she/her, or they/them (though most of the time it’s he/him).

- Literally NO ONE in Shadow’s family is straight (and also they take up a lot of the LGBT club)

- Demise is actually a good dad, but is very forgetful (which resulted in him forgetting some of the kids’ birthdays because of how many there are and also the other things going on), and also has a lot of enemies, so the kids have to be very careful when basically going anywhere.

- The only members of the family Shadow hates are Ganondorf (who isn’t related to any of them but is basically their uncle), and Gufuu. Ganondorf and Gufuu also hate Shadow right back.

- Pink’s real name is Zelda, but Sheik gave her that nickname when they were little and it stuck. A second Zelda (FS Zelda), who’s 14, doesn’t get along with Shadow well at all. On the other hand, Pink loves Shadow.

[twili-sword-vaati]

On the subject of Ganondorf and Demise

I’m just putting words here, not everything here is canon, I’m really just shuffling through my interpretation of the loz series.

You know since I’ve adopted hcs like “Ghirahim revived Demise because he’d actually die without a master” and “The diamond on Ghirahim’s cheek and his cut left ear aren’t intentional, but actually scars left behind by Demise” into my loz lore interpretation pile, my respect and want to fawn over Demise has really melted into a silent resentment. Not for his reincarnations like Ganondorf, but Demise specifically. Like... I hced that the reason why Demise was after the Triforce in the first place was because he envied Hylia’s ability to create life. And Hylia seems like a nice enough Goddess, I’d suspect that she’d be willing to coexist with Demise just fine, let him add his own touch to life on the surface somehow. But when you think about hcs like Ghirahim being terrified of thunderstorms, and the scars, and analyze how Demise treats Ghirahim right when he first greets Demise after his arrival, you could really see why Hylia refused Demise access to the surface and her people, because she felt that what had been put upon Ghirahim by Demise, could also have been put upon her Hylians.(Currently disregarding the fact that Hylia had treated Fi with a similar attitude. She didn’t physically attack her, but definitely treated her as only property, meant to be a tool in creating the hero, Link.) I always used to read Ghirahim’s devotion to Demise as an obligation born from one-sided love, but now, to me? I feel that devotion was born from fear and desperation, possibly isolation as well. 

Of course, I can defend Demise however. I could say it was a different time! People didn’t believe sword spirits could be autonomous or have feelings! But that doesn’t erase the fact that they actually can. Sword spirits may have been regarded as something akin to intimate objects, but that ‘‘thing’’ that follows you around and walks and talks and pulses like it breathes or has a heart beat certainly isn’t a literal pillow to punch, or a door to slam. I could say that Demise was a young god (Which I believe is true, I also believe that for Hylia.) who couldn’t have known better! But that doesn’t take away what happened to Ghirahim, and see defense number one as well. If Demise cannot be trusted with ‘’fake life’’, what is he towards ‘’real life’’? I could say that Ganondorf is a direct reincarnation of Demise(which I believe, despite Demise saying it was his hatred that gets reborn), and Demise would actually be a good overseer because of how competent of a person Ganondorf seems to be! 

But here’s the point. What separates Ganondorf from Demise is that by Demise throwing himself into a cycle of mortal lives, he becomes surrounded by the company of the beings Hylia denied him such a long time ago. For Demise to be jealous of Hylia’s powers, her existence, her position, her relationship with life on the surface, he’d have to be lonely. If you are lonely you lack experience with other beings and lack emotional development. Demise, no matter how well spoken he sounds, will childishly call the Hylians cowards for hiding from a god behind their god because he didn’t get to be apart of them, he will write them off as lesser beings because they became the center of a gathering of many gods, a group that he was shunned from for reasons that he cannot comprehend at all. Ganondorf will pity Hylians and analyze their behavior, study their wrongdoings and think ‘What should I do different?’ When Ganondorf sees injustice he takes matters into his own hands with an intent to change something for the better. When Ganondorf is human, he is raised in a tribe of people that love him, he lives and has experiences with other beings. He makes mistakes and learns. He grows and changes. He becomes wiser than Demise. If we are to assume each incarnation of Ganondorf has memories of his past human life, then that means he only builds upon himself with each coming new life. Ganondorf still chases the Triforce, but when he does, it’s because he knows what to do with it, and what he wants to do with it has a different meaning to Ganondorf than it does Demise. Ganondorf is different from Demise because Demise’s quest for the Triforce, so that he could rewrite the surface, make anything however he wants it to be, actually paved the path for him to eventually, hopefully, rewrite himself, and become somebody worthy of existing with Hylians on the surface.

I’m aware of the arrogance of Hyrule Warriors Ganondorf, of his quest for ultimate power that became blind destruction. I am aware of the sinister nature of Twilight Princess Ganondorf, how he was a manipulator who only seemed to want to sit smugly on the throne and watch his enemies burn to ashen corpses in front of him. I know about the absolute havoc Ocarina of Time Ganondorf put Hyrule in. But, the Ganondorf that might make someone think Demise is worthy of ruling anything is Wind Waker Ganondorf. That same Ganondorf from OoT had become old, had become knowledgeable, he succumbed to human mistakes in OoT and looked back on it with a new neutral perspective that allowed him to emotionally grow. He learned. Like a human. And if Ganondorf was ever to return again, if he could continue to grow, I feel that there is hope for him.

I’ve analyzed Ganondorf. Down to the bone, I feel. But I do not pity Demise specifically, because Demise wasn’t shunned without reason, he was shunned because other gods could see who he was. Ghirahim was Demise’s before Demise wanted Hylia’s place. Any incarnation of Ganondorf cannot fix how he treated Ghirahim, or how he treated the surface. Just like any birth of a new Zelda cannot erase that Hylia had manipulated Link and trapped him in a cycle to forever fight an enemy that shouldn’t even be his responsibility.

So I still cling to the idea that, by Demise giving up his life as a god, he can achieve what he really wanted. Company. By becoming a person, a better person. I resent Demise and Hylia for their actions, looking past the scenarios that could’ve been different or been better, because of their treatment of other characters. 

In my Au, I was happy to include Ganondorf in Vaati’s life because I want to fill his existence with as many experiences as possible. I don’t care if they’re good or bad, they just need to strike up feelings. Allow growth, allow change. I want to see a person in Ganondorf, desperately.

I think that Ghirahim will not only see Demise in Ganondorf, but feel him, and he will flinch away. 

I think that Ganondorf will apologize.

[hyruviandoctor]

(zelda anon from earlier) I love to hear people talk about things they love, so make as long a post as you'd like 😊 is the series the same characters with different storylines and is there a timeline between games or are they separate? also ive been so curious. Hyrule is a place, right? for some reason i had it in my head that it was a person for a bit but im not sure if thats right?

Hello again!

So this is an analogy I never thought I would make, but you can sort of consider the Zelda games to be like Final Fantasy games; pretty much every game stands on its own, but a few have direct sequels. In Zelda’s case, however, there is a (somewhat) continuous timeline between all of the games, where they’re all tied together. It’s……….hotly debated is a nice way of putting it, since it’s kinda of nonsense at times, but I personally like it well enough. Breath of the Wild doesn’t really fit in it anywhere, and the fact that it’s set at LEAST 10,000 years after the last game and mixes the three branches of the timeline, it seems like Nintendo wanted a soft reboot (and I don’t blame them).

Not to bore with specifics of the timeline, because boy that gets convoluted, the games do have all the same main characters - but not technically. Each Link and Zelda is a reincarnation of the originals because they’re fated to forever fight the reincarnation of the original evil: Demise. Demise was introduced in Skyward Sword, which is the earliest game in the timeline and takes places millennia before the rest of the games. When Demise is defeated he resurrects as Ganondorf way down the line in Ocarina of Time, with some other evil baddies filling in for him before then. So Zelda is a reincarnation of that first Zelda, and Link is a reincarnation of that Link, but they’re not always direct descendants of their respective bloodlines (like in Wind Waker where Link isn’t related by blood to any of the other Links before him).

The thread that ties each of them together, aside from the whole destiny thing, is the Triforce. Each one holds one of the 3 pieces (as of Ocarina of Time), with Ganondorf having Power, Zelda having Wisdom, and Link having Courage. And these 3 pieces long to be together again, so it always pulls the 3 characters together. The supporting cast makes a return often as well, with the characters that were established as Sages in Ocarina being the main ones who reappear consistently (mostly Impa and Rauru/Gaebora).

To your question about Hyrule, yes! Hyrule is a place, and is the main setting of most of the Zelda games. It changes a lot between games, with long stretches of time passing between each iteration, but it always has at least a few constant features (like Death Mountain and Kakariko Village and Castle Town). There are other settings too, like how Majora’s Mask (Ocarina of Time’s direct sequel) takes place in Termina, or how Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass take place on The Great Sea. What may have gotten it in your head as it being a person is either that the people with pointed ears from Hyrule are called Hylians (there are humans too but no one cares about them LOL) or the fact that Skyward Sword introduced Hylia as a new goddess (which seems to be a soft reboot of the fact that there were 3 goddesses already, who now seem to have taken a back seat). 

Hylia, wait for it, is Zelda. Zelda is the reincarnation and personification of a goddess. Way way back before Skyward Sword, Hylia was the one fighting against Demise. She gathered up all of her people (the Hylians) and launched them on an island into the sky for their safekeeping, and then fought alongside the original Link to beat back Demise. The prequel comic, which is sort of non-canon, shows Link and Hylia basically falling in love and when that Link dies Hylia gifts his soul with reincarnation so he can continue to fight Demise until the evil is finally defeated for good. Hylia then gives up her divinity (mostly) and reincarnates as Zelda in Skyward Sword, where the two meet for the first time again.

I could probably talk about this stuff for a while, but this is a pretty lore-heavy info-dump and I want to make sure it isn’t too overwhelming hahaha. Feel free to ask me to elaborate on specifics or ask different questions or anything if you want! I hope this was interesting at least lol

[dullweapons]

okay so talking to my gf ( @/alfida + @/uneasedregrets ) about the zelda timeline & how botw / totk fits into it . she says by word of god that they fit into downfall timeline . just so so so long into the future of that timeline that hyrule is not founded but refounded . if i take that into consideration for ray , it would mean that the ray for botw / totk is the ray that attempted to destroy hyrule & the cycle & was successful .

that kinda has some major implications for ray . he destroyed hyrule believing he could then shatter the cycle & free them all from the torment . instead it comes back & the cycle begins anew just hundreds of years later when hyrule is refounded & he can't do anything about it . that demise' hate comes back , the goddesses blood never washes out of the royal family & the hero's spirit will always show . the ray in totk! past would not be a kind man . probably a hollow shell that does what he is told to do because there is nothing he can do to stop what will happen . absolute apathy . i do think he still warms up to the queen & steps out of that depression because of her but we know how her story ends .

i feel like if it is the same ray , his botw self would be different . i think he would be more dismissive rather than angry . the kingdoms died once before by his hands ⸻ who is he to care about calamity ganon ? if anything , hes amused that calamity ganon had to use technology when ray did it himself with an army of monsters & the knowledge of the kingdom's . ( ❝ you don't think i know hyrule castle ? I BUILT IT . ❞ )

not sure if i will make this the canon of the blog . at the moment botw / totk ray is just a mashup of all of them . he is aware of his actions in downfall & has complicated feelings about it . he does think what he did was justifiable but was it right ? he's unsure . it’s a lot of baggage that he just locks away in the back of his mind to never think about .

i can also just … toss this out the window . i’m seeing a lot of other blogs in the rpc kinda just pick & choose what they adhere to when it comes to canon . some of y’all completely rewrite things — i do like trying to be a close to canon as possible , but i do fill in blanks & tweak things to allow ray to fit in . it makes ray easily adjustable to other people’s canon such as people saying ganondorf won or hylia doesn’t exist or something . i could build my own timeline but nintendo will shatter it with the next new game OTL

[yogfan14]

Headcanon Time! Ghirahim for 9,10, and 11. ^.^

Humiliating memoriesGhirahim is hard to humiliate in the first place, as he easily lets embarrassing moments brush off. One humiliating memory, however, is from the Great War (pre-SS Hylia vs. Demise war), when Ghirahim’s general in the demon army (before he rose to lead general himself) pointed out, in front of the entire room, the marks left on his neck that the demon princess had left on him from earlier. He was a newbie to the army at the time and an easy target for being picked on. He didn’t hear the end of it until he was promoted to general himself and he was allowed to beat them for doing so. 

Fears/phobiasGhirahim is generally fearless out in the field, but at home is another story. He is terrified of being left behind and being betrayed. He is also terrified of losing the ones that he cares about, such as his friends and family. He also has a deep-rooted fear of anyone who makes sexual advancements or hints towards him due to personal experiences. 

Bad or petty habitsGhirahim has a nasty habit of resorting to violence immediately, despite trying to be more pacifist in the modern era, which is one reason why hylians hate/fear him so much. He also tends to sing out loud without realizing it, which annoys others. As for petty habits, if he knows that someone he doesn’t like is annoyed by something, he will intentionally do said thing around them just to piss them off (like singing at the top of his lungs around Ganondorf for the sole reason of pissing him off bc I’m gonna be honest here: Ghirahim and Ganondorf did not get along during the War of the Ages). Also, if someone tells him to do/stop something, there is a 5000% chance that he will do the exact opposite without even thinking about it. 

Send me headcanon asks!!!

[gman-003]

Legends - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Analyzed, Part Two

Levias is an even worse fit. He's supposedly a guardian spirit for Skyloft, but he's never mentioned until the part of the game where you have to go get a MacGuffin from him. After that, he never appears in the story again. I think he gets more total screentime in Hyrule Warriors than in Skyward Sword. He feels like a Link's Awakening reference that was tossed in at the last minute, when it was decided that Skyward Sword was to be the origin myth for the Legend of Zelda series. Games have become a very narrative-focused experience. When the Legend of Zelda series began, all you had was "you're the hero, go rescue the princess from the monster by getting all the magic things". You're still the hero, there's still a princess and there's still monsters and magic things, but the series has gotten a lot more story-focused as time has passed.

That's not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Early games skimped on the story because they didn't have the technical capability to tell it well. The NES basically didn't have the memory capacity for books' worth of text or minutes-long animations. And a story done well is always worthwhile.

But it has to be done well. Is the story of Skyward Sword good? Well... kind of. It has great bits, it has okay bits, and it has some bad bits.

Good: Zelda has agency, Groose has arc

Certain tropes have gotten a lot of flak for their prevalence. The "damsel in distress" trope, the helpless female character who you must rescue, gets some deserved criticism, and the Zelda series has used that trope pretty extensively in past games.

Not here.

Skyward Sword gives us a Zelda who takes action. She does things. In the earliest parts of the game, she sticks up to a bully to protect you. When she gets thrown to the surface world by a tornado, you go to rescue her, only to discover a) she's taking care of herself, b) she's on her own quest, and c) she's actually kind of busy right now, let's try to meet up later, k?

Even when she becomes trapped in a crystal thing... she was the one who put herself there. She had to do some weird magic stuff to keep The Imprisoned... imprisoned, and until you kill the thing for good, she's too busy to come have sloppy makeouts so get off your ass and finish the quest already, Link. Get it together, because she's got hers.

The complaint about the trope is often misused. Tropes are tools, and tools exist to be used (although yes, the extent to which that particular one is used is indicative of problems with our culture's gender roles). Using the damsel-in-distress trope to, say, give the broad strokes of a story because you're on the NES and putting a more detailed story in the game would require cutting out half your gameplay, is perfectly valid. Nintendo could have told a good story even while using that trope... but instead, they gave us a Zelda who felt like a real character, who did real-character things and had a real story of her own.

In Skyward Sword, Zelda has an arc. She has character development. She has growth. She feels like a real person, with internal conflict and personal change. She's an actual good character.

She's not the only one. Groose - who I had pegged at first as the annoying comic-relief character - has an arc. He starts off as a bully - childishly cruel to those weaker, but a coward to those who he can not or will not harm. He sobs inconsolably when Zelda goes missing... until, eventually, his grief is overwhelmed by his envy at Link's exploits, and he tries to usurp him as protagonist, trying to be the one to save Zelda and, he hopes, win her favor. But visiting the strange surface world changes him. He learns to respect others. He finds his courage, helping Link fight a demon. He uses his brain, and not just his brawn. And, eventually, he realizes that Zelda is her own person, that he's doing both of them a disservice by trying to win her.

That's a story right there. That's an arc. It's not one that's well-suited to game form, honestly, but it's great character development. The low-level writing, the words and sentences of dialogue, is never particularly great in Skyward Sword, but the mid-level character crafting is on point.

For everyone except Link.

Okay: Proving your worth to be a hero, not being a hero

Link as a character has one big problem in *Skyward Sword*. He doesn't have agency. He never does things without another character, or several characters, pushing and prodding and guiding and dragging him through the story. His supporting cast is so supportive that he loses his protagonist status - because he gets told to do everything that he does, he becomes merely the pawn for other character's successes, rather than a hero in his own right. He's a bullet fired at Demise by Zelda. He's the dumb meat swinging Fi and the Goddess Sword around. He's the errand-boy of Impa, in two ways.

Link's character arc is barely an arc at all. It's all buildup for almost no payoff. Link spends the first three dungeons trying to prove to Impa that he's good enough to keep up, to not be a liability to her and Zelda. Then he spends three dungeons proving himself worthy of the sacred fires needed to forge the Master Sword. Then he has to go prove himself a hero to the three dragons. Link only "becomes a hero" at the very, very end, when he defeats Ghirahim and Demise - specifically, he becomes a hero when Demise gives him a chance to run away, and Link chases after him instead. So, about fifteen minutes before the credits roll, depending on how much trouble the final battle gave you. (It gave me a lot of trouble, by the way). Other games in the Legend of Zelda series did not make you wait nearly so long. In *Ocarina of Time*, Link gets his first hero moment when he first faces Ganondorf, and draws his sword against the king of evil. In *Wind Waker*, Link shows signs of heroism from the beginning, when he ventures into the forest to rescue a fallen stranger. Perhaps the writers of *Skyward Sword* intended that early moment where Link ventures to the surface in search of Zelda to be that moment where he shows even a sign of heroism... but they sapped it of any meaning by having him be so forcefully prodded into it, by not one but two characters. I was yelling at the screen for them to shut up and let me go on an adventure already, but the cutscene dragged on of Fi and Gaepora telling me how important it is to go on an adventure. (There may be a blog entry entirely about this scene, as well as the role of certain steps of the Monomyth in interactive media, if I feel like it's worthwhile). Link isn't really changed by his adventures. He's learned skills and acquired powers he didn't have before, but he's fundamentally the same character, as far as I can tell. Maybe it's just hard to show a player character developing self-reliance and confidence, because their actions are controlled by the player? But plenty of other games have pulled this off - the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot springs to mind.

That brings up an interesting aside: does the protagonist of the story necessarily have to be the player character of the game? I would argue that Zelda is the protagonist of Skyward Sword's story, even though she's never controlled by the player. Link doesn't take initiative. He starts the game doing things because Zelda told him. When Zelda's gone, he does things because Fi told him, or because a dragon told him, or because someone just asked nicely. Zelda has far more agency than Link, and honestly has a better character arc.

In the end, it was Zelda that defeated Demise, not Link. Link might have been the one swinging the sword, but the victory was arranged by Zelda. She (as Hylia) placed all the tools Link needed in the places he would get them, and kept The Imprisoned from escaping until Link had assembled all the pieces necessary to kill it.

And even though I'm not sure the Legend of Zelda gameplay formula would be the best fit for such a story... I kind of wish I had been playing as Zelda instead. Or maybe playing as Impa, since she had lots of action going on, but was more closely involved with the story's protagonist. Either one seems like it could have been a good game.

Bad: Elements out of place

While Link is a bad fit for the protagonist role, he's at least a good fit for the player character role, and his story isn't jarringly bad. But there are elements that seem much more out of place.

The story of Skyward Sword has an unfortunate tendency to bring new characters in without foreshadowing or justification - characters that, logically, ought to have been known to the player earlier, but were not.

Demise, the game's final boss, sort of comes out of nowhere. You never see him except in the bestial, non-sapient form of The Imprisoned. You never see art depicting him as a humanoid or writings referencing him as such. This isn't completely without foreshadowing, as you do know that The Imprisoned is not in its original form, and it was once a fearsome demon king, but it's still quite abrupt to see him standing before you, wielding a sword. It was clearly intended to be a surprise, but it comes off more as a "we made the final boss fight without telling the writers" than a "clever twist ending".

Levias is an even worse fit. He's supposedly a guardian spirit for Skyloft, but he's never mentioned until the part of the game where you have to go get a MacGuffin from him. After that, he never appears in the story again. I think he gets more total screentime in Hyrule Warriors than in Skyward Sword. He feels like a Link's Awakening reference that was tossed in at the last minute, when it was decided that Skyward Sword was to be the origin myth for the Legend of Zelda series.

And the game's very status as an origin seems to contradict its internal story. Skyward Sword has an obsession with the past. You're fighting an ancient evil that was sealed away in an ancient battle by ancient peoples under the guidance of an ancient goddess. Time travel is a theme of one of the dungeons and is a major component of the story - and you always go backward to the past, never forward to the future.

The game does not feel primitive. You have plenty of advanced technology - rotorcraft and electricity are in active use on Skyloft, and the are friggen robots on the surface. That doesn't jive at all with the supposed placement at the head of the timeline. The technology of the series jumps all over the place - Skyward Sword has all this advanced, modern tech, but the next few games per the official timeline, Minish Cap, Four Swords and Ocarina of Time feature very little tech beyond that of medieval Europe. You can't even argue that all the technology we see in Skyward Sword is ancient, pre-apocalyptic tech, which will break down and be lost over the next century or so. Some of it was indigenous! Beedle had electrical generators and human-propelled aircraft, stuff we emphatically do not see in our visits to the past. He didn't salvage that from an ancient ruin, he invented it. So why isn't that seen in every other game, since they all take place after Skyward Sword?

I suspect, contrary to the claims of Aonuma, that Skyward Sword was not intended to be placed at the head of the series from the start of development. It feels like it was created either to be at a vague future point in the timeline, or with no concept of being a sequel or prequel at all. Before the three-branched timeline was made official, it was commonly argued that the series had no strict chronology, that it was literally a legend, in the sense of being the same story told over and over by different storytellers.

Under that paradigm, Skyward Sword fits well. It has the magic sword of power, it has the princess and her protector, it has the mentor, it has the companion, it has the demon king, it has the whale, it has all the stock locations. It has all the recurring nouns of the Zelda franchise, it just puts them together differently, as every game did.

With its focus on the past, I could even buy it being a distant sequel to another game, perhaps on the Wind Waker branch of the timeline. I have not yet played the games billed as direct or indirect sequels to Wind Waker, though, so that may have its own contradictions. It could even fit around the rest of the timeline - have the "past" of Skyward Sword come before every other game, and the "present" come after. There's tons of theories that could be made to fit - and all of them fit better than the actual way they chose to present it.

Overall, I just don't feel like Skyward Sword is a perfect, natural starting place for the Zelda series. I have a theory as to why it was made the Official First Zelda Story, but that will have to wait for another time.

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 27

Teba had his hands in his pockets as he walked toward Zelda and Paya standing beside their car. They met at the outskirts of the city in hopes of avoiding anyone overhearing them as Zelda explained to Teba what had happened at the ranch.

“I can’t stop them,” Teba said. “Your father has his men all over Hyrule looking for Link.”

“And Impa?”

“She’s not against us,” Teba said. “But she won’t stand by if you try to leave again.”

Zelda pinched her lips together.

“Your father has taken over completely,” Teba continued. “He’s been able to keep things quiet, but people are noticing.”

“You should remain in the city,” Paya said to Zelda. “At least for now. You will be safer here.”

“The Yiga Clan -”

“The Champions can handle the Yiga Clan,” Teba said. His brows furrowed. “I have to agree with everyone else. There’s no sense in you going with them and walking right into their hands.”

Zelda opened her mouth to argue, but Teba cut her off firmly.

“This is where I draw the line,” he said fiercely. “You know I’m on your side. But I can’t let you do this. You’ll be doing more harm than good.” His expression softened. “Please trust me. We need you in the city, at the very least, to keep your father in line.” He offered her a smile.

“Fine,” Zelda muttered. “But promise you won’t keep things from me. I want constant updates on them.”

“Of course.”

Zelda turned back to the car. “Don’t let them go to the Yiga Clan yet,” she said. “I need to know how much of a threat Dorian is, first. I’m going to confront Impa.”

Teba nodded. He said nothing further as they got into the car and he watched them drive out of sight. He leaned against his car and took out his phone, dialing Revali.

“How’s everything going?”

“Peachy,” Revali muttered. “Not tense at all. We’re having fucking tea.”

“I get it,” Teba growled. “Tone the sarcasm down.”

Revali sighed. “You don’t get it,” he said. “We don’t have time.”

“Zelda doesn’t want you going after the Yiga Clan. Not yet.”

Revali was quiet on the line for a moment. “Fine,” he muttered. “She has her reasons. But I’m not going to be the one to kill him if it comes down to that.”

*****

Zelda and Paya stood before Impa. She was seated at her desk, regarding them fiercely, waiting for them to speak, but Zelda was hesitant.

“Don’t take me for a fool, Your Highness,” Impa sneered. “Whatever you think you need to tell me, I already know.”

Zelda’s gaze narrowed on her. “I want the truth.”

Impa stood and placed her hands on her desk. “You first, Sheik.”

Zelda’s eyes widened, but her expression quickly turned to a sneer.

“You are a fool,” Impa spat. “You cannot walk right into their hands, Zelda. The moment they get you, it’s all over. You need to understand that. You need to sit this out.”

“I need to fix Link -”

“Link’s gone!” Impa snapped. “It’s too late for him.”

“It’s not! Purah said so herself.”

“Purah doesn’t know for a fact,” Impa said. “She can only make guesses based on her own research. Without the Sheikah Slate -”

“Then we get our hands on the Sheikah Slate,” Zelda said fiercely.

Impa held her gaze on Zelda. “Don’t you think I have my men on that?”

Zelda hesitated. “And who, exactly, have you sent out to retrieve it?”

“Dorian, of course.”

Zelda stiffened, but said nothing more. She had to force herself from turning to Paya to keep from letting her guard down. If Impa had sent Dorian to retrieve the slate, that would explain why they saw him. However, it did not explain why he strolled around their hidden base so openly, as if he belonged there with the Yiga. She couldn’t read Impa; she couldn’t tell if she knew this or not. Either she was being played, too, or Impa was just as involved. She chose instead not to confront her, but keep the knowledge to herself.

“Stay in the city,” Impa said calmly. “I know you’re in contact with them, and I know you won’t tell me where they are, but tell them to stay away from the Yiga Clan. Let Dorian do his job. Once we get the slate back, we can discuss things further.”

Without a word, Zelda and Paya left Impa alone. When she was sure they were out of earshot, she sat back at her desk and picked up the phone. When Dorian’s voice answered, she spoke.

“They know.”

*****

The Champions - minus their two fearless leaders - were gathered outside of the barn when Aryll and Talon returned. She trotted her horse to them and dismounted, talking excitedly to Talon as he carefully slipped off his own horse.

“That goat thought he could get away from me. Ha! What a joke! I bet I could herd ‘em faster than Link!”

Talon nodded over to the Champions as he took his horse by the reins. “Without question,” he said. “Just don’t tell Link I said that.”

Aryll grinned and patted her horse’s neck. She turned her gaze to Mipha. “Where is he?”

“Inside with Kit,” Mipha said softly.

Aryll frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Revali said quickly.

Talon hesitated, then turned to give the reins to Aryll. “Why don’tcha take care of ‘em for me?” He offered her a reassuring smile, then watched as she walked the two horses into the barn. He turned back to the group with a hand raised.

“I don’t wanna know what trouble you fugitives got yaselves inta,” he said. “The less I know, the better. I’m sure ya got a plan goin’ on, ‘n’ tha’s fine. Whatever ya need from me, jest lemme know.” He thrust a thumb over his shoulder. “I got beds ‘n’ couches, ‘n’ s’long as Aryll can keep helpin’ me out ‘round here, you can raid my fridge. But this ain’t no bed ‘n’ breakfast. I’m only doin’ it for Link ‘n’ Ary, so ya best keep ‘em safe, got it?”

Aryll listened closely as she quietly unsaddled the horses. It seemed like everyone would be sticking around, keeping a watchful eye on her and Link. Something had happened while she and Talon were out, but of course they never explained it to Talon, and she was sure they were going to keep her in the dark as well.

When she returned the horses to the paddock, everyone was gone. She didn’t know where they had gone off to, but she didn’t particularly care. She wanted to make sure Link was at least alright.

He was laying on the couch when Aryll made her way inside the farmhouse. He had his hands on his face. She watched him for a moment as she walked across the room.

“Talon says I heard goats better than you,” she said with a smile in an attempt to ease the tension in the room. But Link did not respond, and her smile disappeared. He didn’t even turn to regard her. He looked lifeless as he stared blankly at the ceiling. Her brows furrowed in concern. “Have you gotten any sleep?”

Still, he did not respond. Aryll made her way into kitchen, peering inside the fridge. She called to him over her shoulder. “Are you hungry? I'm hungry. I don't feel like doing any cooking, though.” She cocked her head to the side as she inspected the contents. “Want cold pizza?” She took the box out and set it on the table. She sat, helping herself to a cold slice. “You should eat something.”

To her relief, Link got up from the couch. He dragged his feet across the floor, sitting at the table across from her with a sigh. He took a slice for himself and with his cheek against his palm, took a disinterested bite. Aryll busied herself with her phone as she ate, scrolling mindlessly through her apps. There were a few unanswered texts from Cremia and Anju, and she decided to give them a brief reply, if only to reassure them that she were still alive. She at least owed them that after her sudden disappearance, even if she couldn’t tell them what had happened.

“You know,” she started. “I took this new history class last semester. Except they don't want to call it a history class.” She paused to take another bite. “It's about Hylia and all the trials Hyrule has gone through since the beginning of Demise's curse.”

“There's a class for that?” Link said, staring at his pizza.

Aryll nodded. “It almost didn't happen. Apparently it caused a big controversy with some of the parents. They didn't want legends to be taught in a history class. Can you believe that? After everything they've seen, they don't believe their own history. It's like they refuse to admit it.”

“Can you blame them?”

Aryll shook her head. “No one knows the truth anymore. People need to know the truth. If we keep forgetting about the curse, we'll be doomed. Society will be the reason we fall to Ganondorf. We cannot forget our own history. If we keep it alive, we can better prepare ourselves in the future.” She finished her pizza and met Link's gaze. “That's what I want to do. I want to educate people. I don't want them to forget.” She paused in thought. “Maybe I could be some kind of Historian. I bet Impa would let me be an honorary Sheikah. I could work for Zelda.”

Link shook his head. “You can't force people to believe anything,” Link said.

“How can you say that?” Aryll said. “After everything you've done for Hyrule. You'll just fade away like every other hero. Is that what you want?”

“Yes.”

Aryll stared at her brother. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she turned her gaze back to her phone. “Why?” she asked softly.

Link didn’t answer her. To his relief, Kit walked in at that moment, a case of beer in his arms.

“Stocking up?” Link asked with a raised brow.

Kit put the case on the table with a sigh. “I should have raided the bar,” Kit said. “Before someone else breaks in and takes my shit.” He opened the case and grabbed a can. “Who knows when I’ll see the place again.”

“No one’s making you stay here,” Link said.

“This is more fun,” Kit said. “Honorary Champion and all.”

“Keep dreaming,” Aryll muttered. She stood from the table and made her way out of the kitchen.

Kit opted to sit in her empty seat. He pushed the case of beer towards Link, but Link turned away from the offer.

“Revali said we’ve been put on hold,” Kit said as he drank. “Orders from her highness herself. What do you think that’s all about?”

Link’s brows furrowed. “I don’t like her being alone in the city.”

“She has Paya and Teba,” Kit reminded him. “I’m sure she has her reasons. Guess we’re camping out here for a while.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Link said.

Kit frowned. “I don’t make the rules,” he said. “Guess we just need to wait and see.”

But Link knew what would come of him if they wasted their time waiting. He wasn’t about to let himself turn and destroy all of Hyrule. He didn’t care what Zelda’s reasons were; the Yiga Clan needed to be stopped before it was too late. And he was going to be the one to end them.

*****

It seemed his friends were insistent on babysitting him. Though they never said it outright, he knew they were watching him closely. Not only that, but Mipha had kept her distance, though he had the feeling that wasn’t exactly by choice. She would never so willingly stay away from him. But then again, he had tried to kill her with his own hands. He couldn’t keep the images out of his head, and it caused his stomach to churn sickeningly. It seemed likely that she was avoiding him of her own accord. She was afraid of him. She couldn’t trust him like she used to, and that killed him the most.

It was late when everyone turned in for the night, though Daruk seemed too eager to stay up with Link. Clearly it was his turn to take up the duty of babysitting. He didn’t think it would be easy to shake off his best friend, but he was determined.

“I know what you guys are doing,” Link said. Except from the light of the tv, the room was dark.

Daruk didn’t turn to him, or offer any explanation, as he knew that Link did not need one. Link didn’t push it further, either. Even though it aggravated him, he understood. In fact, he didn’t want to really be left alone, anyway. If something happened again, he had to be stopped. Still, it would make his plans of sneaking out to go to the Yiga Clan by himself difficult.

But, whether it was due to the dark room or his lack of conversation, Daruk eventually drifted off to sleep, snoring softly. He didn’t wake when Link stood, and Link started to feel guilty for what he was about to do. Not only to Daruk, but to Aryll and Mipha as well. It certainly wouldn’t clear him of his guilt, or right his wrongs by any means, but he couldn’t just leave without a goodbye. So he made his way into the kitchen where he scribbled quickly on a piece of paper, leaving it folded on the table.

He tiptoed through the sleeping house, hesitating at the door with his hand on the knob. He pulled it open quietly, glancing one last time at Daruk sleeping soundly on the couch. His lips pinched together and he stepped outside, closing the door quietly behind him.

He hurried to his car, slipping in behind the wheel. Thanks to Paya and Zelda, he had the coordinates he needed to get him to the Yiga Clan hideout. He knew he would have to walk through most of the desert, so it seemed unlikely he would be able to bring all the c4 he had in his trunk, but he could at least bring enough to leave a pretty good mark. It wouldn’t wipe them out completely, but it would at least give him the edge he needed, considering he would be severely outnumbered - and out powered. Without wasting another second, he turned the key in the ignition and peeled out of the driveway towards the desert.

*****

Aryll hadn’t seen her brother at all the next morning, but she thought nothing of it due to the early hour. The house seemed to be empty, and she saw no sign of the other Champions. She eagerly made her way to the barn to help Talon with the animals. For the next couple of hours, she busied herself with feeding them their breakfasts, cleaning the stalls, and collecting eggs. It was near noon when she finally returned to the house, her stomach begging her for lunch.

But once in the kitchen, her attention was caught by a piece of folded paper on the table. She picked it up and her eyes traced the words on the page. The note dropped from her hands and she pulled her phone quickly out of her pocket, dialing her brother's number, but his phone went straight to voicemail. She stared at the unfolded note that lay on the table.

Don't look for me. I'm sorry.

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Future | Chapter 6

He waited on the hard bench of the cell. Telma had already been alerted, and despite the late hour, he knew she was on her way to try to bust his murderous ass out of jail. He was in there, alone, for nearly an hour, left to his own thoughts. He replayed the moment over and over in his head. Even though it was in self defense, he didn’t think a judge would see it that way. But none of it made any sense. Who the hell were the Yiga Clan? And what were they doing kidnapping innocent people and using them for test subjects? Was anyone else aware of this Yiga Clan? And if they were, why wasn’t someone doing something about them?

His thoughts were interrupted, however, at the sound of low voices. He recognized Telma’s among them, but there were two other’s he didn’t know. He listened closely as they spoke.

“He killed a woman,” the first voice said. “A Sheikah woman.”

“How the hell do you think he could kill a Sheikah?” Telma hissed.

“He’s Hylian, Telma,” the voice snapped at her. “He’s capable of more than you both realize.”

“Hylian?” The second voice was deep, yet sounded younger. Inexperienced.

“It’s not unheard of for Hylian’s to possess such power,” Telma reminded them.

“Except it is,” the first voice said. “Not in today’s world.”

“You know as well as I do who he is,” Telma hissed. “He’s important to Hyrule. Of course he would be able to call forth that power.”

“It doesn’t excuse the fact that he murdered -”

“Do not use that word with me,” Telma barked. Her voice raised angrily. “He was attacked! You know she was not a mere Sheikah.”

The first voice lowered. “This needs to be handled delicately,” he said.

“There were no witnesses,” Telma said. “I am not oblivious to the war that shadows our future. You do not need to protect me from the truth. He was attacked by a Yiga. He killed a Yiga. It’s as simple as that. Use whatever story you want to cover this up; I know that’s how the king works. But when it comes down to Rusl, he did you a damn favor.”

“He’s dangerous,” the man said. “This is not the first time this has happened. He has no control of it.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, piss off! You let him out of that cell right now, or the king loses my connections. You let me take care of this. He is my responsibility.”

A forth voice spoke up, and Rusl was sure he had heard it before, though he couldn’t quite place it. The voice sounded old and tired, yet strong and authoritative.

“Let him go,” she said sternly. Her voice softened as she spoke with Telma. “I’m sure he knows much more than he leads on. You cannot hide him from the truth anymore, Telma. He needs to be aware of his destiny.” Her voice hardened once more as she redirected her attention to the other two men. “Release him. Now.” “Of course, Impa,” the first voice said, though there was a hint of disdain in his voice. “Come, Dorian.”

Rusl listened as footsteps rounded the corner. Two Sheikah men appeared first, and Telma followed closely behind them. Rusl looked to each of the Sheikah, studying them. The first man appeared much older, while the second couldn’t have been more than a few years older than him. Their gazes met as they studied one another.

When the cell opened, Rusl got to his feet. He held his gaze on the Sheikah a moment longer before stepping passed them. He ignored Telma as he made his way outside without a word.

He waited in the parking lot. It took Telma a few moments before she stepped out of the building. She stopped in the middle of the parking lot, her eyes on Rusl, the same, pitied look he had grown accustomed to seeing on her face.

“What’s the Yiga Clan?” Rusl asked angrily.

Telma averted her gaze. “Rus -”

“Go head, then,” he snapped. “Tell me the truth.”

“The Yiga Clan are rogue Sheikah,” Telma said, her voice strong. She met Rusl’s gaze, her expression fierce. “They are set on destroying the Chosen Hero and bringing Ganondorf back. They want to take the other two pieces of the Triforce for Ganondorf, and with it complete, they plan to resurrect Demise and bring him to power.”

“The legends,” Rusl said.

“It’s the truth of our world,” Telma hissed. “And you, Rusl, play a very important role in the future of our world. Your son will be the Chosen Hero. He will be necessary to stopping Ganondorf and keeping Hyrule at peace.”

Rusl stared blankly at her. But to Telma’s surprise, he did not fight back.

“It’s true,” he said. “I tried to tell myself they were just dreams.” His brows furrowed, and he met Telma’s gaze.

“Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, it’s true.”

“How do you know?”

“The Sheikah,” she explained. “Their lives are dedicating to awaiting the rebirth of the hero and guiding him so that he may save Hyrule when the time comes. They have heard from Hylia herself.”

Rusl pulled his gaze away. “Why me?” His brows furrowed. “I’m… I’m no one.”

Telma smiled. “Ah, you have more going for ya than you give yourself credit for.” She shrugged. “You’re a good kid that ended up in a bad situation, is all.”

“I’m Hylian,” Rusl said. “Has it occured to you that I’m just the way everyone expects me to be?”

“I guess you don’t know anything about Hylians at all,” she said. “Hylian are the embodiment of Hylia. The Hylians, along with the Sheikah, are the very reason our world has been able to triumph time and time again.” Her voice softened. “It is true that the Hylians are dying out. With each generation, Hylia’s powers grow weaker. Hyrule has changed. It has grown and evolved. And people… they’ve become clueless. They lost their way. They’ve lost their faith. Hylia has been reduced to a mere legend. They fear the unknown. They fear the power of the Sheikah because they do not understand. They’ve grown to distrust Sheikah and Hylians. It will lead to their own demise.”

“So, the only reason the Sheikah found me and took me off the streets is because they need me?” He started to grow angry. “If I were anyone else, I would have been left for dead.”

Telma frowned. “Rusl -”

“What’s your deal?” he snapped. “What are your connections to all of this?”

Telma hesitated. She held her gaze on him. “I provide the king with intel on the Yiga Clan,” she started. “Before you came along, I raised an orphaned Sheikah boy. I told no one about him. But as he got older, I knew I could not provide him the training he needed to keep in control of his powers. So I went to Impa and she worked with him. When he was old enough, he joined the ranks of the Sheikah. For a time, he acted as a double agent, infiltrating the Yiga Clan. He could not move freely into the city to pass intel on to Impa, so he passed it to me, and I reported to Impa and the king. It’s been like that for a few years, now. We know the Yiga Clan want to give Ganondorf every advantage they can when he rises, which means getting their hands on the Master Sword. Without it, the hero will not be able to defeat Ganondorf and seal him away. Not only that, but there are several portals around Hyrule which open to the Twilight Realm. They plan to seek out the portals and open them in an attempt to weaken our own defenses before Ganondorf rises.”

Rusl stared blankly at her. His brows furrowed. “You’re kidding.”

Telma’s face softened. “I wish I were.”

Rusl pulled his gaze away. “I’m just a pawn to you,” he hissed. “You need me. You need my son. That’s the only reason the Sheikah found me. That’s the only reason they brought me to you. That’s the only damn reason I’m alive right now.”

“Rusl.” Telma’s throat tightened around her words. “You are not -”

“Forget it, Telma,” he snapped. He turned away from her and walked away, leaving her alone in the parking lot.

*****

Rusl made his way out of the city on foot. He had planned on returning to the ranch, though he was in no hurry. He walked through the night, his mind replaying every moment of his life, from the first time his powers came to light and the two men he killed, to the Yiga women he killed just a few hours prior. He mulled over Telma’s words and the apparent future that was in store for himself. He couldn’t help but to wonder about his son. What kind of person would he be, besides a hero? And how dependent was the world, really, on a person that didn’t even exist yet?

He hated the idea that he was not in control of his own life. He hated the idea that everyone else expected him to be something more than he was. For years, all he wanted was to be in control; to live the life he wanted to live. Life had dealt enough shitty cards to him. For once, he just wanted something to work out in his favor. And he suddenly realized that it was all within reach. In just a few short months, he would be eighteen. He would be free from Telma’s watchful eye. Free to live his own life. And he didn’t have a clue as to what he wanted to do with it. All he had ever know was a life dictated by everyone else; what was there for him to do with his freedom?

And what better time to consider all the possibilities in life then on his long walk back to the ranch? He we certain he wouldn’t be able to go to college. He didn’t have the grades, the dedication, or the money. College was definitely something he did not want to deal with. But, aside from joining the army, what else was there for him to do?

And why not the army? Clearly, he was used to being ordered around. He was used to being a pawn in war. Why not be someone else’s problem? At the very least, it gave him some kind of purpose. Discipline, sure. And maybe even a chance to turn his life around. A chance to do some good, despite all the bad that had befallen him over the years. Despite the stereotype that was thrust upon him, just because he was Hylian. It wasn’t a very good reason, but it seemed, in that moment, one of the few things he could control. And if he died in battle, then so what? It wasn’t like anyone would notice. And if that left Hyrule without a hero, well; if Hylia was more than a legend, surely she would find a way to save Hyrule. Perhaps, unbeknownst to the Sheikah, his death was just a much a part of his destiny. If he was destined to die, then so be it. It seemed better than being just a tool for some Goddesses twisted game.

It was late in the morning by the time he did reach the ranch, and when he did, he opted to set to work on stacking more bales. To his relief, neither Regan nor Karsen were around, allowing him to work peacefully until noon. His stomach dutifully reminded him that it had been been awhile since he had eaten, and he decided to venture into the house.

Telma was seated at the table by the window in the kitchen. She was sipping at her coffee quietly with a book in hand and didn’t regard Rusl when he stood in the doorway. He kept his gaze on her for a moment before making his way to the fridge to help himself to whatever he could find. He quietly made himself a sandwich, sitting on the counter to eat. Telma still did not acknowledge him, and he had finally had enough of her silence.

“I know what I’m going to do,” Rusl said, referencing their conversation the previous day when she told him about his father’s death. “When I turn eighteen.”

Telma calmly put her book down on the table, letting it close. She turned her attention to him, but said nothing as she waited for him to continue.

“I’m going to join the army.” He studied her face for a moment in an attempt to read her, but she remained stark. After a moment, he finished his lunch and shrugged. “Thought you’d want to know.” He pushed himself off the counter and started to leave, but her voice stopped him at the doorway.

“How long are you going to keep running?”

Rusl stared ahead, not meeting her gaze. His brows furrowed. “I’m not running.”

“Are you that determined to keep yourself from living your life?” She hesitated. “I know you, Rusl. You think this will be your way out.”

“If everything is true,” Rusl started, turning his gaze to the floor. “Then don’t you think everything will work out as it should?”

“I don’t believe in testing fate,” Telma hissed. “You, on the other hand, are all too happy to put your life on the line. I know you’re angry with me, Rus, but don’t you dare for a second think that I was just doing a job. I would have picked you up no matter who you were. I raised you, boy. I did everything for you. I gave you a second chance when no one else would. Whether you like it or not, I’m the best damn thing that has happened to you. And if you’re going to throw all that away, then I guess I know now how little I mean to you.”

“Don’t pull this shit,” Rusl muttered.

“Oh, I’ll pull all the shit I want,” Telma snapped, standing abruptly. “You may not like me, but I love you. And if you go and get yourself killed and think no one will care -”

Rusl met her gaze. Her expression was hard and angry, but her eyes started to well.

“For fuck’s sake, Rusl. This isn’t who you are. You are not selfish.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m not. So, why not try to do some good while I can?” He shrugged. “Prove to myself that I’m not as bad as everyone wants me to be.”

Her face softened as she regarded him. “Is this really what you want?”

Rusl sighed. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“So, think about it.”

He held his gaze on her. “I… want to see for myself,” he started softly. “If all of this is true… if this is what will happen in my life… I won’t stop it. But I’m not going to go out of my way to make it happen, either.” He hesitated. “I just want to live. Maybe try to redeem myself. Give myself something better. And see for myself what life has in store.”

Telma smiled. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you,” she said.