#(which is of course canon to albw)

[seagullcharmer]

still haven't properly Drawn my lorule map yet but oooh the ideas........

[linderosse]

Guys.

Super long post; read at your own peril (tl;dr at the end).

But I just had a brilliant possible idea about where Echo (the new Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom) fits in the Wisdomverse, so I’m documenting it in case I decide to use it.

See, merging Echo into Fable would be cool. They seem very similar already (relevant post), and it’s a good option.

Yet there are a few small problems with this. I can get around them, but they’re still something to consider.

Fable’s already in four separate games (Most Zeldas get one game or less). Adding EoW makes a fifth.

Fable is already quite powerful amongst the Zeldas. Adding EoW makes her a bit OP. I’ll have to balance that carefully.

Fable has a planned story arc in the Wisdomverse. This might conflict with EoW (for example, this is why LU decided against adding TotK to Wild)

So while I still think it could be cool to merge Fable and Echo, I’m also looking for other possibilities. I don’t want to introduce a new Zelda between Fable and Dawn unless I have to.

And then I realized:

There is already a canon Zelda between Fable and Dawn.

I’ve literally already introduced her.

I have plans for her that could totally work with what we see in Echoes of Wisdom.

She’s vastly underpowered and could use the abilities from EoW very well

I could totally see myself writing her personality into EoW Zelda— it’s a different take than how I’ve depicted Echo before, but it would work equally well imo

And she’s also the Zelda with the least canon information; the one we know the least about overall— especially since we never meet her in her own time.

Guys, if Fable doesn’t work out, I think it might be awesome to merge Echo with Aurora— Hyrule’s second Zelda.

Imagine this:

Aurora woke up centuries in the future, after the Great Decline. She’s trapped in a vastly different world with Dawn and Hyrule as her only solace. She loves them, but she’s not from here; and she can’t shake the dread that she’s left everything behind: her friends, her realm, her brother, who she still cares about despite everything he did to her— and also, of course, her Link, who she loves, and went on an entire adventure to save.

When she was Echo, she was a hero. But as Aurora, she’s an echo of the past; a mournful ghost of a bygone age

Tl;dr: What if Echoes of Wisdom is the era Aurora came from— and where she desperately longs to return?

Masterpost

(More thoughts on the timeline under the cut.)

So— Echoes of Wisdom seems (so far) to take place around the time of Legend’s era, with enough ambiguity that it could be either before or after Legend’s era of ALttP/Oracles/ALBW/TH.

Currently leaning towards “EoW before Legend” considering the similarities to OoT, but I could very well go with “EoW after Legend,” which would be necessary for the Aurora merge. The Oracle games, after all, have a lot of similarities with OoT in terms of races and characters present (Zoras, the Deku Tree, Zelda’s design, etc), and they come after ALttP, which doesn’t have quite as many. Same thing with FSA, which is canonically after Twilight Princess but obviously resembles Four Swords more, and both Wisdomverse and LU have shifted the timeline to match. So there is precedent for similarities to skip a generation or two, even in canon.

I also doubt EoW is going to include a Prince of Hyrule (the one character we know of from Aurora’s backstory). This is fine, because I’m confident I can come up with a reason the Prince was away during the events of EoW. Perhaps during the events of EoW, the Prince left on a journey of his own and first encountered the Wizard that leads to Aurora’s downfall.

Anyways, these are just tentative plans. We’ll see what happens when the game comes out!

[aikoiya]

LoZ LU - Missing Links

Now, I like Jojo's interpretation very much, but there should technically be 4-5 more Links in the line-up.

I know that Four is supposed to also cover FSA & the same goes for Wind with ST, as well as Legend with ALBW & TFH, but it simply doesn't make any sort of chronological sense on either account.

FSA is confirmed to take place after TP & that debunks the Gerudo genocide theory entirely.

Which, I know it takes away a bit of the impact from the Arbiter's Grounds, but truth be told, it doesn't take away all of it. After all, there's no way that at least some of the Gerudo weren't held there. The reason being that I can almost guarantee that at least some of the Gerudo likely remained loyal to Ganondorf. As such, it's very likely that the Gerudo that were tortured & died there had been them. Ganondorf loyalists.

ST is already blatant.

And the Link of ALBW & TH should be an entirely new Link. In fact, I'm actually pretty freaking sure that Gramps is literally Legend. I mean, he has to be a Link, he can wield the Master Sword.

I guess that I'm just disappointed is all. I've at least seen some versions of Spirit, but I haven't really seen anything with FSA Link or ALBW/TH Link.

Though, I do wonder what his nickname would be. Quad? No, that's stupid. Tet's taken. Maybe Iver? Because IV is the Roman number for four? You know, that actually isn't terrible.

Same with ALBW & TH Link.

At the same time, I wonder why Jojo fused Wind & Spirit together to begin with. They very obviously aren't the same.

Something that I also don't see anyone playing with. Cadence of Hyrule. It'd actually give an explanation as to why Time had to be so young.

Because, think about it, CoH's Link was alive when OoT Gdorf was a kid. So, he should've still been alive during OoT, but we don't hear anything about him. (Obviously, because CoH isn't canon, but then neither is HW.)

My thoughts are, what if CoH's Link had died suddenly & unexpectedly, possibly even during the Hyrulean Civil War? If so, then destiny would've had to course correct big-time for there to even be a Link at the time of OoT.

In other words, Time might not have been the Link who was supposed to have to deal with Gdorf's shit, but he did because his predecessor had bitten it too early.

LoZ Linked Universe Masterlist

[sky-squido]

I FINALLY BEAT THE BOSS OF THE SECOND DUNGEON IN OOA (which means i got past that room i was stuck on, thank u @pacicidal and @elegantcollectionkoala)

since i'm playing virtual console, i used a lot of save states to warp back to right before the fight to save time on retries and i've never used save states like this before so i had this really weird time loop sense like those fics where a character is trying something over and over again (of course, i would never write something like that) and it was interesting to see what conditions i set for myself to warrant a reset and experiencing the feeling of jumping back into the fight right after the start of the death animation played with new knowledge about how the fight would go down, but refreshed health and bombs, while the boss has no idea who i am and is seeing me for the first time. it just. it's giving me thoughts and feelings about time loops but this time with legend sklfjghsdfgkjsdf squido don't do it don't you dare

anyway i also beat twilight princess!!! (finally) i LOVE LOVE LOVE when you power up the master sword with the sol's in the twilight realm BECAUSE THE GLOW IS SO PRETTY DUDE THE LIGHTING ON THIS GAAAAAME but also i feel like coming back to this game, especially after screwing around in botw, it really hits me how they do a really great job of making the master sword feel like a total light saber and i am HERE for it!! you just feel so strong and powerful, and after having been so weak at the beginning of the game, having to smack things with your wooden stick and it taking forever to kill bokoblins with the ordon sword, just plowing through baddies is SO satisfying.

BUT THEN ALSO IT'S NOT JUST PLOWING THROUGH BADDIES BECAUSE THE COMBAT IS SO GOOD instead of just mashing Y, you're doing back slices and shield bashes and helm splitters and it's so much more fun and engaging and you feel SO COOL pulling it all off and aaaaah i love this game and how STRONG it makes you feel after working so hard to build up all these heart containers and learn all these skills and get and strengthen the master sword. what an adventure.

AND THE PUZZLES DUDE I DIDN'T WANT THE HYRULE CASTLE DUNGEON TO END it was just a playground of puzzles with all my items and shooting the paintings off the walls? clawshotting to the grates on lamps and chandeliers? i feel like this game perfected the art of observation-based puzzles. i feel like so many of the puzzles in this game amount to looking around, looking around differently (as a wolf, from different angles, with different items in mind, reexamining your surroundings and looking for new ways to interact with them) and i LOVE it!! i feel so clever when i finally spot The Thing that i was looking for and i usually endure zelda dungeons to get to the bosses and the story, but this is definitely the most fun i've ever had in zelda dungeons outside of link between worlds. i honestly believe the reason nintendo has deviated from their standard dungeons/items formula and has no intention of returning to it is that twilight princess PERFECTED IT in 3D so they have to try something else now (this is also why i think we haven't gotten a new traditional 2D zelda game in so long—albw perfected 2D zelda dungeon design).

BUT YEAH THEN THE ENDING OF COURSE RIPPED MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST BECAUSE WHY WOULDN'T IT AND I WILL BE THINKING NONSTOP ABOUT HOW LINK RIDES OFF ON EPONA AND THEN STOPS YES I KNOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY A MISTAKE BUT THEY KEPT IT IN THE HD VERSION SO IT'S CANON NOW, BABY

anyway i love zelda games and I HAVEN'T PLAYED TOTK YET SO DON'T MENTION IT IN YOUR TAGS PLEASE CUZ I DO READ THEM ALL but yeah i'm getting totk soon and also just got minish cap and also i still have oos to play so yaaaaay i am once again feral for zelda games ALSO I CAN FINALLY PLAY ONE OF FOUR'S GAMES AND NOT SUBSIST SOLELY OFF WIKI ENTRIES WHEN WRITING HIM THANK GOODNESS

[pumpkinsouppe]

The reason why the 2d games are so great is because the technological limitations that force the games to be creative. There’s limited inventory space and bottles meaning you have to be creative in what you equip and use. The mechanics are limited so inventive gimmicks of the game inform the storytelling (think the Minish cap, Albw, etc).

I’m hopeful but I’m already so not happy to see that infinite scroll come back from Totk, that thing always made it harder and harder for me to go back to playing Totk to the point where I completely stopped playing (of course there were other issues but I don’t want to spend 50% of my play time scrolling).

Considering how much I praise Zelda 2 it’s no secret I’m a huge 2d Zelda fan, I actually like a lot more of the 2d games more than the 3d games. My big worry is that Nintendo continues to use the botw formula for everything and completely isolate the fans of the original formula. Sure whatever, change the 3d games. They’ve always been super experimental and you can choose which ones you want to enjoy. But the 2d games? If you change everything to be botw 2 then I wouldn’t be surprised if long term fans stopped playing more and more future games.

There’s a reason I was begging for oracle hd remakes, it’s smth I know Nintendo couldn’t fuck up without pissing off the fans bc of the classic formula. But a completely new game is up to the whims of the devs who currently want botw or bust.

It’s annoying how much the devs are singing the praises of games that they didn’t even bother trying to improve after 6 years of work. It’s annoying that they shit on games that made this franchise famous in the first place and isolate the communities who are fans of those games. Stakes in video games? Who’s that? It’s not like one of the most famous games in the world ends with Link’s best friend permanently dying/leaving to the point where it canonically made link risk turning into a skull kid just to find her in the sequel. But nooo link can’t lose his arm or have scars :( how else will he look like a carbon copy of Zelda otherwise :((( (🙄)

Aghhhhh now I’m jsut getting really mad at Totk again but wow it sucks spending so much time in this game series only to be spit on. I’m excited yet so wary and hesitant of echoes. I’m worried they’re giving us things fans have wanted forever to return as a bandaid to hide its issues. I love the art style, I’m excited for many things, but after how badly I’ve been burned by totk I’m so nervous. I hate that triple a companies can be so secretive of their projects and expect fans to pay $70. I should not be stressing like this over a creative project, your fans should be excited. ESPECIALLY if it’s about mechanical and ui issues, your fans should not be stressed out about that ruining their experience.

Okay I’m done i promise, everyone go play hoverbat’s zelda 2 it’s so good

If bottles don’t return in echoes and we actually get a semi unlimited inventory like botw and Totk I’m gonna be livid , I am so sick of health spamming and the worst inventory ui

[skyward-floored]

Legend has a brother??

ALL RIGHT ANON LEMME TELL YOU A TALE

This turned into more of a “Legend basically has an adopted family” then just his brother but you know how I tend to get off-topic.

(a link between worlds spoilers, and all the screenshots are borrowed from a playthrough on youtube, literally the first one that comes up)

So as we all know, Legend is technically a conglomeration of two separate Links; the Hero of Legend, (alttp, oos, ooa, & la) and the New Hero of Hyrule (albw (and technically tfh, but that’s not canon to lu)).

And in albw, Link has a family.

So now I’m sure you’re thinking “uh, what? Link never has an actual family except for an occasional sister or the like”, and you’re absolutely correct, because this is Link’s adopted family. It’s never outright stated in the game, but it’s not at all a stretch to come to this conclusion.

Albw starts with Link being yelled awake by a kid named Gulley (the blacksmith’s son) who tells Link that his dad is steaming mad and that he said if Link wants to be a blacksmith he’s going to have to be better about getting up at the crack of dawn.

Gulley obviously knows Link really well as he just enters his house and wakes him up, and Link doesn’t appear to be too upset at him bursting in at all (though that might be because he’s reeling from the nightmare he was having, but I digress).

The waking up is obviously a near daily occurrence as well

When you finally get to the forge and there’s a bit of a hullabaloo with the captain leaving his sword behind, the blacksmith’s wife offers to make Link breakfast once he gets back from returning the sword (he never gets his breakfast :( ).

Now skipping ahead a little bit, the blacksmith’s wife asks Link if he’s seen Gulley anywhere, and asks him to keep an eye out because she has a bad feeling for some reason. In looking around for Gulley, you’ll come up to a clearing with a small bag sitting on a stump. The blacksmith’s wife follows after you and gets rather upset and says this:

Gulley wants to be the one to give Link his bag! That’s adorable! And such a little brother thing to do (duality am I right? Yell at your brother to wake him up, then a little bit later want to be the one to give him the cool thing).

Also sounds like a pretty motherly thing to make a nice new satchel for Link huh? Especially when you hear what the blacksmith’s wife says a bit later.

So yeah, Legend has a mom basically :)

BUT we weren’t really talking about her, we were talking about Gulley! And the biggest proof I’d say of Link seeing him as a brother or at least being rather close to him is the part right after you end up in Lorule.

The blacksmith’s wife’s counterpart (whew!) finds Link passed out on the road and brings him inside (which she complains endlessly about). She lets him regain consciousness, then shoos him out. But if you talk to her again before leaving, she says this:

Gulley is still missing at this point.

And Link is so worried about him he’s mumbling his name while unconscious!

Now I’m sure you could argue there’s just the usual “Link always likes kids” thing going on here, but I really think it’s more of a brotherly sort of worry/affection going on. Taking both Gulley and Link’s side of things, the relationship obviously goes both ways.

And as Link doesn’t appear to have any blood family in-game... I really do believe the blacksmiths are his adopted family, in a similar way as Rusl and Uli are to Twi in twilight princess.

(And of course, I have no clue how much of this is canon to linkeduniverse, so it’s possible Legend doesn’t have nearly as much of a relationship with the blacksmith family as I’m making him out to have. But either way, in albw, Link does have a family.)

[ericvilas]

Zelda timelines? In the year of our lord 2021?

It's more likely than you think.

Anyway hear me out. Two canons. Not two timelines, that's a different matter, but two *canons*, two *different canonicities*. One revolves around Ocarina of Time, the other revolves around A Link to the Past. One has mostly 3D games and is made up of direct sequels and prequels, the other has exclusively 2D games and is made up of the retcon shenanigans Capcom concocted to give ALTTP a place.

Ready? Here we go:

(I apologize for making this an image, but Tumblr's formatting destroys any attempts to make this using text. It's the standard branching timeline of the 3D games).

This is just straightforward. TP is implied to be a sequel to OoT, WW and MM are direct sequels to OoT; PH and ST are direct sequels to WW.

I included SS because I think that SS was mostly created with OoT-TP in mind.

In fact, I would even go so far as to argue that you could actually include Breath of the Wild in here, far off in the future of the Adult timeline. You don't have to, of course - BotW is designed to be separate from the rest of the timeline, so far in the future that any timeline is but a distant memory. And that's fair and valid! But if you wanted to place it in the 3D timeline I'd argue it fits in Adult better, as long as you consider the EX DLC treasures as noncanon (which I do).

Either way, this post is not about BotW, and you could get deep into the weeds with the original 2 Zeldas as well, so we won't do that here, and we'll consider those 3 to be "place them wherever you feel they fit best, if you wanna place them anywhere at all".

Now, for the fun part.

Long ago, there existed a prequel/sequel connection between OoT and ALTTP. OoT represented the Imprisoning War, and ALTTP represented the escape of Ganon. However, there were some major inconsistencies. And it all went to hell when Nintendo decided to make a completely new sequel to represent the escape of Ganon: Wind Waker. So ALTTP was left prequel-less.

Enter Capcom.

Their first order of business was to create the Oracles games. Due to the way they ended, it's hinted at being a direct prequel to LA. Or, alternatively, a midquel between ALTTP and LA (the fact that Ganon is dead and Link leaves in a boat, for instance).

Then they made Four Swords and connections between FS and ALTTP, which they then solidified by pulling the same trick they pulled with the Oracles games and creating Four Swords Adventures, a game which they created as a retcon prequel to ALTTP - same map, Ganon wielding the trident of power, Ganon having the same form as in ALTTP...

So many people get mixed up because the Ganon in FSA is almost the Ganon in OoT... but isn't the Ganon in OoT. Honestly he could just be yet another incarnation of the cycle Demise put in motion, one with a more balanced heart that can wield the full Triforce....... But I think it might make a bit more sense for him to be a part of a different canonicity altogether.

And then there's TMC and ALBW, the "ultimate Capcom prequel" and the "ultimate ALTTP sequel", to cap off the ends of the timeline.

So here's my proposal:

TMC - [time passes] - FS - FSA - ALTTP - OoS/OoA - LA - ALBW

This fills in another hole I always wondered about: why Din/Farore/Nayru are the fucking world-creating goddesses in some games but just "oracles" in other games.

And here's the kicker:

All 8 of these games can easily happen without Ocarina of Time.

That is definitely not something you can say about, say, Twilight Princess.

and, similarly, all the 3D games can easily happen without any of these 8.

So that's why I think there's 2 canonicities:

and

And hey. If you really want to merge them, if you feel like they must be combined, because this is Zelda goddammit - I have some good news for you.

See how each of those two have a "time passes" gap right after the first one?

You can interweave them, if you really wanted to. Pick a timeline for FS to go in (I find that Child would work best, leave a big gap after Zant kills Ganondorf for the new cycle of Demise to show up) and just. Slot them in. If you wanted to, why not?

I personally think it works better if you don't actually do that, tbh, but. To each their own.

And I will continue to put BotW at the end of Adult, because fuck it I like Vah Ruta, Vah Nabooris, and Vah Rudania to refer to our Ruto, Nabooru, and Darunia. But I can understand people who don't.

Anyway, that's what I got.

I've been thinking about this for WAYYYYY too many years and honestly? I like this conclusion. No third split, no unnecessarily convoluted plots, no dismissal of everything, it feels right. To me, at least.

If anyone finds any holes please let me know.

[trainer-purple]

A Zelda Head Cannon

Recently after getting into @linkeduniverse and the announcement of Link’s Awakening I was reminded of a head canon that I had once A Link Between Worlds came out; After being released from the nightmare of the wind fish Link washes ashore to Hyurle, only to find that many years have past and he doesn’t really have a home to go to and decides to settle for an ordinary life of a blacksmiths apprentice (which of course comes crashing down in the events of ALBW).

[telesthisia]

What if your Zel time travelled to ALBW time? Do you think there'd be any differences between your Zelda and that one?

WHY DIDN’T TUMBLR TELL ME ABOUT THIS ASK?!?!

It all depends on who’s writing ALBW Zellie and how they write them! If we’re going by canon with both these girls then maybe they’d have differences because in canon, ALTTP Zel literally has zero personality. Like, none whatsoever aside from giving exposition and being a reason to save Hyrule. ALBW Zel, however, seems to have more character to her through actions and what others say of her mostly. That being said comparing my Zel with canon ALBW Zel there are some differences. At least, I’d like to think there are! It feels embarrassing to list them, honestly, ndjbfksdjfhb. 

But because I based her mostly off of the 90s comic and Himekawa, her experiences in both those comics are mixed together in an unholy mess as such she’s come out with depression from the entire events of ALTTP (getting kidnapped, locked away in a dark space with no one to help her, losing her father, some maidens not making it out of the dark world, the death of the priest, some good guards dying because of the brainwash they went through and Link having no other choice to defend himself) and later trauma with OoX where she was kidnapped for essentially human sacrifice (it’s less of fear of dying and more ‘oh god they could’ve used my blood to destroy and kill so many people’ with a dash of it was too soon for her to go since there are so many things she wants to accomplish. Leading Hyrule to its golden age being one of them). I wouldn’t say she’s paranoid but she treats everything with caution and care as the result of all those circumstances. Though she’s kindly because she tries to treat others with that same polite kindness that doesn’t exactly mean she trusts others just yet, she keeps a bit of distance from others until she sees that maybe she can let her guard down just a little. If she sees  someone who’s genuine enough in her eyes, that’s where the guilt of her hiding her identity kicks in. She usually doesn’t tell others unless: A) her guards find her and reveal her identity through that way which is what’s about to happen in a certain thread I’m writing out JDFKBFHJDB and 2) she finally decides to come clean with the truth once she feels close enough with that person.

She has this dreamy, serene smile in order to soothe others around her with that calm expression and somewhat herself (and also to make her face less of an open book in a way because again guard up at all times. She’s a bit on the mysterious side due to this. Not many know what she’s really thinking about beyond that placid expression or smile, even when she’s angry she seems more cold with clipped words and having to look into deeper meaning of her words but her expression doesn’t change much from the norm. She has that nasty habit of bottling things up). It’s why she tries to stay so levelheaded for the most part and reassure others but in that quiet way through actions rather than words because constantly saying “it’ll be alright” doesn’t always work with other people. And speaking of quiet, she does have that silent determination working for her too! Admittedly, her hope did start to wane away when she tried to call for help, Link’s uncle’s passing certainly didn’t help things but once Link heard her calls that’s where the determination would slowly kick in. Seeing his trials in collecting the pendants and venturing through the dark world is what formed that silent determination and as of now, she’s learned to not give up no matter how hopeless the situation may be. Because in the end she tentatively believes everything will turn out fine someway or how. SOMEWHAT.

She’s more connected with her PSI powers granted by the Triforce than the light magic given to her from her ancestor the mortal goddess. Due to power health, unless she has the help of the maidens by her side, she can’t exactly break down barriers that are strong or seal away anyone. She can’t use her magic at all despite how potent it is since she has the blood of a goddess and from the seven wise sages. Hence why many are out for her blood because imagine all of the dark magic shit they can do with it (like being able to revive ganon not too different from AOL). She’s a glass canon of sorts because of how ass her magic stamina is. She can, however, heal you! That said, telepathy and clairvoyance along with connection to the spirit realm aka talking to the dead are the powers she excels at! SO this is where that somewhat word comes in. Clairvoyant dreams would happen from time to time. It’s not as often as one would think, which is a relief to her because her dreams always comes true. No matter how much may change, the outcome will remain the same regardless. Fate is pretty hard to change and she’s become a bit like... angry at the fact that they are stuck in this cycle thanks to one goddess and her battle against a demon. The fact that Hyrule can’t ever know peace aside from brief periods of it always upsets her because dang it her people deserve to relish in that peace without any worries as do the future generation of the royal family. She’s actually angry at the gods despite acting pretty respectful but resigned to the fact that there’s no changing this. 

Also... while she doesn’t mind ruling over her kingdom, she does like sneaking out of the castle whenever she can! She loves exploring her lands, whether visiting small villages or going through old ass temples/tombs with history behind it she loves it all. And also, tends to read in graveyards or takes naps in the Haunted Grove because she’s freaking fearless in the face of death like that. She’s somewhat has that same bullying factor as her ancetor does since she can be playful in that innocent way. Only when outside the castle because hey she’s got an image to maintain. 

The only thing she’d share with ALBW Zel is her love for romance. Zel is in love with the idea of love. Being lonely all her life because Bad Health due to being sickly and having duties to complete as future ruler, she’d love to find someone someday to spend the rest of her life with. And dang it, she’s a pretty loving person too and will be straightforward in letting it be known that she likes someone. She likes idiots so of course she has to be DFHJKBD. But her love for the more dumbasses simple folk comes from growing up in court with stuffy nobles who judge what the perfect woman should be for marriage and to her that’s like ew. And also dumbasses can be nice as hell so that’s another reason. Something to add is that she’s a romantic in sense of the period. Finding beauty in art, nature, tales of the old and heroics, and even in the macabre due to her seeing ghosts in dreams since bby and having tea parties with them. She sees beauty in everything and everywhere. I think this should go without saying but the two do share kindness and the love for their people too and are pretty selfless! And that’s pretty much what comes to mind. I’m sure there’s more but this post has gone on long enough pls help.

That said, more than likely she’d get along with ALBW Zel because that’s her grand daughter/little sister figure. 

[linderosse]

Cannot wait to see your new design for Echourora. I keep refreshing hoping to see you drop the design and comic.

On a proper question, what do you do with the Priestess/Shrine Maidens/Sage descendants from LttP for Wisdomverse? What's their relationship to the actual Sages of ALBW?

Hahaha I can’t wait to share it! I keep thinking of more things to draw around this little Echo|Aurora concept of mine. I’ve been working on a bunch of them in parallel so I can release them as I finish :).

I’m actually nearly done with the first bit! So many ideas, so little time to draw. I’ve been traveling a lot this week and last week, and it’s hard to draw in a moving car :)

But I can still type in a moving car, so hey, here’s an answer to your question!

I personally am merging all the characters from ALBW into their ALttP counterparts, and that includes the sages. Essentially, you can imagine that the sages from ALBW were the ones trapped in the jewels in ALttP— except one of them was replaced by Fable, because Fable is one of the sages in ALttP, but not in ALBW.

Dot in FSA gets a set of color-coded maidens of her own, so Fable doesn’t need one as well. And using the ALBW sages for ALttP is also much more consistent with the sages from OoT. Here’s a nice graphic that someone made online (not mine; I downloaded this ages ago as a drawing reference).

So, in ALttP: the sages get kidnapped/sacrificed at the start, just like the maidens were. At the end, they all come together to break Ganon’s barrier, with Fable (Zelda) as their leader.

That leads to the question: which of the ALBW sages is replaced by Zelda for ALttP, and then gets to be a sage again in ALBW? My vote goes to Seres, the priestess in blue at the end of the line— though I’m still giving her a role to play in ALttP.

In fact, I’m gonna trace where all of them could have been in ALttP. There’s a lot of fun contradictions to merge :).

Osfala

He’s Sahasrahla’s disciple/grandson, just like in ALBW, and gets kidnapped with the rest of them. This has the added benefit of giving Sahasrahla a personal motive to want to help Link at the start of the game (though of course he’s already down to help). Let’s say you can rescue/recruit Osfala in the Dark Palace in ALttP, because it’s the first Dark World dungeon and it’s near where he and Sahasrahla live in the Light World.

Rosso

I don’t think he has a counterpart in ALttP? If he does, I’ve forgotten. Guess he just gets kidnapped and rescued like the others. He can have the Ice Palace, because although I do like Rosso, I hate the Ice Palace and have to give it to someone. It’s a nice ironic choice for a Fire-aligned guy like him (since Turtle Rock is off the table—it’s Fire-aligned, but it’s the last dungeon and therefore has to be where you rescue Fable)

Gulley

Gulley is the blacksmith’s son and one of the sages in ALBW, and the counterpart of the Ocarina Kid in ALttP. In this merged version, he gets rescued from the Skull Woods dungeon, but he’s too young to hold himself together properly in the Dark World, and gives his ocarina to Legend and then dies when they reach that stump in the forest like the ocarina kid does in ALttP canon. Let’s keep that trauma for Legend.

(Note that a lot of people die in ALttP. It’s fine, dw, they’re all canonically revived at the end of the game)

But then the gang is missing one sage! How will they break the barrier, which requires seven sages total? Fear not, they have a plan. We’ll get to that later though. For now…

Oren

Oren gets to be the adult daughter of the aging King River Zora in ALttP who gives Link the flippers. This has the added benefit of giving the King Zora a reason to help Link despite the fact that his people are constantly trying to kill you. Oren gets rescued from the Swamp Palace, just like in ALBW. Water theme go brrrr.

Impa

Impa is Impa. Rescued from Misery Mire, because why not. Nothing special here.

Maple/Irene

Ah, Maple. She’s the granddaughter of Granny Syrup, the potionmaker from ALttP. Maple was added only in the GBA remake of ALttP as a reference to her appearance in the Oracle games. Her kidnapping would give Syrup an added personal motive for helping Link out.

I’m giving Maple the Thieves’ Town dungeon in ALttP because Thieves’ Town is special. Folks who have played ALttP, or who are familiar with The Secrets We Keep, may remember the dungeon boss Blind the Bandit. Blind masquerades as the captive from this dungeon and follows you— until you lead him to a special room and the light turns him back to his monstrous form.

I love the thought of a fake Maple following Legend around, pleading that she’s real, and to trust her— but Legend sees through the lies. When Legend rescues the real Maple, her dry cynicism is a breath of fresh air, and a distinct reminder that she’s the real version. It gives Legend a connection to Maple that he gets to build on more in the Oracle games.

Legend will also proceed to be traumatized by Blind twice more in the future (including TSWK), but that’s a story for another day :).

Seres

Finally, Seres is the daughter of the Priest in ALBW. In ALttP, the Priest hides Zelda in his church for the first half of the game, and dies valiantly trying to protect Zelda when Agahnim comes for her again. In this merged version, Seres was there too, and can’t do anything to save her father. This has the added bonus of giving the Priest a personal motive to want to help Link in the first half of the game (his daughter is in danger), and giving Seres a personal motive to help set the world to rights again in the second half of the game (she wants her father back).

In this merged version, Seres takes Gulley’s place in the final scene where Fable and the gang blast through Ganon’s barrier, so they still have seven sages. There aren’t really any elemental roles in ALttP and ALBW like there are in OoT, but if you consider the elements to still exist, you can think of Fable as a wildcard sage who can fill Gulley’s role, like Lullaby/Requiem does in OoT as the “Seventh Sage.”

Tl;dr:

And there you go! The ALBW seven, if they were in ALttP.

Did I overthink this? Yes. Will I change details of this later? Maybe. Was this fun to contemplate anyways? Hell yeah!

Thanks for the amazing question. I love these; keep ‘em coming, folks!

Masterpost