#to be clear I also love the other three champions and link and zelda

[sun-marie]

Out of the original four champions, Revali is the best character specifically because he doesn't think highly of Link and isn't convinced by a shiny relic saying he's special

[science-lings]

What do you say to a giving a little more lore on the priestesses AU?

I WOULD LOVE TO

first of all, some things need to be adjusted for totk, and that means I have to share a different theory that I have that's kind of independent from the priestesses au.

The idea that the Zonai weren't the only race that disappeared. I think that probably at the same time as the Zonai there were a race that lived almost exclusively in the depths and were able to manipulate the darkness. (see Thypho ruins in botw) they could be what form the ancient hero took, (bc that magical fursuit does not look like any zonai we know, the tail, the ears, the hair, etc...)

That way there could still be a connection to the Twili, (also since Midna's and Zant's helmets are down there). It really bothered me that the Zonai suddenly came from the sky and looked like goat people and what little we knew about them was shattered. But if there were a race that cooperated with the Zonai in the depths, a mirrored world of the surface, blanketed in pitch darkness, that may have disappeared alongside them, and after thousands of years had been forgotten entirely, that makes sense to me.

The priestesses au is largely centered around creating a backstory for the three elemental dragons in botw, and so totk... made me have to make more changes for it to make sense. Originally the AU was supposed to happen a hundred years after the first calamity, like how botw happens a century after the second and final calamity. The plot was going to be that just like in the future, even with all the tech and the might of the champions and the princess and the hero, the calamity still wasn't quite sealed. It still had influence and a wanting to take the triforce from its chosen guardians.

But in totk the whole idea of the dragons was kind of explained (though I'm not sure if the dragons appeared in any past cutscenes or if Zelda was kind of 'the first'. I have a feeling due to the abundance of massive skeletal remains, the dragons aren't as immortal as they seem and there were more of them than just the four that we know about)

So, that just means that I now have a method of how the priestesses became the dragons. Perhaps after Ganondorf was sealed, more secret stones were discovered and given to those of extraordinary power, or perhaps they were just a last resort to keep the sacred springs and the goddesses that they represented safe. There was a reason calamity ganon tried to take over Naydra (Zelda) but wasn't able to fully control her. Her divinity was too much to turn her into a threat against Link. I have a feeling he would've tried to go after the other dragons but after the first one, knew it was a losing battle.

Or, they could be the reason draconification was banned in the first place and they turned before Hyrule was even a kingdom. Perhaps there used to be nine secret stones (Rauru/Zelda's- Light/Time, Sonia/Ganondorfs- Time/Gloom, Sages- Lightning, Fire, Wind, and Water, plus three more for the dragon trio) and the Zonai, who wanted to keep the secret stones within reach, banned the practice. After all, dragons don't really do much other than vibe and a secret stone is much more useful to have available.

Now, enough of that, it's kinda boring, let's get to the good shit, I want to talk about Ravio being the equilibrium between darkness and light, out of the rest of his siblings, he's the one who takes on the most 'twili' traits, he has the greatest grasp over darkness, which he uses to conceal his face, and his hair glows the brightest. And he's the one chosen to wield the sword that seals the darkness. I think it's important to note how the character of Link as the hero is always kind of a sponge of the magic and people around him, so Ravio is no different. He's the balance of the darkness and the light, and the magic prowess and the skill with a sword that it's important for the hero to have.

Every other character has a more clear delineation of skills, they have more extreme strengths and weaknesses but Ravio is made to be a little more adaptable, he is the duality that is needed to be the hero. He knows when to run and hide in the shadows, and he knows when to fight. He just has to learn that his nature of being a jack of all trades is a good thing rather than being disappointed that he can't seem to get good at one specific thing like all the people around him.

thanks for letting me go on a tangent, however, I am still open to more instigation lmao, my typing fingers aren't tired yet

[silentprincess17]

A Proposal Gone Awry

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | AO3

Summary: Link has been touring the breadth and width of Hyrule to clear out the remaining monster camps, and soon enough, he reaches Zora’s Domain. Mipha asks him to wait before he heads back to the castle, which he was intending on doing... but some mischievous children may have other plans.

Part 3

Mipha had completed her list of assignments for the day, and now she headed out to the Zora River, diving in on her way to Hyrule Castle. As she swam gracefully, swooping and twirling through the air as she breathed, before sinking back down into the water, she reflected on the day’s events. She’d attended the Zora General Council Meeting in the morning, where they discussed new refurbishments to be done around the Domain. Rather embarrassingly they’d decided to create a statue, depicting her, to be placed in the fountain at the centre of the Domain. She couldn’t say no, it would be disrespectful to the likes of Ledo, and Seggin, her Master, ordered the poor man to do it as well. Mipha personally didn’t really like the extravagance- she would much rather use the resources elsewhere. But, her father disagreed, stating she had become one of the Zora Greats, alongside Princess Ruto who was claimed to have been a Sage, in a time long past. It made her feel proud, at least, to be a Princess who had helped prevent such a disaster, and to know she’d helped Link in his endeavours made it all the sweeter.

At the thought of Link, her heart skipped a beat, and a shiver went down her fins. If only her plan that night had worked! She’d set everything up so carefully, so determined was she to profess what had truly driven her motivations to hold up the mantle of the Champion, how she wanted to protect him from any harm that could befall him… Sadly, under the influence of mischievous children he’d gotten hold of the armour she’d painstakingly made, and somehow deduced it was simply a practice run. For the love of the Goddesses, she couldn’t have anticipated such a turn of events.

One positive had come of the entire situation though, she’d found Kodah and it turns out Kodah’s head was truly filled with clouds: she was simply lusting after Link. Whilst Mipha could see the appeal, her feelings ran deeper. She didn’t just like the look of Link, she adored his very soul, and Kodah understood that and promised not to interfere. If anything, she looked sheepish and was ashamed about the whole affair. Mipha was quite glad that little piece of unpleasantness was over.

She sprouted from a gush of water, and she smiled. She always felt most at home in the waves, almost as though she and the river were one. It made her feel empowered, strong, but mostly comfortable. This was where her strength lay, in the powerful currents underneath her and how she wielded control over them.

Soon enough, the Castle came into view. Everything had mostly been fixed, people had settled back into Castle Town after their hurried evacuation, and Mipha was glad to see the people recuperating, already almost back to normal. She wondered, sometimes, what would have happened if Terrako hadn’t summoned the help from the future that they ended up relying so heavily on. What would have happened to her, if Sidon, her grown up, almost of courting-age brother hadn’t shown up to protect her. And Sidon’s presence had allowed enough time for Link to come and help defeat the Waterblight, and she blushed a little at the thought. Truly, he was her Hero. And to think Terrako hadn’t only sent help her way, but to the other three Champions as well… The small egg-shaped guardian had done so much for them, and she didn’t want to dwell on what might have been, had it not been there.

By the time Mipha arrived in the Sanctum, it was close to sunset, and she had spent some time drying herself to make sure she didn’t soak the carpet floors. And okay, she’d also spent some time roaming around the garrison, and the barracks but she hadn’t managed to spot Link.

She sighed, he was probably with the Princess, where he nearly always was.

Revali was the next to arrive, and he fluffed his feathers, brusquely adjusting his neckerchief, “Are the others not on time? How asinine. Although perhaps it’s too much to expect such high standards from them.”

Mipha sighed, much more discreetly this time. He had a rivalry with Link, and that could not be forgiven in her books. “Revali, we are, as of yet, early. Urbosa and Daruk are both travelling from-”

“Afar? Yes, I know, that’s no excuse though, Mipha, have you ever heard of leaving earlier? They also cannot fly to their detriment. Did you see Daruk’s paraglider break after using it a mere five times? Who told a Goron he could sail through the air? It’s just so unnatural!”

Urbosa walked in then, and Mipha left Revali alone for a few minutes. He briefly called to her though, as she turned away, although when she’d waited patiently for him to say something, all he’d done was glance down at her ornamental armour, before brushing off his feathers.

She shrugged, classing as typically strange Revali behaviour before she turned back to Urbosa. She wanted to ask if the Gerudo Champion had seen Princess Zelda, and by default Link. It pricked her a little, that she had to find the Princess first in order to locate Link, but he was her Knight after all.

Sadly, Urbosa hadn’t seen Princess Zelda. Apparently, she was getting ready in her room. Mipha could only assume Link was guarding her door. Shortly after that, Daruk had appeared and then the King had walked in, welcoming them to the Castle. They would have a private dinner, with a few select Sheikah, and Master Kohga to privately congratulate the group on their success and then move across to the Sanctum later on in the evening for the Ball in their honour. Hestu had decided to remain with the forest spirits, and Monk Maz Koshia had re-entered the Shrine of Resurrection, in his deep other-worldly tones saying he’d now wait for the next Hero. Mipha shuddered a little at the memory, wondering what the next Hero’s fate would be…

They walked with the King, who pulled out an apple to snack on whilst they trekked to the Dining room, where they would meet Princess Zelda, and Link. Her heart sped up a little in anticipation.

Impa, Purah, Robbie and Master Kohga were all waiting in the room, a single banana in the middle of the four of them and heated debate was clearly ongoing, but they stopped as soon as the King walked in and knelt. He bid them to rise, and they all sat, waiting for the Hero and the Princess to join.

And her heart rate did spike, as the Princess walked in, hand in Link’s elbow as he escorted her inside. His eyes never met hers, but Mipha didn’t allow that little fact to distract her, because oh, Link was in Royal Guard uniform and –

- Terrako bounded up, jumping up to Link’s waist, and he caught the egg, settling it on its own chair, and it beeped and booped, waving its little guardian legs at them. Mipha waved back, but really, she was trying to stifle her laughter as Impa gave the poor thing a good whack in return and it jostled into the air, pointing its little finger at her. Terrako truly was very cute, but Mipha was distracted again by Link coming closer still.

He looked radiant, polished, a perfect guard, his hair slicked back into that cap, the royal dark blue armour overlaid his muted red undershirt, and Mipha choked a little on the water she was sipping when she looked at his pristine white gloves and boots. Oh Goddesses, the gloves. He looked devastatingly handsome, and- wait. He held the chair for the Princess, as was expected for a guard, Mipha reassured herself, but he… smiled at her. A small smile, a classic Link smile if you will, but he smiled at her, and she smiled back, gently, tucking her hair behind her ear. Not for the first time in their presence, Mipha felt a dash of fear strike her, but it was quickly forgotten as Link sat down, and smiled the same smile, if a little less bright, towards each of them, until he reached Revali and then it was a nod. That made her chuckle a little, and the Rito just shrugged, instead turning to Zelda and inquiring about her health.

But Mipha was watching Link, and she didn’t miss his fingers tightening over his glass. Subtle, but she noticed still. And the fear pricked again. But he was just annoyed over Revali, right?

He turned to Daruk, who started talking about the newest iteration of Rock Roast, and Link sat up, paying earnest attention.

And Mipha let herself breathe. She was really overthinking this whole scenario to be fair.

Soon enough, the King lifted his champagne flute, and they all looked at him.

“Champions, I invited you all today to commemorate your success! Tonight, we feast, and make merry, for the Darkness has been Sealed and the light of Hylia shines upon us all. I would like to personally extend my thanks for your service in the name of Hyrule, and I pray that you all remain in the best of health, and achieve whatever you set your minds too, for those in the room today are amongst the brightest and most capable citizens of what is surely to be, a glorious future.”

Everyone politely clapped, and Mipha felt encouraged, she could do what she set her mind to, she could confess to Link, she could achieve the future she most wanted- to rule her Domain with him by her side.

Dinner passed by any further without incident, Mipha joked a little with Urbosa, who was in the middle of setting up a “girls-night only session” for the five of them. And Urbosa had done something very strange, she mentioned she wanted to host another catwalk, and then she had winked at Link, who had promptly blushed, pulling at his collar. Mipha wasn’t sure she understood the reference, it felt like an inside joke that she wasn’t privy to, but regardless, she was excited. A chance to bond with other girls her age who weren’t Zora was hard to do, enclosed as they were in the Domain. Then there was the whole ageing issue, because by the time everyone in this room had died, Mipha would actually still be in the Hyrulian equivalent of her thirties. But today was about celebrating their success, and she shouldn’t be thinking of something as morbid as death.

As soon as dessert was passed around, which unsurprisingly was fruitcake, Princess Zelda’s favourite, the group made to disband. She remained, thinking perhaps this would be the ideal time to snag Link for a few minutes, out on the walkway just outside the dining room before they headed to the Sanctum.

She walked very slowly to the door, and then remained just outside, intending on asking Link as he walked out with the Princess. She waited for a few seconds, and he hadn’t shown up yet, so she discreetly held her jewellery and poked her head back in, and she almost wished she hadn’t.

Because Link was using those same white gloves, the pair she had so loved on him, to gently wipe some of the frosting on Princess Zelda’s outer lip. And then. Oh. Mipha had to turn away. She hastily walked off, trying to think of an excuse but was unable too.

Why had he licked his finger clean?

Well, to be fair, they had all become friends over the time, some of them, such as Link and Zelda, had spent even more time together and so were likely to be even better friends. Frankly, they were together all the time, and this sort of behaviour was common between friends was it not? As a form of teasing? Yes, that was it.

She felt somewhat reassured once she was back in the Sanctum, she’d wait for her moment and she would seize it. She would do as she planned today.

*

The King made a similar rousing speech, once they were inside the Sanctum, and the ball began in earnest. Link and Princess Zelda appeared some fifteen minutes after Mipha had arrived, and she had taken a total of twelve minutes to walk across to reach the Sanctum so clearly, nothing else untoward had happened.

Or, well, anything that she could forcibly see.

The music started, as a sort of prelude for the first dance, and Terrako jumped up, pulling off a “spinning” dance move set on the floor, twirling and flying upside down as it gracefully pirouetted, and everyone was fawning over the little egg. It responded in kind with a series of beeps and boops, in sync with the music.

She tried to squeeze her way over to Link, to ask if he would like to, perhaps, dance, and then she’d guide him away mid-swirl and clarify the situation that arose last week.

But, lo and behold, there he was, dancing with the Princess. It was the first dance, and etiquette meant that it was almost expected for Princess Zelda to open up the dance with the Hero. Mipha was nothing if not patient, and she smiled graciously at the courtesan who asked for her hand to dance. She acquiesced, anything to keep her mind off how Link was probably holding the Princess a little closer than etiquette required, and how those piercing sapphire eyes never left the Princess’s own. Whilst she was trying to pay attention to what the courtesan was saying, she hadn’t even caught his name, poor fellow, but she couldn’t help but remain focussed on Link.

She gasped when he spun the Princess in a tight circle, and then dipped her, nearly to the floor, and how in sync they seemed to be, how seamless the whole thing was. It made her suspicious. Link was very graceful in a fight; he performed some of the hardest moves as though he was passing a knife through butter, but… dance was a considerably different type of elegance. And the way the Princess was smiling at him, almost encouraging him, made a small stone settle in her stomach as she came to the most likely conclusion.

He’d learnt to dance with her. They had practised together. And she fought down the burn of jealousy that threatened to escape her.

Of course Link would learn to dance with Princess Zelda, he was her Knight! She must have offered because she knew this ball was coming up, and Link likely had no experience, so she offered to teach him!

And they weren’t dancing as lovers!

Mipha excused herself, she was feeling all hot and bothered and it was just so unlike her to feel agitated. She just needed a few seconds of fresh air, ideally to jump in a lake for a few seconds just to cool down and recover her Grace.

She escaped down a corridor and went through the first door that opened out onto a balcony, taking a few deep breaths.

Within seconds she heard girlish giggling, followed by a deeper, richer laugh. She stiffened, moving to hide behind one of the tapestries, for some reason feeling self-conscious even though she had no reason to be. The pair passed by the door without pausing, and although she likely knew who it was, she wanted to verify it with her own eyes.

And yes, as she’d guessed, there was Princess Zelda, holding hands with Link. The laughter that she’d never heard before was from him. She didn’t have the heart to be upset anymore, because she realised something then.

He was happy.

In all the time she’d known him, he had only ever smiled and laughed as a child, as a four-year-old. Never had he laughed once he grew older, only smiling, and that too, small, limited smiles.

Her heart throbbed painfully in her chest; it was all too much. She had just wanted to take a minute's breather, but she could still do that! She could just- she flipped around and saw another winding corridor.

She hurried down it, keen to try to recompose herself a little. Clearly though, she had forgotten that the castle was indeed circular in shape, and the corridor she had started on in her haste, actually ended up being the very same one Link and Zelda were walking down now. Goddesses, her luck had run out today. It was too late to backtrack, in her panicked, and half-unfocused state she had somehow missed their laughter, and now from the sound of their voices, they had nearly reached the entrance. Thankfully, it was dark, and Mipha pressed herself into the shadows, behind what she could vaguely make out to be a column. She would just wait until they had left, and she would continue forwards to end up back at the ballroom.

But no, even then, she was doomed because Princess Zelda stopped, and moved to light a small lamp on the side. She held it up to what Mipha could make out was a portrait.

“This corridor, Link. Have you had a chance to come before?”

He shook his head.

“Well, I’d imagined so, because we never had much time, really. Always heading from one battle to the next… But I’d like to show you something, now that we’re no longer under such duress.”

He smiled, nodding. “Okay.”

Mipha was distracted from her discomfort at being trapped and unable to escape when she realised that Link spoke. Casually, almost. Like this wasn’t a rare thing. Mipha felt the stone in her gut grow a little.

“We call this the Hallway of Remembrance, to commemorate the Heroes and the Princesses of time past, where Ganon, or at least, some form of him, came to terrorise Hyrule.”

She held up the lamp closer to the first portrait, and Mipha, despite her misgivings, edged a little closer in curiosity. It was a painting of what seemed to be a land mass suspended in air, with the back of a boy that looked a lot like Link, and she had to hold in a gasp when she realised he was, in fact, holding the Master Sword. Next to him was a girl with flowing blonde hair, not unlike the Princess actually… and she was holding a harp.

“This one was commissioned by Father actually. No one truly knows what Hyrule was like back then, but apparently, it was all in the clouds… And they used to fly around on animals that are now very much extinct. So, this isn’t really a portrait from then, but it felt right to include, you know?”

Link paused. “I. I remember it, a little.” He glanced up; his brow furrowed. “I think it was called Skyloft, Zelda. And we flew on loftwings… I saved you then too, although I can’t remember much else.” Mipha’s jaw almost dropped to the ground. Wow. So much speech. And… she still didn't quite understand what was going on, but it was dawning on her now that they wouldn’t be moving down from this corridor for a while. From the way things were going, it seemed like a private conversation she shouldn’t be privy to, and she felt guilty for unintentionally overhearing them.

But she was stuck! She couldn’t move in front of them, or they’d know she was here, and she couldn’t move back down the corridor she came from because they’d also see. So, she was trapped behind this white marble column, indefinitely, until they moved past her.

Princess Zelda laughed. “Obviously you did. That is a recurring theme by the way.” She paused. “Wait, yours was a Crimson loftwing wasn’t it? The rare one?”

He nodded, and he looked so excited. “Yours was blue.”

Zelda’s hand glowed, the blood of Hylia running through her veins, although Mipha saw no Calamity, and wondered what exactly was going on. “Sleepyhead?”

Link laughed, and pulled her close, hugging her tightly. “You will always be… my Zelda.”

And the stone grew. And grew. Mipha fisted her fingers into the small crevices of her jewellery, a storm of guilt and embarrassment over illicitly being here, over watching them when they thought they were alone, over how at ease Link was, over what those words meant. She had to keep reciting that it wasn’t her fault she was trapped here, she would just have to hold it together until they hopefully decided to move on. She couldn’t help but gently pass her fingers over the gaping hole in her chest that she’d hidden with her ornamental silver clasp. She tried her hardest to blot it all out and think up a rational explanation. She was just overreading this. Okay, so just because one of their previous… selves (?) had ended up together, didn’t mean all of them followed the same pattern, right? And of course, you’d embrace someone whose soul you knew like this?

Zelda leaned away from him a little. “Come, I have more to show you.” She pulled him along, and he followed, as he always did, the last thought echoed bitterly in her mind. “Although, I’d like to think things were a little different for us, at least, in terms of the whole saving scenario.”

He nodded. “You’re right. It was different this time… We saved each other, Zelda. I wouldn’t have thought to even touch the sword, if it hadn’t responded to me wanting to protect you, because that’s all I wanted at that moment. And your powers…”

She nodded. “Yes. I, I didn’t want to lose you, Link.” Even from here, Mipha could see her blush. And she felt increasingly uncomfortable. She just- it was too much. Link, freely talked to the Princess. Freely laughed with her. Had a deeper bond with her that wasn’t just for this lifetime but for… all?

Zelda coughed, “A-anyway. The next is of the Hero of Time, and this Princess was rumoured to be a sage…”

Mipha shoved all her misgivings aside and perked up- perhaps they’d have a portrait of this Hero with Princess Ruto because she was also a sage right?

Link winced. “That’s when it all got complicated isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

He shook his head, “Never mind.”

And Mipha felt her hope dash as they walked past the portrait, no mention of any other sage.

Her heart rate increased, as they walked towards her hiding place, slowly but surely. She was thankfully hidden quite well behind the ornate marble columns that held up the walkway above, which meant she was unlikely to be caught. She held tight onto the thought that it would soon be over, that they would soon move on past this damned corridor, and she could finally leave. But no, instead they covered each and every portrait. Mipha slowly felt her hope dwindle, despair set in, and guilt seep through her scales at her continued encroachment on their privacy. She couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by what was being said as the duo continued through several iterations of the same Hero and Princess… always together, never far apart. One was in Twilight, another in foreign country called Lorule, one in the sea, yet another in spirits…

At that one, it was a portrait of a train, with the Princess… in corporeal form? She was flying beside the boy that Mipha knew was Link. He looked so much like her Link, when he was younger. She watched as Link laughed, “That was a good journey, I remember that.”

Zelda quite literally pushed him. “HEY! I lost my body in that one!”

“Yeah, but you got to be my sidekick for once.” Link was smirking. Mipha had to rub her eyes once, twice and then three times for her to believe what she was seeing was true.

“YOU- I’ll have you know you were MY sidekick. I recruited you! I was the one to pick you to be my engineer!”

“The phantom armour was the best though, especially when you carried me like the Hero I was.”

“Yeah? Without me carrying you, we would have been stuck at level two in the Tower, because you couldn’t walk through lava, being Hylian and all! And then where would we be? And don’t think I don’t remember how long we spent at the Rabbit Sanctuary. You loved frolicking!”

“Hey, no need to call me out like that Princess.”

And so, it continued. For every single portrait. Mipha felt progressively smaller and smaller. She watched as Link held Princess Zelda’s hand, she watched as he leaned his head on her shoulder, so familiar and comfortable. She watched as they exchanged stories, joked with each other, things Link had remembered from the Master Sword, legends Zelda had learnt in the library and her own memories as Hylia’s chosen. As they progressed, Mipha increasingly felt like she was simply a side character, in a longer, and more detailed history than she ever could have imagined. She remained, frozen in place, as they last reached the penultimate portrait, just by her hiding place.

“Ah. This is a precious one Link. I only really remembered this one after unlocking my sealing power.”

It was Link. Sitting atop what was a weird… Mipha didn’t know how to describe it. It had two wheels, one at the front and another at the back, with a sort of seat in the middle. He was wearing a familiar blue tunic, much like the one made for him by the Princess, and Zelda was sitting in front, his arm wrapped around her, his face half-leaning against hers. They looked very comfortable with each other, and it lacked the seriousness that some of the other portraits had. Behind them, were the Divine Beasts, each with their Champion in the distance.

“This is… the legend we tried to recreate in our world, isn’t it? So, this is the direct predecessor to ours…”

“Yes…”

There was only one portrait left, just by her column. This portrait was the only one with a red cloth over it. Mipha didn’t dare breathe, but Goddesses, she was so thankful it was nearly the end. She would finally be able to leave… Finally able to ignore the gnawing fear that she had completely misunderstood Link which oozed through her skin and clung to her tighter than the armour she had painstakingly made.

“So, this is the special one!” She uncovered it, and Link laughed, clear and loud. Mipha pressed herself tighter into her column, making sure to remain silent, and she realised it was, in fact, two portraits. One was of all of the champions together, Link, Princess Zelda, Terrako, herself, Urbosa, Daruk, Revali, Master Kohga, Maz Koshia, Hestu and the King even, and the second… The second was of Princess Zelda in her royal blue gown, and Link in his Royal Guard uniform.

He gasped, poking her cheek. “So, this is why you wanted me to wear this uncomfortably tight uniform the other day and you took a photo on the slate!”

“Yes, silly. I wanted to commemorate us, too. We’ve also fought against Ganon, and now we will be preserved in history, as will all the other Heroes and Princesses that have come before us.”

He leaned closer, until his forehead rested on hers, his hands cupping her face and Mipha felt her heart stop. It felt like the final nail was hovering over her chest, about to shatter the fragile, tiny bud of hope she had left. “Thank you, Zelda. Not, not only for today, but for saving me, and for letting me live all our lives again.”

She stroked his cheek. “You’re welcome, Link. I’m so very happy to have found you again, sleepyhead.” She laughed, “Although, I’ve decided I don’t quite like this cap. I cannot run my fingers through your hair.” He instantaneously pulled it off, and leaned closer still, and she laughed, before her lips touched his.

And the nail sunk in. Hard and fast.

Mipha’s heart shattered.

She turned and left, and they didn’t notice.

How could they, when they were so lost in each other. Deep down, Mipha knew. She denied it to herself constantly, but she knew. And now, after seeing just how many generations they’ve passed through, tied to each other, she realised something else. They were soulmates. Their souls were forever bound to one another. And she could never compete against that.

But even then, even if she disregarded their history, there was no doubt left in her mind that Link very much liked, if not loved, Princess Zelda. And whilst it burned her like acid down her throat, or as if she’d stepped into the lava that surrounds Death Mountain, right now, she knew that she would be happy seeing him happy. And if his happiness lay with another Princess, then who was she to say otherwise.

But tonight, tonight she allowed herself to wallow in self-pity, for a love lost, for a love, that no matter how hard she might have wished it to be true, was doomed from the start to fail.

[corpsentry]

WHEN THE WAR IS OVER AND I AM LYING AMONGST ANGELS, WAITING FOR YOU TO FIND ME: a spoiler-filled addendum

because i buttfucked the timeline harder than nintendo and That’s Mildly Concerning ao3 link

q: what the fuck is this a: this fic is the answer to the question, ‘how can i reconcile the events of breath of the wild and age of calamity into a coherent narrative?’.

q: what the fuck happened a: age of calamity was a dream zelda had while partying in ganon’s apartment for a hundred years.

q: [you point a nerf gun at my head and smash my knees in with a hammer concurrently] what the Fuck happened a: link has a line near the end of chapter one which goes something like ‘my mother used to say dreams are the memories of people from another world’. this is the core concept of the story. while age of calamity is a dream to botw zelda, who saw it unfold over the course of a hundred year nap, it’s also real. in my incredibly fucked up version of things, it happened- just not in the same universe as botw. when botw zelda settled in to drink cheap beer with ganon for a hundred years, her consciousness drifted across time and space to the age of calamity timeline, where she proceeded to live out someone else’s life for a few months. are the other characters in aoc aware of this? link is. at the end of chapter two, when he pleads with zelda to ‘rebuild the old world with [him]’, he falls out of character. he betrays the real purpose of this timeline and his place in it, which is to salvage what botw could not.

q: what the fuck is up with the space-time continuum thing a: inspired by the multiverse theory (note that i know nothing about multiverse theory apart from the fact that there are multiple verses), i decided it would be fun if i added a third dimension to the botw/aoc pair. the inhabitants of this third universe are aware of the existence of multiple worlds. they are also aware of the prophecy of calamity ganon’s return, but for the purpose of this essay it does not matter if calamity ganon will rise in their world. the primary concern of zelda in this third dimension is whether she can engineer a universe where link does not die. as she says in chapter two, there are a thousand possible outcomes, but only two fulfill her requirement: the outcomes that constitute botw and aoc. we can assume she went to enormous lengths to uncover these universes, as described by impa, who says with some disbelief ‘you destroyed the space-time continuum for a boy?’. zelda destroys the space-time continuum. she moves through timeline after timeline, tweaking dialogue and moving the hour-hand ever backwards, and at the end of it all, for all her suffering, what does she actually achieve?

q: okay so what the fuck is up with the scene where link kisses zelda and is like i had a dream where i died and then nothing happens a: first of all, you’ll find this scene near the end of chapter two if you’d like to take a second look at it. as for who exactly this zelda and this link are, it’s unclear. maybe after botw zelda woke up, the original aoc zelda and aoc link lived happily after the war. maybe the zelda in the third dimension missed a positive outcome in her thousand-bullet-pointed list. maybe this, too, is a dream someone had, while lying in a field of flowers somewhere. your call.

q: rabbit???????? a: the story about the rabbit is a framing device. first introduced at the end of chapter one when link tells zelda a story on the bridge at night, it eventually comes to parallel botw zelda’s experiences, but in reverse. the rabbit is happy in her reality. she has a dream where everyone she loves is gone, becomes immersed in it, and is eventually saved by the voice of some-god-or-another. zelda is not particularly happy in her reality (botw). she has a dream where everyone she loves survives, becomes immersed in it, and is pulled out of the dream by some-god-or-another. the important thing to note here is the second rule the rabbit lays out in the story, which is that you, as the dreamer, can’t tell anyone that you’re dreaming. self-awareness is a sin in these lands, but the greater and far worse sin is to attempt to share that self-awareness with someone else. this is why link is so adamant that zelda not finish speaking at the end of chapter two, when ganon is defeated and they are standing on the balcony. he wants her to stay. he’s in love with her. he doesn’t want her dream to end because in a way her dream is his dream too; they want the same things (peace, living champions and family, each other). unfortunately for him, zelda has to leave the aoc world behind, because even a hundred year nap has to end, and so she says what she has to say, she says it feels like she’s dreaming, and she wakes up.

q: please explain, in plain english, whatever the hell goes down in chapter 2. a: chapter one is a relatively straightforward retelling of the first four story chapters in hwaoc. chapter three returns the reader directly to the botw timeline, where link shoots a glowing arrow at ganon’s ass, killing him instantly. chapter two is the glorious fuck that lies in between. in short, it splices the events of aoc and botw together with overlays and meta commentary from the third universe mentioned above, where zelda is trying to engineer a happy ending, and the ambiguous fourth one where link is the one who sees the dream. i made use of several batshit devices here, but the most prominent one is, i hope, the encore. the [ENCORE] is initially used to signal that a scene will be set in the botw timeline. it makes its first appearance before botw zelda and botw link’s journey down from mount lanayru, which, as we know, does not take place in aoc. this is played straight up until the halfway mark or so, at which point i swap out ENCORE for encore and finally ****** (still says encore though). this distinction is lost altogether once impa begins dragging link’s body up to the great plateau. up until now, ENCORE and [these brackets] have been used to distinguish the botw timeline from the aoc one, which is not an encore and is not in [these brackets]. the next segment, concerning the battle on the great plateau, flips them. now impa and co’s funeral procession is ‘real’ and the charge zelda leads to the temple of time is ‘fake’. i wonder why.

q: ‘the lights are BLUE or YELLOW or PINK’. explain. a: what’s a play? a pretense. what does it take to pretend? actors. what is zelda doing? dreaming.

q: fourth wall breaks. explain. a: the interview segments are an homage to the seven thousand articles about age of calamity i read before playing age of calamity because this game was effectively my reason to live for the months of october and november. sooga talks about google maps because he’s dead (possibly dlc?) and dead people have the right to say fuck-all. every device in this story was implemented for a vaguely coherent reason. and then i fucked it up for fun.

q: what is the state of zelda and link’s relationship? a: in the botw timeline i imagine they’re involved with each other even before calamity strikes. in the aoc timeline i imagine they’re working their way towards something, but several important trigger events in botw don’t take place in the aoc timeline and the stakes overall feel significantly lower, so i’d hesitate to say their relationship develops to the same degree it does in the botw timeline. this is all personal conjecture, so you’re free to disagree.

q: why does the last line sound like a hannibal lecter line? a: [dab] god’s plan

q: why does zelda say there are a thousand possible outcomes, and only one where link lived in chapter 3? a: the first rule of time travel: don’t.

this is everything i can think of off the top of my head that might have confused people, but i did unfortunately write this thing so if there’s something else that made you go ‘the fuck?’ please don’t hesitate to drop me an ask or a line in the replies, i’d be happy to help. also, if it isn’t clear as day, i have a lot of fucking feelings about both of these games, so if you want to talk lore, theories, or just miscellaneous zelink fuckery, hit me up. i’ll go sleep now. take care everyone.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Whoopsie King Rhoam’s a dick but I gotta flesh him out so

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

‘sup ya beautiful bastards it’s time to gush about the process of storytelling and writing as we fix up the fix it fic so let’s just jump into it

- - - - - - - - - - 

A quick recap of Part 2, and I swear this recap is faster than the recap last time: Chapter 3 of Age of Calamity opens with a more substantial scene the beginning points of Revali’s character, and contrasting the old position that Link and eggbot have, so that their later changes in this chapter (well, at least for Link in this chapter) are more pronounced. We edited a bit of the dialogue to make Revali’s intentions make a bit more sense, while also putting some little foreshadowing points with some camera tricks for the Hollow Champions. The Hollow Champions can now speak, which means their potential for being used to bring out the flaws or bitter aspects of each character is more readily available further into the story. And of course, we’ve introduced the main antagonist of Astor, and coupling his presence and dynamic with Zelda’s insecurities. While his intentions of needing Zelda for something is clear, his motivations and backstory remain a mystery as of yet, the only true clue we have so far being some sort of connection to eggbot. 

I didn’t get any big asks or comments about Part 2 so I’m going to assume that it was mostly well received (although I will note that I promise I’m going to flesh out Revali to be more than he has been presented as of yet, this is just the very very start of this development don’t you worry your feather loving butts) that being said, you should totally critique me or give me your opinions or comments. I’d love to hear them! Although, keep in mind that I am restraining my rewrite to the guidelines already said, so don’t get mad at me for not killing off all the Champions or something. Thaaat’s a rewrite for another time. So yeah if you reblog you get a little kiss from me because believe it or not I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite an entire storyline while keeping it’s tone and integrity intact. So thanks much <3

Okie dokie then chaps! Let us finally delve into Urbosa lesbian vibes, a zest of Zelink angst, rants about pacing, and a couple tablespoons of Astor backstory, all starting in the latest stage of Chapter 3: The Road Home, Besieged 

So right of the bat, big problem here. This Chapter follows directly after the events of Korok Forest, so you assume that maybe “The Road Home” refers to the team, going home, back to the castle, to tell King Rhoam what’s up. But...that’s apparently not the case. 

So this entire stage, firstly, it brushes over any scenes where Zelda, Link or the other Champions might talk to King Rhoam about the Master Sword, or the Deku Tree, or...hmm what else happened last stage that might be interesting to see—oh yEAH HOW ABOUT that mysterious magic guy that tried to kill Zelda and was going off about the future and stuff?? That guy that wielded a bunch of dark magic and malice looking stuff and, uh yeah, you’d think it might be important and interesting to see the King’s take on was is essentially a wanted traitor to the crown who may or may not be leading the entire movement for the Calamity’s uprising. But nope, no one asks questions, no one says anything or has interesting conversations that reveal stuff about the plot. It's just….just all about Zelda and ooooOOooo she can’t awaken her powers oh no what’s a gal to do!

And I do mean that quite literally, this entire stage is all centered around two scenes with Zelda. The first, an admittedly narratively important scene of Zelda having a quick flashback about eggbot after he sings her a song, but it lasts for five seconds. And the second, being a pep talk with Urbosa as Link eats rocks in the background. For the majority of this stage, it’s all focused on Zelda, and pacing wise, it does virtually nothing to progress the narrative/plot forward.

And on paper, there’s nothing wrong with that! Hell, people read entire fanfictions dedicated to character development and relationships that have absolutely no external plot. Having a scene dedicated to just character development is completely fine, it’s something that’s pretty common and even encouraged to an extent. The problem arises when you remember that this is a story being told through the medium of a video game. 

Now, I am going to try and  breeze by this because, similar to Age of Calamity, I have to also construct this post with pacing that keeps my audience engaged, while progressing with my core narrative and story. But I highly encourage you to watch through this video by hello future me (On Writing: How to Master Pacing) because a lot of what I know about this I’ve picked up from his videos, and if you’re a writer or just someone who thinks storytelling is cool, it’s a great guide to the art of pacing.

Anyhow. There are two levels of pacing within a story. There is the small type of pacing, like for the structure of a singular scene. And there is the pacing of the overall core narrative, how the larger beats of the entire story is revealed. Good pacing for your core narrative is about whether the reader feels like they are getting closer to the big thing, the big climax or answer or promise of satisfaction. The smaller type of pacing, for your singular scenes, focuses on that timing between how close you get to achieving new information, this refers to  your slow and fast pacing, tension versus rapid action.  

So, overall the rule of thumb is: the amount of time you invest into your smaller scenes, even put together, that must correlate with a big enough payoff in the core narrative. That’s what good pacing is. (And that’s why people make stuff like the Three Act Structure to help visualize this pacing process but obviously other forms of pacing guidelines exist like the Five and Seven Act Structures but that’s too complicated for this Nintendo Game anyhow that’s just some educational flavour for ya to impress your highschool English Teacher I guess) 

So knowing that, the question now is: Does The Road Home, Besieged contribute good pacing to the story? This is going to be my excuse for changing up other later scenes in the game, so when I mention pacing and narrative again, remember this. The time spent playing for thirty minutes, minimum, in the game, to only be paid off by two lines of character development isn’t good pacing. So the answer is “no.” 

Delving as long an amount of time as thirty minutes, means that pretty much everytime a stage is complete, you must introduce new substantial progress to your story. A game like this just doesn’t have time to waste it’s valuable cutscenes on character development alone. There’s an even further wrench in the issue when you consider you also need to account for sidequests, so you could really be forcing your player to go through hours of gametime before you introduce new details in the story. 

Obviously it’s not always gonna be cut and dry like that—sometimes you have to account for how enjoyable the gameplay is, and sometimes the amount of character development offsets any lack of narrative development—but for the majority of stages I’m gonna change, they all suffer this pacing problem. In a game that's entire story hinges on these cutscenes, bad pacing is just something it doesn’t have time for.

Anyhow anyhow anyhow, I got to get my dose of serotonin by talking about pacing writing structure and stuff and blah blah, so now I shall grace you with the changes that address these problems that would theoretically lead to vast improvement. I gave you this reasoning and backstory to writing because I am making hella changes, to hopefully make the experience more “poggers,” which is something the cool kids say these days if you didn’t know. 

Firstly, timeline wise this stage is gonna take place directly after the Korok Forest battle. The gang is returning home from the battle, with Link, the new wielder of the Master Sword, along with this new information regarding a certain Astor character. 

We open the same way it does in game, focusing on Zelda’s face, before the frame is suddenly blocked by the pommel of the Master Sword. A wordless way to express how the sudden revelation of Link being the hero has forced its way into Zelda’s mind, great use of camera Koei Tecmo 10 outta 10

Now I don’t want to immediately jump into Zelda’s “oh poor me I can’t awaken my powers” dialogue because—and this is something even Breath of the Wild is guilty of—This game seems to forget that there are other characters besides Zelda. It’s marketed towards kids, sure, but I assure you that kids playing this game have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. You don’t need to keep reminding the audience every single scene about how Zelda is anxious about her powers. It gets redundant, you waste the audience’s time, and therefore you waste your own time, because you could have been using that precious screen time to develop some other thing further.  So anyhow, goes a bit like this. 

Zelda’s walking, the Master Sword comes into frame. Zelda looks down at the ground but keeps walking, but you can tell from her expression that she’s troubled. Don’t need to waste time on dialogue for her here, show don’t tell, we need to make the most of the scene here. Camera is still on Zelda, but the focus blurs shifts from Zelda to the Champions behind her. We can start with Mipha, I don’t have my heart set heavily on any specific dialogue, but I want her to say something along the lines of “how proud she is of Link” and what an honor it will be to fight by the side of not just her dear friend, but also someone selected by the goddess to be the hero. Subtextually, I want her to say this in a tone that suggests that she doubts the need for her to be here at all. She’ll say something like “He’s grown so…” glances up at Link who's just walking ahead, “...so much stronger than I could ever imagine. [Something Something] His power has grown so much over the course of a few days, more than I have achieved in a lifetime.” She looks down, but she still has a sweet smile. 

Now I’m doing this because I want to develop further this plot line of “getting stronger” that Age of Calamity sets up but never does anything with. Remember how in Chapter 2, Mipha asks Daruk to train with her to get stronger? I really like the possibilities of this arc with Mipha as it can not only parallel with her feelings for Link, but also make her character better as an individual. Mipha wants to get stronger so that she can protect Link, but now she thinks that Link’s already growing stronger to an extent that she might not be needed. She’s not jealous of Link, nor does she wish him to be weaker, she simply wants to be more than she already is. This is literally echoing her words that she left her father, about how leaving the Domain and experiencing new challenges would be “good for her.” So I wanna run with it. The dialogue here establishes Mipha’s motivation to grow stronger, almost equivalent to a rivalry of sorts. 

So after Mipha says this, Revali scoffs and butts in. Again, I’m not too set on any particular dialogue here, just something like “Hmph! Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me all that’s happened is some magic sword gave the knight an ego boost. Blade’s only as strong as the little Hylian who wields it, and—based on my own extended experience and professional observations of course—I’ve yet to see this ‘stronger’ boy that you speak of.” Another camera pan to Link a ways in front of them. “If you ask me, hero or no, that knight is still exactly the same as I first met him.”

Revali places a wing on his chest dramatically. “Perhaps if you’re truly keen on seeing growth in skill and strength, Mipha, you’d do well to—”

“Flattering of an offer as that may be, Revali,” Urbosa interjects, “But I think Mipha might find it difficult to observe growth from one of the shortest Rito in Hyrule.”

Cue laughter from others or snickering or something. We just need some banter to add a bit more flavour to the characters. Revali can do a little huff and cross his wings or flip his scarf or something. But then Urbosa continues. 

“Although...he is right about one thing.” Urbosa looks straight ahead. “A sword does not alter a hand, just as strength does not alter character.” She puts a hand on Mipha’s shoulder. “Grow as he might, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the same boy as he’s always been.” Urbosa looks up in the direction of Zelda. “Whether you realize it or not.”

Ok so, scene’s not done yet, BUT quick gush on the dialogue flow here. I’m trying to establish parallels in these character perspectives based on the flow of conversation. We started with Mipha who, like I said, wished to grow stronger along with Link. This flows into Revali who also has a similar parallel as he wishes to grow above Link’s shadow. But the distinction between Mipha and Revali is that Mipha think’s Link’s strength is earned, and Revali thinks he cheated, gaining authority through a magic sword, and not through merit and skill. Thus, leading to Revali’s perspective of Link being exactly the same as he’s always been, he believes the sword doesn’t change anything. Urbosa then speaks, because she thinks exactly the same thing. However, her distinction is that Link is the same as he’s always been: a determined young boy earned his place and cares for his friends. Then she looks to Zelda who, as we know, will develop a perspective that contradicts this. So you get it? This scene is like 20 seconds long but it already mirrors nearly all the character parallels and perspective, that’s why the flow of dialogue is important. And I know half of you probably think these kinds of details are a stretch but I promise you it’s not, just look at any movie or show ever and I guarantee you can find similar stuff there too. Ok moving on moving on— 

Urbosa looks up at Zelda, comments her, “He’s the same boy, whether you realize it or not” piece of dialogue. Camera shifts back to Zelda and Link, who, idk if I mentioned this, but in the scene there’s enough distance between the Champions and Zelda and Link that the Champions can speak without the other two listening. So they didn’t hear any of this. 

So the camera is back on Zelda, and now we can get her “How can I…..If I am unable to awaken my inner power….” line. Eggbot senses her sadness, does his little cheer up dance, Zelda gets a flashback.

One small change I wanna make to this flashback: Instead of just a baby Zelda going “nighty-night” I want there to ALSO be a figure in the background behind eggbot wearing a silk royal blue dress. And said woman has blonde hair and she’s by the table back there. We don’t have to show her face or anything because Nintendo hates that. Just place the woman somewhere in the back somewhere

Also possibly you could add the shadow of another figure by the doorway, maybe? It would serve good continuity purposes for the plot points that I’m telling, but that part is not as necessary. I just need at least the woman there. 

Then Zelda is like “I remember you” to eggbot and all that and blah blah… Now, instead of Impa offscreen just yelling “enemy ahead!” I just want it to be a full on ambush. Not like a major one, but just enough where the group is surprised a bit. Maybe on the cliffs above, a lizalfo throws a boomerang, or a bokoblin shoots and arrow, or even just throws a rock. I don’t really care. I just need this to happen because…

As soon as this danger is presented, Link turns around to grab Zelda’s hand and they start running again. And he can like use his body to try and shield her a bit, I need it to parallel how he acted during Chapter 1 on the road to the Royal Tech Lab. However, this parallel has one important distinction because…

Zelda rips he grip from Link’s after a moment. “You don’t need to coddle me!” She says, or something along those lines. “Y-You...You’re the hero aren’t you! I’m perfectly fine, you don’t need to spend your precious time playing babysitter to me.” In the distance, a horde of monsters is beginning to form. Zelda looks between the monsters and Link’s Master Sword, her expression unreadable. “Well? Just...just go do what you need to do.” Link hesitates, looking between her, and the approaching monsters. Zelda speaks more sternly now, “Go!” So Link, not one to disregard an order from the Princess, gives one last look to Zelda before setting off towards the monsters. Maybe Zelda can take a deep breath to steady herself after he leaves, but as soon as Link unsheathes his sword, the metal glistening in the setting sunlight, it cuts immediately to gameplay. Start battle. 

For essays’ purposes this is the part where I explain why this is better than the original. So here’s my reasoning:

Uhhh, it just is. :3

Ok but seriously, I’ve already talked a tone about why the pacing and dialogue flow is better than the original. But also this scene doesn’t just say “Ooo Zelda is sad about her powers,” because that’s not interesting. Like I said, it’s redundant information. What is interesting is see how characters deal with that internal conflict and how it affects their relationships. AKA Zelda’s relationship with Link, who now basically embodies the success that she’s been working so hard towards but never achieved, is deteriorating a bit. I wanted to get that sense of the Zelda that we see in Breath of the Wild because all things considered, they should be roughly the same character.

So that’s that, you fight the battle, the Hollows show up a bit, so insert “dark evil Champion” dialogue because if you’re gonna use the evil clone trope might as well use it to the fullest. Then you fight the Talus and hurray horrah the day is saved. 

Then we have that iconic Urbosa motherly pep talk to Zelda as Link eats rocks in the background. Now honestly, I’m not that big a fan of the first half of the dialogue, so I wanna change it into something more interesting. But the rest of the beats and camera work go roughly the same. 

Zelda: “Link is...so much stronger now”

Urbosa: “‘And yet I have not.’ I presume that’s what you’re thinking, hmm?”

Zelda: “Well it’s true, isn’t it? More and more, monsters have been appearing around Hyrule. It is a sign that the Calamity draws near. So...there isn’t much time. And still, no sign of my power awakening.”

Urbosa: *sighs* “Little bird…”

Zelda cuts her off, in an attempt to change topics: “Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa: “Hmm?”

Zelda: “Little bird...I feel like I’ve heard it before. Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa, after a beat looks off in the distance or something: “A long time ago, my dear friend would call me to the palace, or perhaps invite herself over to mine, [she chuckles] ...and she would talk with me all day, and ask me to gaze upon her little bird with her. Her dearest daughter...a princess”

Zelda: “You mean my…”

Urbosa just smiles with a soft nod: “Back then, times were a bit different. The destiny that you have was still upon the Queen, who worked day and night to refine her powers and fulfill her destiny. In just a few short years, I went from being friends with a Queen, to friends with the destined sealer of the Calamity.”

Another pause, before Urbosa speaks again: “But...she was still the same woman I had grown with. Still the same loving mother who spoke about her little bird with joy. She had not changed one bit.”

Urbosa: “Even when your mother passed, her loving smile was there until the very end. She always loved you—believed in you, Zelda. She had great hope, great faith that her daughter would grow into the beacon of light Hyrule needed. That even with her gone, you would spread your wings and fly, because you were just that amazing to her.” *Urbosa puts her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.*

Urbosa: “Destiny did not change your mother’s love, just as it does not change Link’s courage, or your value.” *the camera can pan to Link eating rocks now*

Urbosa looks directly at Zelda now: “Look how hard we’ve all worked to get this far, how hard you have worked to get here. While we may grow in strength, in that regard, we’re all one in the same.”

Zelda: “...I….well…”

Urbosa: “What did the Great Deku Tree say? There is no need to fret princess.”

Urbosa: “Our faith, Link’s, your mother’s, it’s all as strong as ever. And everyday, with every moment that you travel towards your destiny, it just grows. It is always with us. So believe in that, have hope, yet, little bird.” *Eggbot can scurry up and make cute noises here next to Zelda*

Urbosa: “I know, you are where you need to be. You must accept that too.”

Zelda: “...”

Zelda gives a solemn nod: “Thank you, Urbosa.”

So that’s that scene! Don’t let the length fool you, it’s technically even shorter than the original scene in Age of Calamity. So why is it, in my opinion, better? Because for one, we actually get an insight into Zelda’s mom and Urbosa’s relationship, something that was PROMISED To us but never given and I’m still a bit salty about it. Anyhow, in addition to just getting some lore details, that relationship between the Queen and Urbosa is important for this scene because, just like Urbosa spells out, it’s in direct parallel with Link and Zelda. 

Before the Queen suddenly got sick and died, she was destined to seal the Calamity. But she didn’t let that destiny change her, she was still the same loving mother to the end. Now that is something that Zelda needs to realize about Link, as his newly acquired destiny doesn’t change who he was before, the knight who cares for her and wishes to protect her. Zelda needs to realize he’s the same and that she can still trust and confide in him. Hence, that’s why this mom backstory is in this scene and not somewhere else, because it serves to the narrative but also more impactfully to the character development. 

The dialogue could probably be polished a bit more but come on, not half bad for an improvement yeah? So that concludes Chapter—

SIKE we’re not done yet. We still have to move into the entire point of this stage, the road home, to the castle. 

So, badabing badaboom, I’m adding an entirely new scene from scratch right here at the end, because it is VITAL that I set up something new about the story, as a sort of clincher. So anyhow 

Zelda is alone with her father, let’s set it in the royal library (Intact, not ruined, of course) because we don’t see enough of that location and it’s really cool. So Zelda is briefing her dad about the events in Korok Forest and on the journey back home. I know I always gush about cinematography but it can’t be fully appreciated since I’m….writing,,, this, BUT I think it might be fun if the side shots of Zelda have her background be some bookcases of the library, maybe half bookcases and the other half the ornate walls. Then the background for the King’s shots is the full symmetry of the elegant staircases.

[And if you needed the specific reasoning for that, because it makes camera shots more fun. Like when Zelda says something that aids in her scholarly side, the camera angle can change slightly where the bookcases take up more of the frame, and then when the King’s will takes more power, then the book cases can be angled a bit more out of frame. And then the symmetry of the King by the staircase is a way to show his higher power dynamic to her, and contrasts well with Zelda’s shots since the bookcases are dark and the stone is lighter, so on a meta level is also makes it easier for the audience to understand where they are. Shot composition is fun ok, and that’s not even getting into color theory (Thinks about Baby Driver and LaLaLand....even videogames like Undertale and Hollow Knight have such wonderful shot composition and use of color theory hhhhh love it)]

Ok so Zelda’s briefing the King in the library, she’s standing while he’s sitting at a desk. There’s maybe two or four Royal Guards on the staircase entrances, but for the most part, they’re alone. You can tell that this meeting between them has been going on for a bit now, as from Zelda’s dialogue, she’s retelling events midway through the story. 

The King is flipping through some paperwork, not really looking Zelda in the eyes. She continues speaking. 

“And so...with the malice cleared and the monsters being dealt with, Link and I made our way into the heart of Korok Forest.”

The King hums a response, flipping through another page. “And this is when Link pulled out the Sword that Seals the Darkness then, I presume.”

Zelda paused, as of thinking of how to phrase her next words. “Not exactly. I...we both encountered someone beforehand. A man, with a pale face, and dark hair and robes, and he had the power to control malice, using a strange object in one of his hands.” 

Rhoam stops writing in his journal or whatever. He doesn’t look up, but the sudden stop he makes is obvious. Zelda notices, but continues. 

“He talked about...the Calamity, and my birthday...destiny, and the future….I’m not quite sure I can remember his intentions word for word. But he did introduce himself as—“

“Astor…” Zelda and the King say simultaneously. The King has fully perked up now, looking at Zelda. She’s pleased to see a reaction from him. The King rises from his chair, and starts pacing a bit, stroking his beard thoughtfully like the asshole he is. 

“So you know him then? This Astor man? Who is he, father? What does he—“

“Were you alright? Did he hurt you, or mention anything else?”

Zelda pauses for a moment before shaking her head, as if the concern he was expressing was uncharacteristic. “N-No. No, I’m fine, and Link was there. During the battle, as Link fought him off, that was when the sword was pulled. Then Astor fled, or...” Zelda pauses for a beat, “retreated...he expressed his wish to speak with me again.”

Another beat of silence, as Rhoam gets up, hands clasped behind his back. “He used to work at this very palace.” The shot is now directly on Rhoams back, as he faces a bookcase, although it’s clear that he’s just deep in thought, and not just staring at books. Rhoam is in third column of the shot (he’s to the right, not in the center) 

“A trusted advisor. Someone gifted with foresight, who many years ago, had first predicted the coming Calamity.” Cut to shot of Rhoams face, the camera being by the bookcase, so that we see Rhoam’s expression and Zelda’s.

“In truth, I thought him dead. For the last time I saw him alive—truly, truly alive—was ten long years ago...” The shot goes back to the original establishing shot, of Rhoam facing away from the camera, towards the bookcase, he’s standing to the right, hands still clasped behind his back.

“...when your mother still graced this earth.”

From left frame, a younger Astor walks up and stands beside Rhoam. He runs his fingers along the books. Rhoam looks to his left, as if he is seeing Astor. Camera cuts to Astor’s right, as if looking at him from Rhoam’s perspective. He continues brushing his fingers against the spines of the books, before he finds the one he’s looking for. Pulling it out, he opens the book, flipping through its pages, before giving a genuine smile. Cut back to wide angle behind them. With the book, Astor starts walking back out left frame, but this time the camera follows him. Filter fade to a memory tint as the camera pans right to left

[when the camera fades fully into the Astor memory, the figures can have that silhouetted effect like you see in botw. Cause I know Nintendo hates making new character models for some reason.] 

So if it wasn’t clear already, even though the memory filter doesn’t come immediately, Astor isn’t actually there, but it’s just a flashback. I’m a sucker for merges, which is something this game and botw NEVER do which bugs me because there are so many creative ways you could introduce flashbacks without just doing “ooOooOoo fade to sepia filter and then oooOOooOOO we fade back to reality and no time has passed.” I apologize if my explanation of the camera doesn’t make sense as it’s hard without much visual aid, but hopefully it makes sense so far. Anyhow! Let’s continue.

We’re now fully immersed in this memory, but King Rhoam’s voice still narrates overhead. 

Astor brings the book to one of the desks in the library, where a woman sits writing something onto paper. News flash, it’s the queen. Astor hands her the book and starts speaking about something, although you can tell the tone of their conversation is light, almost akin to Zelda rambling about Sheikah Technology. The Queen laughs about something unheard, as Astor continues ranting about something, his hands moving to like a professor giving a lecture. 

Rhoam Narration: “When he had first predicted the Calamity, things were much more hopefully for our kingdom. As although his foresight granted him only glimpses and fragments of a future, he was almost certain that with the Guardians, and the strength of your mother’s power, our victory would be absolute.”

Scene changes to the Queen walking down a corridor, Astor is leaning against the wall by a window. 

Rhoam Narration: “He and your mother would often work together tirelessly to study the ancient arts, to make the most of the powers given by the goddess.”

The Queen has walked up to Astor now. She crouches down and gestures to her left, the side not yet seen by the camera.

Rhoam Narration: “In fact…”

The camera changes to focus to where the Queen was looking towards—a young Zelda, crouched behind her mother’s dress, stares up at Astor. 

Rhoam Narration: “I would not be surprised if you found within yourself, a memory of such.”

I would prefer if you could see the expressions of Astor (giving Zelda not a smile, but not really a frown or anything rude either) and young Zelda. But I guess it can also just be silhouettes too cause again, Nintendo hates giving us younger character models outside of first person POV stuff. Anyhow. 

The scene fades, the light from the window dimming as everything darkens.

Rhoam Narration: “I often times wish we could go back to such a time, when victory and pride swam in every corner of this castle.  But of course…”

The scene brightens again, although not as bright as before. It’s the exact same corridor with the large window, but now it’s raining. A young Zelda stands alone in front of it, looking outside.

Rhoam Narration: “Such a time did end…”

We now cut to a new scene, King Rhoam is walking down a hall, the camera’s perspective is of a bird’s eye view, like we’re peering in from outside a window. We can see the shadow of Astor chasing after him, as he starts speaking frantically about something, not quite, but almost to the point of shouts. 

Rhoam Narration: “After your mother died, the visions of the future shifted drastically. No longer was there glimpses of rolling fields and shimmering skies, but instead, of rubble, red earth, and death.”

You can now more clearly hear the words coming out of Astor’s mouth. He is telling something about failure, and souls, and the Calamity to the King’s ear. He’s still walking forward.

Rhoam Narration: “He was adamant that our demise was now coming faster than ever, and that without your mother, we were doomed. That even you, should you take up your mother’s mantle, could not save everyone.”

Astor: “I’m telling you Your Majesty, if you go down this path, there is no going back.”

King Rhoam: “There is no other choice, we are moving forward.”

Astor: “I don’t think you quite understand the true gravity of the fate you’re choosing for yourself. It is a guarantee that you, me, and countless others shall die.”

King Rhoam: “I don’t want to hear it.”

Astor: “And of course, there are a multitude of possibilities, but the end result is the same.”

Astor: “Do you have a preference, perhaps? Crushed by rubble? Suffocation under ash?”

Rhoam’s tone is deadly: “Stop.”

Astor: “I’ve seen fire too. I’m not yet quite sure the exact circumstances that lead to flame appearing and spreading so quickly, but rest assured that if you—”

King Rhoam: “Stop.” 

Astor: “If you saddle someone else with this duty I am absolutely certain that you and I will—” 

King Rhoam, voice not shouting, but still with a booming intensity: “Just like you were so certain of our victory 10 years ago?”

Astor’s face darkens. He’s silent for a moment, collecting his words before practically spitting the first articulation: “...That, future, was the one that would come to be if Her Majesty was alive. If you’re so unsatisfied with my departed wisdom you can go ahead and flail around with destiny alone. You think I choose for these events to happen? You think I lie when I saw I want what’s best for this kingdom—”

King Rhoam: “What’s best for you.”

An ugly pause.

King Rhoam: “It is decided, Seer. It’s time you accept this. My wife is dead. That is the truth. Thus the role of sealing the Calamity shall pass to my daughter. She will work to awaken her own ability. It will be her duty to save us.”

Astor half laughs: “A child?! Surely you don’t need the supernatural to see how foolish that is.”

King Rhoam’s voice is even more stern: “You are living proof that the future is not absolute. Therefore I...must place all belief in her ability.”

The King walks away, leaving Astor alone. Weirdly, he smiles. Perhaps to mask some other emotion.  

After another moment, Astor yells to the King: “I’ll fix this! Alone if I must!” He’s chuckling as he shakes his head. “Your useless faith may cost many lives, but even so mark my words, I will fix this.”

The King looks back, but says nothing, his expression unreadable. He continues forward, leaving Astor alone chuckling, or perhaps something in between chuckling and crying to himself.  

Rhoam Narration: “We haven’t spoken since that day. I simply left him to his devices. If he was so determined to find another way to stop the Calamity, then who was I to stop him. I doubt my word could have swayed his mind regardless.

We’re now looking at a room, the camera is just by the doorway, looking at an office, circular and domed. It’s stone brick walls are covered in parchment and ripped books, covered in symbols and frantic writing. An old Sheikah tapestry hangs crudely on the left wall, and the window on the right seems to tint grey, or even a deepest crimson. Centerframe, is the back of Astor, robe hanging just above the paper ridden floor. He is flipping through something on his desk. 

Rhoam Narration: “Fixated as he was on the perfect future that you mother might have led, I still had hope that with time, he might still assist you with your destiny one day.”

The camera slowly comes closer to Astor. We can see more clearly the type of stuff that sprawls the papers and books and diagrams across his office. Some depict stars and constellations, and even a few notes on Ancient Technology, although in a noticeably cleaner font. However, as the camera moves close and closer to Astor, the papers and books depict only one clear topic: the aura of death that comes only with necromancy. 

Rhoam Narration: “It seems…”

Astor finally reacts to whatever he was doing on his desk. You don’t see his eyes, but as he fully turns around to face the camera, you see his smile, along with him holding a dark orb of unknown energy. It hovers in his hand. 

Rhoam Narration: “...I was mistaken.” 

The camera cuts to a wide angle, looking at Astor from behind a stack of books on his desk. The stack of books on Astor’s desk brighten in color (from the memory dull filter), until the scene fully fades back into the Royal Library. The camera is now focused on a similar stack of books on the desk behind Zelda, where Rhoam was working before. 

Zelda is still looking at her father, who is still turned away. Now, he turns back around to face her.

“He had disappeared completely one day, so it was my understanding that whatever he was working on killed him. However, if he is truly back as you say…”

Rhoam walks closer to Zelda, close enough that he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but his arms stay behind his back.

“It is in your utmost interest to prove him wrong. I know not what he plans on doing, but it would be wise to stop him before he does.”

Rhoam turns away now, pacing back to the otherside of the desk. “But, your more important priority is unlocking your powers, understand? Now more than ever, is not the time to get distracted.”

Zelda, taking this all in, takes a deep breath. She then nods at him. “I understand...Father.”

After a moment, the King makes a motion as if to dismiss her. She starts to walk away, her thoughts churning in her head, heart thumping to the same beat as her echoing footsteps. Suddenly, Rhoam calls, 

“Zelda.” It’s not a question, but the tone is asked like one.

She turns back, looking at him, expectantly. Rhoam only stares at her, an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty for him. The words he wants to form seem stuck in his throat, until finally, he lets out a quiet breathe through his nose, before simply saying:

“You must.”

Zelda can only frown, her shoulder’s slumping slightly, as she ducks her head and leaves.

- - - - - - 

And that’s that! That’s the complete end of Chapter 3. So tune in next time for Chapter 4, including a new slight but important story changes, Yiga husbands, and shocking turns of events.

Edit: I forgot that posts with link’s dont show up in tag results so a rb is appreciated :p

[ravioxhilda]

Hello everyone! I have written a version of the Champions’ Ballad but with a Miphvali twist. I hope you enjoy this version of the Champions’ Ballad!

Today was a day of celebration, a day of hope for all of Hyrule as those who had been chosen to defend the kingdom against Calamity Ganon would be gathering to be honored by the King himself.

He had summoned the four Chosen Ones to officially appoint them not only as the Champions of Hyrule but also publicly recognize them as the pilots of the four Divine Beasts.

It was a show of triumph and that even against their greatest enemy, they would prevail and win the war.

At least, that’s what was written in the summons that the Royal Messengers had delivered to Revali, Mipha, Urbosa, and Daruk all across the land.

Mipha, Urbosa, and Daruk had accepted the summons graciously and immediately began making preparations to travel to Central Hyrule for the inauguration ceremony.

Revali, however, had rolled his eyes and dismissed the Messenger with a halfhearted promise he would attend.

Which was true, he would attend, though he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be presented and paraded like a trophy in front of so many, especially to a King who he barely felt loyalty to, and when he could be training instead.

Nevertheless, Revali had soon finished packing what sparse materials he would need for traveling to survive this short trip, triple-checked there were enough arrows in his quiver, and flew off from his peaceful home in the mountains towards Central Hyrule, with a small group of Rito Warriors in tow to represent the village alongside him.

It had taken only about half the day for Revali to reach Hyrule Castle with only a few breaks from flying to eat to regain energy while resting his wings.

The area around it was mainly flat open plains with some forests, as well as scattered Hylian settlements and stables.

However, the roads that snaked throughout the entirety of the region were packed with travelers, either on foot or by cart, though Revali felt he would be ill just by the sheer amount of people there were.

He could also see those from other races arriving as well as he approached Hyrule Castle.

Gorons were rolling in from the direction of Death Mountain and Eldin, with Daruk in the lead standing out with his rather large beard and boisterous laughter.

The Gerudo arrived on horseback from what Revali could assume was the direction of the desert, Urbosa riding in front, the spokes of her golden headdress sparkling in the sun, signifying her position as Chief of the Gerudo.

Finally, there were the Zora, arriving from the waters of the rivers surrounding Central Hyrule, and even though Revali had sharp eyesight, he could still barely make out Mipha standing tall, her elaborate jewelry shining in the sunlight as she led her people to Hyrule Castle.

It had seemed that the other three had been chosen and invited to the Castle as well, though it did not surprise Revali in the least. He had suspected for some time now that the King would do something to honor them as Pilots of the Divine Beasts, but this whole gathering was certainly over the top from what he could tell.

Mipha looked above from where she was walking to see Revali and a small group of Rito following behind them, though she could recognize him anywhere with his navy blue plumage. It stood out quite nicely from the more muted browns of his countrymen against the clear pale blue sky.

She thought back to her home, Zora’s Domain, where her father and younger brother had decided to stay behind to keep watch over the Domain, instead sending along a small entourage of Zora to accompany her to Hyrule Castle.

How she missed Sidon’s chubby red cheeks and the way he wandered about, his head-tail that was much too long for his small body trailing behind him.

She giggled at the thought of her little brother trying to figure out where she had gone, as she had come to find out that whenever she was away he ran around the Domain asking anyone who would listen where his big sister had gone.

Of course, any Zora would listen to their baby Prince, even if he hadn’t been royalty, and would stall him long enough so that a Guard could come to retrieve him and take him back to King Dorephan.

While it pained Mipha to be away from home for so long so often, it was necessary to ensure the safety of her people by working together with the Pilots to drive back Calamity Ganon’s forces, though her true duty had yet to be fulfilled.

“Good afternoon, Princess.”

Mipha looked up to see that Revali and the Rito accompanying him had landed next to the Zora marching in place and joined in with them.

Revali fell into step beside her, his armor reflecting the sunlight much like Mipha’s jewelry was, though her jewelry sent little beams of light across the grass.

“Oh, Revali, how lovely to see you again! I trust that your journey went well?” Mipha asked, and Revali shrugged nonchalantly as though journeying halfway across the kingdom was a breeze for him.

She supposed it most likely was a breeze for him, as he could fly through the sky instead of traveling by foot like the Gerudo or the Gorons had done.

“Oh, it was quite uneventful, nothing much occurred besides perhaps being shot at by a few Bokoblins, but nothing major.” He said airily, though the way his tone sounded so confident meant that Mipha couldn’t help but believe him.

“That is wonderful! We luckily did not have many problems either, though the amount of monsters we have had attack the Domain is becoming quite worrisome. I do hope my people will be alright whilst I’m here.”

The atmosphere suddenly felt quite gloomy, though Revali could understand her worry. He had believed Rito Village was under attack once again when they had first met, after all.

“Have some faith in your warriors, Princess. I am sure they will protect your home well. That is why they were chosen, correct?” He asked, and Mipha nodded, though it did little to ease her worry.

“I will try. I can only hope the Princess will allow us to return home for a few days before we are sent out on our next mission.” She said wistfully, and Revali could sense that she missed being home very much, which he could relate to. He was never home much to begin with, but leaving his Flight Range hurt every time he did so.

The two continued to walk in silence after that, the only sounds were the murmurs of conversation between the Zora and the Rito amongst themselves, and the march of their feet against the ground.

They soon arrived at the metal gates of Hyrule Castle, the sunlight reflecting off the glass and iron that made up the two large doors.

Two guards stood at attention, though by the looks of it they were low-ranking as they wore the standard Royal Knight armor.

Mipha couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. The armor was made from heavy yet defensive metals and the helmets they wore were much too large to the point where they could not see very well or move around as nimbly as they should have been able to.

Revali felt much the same way, though based on what the Princess had told them, these guards were meant more for charging through enemy ranks with brute force than actual strategic combat, so their armor was much appropriate than what the King’s Personal Guards wore.

“Halt! State your names and titles!” The taller of the two guards ordered, causing Mipha and Revali to glance at each other before Mipha politely cleared her throat.

“I am Lady Mipha of the Zora, a member of the Zora Royal Family and Pilot of the Divine Beast Vah Ruta.” She said confidently, giving Revali the feeling that she had gone through this process many times before, though he straightened his back and puffed out his chest proudly.

“I am Master Revali of the Rito, Chief Commander of the Rito Guard and Pilot of the Divine Beast Vah Medoh.” He declared, causing Mipha to giggle daintily as she pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle it, though the guards just seemed confused, but shrugged it off as they saluted to the both of them.

“Welcome to Hyrule Castle, Lady Mipha and Master Revali! Her Majesty is awaiting your arrival in the Sanctum! Open the gates!” The taller guard shouted, and the large metal doors began to slowly open in front of the two, revealing the long, winding stone path in front of them that led to the Castle.

Both the Zora and the Rito glanced at one another as Mipha and Revali began their trek up the stone pathway, and all of them were quite relieved that the large structure of Hyrule Castle blocked the majority of the sunlight that fell upon Central Hyrule.

After a long while, the group finally made out to the Sanctum, all tired out from the long walk, though Revali was also slightly irritated.

At the entrance, Zelda could be seen standing with Link, Urbosa, and Daruk, all having arrived sometime before, though Mipha and Revali noticed the different clothing on all of them.

They had, of course, seen Zelda in her Royal Gown before, as she wore it most days when in the castle. However, the other three had entirely different outfits.

In place of Urbosa’s traditional Chief skirt, she wore a blue skirt with the Vah Naboris emblem, with two decorated belts crossed over one another at the waist, the cloth fastened by a golden clasp with the Gerudo emblem. She had taken off her headdress as well.

One of Daruk’s chains that had crossed over his body was replaced with a blue scarf with Vah Rudania emblazoned on the cloth with white trim at the borders.

Link’s outfit had changed the most drastically, completely abandoning his Hylian Knight armor in favor of beige pants, brown boots, and a blue tunic that matched with Urbosa’s and Daruk’s scarves, and Zelda held two more blue pieces of cloth in her hands.

“Oh, Revali, Mipha, I am so glad you have made it! I apologize for the long walk up here, Urbosa and Daruk were complaining about the same thing when they arrived just a few minutes before. Will you be alright?” She asked, and though Revali wanted to snap at her, her concerned look and the shadows beneath her eyes calmed him down. It wasn’t her fault her home was so large.

“It was no fault of yours, Princess. I would have flown here but I do not trust your guards enough to not blow us out of the sky. Now, what is with all of this blue clothing?” He asked, Zelda breaking into a grim as she held out a scarf to both Mipha and Revali.

“I discovered in ancient texts about the Pilots of the Divine Beasts from 10,000 years that they wore something that signified their bond with their Divine Beast and with one another. As we all serve together for the good of our kingdom, I created these four scarves and Link’s tunic for you all to wear. Perhaps you can wear it for the ceremony?”

The two took their scarves, though Mipha smiled happily when she noticed the Vah Ruta emblem displayed on the cloth, the fabric feeling quite fine in her hands.

“It is lovely, Princess. Thank you. I suppose it is a good thing I decided to wear my special occasion jewelry instead of my royal jewelry. It will go quite nicely with the blue.” She said, fingering the tassels hanging around her neck and sash around her body.

Revali turned the scarf over to see Vah Medoh pictured, a small smile on his face when seeing his trusted mechanical companion. It was as if he could hear its call from Tabantha.

“I agree. You clearly put much effort into this, and I shall wear it proudly. Thank you.”

Everyone looked at him with a surprised look, though he didn’t notice as he examined the scarf more closely.

“Princess, would it be possible for us to change somewhere? I would feel a bit uncomfortable taking off my jewelry and sash in front of all of you.” Mipha asked suddenly, though everyone had to resist the urge to tell her she was basically naked all of the time anyway, though to a Zora it was more practical to be adorned with jewelry than actual clothing.

“Oh, um, you can change behind the pillar over there. No one should be able to see you.” Zelda said as she gestured to the aforementioned pillar. Mipha nodded her thanks and darted behind the stone, careful that she was out of sight.

“Well, I never would have expected to see the both of you showing up together. Did something happen?”

Revali glanced over to see Urbosa smirking at him, her arms crossed under her chest as she looked at him knowingly, giving off an aura of...smugness? That was all he could tell.

“We happened to arrive at the same time to the path before the gate. How did you and Daruk get past us? You were both arriving at the same time we were.” He asked, and Urbosa shrugged.

“Guess you’ll never find out. However, I think you should put on your scarf before the rest of the kingdom arrives, don’t you think?”

Revali grumbled as he wrapped the scarf around his neck, though something he realized was that it was a bit shorter than his beige one, and the Medoh Emblem was positioned in such a way that a more intricate way of wearing the scarf was needed.

Tying a knot would not be difficult under normal circumstances, but as he was tying the knot with a cloth around his neck without a mirror, he couldn’t quite see what he was doing.

“Princess, could you explain why you decided not to give us these garments until we arrived?” He demanded, glaring pointedly at Zelda who could only smile sympathetically in response.

“I apologize, I did not realize that tying your scarf around your neck may have given you a bit of trouble. Perhaps you could allow someone to tie it for you, just this once?” She suggested, but before Revali could respond he heard the soft pad of someone’s feet behind him and turned to see Mipha walking out from behind the pillar she had changed behind.

Suddenly, it felt as if it had become quite difficult for Revali to breathe when he saw Mipha wearing her scarf for the first time.

Her blue scarf had been tied around the front of her torso, held up by a sapphire brooch, the other half of the blue fabric draping over her shoulder against her back. The silver collar around her neck had three small teardrop gems hanging from it, with a second longer one sitting below it, crossing just over her chest.

Her silver belt was still adorned with the same jewels, though her head jewelry had changed so the small gem that once lay on her forehead was gone.

Revali had learned from spending time around Zelda, Mipha, and Urbosa that women who were held in high esteem, such as royalty or as a chief chosen to use a headpiece with a gem inlaid where the wearer’s forehead would be, though why he did not know.

“Uh, Revali? You okay?”

He snapped back to reality to see everyone staring at him worriedly. Well, everyone except Urbosa, who just smiled at him with that oh so infuriating smug expression.

“I’m fine, stop staring at me.” He snapped, everyone turning away except for Mipha, as she reached out to gently take ahold of the scarf around his neck.

“Here, allow me.”

She then began to tie the scarf into a simple knot, though on the outside it looked quite intricate, simple but beautiful.

Her webbed fingers brushed against the metal of his breastplate as she worked, everyone staring at her in wonder while Revali was doing his best not to explode from the close contact. Close contact from her of all people.

“There, that should do it. What do you think?” Mipha asked, stepping back to admire her handiwork, taking all of Revali’s willpower to not pull her back towards him.

“What is wrong with me? I am having such strange thoughts about her, and for what?” He thought to himself, though realizing Mipha was still waiting for a response, he decided to place that train of thought on hold for now.

“It looks wonderful. Thank you, Princess.” He said with a small smile, causing Mipha to beam with pride, the most adorable thing Revali had ever seen.

“It was no problem, Revali. I am glad I was able to assist with your predicament.”

Mipha then went to speak with Zelda about something, presumably where to place her sash that she was holding in her hands to not distract from the ceremony.

“You okay, Revali?”

Revali felt a rather large hand land on his shoulder, as well the low, gravelly voice of its owner, meaning that it was Daruk.

Sure enough, when he turned around to see who it was, it was indeed his Goron teammate, a rather concerned look on his face as Revali grumbled.

“I’m fine. Honestly, why must you all assume I’m not alright for when I don’t speak for an extended moment?”

“Because you are always talking about something. When you’re silent, that’s usually a red flag.”

The two looked up to see that Urbosa had joined them, standing beside Daruk as she left Mipha, Link, and Zelda to speak to one another instead.

“Ugh, what do you want? And I don’t talk all the time.” He grumbled, Urbosa laughing heartily as she placed a hand on her hip, her expression turning serious.

“I’m here because it is quite obvious there is something going on between you and Mipha, and as I am trying to keep the peace of the group so we don’t stress out the princess, you’re going to need to tell me what exactly it is.” She said calmly, making Revali feel as if a parental figure was talking down to him, which he did not appreciate.

“You do not need to speak to me like I am a child, I am fine. Nothing is going on between Mipha and me, I barely know her!” Revali yelled, glaring at Urbosa, though she merely shrugged as she received a questioning look from Zelda, as well as a gesture towards the Sanctum.

“Perhaps we can continue this conversation at a later time. The ceremony is due to start soon, let us head into the Sanctum.”

Urbosa and Daruk walked to join the others, leaving Revali alone as he reluctantly followed them into the rather extravagant chamber.

The Sanctum of Hyrule Castle was where the King and Queen of Hyrule, or rather the King and Princess as the Queen had been gone for over a decade, would make their public appearances with the rest of the kingdom.

The room was circular, with two staircases alongside the back wall that to the King and Queen’s Thrones, where King Rhoam could be seen standing. Lush red carpeting lined the floor, and where there wasn’t carpet was carved stone that matched those that made up the walls, with banners hanging that displayed the Royal Family insignia, the Triforce.

Windows scattered around the chamber allowed in sunlight, though if there hadn’t been a few lanterns to illuminate the room, the Sanctum would have been much darker.

The Zora, Gerudo, Rito, Gorons, and Hylians that had all accompanied each Champion were gathered at the different angles of the room, each leader holding a banner displaying each of their respective emblems.

Revali took his place at the front of the Rito, glancing over to see Mipha hurriedly walking towards her fellow Zora, and he couldn’t help but think that the sunlight reflecting off her jewelry made her look extra beautiful.

“Get ahold of yourself, you’re not here to drool over a Zora whom you barely know.” He thought, though his attention snapped back to the front when King Rhoam cleared his throat, a bit too loud to be on accident. He began what sounded quite obviously to be a prepared speech, though Revali had come to expect that of Hylian royalty. Only Zelda seemed to put true heart into what she had to say.

“Welcome warriors! I’d like to thank you for joining me here today, and for your bravery in accepting this...fateful task. I officially appoint you Hyrule’s Champions, and bestow upon you this sacred garb. That blue is a symbol of the royal family, one that has been passed down for countless generations. Those garments you now wear were all crafted by my daughter, Zelda.”

King Rhoam paused for a moment, his once sweeping gaze landing squarely on his daughter standing in the middle of the Sanctum. Anyone who could see her could notice how nervous she was, the way her fists were slightly clenched as well her almost shaking form. However, she managed a nod in response, remembering the rule of any royal: Do not speak to the king during an address to the public.

“Zelda, I trust you with the task only a daughter of the Royal Family can fulfill. Lead our Champions, Princess. And together, protect our kingdom from the threat of Calamity Ganon!” The King proclaimed, spreading his arms wide as he finished his decree.

Almost everyone in the room cheered, Daruk included, while the rest of the Champions clapped politely and Zelda breathed a large sigh of relief.

She had done it. She had made it through the ceremony without a hitch, she could almost jump in excitement, though she knew a stern look would be directed at her if she had done so.

The Champions surrounded her as King Rhoam left the Sanctum, as well as all of the representatives for each Champion, until the only people who were left were the six of them.

“Well, I’d say that went well, don’t you think, Urbosa?” Daruk asked, and the Gerudo nodded as she patted Zelda on the back, a proud smile upon her face.

“Yes, you did splendid, Little Bird. I’m so proud of you.” Urbosa said to the Princess, and Zelda smiled, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at the five of them surrounding her.

“No, thank you! It is because of the five of you that Hyrule stands a chance against the greatest threat our kingdom has ever seen, I truly will never be able to thank you enough. Come, I have somewhere to show you.” She said, gesturing for everyone to follow, though Revali lingered for a moment.

“Princess, I may have to return home soon, training and preparations must be done to ensure we will succeed in our battle against Ganon, as you have mentioned before. Perhaps I should go-“

“No, you are not going anywhere.”

Revali looked to see Urbosa glaring at him with a stern expression before it turned to a smile shortly after, though he could sense the malice behind her gaze.

“You wouldn’t want to disrespect our princess after she has graciously invited us here to honor us, would you? There could be dire consequences if you were to do so.” She said sweetly, her hand crackling with the slightest bit of lightning, a thinly veiled threat.

Revali gulped. He had been on the receiving end of Urbosa’s lightning once before, and the experience had been so painful that Mipha immediately had to heal him, her face contorted with worry as she desperately held him close to soothe the white-hot pain coursing through his veins, though he had appreciated being held by her, if even just for a moment.

He groaned before following to join the group, Urbosa giving him a satisfied smile before walking side by side with Zelda, leaving him alone in the back.

Mipha glanced back worriedly at him, trying her best to be discreet, though it didn’t take Revali long to see Mipha’s amber eyes gazing directly at his, causing him to be caught off guard, enough to almost jump.

Why was she staring at him like that? It was so intense, he wondered if she was truly worried about him. He felt slightly guilty for seemingly making her worry, though why she would even be worried in the first place was beyond him.

Mipha noticed him staring at her, causing her to squeak and quickly turn back around, her cheeks warming a little at being caught.

“Why am I so embarrassed? I was simply checking on him from afar, that’s not against the law, is it? Perhaps it’s rude to stare at someone from afar in Rito culture. So much I do not know about him, but how I desire to learn more.” She thought, clasping her hands together in an effort to calm down.

“Alright, here we are.”

The Champions had arrived a little ways from the Sanctum at a gazebo of some sort, just below the tower that housed Zelda’s study.

“Welcome to the Gazebo! I discovered this place not too long ago, the view of Hyrule and the Castle is simply beautiful, it will give you all a chance to rest for a moment before you depart.” She said, and Revali could have flown off if he didn’t know Urbosa would strike him out of the sky.

“Hellooooo, everyone! We’re here!”

Revali groaned. This day was just getting better and better.

Purah and Robbie had arrived from the Royal Ancient Tech Lab a little ways from Hyrule Castle across the Breach of Demise, a now usually monster-infested area, though it appeared the two scientists had made it through unscathed.

“Purah? Robbie? What are you two doing here for?” Zelda asked, and Purah waved her off just as quickly as she pointed towards the Sanctum.

“The King summoned us here to see our progress on the Guardians, though it seems he failed to tell us that the inauguration was today! I mean, that’s why you’re all dressed so nicely, right?” Purah asked, moving her hand around towards the five of them, each time landing on the respective blue garment they were wearing.

Revali had a slight hunch that the King didn’t tell them the inauguration ceremony was earlier that day on purpose. Robbie and Purah were Hyrule’s most respected scientists, that was certain, but their antics tended to get a bit out of hand at times.

However, he did not say anything. He quite liked Robbie and Purah, they didn’t constantly antagonize him as Urbosa did, and his feelings towards them weren’t as...complicated as they were towards Mipha.

Complicated? Was that he was referring to them as? Oh, how he desperately wished he could see inside her head, to see what she truly thought of him. Though, now that he thought about it, it most likely wasn’t any good. He had been quite rude to her friends, his allies, and for what? To impress her? To impress himself?

He could have snorted if he hadn’t noticed Mipha was staring at him once again, but not with worry. It almost seemed like...curiosity?

“Revali?” She asked, Revali not even noticing that Mipha had stepped closer towards him until she was directly in front of him, close enough to touch, but far enough away to not encroach on his space.

“Ah, Mipha. What brings you over here?” He asked, and Mipha giggled as she pointed at Zelda, who now held the Sheikah Slate conveniently received from Purah before she and Robbie rushed off to meet with the King.

“The Princess has the Sheikah Slate in her possession, I’ve noticed that you’ve seemed rather fascinated by it, so I thought you may want to take a closer look.” She said, taking ahold of his wing and gently pulling him after her.

If it had been anyone else, Revali would have batted them away and slunk off to a corner. If it had been anyone else, he would have screamed at them to let him go.

But it was Mipha, and while he did not particularly like being pulled closer to the others, the feeling of her small hand gripping onto his wing felt almost comforting, so he allowed it to slide, just this once.

Zelda was marveling at the Sheikah Slate in awe, though she looked up when she heard the click of talons and the soft pad of someone’s feet to see Mipha and Revali standing in front of her.

“Oh Revali, Mipha, is there something I can help you with?” Zelda asked, and Mipha pointed towards the stone tablet in the princess’s hands.

“Actually, we were wondering if we could examine the Sheikah Slate a little more closely. We don’t have much technology from the ancient civilization except for our Divine Beasts, after all.” Mipha asked, Zelda nodding as she handed the Sheikah Slate to Revali.

The relic was quite small in Revali’s hands, allowing him to hold it between two of his fingers as he examined it.

“Hmph. This is the Sheikah Slate, eh? Doesn’t seem to do much to me.” He remarked, and Zelda sighed.

“It is, though apparently there are more uses for it than we originally thought. Sadly, we’ve yet to decipher all of its secrets.” She said with what sounded like disappointment as Revali handed the Sheikah Slate to Mipha, her barely just catching the artifact in her own hands.

Urbosa leaned down towards Mipha, placing a hand on her hips as an idea popped into her head.

“The princess showed me something strange recently. Somehow it can create true to life images!” She said with a smile, causing Mipha to stare down in wonder at the stone tablet in her hands.

“Oh wow, I would love to see it.”

Mipha turned to see Link and Daruk chatting quite animatedly about something, or rather, Daruk talking about something while Link silently listens.

Mipha had always appreciated that about him, or at least that’s what she could appreciate about him now. When he was younger, he would always talk to her so eagerly about whatever was on his mind without a second thought, whether it be someone he had just bested in a duel or a fascinating bug he had found.

How she missed his childlike wonder, now replaced with a stoic demeanor and no want to draw attention to himself. It was saddening to see her dear friend be so burdened by whatever was on his mind.

That desperation to bring him back to her drove her to almost propose to him, even going so far as to create Zora Armor to seal the engagement, but something in her had told her not to.

That something, she soon later realized, was her curiosity about a specific Rito, namely Revali. He had managed to capture her attention more so than even Link could, though for what reason, she did not know.

Now, she wasn’t quite sure what to think, so the Zora Armor lay abandoned in her room, tucked out of sight until she could sort out things in her mind.

However, an idea popped into her mind, something she had been wanting to suggest that the Champions do for quite a long time, but did not from fear it would take up too much and resources. This was the perfect opportunity.

“Um, Princess, may I ask a special favor of you?” Mipha said, and Zelda looked at her with confusion.

“Of course, what is it?” She asked, and Mipha held out the Sheikah Slate towards Zelda.

“Could we...perhaps take a picture together with the Sheikah Slate? It would be a good way to commemorate us all becoming Champions!” She said, and Zelda took ahold of the Sheikah Slate once again, her mouth widening into a smile as she nodded in agreement, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“That is a wonderful idea, Mipha! Here, you should all gather by the water to take the photo, and I shall take the photo.” She said, feeling a hand clap on her shoulder to see Purah and Robbie returning from their rendezvous with King Rhoam.

“Nonsense, Princess! I can handle the picture taking, you’re a part of this team as well! Go have fun!”

Purah then pushed her towards the other Champions, or more specifically Link, who caught her with ease in his arms and helped her stand upright once again.

Purah then tapped at the Sheikah Slate until the Camera Rune activated, Robbie standing behind her to make sure she activated it correctly.

“Uh, I think you were supposed to do this...”

“Shush, I know what I’m doing. Ah, there we go!”

Instead of the Sheikah symbol glowing on the screen, it was the five Champions and Zelda instead. Purah smiled in satisfaction as she moved back just a bit to get the framing better, bumping into Robbie in the process.

“Oops, you okay?” She asked, looking at him with the slightest bit of concern, and Robbie was glad that his oversized goggles covered most of the blush that crept onto his face as he nodded hurriedly.

“Yeah, just take the picture.” He mumbled, though Purah only shrugged as she turned back around towards them.

“Alright, this spot should work nicely. Keep your eyes on the Sheikah Slate, everyone!” She called out, as everyone settled into a sort of pose.

Daruk towered over the rest of the group, enough to where Purah couldn’t get him into the frame even if she leaned back far enough, almost falling directly into Robbie once again.

“Um, Daruk, could you crouch down a bit? You’re as big as Death Mountain!” Purah asked, causing Daruk to look around in confusion before realizing how much he towered over the others, so he crouched down just a bit to fit into the frame.

“What’s with the glum face, Princess, gimme a big smile!”

Zelda felt a hand on her shoulder to see Urbosa smiling down at her with such affection. She sighed with sadness, how she missed seeing that expression from her father, or even her mother for that matter.

“I-I apologize. I was not aware I was pulling such a sour expression.” She mumbled, and Urbosa laughed in response.

“It is quite alright, Little Bird. I would be surprised if you weren’t at least a little tired from today’s excitement. I promise that you will be able to rest after we are done, and I will personally speak to the King if he is against it.” She said, and Zelda nodded, a soft smile now upon her face as she turned back towards the viewfinder of the Sheikah Slate.

Revali sighed. Surely it didn’t usually take this long to take one simple picture, did it? He had seen Zelda use the Camera feature a few times before, and it had only taken a few seconds. This was ridiculous.

“Revali, move your tail closer to the group!” Purah yelled, and while Revali was tempted to just ignore her, he didn’t want to look bad in front of Mipha, or worse, be shocked by Urbosa.

“Ugh, fine.” He groaned, ignoring the smug look on Daruk’s face as he shifted closer slightly to Urbosa, wishing he had to move closer to anyone besides her. Being within arm’s reach was never a good thing for her.

“Mipha, you look so tense! Deep breaths, okay?”

“R-right!”

Was something the matter with Mipha? Revali peered around everyone to see her taking in a few deep breaths at Purah’s suggestion, and Revali couldn’t help what happened next.

He smiled. Not a smirk, not a smug look, but a soft smile, a sincere one.

It had been quite a while since he had smiled sincerely about anything, but how could he not? Mipha was positively adorable, her little antics and mannerisms made her look nothing but charming in Revali’s eyes. He felt nothing could ruin it for him until he heard a voice.

“Stay just like that!”

He snapped his head back towards Purah and Robbie, immediately reverting to a frown, hiding any evidence of a smile at all, though the two scientists smirked at one another knowingly.

“Here we go! Smile! Click snap!”

As Purah’s signature phrase left her mouth, Revali felt a rough large hand push him closer towards the others, much too close, and way too forceful.

So forceful that he fell backward onto the ground with everyone else stumbling as he felt someone land on him.

The person who had landed was small, that was for sure, and Revali instinctively felt for who it was, feeling not hair like almost everyone else had but smooth...scales.

“Oh, goddess above!” He thought as he looked to see red, but not like blood. No, it was a head fin, and it shifted upwards until Mipha was staring straight into Revali’s eyes.

Her hands gripped onto his arms in an attempt to steady herself, though she looked just as shocked as he was as she quickly scrambled off of him, her face beginning to turn red.

“Oh my goodness, Revali, I’m so sorry! Are you hurt?” Mipha asked in a panic, hurriedly searching for any signs of a scrape or cut on his body, before she felt two hands grip her shoulders, Revali staring at her with a smirk.

“I’m fine, Princess. You needn’t worry so much, being pushed to the ground is the least of my worries, though I would like to know why someone thought it was a good idea.” He said pointedly as he glared directly at Daruk, who was helping Urbosa to her feet.

“Oh come on, you all looked so tense! I was trying to lighten the mood a little bit, this is a celebration, after all! Besides, how angry can you really get, I was doing you a favor!”

Revali could have exploded with fury at that moment if it was physically possible, and if it wasn’t for the fact he was holding Mipha in his arms, he would have attempted to punch Daruk.

“Don’t ever do that again, I don’t need your help, especially when it involved possibly injuring someone! Mipha could have been hurt if she hadn’t fallen on me!” He yelled, and Urbosa laughed, flipping her hair over her shoulder in an attempt to make it look presentable once again.

“Oh please, you would have caught Mipha even if it meant breaking your arm, she would’ve been fine. Now, why don’t you go get up before Purah and Robbie have any more material to use as blackmail?”

Revali looked over to see Purah happily snapping away, Robbie and her snickering as several clicks were heard in the sudden silence.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Delete those pictures!” Revali yelled, getting up from where he kneeling to chase after Robbie and Purah who had begun running in circles around the Gazebo.

“Not a chance, bird boy! I’ve been dying for something like this to happen!” She said excitedly, laughing as Revali tried and failed to catch her.

Mipha watched them in wonder, the feeling of Revali holding her in his arms still imprinted on her skin as Zelda knelt next to her.

“Mipha, are you alright? You haven’t said a word this entire time!” She asked, and Mipha began to laugh, a genuine laugh to the point where she forgot to hide her teeth, the serrated edges in full view.

Everyone was quite bewildered as Mipha stood, wiping a tear from her eye as she watched Revali continue to chase Purah around the gazebo.

“I am just wonderful, Princess.”

[pastelsandpining]

The Master Sword

Summary: This is my take on memory 18, because the game’s version was far too happy for me. Zelda’s trip to Korok Forest was no easy feat, but she knew the sacred blade needed to return lest they lose it too.

Words: 2671 Warnings: this is Zelda after her entire kingdom was destroyed and all of her friends were slaughtered. it’s gonna deal with grief, survivor’s guilt, and other heavy themes.

CEO of posting works at midnight then being sad about the lack of notes

Masterlist

~~~~

Exhaustion was heavier than the sword strapped to her back.

Her legs screamed for her to slow down and her lungs burned from the ash in the air, inhaled in gulps as she wrestled with the grief in her chest. 

This morning, a beautiful sunrise greeted her from her window. Birds sang a song of love from their perch, and people bustled along the streets of Castle Town. She had a piece of her favorite dessert brought to her by her knight as a gift, and she walked through her lively, wonderous kingdom covered by green grass and wildlife beyond compare, to meet with her friends and conduct a day of prayer at the Spring of Wisdom.

It was a day just like any other, birthday or not. 

And now, that green grass was burning. That cerulean blue sky was painted red with clouds of ash raining down from every last bit of civilization she could see. The wildlife scattered, if there were any left at all. The fields of flowers were trampled by ancient technology that had gone from astonishing to terrifying—and out of their control.

She did not need Nayru’s wisdom to know that everyone from the castle, her home, to the outskirts of Central Hyrule had perished. She knew nothing of her friends, trapped within their once loyal machines, but she could not imagine they’d met a better fate.

And Link.

Zelda took a deep, shuddering breath and held tighter to the Champion’s Tunic that once matched his eyes. Now, it was covered in dirt and grime and stained with his blood. She wasn’t aware of the exact time, but she figured it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since Hyrule’s hero had died in her arms. She didn’t allow herself any time to grieve—she couldn’t. 

Her despair reached far beyond the point of tears anyway.

She wiped at her eyes with her wrists, which managed hardly anything more than smearing the dirt on her face, and tried to even out her breathing as she reached Kakariko. Only then did she lower her pace and she didn’t have to search far for Impa, who was giving orders to her warriors. 

“Princess?”

Zelda pushed the tunic towards her dear friend and trusted it would say what her voice couldn’t. Some naive, stupid part of her hoped that if she didn’t speak it aloud, then it wasn’t set in stone.

“I can’t stay for much longer,” she explained, forcing her voice steady. “Two Sheikah have taken Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. When he returns, please, give him this.”

“How long-“

“As long as it takes.” 

In truth, she had no real reason to believe the shrine would work. Every last piece of Sheikah technology they’d entrusted was corrupted and turned against them. If the Calamity had that sort of power, then it was probable it could do the same to their last piece of hope. She prayed that wouldn’t be the case, because she didn’t want to think about what would become of Link, or his body, if something went wrong. 

“The sword,” Impa said, her eyes locked where the hilt peaked out from her shoulder. 

“I hope to return it to the forest, so that when he is ready, he can retrieve it,” Zelda explained, fidgeting with the strap. 

“And then..? What will you do, Princess?”

“Tell him that he must free the Divine Beasts if there is any hope of winning this.”

Impa’s face betrayed that she knew and Zelda turned away so she did not have to see the desperation on her loyal friend’s face.

“You can’t,” the Sheikah whispered. “We have no way of knowing— If the shrine does work, it could be years before Link is ready to face the Calamity again! No one can fight for that long, much less alone!”

“Stop,” commanded the princess. Her eyes traced the three golden triangles burned into the back of her hand and she closed it into a fist. “My entire purpose is to fight this Calamity. I refuse to do nothing when finally this power obeys me. Enough have died tonight.”

Her tone made it clear there was no hope in arguing. Her decision was final.

“Do you think.. Can we win this?” Impa asked instead with an awkward shift. She’d asked herself that same question many times within the last few hours and she wished that she could provide a complete answer. 

“I believe in Link,” she replied firmly, as if daring him to truly die on her. “Tell him that as well.”

Zelda had taken perhaps three steps forwards when Impa spoke again.

“Will you come back?”

“...you must do everything you can to aid him, Impa. Promise me that.”

“I promise.”

She couldn’t stand to waste more time, so she didn’t allow for any more questions. With a nod of appreciation to her friend, one that also served as a silent thank you and goodbye, Zelda broke into a sprint and didn’t stop until she was out of the village borders. Extreme physical activity was not of her forte and she’d done plenty of running already. Every bit of muscle in her legs protested against it. With an unspoken apology to everyone she had failed, she stopped trying to push herself.

She would need all of her strength. 

The strap was digging into her shoulder. Zelda slung the scabbard off of her back and chose to hold it in her hands instead. 

How many times had she looked up, seen him with this very sword on his back, and loathed it? How many times had she seen the blue metal glinting in the sun, the golden triangles crafted with such precious precision, and felt defeated?

Zelda could laugh. Defeat surrounded her and it was far heavier than her tantrums. It was even heavier than the steel in her grasp. She found it ironic, yet heavily fitting, that she would be the one to carry the blade she once detested to its resting place, that she would be the one to hold its wielder as he died, when she once loathed him so, that she, the one who could not fulfill her role, would be the sole survivor left to fight the Calamity. 

She wondered briefly, stumbling over a rock, or maybe her own exhaustion, whether or not they had made it to the Shrine. Did they lay his body to rest? Could they see his wounds healing? Was it slower than that, or was it just a futile attempt of grasping at straws?

A nearby screech startled her. Without much thought for what she was doing, she’d unsheathed the Master Sword and, with both hands on the blade, swung with all the might she had left. The Bokoblin fell before her without another sound, but the momentum of the swing kept her moving until she, too, was doubled over. The sword, with its tip driven into the dirt, was her only crutch. 

How Link was ever able to swing something so heavy with such ease baffled her. Or perhaps it was just because her hands were clumsy with weapons of any sort.

Zelda pushed herself upright and picked the scabbard up from the ground. With a little difficulty, she slid the sword back into its holder and continued her trek towards the forest.

It was hard to ignore the burning fields all around her. It was hard to ignore the guardians soaring overhead. She was careful to avoid their search beams because she didn’t think she could spare any of the sealing power for them. 

Part of her felt for them. She knew they were machines—no more than hunks of metal on legs, but there was tragedy surrounding them. Pieces of technology that were so advanced, that she loved, that were created with the sole purpose of helping Hyrule, were abandoned as soon as the Calamity was sealed. Their creators were exiled, their kind were banned, and they, too, were lost to the sea of time. Buried and forgotten, until they were needed again. And as fate would so cruelly have it, they were twisted and corrupted and now knew nothing but destruction.

Her thoughts flickered back to her loyal knight and she realized with a stroke of horror that he, too, would be buried and forgotten, lost to a sea of time. But then again, so would she. That’s how it went, wasn’t it? A hero and a goddess, set to revive only when the Calamity would. With tens of thousands of years passing between them, all they would truly become were stories. Except, there would be no grand legend following them. For a story to exist, there had to be people to tell it. Her kingdom, as far as the eye could see, had very little left.

She wanted to be upset. She wanted to be angry at this cursed fate, but if she refused to play her part in this elaborate game of chess, then there would be no hope for a future Hyrule to recall stories to.

Zelda gripped the scabbard tighter and pushed onwards. She never knew how much she would come to miss having his eyes on her back—having him three paces behind her at all times. She felt incredibly, strangely alone, and there was no comforting thought that one day she would feel his presence again. Wisdom did not grant knowledge of the future, so she was not naive enough to try manifesting her desire.

There was no bringing him back, not yet, and all the other lives lost tonight, all of their friends who’d stood bravely together only to die alone, had no chance of returning whatsoever.

All she could really do was hope that she could give the remaining populations in every last corner of Hyrule a chance to evacuate while she held the Calamity back. Should it devour her, her entire kingdom, at least her people would be safe. 

Goddesses, every step felt more difficult. Every step she took forward was a missing step behind her. And she couldn’t help wondering,

could she have saved him?

Part of her wanted to believe it would have been possible. The other part of her knew better than to tempt fate. They could not change it, but fate itself could play with whatever rules it desired. 

This, she realized with a deep chill, was how it’d always been meant to go. All of the time she spent in the springs, crying for a silent goddess to answer, wouldn’t have changed a thing. Fate was cruel.

Yet she couldn’t bring herself to be angry with the goddesses. The realization, the clarity that fell upon her, washed her through with a sudden calm. 

Or perhaps that feeling stemmed from the Lost Woods, whose fog seemed to be parting for her. With the sacred blade in her hands and the goddess in her blood, she supposed it had no reason to disorient and disable her. Even the trees were silent as she passed, their eyes following her as if they were waiting for a cue. 

Korok Forest looked as if it were from an alien world. The bright and lively green of the trees and pigment of the flowers did not match the decay outside of them. But even here, in the most sacred grove in all of Hyrule, the Calamity had a reach. She could see the dark, crimson sky behind the leaves of cherry blossoms where it did not belong. 

Zelda mistepped, her foot hitting the raised platform, and she didn’t try to catch her fall. The sword’s clang was loud as it hit the stone and her arms trembled under her weight. Her knees were scraped through the dress but it was already stained with blood, what was a little more? The sting was nothing compared to the loss of her kingdom. 

“All hope is not lost.”

She lifted her head, but it was hard to see the Great Deku Tree through the blur of tears in her vision. She blinked hard, but it did little to help. 

“With all due respect, I don’t think I can handle much positivity,” she replied, ducking her head again so she didn’t have to look at him. 

“There is no fault in that. However, telling you that there is nothing left would be false.”

“They’re dead,” she said and shook her head. How did she still have tears to cry? “All of them.”

“Not all of them. But you already know that.”

Zelda wiped at her eyes with her fist and dug her nails into her palms to keep from slamming them on the pedestal. 

“It hurts,” was all she could manage. 

“Yes,” replied the Deku Tree with a gentle hum. “But what is grief, if not love persevering?”

She did not want to reply. Instead, she turned her focus to steadying her breathing and putting an end to the ever flowing tears. The Calamity had laid waste to her kingdom, what good would crying do? Her clumsy hands found the hilt of the sacred blade and she pulled it closer. 

“You master will come for you,” she promised quietly. “Until then you shall rest safely here.”

But what good was her promise when she didn’t know if the shrine would work, or if Link would still be Link if it did? Could the soul of a hero strong enough to surpass lifetimes be altered, shaped into something unrecognizable? If such were the case..,

“Please,” she begged, holding her hands tighter, though she didn’t know if she was saying it to Link or to the sword. “Trust me when I say that I know he will arrive before you yet again.”

Zelda gripped the sword again and struggled back onto shaky legs. When she was steady, she slid the sword back into the pedestal and pressed down firmly until she felt it stick. There was a rush of something too, an odd sort of warmth that hit her fingers and spread throughout her chest as if it was trying to say something. This, she thought, must be what courage feels like.

“If I may be so bold,” the Deku Tree began again, “what is it that you are planning to do next, Princess?”

“It seems that my role is unfinished,” she replied, giving her eyes a final wipe. “There is still something I must do.”

“I sense there is great strength in your dedication.”

Yes, perhaps there was. She wondered if this is how Link had felt nearly every day—ready to act upon a moment’s notice. Even in his absence, she could feel a piece of him resonating within her heart. 

“Great Deku Tree, I ask of you,” she spoke in the comfort and confines of the forest, where no one could repeat her words, “when he returns, can you please relay this message..? Tell him I-“

“Now then… words for him would sound much better in the tones of your voice, don’t you think?”

The guardian spirit, old and wise as the sacred blade itself, gazed down at her with a warm look of faith. There was a gentle breeze that ruffled her hair and a ray of sunshine peaked through the grotesque sky for only a moment, but it was enough to bring a tiny smile to her lips despite it all. 

“Yes,” she decided simply.

This was courage.

The heavy fog of the forest parted for her just as it had done before and the gloomy, burning world she’d escaped welcomed her back as if she’d never left. The exhaustion was gone and in its absence remained a hostile anger that she was ready to let go of. Years upon years of neglect, of training, of hardships, led her to this exact moment—walking into an impossible fight alone. It wasn’t fair, goddesses knew that. This thing had taken everything from her.

But if her kingdom had fallen and she was destined to follow, she would make certain that she took the Calamity with her.

[ashleyswrittenwords]

Subtleties of a Suitor (Part 1 of 2)

Summary: Pre-calamity AU where Zelda’s powers awaken in time, but not everything is back to normal after Calamity Ganon is defeated.

Note: This is all @intangiblyyourswrites‘s fault. Also, the second part is NSFW -which also happens to be Kristie’s fault. Enjoy!

--------------------

Scrawling ink coated the underside of her hand and left light imprints on the edge of the paper. That paper was bound within leather covers that rarely left the Princess’s desk. It was a journal of upmost confidence; containing her deepest secrets and cresting moments of happiness. The highs and lows of her life caught between compressed papyrus.

It was hardly secretive that her lows were concentrated in the years before, caught in the repetitive cycle of failing expectations that were handed down to her from birth. This desk and this journal were Princess Zelda’s small reprieve. Even going as far as referring to it as an old friend because it felt better to write with purpose than to speak nothings into a void.

My dearest friend,

A worry line creased her forehead. The nameless friend was so accustomed to moments of happiness nowadays, it felt alarming to her that she was writing with distress once more.

These days have been nothing short of harrowing. In my last letter, I was convinced that he finally understood my intentions after Calamity Ganon was sealed away. I thought-

She paused her pen strokes and glared at the page, willing herself to connect thoughts to words and words to paper.

We don’t meet anymore, we haven’t since before the monster was sealed away. Even though the night prior haunted my dreams for weeks following my expressed wishes to cease these small moments of privacy. No matter how sweet and innocent they could be. As you know, in my heart of hearts I can’t bind him to me when-

When Zelda could never be his. When, in times of great enlightenment and prosperity, their fates have crossed and her father now sees him only as a valuable combatant in his army. When destinies have been fulfilled and they were no use to one another.

They both knew this in the beginning, but with the veil of ignorance and Zelda’s everflowing failure, she was convinced they were fated to die with the kingdom. It was a simple case of action and reaction. If she didn’t unlock her sealing powers, then Calamity Ganon would not be defeated.

The knowledge most likely drew out their passion. Pages upon pages recounted shaky hands and blushing cheeks that glowed hot and bright against starry skies. A string of months where she felt more warm than she had ever been and more loved than she thought she deserved.

Then, a week after the Calamity, when Link was pressing her against the railing of an empty stairwell far from the celebratory festivities, she broke their kiss after her guilt grew too heavy for her chest to bear. Zelda will never be able to forget the unmasked hurt on his face as she thickly told him that they couldn’t do this anymore. Among it all, Zelda told him she loved him.

I was under the impression he understood. Father offered Link a promotion and he didn’t even wait a day to think about it. The next evening another man was waiting by my door and of course it shocked me. A part of me wanted to be belligerent when Link hadn’t bothered to ask, another part was more than understanding. But now?

Now I’m rethinking everything.

It started two weeks ago.

The court was lively. Since Calamity Ganon’s appearance and subsequent defeat, Hyrule Castle had its fair share of celebrations. Three months later, the Zora was being hosted within its walls. Without looming dread over her head, Princess Zelda found herself in more social circles. The Zoran princess and Champion, Mipha, became an especially close contact. As opposing as the two princesses were, they had cultivated a solid friendship. Zelda assisted Mipha with fitting into Hylian customs and Mipha was a fantastic listener.

“Link hasn’t said anything about it to me,” Mipha said gently, swinging her little brother in her arms. Prince Sidon made a disgruntled noise and reached out towards Zelda once more.

The small prince smoothed the trouble in her brow as she heaved him in her arms. “Well maybe it’s for the best. We should both move on.”

They were taking turns about the court, trying to spend the dying summer days. Sidon giggled and reached out to his sister.. Mipha seemed to be debating what to say before opting for nothing at all and looked across the room. Her Hylian companion followed her gaze to find Link communing with her father and few other Zora. It was typical for him to parade around the Hero of Hyrule as if he were some trophy.

“I don’t know, Zelda,” Mipha softly said beside her. A joke from Link made the group laugh and suddenly the blond caught her eye. As if stung, Zelda looked at the marble tiles in front of her. She scorned herself when her mind would drift from the fact that he wasn’t wearing his Champion’s Tunic. “His burden is lifted, yes, but it’s not like him to so easily let go of someone.”

When Zelda didn’t respond, Mipha tried to reassure her. “I could be wrong. If anything, we can refer to Lady Urbosa.”

As they walked, they soon found themselves amongst a throng of Zoran and Hylian ladies who began to gossip about the affluential bachelors in the room. Although she was physically there with polite smiles galore, her head was miles from the court. There was something about wealth they were talking about when all went silent.

“Master Link!” a woman exclaimed, “What a pleasant surprise!”

Suddenly, Zelda was back with slight vertigo. The group moved from her and began asking a dizzying amount of questions.

“Tell us, how frightful was that monster?”

An excited Zoran was nearing jumping out of her draped fabrics. “Heavens! Recall to us how you slayed the dreadful Calamity Ganon, please sir.”

“Oh goodness, Catherine, not with my weak nerves.”

Why hadn’t they asked Zelda those questions? She was there too!

The man seemed caught up in the storm of women and it occurred to Zelda that she had the opportunity to slip away amongst the chaos. Right when she discreetly bid Mipha goodbye, Link began speaking.

“You’re all too kind. I’m afraid I’m not a very good storyteller,” he wore a graceful smile, but she could see the anxiety behind his eyes. She knew him. Then, she saw the skies in his eyes and any desire to leave dissipated. “I can tell you that Princess Zelda saved my life.”

All eyes fell on her and she felt the acute urge to stare at her feet. Her voice sounded foreign, “You say the most fantastic hyperboles, Captain.”

Those were the first words she has said to him beyond common pleasantries in three months.

“I assure you that there was no embellishment in the slightest.” Link was looking at her along with the rest of the ladies.

“Ah, well,” Zelda trailed off, “It was only fair when you saved mine.”

That caused a sea of hushed whispers around them. The woman that separated them spoke up excitedly, “Will you allow us a story or two, sir?”

“My apologies, I should be off to the barracks right now,” Link said, meeting her again. “I came to bid Her Highness goodbye.”

Another wave of whispers as the woman between them shuffled off quickly. Confusion ebbed at the Princess, but refined manners kept it at bay. Link reached out to her and she instinctively offered her hand, but his fingers grazed the underside of her forearm, the tips of his glove brushing down its length before finally clasping her palm. As he bent down low, he held her gaze, and it felt like they were the only people in the room. Warm lips pressed a long, searing kiss to her hand, and it revived the sensation of those same lips drifting up the inside of her thighs.

He pulled back, “You look lovely this evening, Princess. I hope we cross paths again.”

Zelda’s lips drew tight together and she nodded chastely, not trusting her voice to speak. Footsteps on marbled signified his leave and she looked at Mipha, who stared back with bewilderment. The two princesses thought the same question.

What was that?

Her ink quill scratched against the paper from added pressure, she readjusted her grip.

I thought about it for the rest of the evening. That one moment dredged up emotions I spent weeks burying. Logically, I had chalked it up to basic biology; chemicals in my brain that were ultimately a hindrance to my responsibilities. For a few hours, that had worked until I found out that that night would be the first of many where he would bid me goodnight.

The next day was no better because Father decided he was honored enough to dine with us.

“I’m so glad you can join us, Captain!” King Rhoam boisterously said. “There is a seat next to Princess Zelda.”

The woman stared holes into her empty plate as the chair beside her grated against the floor. When her father coughed to clear his throat she glanced up, “Isn’t it nice that he has joined us, Zelda?”

“Oh, yes,” she smiled tightly, hardly meeting their eyes. “It’s good to see you, Link.”

Her hands folded tightly in her lap. Zelda didn’t hear him reply, so she assumed he demonstrated his signature nod. Perhaps he didn’t want to be there either. Before the Calamity, he was never permitted to sit at the royal table, much less next to the princess. He was a simple soldier then, she reminded herself, someone with promise. Princess Zelda assumed this was another way for her father to show off the Hero of Hyrule to the lords and ladies at the table.

The thought made her bite the inside of her cheek. Didn’t he deserve better? Had he been asked what he wanted?

Supper crawled by painfully. Typically, she didn’t mind if someone sat by her but she hadn’t realized how common it was to brush arms with a neighbor. Each time they touched, she’d involuntarily flinch away. Sometimes he would mumble his apologies that were a little too close to her ear.

Like all things, the torture ceased and as Zelda was about to excuse herself, dessert was announced.

“Where are you off to?” Link said, watching as she was already half-risen from her chair.

The Princess swallowed her curses. “I’m excusing myself,” she lilted, not quite leveling with him. “A lady should keep her figure.”

It was a bold-faced lie. She knew that he knew she loved sweets and would easily endure three courses of her most hated dishes to reach them. Zelda dared him to say anything. The door to the kitchen swung open and revealed several servants. Her father suddenly eyed her oddly, “Are you not planning to stay? I requested fruitcake for this evening on your behalf.”

Oh.

Link looked away as she flopped back in her seat. Despite the rolling in her stomach, her cheeks flared in embarrassment and she rushed to say, “Thank you, Father.”

As much as Zelda wished it would, the issue hadn’t immediately folded. When a large cake was placed on the table, she had the full intention of taking the slice to her room under the guise of studying a fallen Guardian’s laser module. It would be an easy solution to this problem. The cake knife was in her field of view and she went for it, only for another’s to brush her hand away.

With accusation in her eyes, Zelda watched the smallest smile - almost unnoticeable - cross Link’s face.

“What are you doing?” she said under her breath, glancing around the table to assure no one was watching. It hadn’t seemed to be the case, but this was exactly what she didn’t want. The Princess knew this court and though they’re opinion of her had shifted, the lords and ladies would cling to any rumor no matter how innocent his actions were.

His eyes were carefully guarded and if he had been anyone else, she would have been offended by how large the slice of fruitcake was when he set it on her plate . Right when she moved to stand, he caught her with his words.

“Who is it that has you caring about the way you look?”

At the head of the table, King Rhoam was laughing at something an advisor said. By now, it would look uncouth to leave the table mid-course. With a heavy breath, Princess Zelda pulled her chair in and spread her napkin over her skirts. The cake was layered with lemon icing, which would usually make her exponentially excited. Her lips upturned into a soft frown. He shouldn’t ask questions like that. It wasn’t fair.

Annoyance surged into her chest. “Does it matter?”

He was quiet for a moment and conversations from others dominated the air between them. The fruitcake tasted stale in her mouth.

“Yes.”

She wasn’t looking at him - she couldn’t. A stirring feeling lodged itself in her throat and threatened to bring about everything she tried to undo. Memories of laughing so hard in Hyrule Field, doubled over in her saddle from something ridiculous he had said; learning in that moment that he looked at her like she was the moon on a cloudless night; his hands twirling her into a circle besides a campfire to the sound of her humming ballroom tunes.

He had asked me if I fell out of love with him or he had hurt me in some way. I hadn’t and I wasn’t then and I am not now. It wasn’t just about me, but him as well. If it came out to the court, to the public, that we were having an affair, of course I would be criticized. My character put into question and subsequently tarnished for as long as it stayed in the minds of my peers, but nothing would happen to my title. I would still be the Princess of Hyrule.

Link would be scrutinized and his reputation ruined. He could be subject to expellment and be banished from the castle or Castle Town entirely. That was a fear I had harbored and for me to perpetuate our relationship for selfish indulgence… that isn’t love. At least, not a love he deserved.

Daintily, Zelda set her fork beside her plate and partially turned to him. The man had been expecting her as if this was any ordinary conversation, his fork pressing down the spongy dessert instead of eating it.

“Only because you care so much,” she uttered with a stiff back. “The royal family of Labrynna will be hosted in Hyrule Castle in just a few days. I haven’t seen their prince since I was a child.”

His expression hadn’t changed, but he ceased his movements with the fork. Guilt pricked at the edge of her consciousness. Link placed his fork on his plate and reached up. Immediately, her faced flushed hotly and felt his coarse fingertips brushed her cheek. There wasn’t any movement to indicate that she would pull away from his touch.

Then, he smirked. “There was cream on your face.”

It was like he didn’t care! I was mortified.

Her ink pen ran underneath the last word several times to create a line deep enough to bleed onto the next page. The worry line on her forehead had creased deeper as she recounted the events that had happened.

I should have made it clear to him after dessert was over, but when we were taking leave, Father got caught up in a conversation with him. I couldn’t confront him at that point and when Link came to my door again to say goodnight, I shouldn’t have opened it. And when I did, I should have told him: Link, this is inappropriate and I’ve told you that I didn’t want this to continue. Especially in front of my father, no less!

But I didn’t.

Zelda’s face burned and she couldn’t get herself to write down that she might have liked it. She was someone who was both stubborn inside and out, and even her feelings wouldn’t leave with tumultuous effort on Zelda’s part. What was she supposed to say? That she really does miss him and that every second around him chipped deeper in the hole he left?

It was rude. Irresponsible. Ungentlemanly and without regards to propriety. OR my feelings for that matter! What if the way I felt about him is different? Three months is a long time.

And then she remembered his self-satisfied smirk when her face was hot under his hand. Her handwriting grew more frantic against the paper and she had to consciously apply less pressure before the quill-tip punctured through the surface.

Her mind shifted to the days after.

Labrynna was hosted in Hyrule Castle amongst continued celebrations of Hyrule’s success. Their King and Queen were welcomed with open arms, overwhelmed by the jubilations of Hyrulean citizens. Along with them was their son and daughter: Prince Tyrion and Princess Aurra.

Prince Tyrion had written to Zelda several times after the Calamity about their shared childhood, a time she hadn’t remembered at all herself and referred to Impa more than once to verify his stories and to write back to adequately pretend she had. The Labrynnian princess was someone Zelda wasn’t aware of whatsoever and even her father had leaned in during the processions to ask of her name.

Aurra, however, was acutely aware of Zelda. More importantly, she knew of the Hylian Champion who slew a monstrous being of myths.

Not long after making her introductions to Princess Zelda and King Rhoam, she skipped to who was at King Rhoams side and curtsied. Before Zelda could see Link’s reaction, Prince Tyrion took up her view. She offered the appropriate pleasantries and allowed him to take her hand, but she didn’t miss when Link took Princess Aurra’s.

She made note that he didn’t bring it to his lips.

Through the day, she didn’t wander from Prince Tyrion’s side. He was an interesting man; well read and well traveled. She found him to be a fantastic conversationalist nor was she blind to his charm. Dark eyes paired with brunet hair that was shorn close to his ears, which were notably shorter than any Hylian’s - a common trait amongst his people.

However, he was also arrogant.

As King Rhoam led the party through the castle grounds, a level above the barracks and training grounds, Tyrion spoke up.

“You know, Your Majesty, I am well trained in the arts of combat,” he said with a slight smile.

Rhoam raised a brow, turning slightly to face his daughter and the Prince. Two men sparred below, each clash of their swords echoing off the walls. The King of Labrynna nodded in affirmation, a certain pride in his face. “Yes, it’s custom for our prodigy to learn the blade from young ages. Tyrion has a special affinity to it.”

“Fascinating. I hope to see your skill during your stay, young man.”

“Well,” the smile of the Prince’s face and he gestured to Link behind him. “I would be honored to spar with the Hero of Hyrule.”

Princess Aurra stopped her chattering with Link and grabbed the sleeve of his blue tunic, “Oh, brother, you will surely lose. Isn’t that right, Link?”

Zelda swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable with her familiarity with him after only hours. Even more was how unbothered he was by it.

“It surely would be quite the duel,” Rhoam mused, “As long as it has your approval, Captain.”

Link nodded Tyrion’s way, graciously, “The honor would be all mine, Your Highness.”

He said it to the Prince, but his eyes meandered to Zelda’s.

The preparation took an hour and by the time Princess took her seat overlooking the training grounds, the sun casted a golden glow over them. King Rhoam was incredibly eager for the duel, shooting secret smiles at his daughter as the two men shook hands below.

It was clear who would win to the Princess, Link was at the top of his class even before he became her attendant. She scolded herself, though, and told herself that she shouldn’t underestimate Prince Tyrion so soon.

Dimly, she could hear the two opponents giving their regards to one another. The Prince had changed into an elaborately designed sparring outfit that appeared to have leather padding laced at his forearms. Link, however, changed only into Hylian trousers.

Princess Aurra hummed next to Zelda, “Is that the magical sword? It looks normal to me.”

It wasn’t as he had chosen a Knight’s Broadsword to match Tyrion’s.

“It isn’t the Master Sword. We returned it to the pedestal after felling Calamity Ganon.”

Aurra blinked, “Together?”

Zelda politely nodded. That sword was an extension of Link and she remembered comforting him after he realized its purpose was served. The night of, she felt his tears through her nightgown and told him he was more than his destiny - they both were.

After Link gave his regards to King Rhoam and Princess Zelda, a man who had sparred prior held an arm out and shouted to begin the duel.

“Oh, how exciting!” Aurra squealed.

The two men  circled each other like vultures. Prince Tyrion was the first to push forward, a simple feint that Link sidestepped. He was testing the waters. Then, the Prince leapt forward and went for his opponent’s side, who parried without losing ground. There were several short exchanges of the Hero being passive, while Tyrion was assertive.

Before Zelda knew it, she was gripping the sides of her chair as they danced. Tyrion was grinning wildly at his stoic opponent. He hadn’t been bluffing earlier, he was skilled. The Hylian Princess had seened Link spar time and time again, never did it take so long for him to disarm his opponent in some manner. The sun beat down on them, creating glistening sweat on their skin that bled darkly through their clothes.

Suddenly, Tyrion had space for a large horizontal slash before Link could recover from a parry. Zelda let out a yelp and watched him duck into a lateral roll, regaining his senses and plenty of ground between them.

Tyrion harked out a laugh, “You are brilliant, sir!”

They were panting now and the comment brought a sideways smile to Link’s lips. “I appreciate the regard, Your Highness. You’re a remarkable swordsman.”

They took a moment to breathe and Link did the unthinkable. His Champion tunic was discarded easily to the ground and Zelda held her breath when his eyes found hers on the perch where she sat.

Princess Aurra gasped softly. Zelda didn’t blame her. Hard lines on his stomach were only more prominent in the sun and his chest heaved with his hard breaths. The lack of coverage revealed the flex of his arm as he readjusted his grip on the blade.

It wasn’t an oddity that he was now half naked. Tyrion had long let the strings that laced the neckline of his tunic loosen, leaving a large portion of his chest exposed. Considering that they were already in the heat of midsummer, the sight of shirtless men should be expected at this end of the castle. But Link, well, he was always different.

The Prince of Labrynna lunged forward with a grunt, thrusting his blade out. Where Tryion was tactful, almost mechanical, in his movements, Link was fluid. He took his opponents strikes like water, flowing into the gaps of his defenses and reevaluating in a moment’s notice. It truly was an art in Zelda’s eyes, a very dangerous art.

Much different than anything Tyrion had done, he brought his blade upward in a sideways slashing arch with a loud shout. Princess Zelda’s heart surged in her chest. Link grit his teeth and threw his weight back into a flip, landing on his feet.

Surprise registered in Tyrion’s eyes and couldn’t recover fast enough when Link brought his blade against the hilt of His Highness’s broadsword. The blade was sent skidding along the dirt.

“Ah,” Tyrion brought his hand up to further demonstrate his lack of weapon. “I yield.”

It was then that Zelda realized she was holding her breath. Her father and his guests had all stood and applauded, so she followed suit.

“Good show!” Aurra leaned on the stone wall. “Very well done!”

The two men clasped hands again with a few words of respect. The Hylian princess watched a short regaling and found an opportunity to slip away from the processions without another glance at the arena.

[kittmoon]

Breath of the Wild: A Cannonical Timeline of Events Leading up to the Calamity (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of a three-part post laying out the cannon timeline of events in BOTW that led up to the Great Calamity. A while ago, I typed up a timeline to use as a reference for BOTW writing in my Google docs, but I figured it may be useful to other people who struggle with the same slog of remembering what happened when.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Reminder that this is a long post, and that all events that are listed are taken from:

The original 13 memories

The separate diaries of Zelda and her father

Zelda’s research journal

The Champion’s Ballad DLC, which includes additional memories + diary entries from each of the four champion pilots

Masterworks/Creating a Champion, which discusses things like specific routes taken upon Calamity Ganon’s return.

KEY

🔸Rigidly Cannon

🔺Some Interpretation Needed

🔹Mostly Interpretive

🔸Subdued Ceremony

This is a ceremony for Link’s official appointment as Zelda’s knight. This can really be told from anyone’s perspective. Keep in mind that different characters will feel different emotions regarding this ceremony - no champion here feels the same.

🔸Revali’s Flap

I actually love this scene, because it shows just how much “being a Champion” can affect people differently. Revali and Link are polar opposites here.

🔸Resolve and Grief

The purpose of Link and Zelda’s outing is debatable (🔹) - they likely are on their way to Goron City, considering the next event(s) in the timeline, but they may also just be out doing research. It’s up to the writer. Their conversation during this scene is rather isolated from whatever their goal is, so it doesn’t really matter.

🔸Daruk’s Mettle

Before this scene, it’s stated in Daruk’s training journal that Link helped Daruk figure out piloting by simply shoving him into the divine beast and letting him explore it on his own. Although Link doesn’t show much emotion here, it’s important to have the underlying knowledge that he and Daruk are good friends.

🔺More Shrines are Uncovered

It’s around this time that more shrines are being discovered - relics of the battle 10,000 years ago. Purah’s theory is that the Hero of Legend is destined to access the shrines in preparation for the Calamity’s return, possibly with the Sheikah slate. That said, I truly don’t know why Link was never given a shot at opening the shrines himself. This could merely have been because Zelda was too afraid to give him the chance to accomplish yet another thing that she couldn’t. There’s also a possibility that Link did try opening the shrines and it still didn’t work (in which case, why did it work 100 years later? - a possible theory via Zeltik on YT). Edit: I recently put together a theory that explains how Purah and Zelda didn’t understand the full mechanics of the slate/shrines/towers. Check it out to get a better idea.

🔸Zelda’s Resentment

How did she get away from Link long enough to make it to the Anciet Columns? I have no clue. I’ve read that she simply left while he was packing up camp, another story said that she slipped him a sleeping drug. Writers, man.

🔺Link Gets Into Gerudo Town with Urbosa’s Help

Cannon, but not delved into. Urbosa states in her diary that she told Link “a way” to sneak in - it can be assumed that she meant cross dressing, but it can be whatever the writer wants. Maybe she just told Link about a secret passage into town. Regardless, however he gets into town, he doesn’t find Zelda.

🔸Urbosa’s Hand

Urbosa lets Link know that Zelda has come to Vah Naboris, and he makes his way there (not quite sure how he climbed the thing). Urbosa takes the opportunity to tell Link about Zelda’s struggle to conquer her powers, and when finished, she orders Link to guard the Princess with his life. This is Urbosa, mind - while they’re all technically on the same level as “Champions”, Urbosa is definitely Link’s superior, spiritually if not literally. This adds another layer of necessity to Link’s duty - not only to protect Zelda, but to stop the Calamity.

🔸Blades of the Yiga

Again, it’s unknown how Zelda got away from Link. Either way, Zelda regards this event in her diary as a relative turning point in her relationship with him.

🔺Zelda Apologizes to Link

This presumably happed soon after, although what she says and how Link handles it is entirely up to interpretation. Keep in mind that she isn’t just apologizing for constantly abandoning him and making his job harder - she’s apologizing for assuming he was shallow and obnoxious, and has the mindset of trying to get to know him better.

🔸A Premonition

A big battle theoretically took place before this scene, but Link only came away with one major wound - do with that as you may.

🔸Silent Princess

Personally one of my favorites. Zelda is at Peak Dork here. Link’s emotions could honestly range from crushing and bashful to beyond annoyed - up to the writer.

🔺Mipha Completes the Lightscale Armor

A bit tragic, yeah. To her credit, it does fit Link perfectly, even 100 years later. She plans to propose to Link when he next visits Zora’s Domain.

🔸Mipha’s Touch

Even more tragic. Similar to Daruk’s Mettle(🔸), keep in mind that Link and Mipha have a long history of knowing each other, which can be hard to remember since Link is mostly unresponsive in this memory. Mipha’s POV would be interesting here, especially since she intended to propose properly and ultimately didn’t.

🔸Shelter from the Storm

This is an interesting scene to write for a few author’s I’ve met, because in this memory we see Zelda actively ask Link a complex question. Although the memory fades, Link presumably responded - with what? That could range wildly. (🔹)

🔺Link Opens Up to Zelda

Link admits that the burden of the sword requires him to remain impassive on the surface. This conversation may have happened during the previous memory.

🔸Father and Daughter

Zelda’s emotions are pretty straightforward here, but Link’s aren’t nearly as clear. If anything, this scene shows that although he has opened up more to Zelda, he still knows his formal place. This is the last time Zelda ever speaks to her father, as he dies when the Calamity hits.

🔸Slumbering Power

Zelda openly questions her faith here. Angst is high. She honestly just needs a hug. Once again, there’s a cliffhanger - Link turns to look at her, obviously switching from his duty of being turned away. Why is up to the writer. He’s been listening, so what does he think?

🔸To Mount Lanayru

Zelda turns 17 the next day. She and Link return to the castle before journeying to Mt. Lanayru - this is where Zelda inputs her final entry in her diary, and where she has her dream about a woman looking at her through the light. She continues to question her faith.

🔺The Champions See Link and Zelda Off

Urbosa, Daruk, and Mipha all met Link and Zelda at the foot of Mt. Lanayru to see them off on their journey to the Spring of Wisdom. Revali doesn’t join them, saying he’s busy but will likely meet them on their way back down. We see him there with the others before Calamity Ganon returns.

[ganymedesclock]

there's a post somewhere about how ganondorf's death is often presented almost as a holy death, deeply dignified and with appropriate silence. i think the term the person used was like a kind of anti-martyrdom, like. "a holy death, but not of something good". i'm not sure if i'm using the terminology entirely correctly, but that's something that's always hit me. like. i don't think that comes from just the general seriousness of the plot, but also that there's a quiet acknowledgement that fate

itself was against him - and the inherent tragedy of that. like. they're So Close to digging just a little further and questioning that concept of fate + supposedly inherent character weakness in the first place. this is present in oot - zelda acknowledges him as pitiful, someone who couldn't control the triforce. and in tp, zelda seems to do something like a quiet prayer. this aspect of zelda herself isn't present in wind waker (iirc), but is embodied by the king, who directly compares himself.

That’s a concept that a friend of mine talks about a lot ( @betterbemeta ) in almost those exact words but I asked her and she said she wasn’t sure of the specific post, just that she didn’t get it from someone else.

But, yeah, I feel like... there’s this interesting sort of counter-narrative within the Zelda series, I think? There’s the main narrative, which is the Legend and the Cycle and that it is Correct to perpetuate the Cycle and live out the roles people are given.

But there’s also a lot of counterpoints, of things making it clear that the Cycle is hurting people, that you will not be rewarded or kept safe for perpetuating it- and in Wind Waker this is very interesting, because, a lot of the evidence points to Ganon’s stance- “Your gods abandoned you!” being correct. 

Hyrule was destroyed. Most of its people were killed. Two young people who were active servants of the god at the time were murdered and nothing protected them. Ganon comes across as someone who’d know- because he’s acting as the Divine Opponent, here.

And there’s this scene, late in Wind Waker, where he reads Tetra’s dreams with his power.

This scene sticks with me, because it’s Ganon doing something unnecessary. He’s got no reason to treat Tetra hospitably at this point. He’s got no reason to tuck her into a bed, which he does, or acknowledge that she’s a child, or wonder who she is besides Zelda. 

And, yet, we have this. unexpectedly introspective soft scene, and while it’s followed by the puppet Ganon fight, the things he says there don’t seem just like villainous trash talk, but, nearly a plea for these kids to realize how messed up their situation is. They’re allegedly agents of the gods who are being chewed up by their Fates, used and cast aside, and while he has an agenda in not wanting this to happen (as their given Fate is to be parties in his execution) there’s a bleak humor Wind Waker Ganon has about the situation that, to me, has never actually been contradicted within the Zelda games. Words to the contrary ring hollow. In practice, we watch Hyrule desolated, we watch its executioners throw him on vulnerable populations (in Twilight Princess, the Sages know enough of the modern Twili to recognize Midna in her cursed form- so they had to have known the people they were leaving at the mercy of a wounded, panicked Ganon who was nonetheless fully capable of killing a person with his bare hands at that point).

In Breath of the Wild, which doesn’t even depict Ganon as a person who can argue his point (though the sequel may shed new light on that), he still nonetheless seems correct about the nature of the cycle; Zelda is unabashedly a survivor of child abuse who was forced to pray in sacred springs starting at age seven. 

BotW is basically the series’ most detailed thesis yet that the Cycle broke Link and Zelda and tore pieces from them they’re not getting back. Both of them lost a century. Zelda’s passions and interests were sublimated to force her into a passive role. People they knew and were close to died. Link’s habitual silence is depicted as a product of the anxiety that the hero role pressed on him, and he was also a human shield just to guarantee that of the Champions, Zelda at least could make it, that left him critically injured.

The only real coherent defense raised by the Cycle- which is meta-wise, “justified” by Skyward Sword, which establishes it as an unholy curse- is “this is the only way to save Hyrule” which is never challenged or argued or defended. It’s merely accepted. And we keep watching young, vulnerable kids following the paths laid out by their predecessors and being torn apart by these events.

Link and Zelda don’t look like people who are protected by benevolent gods that shine over them. Repeatedly, the deities of the Zelda setting are depicted as not especially loving. In A Link To The Past, the Triforce itself says it doesn’t care about good or evil, merely that Link has proven his worth and should now make a wish. Other characters in the setting describe it as fickle or a troublemaker. In Skyward Sword, Zelda, regaining Hylia’s memories and thus the clearest potential insight into how Hylia was thinking and feeling, states that Hylia obtained a mortal incarnation basically as bait for Link, who would be driven by compassion to protect his friend, and thus get functionally conned into acting as Hylia’s champion.

I think this is why fanworks that put the chosen three on the same side make sense, because, in this way, Ganon is more a contemporary to the heroes than the King of Hyrule, who, no matter how often he dies, never really has that sense of being a martyred hero who’s lost fragments of himself. Daphnes was able to choose his own death, and the death of his kingdom, on his own terms using the Wind Waker and then the Triforce; Rhoam controls the narrative at the beginning of BotW.

Ganon?

Just from what we know about BotW’s sequel (which is not much at all) Ganon is having a bad time. In a way, his fate seems to combine elements of Link and Zelda’s- he was confined for a long time in a death match with another force (Zelda), and he was heavily and brutally injured and may have lost consciousness (Link) only to awaken in an unfamiliar future where he’s been all but forgotten (both of them).

And part of this is the need that the games seem to have, to have everything be Ganon’s fault, but to never acknowledge or explore the relationships Ganon actually, has with the various entities he ostensibly commands. I love Wind Waker, but, as friends of mine have pointed out- there’s only flimsy excuses at best for Ganon to put the various boss monsters in the environments they’re found in. They’re themed to their environments so that they seem fitting elements, rather than something foreign placed there that’s disrupted an extant order.

It leads to this sense of Ganon more as a pariah than as a true Source Of Evil. Because he’s blamed for everything, including things that don’t actually seem to further any of his stated objectives and in fact, might even work against something he is stated to want (e.g. the withering of the Deku Sprouts in Wind Waker, which are stated to be a potential way to drain the Great Sea and leave the Land Below accessible once again- the big thing Ganon wants- but they’re stated to fail because of Ganon’s magic; or him outright saying he wants the sun to shine on Hyrule when earlier in the game Daphnes accuses him of cursing the entire sea into a state of darkness because he wants everything to be dark)

Ganon’s not blameless and harmless- like. he absolutely did shit and is rarely sorry for it or sorry but not enough to stop- but, it definitely feels like his role as Hyrule’s Enemy is a degree outside of his control, much as the Hero or Princess roles are out of Link and Zelda’s. This is a game series about people being forced into roles that cause them to suffer, and then the end takeaway is I guess It Was Worth It because the Bad Man Died.

It’s this situation where the narrative tells us we are dealing with a demon man who hates everything and the only holiness or justice can come from his death, and then at the same time we’re shown a guy who is a power-hungry jerk with a large list of offscreen and frankly mystifying crimes that don’t seem to add up with anything he seems to want or value or even his sense of humor. And it ends up leaving the whole Cycle... feeling rather bleak.

[wildshero]

ooc: welp i went ahead and spoiled AoC for myself, under the cut are spoilers you have been warned

im super disappointed in nintendo for making everyone live. the game would have been so powerful to have the true ending that leads straight into botw. but they just love their split timelines don’t they. not every game has to end happily at risk of spoiling spider man: miles morales that game has a very bitter sweet ending with death involved, and no one is complaining. i just don’t get why they had to ahead and ruin a timeline they already firmly set up. like the game was described as being a view into what happened before the 100 years, but its not that if you go and change the whole damn story.

like ngl if botw 2 takes place after aoc i’ll be kind of disappointed, like aoc erases everything from botw

like all the heartache and shit is erased in aoc, and it takes away everything that link and zelda fought for in botw in order for it to not happen, which is fine, but at the same time like calling forth the “new” champions from the future to fight alongside you isn’t an answer to the problem. it just creates a huge paradox

so from here on out are basically my thoughts to watching the cut scenes

its just bad writing, not to mention straight up stealing the fact that zelda and impa can understand the egg from droids and their “masters” from star wars, the egg is her music box... and plays her lullaby. like stop forcing the egg on us please

why can no one see hestu til zelda can? like scuse me, no link can see the giant brocoli just fine despite this cut scene. also hestu not remembering link in botw if this scene is real? like COME ON

mipha is shit at hiding her crush

the not ganon character is a seer who wants to control their own calamity possessed egg, and sooga is like its not for mortals to control

it is weird seeing link without the slate on his armor, there’s a place for it, but its like not there.

i know its hyrule warriors and you gotta have more than two people going but like impa being there at the spring of courage... like love her all you want but nah fam this aint it also it steals story elements away from link, i know the boy is selectively mute BUT JESUS give him something please

also its like link being the hero means nothing in terms of the slate and the towers, and then the shrines. its like all of it is meaningless in this game, which like revali says what’s the point of link then

calamity comes early? what the hell? this game. im so upset, but also like rhoam getting unnecessarily angry at link for doing what he’s supposed to like jesus fucking christ then he lowkey dies like okay

purah being there when zelda breaks down and its not just link... like the whole story of botw is like fucked, and zelda has time travel tears now

like all the things that happened in botw that built the characters is erased, like everything is a group effort which like is disappointing. i love how the new champions come BUT at the same time it defeats the point of the champions ballad, and the solo battles that link has to face.

alot of the story telling elements are repeated like more obviously than in botw which is saying something

all that the new champions are seeing is for nothing... like they will go back with these memories and it will suck cause they know the current state will have been changed and so what they see will be burdens they carried alone and for nothing for their future people

link’s sacrifice is for nothing, so thanks for diminishing that for me AOC. like him fending off the four blights unlocks zelda’s power but like seriously what is the point of him in this game, he is literally useless, like he straight up disappears. and her power isn’t unlocked via her love, but seeing link fight, and then thinking of the loss of her father

the yiga joined the good side? the fuck aoc

oh link is magically back now. why is he even in this game?

her father isn’t dead but was transported to the temple of time cause of a relic zelda and her mom found. THE PLOT ARMOR, its a shield its literal plot armor oh my god. which lead to her power awakening having no real meaning

literally everything from botw is unwritten, all the strife and everything that was fought for in botw is literally gone

i liked that teba was not a fan of revali’s attitude but like he then becomes a simp for him like dude you can still be in awe and think he’s a jerk to link and in general

ah a blood moon at the end... *eyeroll* okay

harbinger ganon... *squints*

the seer becomes sucked into ganon and the egg attacks zelda and link deflects its blast killing it... WHAT IS THIS WRITING

cool zelda is crying more over this damn egg than her people in BOTW, so zelda is like 5 when her mom dies in the castle (?) its not clear, and her dad is like training only now

also the eggs name is terrako

who needs the master sword the darkness when you’ve got egg boy and zelda’s sealing power, no wonder its shit 100 years later. fi realized she wasn’t fucking needed

slice him through like butter link that’ll do it *eye roll* what happened to that courage power from the fucking master sword scene? what sealing are you doing with that sword? you sliced through him. LIKE?

things that i kinda like, and appreciate character wise

link gets flustered easily. revali revels in the fact that link will be the fallen knight and his reputation what little he has will be ruined, it is also well known that link is in fact a nobody meaning his family is not noble born, but that does not mean his family, read his father, on this blog is a nobody.

urbosa defending link from revali’s bullshit

link fighting malice champions from the totally “not ganon” hooded figure

link is officially considered a champion, and talks with urbosa

impa being pissy with the egg, i feel it. i am tired of the fucking egg pushing himself in too

sooga is the only character i want to see in botw2

link can teleport more than one person is confirmed, though three max is like it in a weakened state.

as much as i hate how many paradoxes this creates, yunobo and sidon’s enterances are very good, and teba’s and riju’s are similar. urbosa recognizing she’s in trouble is very in character for her imo.

i liked that all in hyrule worked together but like at what cost

i prefer this design of calamity ganon

the master sword lets FUCKING DISCUSS

ahahaha no. link pulls the sword when he’s a kid. I WANT TO HAVE A DISCUSSION NINTENDO GIVE ME YOUR NUMBER

like the scene is cool and all but we’re gonna be rewriting that bullshit. the only thing im taking from it is apparently link and the sword together have some courage power a-la zelda’s healing power... NOT THAT IT MATTERS CAUSE HE DOESN’T GET TO FUCKING USE IT

HOWEVER he does not pull it for the first time right then and there, sorry nope, not happening

The story is very much zelda’s which it should be, but like every moment that could have been link’s was taken by another character because of how hyrule warrior’s opperates. like if you want to play as zelda this is your game

im just disappointed, it erases everything from botw quite literally. it gives the new champions memories that they bare alone because zelda and link wont be there in 100 years to help them with it...

link was useless in the game. like you could literally write him out and have the same game, having the master sword literally does fucking nothing because of how OP zelda is. like its called legend of zelda and rightfully so but Link becomes a literal footnote. purah and others takes his place in all the important scenes that were his before.

and like i said if BOTW2 takes place after this its gonna be disappointing and not as dark as nintendo is intending IMO, they should have let this game end the way it does in the lead up to BOTW, it would have been so much more rewarding in my opinion yes you “technically lose” but you would still get some awesome final moments with zelda, and it would hype you up for BOTW.

there were parts i liked obviously, but there were major issues, and this is JUST STORY BASED, im not even talking game play.

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

When I started this blog almost three years ago, there were a couple games that sort of inspired me to start it. Followers will know that I started with a back to back to back marathon of Persona 3, 4, and 5. There was also another game that contributed to me wanting to start this blog as well and that was the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s a game that won many 2017 Game of the Year from a lot of outlets. I also marked it as one of my top games of 2017 but ultimately gave the Game of the Year to Persona 5. 

In my first playthrough of Breath of the Wild, I played it on Wii U and I loved it. I recently repurchased it on Switch along with the DLC pass. For this review, I’m going to look at not only the main game, but also give an opinion on the DLC as well.

You are Link, a man who wakes up in a strange chamber with no memories of how he got there or what happened that led to him being in the chamber. Shortly after Link wakes up and he hears a voice how his help is needed to defeat Calamity Ganon and save Hyrule once and for all after it’s been in chaos for 100 years. With nothing but the voice to guide him, Link sets out to help the voice to not only save Hyrule, but to hopefully learn more about who he is along the way.

I do want to highlight the area you start at. It’s an area of Hyrule known as “The Great Plateau.” It’s a large area that Link cannot leave until he accomplishes certain tasks. Until then, the player has free reign in this area. They can explore, climb and learn the game mechanics in a small controlled area. There’s even a mysterious old man that will offer Link tips and teach the player a few things that the environment can’t teach them. 

Having a mysterious old man in this area encouraged players to talk to him to try to figure who he is, which in turn gave the designers and developers a way to teach the player about how the mechanics of the world worked. Talking to the old man however, is completely your choice. You are by no means forced to talk to him all the time, only in certain instances that move you forward to leaving the area. Even in those instances, he’s just giving you goals, he doesn’t tell you what to do or railroad you. As you walk around the plateau, that’s when you can see him in various areas and can approach him to learn other things like hunting, cooking, and stealth. Learning these skills is purely your choice whether to talk to him and learn.

Something else that I love about The Great Plateau is how it gives you all of the tools you will need in the game at the very start. Getting these tools not only teaches you how they work, but they also teach you about Shrines, which act as mini dungeons that have puzzles for you to solve where you obtain Spirit Orbs. After completing all the Shrines on the Plateau, you are then taught to give Spirit Orbs to a statue to increase your health or stamina, which in turn creates a positive reinforcement for you the player to seek out more Shrines.

You’re then given a paraglider to leave The Great Plateau and make your way to your next destination. Even though you’re given directions on how to get there, the game doesn’t restrict you in following that path. In fact, you can get to your destination however you want to get to it. However, following the path teaches you more about the world. Nothing is stopping you, it’s your journey and your choice if you want to go right into the adventure or if you want to explore.

Unlike in previous Zelda games, you are not given a starting weapon and shield, in fact you have to find your weapons and shields from the environment and they have durability. These weapons are extremely fragile, at least at first. These weapons will break fairly often. This encourages players to learn the different weapon types so that they know how to use them. You will eventually find weapons that won’t break as quickly, but they will break eventually. 

You might think, well that’s fine, I’ll just find the Master Sword and have a weapon that doesn’t break. You see that was my thought in the first playthrough of the game. To find the Master Sword, because there’s no way that Nintendo could break the Master Sword. Well, turns out Nintendo can. The Master Sword can run out energy and will have to take 10 minutes to recharge. 

That’s right, the Master Sword can get tired.

It’s a really weird thing, but I get that Nintendo needed to find a way to have the Master Sword follow the rules of the established weapon mechanics. I just wish that Nintendo found a better way.

The Divine Beasts serve as the “traditional dungeons” for Breath of the Wild and I love how you have to manipulate the layout of the beast itself to solve many of the puzzles within. The boss fights however are a low point. I do like the idea that it’s a piece of Ganon that you fight, but I don’t like that the boss itself is just fightable like a normal enemy and doesn’t have its own puzzle to fight them.

However, I feel it suffers the same problem as “A Link Between Worlds” In that entry, you were able to take on the dungeons in any order. Although it provided great freedom on what to do, it came at a cost on its difficulty because any dungeon could be your “first” dungeon. Breath of the Wild suffers from that as well, any of the Divine Beasts can be your first Divine Beast so there is no slight increase in difficulty in dungeon layout and puzzles.

I feel the story of Breath of Wild contains suffers as well. Any piece of the story you find, can be your first memory and these memories do what they can to be self contained and not rely on another memory to tell a story.

You do learn more about the pieces of what happened 100 years ago to Link, but again that’s only if you want to pursue those pieces and that’s what I think makes Breath of Wild really stand out is how much choice the game gives the player. Want to learn about the story, do these quests, don’t care for the story, that’s fine go do whatever you want. Even the Shrines, despite having an ideal way to solve them, there are multiple ways to solve a puzzle. You could argue it makes puzzles easier to solve, but I think that’s what the developers wanted. You could do it the designed way, or you can do what the mechanics allow and solve it yourself in your own unique way.

The game also constantly rewards you with exploring and experimenting and even encourages it. Because there’s so much to see and explore, Hyrule being a giant world doesn’t feel like a giant empty world as there is always something around every corner. Simply exploring rewards you with Shrines, weapons, ruppees, secrets, Koroks Seeds to expand your inventory, there’s a lot to gain simply by just exploring.

Breath of Wild is great because of the freedom it allows its player. The freedom allows you to pick and choose what you the player care more about for your experience. It’s the freedom that really makes a huge difference and in my opinion makes the game really stand out.

When I first played the game, I didn’t think it was exactly the 10/10 or in my case the 5 out of 5 game that everyone was giving it, but was still a great game in it’s own right. But honestly, after a few years away from the hype, I think the game really is deserving of all of those accolades. Mostly because of the amount of freedom it allows. Exploring, fighting, climbing mountains, and learning about the story and lore of Hyrule. All of this can be done at your pace and I think giving the player that control and making their own story along the way is what makes Breath of the Wild, a truly fantastic game.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild receives a 4 out of 5

As for the DLC pass, the first expansion gives you a combat trial where if you complete it enhances the power of the Master Sword. This power just makes it to where the Master Sword is powered up all the time rather than near corrupted areas and corrupted Guardians.

There’s also quite a few quests that lead you to find items and outfits from past Zelda games, however they’re not upgradable in anyway and are mostly cosmetic for the most part. A few of them do have special abilities, but overall, it’s more about having the item tied to past Zelda games.

There’s also Master Mode which contains stronger enemies and they also heal overtime while you’re fighting them. It also allows you to save Master Mode as a different save slot from your original file making it to where you have one regular save file and one Master Mode save file. I will admit that I’m disappointed that Master Mode came in a DLC pass rather than an unlockable mode after clearing the game like in previous Zelda titles.

The second expansion is a new story known as the Champions Ballad, which provides more Shrines and trials that reward you with a cutscene on how Zelda recruits the Champion to her cause 100 years ago. It’s cool to see, but I was hoping for more of an insight into the Champions. The extra trials are really fun and some of them are actually a bit difficult to do. Even the final boss of the expansion was a bit of a challenge. In the end you get the Zero Bike, which is a motorcycle that you can summon anywhere. The motorcycle does run on fuel, but you can refuel with anything and depending on the items and how many items, depends how much the tank is filled.

As far as the expansion pass goes, if you like Breath of the Wild and just want more game, it definitely gives you more. My biggest disappointment was with the Champions Ballad as it was advertised as a more story heavy expansion, when in reality it was a bit light in that regard.

As far as the expansion pass goes, I’m going to give it a 4 out of 5. I do think that you do get quite a bit for $25 USD, but having Master Mode locked behind this when in the past it was always an unlockable New Game+, and Champion’s Ballad not really delivering much in the story department are what kind of bring this down for me.

[marvel-and-more-fandoms]

The Gray Hair

Today, my father appoints Link as my bodyguard. I'm nervous. Excited. Scared. He's seventeen and I'm sixteen, so if we were made for each other we wouldn't be able to tell until I turn seventeen.

I put on the ceremonial dress that I made, and prepared myself for the ceremony. Okay, Zelda, I thought to myself. Don't let your family down.

There was a lot of pressure on me. I was the one who chose the champions, with the exception of Link, so if they fail it's on me. I have faith in them, but not in me. Nobody has faith in me. My seventeenth birthday is coming up, and I still haven't unlocked my ancient sealing power.

I shoved the thoughts out of my head. Don't think like that today, Zelda. You have to be confident.

It was almost time. I took a deep breath, and headed towards the Sanctum. The ceremony was boring, but my father seemed to be genuinely proud of me when he spoke. How he beamed about the way I had made the champions guards.

Once the main ceremony had ended, we went over to the Sacred Grounds. Some of the other champions had wanted me to put on a special ceremony to welcome Link. I was excited for it, but I acted bored the whole ceremony.

I could hear them talking about me as I recited my lines, but I didn't really care. I was just focused on the blonde haired boy with bright blue eyes in front of me.

Gosh he looks good in that tunic...

The mini ceremony seemed to take longer than the actual ceremony. Once we had finally finished, I showed the champions the Sheikah Slate.

There was an odd feature on it, one where it can somehow capture a true to life image and save it. It was called a "picture," I believe.

Mipha asked if we could take a picture of all of us together. I, of course, said yes. Daruk decided to photo bomb the picture, but it was still good. After all of that was over, Link and I mounted our horses and rode towards Sanidin Park.

      Once we got there, we dismounted our horses and I walked over to the part of the the park that looks towards the mountains.

      "See that mountain?" I asked. "That's Mt. Lanayru. It takes its name from the Goddess of Wisdom. Lanayru's decree is very specific. It says: 'No one is allowed, under the age

of seventeen, for only the wise are permitted a place upon the mountain.' I've prayed at the Spring of Courage and at the Spring of Power,

yet neither awoke anything inside me. But maybe up there, perhaps the Spring of Wisdom, the final of the three, will be the one.

To be honest, I have no real reason to think

that will be the case. But there's always the chance that the next moment will change everything. Tomorrow... is my seventeenth birthday. So then I shall go. And make my way up the mountain."

      He didn't say anything. He never does. I was thinking something I didn't say, though. His birthday is before mine. Tomorrow I will turn seventeen. I will be able to see if I've met my soulmate. I can't help but hope that it's Link...

...

      Today's the day. It's my seventeenth birthday, and the day I go to Mt. Lanayru. And the day I can tell if Link's my soulmate or not...

                     ...

      Link and I climb back down from the mountain, my head hung low in defeat.

      "Well? Don't keep us in suspense. How'd everything go up there on the mountain?" Daruk asks.

      All I did was shake my head, still looking down in shame.

      "So you didn't feel anything?" Revali chimed in. "No power at all?"

      "I'm sorry, no."

      "Then let's move on." Said Urbosa. She had always been like a mother figure to me. "You've done all you could. Feeling sorry for yourself won't be of any help. After all, it's not like your last shot was up there on Mt. Lanayru. Anything could finally spark the power to seal Ganon away. We just have to keep looking for that... thing."

      "That's kind of you. Thank you." I said, feeling a little bit better.

      "If I may," Mipha said. "I thought you, well, I'm not sure how to put this into words. I'm actually quite embarrassed to say it. But I was thinking about what I do when I'm healing. You know, what usually goes through my mind. It helps when I think - when I think about -"

      She was cut off by the entire world shaking. Revali shot up into the air and gasped. There was an - an entity coming out of the castle.

      "It's here." Said Urbosa.

      "This is it, then." Said Daruk.

      "Are you sure?" Mipha asked.

      "Positive." Said Revali.

      "It's awake..." I said, my voice trembling. "Ganon!"

      "Let's stop wasting time!" Shouted Daruk. "We're gonna need everything we got to take

that thing down! Now Champions! To your Divine Beasts! Show that swirling swine who's boss! Link will need to meet Ganon head on when we attack! This needs to be a unified assault! Little guy! You get to Hyrule Castle. You can count on us for support, but it's up to you to pound Ganon into oblivion!"

      "Come." Says Urbosa, gently grabbing my shoulders. "We should go. We need to get you someplace safe."

      I thought for a moment. You're the princess! You're supposed to have this "ancient sealing power" that can seal Ganon away! You can't just sit back and watch from afar, you have to do something!

      "No!" I shouted, getting out of Urbosa's grip. "I am not a child anymore! I may not be much use on the battlefield, but there must - there must be something I can do to help!"

      "Go with Link." Said Revali. "He is your knight, after all."

      Urbosa looked at Link. "Is that okay?"

      He gave a curt nod. Why doesn't he ever talk? I thought.

      And with that, the champions all ran to their divine beasts. Who knew they were also running to their deaths.

...

      Link and I were running. Running anywhere, really. Anywhere but here. Where our friends, our families, our homes, had been destroyed. I broke down, falling onto my knees. I must've looked so weak. So broken. So useless.

      "How..." I said to Link, who was on his knees in front of me now. "How did it come to this? The Divine Beasts... the Guardians... they've all turned against us... It was... Calamity Ganon. It turned them all against us! And everyone—Mipha, Urbosa, Revali and Daruk... they're all trapped inside those things... it's all my fault! Our only hope for defeating Ganon is lost all because I couldn't harness this cursed power. Everything—everything I've done up until now... it was all for nothing... so I really am just a failure! All my friends... the entire kingdom... my father most of all... I tried, and I failed them all... I've left them... all to die." I was sobbing into Link's arm at this point.

      He tucked some of my blonde hair behind my ear, and then looked shocked at something.

      "What?" I asked. "What is it?"

      He shook his head. "Nothing, Princess."

Did he just talk to me? I thought, and despite myself, I smiled.

      Our moment was interrupted, however, when the ground shook once again.

      He took my hand again, and we continued our running.

                                ...

      There were guardians. Everywhere you looked, there were guardians. We were hiding behind some of the remains of ones that Link had killed. He was so beat up, so bruised and bloody. He couldn't take much more.

"Link, save yourself!" I shouted at him. "Go! I'll be fine! Don't worry about me!"

He struggled to get up as I heard the noise. The noise of another guardian.

He stood in front of me, ready to die.

"No!" I said, getting in front of him as the guardian took aim. "No!" I shouted, louder this time. I put my hand in the air, as if trying to signal to the guardian to stop.

Then I felt something. I can't quite describe it, it was like there was sadness, and love, and anger, all coming off of me. Something gold flew out of my hand as the Triforce symbol appeared.

"Was, was that...? The power...?" I heard a thump behind me as I questioned what just happened.

"No, no..." I said as I saw Link collapsed on the ground behind me. "Link! Get up! You're going to be just fine..." He looked at me one last time. His eyes were apologetic, like he was saying sorry for dying. His eyes closed as his head fell onto my shoulder.

I put his head down and cried into his still chest. I looked at his face, and the closed eyes that used to be bluer than the sky. I tucked a stray piece of hair out of his face, and gasped at what I saw.

A piece of gray hair, right behind his ear. "What...?" I said. "Oh no," I looked behind my ear. Sure enough, there was a matching gray strand right were Link's is.

"No!" I shouted. "No no no no no! We were soulmates! We were going to grow old together! Why?!" I was sobbing into his chest.

Suddenly, I heard an odd noise. I looked up, and the Master Sword was flashing.

"The sword...?" I said.

Take him to the Shrine of Resurrection. Said an odd voice inside my head.

"So he can, he can still be saved?"

Yes. It said. There, he will be healed. He will have no memory when he wakes up, and his body will not be like it used to be, but he will still be the chosen one. He will always be the chosen one, for courage need not be remembered.

My head perked up when I heard Sheikah warriors coming towards me.

"Princess!" They shouted. "Princess! Are you alright?"

I had a gleam in my eye. I knew what I had to do.

"Take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. If you don't get him there immediately, we are going to loose him forever! Is that clear?!"

They nodded.

"So make haste and go! His life is now in your hands!"

They took my soulmate, and as much as it hurt to see him go, I knew that I'd see him again.

I stood up and looked at the castle, where that evil creature that ruined my life was making itself at home.

"I'm going to see him again." I told myself. "I don't care if I have to wait a hundred years in that castle, I'm going to see him again!"

My head held high, I marched towards the castle.

...

Finally. The time has come. It's been one hundred years, and it's finally time for Link to wake up from the Shrine of Resurrection. Who knew that when I said I'd wait a hundred years I actually would?

"...Open your eyes..." I said, or at least tried to. It took a lot of my energy to talk to him, so it would take a bit of time until he could hear me clearly.

"Open your eyes..." I tried again.

"Open your eyes." This time, I got through completely. "Wake up, Link."

He sat up, and looked around confused. It pained me to see him like this. He didn't remember me, or Mipha, or Daruk, or Revali, or anybody else. All the memories we shared... they were gone.

He walked to the pedestal that the Sheikah Slate sat on. "That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber." I had always known that the Sheikah Slate was meant for the hero who weld the Master Sword, but I had grown quite attached to the object. I would give anything to him, though.

He continued to walk into the other room, and opened the two chests that contained his clothes. They had been brand new a hundred years ago, but now they were old and worn down.

He walked over to the other pedestal. "Hold the Sheikah Slate up to the pedestal. That will show you the way." He followed my instructions, and walked through the door once it opened.

He ran outside, and looked off of a small cliff at the world around him. The world that he used to know like the back of his hand. The world that was completely new to him all over again.

"Link..." I began. "You are the light - our light - that must shine upon Hyrule again. Now go." I stopped using my energy to talk to him, but continued to watch.

He talked to my father, who he didn't recognize, and then started walking again. I stopped him, using my energy again.

"...Link..." Come on...

"Link..." Almost there...

"Link." Yes! "Head for the point marked on the map in your Sheikah Slate."

He got out the Slate, and confusedly looked at the point and started towards it.

I continued to focus my energy on talking to him, because I knew it wouldn't take him long to find the tower.

Sure enough, he found the tower and put the Sheikah Slate on the pedestal. He fell back as the tower, along with all of the other towers, rose from the ground.

My heart hurt. He didn't remember me at all. I was his soulmate, he should at least remember me!

"Remember," I said. "Try - try to remember. You have been asleep for the past one hundred years. The beast - when the beast regains its true power, this world will face its end. Now then, you must hurry, Link. Before it's too late..." I faded off in the end as I was completely drained. I was using too much energy.

...

Oh my gosh. It's finally happening. He remembers, he's fully recovered, and he's about to fight Ganon. I'm more scared then I've ever been in my life, but also excited. Excited that I'll get to see him, I'll get to talk to him, I'll get to touch him.

But I'm so weak. I know that the moment he walks in I'll have to let Ganon go. I just hope Link is strong enough...

He finally walked in. I used the last of my energy to talk to him.

"...Link.."

"Link..."

I didn't even wait until I could fully talk to him. "I'm sorry... but my power isn't strong enough..."

Ganon moved, like he knew he was about to be set free. "I can't hold him."

And with that, I let go. I let the beast that could possibly kill my soulmate go. And I fell, I fell into the sky. I don't exactly know how it works, but I fell into the sky.

It was like the sky was the ground, and I could see right through the ground. Below me was Hyrule Field. I panted, lying on the "ground."

Rain had started as the castle shook. I began recovering soon, and within an hour I felt normal. I had forgotten what normal felt like. It was not being surrounded by a wall made of goo on all sides. I could breathe. It felt wonderful.

I wondered if I could watch Link. I just kinda... I don't really know. It was like I willed myself to the castle and I went there. I was still in the air, but I was watching it. Soon, Link delivered the final blow.

But something wasn't right. Ganon turned to dust and flew out of the castle. Oh no, I thought. He's going to turn into Dark Beast Ganon! I quickly teleported Link to Hyrule Field, and also grabbed one of his horses.

"...Ganon..." I said. For some reason, I was still struggling to get through to him.

"Ganon...

"Ganon." I finally got it.

"Ganon was born out of a dark past. He is a pure embodiment of the ancient evil that is reborn time and time again." The form Ganon was taking started to appear now. It was a giant warthog like creature, completely covered in malice.

"He has given up on reincarnation and assumed his pure, enraged form. If set free upon our world, the destruction will be unlike anything ever seen before."

My mind raced, thinking of what I could do to help him. To do to save him. Then I thought of the most powerful weapon that the goddesses ever created, the Bow of Light.

I used my powers to bring it down out of the sky and give it to Link.

"I entrust you with the Bow of Light - a powerful weapon in the face of evil."

I suddenly remembered what the Master Sword had said to me one hundred years ago. If I ever wanted to touch him again, he would need to win this fight.

"Link, you may not be at a point where you have fully recovered your power or all of your memories, but courage need not be remembered."

With that, he mounted his horse and rode towards the giant beast before him.

I made glowing Triforce symbols where he needed to strike with the Bow of Light, so that he knew where the weak spots were. Eventually, he shot the last arrow into Ganon's eye.

And then, the ground fell. I shot down, but for some reason I was going up. Ganon was whipping his head around as I came out of his body.

I was surrounded by the yellow light of my power. I bowed my head, and let out a silent prayer.

Please, I prayed. Let it end here.

I floated down onto the ground so that I was facing the beast. I looked up, and Ganon lowered his head to, as if he was going to buck me away with his head.

I didn't even flinch.

As I erupted in a flash of golden light, Ganon tried to get away. He didn't think he was going to loose. He was attempting to enter the stages of reincarnation again.

Sorry, I thought. I can't let you do that.

I watched him for a bit with fake pity in my eyes. Toying with him, just like he had toyed with me. I raised my arm as he swooped back down towards me, and delivered the final blow.

A giant orb of gold came out of my hand, trapping the beast. A large Triforce symbol was on the circle. It and the orb got bigger as Ganon struggled more.

Then, it all stopped. The giant, golden, orb shrunk into a small, black, one.

It's over. I thought. After all this time, it's finally over.

The sky opened up, and the awful mixture of red and black turned into a beautiful blue.

I faced the castle, and spoke to Link.

"I've been keeping watch over you all this time." I said. "I've witnessed your struggles to return to us, as well as your trials in battle."

He began to walk towards me, but I still faced away from him. I was afraid. Afraid that when I looked into his eyes, I would see no recollection. I would just see a boy.

"I always thought," I continued. "No, I always believed, that you would find a way to defeat Ganon."

I turned around, deciding I couldn't wait any longer. I kept my eyes down, though.

"I never lost faith in you over these many years. Thank you, Link. The hero of Hyrule."

I looked him dead in the eyes as I asked the question I waited a hundred years to ask.

"May I ask, do you really remember me?"

My heart was beating so fast, I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.

He ran over to me, and tucked my hair behind my ear, exposing my gray strand.

"How could I forget my soulmate?" He asked.

I smiled. I tackled him, and he fell on the ground. With my arms wrapped around his neck, I placed a firm kiss on his lips.

I had expected him to be surprised, but he immediately started kissing me back.

I pulled away after a little bit, and looked into his eyes.

I was scared to say what I was about to say. But I needed to get it out. I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I love you, Link."

He looked shocked at this one. His blue eyes sparkles and his eyebrows raised.

"I love you too, Zelda."

I've never been so happy in my life. I tucked some hair behind his ear so that I could see his gray strand.

I looked into his eyes and kissed him again.

The hundred year wait was so worth it. I thought.

18 Years Later

...

"Urbosa Link! You get right back here and apologize to your brother!" I shouted at my daughter, with blonde hair and blue eyes like Link's.

"Yeah Urbosa, you come apologize to me!" Shouted my son, Daruk, the one with blonde hair and green eyes like mine.

"You're in trouble too, Daruk." I said sternly.

The boy let out a sigh.

Their full names are Urbosa Mipha Link, and Daruk Revali Link. And in my stomach is Rhoam Bosphoramus Link. After Rhoam I want an Purah Impa Link, and then that's enough.

The godmother of Urbosa is Riju, the godfather of Daruk is Yunobo, the godfather of Rhoam is going to be Robbie, and the godfather of (hopefully) Purah would be Symin, Pikango, Cado, or Sidon.

Link came in after Urbosa apologized to Daruk.

He gave me a small peck on the lips before greeting the children.

I loved him so much, and he was great with the kids. We both looked like we were 35, because the hundred years we were apart didn't make us age.

The children ran away to play, and he walked up to me.

"Hello, beautiful." He said, kissing me again. "How's little Rhoam?"

"He's doing good. Just one more month and then he'll be out."

He put his hand on my stomach and whispered in my ear seductively. "Do we still want to try for a Purah?"

"Definitely." I replied, grinning.

We were knocked out of our moment by a crash in the other room.

We both sighed, and then laughed.

"I'll get it." He said.

"Thanks."

I love him. And I love our kids. I can't wait to grow old together.

And see even more gray hairs.

[keyogrey-blog]

Nintendo E3 Summary and Review

Being one of the Big 3 gaming companies, it was expected that Nintendo would have a lot to show at this years E, and they did not disappoint. Ranging from Smash Bros. to Animal Crossing, Nintendo had an incredibly good showing this year, and I’m going to walk through the games shown through the direct, and featured on Treehouse Live.

Starting in chronological order is one of two DLC character reveals for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A character that is more popular in Japan than in the west, The Hero from Dragon Quest makes it into smash as DLC Fighter 2 (3 if you include Piranha Plant). Before the reveal many people thought that Erdick, the playable character in Dragon Quest III, would be put in. However Erdick is just a title in the Dragon Quest games, not a name, so Nintendo decided to include Dragon Quest III, IV, VIII, and XI as alternate skins for the character. The character will simply be known as “The Hero” and wields a sword and shield like Link, but also focuses on magic, with the character trailer showing a MP bar and spell selection screen. The Hero will no doubt work in a similar fashion to the other “limit” characters in smash (Cloud and Joker). The Hero is slated to be released Summer 2019, so we can expect more gameplay and news in the coming months.

Astral Chain was shown after, with the trailer focusing more on story than gameplay, though a gameplay demo was shown during Treehouse Live after the E3 Direct. Astral Chain is a JRPG title that focuses on two police force members that are part of the special task force Neuron. Neuron’s purpose is to fend off extra-dimensional beings known as Chimeras. To do this, a device was developed to capture Chimeras and turn them into Legions, beings that fight with the main characters. Gameplay is real time action style, similar to Xenoblade 2, with Chimeras functioning similarly to how Blades from Xenoblade 2 work. Outside of battle Legions can be used to break up civilian violence, track down Chimeras, clean up “Red Matter” which seems to be a collectible, and close extra dimensional portals. Multiple different Legions can be used and swapped, each with its own play style and skills. This game has a lot of potential, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out. Astral Chain in set to release on August 30th, 2019.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield were shown off heavily as one of the main draws of Nintendo’s show this year, and rightly so. The newest entry to the series is coming to Nintendo Switch and it looks beautiful. The art style of the game is following that of recent trends shown in Ultra Sun and Moon and Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee, which is to be expected. New features like Dynamax, a system where Pokemon can grow to gargantuan size was displayed, new Pokemon were unveiled, and the Wild Area was featured heavily. The Wild Area will be taking the place of Routes it seems, with different biome’s and weather conditions. Interestingly, the game as a whole seems to have more focus on open world, allowing the player to move the camera themselves, and providing them with ways to traverse the environment without the use of HM’s, a system that was replaced in Pokemon Sun and Moon. The Wild Area also spawns different Pokemon depending on weather conditions and time of day, and even allows Pokemon to be in the overworld with the player, which makes the game feel a bit more populated. The old gym system seems to be making its return as well, after a brief departure in the Alola region. Two gym leaders, Milo and Nessa, have been revealed, with the predictable types of Grass and Water respectively. The champion has also been revealed, although all we know is his name is Leon, he’s undefeated, and he has a Charizard. Surprisingly, the evil “team” has not been revealed, though we can safely assume they exist, as there has been one in every Pokémon game prior. The legendary Pokemon, Zamanestra and Zacian, were shown off before E3, but it's still worth mentioning that they play into the overall plot of the game, as was stated in the Pokemon Direct earlier this month. Pokemon Sword and Shield will release worldwide on November 15th, 2019.

Another large franchise is also receiving a new entry on the Switch. Fire Emblem Three Houses brings the franchise back to consoles this year. While most of the information regarding this game was given during a previous Nintendo Direct, the new trailer shown at E3 points towards some sort of time shenanigans. This is shown through character appearance rather than gameplay. Interestingly, the trailer dropped at E3 takes place after the gameplay shown in previous directs, and while I love to speculate about games, feel it’s better to let the game give us the answers. Fire Emblem: Three Houses will release for Nintendo Switch on July 26th, 2019.

Nintendo spent a large amount of time talking about Luigi’s Mansion 3, even bringing out new President of Nintendo of America Doug Bowser to introduce it in the Direct. The first game spawned a decent following and good reviews, so it makes sense to keep a beloved franchise going. This time around Luigi and company go to a haunted, multistory, architecturally impossible hotel. The game follows Luigi going through the hotel looking for Mario, Peach, and Toad. With a new game comes new features, and this one is no exception. Luigi has a new Poltergust that has the ability to push and pull ghosts, attach a plunger to an object and move it, use an air burst to stun enemies and elevate Luigi, and bash ghosts on the floor Hulk style. Gooigi is a new feature that allows the player to take control of a Luigi who is made of, you guessed it, goo. This version of Luigi is able to walk through spikes, metal bars, and more that normal Luigi is unable to do. What’s more, Gooigi can be taken control of by a second player, allowing local multiplayer. Another new feature is the Scare Scraper, a floor progression based mode that allows up to 8 people to play together and fight through the different floors. Luigi’s Mansion 3 releases for the Nintendo Switch sometime this year.

Some other things that Nintendo showed off was the third party support coming to Switch. Titles like Ni-No Kuni, Witcher 3, and Dragon Quest XI were revealed. This change in ideology from Nintendo is welcomed, as the only reason to own a Nintendo console in the past was for exclusives. With this support, Nintendo may finally be able to compete with Microsoft and Sony directly again.

The beloved Animal Crossing series is getting its next installment with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. New Horizons lets the player live on an island, complete with beaches, NPC’s and of course, absurd loans from Tom Nook. Players are able to craft their own furniture and equipment like axes and fishing rods, as well as place furniture outdoors. Horizons seems to focus on player freedom more than anything, with the ability to create roads to form villages, or place houses on the beach for that scenic life. Additionally, local multiplayer is supported, with up to four people per console, while online eight player as well. In local multiplayer, one player is designated the “leader”. This player seems to be the only one capable of interacting with crafting benches and NPC’s, while other players are able to perform actions like fishing, digging, and wood gathering. The release date for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is March 20th, 2020.

Finally, the remade Link’s Awakening was the last game revealed for the E3 Nintendo Direct. The game looks incredible, using an art style that looks like clay models. The full game is in tact, and features like the Color Dungeon are also returning. For some reason Dampe from Ocarina of Time is in the game, running a feature called Chamber Dungeons. Chamber Dungeons are player made dungeons created using a tile selection system. The dungeons can be completed by the creator or by other players. The clear time is recorded each time, and the best clear time is displayed. These dungeons can also have multiple floors, and contain items that help in the base game, like fairy bottles. It is unclear if the bosses of these dungeons are chosen at random each time or if the creator can choose which boss waits at the end, but either way this feature is a unique one for a Zelda title, which is always welcome. Link’s Awakening is arriving on Nintendo Switch on September 20th, 2019.

The last 2 things Nintendo showed in their Direct were trailers. I’m going to start with the second DLC character reveal for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. After years of begging and speculating, the Western Smash Bros. players got their wish: Banjo and Kazooie have finally joined the fight. With a happy-go-lucky feel, these characters are welcome additions to the staggering roster of Smash. This addition means there are now four Rare characters in Smash, with King K. Rool, Diddy Kong, and Donkey Kong all having been in Donkey Kong Country. We can expect to see the Bear-Bird combo sometime in Fall 2019.

The final announcement made from the Nintendo Direct is one not many-if any- people were expecting. It’s no secret that Breath of The Wild was one of the best games of 2018, as well as one of the best games in the Zelda Franchise. The game seemed to leave a lasting impact as on Nintendo as well, as they announced that a direct sequel to Breath of The Wild is currently in development. Direct sequels aren’t commonplace in the Zelda series, which is why this particular announcement shocked me. Who’s the villain? What’s the plot? Do I still retain the fancy powers of the champions? The Master Sword? There are a lot of questions that won’t be answered for some time, but one thing has been said. During an interview with IGN, Zelda director and producer Eiji Aonuma stated that "The new Breath of the Wild or the sequel to it, it’s not necessarily going to be related to Majora’s mask or inspired by it... What we showed you currently is a little darker,".

I eagerly look forward to how much darker Zelda is going to get.

Overall Nintendo had a VERY strong conference this year. Titles like Pokemon and Fire Emblem were expected to be present and showed heavily, but some sleeper titles also made their name known. Astral Chain looks promising in its gameplay and premise, Luigi’s mansion looks to be a very whimsical puzzle/action game, and the third party games coming to Switch will expand a bigger audience to the incredible games on the market.

Keep a lookout for more pieces like this in the future! Next up is Square Enix!

-Nick Owens

[zydrateacademy]

Review - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I never cared much for Zelda. My gaming life began with the likes of Unreal and Quake, later exploring the more intriguing worlds of Morrowind and Final Fantasy X. I was late to the nostalgic craze of Mario, Metroid, Pokemon and the likes of Zelda itself, though my brother would always gush about them as the years went on, while I delved into the Elder Scrolls and Assassin’s Creed franchises as my typical “favorite games” listing. Yet on a fateful evening outing with the family, I found myself with a brief demo of Breath of the Wild. Having a controller in my hand for the first time in probably a decade, I fell in love with the brief ten minutes I had with Link and his new world. It became an immediate Christmas wish, which was immediately fulfilled by my family within weeks of this request. My family was very excited that I wanted to try a Zelda game at all. So let’s get to it.

Link immediately awakes as much of a blank slate as I am, with nothing but amnesia and a female voice (quickly revealed to be Zelda herself) to guide him. We’re given something called a Sheikah Slate which looks like the lore’s own version of a Switch or iPad, and it basically serves as the game’s major MacGuffin that powers most of your abilities, map systems, and everything else. Apparently it’s an important device, as every major character and city leader immediately recognize it. From what I can understand in context, the device was in the possession of a team of champions that apparently died a hundred years prior. They fought against “Calamity Ganon”, the game’s major antagonist. You’re shown the castle off in the distance, but in the beginning Link is stuck on a massive plateau, and you need a wind glider to make it off alive. The old man helping you trades one after you learn the game’s four basic abilities, and the whole plateau serves as the tutorial. We get a stasis ability (for locking objects in a time field, of which you can manipulate its momentum), two different bomb types (one that rolls and a square for better control depending on terrain), a cryogenic that allows you to create ice blocks over water (which I often use to cross rivers) and a magnet (which does exactly what you’d expect it to). Other than the open world Dark Souls-esque combat, they serve as the game’s primary mechanics and they’ll each be used to solve every puzzle and find every chest throughout the game.  Sadly the game neglects to teach you how to cook, and I had to resort to google for that. Seems like it’s an oversight, but it’s one of the more fun mechanics, throwing a bunch of your gatherings in a pot to eventually see what might happen. It encourages experimentation which I enjoy, but if all else fails, throwing five durians or bananas in a pot will go a long way in of itself. The world opens up very quickly, as is usually advertised and mentioned in reviews. You can, in theory, immediately haul towards Calamity Ganon itself if you’re sneaky enough. I’m sure some YouTubers have already cleared it (quick research tells me it can be done in around 40-50 minutes), but more casual players would likely be crushed instantly. Instead you’re given several tasks, such as taming four Divine Beasts, massive mechanical creatures that roam Hyrule. They’re currently controlled by Ganon but you can retake them and they’ll all help during the final fight.

Beyond that, the world is ours. I admit I was feeling a bit dry of this genre after having around a thousand hours on Skyrim and a few hundred on the various Fallout’s, it’s a literal breath of fresh air as I found myself with a very simple goal: nab all the towers. In typical fashion more expected from the likes of Ubisoft, there are several towers to climb that unlock the maps of entire regions. I don’t mind this so much as it helps me get the lay of the land as well as a clear goal on the outset. I’d be very lost without them.

I have never been used to Zelda’s style of gaming but I have taken full advantage of the tools the game has given me. Chief of which being the open world itself. A vast majority of my gameplay has mostly been collecting different armor sets so that I can better face a variety of situations and weather conditions, and there’s a ton of gameplay to be had with that goal alone. In the first town that you are directed towards, there was a fairly expensive (for a starting player) stealth suit. I farmed some enemies which helped a lot in learning how to use a controller again, and the stealth bonus helped me nab some DLC armor which I used for a majority of the early to mid game, dozens of hours due to their helpful bonuses. While looking to afford that initial outfit, I ended up running into a shrine or two, and found a little tree pixie (called Koroks), which help to expand my inventory. The simple goal turned into its own micro-adventure and that’s something I very much appreciate about this game, though that does have a problem attached to it, which I’ll mention later. If my readers know me, then you know I’m a stealth player. Hilariously there is a stealth mechanic on this game with a little noise meter next to the minimap but the game wasn’t really built for it. You can sneak in enemy camps while they sleep and steal their weapons but it’s not always an ideal tactic. There’s no clear indication of detection ranges so if you alert an enemy, all you’ll see is a question mark on their head and you have very little to do with that information. A bush does not conceal me, for example, for the simple fact that it’s not considered a ‘solid object’ by the game’s standards.

That does lead to another problem. The stealth mechanic is part of the alleged “play your way” that doesn’t always work. In terms of exploration, it might. There’s a lot you can do, like plugging balloons on bombs to make them float around, or throw metal weapons at enemies during a lightning storm. There’s so much to do with the world itself, but I found very little purpose in doing any of that except for water cooler conversations of “stuff I managed to do”. You CAN use a leaf weapon to blow the enemy off the cliff, but why bother if you can two-shot them or even use one of your infinite bombs to accomplish the same goal? So why would you want to waste to much time and potential health and food items finagling with the controls which you could just press Y a couple times and make the problem go away? Not that I mind the combat over much. It has the usual fare of dodge, parry, block, flurry and a variety of charge attacks that can be kind of fun to use. I like how enemies often have their own large variety of weapons and that will change how they fight. A lizard with a bow will very often try to keep at a range from me, doing a backflip which causes me to sprint to close the gap, only for them to do it again when I try to take a swing. The same enemy type with a spear however, can be quite aggressive poking me at a range, but staying at just the right distance to piss me off. It’s a lot of fun, though. I was rather afraid of puzzles upon my initial interest of this game, and has been a large part in keeping me away from the franchise. They tend to make me feel stupid if I take too long to solve them, but there is an extra level of “hurrah!” when I manage to figure out exactly what I need to do. There is another complaint attached to this however. As I completed a few dozen shrines (there’s something to the effect of 120 total) I noticed the rest usually require some gimmick to find or unlock. There’s one I’ve yet to discover because I need to be on a platform during a blood moon, the game’s respawn mechanic. The problem is, you can’t force those and they show up roughly every three hours of game time. So I imagine one of my last shrines will be me standing on that damn platform while I watch Youtube or play something else.

There’s also a few puzzles that demand use of the motion controls, which can be incredibly fickle and frustrating. Some are better than others but I found it to be more annoying than anything and I hope they minimize that mechanic in the future. I’ve still had to resort to video guides. The Divine Beasts act as the game’s “major” dungeons preceding a boss fight, and to get to the boss, their entire body acts as a mobile puzzle. One of them has three cylinders in its midsection that can turn four times and there was far too much going on for my brain to handle. I managed to do the flying beast and water elephant on my own (with some pointers from my brother but not to a full on guide’s extent) but some of their innards are just a bit too complex to me. The other complaint that I alluded to earlier, is world density. Yes, there’s a lot of nooks and crannies that will often hide a shrine, treasure, and a variety of weapons and upgrades. It can be profitable at times to simply pick a direction and start running, but this only works to a point. Between my position and my current goal (a tower, an armor piece, a town) there might be a single shrine, maybe two, on my way to find. There was however, a lot of pointless running. I heard a Let’s Player mention that they suspected the world was built first and was just filled it in with things later. Frankly, it shows. Yes it’s cute to find a stump or pile of leaves just slightly out of place, hiding a Korok creature but once you get back to running there’s a lot of open plains, fields, and vertical mountains to climb with very little to do in between and nothing to show for it except a padded hour count.  There was some controversy over the durability of weapons. I barely had much of a problem with it. Jim Sterling infamously bashed it which earned a fair amount of ire (which is not foreign to him) and even tried to negate the common compliment of “It forces you to adjust your strategy!” Still, I’m inclined to agree with that defense. Relying on a single type of weapon could make the combat stale pretty quickly, but there’s still some high level weapons I wish stuck around for longer. I did manage to acquire the Master Sword which is a permanent weapon that can run out of ‘energy’ and gives itself a ten minute cooldown but that’s very much a late-game item to acquire. Before that you’re basically stuck with a horde of guardian axes and knight’s claymores. I have run into the odd situation of having two or three weapons left but I discovered that shrines respawn during blood moons, so I simply found myself in those “Major Test of Strength” shrines which give you a single enemy with predictable attack pattern, serving as a miniature boss fight to help you get used to the combat mechanics. They drop two or three fairly decent weapons and a lot can be done with them. It’s just another thing to do in a fairly enjoyable game.

I also wanted to compliment the game’s way of leveling itself up. It’s essentially tied to story progress and Divine Beast slaying. Each mob has a few different variations, color coded for your convenience. Usually starting brown and going up to blue, then black and others. Each harder than the last, usually just wielding more powerful weapons and having a fair amount of hitpoints. Since a lot of my gameplay was exploring, getting towers and collecting armor, the game never advanced too quickly for me. I’d have a few scattered harrowing fights but the game did a good job of making sure I could take my time with it. The early game throws a few blue Moblins at you which are fully capable of one-shotting your measly four hearts, but I feel that was a sort of observation test for a player to absorb. It forces you to think about what your facing, change weapons and strategy. In practice, it just made me terrified of the color blue for a while. The game only starts throwing the tougher enemies at you once you defeat the bosses accompanying the four Divine Beasts. As the game’s major dungeons, completing them is often a test of everything you’ve learned and is as good a marker as any for “this player is ready for tougher enemies”. I am very pleased with this kind of development, as my first ten hours was spent killing jello blobs and bats for their parts so I could sell them and afford more arrows. The game never really went “Okay, time for the tough stuff” when I’m still using a wooden goblin spear. I don’t expect I would get much out of the game’s Master Mode, serving as a sort of New Game Plus except without anything you’ve earned, and is basically just a Hard Mode. The DLC has plenty more to offer which I will explore eventually but it sounds difficult, and I’ve never been any kind of Hard Mode player. Still, I was afraid of this game and I’ve been doing just fine in it so the DLC may not be as intimidating as I think. In conclusion, I’m having a lot of fun in it. It may not have lasting replayability (though I can think of a few ‘corrections’ to my early game to help things along) and after so long, I find there’s very little to actually find as I climb snowy mountains and angrily wait for a thunderstorm to pass. I’m far from done with it though, not while I still have goals in mind. I do have my sights on beating this one, and for a newer-aged millennial gamer, finding a Zelda game that I actually enjoy is an accomplishment on their part. I understand BOTW is a major genre shift for the franchise, and I hope they continue the trend if they want me as a returning customer. Until then, this game is very, very good.

[yay855]

Legend of Zelda Lore Tips

So I’ve seen a lot of people confused about how the Legend of Zelda series works in terms of lore. So I’m here to set you straight! You can find the whole thing under the cut.

1: Reincarnation

Despite what most people think, reincarnation only happens once in the Zelda series, during Four Swords Adventure, where Ganondorf is reincarnated as... himself, basically. Thanks to Skyward Sword, we now know:

* Link does not reincarnate, ever. He bears the Spirit of the Hero, some esoteric trait that is passed on from hero to hero, which may just be the approval of Hylia herself. This sometimes carries through his bloodline, but not always. Furthermore, the Spirit of the Hero can be both destroyed, and remade, as seen in The Wind Waker, where Link is not the chosen hero, but a normal child who made himself into the hero. That said, Links usually share some traits, such as having a love of food and sleep. But, as shown in Twilight Princess, they are all different people.

* Hylia does not reincarnate, ever. After the first Zelda died, Hylia returned to her status as a full goddess. Her descendants, the various Princess Zeldas throughout the series, don’t reincarnate either. Every Princess Zelda after the first one (who was the goddess hylia in a mortal body) is a demigod, a mortal descended from a god. Their power comes from this connection to Hylia. Furthermore, as evidenced in the first two Zelda games, it is tradition for the Hyrule Royal Family to name their firstborn daughter Zelda- the Zelda in The Adventure of Link is the aunt of the Zelda from the first game.

* Demise does not reincarnate either. His incarnations bear not his soul or spirit, but his hatred. His “incarnations” are essentially just people whose hearts were corrupted by hatred or evil.

* Ganondorf, as I stated earlier, only reincarnates once. Every other time, he is sealed away, typically returning after his power is regained.

2: The Curse

Despite what many believe, Demise did not lay down a curse after being defeated in Skyward Sword. Fi says as much, his power was gone. Rather, he laid down a prophecy, which he infused with what power he had left to influence, that his hatred would continue on in others, and they would continue to plague Hylia’s descendants and their champions for all eternity.

3: Ganondorf

Despite popular belief, Ganondorf is not Demise’s reincarnation. Neither was he unduly influenced by the prophecy/curse. Rather, Ganondorf was merely an exceptional man born into evil. He is the child of Twinrova, a fusion between two ancient and evil Gerudo witches, and as such, he inherited much of their power. And because they raised him, he became evil. His origin story is no more complex than that; he was simply a man born into power and evil, who happened to fulfill the conditions for the prophecy due to the hatred in his heart.

The only reason Ganondorf has lasted for so long is because he was the only villain to truly grasp even a fraction of the Triforce, which is itself creation given form. By taking the Triforce of Power for himself, his magic and strength were increased to ridiculous levels, causing him to be all but incapable of dying to anything but divine power.

He dies a total of three times across the series- once in A Link to the Past, once in the Oracle games, and once during Twilight Princess. In every other game in which he appears, Ganondorf is never killed, only sealed away.

However, it is clear that, by the time Breath of the Wild takes place, Ganondorf has become a force of nature, and lost what humanity he had left; he is a monster, a miasma of evil energy. This is likely due to him repeatedly dying, as seen in the Downfall Timeline- each time Ganon is resurrected, he loses a small piece of his mind, until he’s completely mindless in Link Between Worlds, used as a puppet by the real final boss to grant them extra power.

4: Timelines

The series is divided into four timelines: a unified timeline beginning with Skyward Sword and ending with Ocarina of Time, and then three new timelines spawned from OoT’s events: the downfall timeline, the child timeline, and the adult timeline. However, the timeline itself is largely just made up after the fact, and aside from a few games, most aren’t made with continuity in mind.

The Downfall Timeline is where Ganondorf defeats Link in their final battle, and a war is raged between the awakened sages and Ganondorf, ending with Ganon being sealed away in the Sacred Realm as a last resort. After spending an unknown amount of time in the sacred realm, Ganondorf’s power transforms it into the Dark Realm, a land of demons and monsters. In this timeline, Hyrule is in a constant state of decline due to Ganondorf’s influence, with monsters becoming more and more common even when Ganondorf isn’t around, to the point where it generally isn’t safe to venture outside by the time the original game comes along.

The Child Timeline is one where Ganondorf’s influence is never truly allowed to spread. However, this also causes Hyrule to slowly lose its magic, and to slowly grow more dependent on technology. By the time Twilight Princess comes along, magic is all but unheard of outside of divinity and the royal family; similarly, the Sheikah, ancient magical protectors of Hylia and her descendants, are all but gone, with only one Sheikah remaining, Impaz. However, it seems to make a small return once Four Swords Adventures comes along, as the four Links find various magical tools and items to help them on their journey. That said, it’s obvious that Four Swords Adventure was just tacked on to the Child Timeline because it didn’t fit anywhere else. Furthermore, Twilight Princess only happens because of how Link was sent into the past; by holding the Triforce of Courage in the future, Link accidentally created a time paradox, which caused himself, Zelda, and Ganondorf to each hold their triforce pieces in the new timeline despite not having split the triforce yet.

The Adult Timeline is a unique one. Hyrule is subjected to Ganon’s reign, but he is defeated by Link. Link is then sent back in time by Zelda, creating the Child Timeline, but the Adult Timeline still exists- and it is without a hero. Link is nowhere to be found, and the creation goddesses instead lead the peoples of Hyrule to the tops of mountains, before flooding it underneath a great sea. Ganondorf is sealed away underneath the ocean, inside the remnants of Hyrule, trapped in a bubble of time as the world moves on. However, Ganondorf’s power was not fully trapped, and he managed to escape after untold years to once more wreak havoc. After he is defeated in the Wind Waker, Link and Tetra move on to explore the world, eventually coming across a continent, which they rename New Hyrule. In this New Hyrule, magic and technology flourish in tandem, causing a technological boom; magical trains become the standard method of transportation, and the royal family itself sponsors it all. However, this land is home to an ancient evil which was sealed away long ago by the Lokomo tribe, a demon king named Malladus; the train tracks that New Hyrule relies on are actually chains which bind Malladus’s prison, which existed long before the people even arrived on that continent.

Finally, there’s Breath of the Wild, which has a unique problem of not really fitting into any of the timelines. It contains elements from every series, and was intentionally created separate from the rest of the series, likely in order to help further separate it from the rest of the series. Breath of the Wild contains many timeline-specific things, including:

* The Rito, which only existed in the Adult Timeline, and which were Zora transformed by the power of a minor god. Some argue that these Rito are not the same due to the difference in design, but the fact remains that they consider Medli to be one of their own, to the point of naming Vah Medoh after her- thus, these Rito must be descended from the Rito of Wind Waker.

* The Sea Zora, which only existed in the Child Timeline. They were transformed into the Rito in the Adult timeline, and were transformed into the monstrous River Zora in the Downfall Timeline. Some people defend them by saying that these Zora are relatively new to the region, but the fact remains that they consider Princess Ruto to be one of their own, to the point where Vah Ruta is named after her; thus, these Zora must be descended from the same Zora found in Ocarina of Time.

* Goponga Island, Kanalet Ridge, Mabe Village Ruins, Martha's Landing, Tal Tal Peak, Tabhal Woods, Ukuku Plains, and Koholit Rock, all of which areas named after places on Koholint Island, in Link’s Awakening, which itself took place on the Downfall Timeline. And Koholint Island is itself not a real place, but rather the dream of the Wind Fish, a place that is presumably never seen in any of the other timelines.

* Linebeck Island, named after a character in Phantom Hourglass, of the Adult Timeline.

* Lulu Lake, Mikau Lake, and Toto Lake, named after characters in Majora’s Mask, which takes place in the Child Timeline.

* Mount Daphnes, named after the King of Hyrule in The Wind Waker.

* Ralis Pond, named after the Zora Prince in Twilight Princess, in the Child Timeline.

* The Tunic of the Wild, which most resembles the clothing of the Downfall Timeline links.

* Vah Medoh, named after Medli (named Medori in the original Japanese), the Sage of Earth in The Wind Waker, found only in the Adult Timeline.

As such, it can be said that Breath of the Wild takes place in a New Unified Timeline, where elements from all timelines existed.