#they did this same shit in Age of calamity so please nintendo if you can do this one thing

[gensnix]

Why master Kohga can and should come back into a later dlc for totk

We all know about how important character's are introduced in both botw and totk right

With Link's companions it shows a small explanation of who they are under their names but with villans it's the opposite

And you know who else has there lil explanation below their name

Why none other than the great master Kohga of course!

Maybe having him be on our side could explain some things about the shekia tech being absent or why he thinks being on Ganondorf's side is a good thing and bring back the lore of shekia turning on the royals

So please nintendo let the man be something great in a future dlc I will pay you to do that

[botwriter]

OH RIGHT OKAY here’s my thought spew from age of calamity. major spoilers inside obviously, read at your own risk!! also it’s super long and mostly here for my own reference for when I eventually write a fic lmao

i’m literally just throwing this all out here so it might not be in any discernable order

first thing I guess I wanna talk about is Zelda’s characterization; it’s much the same as BOTW in the beginning, which makes sense. It’s very interesting to have seen how she reacts when Link gets the sword. I wrote her in BOTW: Rewritten as feeling quite behind or inferior compared to Link, since he already had his power and his sword, and she was still struggling to find hers... and that’s exactly what happens in AoC! 

After abandoning her father for dead - oh right this scene okay hang on

when the King says to Link “You are the Princess’ chosen knight. I’m sure you’re aware of your duty” or something along those lines, we suddenly see what is probably the most emotion animated onto Link’s face anywhere in these games. He is being ordered by the King to keep her safe, not to fight for the kingdom. Of course it’s a fair argument that keeping Zelda safe is fighting for the kingdom, but that really just ties in with Link’s destiny super well - despite all the pomp and circumstance, despite his bowing whenever the King is around, he isn’t loyal to him. He’s loyal to Zelda, and Zelda alone, and he only needs that reminder once. It’s in his soul to keep her safe, no matter the cost, because if she’s safe, there’ll always be hope. (Nevermind all the angsty bullshit about him being Hylia’s chosen knight and strung along like a puppet because she knows that he’ll always act selflessly in Zelda’s best interests, no matter what.) 

anyway yeah that just hit me. 

ANYWAY after abandoning her father for dead and running away the following quests have her being even more self-deprecating and by this point it was starting to get pretty old; we’ve already seen the “everything I did was all in vain/my friends and father are dead” sad bullshit once before and seeing it again was... I mean it just doesn’t hit quite as hard, but I did appreciate the extra delving into Zelda’s character, motivations, and general handiness when it comes to tech and building - she isn’t the holder of the triforce of wisdom for nothing

so riiiiight around the time when i was about to be like oh for fucks sake zelda get it together, Impa said it for me (which was appreciated; Impa’s character did a really nice job of grounding the viewer whereas having just Zelda and Link before was a pretty one-sided affair in botw) and then, things changed.

thanks to the destiny changing egg, the champions weren’t dead, their descendants/future champions came to their rescue - a moment I legitimately freaked out at - and there was hope for Hyrule. Finally, add to that her father being alive, and we suddenly had a Princess Zelda who believed in herself and who was capable at not just wielding her triforce but leading an endless number of troops from across the continent into battle. 

Her character snapped into place just as it did in botw, but we actually got to see her take advantage of it this time. This game had plenty of missions in which Zelda had to be protected, or had to be helped, despite the fact that she can fight; but by the end of it, they took the “damsel in distress” trope that Zelda has always been burdened with and they completely flipped it on its head. They gave us what we were used to and then they snatched it away. 

I really did like that it was her desperation to save Link which once again activated her triforce; you can’t tell me these two don’t fucking love each other okay get out of my face

but for real, I know there were flashbacks there to her dad “dying” and there was guilt and her probably realising that constantly being ushered away or running away is obviously not working, but for someone whos life is so valuable and who is made horrifyingly aware of that fact over and over and over again - to potentially throw herself at death’s doorstep - is a Big Fucking Deal. She doesn’t activate the triforce of wisdom because she thinks it’s the smart thing to do, and it’s certainly not a last ditch effort like it was in botw - she could have definitely let Impa run her away from the danger - it’s because Link is about to die, and she loves him, and she’s finally letting herself (or having no choice but to) feel it, maybe for the first time.  

and yeah you can argue that it’s not love or that it’s just platonic, that’s fine, I really have nothing against ppl that don’t like zelink for whatever reason and I appreciate that nintendo makes it so it can be read either way. but aoc having the same mechanic as botw did for her getting her sealing power back... was like, really nailing it in. And some of the cutscenes definitely help with that! 

okay uhhh what else

please show us zelda’s mom

please show us link’s parents???

whomst is astor - they really just had this nobody show up with no backstory being like “I WAS CHOSENNNN” and then nothing happens with him. he doesn’t have the triforce of power. to be honest at no point do we even see it. the final ganon battle looking more like ganon was really nice but I would have appreciated some sass or some talking there, because that’s really what I crave in final battles like that. I don’t want to cut down some mindless beast. it’s not satisfying.

kohga and sooga were really cool to have in there; confused on kohga a little cause don’t you fight him post-calamity in botw? they did some amazing things for both of their characters, so I was really hoping to have sooga as a playable character too and I found myself confused when just kohga showed up to pledge loyalty to zelda. I understand that they probably still needed some sort of yiga boss for other missions but like... eh..... I want Sooga damnit. also if he’s one of kohga’s “lackeys” and also spoke shit both to astor’s face and behind his back, it’s safe to assume he’d join the Good side... yeah. oh well. did hyrule warriors ever do DLC? maybe that’ll be a thing

the music fucking slapped, holy shit, holy shit, the music was amazing.

revali being even more sassy towards link was fantastic but also INTERESTING because since link doesn’t even have the sword yet, it’s like... kinda... fair?? that he has no clue why this random kid soldier is here to help out. and of course he ends up developing a bit in his character to acknowledge link later on. I think it’s good to remind ppl that revali is quite young afaik?? so him having a rivalry with link kinda makes sense, based on his already-established character of being quite cocky and sure of himself (which botw dlc taught us doesn’t come without it’s fair share of intense insecurity, self-doubt, and practicing until he’s exhausted). i love revali’s character. I love revali. protect him.

okay I don’t know what else to write I should probably go work on blooming in adversity LOL

EDITING TO ADD CAUSE I JUST REWATCHED THE SCENE, but the fact that Link’s triforce is awakened by a desperate desire to save Zelda; and she’s reaching out for him at the same time (maybe she almost gets hers at the same time omg) was fucking incredible yep can’t wait to write it that’s all im gonna say