#total ambush king. though i'm sure hes also very good at

[beatcroc]

pest control TWO!!!!! heres the first one

adn heres the obligatory bonus bc i can't help myself :')

[a-pale-azure-moon]

I've barely scratched the surface of TotK and I can feel my brain wanting to disappear down the Zelda rabbit hole. I am desperately trying to keep at least half of it in my writing brainspace but damn is it hard. There's so much temptation to just plop down with my Switch for the next eight hours and forget about everything else.

Anyway, I'm still very early in but I'll put my ramblings under the cut just in case.

-I know the popular joke was that TotK is just "$70 DLC." Obviously it is not with all of the new content, but it genuinely feels like I'm playing BotW again, only with new tools and new places to discover. And I don't consider that a bad thing! I spent almost 300 hours playing BotW and still wished there was more I could do (aside from hunting down all the Koroks because screw that), so I'm happy to be revisiting this world and exploring it all over again. Though I won't lie that I miss having all the gear and upgrades I had by the end of BotW. I'd forgotten how easy it is to die in stupid ways early on.

-Holy hell is there so much to explore. Maybe too much. Even with the nudges the game gives you, it's really hard to know where to even begin once you leave the Great Sky Island. I haven't even done any of the main dungeons yet; I've just been wandering around looking for shrines and seeing what's changed. It's even more daunting knowing there's stuff in the sky and in the depths to explore as well.

-The Depths freak me out. I've only been in there once and I'm not eager to go back until I'm stronger. Never been a fan of dark places in video games; you never can know what's lurking there, waiting to ambush you.

-It's nice to see all the familiar NPCs. Bumping into Purah and Robbie right away made me smile.

-It's also nice to see that Hyrule's been rebuilding since the end of BotW, but that evidence of the Calamity still exists (Castle Town especially). It makes the world feel that much more organic and real.

-That opening sequence was choice. Like, the approach to Ganon's lair, with the increasing gloom and the ominous music, literally sent shivers down my spine. Good shit.

-Ultrahand is amazing and I've only just begun to really play with its powers.

-To whomever at Nintendo designed the Gloom Spawn/Grabby hands/Nightmare Fuel, I hate you. May all your bacon burn for the rest of your life.

-I miss the Bomb runes SO MUCH.

-What happened to all the Sheikah technology anyway? I totally get dismantling all the Guardians considering they were the scourge of Hyrule for a long time, but did the towers and the Slate just...stop working?

-I'm fascinated by Rauru (and no, it's not just because he has Dimitri's voice, though I won't lie that it makes him that much more appealing, lol). So, we know that's his right arm that Link is "borrowing," and all of Link's new powers specifically come from that arm. And that same arm was keeping Ganon sealed away for....some length of time I'm not aware of yet, but I'm guessing it was awhile. And the new shrines are implied to contain fragments of Rauru's power as well. Just how powerful is this guy? Also, the reveal that he's the first King of Hyrule too (and married to a Hylian woman!) just makes things more interesting.

Also, also, look how adorable he is! I want to pet his ears and brush his hair! But I also want see him go ham at some point because the game sure as hell implies that he's god-like and I'm here for it.

...But it'll probably also make me sad because he's well, dead now and it's likely because sealing Ganon away cost him his life. =(

(I'm still reeling that Rauru's voiced by Chris Hackney, and it's even more wild with Matt Mercer being the voice of Ganon. How is it that the VAs of both of my FE husbands wound up in this game? Thanks for making sure the brainrot never ends, Nintendo!)

[cave-monkey]

Monkey King 2009 Episode 10

A lot happened, but not a lot happened, you know? Sort of nice compared to the absolutely packed episodes we've been having recently.

No idea how these kids were surfing a log the wrong way up a river and still somehow unable to stop before crashing into the waterfall (did notice Stone Monkey infusing the log with his energy though, it looked like? Pretty cool), but unlike the LAST time we got faked out when Stone Monkey careened toward certain waterfall death, this time we actually found Water Curtain Cave!

I actually really liked how they did it. At first it was kinda, you know, literally just a big cave with a tiny little bridge and I figured Water Curtain Cave was just going to be like that in this series. A bit of a letdown, but hey, a good homemaking subplot in the works, I guess.

BUT NO

They really went hard with making Water Curtain Cave a paradise-within-a-paradise in this one. It's gorgeous. I especially love the swirling carvings on the second hidden entrance, and the way everything is just slightly overgrown. Stone Monkey's blink-and-you-miss-it moment of not really recognizing what the hell the stone bowl was, also pretty fun.

Love this area so much. I love the large, dark cave that leads to this bright, magical door that opens to this absolutely gorgeous hidden grove. It's a 2009 animation series, but they did such a good job. I think it's one of my favorite iterations of Water Curtain Cave.

Also Ginseng Fruit is now calling Stone Monkey "Ge". Relationship development!

Old Monkey King taking this particular assault from the Demon King's army so seriously startled me a bit! He's never been this take charge. I kind of wonder what changed, but I'm personally taking it as a serious loss of faith in the four generals until proven otherwise. He's been mostly hands-off with them, and last episode that led to one of the kids - and it being Stone Monkey in particular - straight up fleeing the troop. Makes sense to me if he's shortened the leash. The defenses were definitely much tighter than they usually are, making me think Old Monkey King was there making sure his plans were meticulously executed, but at the same time the monkeys were way less flexible and aggressive than they've been in the past, and it ended up biting them. Part of that has to be because of plot demands, of course (they needed the monkeys to fail this time so that Stone Monkey had a reason to come running back) but I really like to Watsonian in-universe reasons as much as possible, so speculation is going to happen!

One possibility is that Old Monkey King being directly involved actually backfired because no one wanted to deviate even a little from the strategy - it's the Monkey King's strategy! - leading to the panic and collapse as soon as things went even a little wrong. They over-relied on his defenses and didn't take advantage of the openings presented to properly break down the opposing force when they had opportunities. They had the Demon King's forces separated, confused, and discouraged in record time in this episode, and then...allowed them to re-group. This was ultimately their downfall.

In previous encounters the monkeys still used traps to weaken enemy lines and force them to expend resources, but didn't rely on them so much. These traps also weren't really ever enough to properly disrupt enemy forward progress. The monkeys were much better about taking advantage of ambush opportunities and did not pass up opportunities to pursue. This did a very good job of keeping the enemy forces scattered and focused on flight instead of on counter-attacking or re-establishing communications with each other. This often led to total routes. Once the monkeys managed to break apart the Demon King's forces, they stayed broken. The main problem was getting those opportunities since their traps weren't ever really good enough to make them. They had to rely on luck, and then hope they were able to move their forces fast enough to take advantage of a bad placement or over-extension. This while also playing keep-away with their own forces - keeping them close enough to maneuver while not close enough to be caught outside those ideal circumstances since the four generals strongly suspected a straight fight would not go in their favor (they go over the difference in weapons technology a couple episodes ago, and I think they're right)). It generally worked out okay up until this point, but it was also pretty sloppy and had a high possibility of failure. Too much relied on chance.

Ideally, this episode would have had the best of both worlds. Their defenses were tight. The Demon King's weakness as a field commander is he always defaults to a straight frontal charge and is very slow to change his tactics. They took very good advantage of that and had his army essentially dusted almost as soon as they arrived. They've never had a better opportunity to divide and conquer, as discussed above. The issue was follow-through. As I said, they allowed them to re-group. I'm...really not sure who's at fault for this, honestly. We'd need to have seen the meetings prior to this confrontation. Either Old Monkey King's own orders limited his commanders to the point they weren't able to take advantage of that break (as in, he ordered them not to or otherwise refused to allow them the command authority to make those decisions without his input) or the commanders failed on their own accord to take initiative, either from misplaced confidence in Old Monkey King's presence on the field, a lack of confidence in their own authority with Old Monkey King being right there, or some weird cowardice (to be fair, I'm not thinking it was the latter, though the badly timed retreat order wasn't looking good).

The fact the defense fell apart the second things went a little wrong was not...good. Like at all. Every leader on the field at the time was to blame for that, honestly. The line should not have broken the second the Demon King got the ball for the first time. That retreat order was premature and might have cost more lives than it saved, considering the organization of an attempted rally might have given them the opportunity for a more organized and better defended withdrawal at the very least. The went from zero casualties to hoards of wounded limping with little guidance in random directions in a very short amount of time. Old Monkey King was right to sigh when the order was given to retreat the second things went a little sideways, but he was wrong to have frozen up himself the second he realized his enemy had an actual brain. He was doing a lot of watching and judging this battle, not a lot of taking charge. If his commanders weren't doing it, it was his responsibility to step up.

(Though not countering his Marshal's retreat orders might have been a good decision to keep from confusing his own forces in a very dangerous situation, it's still worth noting that retreating in this instance means his people are left wandering scattered and wounded with no safe place to retreat to. This isn't their first line of defense, it's their first and last. Attempting to rally the monkeys into a counterattack might have been worth it, if only to force some breathing room.)

(All of this to say that I'm not too impressed with the Old Monkey King's performance as a military leader here, either. This was a major example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Sitting in contemplative judgement is all well and good, but sometimes you gotta take charge. This defeat that should not have happened was on him as much as it was the four generals. More, actually. He's got ultimate responsibility.)

(...Figuring out how this might have happened in-universe is pretty fun, actually.)

OKAY DONE. It's safe to come back out now!

Okay, so Jade Rabbit running to Stone Monkey about the Demon King's attack and Stone Monkey's answer being (paraphrased, obviously) "I don't know why! I just...I know I have to go! I need to go."

Immediate thought from me: An unexplainable but driving urge, huh? Is Six Ears about to be captured or almost killed again?

Answer: Yes.

Good to see that whole thing still going strong lol.

(Yes, this was meant to showcase Stone Monkey's remaining attachment and loyalty to the people who took him in, who he owes at least a little, showcasing his better nature and strong morals even toward those who didn't treat him entirely right. Him having a spidey sense but only for Six Ears's impending peril is way funnier though.)

Not gonna lie though, the show does a good job making me feel actual dread sometimes. Six Ears being trapped at the bottom of the pit while the demons one-by-one slowly gathered around the lip, all armed and laughing, with Six Ears helpless at the bottom? All I could think was how badly they could hurt him with Six Ears unable to do anything about it, and it gave me some chills.

The second time was the Demon King ordering them to cut off a set of his ears. Like.

Jesus.

And Six Ears sitting there with his eyes squeezed shut, terrified but trying to pretend he's not because he can't stop them? Surrounded by people who think his pain will be funny, who call him by dehumanizing (you know what I mean) insults instead of by name, about to lose parts of himself, and there's nothing he can do except try not to show them that he's afraid?

Christ.

Stone Monkey's swooping in to stop them with a goofy face was actually really good. Like. I just talked about this, what, two episodes ago, about how it must seem to Six Ears when he's in these situations and Stone Monkey comes in like it's nothing? It felt so jarring to have him sticking his tongue out and mocking them when Six Ears was inches away from having parts of his body cut off. I almost felt a little irritated with him for it, but of course Stone Monkey cares. We couldn't see his face when it was covered by a mask and the camera wasn't focused on him for once, but we know how seriously he takes these kinds of things. We know how quickly he flips from furious to pretending to be careless and unconcerned the second his enemies can see him. We watched it happen real-time in Episode 8, and they're just not showing the lead-up this time. It's pretty cool visual storytelling. Giving you a piece of the puzzle and then taking it away again, leaving you to simultaneously have to remember it on your own and showing you what the picture looks like without it. This is the part of the rescue Six Ears gets to see, and how it must feel to him...pretty interesting.

Now kidnap him back to Water Curtain Cave, Stone Monkey. Get that boy safe behind your magic waterfall. He needs it.

(Stone Monkey seeing a whole hoard of wounded monkeys and jumping straight to "WHERE'S SIX EARS" also caught my attention lol. Nothing to really say about it, but I sure noticed it. Also him hearing they don't know where to go and not immediately offering up Water Curtain Cave.)

(We know he's going offer up Water Curtain Cave, but I mean. I liked that he wasn't immediately on board with letting these guys into his home right off the bat. He's got limits.)

That's about all I got. Good episode! Six Ears with a fire arrow, absolutely awesome. Also liked seeing him using his ears for...maybe the first real time since Episode 1? Right before he almost loses them? LOVELY.