#i want to do the same when botw 2 comes out but that will take too long so I'm going to do it now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thegeminisage · 1 year

Text

i decided to make a list of 15 of my favorite plot devices

i think they're mostly in order but all things are subject to change. time to explain my passions

1. asexuals - self-explanatory. the best number one joy of all time is when there is an asexual person, canonically, and not just in my mind palace. so far no show has managed to do this except fucking shadowhunters (and bojack horseman ig but it's not my thing). i know there are people out there who can write way better than the shadowhunters writing room but i don't know why they aren't getting on this. tick tock. example: raphael shadowhunters

2. amnesia - notably different from dementia, which is depressing and bad (thinking about you, dean winchester). amnesia is only good because eventually they get it back. the best thing about amnesia is that it shows you who your Little Guy (gender neutral) is with everything stripped away from them including their sense of self. do they still go for the same kind of coffee? do they still click with the same people they used to love? can they still fight? what do they stand for? it's very rewarding when your little guy acts the same way without knowing why. it's also especially cool for action heroes bc they'll still be able to win a fight and it's like wow <3 fight scenes with emotional stakes!! also i love that it gives us a mystery to solve. sometimes a partially amnesiac character is amnesiac because they did a terrible crime. and they've got to solve it while accidentally working against their past self. fun! examples: fang from ff13. wolverine. why, who did you think i was going to use

3. brainwashing - for the same reasons as amnesia. it's the same concept: take away everything and who is your little guy? the real little guy is in there and they are working so hard to get out. also they will be sooo sad about all the crimes they did later. example: fenris dragon age. d'avin killjoys. and okay fine one other guy we're not talking about

4. enemies to lovers - what's better than two people wanting to murder each other until they don't......always a good side of bickering with this as well. main draw tho is the process of simply two people getting to know one another in the way that you can tell strangers things you can't tell your friends. it's more work to love someone when you hate them and with more work comes a better reward. also, sexual tension. example: so many. fenris/hawke. fenris/anders. botw link/zelda. john/aeryn. bonnie and damon if the cw weren't cowards and i don't even like damon i think he's unforgivably horrible (derogatory)

5. monster under the bed character - i don't know if this has a real name. it's like the One Guy (again, gender neutral) who has shaped the protagonist's whole life who is threat number one in any given situation. Primal Fear of this guy and all they represent is similar to how little kids are scared of the monster under the bed hence the name. it's not JUST an arch enemy or an antagonist it's like. the only enemy that matters. not a bad guy but THE bad guy. if you can boil someone's issues down and stuff them all into a single person and then also make that person scary. and then also they can fight!! fuck yeah fight scenes!!! if you're really lucky this will overlap with either somebody's parent or somebody's ex. examples: AUGH SO MANY. for dean winchester it's yellow eyes. for sam winchester it's lucifer. for fenris it's danarius. for jace wayland it's valentine. for dutch killjoys it's khlyen. for anakin skywalker it's palpatine. for derek hale it's kate argent. going nuts just thinking about it

6. reluctant assassins - crucially if they don't care about being assassins it doesn't work for me (sorry kassandra asscreed). i went into this in more detail here but your assassin simply Must be compromised in some way so they can regret all their little crimes later. otherwise what's the point?? this overlaps so thoroughly with brainwashed iedk if it should count as its own entry but whatever. examples: fenris dragon age. dutch killjoys. d'avin killjoys. elliot leverage. and the other one

7. two-person love triangle - this is a very specific sub-example of secret identities in general which ARE good except they're usually in superhero media and i am really just so totally fucking over the entire CONCEPT of superheroes. anyway it's when one person has a secret identity and the other person forms a relationship with their "real" identity and their "secret" one. and then they feel conflicted about loving two people at once and having to choose but SURPRISE it's the same person! i like this because it has anti love triangle energy. lots of romantic tension and none of the dumb fucking YA bullshit. (apologies to YA.) example: arthur and merlin (who is also "emrys" at least in fanfic)

8. 4th wall shit - when the piece of media is in your house with you. i don't feel i need to clarify further than this because dr gaster is probably spying on me as we speak. examples: everything toby fox has ever made. s*pernatural, sometimes. i also had a deeply haunted experience with final fantasy x.

9. last guy (gender neutral) standing - part of a team or group that got tragically mcmurder prior to the start of the story and this person is so terribly sad about it. crucially this has to be a side character whose relationships with dead people are more important than or equally important to their relationships with the current living cast members. character deaths you almost agree with because then at least they can be with their fallen buds. examples: auron from ffx, noel from ffxiii

10. immortal characters - for the same reasons as above but also they CAN'T DIE EVER so they don't even have that to look forward to. also sometimes they wind up being science experiments. examples: jesse turner from @cambionverse (sorry jesse)

11. evil doppelganger - usually this is in video games where they just take the sprite or the polygons and recolor them to be black but also you have some mirrorverse/au shit going on sometimes and then there's evil twins, and shapeshifters, and clones...i love when everybody gets tricked into thinking somebody is doing crimes but actually theyre just out here and it's their evil double causing problems on purpose and not even being the one to go to jail forever because of it. also, when the evil double has mind-reading powers or whatever b/s to 1. make them a better trickster 2. to make them better at precision-point roasting of whomstever they look like. also acceptable: when you little guy just suddenly turns fucking evil and/or gets possessed and you have to cure them to get them back. idk maybe that should go under brainwashing. examples: dutch and aneela. link and dark link. zelda and the puppet. soulless sam. demon dean. hullen johnny.

12. fire powers - WHO doesn't love a little arson...i feel like this is the same concept behind werewolves which boils down to "fear of anger" bc with anger comes the loss of control and the devastating fallout... your fire guy (gender neutral but idk any fire girls) has to have a lot of self control or they'll fuck everybody up. they're very dangerous! not unlike assassins. also, fire is pretty. bonus if they have done crimes before either on purpose or on accident. examples: jesse turner again, roy mustang aka the OG fireguy, prince zuko

13. big damn reunion - when two people are split up with little to no chance of ever seeing each other again and then they do anyway. this is why i'm never mad when they bring characters back from the dead. examples: i'm actually totally blanking on these, i feel like it tends to happen in fic so much more often. also i've been writing this list awhile

14. time travel - i love! time travel! i love when people see an apocalyptic future and go back and fix it (chrono trigger, ff13). i love when there's a stable loop (tears of the kingdom) or a paradox (song of storms in ocarina of time). i love visits to the ancient past (skyward sword). i love when there's just an actual fucking timeloop (s*pernatural). it's really good!!! examples: oops i just listed them all

15. body swap - last but not least i think it is so fun when two people wind up living each other's lives. it's more fun in tv when people get to switch which character theyre playing but it's good in any form because what a way to get to know someone and also the endless potential for shenanigans. examples: dreamless (webcomic), your name, various episodes of tv shows many of which are bad (s*pernatural's was extremely bad).

ok, that's the list. originally it was 10, then 13, then 15, so i think i'd better stop here.

#personal #liz loves writing #i guess #it's stupid to post this at midnight but if i stick it in my drafts for later i'll never see it again #i'm mostly talking to myself anyway lol

27 notes · View notes

shannonsketches · 11 months

Note

Do you think that Oot/WW/TP Ganondorf is the same as TotK Ganondorf?

I know the former are all stated to be the same man (WW coming from the Adult timeline and TP coming from the Child timeline) but for some reason TotK doesn't feel the same guy.

I could be digging too much, but while they seem to have similar goals, they have different mannerisms. Not sure if this makes sense, but Split Ganon seems more like he plots while TotK schemes. Again, no idea if that makes sense, that's just how my brain likes to brain.

And I know this is probably a stupid comparison to make, especially since it was probably just to save money, but ancient Gerudo in TotK have pointed ears while Ganondorf’s are round, while every other time they all seem to have rounded ears (for the most part) which leads me to believe that even the past of TotK is set way after the known timeline, where Gerudo have been pairing with Hylians for a long while, while TotK Ganondorf is another reincarnation of Split Ganondorf/Demise.

(Also, if you would like me to stop sending in headcanon/theory rambles, please let me know. I tend to ramble to people I like, but I can stop if you want me to.)

Oh this is a great question!! I don't think it's a stupid comparison at all, and I always love headcanon rambles. It is the foundation on which this house is built lol So, you're right! From a strictly non-narrative perspective, it most likely was simply to save money on models that only show up a couple of times in cut scenes. Narratively, it may also have been intended just kept consistency with BotW's Gerudo designs which were meant to be far (10k+ years iirc?) in the future (which I, like you, initially wrote off as a side-effect of them having to cross genes with Hylians for so long, same with their bright green eyes where in OoT they were all yellow/golds), and even assuming our genetics theory is correct, from a gameplay perspective it might have been expensive and confusing for the very young players who aren't quite old enough to be thinking about evolution.

But because Ganondorf's model is 1) Being Debuted and 2) getting a lot more reuse, his ears were probably specifically rounded to reflect his previous designs (and also probably also to help make him Very Distinctly Not Like The Others).

To answer your first question: Yes and No.

I don't see BotW or TotK as a prequel or a sequel, I read it as a consolidation. Because there are 37 Years of Zelda Games, a myriad of confusing timelines, and just a metric shit ton of lore that constantly contradicts the lore in other games (which happens when you have 37 years and a bunch of different creative teams working under one title), when I played BotW the first time, I didn't think it felt like a Zelda game at all.

To me, it felt like an open world mechanics flex from Nintendo that happened to be Zelda-themed (which, Nintendo more or less confirmed that it was, from a design standpoint). It's a good game, don't get me wrong! But the fact that you could find items and references to ALL of the timelines, and ALL of the games, kind of made me feel like this was less of a chronological installment and more of a 'stop asking us about the timelines goddammit here take this this is the timeline now' from Nintendo. (In fact I believe in an interview "This is the end of all of the timelines" was their answer haha)

So when TotK came out, and it basically updated OoT's base plot to include Twilight Princess and Wind Waker and Skyward Sword and several other games all together to make it all One Story, with One Beginning, and One Ending, my takeaway was that it's not a chapter in the timeline at all, but a patchwork of all of the Zelda games, so older players can have all of these easter eggs and brand new players can have a big epic story that begins and ends in two games instead of nineteen games.

I saw someone in the tags comment on another of my posts about this that they were frustrated by my saying that BotW/TotK are a good place for new players to start, because the earlier games are MUCH more straight-forward, and that's true! Because they're not worried about fitting all this nostalgia and reference in. But I don't mean that in the sense that TotK is The End All Be All of Zelda games and there's no point playing the earlier ones. You ABSOLUTELY SHOULD play the earlier ones, they're good stories and they're really fun and there's a lot of good juicy lore to extract. I mean it in the sense of someone becoming interested in comics because you found a blorbo in the MCU, and now you can go back and read those comics and Leo_Point.Meme at what they used for the movies while also being able to have all of this much more focused comic book lore you can enjoy.

ANYWAY!! tl;dr, IMO he is and is not the same Ganondorf. He's not any one of them, he's all three at the same time.

#this was a long one I'm sorry!!#Zelda timelines are great and terrible and my opinion is that you should interpret them however you want because it's fun #ganondorf #headcanons

7 notes · View notes

crazylittlejester · 3 months

Note

Heyyyyyy how y’all doiiinnnggg…..

It’s been while, hey siri play “DEAD” by Melanie Martinez -

A) from that old post about what I would want to see in the fic: lwk I’m cool w/ whatever I put in (what I though was at the time) a prompt for like 500 words and did not think this far ahead 😭 lol I trust ur judgement on whatever gets added I’ll eat it up like those rlly yummy life saver mints

B) I’m back babyyyyyy the Ao3 curse works harder but I’m harder >:3

may or may not have almost died but that’s okay it keeps me on my toes. I have new medical insight on how to improve my whump 💪🤩😍

C) I’m abesolutely so sorry about that anon (ik I’m super late to the party) what they said was so out of line and I cannot think of what you could have even possibly done that would (unjustly) cause such a reaction?? People are assholes especially when they can abuse anonymousy online. I’m glad u seem to be doing ok 💜

D) I know i say this every time and blah blah blah but please make sure to not push urself over creating content and pleasing followers. I will (likely) not be dying anytime soon and I can wait as long as necessary for the Cia fic dude I make the prompt with the understanding that with you as the writer I would be meeting your needs/criteria for my silly little mentally ill twink to get sent through the meat grinder. Take as long as you need 💜

On a much less feely note:

(No hate to you or anyone really who has this opinion)

Theory/hot take/opinion/etc:

Echoes of Wisdom (new game coming in sept) Zelda ≠ Fable (from SNES + game boy games)

Like, I get it, on a surface level it makes so much sense because the EOW game is in the same artsyle as the Links Awakening (remastered) game. Nintendo doesn’t really use the same artsyle with games (atleast since the N64) unless they are direct sequels, prequels, or otherwise linked (BOTW & AOC). New game but with the same artsyle as previous game? Obviously linked!

Except, no??? Here’s where that opinion doesn’t hold as strong:

the main peice of evidence here is that the Zelda in the trailers is the Zelda from OOT.

(I really wish I could put pictures as anon 😭)

Verbatim. That is her. She is wearing a pink dress, trapped in a pink crystal, while link fights and eventually cracks open said crystal. It’s hard to see the dress because of the crystal obscuring it, but in another clip (when the staff is first seen i believe) you can see her in the dress and it’s her.

Even if it’s not, it’s definitely not Fable.

There are two (?) versions of the Zelda’s that fall under “Fable”. one is in a blue dress (ALTTP) and one is in a white dress white a pink over apron-thingy. While its arguable that the crystal makes it look pink, or its too dark to see anything, ultimately the tabard is not the same and the top being two parts is not there, so no, its not Fable.

Which is really weird, because the Link is in fact the same link as the SNES + Gameboy (I call it the “Pixel Era”) Link. Brown Longsleeved undershirt + green sleeveless dress-tunic over it. Even weirder, he wield the hylian sheild. WHICH DID NOT EXIST BEFORE OOT. Again, not Pre-3D link.

It does exist in ALBW, meaning if you are into LU then it works with legend being the same person in all those games, but ALBW is canonically the “successor” to ALTTP

BUT GANON IS HERE?????? Hellooo????

(Fun fact: Gannon is what his pig/beast form is called while gannondorf is what his Gerudo form is called! :D)

Gannon only exists in the pixel Era games + ALBW. All of the 3d games use gannondorf. So this is such a weird thing to exist.

EVEN MORE CONFUSING, THE ZORA!?!??!?

If you don’t know what im referring to, for like literally 2-5 seconds there is a clip of the zora of this game. Ok, cool. Zelda game, with water, therefore there’s obviously gonna be zora.

(This is a “duh” moment for older fans but pls stick with me lol)

There are two versions of the zora: pre-OoT and post-OoT. TLDR; pre-OoT they look like horrifying fish monsters and try to kill you, Post-OoT they become hot and even get shipped with link in the later games. Hyrule historia (which is not the most reliable sometimes) explains it better but it has to do with the big Triple Timeline. The difference in zora design depends on which timeline you’re looking at, one of the timelines doesn’t have them at all.

So what’s so confusing? Is does the zora design not fit?

Yes!! You know why? BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO OF THEM. BOTH ZORA DESIGNS. IN THE SAME GAME. CLEARLY INTERACTING IN THE FIVE SECOND CLIP.

Also this was pointed out by my sibling: in the beginning, the hood long wears is eerily similar to the Hylian Hood in totk/botw. Later on in the trailer, my cousin pointed out a canon that looked “like it was zonai tech” but it was just a green cannon so tbh that’s more loose.

The Gaurd designs are also kinda weird to me? I can’t tie them back to any of the games bc of the weird helmet shape, and their uniforms look exactly like link’s first outfit in Hyrule warriors, though that seems unintentional.

Anyways. This game is. Something. I really don’t think it’s related to previous games (I hope not for the sake of lore holes it could tear up) but what we do know is:

- OoT Zelda has been taught Ctrl C + Ctrl V by magic yellow orb and uses a staff.

- Likely Takes place in the downfall timeline due to artstyle, the fact that the enemy zora exist, and the fact that Gannon is here in beast form

- atleast some inspiration from botw/Totk with the copying and open exploration mechanics

- there is maybe some alternate space/dimension bullshit from that one clip of Zelda moving blocks of water like she’s Moses

- takes place where the Hylian shield exists and therefore likely the story of a hero is still a thing

- takes place where BOTH ZORA meet and interact with eachother

This is driving me crazy. My dad says it’s the Zelda multiverse 😭

Sorry for the word vomit, I rlly needed to info dump ✌️

Your favorite void crawler,

Mandarin Warriors 🍊

OH MY GOD HEY, HI, I WAS GENUINELY WORRIED ABOUT YA

a. alskkddk okay 👍

b. oh my god I really hope that you’re doing okay dude, or at least that you’re feeling a bit better 🫶🫶🫶 sending hugs and love your way my guy

c. people sometimes suck and I considered turning off anons for a bit after that but i have too many wonderful anons and id hate to lose any of em because of one idiot

d. it’s going to be the next thing I put up when I come back from my so called ‘mental health break from writing’ 😭 (i literally can’t seem to stop writing, i am glued to my google docs 💔). Im not sure if you saw the post (and its totally okay if you didn’t, youve clearly been going through a lot and i genuinely hope that you’re okay) where I said part of why it’s takin so long js because I’m writing two separate versions of the fic because it’s heavy enough I feel it should be rated mature, but I’m making a ‘watered down version’ for people who were really waiting for this fic but dont wanna read anything rated higher than teen. I don’t write explicit things, but we’ve crossed the line from ‘implying things’ and into the ‘traumatic past events are being discussed’ zone and if im gonna write about trauma I’m gonna Write About Trauma, an’ yeah

i really hope you don’t die anytime soon anon, i don’t know what it is exactly that you just went through and you do not have to tell me, but i sincerely hope you’re doing okay, and if not okay, at least feeling better. I really was worried about ya 💜

and to yap about EoW:

IM GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW THE HOOD AND THOUGHT OF THE ZONAI STUFF, IT REMINDED ME A LOT OF TOTK

i think itd be really cool if it was a new Link and Zelda. I love the like, art/animation style they chose, and I doubt nintendo is ever gonna tell us which Link this is 💀 but we can always have our theories 💔

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR YAPPIN, ITS WHAT THE YAP BOX IS FOR! FEEL FREE TO INFODUMP WHENEVER DUDE I LOVE IT HEAR IT, AND YOU SERIOUSLY HAD A LOT OF INTERESTING THINGS TO SAY

i know this is like the fourth time im saying this but again, I hope you’re alright. I missed ya, it’s good to hear from you again 💜

#jes talks #jes ask #for mandarin wars anon

6 notes · View notes

artemistorm · 2 years

Note

https://at.tumblr.com/unexpectedtraveler/ive-always-been-conflicted-when-writing-fics-or/66x4zruc0l7z

I do think Link (wild) died at some point. (It is called the Shrine of Resurrection, after all)

It would explain why it took so long as well. (Also extra angst)

Did Link die or not? Did his heart stop beating? Did his brain stop making brain waves? I dunno for sure. BotW Canon never says and I doubt we’ll ever find out the what the Nintendo Zelda Team intended when they came up with the game lore (if they even knew themselves). In the long run, whether or not Link died doesn’t really matter because the result was the same. Link enters the shrine broken and dying and he exits the Shrine 100 years later with a healthy body and a blank mind in a new world. (I’ll come back to this in a minute.)

Ok, ok, ok, you got me excited. You bring up a very good point of something that’s always bothered me but no one else talks about. Why did it take exactly 100 years for Link to wake up?

Even with Link’s mortal injuries, it would have taken at least a couple months, but probably up to a couple of years to completely heal Link. How long’s a couple? I dunno. 2? 3? 5? But surely not more than 10. So why didn’t Link wake up once he was all better? Why did it wait 100 years?

I’ve figured a couple of possibilities.

The Shrine has an internal timer set at 100 years either by default or by design. Maybe that’s what it defaulted to once the Shrine was made operational by Zelda, Purah, and co. (it doesn’t sound like any of them knew it would take 100 years for Link to awaken). Or maybe that’s what the ancient Sheikah set it to 10,000 years ago as part of their master plan to destroy the Calamity the next time it awoke.

The Shrine was waiting for an external signal to awaken Link, such as the Guardian Towers around Hyrule castle sensed Zelda’s weakening power and Ganon’s growing strength and sent the signal to awaken the Hero. Or maybe the Shrine would have held Link in stasis forever and Zelda had to use her Goddess powers from afar to force the Shrine to release Link. Or maybe the corporeal ghost of King Rhoam somehow intentionally triggered the Shrine to start its awakening process.

The Shrine was waiting for certain conditions of the world to be met, like X% of Guardians to decay, monster population to rise to a certain level, Hylian population to rise back to X number of people, Hylian civilization to return to a certain level of advancement, etc. Although, I don’t know how the Shrine would sense these things since the Sheikah towers and shrines weren’t activated yet. *Magic*

The Shrine was waiting for Link to choose to wake up. This is the least likely in my opinion but most angsty idea. Maybe once Link was healed, the Shrine was waiting for him to attempt to wake up on his own, but maybe Link didn’t want to for whatever reason (guilt, shame, sadness, fear etc.). The Shrine gave him time, hoping he’d come to term with his regrets, but it didn’t happen, and the Shrine predicted that he never would by his own accord and opted to erase his mind and reset him, to manually and physically remove the mental barrier he had to waking up. I could definitely see this process taking a long time since the Shrine would have had to cherry pick what things, what neural pathways in his brain to leave or to take away.

So did Link die? Did he not die? Why was he asleep for 100 years? The answer is simple:

What do you think?

But that’s the beauty of storytelling. It’s two-way, the storyteller tells you the main parts of the story, but you get to fill in the gaps. Whatever you think the answer is, that is the correct answer. That is canon. And I think it’s really so beautiful that there are so many different versions of canon for the same story. It’s so cool to me to see all these different interpretations and everybody is right. It really makes this story so rich and it leaves so much opportunity for exploration in the fandom.

#tldr: did Link die? Why sleep for 100 years? You decide #on a side note #the Shrine of Resurrection is only called the Shrine of Resurrection in English #In Japanese it's called the Shrine of Regeneration #And in other languages it is called other things like the Shrine of Life #breath of the wild #linked universe

34 notes · View notes

itsmoonpeaches · 8 months

Text

2023 Year-End Fic Round Up

Thanks to @nyamadermont and @chocomd for the tags!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!): 86,239 published. I have thousands of unpublished words that I wrote too but I'm not going to count that oops.

Smut scenes written (if applicable): 0

New things I tried: Writing full force and with my whole chest for a new fandom, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Also a new ship, Dimileth. Trying my hand more with found family tropes and dealing with losing family and finding new family in other people. Also breaking a rule I made for myself which is to never write fic for book series...and I broke that hard when I started writing for Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Fic I spent the most time on: That was probably The Silent Prince. Though it's not the longest fic I wrote in 2023, it was the most involved. It was written for Dimileth Goggles and that meant it involved an extensive AU. This fic combined Fire Emblem: Three Houses characters with the world of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom. (Mostly BOTW though. TOTK lore is hardly hinted at.) That also meant I needed to do a lot of cross-fandom research atop the general research I needed to conduct on weaponry. That took a lot of time.

Fic I spent the least time on: Honestly, that could be anything in my Fire Emblem Flashes or Percy Jackson Flashes series. Both of which involve 1,000-word fics written for @flashfictionfridayofficial when a prompt that I could work with comes up. These are usually short and sweet and none of them are connected to each other story-wise.

Favourite thing I wrote: It was definitely My Mirror, My Sword, and Shield, which is my extremely emotional and angsty Dimileth AU fic in which Byleth chooses to not become Archbishop at the end of the Azure Moon route in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and instead decides to become his knight. I had so much fun with that one. It was cathartic in a way and also unleashed something out of me. I discovered that I can get very creative with graphic descriptions of violence which should be worrying but I digress.

Favourite thing I read: This is tough. Since I discovered the Fire Emblem fandom, I realized that I've been missing out on fics that were so well written, they might as well be actual published novels. I'm not kidding. I'm completely serious. However, I'll point out 3 different faves from 3 different fandoms:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Stay With Me, a hanahaki Dimileth fic that destroyed me and I loved it. It is THE hanahaki fic. Take notes.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Better Than Their Fathers by @mrthology which I credit as the fic that made me obsessed with Percy and Poseidon dynamics and honestly I could go on about how this made me cry.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - Enough by @chocomd and its sequel The Deal. These 2 need to be together because they're part of the same universe. A Kataang hanahaki fic with beautiful writing I can obsess about for ages.

I'm noticing 2 of these fics are hanahaki. Do I have a problem?

Writing goals for next year:

Continue writing more for FE:3H because I feel like every time I do I grow as both a person and a writer. Is this an exaggeration? Girl, you need to read FE:3H fics then because they are life-changing.

Finally start writing the (so far titled) Sins of My Brother, Felix time-travel AU so that @chocomd can stop bugging me about betaing. (She will get it first, mind you.) Also, I'm scared for this fic because it's probably more ambitious than I'm thinking it actually is? Also time travel? Court politics? FELIX? Sorry FE:3H fandom, you might be disappointed in me but I need to write this.

Focus on actually getting things done lol?

Tagging (no pressure): @northerngoshawk @benwvatt @my-cabbages-gorl @justoceanmyth @flameohotwife @bayalexison @dpsisquared @mysterynoel and anyone else who wants to do it!

#ask game #end of the year fic round up #fanfic

5 notes · View notes

weaselishmcdiesel · 6 months

Text

pokemon rant ahead bc im a born hater what can i say <3

playing scarlet and i just caught chien pao which i wanted on my team before id started playing and was just picking which pokemon i like best. the fucking?? running animation?? is fucked up?? there SEEMS to be a walking animation like it exists and i get a glimpse of it every now and then but it seems like it refuses to use anything but the running animation. so you cant reasonably walk beside the pokemon because its animation is freaking the fuck out, angles get fucky, the thing runs ahead of you, just bad. it's just i really wish that the follow mechanic wasn't dogshit, i want to stroll around with my pokemon not lagging behind. how come every other game can figure out a follow mechanic. how come modders can figure it out (there's maybe a chance the pokemon is stuck running because i caught it at a higher level than my current badges give me control over but idk if that's how the game works)

and another thing i noticed (that everyone else probably noticed bc this game has been out for a while lmfao but-) the entire world feels like it was MADE for exploration on koraidon. if we compare it to botw/totk, the terrain in those games doesnt feel like they were made for horseback exploration. there are so many huge wide expanses in scarlet that, the moment you get off your ride, you feel small and out of place. like there's absolutely no incentive to walk around on your own because everything is too far away to comfortably explore on your own (and also there's hardly anything TO explore. everywhere is empty and boring and repeating). botw does not suffer from this at all, all the environments feel realistic in scale. and i wish if the game were more focused on the horseback (pokemonback?) exploration that there was more fidelity to koraidon's animations and mechanics. I believe it's called procedural animation, the ability for a model to react to the environment it's in (ei, when link is on a slope, his leg will bend and his foot will rest realistically on an incline, same goes for horses in botw when theyre on inclines. these are calculations the game makes in the moment of execution, not rendered out during development accounting for every possible position a player could be on a slope). i feel like this should happen with koraidon at the least, if you're going to be on it for the majority of the game.

and don't get me STARTED on how absolutely stupid it is for so many pokemon to be as small as they are. constantly tripping on a 2 centimeter tall pokemon that i didn't see and initiating a battle gets really fucking old. from purely a game design standpoint, for one of the first games in the series to feature pokemon walking around in the overworld, youd THINK they'd somehow incorporate more accessibility for being able to SEE these fucking things, but no. the camera is far from the player (i play with the camera as close as possible, i know it's adjustable) and the grass that's fucking everywhere is taller than a lot of pokemon. also the shiny issue. how the pokemon from this gen have a lot of MINUTE differences in their shiny palette that make shiny hunting more of an eye-strain simulator than anything.

and i know that there are a lot of pokemon in these games meaning a lot of assets meaning a lot of space thats dedicated just to make creatures appear. i know all of that takes away from the space needed to make animations or appealing scenery or really just a substantial game. but remember when they said theyd limit the pokedex so that they could make sure the pokemon they DO include have higher quality models and animations? and remember how they never actually did any of that. (changing the rendering engine and the textures is NOT higher quality anything. and if you think it is, how come the textures on hills FUCKING SHIFT AS YOU WALK PAST THEM? THATS A LOWER QUALITY ENGINE!!! THAN WHATEVER THEY USED BEFORE!!!)

i'm just saying that i really wouldnt mind if they HUGELY limited the pokedex IF IT MEANT that we could get cutscenes with unique animations and effects. get rid of a few hundred pokemon if it means the overworld is decorated with more than a dozen repeating assets that make it difficult to tell where the hell i am without looking at the map. maybe i want to see big wind turbines in the background move at more than 2 frames per second! why is the largest landmark in the area moving at 2 frames per second?! bad!!! ugh.

i think all the issues i have with this game are reasonable grievances for a game that costs 60 fucking dollars. i dont want to hear a single "it's just a kids game!" it was 60 fucking dollars. +dlc +online subscription

theres lots more i can say but this is just what's really bothering me right now hahasdfk

#i know gamefreak or whoever the development team was was rushed i know i know #my frustration is with the fact that pokemon is the largest media franchise in the world and their products are of abysmal quality #they should obviously have the funds to take more time on their products while also paying their devs enough #also i personally believe so many designs from this gen look like hot garbage.#the designers should learn to limit their color palette fucking hell #take a course in character design. some of these fuckers are UNREADABLE #the charcadet line has so much visual nonsense going on. such bad design #also how come the fire effects on these pokemon look bad. the fire looks like goop. not like fire #it's bad #like it's really bad #whatever #weasel speaks #weasel games #pkmn

6 notes · View notes

fourswords · 1 year

Note

Coming into your house and blowing you a kiss. 💗💓💘💖💞💖♥️❤️♥️💓💘💖♥️💓💘💓 Hello, Kate 💖💖💞💓💘💕♥️❤️💗♥️💗💕💖💓❤️!!!! I found a secondhand version of BotW and have succumbed to consumerism, so I'll be able to give you Proper Thoughts on the game uhhhhhhhhhhhh eventually. when it arrives. Anyway, please tell me all about 1986 Zelda if you want because I literally know nothing about her or the OG game, and you're so genius. Also, hysterical to see you complain about BotW's music. Get her ass. Okay love you bye hope you're having a fantastic day 💘❤️💞♥️💗♥️💗♥️💖💓❤️💗

HIIIIII FREYA HELLO ILY I AM WELCOMING YOU INTO MY HOME WITH A VARIETY OF SNACKS AND BEVERAGES AND BLANKETS <33333 also PLEASE let me know how the game is when you play it!!!! i would genuinely love your thoughts on it and on the characters and everything else about it (including the music).

and oh my god. the og princess zelda. my darling dearest. i'm going to have to stick this under a readmore because i'm going to go on a rampage about it i just know it.

okay. so. the original legend of zelda game. the best thing to say about this hyrule is that it's been completely fucking annihilated. people are scattered and living in caves. there is no safe haven anywhere. there are even secret fucking moblins that link can find that are friendlier (they give you free rupees! :]) than the people who've set up shop in caves of their own and the only thing they yell at you is "BUY SOMETHIN' WILL YA!" and like. that's it. your only allies are these weird old people who also live in caves who give you swords sometimes. there's no map there's no towns there's fucking NOTHING. and since it's a game made for the NES in the 80s the only lore you really have is in the original manual for the game, and that's where zelda comes in:

"One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the world into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa."

so the thing about having the entirety of a game's lore be based in a manual is that, essentially, the lore would have to be simplified. the full "story" is exactly two small booklet-pages long and it was going to stay that way because they were just trying to give hyrule a backstory and not write a novel. however. given how fucking treacherous and deserted hyrule is at the beginning of the actual game i think it's pretty safe to say that the war between hyrule and ganon's army lasted a hell of a lot longer than ganon just marching in and taking over everything. at least then there would still be ruins. but anyway. zelda. zeldaaaa my girllllllll the original zelda the one everyone in the fucking fandom consistently forgets about over and over again. she is drawn to be pretty much the exact same age as link in zelda 1 so i think it's safe to assume that they're both ten years old (since the sequel, zelda 2: adventure of link, happens about six years later when link is approaching his 16th birthday as per the aol manual). so it's like. you are a princess and you are ten years old and you have grown up on the legends of a hero that stopped the great evil every time it rose up (the hero of legend, for instance, who is the protagonist in games like a link to the past, oracle of ages/seasons, link's awakening, etc.) but ganon's army is winning and there is no hero in sight and so. what are you supposed to do. what are you supposed to do!!!! you command your nursemaid to escape, to potentially find a new hero to save the kingdom, but when you grew up in hell there's only so much stock you can put in the legends. so you take the triforce of wisdom, the triforce piece that You, Specifically were always meant to be the wielder for, and you shatter it, and you travel throughout the land hiding its pieces so that if everything goes to hell even harder then at least you can say that you tried to stop it. let some other princess be the one to panic and freeze and let the triforce of wisdom be taken. it will not be you. (and it IS implied to be her!!!! SHE is the one who hid them throughout the land! she didn't pass it off to her knights, she didn't have impa do it, no!!! none of that!!!! SHE DID IT!!!!)

and she's not hiding them in random bushes or anything!!! fuck no!!! SHE'S LITERALLY TRAVERSING THE DUNGEONS THAT LINK HIMSELF WILL GO INTO TO RETRIEVE THE TRIFORCE PIECES SHE HID!!!!! she essentially threw her hands up and went FUCK it if the goddesses of old won't send us a hero then i'll just be my OWN hero because i am NOT LETTING GANON GET AHOLD OF THIS TRIFORCE PIECE!!!!! like this girl had to be running across what might be the unsafest version of hyrule in the entire series and fighting all the dungeon monsters and dungeon BOSS monsters and whatnot all to hide the triforce pieces. and she's just a kid like link is!!! and it always makes me wonder. like. if she'd put just a little less stock in the legends. if she'd manage to get her hands on the magical sword and the silver arrows like link did. she would have been JUST as capable of killing ganon as link was. and actually i could go on and on and on about the courageousness of her actions vs. the fact that link actually genuinely only wielded the triforce of wisdom against ganon (which is a HARD left from the fact that. yknow. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE WIELDER OF THE TRIFORCE OF COURAGE ACCORDING TO EVERY OTHER GAME). and then like. the thing is. okay so at the end of zelda 1 when link finally rescues zelda and she calls him the hero of hyrule and whatnot the sprites do a little victory pose where they both hold the two triforce pieces (wisdom and power) over their heads. BUT. the manual states that link quite literally leaves hyrule for a while WITH both triforce pieces. and it makes me wonder......did the triforce of wisdom "reject" zelda in a sense because she shattered it? there's such a gray area when it comes to the first two games because, again, the Lore Is Condensed Within The Tiny Fucking Manual Booklet Pages, but god. can you imagine it. the triforce you broke to protect suddenly deemed you unworthy of being its bearer. or something to that effect. my GOD.

AND!!!! this is only supported by the fact that in the zelda 2 manual, link is stated to have returned to hyrule in order to help the rebuilding efforts (because, as the manual states, "hyrule was on the road to ruin" as if it wasn't ruined already lmao) and in the zelda 2 game itself, LINK STILL HAS THE TRIFORCES OF WISDOM AND POWER!!! (not to mention the poor guy's fucked because he's got a curse on his blood that makes ganon's followers want to sacrifice him to revive ganon but this ain't about him). and combined with the triforce of courage (which he finally gets after six years) he uses it to wake.....another princess zelda. who was in a coma. for centuries. and she was put into this coma during a much happier time in history. and this is where people start to forget about the og zelda and focus on the sleeping zelda from zelda 2 instead because there's a zelink kiss involved at the end but whatever. and HONESTLY it opens up a whole NEW can of worms for the og zelda because god!!! fuck!!! there's now a whole new princess zelda from centuries past who was raised as a "proper" princess who wasn't fighting for her fucking life in dungeons after shattering the very thing she was meant to wield!!! i think about it so much. i wonder if she catches herself staring at this strange new princess zelda who never had to fight anything, who was never captured and kept in an inescapable circle of fire after shattering her birthright, who grew up learning about politics and inter-kingdom relationships while her own studies probably would've been about keeping the kingdom from exploding and imploding and every other type of fucking -ploding in on itself because Everything's Fucked, and thinks: maybe she would have made a better choice than me.

(and then in the other corner you have the now-awakened princess zelda from centuries past, waking up in a world where Everything's Fucked, and looking at the zelda who is her brother's descendant and seeing the strength of her willpower in every move she makes and thinking: she would never have simply stood there and let herself succumb to the magician's spell that made me sleep for generations like i did. but that's another post.)

and also. anyway. unrelated but also related. og zelda is cute as hell. look at her look at my girl:

she's so cute. she must've fucking destroyed so many monsters hiding those triforce pieces. if anything happens to her i'll kill everyone on this planet and then myself. i like to think over the years as link came back to hyrule and started helping hyrule rebuild they became close friends and fight monsters together sometimes. dynamic duo of all time. the feral little hero who appeared out of fucking nowhere like a demon in the night (no literally link has ZERO backstory in these games he's literally just Forest Child Supreme) and the courageous little princess who would have done anything to keep ganon from gaining even more power. someone did a comic on their take of their first meeting and i still think about it sometimes. "i nearly died getting those pieces you hid." "i nearly died hiding those pieces you got." I'LL FUCKING LOSE IT MAN!!!!! I REALLY WILL!!!!!!

ahem. did any of that make sense.

#love it when lore is vague and i get no answers to any of my deepest darkest questions. ANYWAYYYYY SHE'S MY LITTLE ANGELLLLL I LOVE HERRRRRR #THANK YOU FOR READING MY INSANE THOUGHTS ILYYYYYY #asks

5 notes · View notes

amaretto-mp4 · 1 year

Text

It’s already August - Just some thoughts, a quick update and my appreciation 💐

Gonna be adding the ‘read more’ feature on my longer posts from now on!

O.K, I stopped thinking about backs and shoulders and anguished redheads and how to effectively clean my piercing for a good 2 minutes to think that eventually I’ll finish watching the books and shows I’ve left off or have been meaning to get to but never do — this also goes for all the games I’ve stopped playing partway through like BOTW and Hades//

This is going to take… a while but it’s okay.

Also, to my art mutual who also spurred me on through all their wonderfully drawn mp100 art and comics (I see u) *shakes hand firmly*

The largest thing that stands in my way is my flip-flop attention span that affects anything I do, even things I enjoy or want to do badly, but I’m determined even with uni and my final year project coming up. I think we could achieve a lot of what we want to do if we make the time to do it. Mindfully, of course, and to our own needs and mental capacity.

Lately I’ve been embracing slow productivity when it comes to personal art, and it’s helped me. The initial anxious feelings subsided after a while too, which I’m grateful about. I wanted badly to step away from the instant gratification I used to chase back a few years ago; posting on Instagram sometimes daily for the sake of getting stuff out there, thinking that my mutuals will forget me, or from feeling insecure about my art skills and constant worry/ frustration about not growing an audience.

I shared things immediately, even when I knew I could refine it or correct mistakes if I had waited. Though I might take many days, even weeks to share something now, that payoff of knowing that the art I make this time is what I’m truly happy with! :’ to anyone struggling with the same thing, it’s really difficult to break the cycle, but I believe in you.

It’s wonderful to be in the moment, and it doesn’t just apply to creating art. Today I spent the whole afternoon drawing + putting down new comic panel ideas, which hasn’t happened in a while. ⛅️

Also, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone that’s shown love on my art and supported me on this platform (and my other socials if you’re there too). I read the tags all the time and feel so touched, and grateful. Even if it’s just my staple OC works, and I take forever to share stuff, but it truly means so much if you follow my art journey and support the pace of which I work ♥️♥️ I’ll soon be sharing a few WIP crops of things I’ve been working on, if I can format it better on the web version.

#smol thoughts #shower thoughts #thank you #you guys :’)#rambles I think took much and I like writing everything #can’t or don’t want to write this much on IG (usually) + on formerly know as tweeder #I’m very grateful for a small community #like that tum is a better place for longer form content #reflections #social media anxiety #social media #appreciation

4 notes · View notes

heleentje · 2 years

Note

💕 self-love time! talk about which ones of YOUR creations (edits, artworks, fanfics) you like the most then send to other creators to do the same 💕

(Sending on = optional.)

Oooh, it’s going to be really predictable if I talk about Moonlight, but I’m still going to talk about Moonlight. I cannot properly put into words how happy I am with the way it turned out (but let’s try anyway).

(Cut for spoilers and, in true Moonlight fashion, also length)

I’ve told this story here and there, but Moonlight originally came from three things: my refusal to accept the Champions’ deaths, my general melancholy upon defeating Ganon and leaving behind the freedom of botw’s Hyrule, and my amusement when the game resets to your last save upon beating the story.

That last part got me thinking about how terrifying it would be for Link to wake up after beating the Calamity and finding himself having to face it again. Originally Moonlight was just a few drabbles in my notebook (the scene in chapter 5 where Link seeks out Revali was actually a later reworking of one of the very first scenes I wrote for it). The story was on the backburner for several months, but all of a sudden I decided I wanted to write it anyway.

The idea that Zelda was also caught in the loops was an early one, but it was not part of the original outline. That little tidbit only came about when I’d already picked the title for the story, and so the whole song the title came from (Shalott, by Emilie Autumn) suddenly became weirdly prophetic (the full line that the title is part of is And there’s moonlight every single night/ as I’m locked in these towers).

Speaking of titles, the chapter titles are almost all from Vienna Teng songs, and picking them out was often a lot of fun! Thematically, I’d say the most important songs were Level Up and Enough To Go By. Enough To Go By provided the title for chapters 8 (If my love could keep you alive), 11 (praying you aren’t out of range), and also Ginneke’s This flooded sky, three parts of the overall story that are deeply connected when it comes to emotional beats. Chapter 11 is the logical consequence of the events that transpired in chapter 8, and this flooded sky of course takes place during chapter 11.

(If my love could keep you alive is also my proudest title achievement. It applies to just about every character in that chapter.)

Level Up, in turn, lent its lyrics to the final chapter (Day number one in the rest of forever, because it could never be anything else), but also chapter 5 (Dynamite the dam on the flow). Going back earlier, it was also the title inspiration for another fic of mine, Your own heart that matters. YOHTM was a large part of the foundation of that chapter, so it seemed only fitting.

It’s no secret that Moonlight got extremely out of hand, I’ve joked about it often enough. My original idea for the story truly was only 30k (final word count: > 170k). When my first chapter came in at 7k, I was still foolishly hopeful. The first chapter needed to do a lot of setup! Surely the next chapters would be shorter!

I think I was disabused of that notion partway through chapter 2.

But for all that it got out of hand, I am still very happy that it did. The intended cast was originally a lot smaller: Link and Zelda, with Revali having a marginally bigger role than the other Champions, and everyone who wasn’t one of those six only appearing towards the final chapter.

Fortunately for me and for the story, the characters did not agree with that.

And I am extremely happy that I got to give not only Link and Zelda, but also the Champions and even the successor Champions something like a distinct character arc. The most difficult characters in that regard were probably Daruk, Urbosa and Teba, because they generally have their shit together, so it’s not like they need any deep character conflict or development. But we adopted the adage of ‘stable, not static’ for them. They don’t need to change who they are as people, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have their own worries and concerns, and make decisions based on that.

(I think, in the end, Harth got a little more of an arc than Teba, especially since we set him up as an intentional mirror for Revali.)

Speaking of Daruk, there was a time where Ginneke and I feared that he’d be sidelined compared to the other Champions. And then chapter 8 happened and suddenly he became a big part of the story :D

So let me talk about Ginneke. (And yes love, I know you were the one to send me the ask, but let me gush about you anyway <3)

Moonlight wouldn’t be half of what it is today without her. We refined that very first outline through hours and hours of conversation and bouncing ideas off each other. She is almost single-handedly responsible for the role Purah ended up playing in this story, as well as Link being explicitly genderqueer and Yunobo’s entire plotline.

The latter two both found their origin in Carry Them Inside You, the first of the sidefics, so let me gush about those for a moment! They’re all explicitly canon to Moonlight, and while we tried to stay fairly light on the references in Moonlight proper, you will absolutely get the best reading experience if you read the sidefics alongside the main story!

Because Moonlight only has Link and Zelda as POV characters, the sidefics were our best way to show what went on when they weren’t around (or, in Carry Them Inside You’s case, what Link was doing that he didn’t want Zelda to know about). An attentive reader may have even caught a few reveals before they were shown in Moonlight proper: the Champions still being alive was all but stated in there’s no turning away, and a soft yellow moon gave more context to Mipha’s actions in chapter 9. Some of our biggest Revali knives were shown in This flooded sky before they made it into the main story (and one never made it into the main story at all, because Revali isn't talking).

(If you know Enough to go by, then the title of This flooded sky also carries a hint towards Revali’s final plan: I’m wanting your anger/ I only want to see if I can shake you out of sleep/ And bring you out under this flooded sky/ At any price)

And of course, Ginneke’s writing is absolutely spectacular in all of them!

Going forward, the POV will probably not remain limited to Link and Zelda alone. There’s a lot going on in Hyrule, and they definitely don’t know all of it.

I am extremely happy with how both of their stories came out. For Link in particular, I think I succeeded in creating the same sense of isolation that’s characteristic of early botw, before you really set out into the world. We debated heavily whether we wanted the first four loops to be so repetitive, but I’m glad we did in the end, because it really worsened Link’s state of mind and set up the events of loop 5 and onwards.

And by that same token, I’m glad that the world expanded after that, first with Revali and then the other Champions, and then the rest of Hyrule as well. Despite the somber tone of it, chapter 11 was one of my favorite chapters to write, because I finally got to put the rest of Hyrule front and center.

(And also because it’s where any chance of Zelda and Revali ever having a cordial relationship gets killed deader than the leviathans. Zelda and Revali each consider themselves responsible for Link’s death, and they are projecting that guilt onto each other.)

Zelda and Link’s relationship was another favorite part of mine. Sometimes I reread the earlier chapters and I’m struck by how distant they were, compared to their closeness in the final chapters. They really didn’t know how to act around each other, especially since Link had lost most of his memories and their relationship was always a bit fraught to begin with. But I’m glad they evolved past that.

And I’m firmly of the opinion that Link would always chafe at being confined to a formalized court environment again. He feared that possibility from the very start (and it was part of the reason why he put off fighting Ganon for so long), so it was very liberating when he finally got to say outright ‘no, I don’t want that’, and still find a way to support Zelda, if only from a distance.

And Revali, oh Revali… In early chapters, we often joked about Revali and Purah fighting for the tritagonist position. And while Purah eventually got the title when it came to plot developments, Revali definitely earned it for character developments.

He’s a mess of contradictions. He doesn’t want to move on, but he’s ready to sacrifice his life so that Link doesn’t lose his. He longs to be a part of Rito Village again, but he’s convinced that the Rito will either disdain him for failing to take down the Calamity or only see him for his title. He feels so much guilt about failing to save Link that he takes all of it out on Zelda. It should come as no surprise that his scenes were among my absolute favorites to write, even if they were often very difficult to get right and needed multiple rewrites to hit on the correct tone.

Mipha probably got the second-biggest role out of all the Champions. When she regained her Grace in chapter 8, we realized she would remember that loop according to the rules we’d established. And that made her a perfect person to both serve as a voice of reason to stop Zelda and Revali before things really got too bad, and also call out Link on some of his shit later on.

Daruk quickly became one of my favorite characters to write (best Champion). He was unceasingly supportive, even when Link didn’t particularly want to hear that, but Yunobo being so intimidated by him was always something that weighed on him, and he tried very hard to present himself as unthreathening. Perhaps he even went a little overboard there, but he genuinely is extremely proud of Yunobo and would have been no matter what Yunobo chose to do.

In the end, it was Urbosa who probably had the least involved plotline of all the Champions, but having her around was still a massive boon for Zelda, and eventually Riju. One of the things we really wanted to make clear was that Urbosa was not here to take the title of Chief back from Riju. If Riju asked her to, she might have accepted, but it needed to be very clear that she did not outrank Riju, nor did she want to. (And if Urbosa sees a lot of Zelda in Riju, well, obviously.)

I’d also be remiss in not mentioning some of the other characters: Purah, our plot tritagonist, who was instrumental in figuring out exactly what was going on and providing Link and Zelda with some much needed help in those first few loops. Riju, who among all the time shenanigans is one of the few people concerned with the political implications of a Hyrule without the Calamity, who is such a perfect mirror of Zelda: forced to bear a burden that by all rights should have been her mother. Sidon, so concerned for Link, so eager to fight by his side that he’s the one who finally hands Zelda the solution to their problem, so willing to defy his father (and Dorephan, still mourning the child he already lost and terrified that he’ll lose yet another one). And Yunobo, always casting himself in the shadow of his famed grandparent, but so much braver and smarter than he gives himself credit for, who probably did more to turn the tide in the final battle than any other character.

(Also Teba, who is in a constant state of ‘what are all these fucking children doing here?’)

Okay, so I’ve spent almost 2000 words talking about Moonlight already, and I can probably get in another 1000 if I really wanted to. But suffice to say, I’m extremely happy with how that story came out. It’s probably the best thing I’ve written to date, and I think I pulled off just about everything I set out to do.

Of course, absolutely none of that would have been possible without Ginneke, who helped refine this vague idea of a story into something actually worth reading. It was an absolutely wild ride, and while writer’s block hit me hard at several points, I’m really glad we got to the end of it.

There’s more to this universe, though it will probably involve a lot less time shenanigans! I think I’m quite solidly done with those for a little while.

#moonlight (every single night)#botw #thank you love <3 #watch me ramble for 2k about this fic I wrote and which I love so very much!#heleen writes #...ish

8 notes · View notes

lapinaraoflimbo · 2 years

Text

What I would say makes DS1 combat so unique is the stamina system. It turns combat to be very piecewise. You get in, use your stamina, get out and recover your stamina. This is also how ds2 and bloodborne combat works. Ds3 also works like this but I would argue that it has its own complexities to its combat that makes it more unique (the dodgeroll covering more distance is one of them, which lets you get out easier which in turn reforms the way stamina management works by giving you options on low stamina in ways that you don't have in ds1 or 2)

Elden Ring has very little significance on stamina management. Technically it's there but realistically you're not going to run out of stamina in regular play. attacking and rolling doesn't take that much stamina compared to other games and there's not as much punishment for completely running out of stamina. Especially when compared to a game like ds2 which prevented you from rolling entirely until your stamina went back to full. The stamina management of previous games is gone and the actual combat of Elden Ring is more of a hollow mockery of that combat if you're really going to compare them.

But what's much more useful than comparing Elden Ring to games that it only has passing mechanical and aesthetic similarities to is to compare it to games that has fundamental design similarities. And that's kind of why I say Elden Ring is a lot like BotW. Both games have fast paced combat focusing on dodging, parrying, and countering. While BotW doesn't have a dodge roll, it's dodges do give you i-frames and in combat the main difference is that a perfect dodge in BotW slows down time and lets you attack while in Elden Ring a perfect dodge just means you don't get hit. But if you take away that slow part of the dodge then you're starting to run out of differences in the actual core combat.

you have a strong attack, a weak attack, a charge attack, a jump attack. You can block and parry, do an evade (roll/hop). At the end of the day if you want to do well in the systems you're using very very similar skills. Reaction, timing, learning enemy move sets, learning delays on attacks, learning range on your weapons and enemy attacks. The context of the combat systems is drastically different, of course, but I think that's what makes them so interesting to compare.

Comparing dark souls to Elden Ring comes up with the opposite problem. The context for the combat systems are similar but the actual combat systems feel almost like night and day. One is focused on stamina and slow recovery and limiting player choices and the other is about learning the best way to cancel recovery animations and rolling a lot and enabling player choice freedom stays open.

(though the boss designs in ER kind of feel like they take away from the player freedom a bit to me. Which really I think is where the "Dark Souls" feeling part of that game comes from, but Dark Souls had that come from its combat system inherently which makes DS feel more naturally difficult while it makes ER feel more artificially difficult. Sorry not sorry to be complaining again :/)

Anyways. No real point. i guess I'm just coming back to thinking that the way we talk about games is kind of flawed because DS1 and ER are so different in their fundamentals but the way that everyone comes back and treats ER like a modern version of DS1 is just frustrating when they're clearly not even close to being the same past surface level comparisons. I really do think that ER shares a lot more similarities in its combat to other more mainline action games like BotW and God of War.

The reality is at this point all games are somewhat inspired by dark souls and so a game like Elden Ring just isn't unique for having inspiration from that series when it strays so far from the actual core of what makes dark souls unique. Instead it ends up feeling like a lot of other AAA games that also have taken a lot of inspiration from Dark Souls.

5 notes · View notes

pyronormalsimplicity · 8 months

Text

BOTW Stories Friends Mega-Prompt List

Just a list of head-canons and prompts for future chapters in BOTW Storied Friends and Champions. I’ll release this once I’m down with the work.

- Mipha never smiles in paintings or photos because of her teeth. She’s aware of how “nightmarish” they look and although she accepts that fact, she’s still self-conscious of them and doesn’t like showing them off. Link doesn’t mind and actually finds them kind of cute, especially when she’s eating, but others find them disturbing.

- I don’t plan on making Link sign outside of stealth battles, but I don’t plan on him being a completely mute character. Rather, he’ll only speak if spoken too, and will usually just nod, shake his head, shrug, or point if he doesn’t need to give a specific answer. When he does talk, he’ll usually say no more than a few sentences. Only Mipha is able to understand his silence and interpret his feelings, and he’s much more open around her.

- Due to Link’s shy and quiet nature and Mipha’s introverted nature and her feeling self-conscious about her teeth, they often eat together, away from the group, which means everybody teases them about them being together. Of course, they tease them, but if only they knew the truth...

- I know I said ships weren’t going to be a big part of this work, but I feel so bad for Mipha. She is probably my favorite character in BOTW next to Revali or Zelda, and she is by far one of the saddest. Not only will she outlive everyone she cares about, but she was robbed of her loved one and would have spent an eternity trapped in Ruta, and even AFTER you free her, she has no choice but to pass on. As such, my personal head-canon is as thus: Pre-calamity, she would have ended up with Link, but post-calamity, Link will end up with Zelda due to 2 factors: most of his memories prior his defeat was when he was guarding her and he would have the easiest time remembering the most recent memories, and Mipha’s no longer around. She’ll also want him to be happy and if that means being forgotten, so be it.

- Since this work is mostly pre-calamity, there will be a lot more emphasis on Mipha x Link over Zelda x Link. I’ll do my best to cater to both sides, but ultimately, my heart lies with Mipha, but I do understand why some people will like the other.

- Zelda eventually does catch feelings for Link, but is quick to realize that his heart lies with Mipha. That being said, Link will drop everything he’s doing to come and help her, which becomes a sour point in Link and Mipha’s relationship.

- Mipha, aware she doesn’t have long with Link, relatively speaking, can get upset at him when he suddenly stops what he’s doing to help Zelda, though she usually understands why. She’s aware that he’s too dutiful and loyal, but wishes Link to spend a little bit more time with her. Link doesn’t realize this and tells her off for being too clingy, saying that “he needs space,” and she apologizes. Eventually, the two reconcile by Link promising to be with her after the Calamity has been sealed away and he returns the Sword to the Pedestal. Mipha apologizes for being overly clingy and they both promise to remain pure for each other’s sake.

- Link usually doesn’t let Revali get to him much, but the one time Revali makes fun of him and tells him that he’ll be forgotten after the Calamity and that he’ll just be another one of Mipha’s many husbands in the history books, that’s when Link goes off, and they go at each other. It takes Urbosa and Daruk to pull Link off of Revali, and Zelda and Mipha has to shock Revali in the tail-feathers with a shock arrow to knock him out. While Link uncharacteristically sulks inside his tent, Mipha gently explains Link’s fears. It’s here that Zelda realizes Link suffers from the same anxiety she does, if not greater, while Urbosa and Daruk decide to hold authority and make the two apologize to each other. They do so, and after realizing that the two of them shared the same fears, they develop a mutual respect for each other. Chapter ends with Link audibly asking Revali if he preferred his food a certain way and Revali looking over at him and replying.

- Gorons have no gender. They genuinely cannot understand the concept of male and female, and no matter how you explain it to them, they cannot understand the differences. They genuinely do not understand why, for instance, women want to sleep in a separate room from men. They can comprehend the concept that the shorter and more delicate Hylians want privacy, but don’t know why they want privacy.

- Gorons don’t actually reproduce in the normal sense. While Zora and the Rito lay eggs, and Gerudo and Hylians give birth the traditional way, for the Gorons, new Gorons just sort of...show up.

- According to an old Goron legend, there were once four Gods. The God of Air, The Goddess of Water, the God of Earth, and the God of Fire. The four gods worked together to create the world. Earth, of course, shaped the earth. Water shaped the rivers and the oceans. Air shaped the air, but Fire? The Fire Goddess didn’t know what to do but saw how barren the land was. There was no life, no trees, no animals, no thing. Feeling sorry for the Fire God, the Earth God decided to help him by seeding the land with pockets. The Fire would breathe life into these pockets and that's how Gorons were made. They don’t really know how to explain the other races though, and most Gorons really aren’t the pious type. The legend is more of a fun story to pass around the campfire.

- The point is, Goron’s don’t reproduce. They just sort of find a rock and the rock turns out to be a Goron. The Goron who finds the new Goron is known as its “father”

- Similar to how human/Hylian women have periods every month or so, Zora females pass an unfertilized egg every year or so. Typically, the Zora mother would lay an egg in water for the father to fertilize, though it’s also not uncommon for the mother to be fertilized in the traditional way. Most people don’t actually know this, and since the Zora rarely elaborate, when Mipha reveals she needs a pool of water to lay an egg, the rest of the group almost strangle Link to death before Mipha explains the situation, mortified.

- Hylians and Gerudo can eat anything except for rocks, making them the easiest to feed. The Rito diet usually consists of rice, fruits, seeds, grains, and ironically, poultry. Gorons, of course, eat rocks. Eating anything gives them a very bad case of indigestion. The Zora prefer raw fish and certain herbs.

- On the other hand, Hylians and Gerudo can’t eat seeds/grains raw while the Rito can. Nobody can eat rocks except for Gorons. If a Rito eats chocolate, it’s almost instant death, hence why Revali avoids chocolate at all costs. In a similar vein, Zoras cannot ingest either chocolate or alcohol. Similar to Rito, ingesting chocolate results in near instant death, and alcohol causes the Zora to lose any sense of inhibition before their nervous system overloads and they have a heart attack. Rito can ingest alcohol, but only VERY little before they start to convulse, so most will avoid alcohol but are able to and will take a sip just to be polite. Gorons are immune to the effects of alcohol and can chug that shit all day.

- Urbosa accidentally switches her drinking flask with Mipha’s and the Zora accidentally takes a swig. It’s just one sip but it was enough to turn her upside down. She becomes much more talkative, loud, and aggressive. With Link, she’s much more open about her feelings and starts blathering a lot. It’s only until Link and Zelda dunk her in a nearby pond and force her to expel the alcohol through her skin pores by pinching her tailfin and that she returns to her senses. Pinching a Zora’s tailfin to get them to expel liquids through their skin is the Zora equivalent of sticking a finger down someone’s throat to cause a gag reflex and make them throw up.

- Gorons have an intense dislike of rain. According to them, it causes moss to grow on their rocky skin, which is painful to scrape off. As such, most Gorons avoid rain, though they’ll push through it if they have to.

- The Zora needs their body to retain a certain amount of moisture. Like frogs, they don’t need to drink, they simply need to submerge their bodies in water and let their skin pores do the rest. Because of this, Mipha doesn’t “drink” in the normal sense. She simply pours her water flask over herself to “drink.” Zoras can ingest liquids normally though, but their ability to drink using their skin is both a boon and a curse. For example, since Mipha is a “freshwater Zora,” she cannot swim in salt water or else she will dehydrate incredibly quickly. Similarly, if the water is tainted by some sort of poison or chemical, she can get sick very easily. Most Zora have a natural resistance to poison because of evolution, but it’s something every Zora is aware of and tries to avoid

- Zoras have hidden gills on their neck. They use gills underwater, but on the off-chance they accidentally swallow too much water while swimming, they have to force the water out of their lungs or else they’ll suffocate since their gills don’t work on land. Zora can also use echolocation underwater and can send out pulses strong enough for non-Zoras to feel if they’re in the same body of water together. Mipha likes teasing Link and Zelda like this, though only Zelda really gets surprised. Link’s too used to it

- Environmental elixirs don’t work on Rito due to the fact that it only makes their skin resistant to heat, electricity, etc. The Ritos’ feathers apparently don’t count as being part of their skin, so if a Rito goes to Death Mountain, sure, he won’t be a KFC meal, but he won’t have any feathers either.

- In a similar vein, electricity elixirs don’t work for Zora, due to their race naturally being incredibly weak against electricity. Also, if a Zora drinks a water-breathing potion for whatever reason, they’ll suffocate.

- Zelda is allergic to peanuts. That’s it.

- Link is allergic to cats, but despite this, he’ll still cuddle them if he can get the chance. I love cats too, and I’m allergic to them, so I’m reflecting that in him. He is supposed to be a blank slate, after all.

- Revali’s favorite meal is poultry, to the shock of the other champions. He defends himself by saying that Zoras are basically fish with brains and they eat raw fish too, to which Mipha begrudgingly agrees. Urbosa says that’s different since the Rito are more closely related to their wild cousins than the Zora are to a common fish. Revali harrumphs. Zelda hypothesizes that it may be a result of evolution

- The Zora lifecycle is unique. They begin life as an unfertilized egg before hatching and spending 3-4 years as a glorified tadpole. After sprouting arms and legs, they begin to develop lungs. By the time they’re 5-6, they’ll be able to walk, albeit clumsily on land. A Zora is considered an adult until they reach 55 Hylian years of age, or as a female-exclusive case, they develop their white scale.

- People always say Zoras have scales, but I just can’t see it. Lizalfos have scales but we can visibly see them. A Zoras skin is much smoother, so I imagine it would be like a frog’s or dolphin’s skin, or like human skin that’s that’s always smooth and has no hair. The white scale refers to a patch of hardened enamel that female Zora have while growing up. Similar to how some insects have additional horns to use as an intimidation factor until they’re old enough to defend themselves, female Zora have a hardened ridge on their forehead or chest that only grows up to a certain size before it falls off.

- Zoras also have no bones, instead, they have cartilage. The only “bone” they have in their body is their teeth, but like real-life sharks, they can easily go through more than a hundred teeth in a week, though most of the time, their teeth “shedding” is barely noticeable.

- The only noticeable exception to this is Mipha because of her royal blood. Unlike most Zoras, who have very noticeable and pointy teeth, Mipha’s teeth are rather small and inconspicuous (except when she willingly shows them), but she still has a large number of teeth, more than the average Zora due to the fact her teeth aren’t as sharp so she needs more. Still, the fact that she has hundreds of teeth in her mouth is enough to drive off most unwanted advances.

- Sidon is more average when it comes to teeth count, though his teeth are much sharper.

- Do NOT spill any blood when you’re in the water with Mipha or Sidon. Due to the fact that the royal bloodline is mostly pure, they’re more shark-like than most other Zoras. As such, Sidon and especially Mipha are liable to give your leg a light nip. I know Mipha’s design was based on the pacifist nurse shark, but i thought it was cute/horrifiyng that the normally docile healer would go into a feeding frenzy when tasting blood

- Don’t make her personality change completely though. She’s still very shy and very sweet, and most of the time if she’s in the water and she tastes blood, she’s able to suppress her urges and look around to make sure the bleeding person is alright. Still, the change in demeanor is much more noticeable.

- As an example, even though she may have just eaten, if she tastes blood, she might suddenly feel hungry again even if she physically can’t eat anymore. Her senses will also be heightened, especially her sight underwater. A similar example would be a human undergoing an adrenaline rush, but to a much smaller degree. She just feels hungry again and moves a little quicker, but not by much.

- I know sharks don’t actually get off to the smell of blood but rather the amino acids that happen to be in blood and they can choose whether or not they want to pursue, but give me some freedom here.

- She does give Link playful bites under the guise of “every Zora shows their affection this way” when she can get away with it, though she’s quick to heal them to avoid arousing suspicion, though there is a time where she gives him a playful lovebite after they officially decide that they’re courting, but that’s super far into the story

- Zoras actually show affection by touching foreheads and touching the other Zora’s tailfin, but since Link doesn’t have a tailfin, she settles for biting, which in Zora culture, usually means the other kind of romance, but nobody needs to know that.

- Besides biting, Mipha shows her affection to Link in a much more normal way by touching foreheads and letting him touch her tailfin. They don’t kiss though, at least not with tongue. That’s dangerous.

- They probably won’t kiss in story but that’s just to make my headcanon of ZoraxHylian biology much more comprehensive

- Revali usually eats normally around people, but when he can get away with it, he prefers eating seeds and other small food items by pecking.

- Urbosa likes to tease Revali whenever she can, but the only person who can criticize Revali out of spite and really hurt him is Zelda. Revali may deny it, but he feels sorry for her and genuinely wants her to succeed. He sees himself in her and wants to help her. It’s just the fact that he talks too much like her father at times that holds him back, but the few times he has an honest heart-to-heart with her, he helps her the most out of anybody except for possibly Link and Urbosa.

- Like I said, since this is pre-Calamity, I’m more focused on Mipha spending as much time together with Link because we all know she got robbed in canon, but Zelda will be with Link most of the time between chapters.

- Most of the champions enjoy having Link around except for maybe Revali, but the one time Link does get angry is when Urbosa tries to cook and ends up burning water. He really lets her know it by giving her the silent silence. This is taking inspiration from EbonyMcCloud’s own works where Link is calm about most things but can go berserk when someone fucks with his food

- Like Mipha, Revali usually avoids smiling in paintings, but that’s because he physically can’t. He has no teeth and as such, he is unable to eat large size foods. He has to have them cut down to size which is why he prefers poultry and seeds. His version of a smile is to lift the muscles on the edges of his beak in an attempt at emulating a Hylian smile. A true Rito smile though is when they whistle.

- A Zora’s tailfin is very sensitive. My headcanon is that a Zora’s tailfin is made up of mostly fatty tissue and fluids that allow a Zora to use echolocation/sonar underwater. And since Zora’s have no visible ears with eardrums, this tailfin is also responsible for allowing them to keep their balance on land. Injury to the tailfin can result in loss of motor control.

- Did some research. Fish actually have ears, but they’re on the inside. Headcanon still stands. The Zora tailfin allows them to use echolocation underwater and keep their balance on land. Don’t know if that checks out biologically or anatomically, but I’m rolling with it. I’m a writer, not a bio nerd.

- Gorons are made of stone through and through. Gorons have a reputation for being one of the fiercest warriors due to the fact that their natural armor is their rock skin. Not rock-hard skin. Their skin is literally made of rocks. In fact, they’re made up of rocks through and through, but these rocks also have a biological component. A Goron heart can do everything a human heart can, but the tissues are made of an incredibly durable, rock-like tissue.

- Most weapons simply scrape harmlessly off a Goron’s skin, especially their rocky backsides, but tools such as picks can cause severe internal damage. Due to their anatomy being so different and difficult to research and examine, there are no doctors for Gorons. They can offer massages and the likes, but if a Goron needs internal surgery, he’s as good as dead.

- Rito bones are more brittle than Hylian or Gerudo, and much more brittle than the Goron’s. This is due to the fact that they need to fly and as such, their bones are hollow. Makes sense.

- Zora have no bones. Their bodies have a “skeleton” made up of cartilage, allowing them to be surprisingly flexible and agile. The only “hard” part of their body is their teeth, which, as previously mentioned, they can continuously shed and grow more of.

- In this world, when someone dies, they become a spirit and go to the great beyond. But those who die a violent death or carry significant regrets from their past lives are trapped in the physical world until their debt is settled or they are released.

- When a Champion bonds with their Divine Beast and commands it to move, this is because they leave part of their soul in the Divine Beast. When Ganon corrupts the beast and kills them, because their soul is still tied to the beast, they’re trapped and can’t move onto the afterlife

- Mipha dies (not a fun concept to think about) carrying significant regret and fear. She regrets not being there for Link and regrets not being able to keep her promise to her father and brother. She dies afraid because she’s the only one who’s consciously aware that she’s trapped because her spirit is trapped in Ruta, and because unlike the other Champions who don’t know how long a century is, she is VERY aware of how long a century is and is afraid of being stuck as a spirit forever. For a race who can have long memories, the thought of being trapped by your mind and unable to do anything is horrifying.

- Mipha also dies wishing Link was by her side, if only to comfort her and so she can see him safe and alive one last time.

- Daruk dies regretting not being able to protect Hyrule and it’s people.

- Revali dies but wants revenge on Windblight Ganon for cheating. He believs the only reason he was defeated was because the blight killed him while he was distracted. He turns his jealousy and disbelief into hate and as such, he is the only champion whose main motive for being trapped as a spirit is revenge. He does regret not leaving a big enough mark on history and not having a legacy, though this is normal for a spirit.

- Urbosa dies but accepts her defeat, even if she doesn’t like how she was defeated. Her only regret is not being able to be there for Zelda, but like Revali, this is normal. She actually has the ability to move onto the spirit world if it weren’t for the fact her soul is inside of Naboris, but her sheer sense of honor and duty is what’s keeping her back. She literally won’t die until her duty is completed one way or another, and she is the only Champion like this. She harbors some thoughts of revenge on Ganon for taking the form of a Gerudo in the past, but this is a part of her character and not an obsession for revenge.

- All of the Champions die with regrets, unfulfilled debts, or thoughts of revenge, but they all die violently. I shall now list them

- NSFW - Mipha is caught offguard by the appearance of Sidon, but when she touches his cheek, it turns out that the Sidon was a fake made of malice. Waterblight manages to stab her through her wrist before she’s able to react. Mipha doesn’t last long after that, especially since her weapon requires too hands to use effectively, the Malice spreading throughout her body is poisoning her. She’s the only champion to die regardless if the blights are defeated or not. She dies when she’s impaled against the wall by Waterblight Ganon. While impaled, she starts crying due to her fear and pain. Waterblight creates a cocoon of water using her tears and whatever water he can extract from her body without outright killing her, laces it with Malice, and traps her inside. Since Zoras drink through their skin and Waterblight Ganon extracts whater from her skin, she’s effectively dying of thirst as well. Because she’s breathing literal poison while inside the cocoon, she starts to suffocate. Before she dies, Mipha’s last words are “Link,” and her last action is to shed a single, pure tear that Malice is unable to poison for whatever reason, and touch the bracelet Link gave her before Waterblight completely fucks her body. Think of throwing her body around until limbs start to tear. Mipha just has to watch in horror as her body is desecrated.

- The tear doesn't mix well with the malice-water and normal water, like oil and water in a container. It eventually crystallizes and is made into a necklace by Link 100 years later after Mipha gives it to him in her spirit form. It’s supposed to be a physical representation of her love for him and is shaped in a heart. Think Yui from SAO. It gives off a bright glow.

- NSFW - Revali is the other Champion next to Urbosa who is able to almost defeat his nemesis, but when he sees how the other Divine Beasts have been compromised, he panics, and in that one moment of panic, he goes down. He’s shot out of the air. He dies of internal bleeding after a broken ribcage pierces his heart and lungs. He doesn’t go down easy though, and manages to get to his feet before he takes a fully-powered energy blast through his abdomen for Windblight Ganon to put down the champion. Think star-wars lightsaber style puncture wound. You can see through him. For good measure, Windblight blows apart his head, sending viscera everywhere. Winbdblight’s utter lack of respect for his body causes Revali to feel no small amount of pure rage and is one of the reasons why he is so fixated on revenge.

- NSFW - Daruk is partially submerged in lava, but before the lava does him in, Fireblight Ganon finishes him off by hitting Daruk hard enough to crack him in half. The more injured a Goron is, the more they start to crack, and in this case, Fireblight cracks him cleanly in half. Daruk tries to hold him off by literally holding Fireblight’s weapon back, but he eventually weakens enough before Fireblight strikes him again, shattering him. He then celebrates by digging around in Daruk’s body for minerals before casually tossing his remains off of Rudania into the lava.

- NSFW - Urbosa is the only one to be on guard when the Divne Beast is compromised and forces her nemesis to actually run and hide. While hunting it down in Naboris, she is taken by surprise by being stabbed in the back. Despite the grievous wound, she manages to hold her own and even manages to almost defeat Thunderblight but is literally disarmed. As she clutches her arm, Thunderblight runs a fuckton of electricity through her, killing her instantly. Unlike the other champions, whose body is destroyed before they actually die, Urbosa just dies outright. Thunderblight evidently wasn’t planning on this since it’s the only one to not desacrate her body after death but instead elects to leave it on the floor. In Gerudo customs, it is respectful to immediately cover the body, but it just leaves it there. Not out of malice or spite, but because it genuinely doesn’t know what to do with it, and Urbosa is furious.

In other words...

Panicked...an agile bird struggling to fly before being shot out of the air.

Foreboding...an unmoving warrior of stone tumbling into a dark inferno.

Disgusted...an honorable warrior struck down by a cowardly foe.

Sickened...a kind aquatic princess left to drown in her own tears.

- Mipha is the first to fall. Not only was she taken completely by surprise, but she’s possibly the weakest of al the Champions in terms of raw fighting power.

- Daruk is the second to fall.

- Urbosa is the third to fall, but her “battle” takes hours instead of minutes.

- Revali is the last to fall, but his battle takes hours and he is almost able to defeat his nemesis until he’s distracted by the fact that the other Divine Beasts are setting out cries of help

- Right. Every Divine Beast Dungeon theme has a faint SOS in the background. This is a call that means in canon “Save our souls.” The Divine Beasts are crying not just for help, but for someone to free their souls. Their pilots souls. Literally, however, it’s just another distress signal that means “Somethings not right, may need help”

- Every Divine Beast also has a faint SAD in the background. SAD stands for “search and destroy.” In other words, when the blights compromise the divine beasts, they are searching and trying destroy their pilot’s souls.

- Every single champion has some warning, however. They see some malice fly into the Divine Beast while they’re trying to prepare themselves for battle. The blights make quick work of overriding the divine beasts systems and traps the champions inside. Concerned, each of the champions decide to send out a distress signal (the SOS_ before the blight makes their appearance.

- The only exception is Revali. Due to Medoh’s architecture, he’s not trapped inside and is free to leave if he so chooses. He only sends the SOS while he’s fighting Windblight and realizes that victory will be no small thing, so he swallows his pride and makes the call, only to realize that the other divine beasts are sending the same signal. That moment of surprise is what allows the blight to strike a blow. While he’s fighting, they’re up high enough for Revali to see what has become of the other Divine Beasts and panics. etc etc.

- Urbosa’s body is the only one Link stumbles upon 100 years later. Daruk’s remains were incinerated. Revali’s was most likely eaten by scavengers or blown off by the wind. Mipha’s remains are...everywhere. Some are in the bottom of the water pits in Ruta. Others are at the bottom of the lake. And others still are just...nowhere to be found.

- a really fucked up concept would be Link finding some frozen meat. That meat is Revali, you foodie. dont eat it. (not going to put this in but what if?)

- King Dorephan cares deeply for his daughter and tries to keep her as safe as possible. One method he uses is to remind her that since she’s only 47 at the oldest, she’s still not considered an adult by Zora standards, which is 55 hylian years. She counters this by saying that her white scale has already been shed so she was considered an adult. Sometimes Dorephan wishes his daughter wasn’t so gifted, but those thoughts rarely stay

- Mipha keeps her white scale in a locket before giving it to Link. She tells him its just a symbol of their friendship, but both of them know each others feelings for each other.

- Urbosa is the heaviest drinker. When she gets drunk, she usually passes out or starts doing dumb shit but somehow manages to pull them off. Think r/holdmycosmos but she actually manages to hit a bullseye on a dartboard from 15 meters away.

- Daruk can’t get drunk, Goron biology is so bizarre and alien that alcohol straight up doesn’t effect him.

- Revali becomes much louder but much nicer, actually willing to give out compliments

- Link just gets tired when he’s drunk. He never drinks usually, but the once time he gets drunk, he passes out really hard

- Zelda doesn’t drink

- Mipha has already been discussed.

- Whenever Revali starts picking a fight with Link, Daruk either breaks them up or just sits really far away if he’s really annoyed by their argument. Urbosa is also responsible for breaking them up,

- Whenver Link and Revali argue, it’s usually along the lines of Revali trying to coax a reaction out of Link, Link replies with something calm or a one word answer, and Revali loses it

- Mipha avoids the argument whenever she can

- Link secretly wishes that he wasn’t the Chosen Hero since he’s aware that he’s been afflicted with the Curse of the Hero. Despite wishing that he was never chosen, he’s still proud to be a champion and will carry out his duty regardless.

- During one of Revali and Link’s more heated arguments, Link finally lashes out when Revali accuses him that Link was lazy and didn’t have to work as hard as the other champions, that all he had to do was carry around a sword. In response. Link simply unstraps the sword from his back and asks Revali to take hold of the blade

He foolishly accepts

- If the Master Sword is touched by anyone other than its wielder or those who possess the blood of Hylia, they witness ALL of the memories of its past wielders before the sword drains their energy and burns their hand; a harsh consequence for even thinking one could casually possess the power of the goddess

Revali is shaken, of course, and realizes that Link’s task was no easier than his. Arguably harder

“You...I...do you see their memories too?” Revali asked, his voice hollow.

Link nodded silently. “Every night.”

Canonically, the main reason Link doesn’t need a lot of sleep is because he’s trained his body to run on less than 3-4 hours of sleep because he’s unable to stand all the memories. Revali is shaken by the fact that his nemesis is plagued with such troubles and asks why he just can’t get rid of the sword.

Link replies that he’s tried to, but he just can’t. His sense of duty is too powerful. He’ll suffer the nightmares and memories if it means completing his duty, and Revali can’t help but feel impressed by his loyalty and determination.

Urbosa asks for a try since she’s also curious about these memories and wants to see if the myths of Ganon being a gerudo are true. Link doesn’t let her, telling her that it would be the biggest mistake of her life and that Ganon did indeed take the form of a Gerudo. The others ask Zelda if she has these memories too but she shakes her head. Only the chosen hero and inherit the experiences and memories of his past. Daruk doesn’t care but Mipha cries later that night for Link.

- I believe that Link has always been a formidable swordsman, but after taking on the master sword, his skill increases tenfold. Not only does he have his training, but he gains access to the hidden skills from TP, all the tiger scrolls from Oracle, etc. He’s a monster. The only reason he was defeated was through sheer numbers and being distracted by his charge

- Link’s worst nightmare/memory are the ones where the Hero of Time is defeated by Ganon in OoT, Majora’s mask, and the Hero of Time’s death.

- The Hero of Time dies when he’s traveling through the lost woods to find Navi again, but because he’s an adult and is no loner “pure of heart” due to his past, he is unable to find Kokiri Forest. He’s caught off-guard by skull kid from Majora’s mask. Skull Kid, realizing his mistake too late, holds him as he passes.

- Revali’s dislike of Link stems from the fact that Link is somehow more important simply by virtue of wielding the Master Sword. Revali hates it when people purposely try to downplay their achievements for false modesty because the way he sees it, if you’ve earned the right to brag, you have EVERY right to brag. Link doesn’t brag, which Revali sees as him trying to be falsely modest, which pisses him off

- Don’t call Zoras fish-face, fish breath, seaweed brain, etc.

- Don’t call Ritos birdbrains, feathers, etc.

- Don’t call Gerudo’s ni--

- Hylians have probably heard of every insult so they don’t really care.

- Gorons are too friendly to be insulted.

- Urbosa likes to call Revali “feathers” or “ravioli” just to fuck with him

- Revali has a bunch of nicknames for everyone he uses when he gets really angry

- Every race speaks in a different dialect, though only the Gorons and Hylians don’t have their own specific language. The Gerudo can obviously speak Gerudo. Rito can use song notes or whistles to communicate, though this is outdated and it’s much easier to speak Common anyways. The Zora can communicate with each almost telepathically underwater due to their sonar, but this skill is useless on land. Since only the Zora can survive underwater long enough and they’re the only ones who can even use sonar, it’s not that big of a deal. Gorons and Hylians communicate the normal way.

- The royal family of Hyrule speaks with a faux almost-British accent. Gorons are a lot more casual. Gerudo have a slight accent. Zora have a British accent as well, with rising tones and musical voices.

- Rito flirt by spreading their wings and showing off their plumage, which usually only works on other Rito.

- A Zora’s erogenous zones are right under the fins on the sides of their head and right where their tailfin is attached to their head. A Zora blushes when the white part of their body turns pinkish, and since a lot of Mipha’s body is mostly white, when she does blush, her entire body turns pink.

- Every single champion has a fatal flaw and a redeeming trait.

Zelda: Self-confidence / Unparalleled intelligence

Link: Extreme loyalty / Loyalty and duty

Revali: Holds grudges / Incredible determination

Daruk: May have trouble going against his morals / Strong morals

Urbosa: Pride and stubbornness / Devotion to friends

Mipha: Self-confidence / Endless kindness

Zelda suffers from depression and extreme anxiety as a result of her father’s abuse. She constantly second-guesses herself and tends to overthink a lot, but in the rare moments where she is fully confident in herself, there is none who can outthink her.

Link’s most trademark personality trait is his intense sense of duty. While this is good in some aspects, such as never balking or fleeing from a battle unless his duties require him to, it also means he will do everything in his power to fulfill that duty or die trying.

As established, Revali’s personality is dominated by his arrogance and skill with the bow, but I believe that’s more an aspect of his personality than his actual flaw. His flaw is that he holds grudges. He can be incredibly petty at times. He can and will go out of his way to shit-talk anybody who has wronged him and since his skills as an archer is unparalleled, there are few people who can avoid him for long. This mindset is inherently toxic and I’m drawing from my own experiences to draw him like this. On the flipside, however, his determination is unmatched. Out of all the other Champions, he is the one who’ll push the hardest to get to the end goal. Granted, it may be because of his willingness to hold grudges, but it is undeniable that he holds a strong sense of justice and respect.

Daruk is a gentle giant. He doesn’t fight for himself, nor does he particularly like fighting. He prefers to protect others, especially if they are weaker than him. This mindset has led to him becoming one of the kindest members of the group, not to mention the most genuine, but this also means he has trouble letting go of his morals to do what must be done. In contrast with Link, who would sacrifice all in the name of duty, Daruk would sacrifice his duty to save all, even if that duty would lead to the ultimate salvation of all. He’s like Percy Jackson in a way, where he can’t sacrifice people for himself.

Urbosa is most like me. She upholds a strict code of honor. If she chooses to duel someone, she will only do so in a 1v1 and will take steps to limit herself or strengthen her opponent to give them a fair fight. She won’t attack an enemy unless they are also ready to attack her, and she generally abhores sneak attacks, preferring to fight her enemies head-on. This is similiar to my own code of honor in MGE and duels in TF2. If I’m going to fight you, I’ll make it fair for both of us. Unfortunately, this also means she often limits herself for an arbitrary reason. There have been multiple times where the group could have done better had she gone all out but refused to in order to give their foes a “fair fight.” Her pride is also an issue. She is incredibly stubborn if she believes she is right. Granted, she’s open to criticism and will admit when she is wrong and will go along with other plans if she feels they’re better than hers, but if she’s convinced that Plan A will work, she will defend Plan A’s viability even if a better plan comes up.

The Zora equivalent of a bra is a neck brace to help their necks deal with the weight of their tailfin. The older they get, the stronger their necks become due to them getting more used to the weight

i.e. Mipha may wear one but Sidon doesn't during the events of BOTW. 18 y/o vs fully grown adult

0 notes