#socksock

[hersunsettia]

good morning i would like to zelink today

[cooking-with-hailstones]

The Legend of Zelda: stats of the kingdom

A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3

I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So over the past couple weeks, I’ve been making this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the Legend of Zelda fandom on AO3.

Feel free to go explore the spreadsheet. My own observations and analysis under the cut.

TL:DR, Link has a lot of kinky sex. Sidlink and Zelink are vying for who’s the most popular ship. Also, this fandom has a shit ton of sub categories that are truly islands unto themselves and have their own conventions.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of AO3 results (20 fics per page) sorted by:

Hits

Kudos

Comments

Bookmarks

Anything tagged under the Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms tag that was in the top 20 most hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks made it into the spreadsheet. This ended up including 51 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Popular fandom subcategories:

Botw (41 fics tagged as such)

Linked Universe (9, including one mostly set in the world of BOTW)

OoT (2)

(I do wonder what it would be like to run these numbers on other fanfic sites, given the popularity boom of ao3 over the last 15 years or so. But also, Botw was an insanely popular game even by Zelda standards, so… who knows?)

Tags:

Character tags: Obviously, Link was by far the most popular character, but here are the characters that had a minimum of 3 appearances per category. Yay champions!

Zelda

Sidon

Mipha

Urbosa

Revali

Daruk

Story tags: Again, just going by sheer numbers, here are the story tags that appeared at least 3 times in every category:

Slowburn

AU – canon divergence

With honorable mentions to fluff, angst, double penetration, anal sex, amnesia/memory loss, and mute or selectively mute Link, who all cracked above 3 instances in 2 separate categories.

Relationships:

This was a tight race, but shoutout to Sidlink for eking out the win for the most highly rated ship in the Zelda fandom with 13 fics qualifying in my ranking. Zelink is close behind at 10 fics. (That being said, Zelink takes it by volume: 7,797 fics tagged as Zelink vs Sidlink’s 2,193)

Other popular ships:

Revalink (8) (this one surprised me! I didn’t realize my beloved birb was so popular)

Miphlink (3)

Link/Monsters (2)

Sidon/Reader (2)

Ganzelink, Ganlink, Malink, Miphzelink, and Miphzel all made single appearances.

(Pls don’t start ship war discourse in the notes kthanx)

All right, let’s deep dive into the numbers!

Fics in all 4 categories:

Interim - starkraving

Sands of time -tirsynni

Congrats you are officially the most popular Loz fics across all of ao3! at least according to my particular scope of analysis.

Fics in 3 categories:

Displaced - socksock

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

Popular authors (people who show up more than once in multiple categories sorry comments georg)

MarquesGillette

MaryDragon

SilvermistAnimeLover

ObakeAri

Hits:

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Displaced - socksock

Interim - starkraving

To Save Hyrule - orphan_account

Sands of time - tirsynni

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

First page by hits:

Min: 117,917 – Sidon’s Epic Pining Adventure (ObakeAri)  

Max:  189,622 – Displaced (socksock)

Average: 145,385

Average wordcount for fics with the most hits:

140,909

Kudos:

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Interim - starkraving

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

26 Minutes and 42 Seconds - T_5Seconds

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

First page by kudos:

Min: 4917 – Finding Link (Umbreonix)

Max:  10321 – Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (Icka M Chif)

Average: 6981

Average wordcount for fics with the most kudos:

41,136

Comments:

Top 5 most popular fics by comment count:

Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes - KR5

This is an Adjuration - notfreyja

My Art - KR5

Sidon's Epic Pining Adventure - ObakeAri

Priestess of War - KR5

Woohoo! You all get to meet KR5 aka Comments Georg. Comments Georg has long conversations and RPs in the comments of their ao3 posts, which are usually fanart. TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND COOL! I think it’s quite delightful! However, it does completely bork my ranking system because outside of comments, these posts do not have a lot of engagement (like, less than 100 hits and less than 20 kudos) and I don’t think they count towards my analysis of “what is popular in the Zelda fandom writ large”. But they qualified based on my criteria. Which I think speaks to the weakness of my criteria more than anything else tbh…

Anyways, shoutout to Comments Georg for truly showing off what it means to be a statistical outlier.

First page by comments:

Min: 1568 – The Quiet River Rages (MaryDragon)

Max:  43808 - Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes (KR5)

Average: 4131 (which goes down to 2042 if we exclude KR5’s impressive max, which is a full order of magnitude more than notfreyja in second place with 3470 comments. Very much demonstrating the power of a statistical outlier!)

Average wordcount for fics with the most comments:

275,593

Bookmarks:

Top 5 most popular fics by bookmarks count:

Interim - starkraving

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Sands of time - tirsynni

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

First page by bookmarks:

Min: 973 – Expatriate (thehoyden)

Max:  2984 – Interim (starkraving)

Average: 1468

Average wordcount for fics with the most bookmarks:

70,027

Fic Ratings:

G: 3 (literally all fanart from KR5)

T: 22

M: 8

E: 17

Unrated: 1

Observations:

I ran this twice. Once including crossovers, and once excluding crossovers. This filtered out a lot of large drabbles and things like “flash fiction fuckings” which, no judgment, you do you, they just weren’t super relevant for what I was looking for. If you wanna see these stats including all the multifandom stuff that shows up, here’s the link for that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXDKXutIzVC-Iac93fFSDohAkphrn67yV-DmRt9xXmU/edit?usp=sharing

(I’m going to break academic professional analysis here and get on my soapbox for a sec – please don’t post big multifandom one shots where you tag like 20 different fandoms and every single kink that gets written about across 103 different chapters. This is literally what series are for. These kinds of things just clog up the tags, and it also makes it harder for people to find the things you’ve written that they want to read! I know this was a convention on ff.net, but this is not ff.net! We can make authors' lives and readers' lives easier!)

There were 38,427 fics in the tag “Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms” (including crossovers, that goes up to 41,634). I manually added one back in though because it was entirely a botw story, just loosely inspired by another game.

Linked Universe fans comment a LOT. Strong correlation between high comment and Linked Universe fandom subsection. Y’all are very involved and active, and you show support to your authors. I salute you!

Sidlinkers, y'all are horny and I respect it.

Zelinkers, dear god we do love a slowburn.

All the most highly kudos’d fics are very low in the comment count. It’s almost an inverse correlation.

Excluding crossovers increased the correlation between hits and kudos quite dramatically.

There were not very many au’s other than canon divergence. Only one modern au as far as I could tell from a cursory examination of tags.

Lots more clustering, far less disparity between min and max numbers than when I ran this with A:TLA numbers.

Far less consensus on a vibe. Way fewer big writers, but lots of little writers doing their own thing.

Truly a lot of E fics. We are horny bastards.

We need more stuff written for games other than BOTW!!

There aren’t as many fics that are like “oh everyone in the fandom has read these fics”. There are probably those fics in each subcategory of the fandom, or within the specific ships, but there aren’t as many general fics that have entire fandom-wide appeal.

Thank you for reading! This was a lot of fun, and I hope you found it interesting. Shoutout to the Hateno Hangout discord for helping me refine this mess :P

Further shoutout to my partner who helped with writing some SQL to help with tag analysis. Truly partner of the year.

If you want more of this kind of egregious nerdiness, I did this with the top fics in the A:TLA fandom a couple weeks ago: https://www.tumblr.com/cooking-with-hailstones/751749202663669760/statistical-analysis-of-the-most-popular-atla

[randomrecsknifedrawer]

OPLA Zosan Fics (P2)

Worse Fates by 9_of_Clubs

“Get out.” Zoro tries to snarl, but his voice trembles.

“Get out.” Sanji chortles, above him. Dark humor laces through the words, laughing but laugh-less, and worry drenches into them, doesn’t bother to disguise itself. “Can you believe this guy?” He asks the ceiling.

---

Or, often, pain gets worse at night. Or, can there ever be enough wound tending, really? Or, I read about Sanji's other backstory and couldn't resist a little kiss of angst. Another little coda to the OPLA finale.

Word Count: 1,763  - Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Wound Tending, Touch Starved, OPLA

orange peels and sips of gin by caddigan

"So it’s no surprise that Luffy eventually comes up with the idea of a crew bonding activity- truth or dare. Zoro manages to get drinks on the agenda as well, so now all five crew members lay spread out beneath the deck in the mess hall, lights dim and conversation raucous."

truth or dare is, in hindsight, a horrible idea.

Word Count: 4,003 - Fluff, Team As a Family, Truth or Dare, Bickering, OPLA

Not Special by socksock **accounts only

The Strawhats are a group of huggers. And Zoro's fine with it. Except when it's the waiter.

Word Count: 9,843 - Idiots to Lovers, Flirting, OPLA, Mature

You'll whisper lies to me (and one of them will be true) by Anonymous

Sanji introduces Zoro to Two Truths and a Lie. He only ever plays with Zoro, and all his lies are shit.

(Alternatively: Sanji subjects himself to the mortifying ordeal of being known by Zoro. He does everything in his power to ensure Zoro doesn't realize that's what's happening.)

Word Count:  5,277 - Drinking Games, Miscommunication, Getting to Know Each Other, OPLA

lovefool by olgaphobia

“You're trying to distract me,” Zoro says.

Sanji hums, drops his head onto Zoro's shoulder, and feels his own pain, feels Zoro's intake of breath. Sits there, kinda sleepy now, Usopp making snuffling noises horizonal on the other side of the table, and Zoro very warm under his cheek. Maybe he is too drunk, because his eyes are closing and his breathing is evening out, and the hurt isn't that much, anymore, can barely feel it at all.

“You little shit,” Zoro says eventually.

Sanji grins to himself, says more to Zoro’s neck, “You think?"

/ / /

The many loves of Sanji's life.

Alternatively: Of course he's fucking with him.

Word Count: 9,110 - Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Character Study, Food Metaphors, OPLA

Understanding by kairiSparda

Zoro still recovering from his injury doesn't really understand the Waiter from the Baratie.

Sanji the only one with some experience in injury treatment feels the need to help him recover, after all he can't leave his dear captain without his moss for brains first mate.

Word Count: 3,350 - Injury Recovery, Pre-Relationship, Character Study, OPLA

[syrupfog]

I’m halfway through If there was a Me for You by socksock / @airplanned and I had to IMMEDIATELY stop and draw what is clearly the most important scene in the fic

[sheikfangirl]

Positively adore your art!! Thank you for sharing it!! Also, would you happen to know of any fics that sort of resemble your art style or ones that inspired it? I’m right there with you I love the basic vanilla vibe and I have been trying to find a decent fic to get into before I finish totk

thank you!!

Thank you so much for your kind words for my art

🙏 I greatly appreciate!🙏

I have a confession to make dear friend! I hadn't read fanfictions in several years but beating Totk made me go FERAL for Zelda material and explore what's been written since BotW came out.... oh boy the rabbit hole is deep!

There is a lot of good stuff out there but I have read so many fanfics in a short time that the whole thing is a blurry mess in my brain. BUT! There is one in particular that really stood out and left a lasting impression on me: Displaced written by socksock https://archiveofourown.org/works/21128084/chapters/50279321 It was originally written in 2018, before the release of TotK so there are some small and harmless inconsistencies that can easily be ignored because, duh, it was written BEFORE totk. I particularly liked this fanfic because it has all the qualities I'm looking for!! Also several key moments and general ideas in that story are extremely close to my own headcanon to the point it almost scared me. The story focuses on Zelda trying to find her place in post-calamity Hyrule. The characters are very well written and credible, Link's personality is player behavior accurate (MORE OF THAT PLEASE!!!!!!!!) and obsessed with completing his quests backlog and I thought it was amazing. Damn i love a player accurate Link!!

It's a wholesome slow burn romance, lots of humor, it's sexy, does not take itself too seriously but can be very emotional at times. Also, I was amazed by one scene in particular....I don't want to spoil anything for you, but the Big Damn Kiss moment is *CHEF KISS*: the setting, the tone and the resolution HSGDKJS, I would've slow clapped if i could've (I was holding my phone lol)

Reading that scene, I thought to myself : F*** YES! This person gets it hahaha !!

My own Zelink Big Damn First Kiss moment shares a lot of similarities with that fic so, Im going to say it now: when 'll post the Zelink first kiss i'm currently crafting, be sure to know that Socksock and their fic Displaced did something in the same general vibe FIRST! They are awesome. I hope i answered your question haha Have a great day!

[brandycranby]

who r ur favorite authors (for ce or any fandom)??? <33

hi nonnie, i'm so sorry it's taken me a long time to answer you 🥺💕 this is just a very hard question bc i've watched so many authors deactivate or take hiatuses since i started my blog :((

on ao3:

lizzygal; she writes very good realistic readers with explosive and sassy personalities that aren't grating/annoying/etc, her smut is always passionate, realistically wet and messy, and enthusiastic

socksock; for their legend of zelda fics, i'm always a goner for a good botw fic. even if you've never played the game or know of the fandom, there's something very soothing about a fic in that world

bysine; they don't write for the MCU anymore but!! they're the greatest; not reader-inserts but their style is very creative and all their characterizations are also very grounded

StarfleetStgMgr; for their steve stuff!! especially santa baby which i should do an annual reading of again hehehe they write steve very very nicely, i enjoy their characterizations and every plot makes sense, is soothing, and can be read again and again

on the tumblrs:

@heli0s-writes

@punemy-spotted

@onsunnyside

@intrepidacious

@rodrikstark

@babyjakes

@boxofbonesfic

@levans44

@pagesoflauren

@eloquentreverie

@ghotifishreads

@needlereads

@angrythingstarlight

@ttyls (<- hehe not much published yet but i know bestie has the best concepts 🥺)

@worksby-d

@ronearoundblindly

@sweetdreamsbuck

@scrumptious-delusion

and so many others!!

and this is all in no particular order!! everyone brings something special to the table, they all have different styles and motivations to write and it's the most enjoyable thing to see all of that on my dash 🫶🏻✨💕

[vikinglanguage]

An assortment of more or less ridiculous Danish phrases to incorporate into your day-to-day life! (part the 2nd)

strømpesokker (noun, fk. pl.) – socksocks Or stockingsocks, if you will. It's socks either way.

(hjemme)futter (noun, fk. pl.) – (home)choos I literally had no idea how to translate this, but basically futter (fut in singular) are like slippers or any kind of cozy, comfortable shoes you'd wear indoors. I don't know why we sometimes call them that, but fut is also the sound a train makes. Thus: choos.

blamsefi (noun, fk.) – blasmephy Blasphemy, but wrong because it sounds funnier like this

idyd (interj.) – indeed This is what we in Danish tend to call an undersættelse (see below) of the English indeed. I 'in' and dyd 'virtue', but it kind of sounds like deed. Again, I don't know anyone who uses this except from my immediate family

undersætte (verb) – transearly (extremely not literally) Allow me to explain: in Danish translate is oversætte (lit. over + set, likely a calque of Latin trādūcō via German übersetzen). When you underdo the act of oversætte, so when you translate something badly, especially if you do it too literally, you have not translated it – you have transearlied it (excuse my creative liberties here)

hils (verb, imperative) – tell them I said hello You can use this in literally any situation when someone announces they are going anywhere at all. To Austria? Hils! Grandpa's uncle's dog's funeral? Hils! The restroom? Hils! (even better if it's not a public restroom). However, this is traditionally used to tell someone to tell the person on the other end of a phone call hello from you

knep (interj.) – fuck (literally) Literal translation of English fuck. This is considered extremely vulgar in the same way that I think fuck is to especially older speakers of English (?)

stande (verb, dialect) – refurb An alternate way to say istandsætte (long, boring, standard Danish) in the dialect of the area of Jylland where I'm from (Salling). It means to fix, repair or refurbish

slo (adj., dialect) – stale Literally means the same as stale, which (imo) doesn't have an actual word in standard Danish. Your crisps got old and soft? Slo. Bread old and dry? Slo. Straw wet and moldy? Slo. Soda lost all its fizz? Slo. Again, this is sallingbomål <3

goddawsbjerg (interj.) – g'day-hill Say this when it is clear someone has not been following what has been said or has happened around them, kind of as to say "thrilled you decided to join us mentally as well as physically". As for the prevalence, I literally don't know anyone outside of my immediate family who uses this

idyllerisk (adj.) – idyllicish Literally just idyllic but funnier

bajselademad (noun, fk.) – pinchocowich Bajselademad is a portmanteau of the words bajer/bajser 'beer' (slang, so I used pint instead of beer) and chokoladelademad 'chocolate sandwich' (open faced, obviously). It literally just means a beer

puttesove (verb) – tucky-sleep A sorta cutesy, joking way to say sleep. Putte is the word for tucking someone in, as well as just chilling in bed – with at least a blanket or duvet if not several in addition to pillows

diskodaskoluderbenzin (noun, uncountable) – disco dasco whore gasoline Excuse the misogynistic overtones, but I just genuinely think this is a very funny was of describing low percentage vodka- or rum-basesd drinks (for example Bacardi Breezer)

kodyl (adj.) – aspirin Kodyl means great or exaggerated, and you can also use it as an interjection kodylt! like you would use 'swell!', because it is pretty outdated. Kodyl was originally a brand of painkiller

hurtigkneppersko (noun, fk. pl.) – fast-fucker shoes Expensive men's shoes, usually of some kind of skin, be it leather or snake. It implies the wearer of the shoes is a braggart with nothing to really brag about. This was added to the dictionary fairly recently, to the great amusement of many Danes

slam! (onomatopoeia) – whack! An onomatopoetic word imitating the sound of being hit. Used not unlike the (now somewhat outdated) English "oooh, burn!" or just "ouch!" to indicate that something said to someone in your company was (perhaps unnecessarily) blunt, rude, or just shut them down really quickly – like a slap to the face

hjemmebragt (adj.) – home mrade Or, more accurately, home brought. Most commonly used for baked goods (originating from hjemmebagt 'baked at home') that you intended to make yourself, but you just didn't have time, so you bought it at the corner store instead. Its use has, however, in my experience been extended to include most anything that """should've""" been homemade, but isn't

konge (adj.) – king When something is really good, it's konge. Anything can be konge, from a chair to the meal your mother cooked you on your bi-annual visit at home.

brugsvildledning (noun, fk.) – user misleader · deceptions for use A play on the word for 'user guide', brugsvejledning, swapping out the nominalised form of the verb vejlede 'guide, lead' for that of vildlede ' 'mislead, decive'

ork (noun, fk.) – bear An ork is something that you just really cannot be bothered to do, because it would require some kind of effort. Doesn't matter how much effort, as it could be anything from getting your drink that you forgot in your kitchen, only realising this after you sat down, to explaining to your homophobic uncle why it's not acceptable to call gay people slurs, even if it is "just a joke". Most often, it is the former of those two scenarios

dak (noun, uncountable) – boom* Short for dakkedak, which is an onomatopoetic name for music with a strong, repetitive bass rhythm. *this is a bad translation, but it's the best I could come up with

gråssenollike (noun, fk.) – greyish feather-brain A joke-y name for a house sparrow, gråspurv. Gråsse is presumed to either originate from plain gråspurv or gråsset 'grey-ish', and nollike is a word that can mean fool, but also be used about animals or women in jest.

skemad (noun, uncountable) – spoon food Literally anything you can eat with a spoon. I believe its most common use is for the food you first give babies when they are moving on from nursing to real food, but I know quite a few people who use it for cereal because we literally only have the word “morgenmadsprodukter” for it, which is a mouthful to say.

[mistresslrigtar]

5 and 6 💫

ty for the ask @arylltea and for asking fun #5!

Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy/paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up.

Link blinks when he reaches the bottom of the ladder, allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim hold. Weak sunlight filters in around the ports where the cannon noses rest, and a lone lantern hanging from the middle of the ceiling sheds a circle of light that fails to reach the edges of the enclosure. It’s been a while since Link has spent any time down here. Scanning the area, it’s in worse shape than his quarters. A few of the berths have faint water-colored pictures of ladies or landscapes, the edges peeling away from walls damp from gaps in the hull that need to be filled with pitch. Seems that would have been a better use of Mutoh’s time than dismantling the tiller.

6. Post links to your 3 fav fics.

Cherished by CrepesnLasagna2

K.K. Love Song by socksock

A Hylian Romance by sillythings

[airplanned]

What’s the story behind your usernames? I know your name is Ned (hence AirplaNed) but why just Airplane on fanfic net? Or socksock on Ao3? :)

My junior high English teacher did not like me or my writing or my dyslexia, and said that I "airplaned" around the point, circling and circling and never getting there. Airplane as my user name is reclaiming that. And if you make it a verb and put a D on the end, it has my name in it and that's cool.

There was this time ten + years ago when I would favorite or subscribe to a story on ff.net, and people would screen cap it and post it on tumblr, and it made me super uncomfortable. So I made a AO3 sock account just for reading and favoriting stories. (Recently, people have rediscovered doing this, as if it is a new thing, like the New York Times account.) I called it socksock because it was a sock account. When I started posting on AO3, a lot of time had past and I didn't care anymore and didn't want to make a new account, so I just started using it to post.

[embyrinitalics]

Fic Rec Masterlist

Some of my favorite stories and authors. Limiting myself to 3 recs per author. Visit their ao3 profiles + tumblrs for more!  

intangibly_yours (@intangiblyyourswrites)

Synchronous botw | zelink | modern AU | 3.5k | T

Even in Death botw | zelink | 14.7k | M

sink or swim (but don't let me go) various | zelink | compilation | 9k | M

  socksock (@airplanned)

Anonymity botw | zelink | 14k | M

Displaced botw | zelink | 163k | M

K.K. Love Song botw | zelink | modern AU | 20k | T

  yourenotacat (@yourenotacat-writes)

Sweet Dreams, Princess unspecified | zelink | modern AU | 44k (incomplete) | T

Putting Faith in Fools various | zelink | compilation | 4.6k (incomplete) | M

  bahbahhh (@bahbahhh)

desire path botw | zelink | 6.4k | G

like someone would botw | zelink | 9.7k | M

  WolfWarden (@wolfwarden)

The Lesson: A Whumptober Tale lu | wars, mask, fierce deity | 4.7k | T

  Rynling (@pocketseizure)

When the Moon Didn't Fall mm | zelgan (platonic) | 13.6k | T

A Hero's Inventory various | gen | compilation | 8k | G

  Linksthoughtbrambles (@linksthoughtbrambles)

Blindsighted botw | zelink | 5.8k | T

Link's Thought Brambles botw | zelink | 203k | M

  Sifl (@sifl-senpai)

Facades mm | gen | 109k | T

  Leadernovaandthemacabre (@leadernovaandthemacare)

Lord Floria's Anthology botw | zelink | 36k | T

  gerudo__desert (@aegon-targaryen)

If I Falter botw | zelink | 4.5k | NR

The Rise Before the Fall botw | zelink | 2k | T

  Need more? Further reading: (my ao3 bookmarks) (my #fic recs tag) (my fic masterlist)

[zosanficrecs]

"Not Special" by socksock

~10k Rated M

[hestusjamsession]

I’ve been depressed so I decided to do what normal people do when they’re depressed and make a list of my favorite Legend of Zelda fanfics thus far. I think I’ll make a Linked Universe one next.

Almost all of these fics are finished and most are multi chapter. Some are quite long too. I also tried to include a variety of ships and stuff. I’m a multi-opportunity shipper, what can I say?

I know a few of the authors are here on Tumblr but I can’t for the life of me find them. So if anyone knows the usernames of the authors so I can tag them I’d appreciate it.

Anyway…

*cracks knuckles*

1. Make a Wish, Make it Count by LiliansMalice

Three very different people get forced to work together to find a powerful relic that can grant them wishes and solve their (admittedly pretty bad) problems.

It’s got angst, it’s got humor, it’s got found family vibes. And demons. Lots and lots of demons. Such a good read y’all need to check it out. Also, if anyone knows of any more fics like this let me know!

2. Honor Among Thieves by DawnTheRithmatist

The Master Sword has been stolen and as things start to go missing around the castle Zelda decides to do some digging which ends up with her becoming pen pals with a wanted thief.

Zelink fic which Link goes full rogue and koroks are eager accomplices.

3. Beating Around the Bush by Umbreonix

Revali retires from the air force and becomes a remote bush pilot. His life is all well and good (if boring) until a slightly feral researcher from the University of Central Hyrule derails his entire life.

This fic is genuinely hilarious and also heartwarming. Umbreonix writes Revali so well. Revlink fic with a modern spin. (Side note, the fic “Finding Link” by the same author is also really good)

4. Displaced by Socksock

What do you do once you’ve saved the day? Yeah, Link and Zelda don’t know either. But Link has monsters to kill and cool new outfits to find and Zelda has massive bridges to rebuild and loyal knights to smooch so they’ll be ok.

This was one of the first fics I read after beating BOTW. Novel length Zelink goodness with lots of humor and healing and Link dressing up like Tingle because he’s like that.

5. K.K. Love Song by Socksock

Anything by Socksock is gonna be great but this fic literally kept me sane while I was working on site during the Pandemic. Oklahoma be like that.

Modern Zelink fic where the hot new Shiekah Slate game Animal Crossing brings a Princess and a cook closer together. Link apparently does a good KK impression.

6. Nothing More, Nothing Less by Farbsturz

Ravio, Bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, must head to Hyrule to help it’s Hero defeat the Calamity. Ravio, Bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, is not sure about this.

Ravio plays Breath of the Wild. Or- the Ravlink fic you didn’t know you wanted.

7. The Queen’s Tournament by AshleysWrittenWords

In order to become Queen, Princess Zelda must marry. Zelda’s plan? Part 1: Host a tournament were the winner gets her hand in marriage. Part 2: Enter said tournament in disguise so she can, to quote Merida from Brave “shoot for her own hand”. And it all goes according to plan until Link decides to enter the tourney as well.

I THINK I might have read this, or something very similar, once upon a time on Fanfiction.net. Twilight Princess-ish Zelink.

8. Branded by Embyrinitalics

In a land haunted by war, two lonely people find solace within each other.

This one’s got a somber vibe to it, but it’s beautifully written and it hits me in the shipper feels so yeah.

9. The Wolf of Farore by Wayward_Chronicler

The Legend of Zelda meets The Witcher in a fic that is technically not finished but has 71 chapters and more character cameos than you can swing a sword at.

Long fic fam this one’s for you. 😘

10. Interim by Starkraving

Link and Zelda have just defeated the Calamity and are wandering Hyrule when they meet a strangely familiar Gerudo who wants to buy Link’s giant horse and has no idea what he’s about to get roped into.

The Link/Zelda/Gan fic filled with angst, humor and lots of Gerudo grammar lessons.

This was the other fic I read right after beating BOTW. Fair warning- its rated E so it’s got spicy parts to it. But if you don’t mind that it’s a fantastic read.

11. Re-Domestication by AnthemXIX

The description says it best: “A semi-feral amnesiac and his wolf guardian try to get along with the locals.”

A really good BOTW Link and Wolf Link fic that isn’t Linked Universe related (Though the author has written several really good LU fics as well). It’s part of a series and they’re all really good.

12. Secrets of the Shadows by @skyloftian-nutcase

When Link goes missing, Rusl finds a wolf instead of his adopted son and ends up making a terrible mistake. Hopefully he can make it to Kakariko in time to rectify it.

Papa Rusl angst because it’s good for the soul.

[carpisuns]

you dont have to post this but heres some of my fav zelink fics (all on ao3 i just don’t want to clog up the ask with links) - hateno housemates by fioreofthemarch - what the king would give by dayhaven - silence and a soup ladle by runawayjay - k k love song (series) by socksock - ramen noodles and margin doodles (wip) by creamyheartsoup

ohh!! Thank you!! I have marked all these for later in ao3 and I’m eager to dive in when i have some time! Bless 💜

[9iovanni]

who: vanni && taj ! @tajthegrappler

where: vanni’s apartment

truthfully, vanni forgot how he befriended taj. he remembers they met in the gym and bonded over their love for combat sports. eventually it turned into the two teaching the other in their own respective sports until they’d eventually just start to hang outside of that setting.

which is how they ended up here, with vanni rolling his eyes at the way his cat popsocket seemed to want all of taj’s attention on herself. “can you believe this is the same cat that literally screams at the girl i’m talking to? look at her. i’m sure she’d be real happy if i let you take her.” he huffed from his seat on the couch — on the opposite side from where socksock was currently trying to get taj to pet her.

“speaking of, how are you doing in that department? got anyone you been seeing lately? swear, all you do is post yourself. i never know if you’re like just partying it up or just always doing photoshoots.”

[730hcck]

anyway, i can’t wait to send out those little christmas cards of our family with the little “happy holidays from the senerchias” at the bottom of the card. and dress socksock and tofi up in the cute little christmas pajamas 🥰 yaz, socksock, tofi, and me all matching. already gushing at the thought. god i love christmas season.

and to that anon? you’re so lucky you hid behind a grey face. you definitely would not be receiving that cute ass card if we knew who you were 🥱

[officer-luv]

Chapters: 10/10 Fandom: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda) Additional Tags: Role Swap AU, Zelda has amnesia, and a baby, Not the best combo, Hero! Zelda, It's the Front Pack AU Summary:

Many heroes before her have defeated evil, but Zelda's the only one to do it with amnesia and a newborn baby.