#it is more implied in this game but consider other zelda games

[demonicpossession]

I've seen quite a few people who seem to be getting mad that not everyone sees link and zeldas relationship as romantic. Like yes it has tropes that exist within romance stories, however these tropes can exist for people who are close friends/consider eachother family rather than having a romantic love for eachother and I think Nintendo left it unspecified specifically for that reason, to keep it more open for people's interpretation. Want to see them as lovers? Go ahead, no ones stopping you, don't get mad at people who don't. And vice versa people who don't see them as lovers shouldn't get mad at people who do. Can we just exist calmly instead of having to see either side getting mad at the other? And for people saying zelink is Canon, it's not, it's open for interpretation, Canon would be it being directly specified in game or confirmed by Nintendo. And while I am a zelink shipper for botw/totk I'm not going to get mad at others who don't ship them, different people are going to see different ships, different styles of romantic implications. So please, ship who you want but don't get mad at eachother, its pointless and a waste of everyone's energy to get mad over ships.

Now if someone can show anywhere in botw or totk that says zelda and link are together or anywhere that Nintendo has in fact confirmed it and is a reliable source to say they've confirmed it then I'll put an edit to say I've been made aware of that, however to my knowledge its not specified that they're in a relationship. Again I ship them in botw/totk, I can understand why people do, however looking at it from the other angle I can also understand people seeing them as just extremely close friends. So let's let everyone have their own opinions and be mature about it. Cause rn the fandom seems like a bunch of children throwing a tantrum over whether they are or aren't together.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Let me just preface this by saying everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, TOTK is a really fun game, and I'm glad that other people have been able to enjoy the story as well.

...But I'm being dead serious with my complaints about the narrative being 100% imperialist propaganda. And I'm getting really tired of people replying to those posts by saying it can't be imperialist propaganda, because imperialism is bad and the game says that Hyrule is the good guys.

Like, guys. That's not the argument you think it is. Yes, I am aware that the game tells us Ganondorf is a flat, one dimensional character with no ambitions, interests or motivations beyond destroying the entire world for the hell of it, and also it's totally not racist because he's green, not brown like literally every other member of his race. Unfortunately literally all of these things are kind of the entire goddamn problem.

See, the thing is, everyone trying to make these arguments is accepting the game at face value. Hyrule is the perfect and almighty nation chosen by the demigod Zonai, and whose royal family has the right to rule due to their divine heritage. The other races exist to serve the glory of Hyrule, and they're happy to do it. Ganondorf is pure evil and must be stopped at any costs.

But that's not how anything works. The story informing me that Hyrule is the ultimate good that has done nothing wrong is the whole goddamn reason why I don't trust Hyrule at all. There's always more of a reason than that. And the game fucking suggests there was more going on! Ganondorf mentions Rauru has repeatedly 'invited' the Gerudo to become Rauru's subjects, and let's be clear here, it doesn't matter how peaceful those 'invitations' were, when the guy who owns every single magical nuclear missile in the world repeatedly demands you surrender to him, there's always going to be an implied threat of 'do it or get magically nuked'. Just that power difference alone shows us exactly why Ganon would feel threatened enough to invade. It's because Rauru was holding a gun to his head, and Ganon was expected to just trust that he'd never pull the trigger.

And yes, even if it wasn't intentional Hyrule was always threatening to wipe out the other nations, considering the entire royal family walked around openly wearing their magical nukes as cute accessories. If they couldn't be safely hidden away, there wouldn't be four other secret stones sitting untouched in a vault until the last second.

But that's never acknowledged. Of course Hyrule is the only nation with the right to the secret stones; even if other races get to touch them, they can only have them if they swear eternal blind loyalty and servitude to the glory of King Rauru and Princess Zelda. Ganon wanting to have one magical nuclear bomb out of a stockpile of eight of them is proof that he's dangerous and evil. I mean my god, what if he just walked around all day wearing a magical nuke and using its power for his own benefit, that would be terrifying. It's only okay when Hylian royalty does it.

And you can't argue that Ganon betrayed his own people, considering we don't get to know fucking anything about his relationship with his people. He's shows as the leader of the Gerudo, we're told he's a hero to his people, he has soldiers that loyally follow him into battle... and then oh nevermind, they all hate him and will spend eternity trying to atone for sharing a race with him. How did the entire race do a complete 180 in the span of at most a few months? Who cares, what's important is that now they accept they exist to serve Hyrule so they get to be the good guys now and we don't need to know why they were following Ganondorf, or why they stopped following him.

Basically my point is that yeah, I fucking know how the game insists everything went down. That's the entire reason I think it's imperialist propaganda, because the entire story feels like Hylian propaganda to conceal and justify some horrific atrocities that caused all of this. I literally do not believe that I'm getting the story through reliable narrators, especially considering that the only people allowed to actually tell me the story are all the characters that have the most reasons to be heavily biased in favour of Hyrule.

When the game shows me protagonists that have a massive amount of power and control over the entire world, then says the bad guy doesn't like that system just because he's evil, and literally nothing and nobody in the game says anything to oppose that take, I have some questions about what the fuck the story isn't telling me. And I'd really appreciate it if people would stop trying to argue with me just by telling me to stop asking those questions.

[thecuriousquest]

Yandere Shigaraki Headcanons

Tag List: @issamomma @repostingmyfavs @chickennugnugnug

Warnings: Yandere themes, SFW hcs, violent tendencies, childish mindset, unhealthy mindset, possessive tendencies, these are kind of all over the place, punishment threats, toe loss?, isolation, starvation, kidnapping/implied kidnapping

Checkout my Master List here.

This is my first time writing for Shiggy, so I hope you enjoy!

���————————————————————————

^Why is this gif so hot to me?

✋Shigaraki is very possessive. Nobody is allowed to talk to you, not even Toga. That’s how immature he is.

✋Ashtray likes to show you his games or talk to you about them. If he’s playing a game, he fully expects you to be watching the screen over his shoulder like a good gamer girlfriend.

✋Goes out of his way to get those special gloves so that he can keep you on his lap. He loves hugging you. He doesn’t like smacking you on the ass, but he sure does love to playfully pinch it.

✋He will literally turn the world upside down for you as a romantic gesture. He wants you to know that he’s willing to level anyone and anything in order to show you how much he loves you.

✋Anything that hurts you is already ash to him. Consider it done. He doesn’t even need to ask. Just one look at your hurt expression will do it.

✋Shigs will do anything for your affection and approval. He’ll do anything to keep you safe too.

✋When he scratches at his skin, he secretly likes it when you stop him.

✋Honestly, the names he calls you can vary.

✋He doesn’t like nicknames like “baby” and “sweetheart”. It’s unoriginal and way too mushy for him.

✋He’s probably going to call you something like “Zelda” if he wants to be sweet or “Imposter” if he wants to be impish and teasing.

✋The closest thing you’ll get to a real nickname is a clever shortening of your name that nobody else has ever thought to call you in a loving tone (he just ends up sounding like a crusty crab though).

———

Punishments:

✋Shiggy doesn’t spank. Shiggy doesn’t whip or paddle. He’s not a brat tamer. In fact, he’s a bit of a brat himself. It all stems from him being so immature.

✋He locks you up half of the time as a punishment and starves you for a third of it.

✋He doesn’t know how to take care of someone, even if he is madly in love with them. Hell, he doesn’t even know how to take care of himself.

✋At least you have Kurogiri to meet your needs.

✋The Shigster can’t bring himself to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean he won’t hurt others because of your actions and then blame it on you.

✋Don’t forget, he misplaces his anger like a child. You’re acting out because you were kidnapped. He doesn’t see it that way. To him, you’re just being irritating and difficult. “If you don’t want your best friend to die, then quit whining and do as you’re told!”

✋He threatens to decay your feet if you try to run away, although he’d never actually do it.

✋He will, however, have Mr. Compress take your pinky toe if he feels like you’re really misbehaving. With your equilibrium thrown off, you need help getting around.

✋Shigs is more than happy to step in at this point, giving you his arm to latch onto.

✋Only if you behave will he give you your toe back. That’s the whole game with him. It’s a childish game, but you know how much Shiggy loves games.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

behold: my second least favorite string of words in the entirety of Tears of the Kingdom.

(it's a little less transparent why this time so I'll explain my thoughts under the cut)

So why do I not like this?

In so many words: because if you remove it, the scene still works, but you lose the moral certainty of what is going on.

This single sentence does so much legwork for the entire game (the kind I dislike), to the point where I'm about 60% sure it's the product of a rework that realized how ambiguous Rauru's position was as the Good Rightful King and needed to nervously reassure the players that Ganondorf Is and Always Was the Invader, Actually.

(no matter that it leaves the gerudos in this awkward in-between state of both invaders and victims, while never dwelling in the specifics of their history and their own agency in the entire thing; brushed off as a sin they have to expiate through loyalty to the winners of that particular strife, but without explicitely blaming them either to avoid the implications of what that would have looked like)

If you remove it, not only do you lose a pretty clunky line that detracts from Ganondorf's intimidating presence (who is he even speaking to? who needs to hear this right now?) that honestly speaks for itself when it comes to his experience with warfare, but also you lose any tension and any mystery regarding why he is attacking in the first place.

You also... kind of rob Ganondorf's motivations of their meaning. "Hyrule will bow down before me" leads to asking... why? What does he want? What does he see in those lands? And what little we get with Rauru and then Link during the final fight begs more questions; why do you prefer hardship to peace? Why do you value strength? What leads you to want to rule a land devoid of survivors, become a king without a kingdom? I don't think we ever get satisfactory answers. If you remove this sentence, on the other hand... Subtextually, it becomes pretty clear that his motivations is that he felt threatened by Rauru's power, which is ripe with subtext and questions about whether this is a legitimate reaction, whether his "no survivor" stance is due to a feeling of betrayal when his own people turned against him post the Demon King shenanigans... I'm not saying it would fix the entire game's writing, far from it, but it would already do *so much more*.

(genuinely, I think he could have stayed completely silent during the Molduga Assault, speaking only in the Show of Fealty before going completely nuts after Sonia's murder, and it would have worked MUCH better in terms of characterization but anyway anyway

EDIT: ALSO!!! that way he wouldn't speak hylian to fellow gerudos, which is weird inherently)

Without this line, the core of the tension between the gerudos and Hyrule comes front in his conversation with Rauru; it allows the cause of his hostility to be Rauru's invitations, that he would have taken as a threat, and would have still made him warlike and domineering without making him cartoonishly flat, because, once again, Rauru is not acting in a particularly more legitimate way when Zelda arrives in Ancient Hyrule; and it would have been... fair to point that out. And make for better characterization for Rauru, and Sonia, and Mineru, and everybody. But the priority was for Hyrule to be pictured as unquestionably holy; always legitimate, always truthful, always beautiful, always just.

Also, and this is more of a nitpick but: why would Ganondorf want Hyrule, specifically, to bow down before him also? Was he at war with the rest of the disparate tribes before, and just carried on his ambitions to the very very newly-founded kingdom as they allied under a new banner? (though it seems to be implies the lands were crawling under monsters in a generic sense, and not Ganondorf's attacks in particular) Why would he even consider Hyrule a legitimate entity worth taking over then, if it is so new, born from the will of a powerful rival, founded by what is basically a stranger to these lands? Why would he covet something so young instead of destroying it and just calling the lands Gerudo Lands II or Grooseland or something?

I don't think any of that was even accounted for, because, beyond everything else: to me, this sentence is so clearly and painfully crammed in here to shield Hyrule from any potential blame and immediately characterize Ganondorf as Bad without having to remove any of the causes that could lead one to side-eye Rauru's little pet project as equally questionable.

Beyond the clumsiness, it is cowardly --and, I think, a little damning.

[currantlee]

Get Your Tissues ready! We're Analyzing the German Dub of Zelda's Awakening (BotW)

Translation: Enough... It is useless. English Localization: Link, save yourself! Go!

As a Zelink shipper, I actually really love the English version of this line, where Zelda tells Link to not die for her. However, as a writer, I prefer the German version. See, in the English version of the game, Zelda strikes me as almost blind to the reality of the situation. Meanwhile, in German, she is desperate because the situation is, quite frankly, hopeless - note how she even states that it's useless (to fight) here. I'm going to come back to this later, so keep it in mind. For now, let's move on.

Translation: I beg you... You mustn't die too... English Localization: I'll be fine! Don't worry about me!

Zelda uses the expression auch noch here, which technically means too. However, it implies something happening on top of everything else, in this case, after everyone else has already died. This also serves as a transition from the previous memory, in which Zelda states (in German) that everyone is dead because of her.

Again, my Zelink heart loves the English version, but I think the German version has its own appeal. Considering that Zelda blames herself for the deaths of the four Champions, and that she doesn't want Link to die too might not sound Zelink-y at first, but consider for a second. The Champions were Zelda's friends, and one of them was her mother figure. Her father is also dead. She pretty much has only Link left at this point - and we can guess from the other memories (as this is the final once you find in the game) that even though they had a rough start, he is extremely important to her. Even though it's not as explicit as in English, I think it's still a really nice moment that shows how important he has become to her, as more than just a bodyguard.

Translation: Run away! English Localization: Run!

I really like the contrast between the scene in which Link protects Zelda from the Yiga, and this scene. There are some obvious parallels, only that in this scene, Link is too severely injured to save Zelda anymore (and in the end, she saves him instead). He tries his best though. I very much appreciate the effort that was put into his expression in this entire scene!

Translation: No!!! English Localization: No!

... Three exclaimation marks, guys. Three. Exclaimation. Marks.

Okay, but seriously, I kind of love his moment where Zelda throws herself inbetween Link and the Guardian. It contrasts nicely with how Link protects her from the Yiga earlier in the game's backstory, and also with how he tries to defend her (even though he's gravely injured) in this scene.

Translation: Was... Was that me...? English Localization: Was... Was that...

I really love that Zelda's Lullaby is sung by a choir after she purifies the Guardians. Also, the fact that she is shot from bottom view here, which makes her look greater, and also reminds me personally of the Goddess Statues a bit. All of this invokes awe, and really conveys that something very powerful and important has just happened.

On the localization note, I like that Zelda specificalls asks if she herself just did that in German. After blaming herself for pretty much everything that went wrong throughout the entire backstory and feeling useless, this is a very important moment for her, and the German localization makes it about her, both as the wielder of the sacred power to seal the darkness, and Zelda as a person.

Translation: What...?! English Localization: The power...

I like that we get a shot of the back of Zelda's hand too, showing that the triforce that appeared earlier has disappeared again.

I like that Zelda is more stunned and confused as to what just happens in the German version. In English, she seems to know what's up right away, but I actually like that she seemingly needs some time to process (which she won't get unfortunately - someone give this girl a break!) what just happened. Really helps reinforce the gravity of this event!

Translation: Oh no... Oh no, oh no! English Localization: No, no...

Despite the fact that she would need time to process what just happens, Zelda immediately looks after Link when he collapses 🥺 If that doesn't show you how much she cares about him at this point, I don't know what does.

Translation: You can't die! English Localization: Link! Get up!

Zelda uses the same phrasing (darfst nicht) as before, but this time, it's much much desperate. While before, she was trying to get Link to run, she is scared for his life now. Before, she used the phrase more in a sense of "if you keep going, you're going to die like everyone else, and you must not do that" in an attempt to get Link to run. Here she is using it more like "this can't be happening", desperate and unwilling to accept Link's impending death.

Julia Casper's (Zelda's German VA) voice acting is also phenomenal here. You can hear a little sob when she says this line, and it really conveys her despair.

Translation: Please, don't die... English localization: You're going to be just fine...

Again, same phrasing as before, only that this time Zelda is explicitly begging Link not to die in the German line. I think it's both impressive and authentic that they used the same line three times, but each time with a different connotation. Zelda is completely exhausted and stressed in this scene, so she wouldn't have time or energy to think about how she expresses everything she wants to, so she just repeats the same core thought over and over: she doesn't want Link to die.

In the English version, she seemingly tries to calm Link instead. While on its own, I do like this line (especially as a Zelink shipper!), I do not like it in the context of this scene.

Remember how I said I was going to come back to Zelda seemingly not understanding the severety of the situation or being in denial about it earlier? Yeah, this is where the scene becomes... Weird to me in English. See, we never see her realize that actually, things do not look well, and no matter if you're going with the not understanding interpretation or the denial one, this causes a break in the narrative for me. Her view on their situation seems to change in-between lines, without an actual indicator of the change. It very much comes off as unnatural to me, especially with what happens next.

No text here, just sobbing. I wanted to note this because Julia Casper's voice acting in this particular bit of the scene sounds like she is actually crying. You can hear her sob and whimper (the really quiet one she does right after Link falls unconscious always gets me the most), and it's absolutely heartbreaking. It actually had me cry too every time I saw this scene in my playthroughs of Breath of the Wild.

Translation: There... Is still hope?! English Localization: The sword...

Julia Casper makes this line (and the next one) sound like Zelda is still processing things once more, and I think it is very fitting.

Translation: Link can... Be saved? English Translation: So he can... He can still be saved?

I do like how this line and the previous one feel completely different in German and in English contentwise.

While the implication in English seems to be - at least in my opinion - that Zelda sees that the sword is still glowing, and comes to the conclusion that Link can still be saved by herself.

Meanwhile, in German the implication seems to be more that the sword tells her that Link can be saved, and she somewhat confirms this in her conversation with the Great Deku Tree later.

Translation: Princess! English Localization: Princess!

... I do not like this line. It sounds like they're playing hide and seek, not like they just found the princess who has probably gone missing in all the chaos and who probably a lot of people were worried for. In both German and English (it actually does sound a little bit better in English IMO). Kinda disturbs the scene a bit.

I do like that they actually have Zelda gasp in response to this though.

Translation: Princess! Are you alright? English Localization: Princess! Are you all right?

Yeah, that line is better.

Also, look, Zelda still has her hand on Link's chest 🥺

Translation: I have an important mission for you! English Localization: Take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection!

Zelda sounds suddenly really confident and serious with this line in both languages. My guess is that it's because she knows that if she doesn't act, then Link will die, but also because she has trouble opening up. We learn this from her diary, and we know from both that and from other memories that she feels comfortable to show her true feelings and worries around Link (who is unconscious).

Translation: Take this man to the Shrine of Life as fast as possible! English Localization: If you don't get him there immediately, we are going to lose him forever!

The Shrine of Ressurrection is called the Shrine of Life in German, possibly because the localizers thought that Schrein der Wiederbelebung or Schrein der Auferstehung sounds too complicated or too much like Link is a zombie now.

Also, Zelda calls Link a man in the German dub at this point, which actually caught me by surprise when I first played the game since Link just looks so young. I guess it's a reminder that they are already around 17 in this game, and that Link is a full-fledged knight. I also think it shows respect for Link on Zelda's part.

I actually prefer the German version of this line, simply because I think it works better in tandem with the shot we're shown. The delivery of the English line is great too though (and I say this as someone who usually doesn't like Zelda's English voiceacting that much).

Also, look how Zelda is supporting Link's head 🥺

Translation: Hurry! English Localization: Is that clear?

Two different lines here, but I think both work. I also like that we get to see the reaction of the two Sheikah guys.

Translation: Before his light of life... English Localization: So make haste and go!

Lebenslicht (Light of Life) is a more poetic way to say someone's life in German. It's not the same as light of someone's life.

Translation: ... goes out for all times! English Localization: His life is now in your hands!

Using the plural of the word time like this is actually quite common (even though using the singular wouldn't be incorrect), and I will admit that I have never really thought about why we do this before. I think in this particular case, it might be to emphasize the gravity of the situation, but this might be interesting to look into in general.

That being said, I actually prefer the English line over the German one here. I think it just provides the better ending to an overall very grave, very serious scene, that's pretty much the direct leadup to Link waking up at the beginning of the game.

In general, I think this is definitely one of the most impactful scenes in Breath of the Wild, and both the English and the German version do a great job at conveying this. The camera also works with the localizations (more or less) to improve its impact. Overall, analyzing it was very interesting.

What are your thoughts on this scene? Tell me in the comments, reblogs or tags if you want to 🙂 Thank you for reading!

[dragmiire]

a quick rundown on my ganondorf for my non-zelda moots:

(a disclaimer for my zelda moots and passerby: this is MY interpretation of ganondorf, and my tethering of zelda lore, headcanons, and a hint of fanon. any branching off from existing canon is intentional, as nintendo cannot keep a consistent character to save their own lives.)

ganondorf is obviously the big bad of the zelda franchise (usually), and while traditional canon sees him as evil for the sake of evil/yearning for power, i like to partly spin it as a deep hatred for hyrule + a misguided effort to help his people. he comes from the gerudo, a desert-dwelling race who are regarded by hyrule/hylians (our classic white elf race) as thieves and the origin of ganondorf and thus bad. this changed in later games to now they are regarded as allies of the kingdom, but obviously we still hate ganondorf.

he is known as the demon king, and while it isn't explicitly stated, it's implied in later games that he is the origin of all monsters in hyrule. if we go by skyward sword lore, he's actually the reincarnation of hyrule's ruling goddess's enemy, demise, who wishes for hyrule's destruction + the acquisition of the triforce, a holy artifact in tloz. for my interpretation, demise exists dormant in ganondorf's mind--he awakens each time ganondorf is reincarnated and triggers the recollection of his memories and hatred of hyrule. ganondorf cannot permanently die due to demise's presence.

ganondorf is considered one of the most powerful beings in hyrule, and has nearly caused its ultimate destruction several times. his original goal in his first life was to conquer hyrule and expand the gerudo's territory due to envy of hyrule's greater resources and kinder environment. following the timeline of twilight princess, after his (attempted) execution and then sealing, when he returns to hyrule again and finds his people were all slain by hyrule to try and avoid another ganondorf-incident, he fixates on its destruction. this becomes his main motivation with each rebirth, simultaneously fueled by demise's hateful presence in his soul.

he is capable of all kinds of magic. he can conjure monsters from nothing, and his powers can impact the environment to the point of reviving slain monsters every cycle of the blood moon, when his powers are at their peak. he is capable of casting illusionary spells, invoking puppets that can serve as perfect doppelgangers of himself or others, can manipulate the weather and environment, and much, much more. he is a natural-born warlock, but also invokes much of his power from the triforce.

the triforce is a holy artifact created by the three founding goddesses of hyrule, created at the point where they three departed back for the heavens. it is capable of granting any wish that will last until the death of the wisher, and grants power to those who wield it. each piece represents one of the three goddesses, and each piece is reflective of power, wisdom, and courage.

ganondorf is the wielder of power, din's blessing. this power grants him nigh invulnerability, powers beyond mortal comprehension, and makes them much like a god. din is his patron deity, but he does not worship her, in spite of her unusual choice of continuing to bless him, as she is a deity of hyrule, not the gerudo. he obtained her power when making his wish upon the triforce to plunge hyrule into darkness, with the triforce's pieces splitting into three. while he obtained power, wisdom and courage were sent to the most deserving wielders--link and zelda. the triforce of power keeps him from dying unless slain by the master sword, a holy relic infused with the goddess hylia's power. hylia is the goddess of hyrule who was reborn into its first princess, whose divine bloodline still flows through the royals of hyrule today.

while he originally began his conquest of hyrule out of love for his people, it devolved into hatred and madness when obtaining the triforce of power. he is of clearer mind after several reincarnations and acclimation to his intense power after living his first life as a "normal" magic-wielding man, but still has a vendetta against hyrule

he is proud, resilient, strong-willed, and a warrior at heart. he believes in honorable fights even against the enemy, and treats link, goddess hylia's chosen hero, as an equal on the battlefield. originating from a nation of warriors, he takes pride in honoring their legacy. he is also arrogant, overly confident, and when he goes into a rage, it can have catastrophic consequences at the expense of his environment and his own body. he is known for transforming into a mindless, destructive beast when at his most desperate limit and will not stop his rampage until killed. he most commonly takes the form of a wild, demonic boar, but has also transformed into a dragon, a spider demon constructed partly of corrupted ancient weaponry, and varying humanoid monstrosities.

ganondorf is renowned for his cunning, his political power, and his manipulation. ignoring plot armor that makes certain key characters instantaneously wise to his foul intentions, he has manipulated past kings of hyrule into their own deaths, generated a cult-like following in multiple eras (the yiga of totk/botw being a key group, but also subvillains like astor, and nameless cults seeking his revival during death), and is much like an unstoppable force of nature.

he is also a fucking behemoth at around ten feet tall per the latest game he has appeared in, has a beautiful mane of red hair that his people are known for, and is often dripping in golden accessories and rubies. his signature colors are red, black and gold. his choice of weapon when not utilizing magic is a great sword, which is dwarfed in his hand and looks like a broadsword in size. after his attempted execution in twilight princess, he kept the sword they tried to kill him with and uses it in battle. he is otherwise capable of wielding all weapons, and is proficient in them all--he has been seen using single and twin katanas, a great bow, a claymore, his own two fists; if it can be used to kill it can be used by these hands.

[catscr8l]

TotK, late game quest reward, zero main story spoilers, just sidequest things + speculating

So puzzled by this guy I honestly think Zelda team is trolling us w this one. I don't even buy that they're part Zonai. I'm not holding my breath for additional info either.

Anyway first impression was that whatever he is, the Hylian part of him is Gerudo, so I mediated on this guy while drawing the voe set, how I like to do.

I figure that the body paint and clothes that he's shown with are like, his Royal guard outfit or something? As always trying to consider some choices might just be reusing assets (in game he's just wearing the Zoanite armor, and painted like all the Hylians we see, who all seem to be guards or soldiers)

The tail and the leg shape is what's throwing me off so bad, these are not Zonai traits? Other than the greyish color and snout I don't think he has anything in common w the Zonai at all. Still the simplest explanation of course. THEN AGAIN we have such a small pool of examples that one more Confirmed Zonai could change how we understand them.

Anyway as far as the palette and his jewelry go, they seem to be implying an important part of him is Gerudo. I do think it's implied he's the 8th heroine figure also!

happy speculating

[soulmatebracket]

Soulmate Bracket: Preliminary Round! [Side A]

Provided reasoning under cut:

Link & Zelda:

They're canonically trapped in a cycle of reincarnation together, and each instance of them are fated to find each other. Across all the different games, they always end up having to trust and rely on each other more than anyone else!

they're literally eternally bound to each other 🥺...zelda's first incarnation was a goddess who gave up immortality to be reincarnated with link...they find each other every single time even when they don't realize it (wind waker, ocarina of time)...in breath of the wild, zelda's powers are awakened by her love for link...

There's so many versions of Zelda and Link and almost all of them are in love, the goddess Hylia fell in love with a mortal man and after his death she took a mortal form and reincarnated both of their spirits and they became Zelda and Link. They are constantly reincarnated and they find each other every time and they fall in love, the end

For a long time it was left kind of vague as to whether the games were connected but it's pretty much confirmed in-universe now that Link and Zelda appear again and again in the timeline. Also in Breath of the Wild specifically, Link effectively dies and Zelda disappears and becomes energy (?) but he is revived in the Shrine of Resurrection with no memories except for those of Zelda, and must defeat Calamity Ganon to save her. They aren't always romantically implied in every timeline but they DO always reincarnate and fight Ganon together. So yeah I think they're soulmates (and maybe soul enemies with Ganon)

Link & Zelda & Ganondorf:

I’m sure someone’s done this but I gotta get my vote in. They’re very good and they are literally bound together in a tragic cycle of reincarnation

This isn't even a romantic group, but you know sometimes you just gotta have three people trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation with one trying to kill the other two because a couple of deities were being dickheads millennia ago y’know?

Demise curses Zelda and Link: "I will rise again. Those like you, those who share the blood of the goddess [Hylia/Zelda] and the spirit of the hero [Link], they are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind!". Every time true evil threatens the land (usually with Demise reincarnated as Ganon/Ganondorf) a Link and a Zelda are brought together to defeat him. These three souls/spirits find each other again and again through their reincarnations

MORTAL ENEMIES SOULMATES TIED IN A LOCK FOR BALANCE IN A ROCK PAPER SCISSORS LIKE THING i just think they're neat

Link & Fi:

Link is reincarnating. Fi is the spirit of the Master Sword, the sword he wields in nearly every life. The sword is literally bound to his soul-- he's the only one who can wield it. In the one game that Fi appeared in (the whole the-sword-has-a-spirit thing is relatively new, but the actual sword is not), she was his companion and they were very close and the scene where she left actually made me feel things and I. I don't usually intensely feel things from media.

Fi is usually very emotionless (or at least doesn't show them; the one time her faces changes was a VERY small smile after the villain was (thought to be) defeated, and it's hard to miss), but in her last scene when they separate, she calls Link by name (usually she calls him "Master" or "Master Link"), says that at the beginning their relationship was just her fulfilling her duties to Hylia (the goddess), and, I quote, "I have come to consider the information corresponding to our time together among the most precious data I have on record."

She then says she doesn't have the capability to understand the human spirit, and that as she prepares to go to sleep forever she's feeling an emotion she can't identify. What does she think that emotion is? HAPPINESS.

Here's her final words:

"Before I enter the sleep that calls me to the sword, I wish to relay to you words that I recorded many times over the course of our journey.

Many have said them to you thus far, but I now wish to say them for myself… Thank you, Master Link. May we meet again in another life…"

This Link is one of the more expressive ones, but this scene in particular is one of the ones where he's most expressive. He's sad (but still understanding), and you can tell, and if Nintendo wasn't COWARDS he would have been crying because I know I nearly was!

We don't get to see much of their personal relationship, but there's a new Zelda game coming out in literally three days and I think there's a good chance that Fi will be in it, and I really hope we get to see more of them even though Link is different.

Anyway. Consider them. They are very dear to me. If I could change one thing about Skyward Sword (which in my opinion is very hard to improve on), it would be to have more of them. I know I'm going to be the only one submitting them, but PLEASE. Let my 430 word essay convince you.

[blueskittlesart]

in botw what hand do you the characters use to fight/write with. I think zeldas left handedness was "corrected" when she was young. Oh and what do you think abt ninendo changing links lefthandednezz.

OH MY GODDD THE LEFT-HANDEDNESS. I think that in earlier games which relied much more heavily on subtext and implied narrative, like oot and tp, link's left handedness serves a very important purpose as it 1. others him from his peers in a subtle but significant way and 2. gives him a natural, tangible advantage in combat. when looking at the narratives of most of the games where link is left-handed, being considered an outsider in some way and/or being naturally gifted in combat from a young age is an important facet of his character. it's a very subtle detail but it adds an extra layer to link's character throughout the game. In more recent games, notably botw and skyward sword, however, link is right-handed. In skyward sword i genuinely think this was a practicality issue, since the combat mechanics rely on link's sword following the player's physical movements exactly, so his sword hand needed to match the hand of the player holding the wii remote. (don't quote me on this, i haven't tested it, but i'm pretty sure if you have your wii remote settings set to left-handedness link will be left-handed as well.) HOWEVER. in botw combat is button-based, so there's no practicality reason to make him right-handed. You could argue that left-handedness would work thematically for botw link's character, since he was so naturally gifted in swordplay from a young age. However, one of the most important aspects of botw link imo is that his perfect soldier persona is a FACADE. he is naturally gifted in combat, but he is NOT naturally a soldier, so he constantly puts up walls in order to maintain the image of perfection that everyone projects onto him. In this way, i think right-handedness suits this link much better. He is a model soldier, yes, but it's not necessarily due to a natural advantage; in reality he is constantly working in one way or another to maintain that image. As far as link is concerned, he is no different from any other soldier except for circumstance, and thus, he lacks the natural advantage of left-handedness that most other links have, placing him technically on the same level as any other knight.

[girlballs]

some final zelda thoughts

TotK's plot is like. super obviously just a better iteration of BotW's plot, to the point that BotW not happening at all would change basically nothing about TotK. there's even the visual of Calamity Ganon around Hyrule Castle replicated better with the Demon Dragon emerging from the depths

anyways. i liked it overall though i wish they had committed to the Dragon Zelda thing or at least had her at-all affected by being a dragon for like 1000 years. "do time travel to help zelda" would also have been a decent sequel hook but i guess every zelda game has to end with the status quo restored

the triforce For Sure still exists and is relevant, also, despite it never being named. it's (to me) the only sufficient explanation for why Ganondorf and Zelda both get so massively buffed by their Secret Stones- and plus the "Zelda cradling the Master Sword" memory kind of confirms this with the gold light coming out of the back of her right hand

timeline stuff: at the very least, Rauru's Hyrule probably isn't The Literal First Hyrule, since Sonia has time powers (an established Hylia thing) and Triforce tattoos on her arms, and it would be weird for her to have both of those things in a Hyrule where the Triforce is not visibly relevant at all. plus it would be extra weird considering the references to other Zelda games in BotW/TotK where Ganondorf appears- like, Twilight Princess Ganondorf existing while TotK's Ganondorf is still in stasis under Hyrule Castle doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering the latter is implied to be alive the whole time

the four main temples absolutely needed to be longer, though. Lightning Temple was the best of the bunch and it still ended way sooner than it should have. the Water and Fire temples were like. aggressively simple as well (even including the "town" segments leading up to them), with the Wind temple being pretty much average. the whole Zonai Ruins/Dragonhead Island/Spirit Temple section was really cool and I actually enjoyed that whole stretch more than Gerudo Town/Lightning Temple.

the biggest disappointment re: temples though (aside from the lack of dungeon items) was that the area leading up to Ganon was just like 3 hallways full of enemies. i was really hoping for some kind of depths version of hyrule castle down there, like a proper last dungeon

fight with Ganondorf was pretty cool but i still really fucking hate the way Flurry Rush works. it literally feels random. sometimes i would backflip/sidestep *way* too early and get the rush, whereas sometimes doing that would just get me swatted as soon as i land or just Nothing would happen.

final nitpick: tying the Sage powers to the Physical Location Of An NPC With Bad Pathfinding That You Can't Call Back To You was an absurdly fucking stupid decision and i want to find whoever at nintendo had that idea so i can bash their face with a frying pan. put the fucking sage powers on D-Pad Down (Hold) please

[timegears-moved]

would you tell me some about revali... i ve never played zelda but characters who are arrogant is my favorite in the world

oh my god you have opened the floodgates

so for context: in botw there are these four machines called the divine beasts that are each piloted by a member of the four non-hylian races in hyrule (those being the rito, zora, gerudo and gorons). the job of the divine beasts is to aid in the defeat of the big evil of the game calamity ganon and the pilots, along with the hylian hero that carries the master sword (link obviously) are called champions. revali is the rito champion of the bird-like divine beast called vah medoh.

revali is a really abrasive character with a chip on his shoulder. he's always bitching about something. he's also an exceptionally skilled archer and managed to develop his own technique called revali's gale, which allows him to create an undraft, something that no other rito was able to do. he was the top dog in rito village so it was obvious that zelda was gonna choose him to be a champion.

and then he meets the other champions. all of them come from a high-ranking lineage and have a natural born gift. link is the son of a royal knight and the goddess' chosen hero, mipha is the zora princess with the ability to heal, daruk is leader of the gorons and is able to create a defensive shield out of nothing, urbosa is the chief of the gerudo and can summon lightning and zelda, while not considered to be a champion herself, is still important to their group as she's the hylian princess and has the powers of the goddess (due to reincarnation as told in skyward sword). so when you're suddenly surrounded by people who are naturally gifted without having needed to put in the same amount of work you did, you would start to feel a little bit bitter and insecure too right? the only exception is zelda, who is struggling to awaken her sealing powers.

he has a particularly nasty attitude towards link, as he gets to play the leading role in the calamity's defeat and revali is jealous of that fact, but he also can't deny that link is a very skilled swordsman. he tries to antagonize link and get a reaction out of him in hopes of forming a rivalry, so that he can at least be assured that link views him as an equal. however link doesn't respond to his taunts. it's established that in botw the reason why link is selectively mute is because it's how he's coping with pressure of being the chosen hero and saving the lives of everyone in the kingdom. link never asked for this role and i'm sure he would gladly pass the main spotlight onto revali if he could. revali doesn't know this about link though and takes his lack of reaction as a rejection. that he isn't good enough to stand on equal ground as him, which is a massive blow to revali's pride.

revali and zelda are also fun parallels in this regard. both have had to put more work into their skills than the others and still feel underappreciated, and both envy link because of his skills and the praise he's earning (which, again, is much to the chagrin of link himself as he doesn't want this). link and zelda eventually do become close friends though and it's heavily implied that it's zelda's love for link (regardless of if you view it as romantic or platonic) that finally awakens her powers. zelda becoming friends with link is how we find out about his anxiety and selective muteness.

okay back to revali now: he dies from the calamity lol. but his death seems to humble him a little bit? like his spirit is still trapped inside medoh and when link, after spending a century in a restoration chamber and losing his memories, comes to free the divine beast, revali is a lot less bitchy. his dialogue to link while he's on medoh is playful, he outwardly expresses concern for him if he gets injured in the fight with windblight ganon, and at the end of it all he can admit with a smile on his face that link was the better hero afterall. AND I NEED TO RANT ABOUT HOW THE ENGLISH DUB BUTCHERED IT because in english revali says that link was lucky but in the japanese version he actually does praise link genuinely. so the dub just makes his compliments come across as shallow and i hate it.

revali is also just??? really funny?????? his diary reveals a lot of depth about him. for starters he writes pages and pages about how much he "hates" link and how he can't stand him and how much he wants him to notice him and pay attention to him and "god i can't stop thinking about link that nefarious knight is driving me insane with how gorgeous he is he's clearly being beautiful to rub it in my face and he keeps making my heart race. with rage. because i fucking hate him." he also complains about how pompous the hylian champion ceremony is and that it's completely unnecessary (he does like the scarf though). and he's absolutely adamant that "the diary of revali, a rito legend" was NOT written by him do not believe anybody that says otherwise. and on a softer note he does express his sympathy for zelda and her struggles with controlling her powers in his diary, because he really does get it.

hopefully that was comprehensible i'm bad at articulating my thoughts in a cohesive manner. anyway here's some of my fav images of him

[gay-jesus-probably]

Seeing as the Gerudo turned on Ganon, he might not have been that much better of a ruler.

First of all, we literally have no idea, because the only ancient Gerudo that we actually get to interact with is Ganondorf himself, and he has nothing to say about his own people. The ancient Gerudo sage doesn't count btw, she doesn't have a name, we never even see her face, and she has literally nothing to say except repeating the exact same dialogue as the sages for the other races. The narrative does not treat the ancient sages as people; they are four completely interchangable weapons that are owned by the royal family.

And secondly, I don't care how Ganon ruled them; the Gerudo only get one man every century, if their king sucks, they've obviously got their own system of government to fall back on. I have no idea what kind of authority the sages had among their own people, but honestly I'd say if the four of them were in charge of their respective people, then they were just puppet rulers appointed by Rauru, given that all four of them happily agreed that to sell their entire race into servitude the second Zelda asked them. Say what you will about Ganondorf, but I fucking know that if he was told the Gerudo people existed for the sole purpose of serving the glory of Hyrule, he'd drop kick Zelda into the fucking sun.

And don't get me started on the implications of the cultural differences we see between the independent Gerudo and the annexed Gerudo. The background Gerudo characters all have their own models, and we can clearly see that the ones siding with Ganon have their own unique looks - for example, the amazing lady with the mohawk that summons the molduga swarm in that one flashback. And men are never mentioned in these flashbacks at all, which implies that the Gerudo genuinely didn't care about settling down. Ganon even speaks derisively about marriage, implying that it's very rare for Gerudo women to make serious romantic commitments with men. It implies that their culture is more along the same line as their portrayal in OOT - they are a closed culture. Men trying to force their way into their areas are arrested, and mocked for being entitled dumbasses. Outsiders are only welcome if they can prove that they respect the Gerudo as people, and aren't just there to try and pick up chicks. It's never outright said, but OOT also makes it pretty clear that the Gerudo women just aren't interested in marrying outsiders - close relationships occur with other Gerudo, Hylian men are only considered useful for making babies.

Meanwhile the Gerudo we see serving Hyrule are all trying to measure up to Hylian beauty standards, and appeal to their men. Their one goal in life is to meet a man and get married. Men are welcome in their lands, and only kept out of the town itself... and even then, there's a small army of guys trying to force their way into the town anyways, which is brushed off as just haha, boys will be boys. No men allowed isn't even about independence, it's just a silly romantic tradition.

Of course this is just a fictional culture in a game world, but it's still really fucking uncomfortable that the 'evil' Gerudo are the ones that have independence, both politically and socially, and display a unique culture that refuses to tolerate disrespect from outsiders. Meanwhile the 'good' Gerudo are the ones that canonically exist to serve a kingdom where 95% of the population is light skinned (even setting aside the unfortunate implications, just saying one race exists to serve a different one is super fucked up), they have classes on how to be more appealing to Hylian's, and their entire social structure is built around finding a Hylian man to marry, making them all inherently dependent on the goodwill of outsiders. Even their biggest value of 'women only' is treated as a joke; men trying to trespass in BOTW are just shoved back out the door, letting them keep trying all day if they want. The crowds of men plotting to force their way in are laughed off as a joke. Nobody cares that there's a guy running laps around their city walls and trying to trick women into being alone with him. I mean for fucks sake, in TOTK we find that the creepy guy trying to lure women away has taken advantage of a massive disaster to get into the town, and he's still there once things return to normal. You can't kick him out, or alert anyone to his presence. And the Gerudo just tolerate Hylians blatantly ignoring their boundaries. For fucks sake, TOTK even reveals that the seven legendary heroines they've been revering the whole time were actually completely useless and unable to achieve anything... because they needed the eighth hero, a Hylian man to teach them basic tactics and do all the heavy lifting.

TOTK does not respect the Gerudo people in the slightest. It doesn't respect anyone who isn't Hylian or Zonai.

...This got a little off track, but the point I'm trying to make is, no, I don't consider the Gerudo turning on Ganon to mean anything. The entire game does not feel like the real story of what happened, it feels like the propaganda version of history meant to make Hyrule look as good as possible. I genuinely cannot believe that we're being told the real story about the Imprisoning War, because none of it feels real, and we don't get to know any details that might have made Hyrule look even slightly imperfect. We're told that Ganondorf is evil because he hates Hyrule, and he hates Hyrule because he's evil. The Gerudo people followed Ganondorf and saw him as a hero of their people, then suddenly he was their worst enemy. Hyrule is a perfect kingdom that has strong, equal alliances with the other races, but also all of the non-Hylian races exist for the sole purpose of serving Hyrule, and their leaders are expected to swear eternal loyalty and submission to the Hylian royal family. King Rauru and Queen Sonia united all of the races in peace and equality, which is why they're sitting on the world's supply of magical nuclear missiles, and every member of the Hylian royal family is allowed to walk around wearing them as cute accessories, but everyone else only gets them at the last second, and they all need to outright swear to only use that power to benefit Rauru and his descendants.

There's just so many fucked up contradictions, and so many hints of something more nuanced going on... but the story refuses to acknowledge any of it, and just keeps aggressively pushing the narrative that Hyrule is the ultimate good and couldn't possibly do anything wrong. I don't even believe that Ganon was a bad king honestly; we never hear why his people stopped following him. We also never even see if the Gerudo people turned on him at all; all we know is the ancient Gerudo sage wanted him dead, and given that she also happily sold her people into slavery, she's not exactly the most trustworthy source of information. All we know is that Ganondorf was a hero to his people, only one of his citizens is ever shown having an issue with him (and her motives are never explained), and then he lost the war and was sealed away, leaving his people open to be conquered by Zelda and annexed into Hyrule. By the time we see any Gerudo actually opposing Ganon (apart from the ancient sage), it's been ten thousand years since the war, and all anyone knows is the Hylian version of the story.

[waywardsalt]

my grievances with botw

Breath of the Wild is... undeniably a fantastic game, but it is very genuinely not the kind of game I like, and since I started playing it I’ve been enjoying it less and less so... I have a pair of problems with it that I’d figure I’d go into, as well as some stuff that, while weak in botw, were executed better in past loz games.

(small shoutout to @zeldanamikaze for encouraging this and having some points that i agree with and had some examples that i hadn’t thought about much initially)

Again, Breath of the Wild is an objectively impressive game, and I’m not trying to sit here and convince you that it’s a bad game. I’m just trying to point out things that detracted from my enjoyment of it, especially compared to my enjoyment of other Zelda games.

Before I get into the big stuff, I’ll just shoot off some quick little things that I think could’ve been improved:

- The dungeons generally felt like glorified shrines, and while they had cool mechanics and ways to access them, they were short and more or less pretty simple and all have similar visual and musical identities.

- Side quests and their rewards didn’t feel worth doing half of the time. I barely remember any notable ones off the top of my head and the longer ones just gave mostly generic rewards, which I suppose makes sense considering the limited amount of truly unique items in botw.

- Seeing the same enemies over and over again made the combat feel more like a chore than something to really engage with, not to mention that there is hardly any difficulty scaling beyond just making the enemies more durable.

- The story is fine, but in my experience, even seeing people go into more detail about the meanings of events, I never really cared for the events or the characters presented, since you don’t actually have to directly interact with any of that to play the game. Hell, you don’t even need to interact with the story at all to beat it, so the focus certainly doesn’t feel like it’s on the story.

- It would be a lie to call the soundtrack bad, but it’s sparse usage makes it hard to truly appreciate and the fact that most of it is meant to be more atmospheric generally makes them a bit less interesting to listen to on their own, though I will admit there are some fantastic tracks in botw, usually being some of the boss themes.

- While the Sheikah slate runes are cool, they feel very bland after a while, especially compared to the varied items seen in previous games. They’re good tools for an open world, but not much fun otherwise (the bombs were good though, since they had a variety of uses).

And that’s the quick stuff- again, mostly courtesy of @zeldanamikaze, since these are the examples I’ve seen her mention.

I have two big points that kind of encapsulate why I dislike this game and still adore the older games, that being: the minigames and the items and their relationships to dungeons.

Breath of the Wild is a very different game than what came past it, and I am very aware that it is a vast departure from those other games for a reason. However, this leads me to view it not only simply as a game not up my alley, but also as kind of inferior in some aspect to those previous Zelda games. Breath of the World is first and foremost an open world game, seemingly putting a focus on gameplay enjoyment above all else (not to imply that the ‘else’ is bad because of this, but I do think that the ‘else’ suffers in comparison to other Zelda titles.)

It may also be worth mentioning that the other Zelda games I have played is the following: LoZ NES, Link’s Awakening (Original and Remake), Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Phantom Hourlgass, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, and Triforce Heroes. I have also played both hyrule warriors games as well as loz 2, wind waker, and minish cap, none of the latter 3 i have finished or currently have access to.

1: The Minigames

Minigames are common in Zelda games, so of course botw has a few scattered around it’s world. Botw’s minigames are very different than the minigames seen in past Zelda games, mostly due in part to the limited array of items and unique gameplay gimmicks available in botw. Botw’s minigames usually focus on different forms of archery, gliding, or rune usage: all things integral to normal gameplay. At best you get rupees or cosmetic items from most minigames.

Botw’s minigames are just slightly altered situations of normal gameplay. The bowling is just using stasis except this time the game has a special little arena for it. Pretty much all of the archery games are either just counting how many deer you can kill or if you can just hit some targets on horseback. There’s one race I can think of and one gliding activity I can think of.

This makes sense, considering that there are a handful of other non-minigame activities to engage in, but these minigames feel... hollow. None of the minigames feature gameplay exclusive to those minigames or feature gameplay only used in certain parts of the game. They all make use of readily available mechanics in botw, so they’re like tests of skill- but otherwise not really any worth giving a second-thought unless you want to see how good of a glider or archer you are or grab some extra rupees.

But they aren’t very... worth it or generally fun within the context of botw. It’s just another way to do something that is available to you pretty much all game. They don’t feel unique, they just feel like a task.

Previous Zelda games (obviously) have archery minigames and allow you to use archery when you get the bow and from that point onward. And yet the archery minigames are made unique from the rest of the archery in the game; ocarina of time’s archery minigame is simply just shooting at targets, but the possible rewards and the simple fact that not often are you going to be continuously shooting arrows at enemies make it a bit of a novel experience within oot. The minigames in past zelda games take advantage of the items and area-specific mechanics: they usually include item-exclusive mechanics like bombchu games, or take advantage of more specific mechanics, like the minecarts in skyward sword, the masks in majora’s mask, or being able to control gongoron in phantom hourglass.

They also gave genuine rewards- empty bottles, quest items, ship parts, new masks, heart containers or pieces, kinds of stuff that are hard to get and very valuable. They’re worth doing for reasons outside of just a little activity. The minigames in other Zelda games do really enhance the experience by taking advantage of situational mechanics or giving a unique usage for some items.

You can probably get every item in botw without playing all of the minigames. They have little actual purpose. But in other zelda games, they have a purpose in the greater game and provide novel experiences within the game.

2: Items and their relationships with the dungeons

Obviously, compared to past games, botw’s ‘dungeons’ kind of sucked. They’re fine in a vacuum, with interesting gimmicks and the like, but they’re really little more than glorified shrines with four different-but-similar bosses at the end.

In my opinion, one of reasons why the divine beasts just... fell flat compared to other zelda dungeons is the lack of unique items in general. The runes in botw are cool and useful but you get them at the start of the game and never get anything new. You are give every tool you need to beat all of the dungeons the moment you finish the tutorial.

Older zelda games’ dungeons being tied to their respective items is a big part- to me- of what makes those dungeons so good.

Obviously, the theming, musical themes, and larger layouts and more varied puzzles make them objectively better experiences, but the way they interact with item acquisition makes the whole thing even better. 

Even in a link between worlds, where you can get every item whenever you want from Ravio, each dungeon is still tied to one of those items, and one of those items is needed to successfully complete that dungeon.

The dungeons in past Zelda games are practically complex tutorials on how you can use your new items. They are where those items shine and they are designed so that those items are used to their fullest potential within. And then you must then use that item to defeat that dungeon’s boss, and you usually have no chance of beating that boss if you don’t make use of the dungeon’s associated item. It’s like a final test for the item, seeing if you know how it works enough to complete the dungeon and use it against a boss’s weaknesses.

The most recent example, and probably one of the best, is needing to use the whip to tear off koloktos’ arms in the ancient cistern, but the classic scenario of the bombs for king dodongo works well enough, and the bosses of majora’s mask requiring you to understand how the transformation masks work. There are definitely some bosses that require no use of dungeon items (moldorm in the tower of hera, either ghirahim fights), but the item’s usage is still showcased prominently in their dungeons.

Outside of the dungeons, too, the progressive acquisition of items makes more areas and secrets available to you, giving a much more palpable sense of progression through those games’ worlds.

In botw, you get every tool the moment you are released into the rest of hyrule, so while figuring out what to do with those tools can be fun, the sense of progression is dampened by having every item from the start and nothing you gain beyond that being needed for anything aside from a nice little ability to make things easier.

I’m not really too sure exactly why I never found botw fun the way everyone else does, but I think lackluster minigames and the general lack of items that aid a sense of progression are parts of it.

[thelegendofhino]

Totk spoilers ahead!!

I beat the game yesterday (and then got a really bad migraine right after) and it got me thinking about monsters and how the blood moon works. Ive been thinking about it for a while now (thanks to hino) but like.. what happens AFTER ganondorf is gone? Do monsters still exist? Does the blood moon still happen?

In one of the dragons tears memories, it shows the gerudo summoning a bunch of moldugas. This is before the whole demon king stuff ganondorf does, so obviously monsters did exist already. Moldugas, like all other monsters, get revived by the blood moon. But it doesnt seem like monsters ever got revived until ganondorf causes the blood moon and it shows all the monsters coming out of nowhere just poofing into existence, possibly being monsters that have been slain before then.

In botw, one of the memories has link and zelda surrounded by the corpses of many monsters that link defeated, and zelda mentions that monsters have been getting more aggressive, making her worry that something bad will happen soon. But when you defeat a monster, they poof away. The blood moon revives them, but if they just stay dead there, does that mean they dont get revived?

Which makes me wonder about the stal monsters. How are there skeletons of monsters if monsters dont die like that? I guess its because sometimes they do. Sometimes they die like any other animal. Maybe these skeletons are just remnants of those monsters that died a normal death.

Hino says that the blood moon has been happening since the calamity 100 years ago, meaning the blood moon stopped happening since the previous calamity 10,000 years ago. That would give a good time period for monsters to not be able to get revived and instead just die normally (as for how they reproduce.. umm idk. Also, can they die of old age?), but it makes me wonder.. did the blood moon continue to happen after you defeat calamity ganon? Were there any blood moons before the upheaval?

And then, in totk, are there any more blood moons after you defeat ganondorf? Do monsters stay existing or do they just all disappear? I dont think theyd all disappear, because again, those moldugas in the dragon tears memory imply that monsters very much did exist outside of ganondorfs influence. And there were a LOT of moldugas, but now theres only, what, 4 at a time? Idk if theres more in totk but there was only 4 in botw.

And then the individual monsters themselves. Theyre mostly social creatures, they hunt, they make tools, they work together, they build shelter, they collect and protect things they consider to be valuable, bokoblins even tame horses and use wagons. Down in the depths, they mine for zonaite (what do they even do with the zonaite?). They have their own nutritional needs, with bokoblins eating fruit and meat, moblins eating mostly meat, lizalfos eat fish and bugs, etc. You can see bokoblins chatting with each other, wearing the lizalfos mask makes lizalfos attempt to speak to you (not that you can understand them), monsters are also territorial and are not unwilling to fight each other. Theyre not just blindly following whatever purpose ganondorf made them for, they do their own thing, even if that thing happens to be attacking people on sight (except hino, for whatever reason). Lynels are extremely territorial and patrol their small designated areas, and are also described to be very intelligent, and sometimes they wont attack you even if they do spot you, as long as you keep your distance and leave their range as soon as possible. But with ganondorf trying to destroy the kingdom and all, youd think monsters would be a lot more aggressive than they already are, opting to attack villages much more often. But instead they seem to stay put, for the most part (lurelin village is in outlier here), so it seems like monsters have their own awareness. I think the monsters have this sort of awareness that the blood moon will revive them, given how they dont really seem to be too concerned about other monsters getting killed around them, or they at least get over it pretty quickly.

Other than that, i think ganondorf has way too much faith in the monsters (that monster hoard fight before ganondorf was.. a bit underwhelming, to say the least) and maybe he just thinks bokoblins are cute or something (they kinda are!)

Are monsters less evil now that ganondorf is gone? Can you go fishing with a lizalfos?

[gainaxvel3o]

Wander as a deconstruction of Link

After another playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus, I had this strange thought in the back of my mind. Talking it over with a friend, I realized the protagonist of the game, Wander, had some aspects shared with Link from the Legend of Zelda, and that there was some interesting stuff worth talking about in terms of what they have in common, but more importantly, how they effectively contrast. I argue that Wander comes across as a weird inversion of Link once you compare them.

It's not one to one, Link never talks while Wander does a couple of times in the beginning, but still. Both are stoic sword wielders out on a quest. With their trusty horse, they travel across distant lands to find and kill monsters to fulfill their goal. Pretty surface level observations, sure, but both are united by an unwavering determination to see their quest through to the end.

In Link's world, that determination is portrayed as a heroic one. Why not? In those games, you are given a divine mandate to save the world from an evil villain (which is not always, but usually Ganondorf). He rescues people, performs sidequests, solves puzzles inside of dungeons, rescues the princess and fights evil. The monsters are terrors that threaten people, of course Link has to stop them. In a fantasy world with good vs evil morality and clear cut instructions, Link shines bright as a purely noble, well-intentioned hero. No matter how dark the situation gets, like the moon falling or the world being forced through an apocalypse, there is no question that Link is a good and what he does is good. His determination is a guiding light to the characters in-universe, with no real reason to question it.

They say a tragedy is putting the hero in the wrong story. If that's true, then Wander is an example of it in action. For starters, the story of Shadow of the Colossus is intentionally left ambiguous and up to interpretation. We know that Wander is carrying a woman named Mono to a forbidden land, we know that he's making a deal with Dormin to resurrect her from a cursed fate, and we know that he has to exterminate the Colossi. At the very end, we learn that Wander took his sword, the only thing that can kill a Colossus, from a man named Emon. Dormin posses his body but Emon performs some ritual that takes down Wander, and we last see Mono holding a horned baby implied to be him. We have bullet points, but at no point do we get real answers. What is Mono to Wander? A lover, friend or sister? What are the Colossi beyond being Dormin's soul jars? Is Dormin evil? Emon considers them such, but is he right? We don't know, and it wouldn't suit the game to let us know.

From the get-go, Shadow of the Colossus is a gray canvas so we're only allowed to judge Wander based on what he does on the quest. Okay, then what does he do? Well, we know he's trying to resurrect Mono, a very personal motivation. We know it goes against the natural laws of his world, as both Emon and Dormin point out. There are no townspeople in the Forbidden Lands, so we don't get to see how Wander typically interacts with others or get sidequests to solve/make the world better. The Colossi don't have minions protecting them, so Wander doesn't get impressions of them beyond what he sees. It's just him and Agro crossing great distances to reach the Colossi and wipe them out. Most of the time, a Colossus would just be minding their own business when some weird dude with a sword runs up to stab 'em. They are the only things to do in the game.

Because the game's story is minimalist in details, the morality of Wander's actions isn't so clearly defined the way Link's usually are. Because of this, Wander's determination can be off-putting, even monstrous, due to not having much of a greater context than the moment. He is explicitly killing the Colossi, making them bleed, using fire to scare one, firing arrows into airbags into another, making them suffer, for a selfish desire to save one person. Whatever regrets Wander has, like Agro's supposed death, he sets it aside for his goal. If we see Dormin as evil, Wander might even be potentially damning the world to save Mono. His determination is framed as a tragic rather than heroic.

In this light, Wander comes across as a strange, bizarre inversion of Link, actively defying destiny and murdering for his own sake. At best, he's an anti-hero fulfilling dirty acts. At worst, he's the villain. We don't know, because Shadow of the Colossus refuses to answer. It's all muddied waters compared to Zelda, where the hero's actons are put in world-saving contexts. Even Link's most morally ambiguous journey, the ordeal of the Wind Fish, is justified in part with rescuing him from nightmares attacking his mind. I doubt the designers behind Shadow of the Colossus had this in their thought process, but it's pretty interesting to compare the two, especially as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom seem to take some inspiration from SotC (from the climbing mechanics, the wide open sandbox, the Divine Beasts, etc).

[tow-bees]

okay but like everyone saying that the title of Tears of the Kingdom is referencing all the trauma Hyrule has faced from the demise cycle n stuff make some real interesting points, but I don’t think that’s what the title is referencing at all.

Pretty much all Zelda titles have been pretty literal in some way, like ocarina of time references the physical ocarina of time, majora’s mask references an actual mask called majora, the wind waker the wind waker, four sword four sword, twilight princess the princess of twilight, spirit tracks has trains, skyward sword a skyward sword etc etc even Breath of the Wild is referencing the massive open world + freedom of movement which constitutes the main gimmick of the game. There are very few if any exceptions to this. They all reference a defining feature of the game, something concrete about the game that separates it from the others. Referencing the reoccurring trauma of hyrule...doesn’t really fit this bill, I think. It’s too vague, and applicable to pretty much any other zelda game.

I would wager that the tears reference a specific defining element of the game, something specific about the story or gameplay. In other words, I don’t think the tears are going to be a metaphor for something, like sadness or the longterm destruction of the kingdom, but rather actual physical tears.

I have three main ideas of how this could manifest:

1. We’re gonna get more sheikah lore.

It would make sense considering how much more they were elaborated on in botw. In fact, not only did botw provide pretty much the vast majority of the canon lore about the sheikah as of now, but it implemented many ideas that could definitely be elaborated on, such as the sheikah monks, the ancient technology, and the yiga clan. Especially considering how tears of the kingdom was originally supposed to be botw dlc but got too big for that, it makes sense that elaborating on some of these things would be the natural first step to build off of in tears of the kingdom.

But how does this connect to the title? The sheikah are the shadow folk who for generations served the hylian royal family. However, their symbol is an eye with a tear drop coming from it. I don’t think it is so absurd to imply that the sheikah themselves might be the tears of the kingdom.

considering how sheikah-centric botw was, I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to consider that tears of the kingdom would plunge even further into the lore behind them. And if the title isn’t referencing the sheikah themselves, it could still be referencing one of their technologies, such as...idk...

The TEAR DROP THING THAT UPGRADES THE SHEIKAH SLATE.

Like,,,, what is this magic goop stuff that powers all the sheikah technology??? WHAT IS IT??? and like IT’S A LITERAL MAGIC TEAR, I would not put it past nintendo at all to go “actually wait a minute what is this glowy blue shit, let’s make a dlc about that oops it got too elaborate”

which leads to my next proposition (which sort of connects to this one)

2. It’s drawing from those segments of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess where link had to collect tears

many people have already proposed this but I haven’t really seen it connected to the first point I made yet so I’m proposing this anyway. So like, magic tears are not a new concept to zelda at all and there are probably many instances I’m forgetting of like random collectibles and potions but the two most prominent instances are in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword where link is given a vessel to collect divine tears

and these vessels look miiiighty similar to 

this thing link has on his hip that replaces the sheikah slate...

now, as I said I am far from the first person to notice this or even connect the title to the sheikah and I am sure someone else has made this connection before but I don’t care because I’m just having fun lol but like

this new vessel could be collecting something that is or is similar to the blue liquid powering sheikah tech, maybe even some kind of substance that predates it that was later turned into the blue sheikah goo (especially considering the prevalence of zonai symbology, and considering they were strong magic weilders, maybe the sheikah tech goo was based off of magic zonai goo??) but idk I’m just saying shit now.

But I think this is especially plausible considering just how much botw pulled from skyward sword, with the stamina mechanic and the glider basically being a souped up sailcloth, and now with tears of the kingdom straight up having souped up skyloft...it would make sense that the zelda team might also revisit the tear collecting mechanic and soup it up. But like what do I know because

3. In all honesty it’s entirely likely that there is no way to predict what the title means.

Yes, nintendo did say the title would contain spoilers, which would imply that it is possible to extrapolate something important about the game from it. However, the legend of zelda also has a habit of not giving two shits about precedence and going in whatever wild direction it wants regardless of what it has done or established before. Honestly, I think that’s one of the series traits that makes it so amazing, but it also makes it incredibly difficult if not near impossible to predict anything about its future. Like, back in the ocarina of time days, no one would have guessed that one day link would turn into a wolf, ride a talking boat, or fly on an enormous red bird. There was absolutely no precedence set for that lmao.

So while I am confident in my theory that the title refers to something physical that pertains to the specific game rather than something that connects all the games, as well as the likelihood that physical thing connects to the sheikah (+ by extension maybe also the zonai?) and their technology goo, and that the game is likely taking inspo from the tears collection mechanic from skyward sword and twilight princess, I have absolutely NO DOUBT that even if all of that turns out to be true, nintendo is going to do something really wierd and unexpected from there and it will be near impossible to guess what. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

(it also means my theory that link’s new glowy blue hand talks, has a personality, and has a personal, paper-related, vendetta is still on the table)