#*shakes fist at Mineru*

[sunset-peril]

TOTK AU Idea I may be incorporating (somehow)

Reposting because I'm an idiot and forgot to tag @aikoiya because without our Rauru/Rinku sage conversations this idea wouldn't have happened

Thanks for the ideas. My bad for forgetting. 😅

~~~

I may reorder the order of events, or a few details, but I'm pretty sure on the concept

The first Secret Stone you acquire in the game is not for one of Link's Buddies, if you follow the Main Storyline as intended.

It's for Link himself, and it's Rauru's stone.

Rauru bestows his Secret Stone upon Link for the journey ahead, as transition from the King of Light to Hyrule's new king.

However, there's uno problemo: Link is not Rauru's blood descendant, and therefore cannot receive the Stone directly from Rauru.

Theoretically, Zelda is able to bridge the gasp between the two as Rauru's descendant and Link's wife, but we all know why she can't (she's a little... busy)

The gap between the two is then only able to be bridged by one individual: Link's ancestor from Rauru's time, who was a dear friend of Rauru's (and intended to receive his own Stone had things not blow up)

Therefore, the first questline you get following your fall from the Great Sky Island is for Link's Sage awakening. (In Faron, because that's where Link's ancestors were from)

Link gets a Sage plot like the other five. I think this Imprisoning War monologue would have to be unique like Mineru's simply because of who Link's ancestor was (a king/leader to his own group of people, as well as Link's ancestor also not surviving the Imprisoning War). Link's ancestor is able to bridge the divide between Rauru and Link, bestowing that stone upon Link.

However, there's one stark difference from the ending. Unlike the other 5, Link is not awakening under his direct ancestor's sagehood, but rather Rauru's. Therefore, he is not the second Sage of Light.

He awakens under the sagehood of his own innate magic, because its clear the Stone merely amplifies your pre-existing magic and doesn't provide any new powers. Thus, the Sage of Twilight, due to his innate Twilight Magic as descendant and heir of a race of werewolves born from Wolf Link and his lingering Twilight.

~~~

Hyrule's Final Stand Masterlist

[aikoiya]

LoZ TotK - The Symbolism Behind Link's Rings & the Handshakes

I actually don't really see the scene where Sidon kneels to Link & gives him a ring in a proposal way.

For one, the ring that appeared was on Link's right-hand pointer finger, not the left-hand ring finger, which is an important distinction as a ring on the right pointer is symbolic of authority, leadership, self-esteem, & confidence. It was also the most common place for a man's signet or crest. In some parts of Europe, it was even forbidden for people below a certain rank to wear one as it denotes a very specific family status. It's also a common place for fraternal or family rings. Which actually makes perfect sense for Sidon as a person as well as his relationship with Link. Seeing that, before the Calamity, he likely believed that his sister would marry Link who would then be his brother-in-law as indicated here.

Now, admittedly, a man's right pointer is used for wedding bands in the Jewish culture, but somehow I doubt that Sidon is representative of being Jewish.

There is also the way that Sidon's holding Link's hand when he makes his vow as a sage, which appears to be in more of a two-handed handshake which are typically used by politicians to convey that they are warm, trustworthy, friendly, & honest. Specifically, Sidon's hand is on top of Link's, but very specifically isn't touching his arm or wrist, which is supposed to convey sincerity. If his hands had been touching either, then it would indicate that Sidon wanted something from Link. I've also seen it said that it's a sign of gratitude & that when someone shakes your hand like that, they are conveying that they are genuinely, sincerely happy to see you.

Yes, he's kneeling, but keep in mind that Sidon is also very tall & it's possible that Sidon wanted to give them a more even playing field.

As such, all the signals I'm getting are pointing towards this interaction being platonic & possibly fraternal in nature.

If this were a confession or a proposal, the way that Sidon would be holding Link's hand would be far more tender than it is.

However, let's walk through the other rings & possibly their handshakes as well real quick & see if there's a trend.

Yunobo's was the right thumb which symbolizes wealth & influence, as well as strength of character, willpower, & freedom of thought. Which could work as he's the president of YunoboCo. Thumb gestures are also associated with interaction & friendship. Again, this works. Add to that the fact that the ring was passed via fist bump, which can be used as a sign of giving someone your respect or approval as well as signifying a companionship between the 2 involved, which you also can see Yunobo's expression of respect & approval for Link when he does it.

Tulin's ring is on the right pinky, which in the case of a man's right hand specifically, represents things you have accomplished personally as well as intelligence & communication skills. It is often where you wear family crests. Also fairly accurate considering Tulin's arc was about proving himself fully-fledged to his father. I couldn't really get a good look at Tulin's handshake, but it appeared to be a typical, friendly shake. So, not much there.

Mineru's is on the right middle finger, which symbolizes structure, balance, conscience, order, & purpose. It can also reflect things for which you feel responsible or ways that you seek balance in your life. And, I could see this working for her, I suppose.

Her handshake...

No idea what the hell kinda shake that is, but I'll do some research & get back to you.

I'm seeing that turning one's palm face upward is a sign of submissiveness, but I dunno. Someone did bring up the fact that this was essentially Mineru holding her brother's hand one last time, which is important here, because for every other Sage, the thing highlighted was their relationship with Link, but it's possible that whatever the hell kinda handshake is going on here might have some significance to Mineru's relationship with Rauru.

Anyway, Riju's ring is on the right ring finger, which depends on the culture we're talking about. The right ring finger, of course, symbolizes engagement here in the west, but that'd be creepy af in this situation, so hell no. Now, in some religious organizations, this is also a symbol of a sign of the individual's authority & religious devotion. Not to mention, it's also associated with the sun, as well as beauty & creativity. If nothing else, authority, the sun, & beauty works for her as the Gerudo Chief. Not to mention, her fighting style in AoC was pretty damn creative.

As for her handshake, it at first seems to be a regular one until just after, when she pushes back & away, indicating that she is performing "the pusher." This is done by extending the arm so that Link can't get closer to her, which would be interesting as it'd indicate that she needs both physical & emotional space to be comfortable. This suggests that she's hesitant to let others get closer to her. Which is interesting considering what we read about her in her journal.

I suppose that in a way, I believe that I see these vows & rings as being more signs of the Sages swearing oaths of fealty to a king.

After all, Link gains the right arm of a king in this game. It's also been implied throughout both games that there's something going on between Link & Zelda. This game, specifically, suggests that they are not only living in the same house, but sleeping in the same, very small bed. Which would mean that they were common law married.

If this is true, then it's possible that Link could become, depending on how Hyrule's customs involving such things work, King of Hyrule & if not that then Prince-Consort.

Ganon's declaration at the beginning of the Japanese version of the game that "I am the true King of Hyrule" even gives a bit of an impression.

There's also how the illusion in the castle showcased 2 thrones sitting side-by-side rather than just one.

As such, it's clear that Ganondorf at least believes that the 2 are together.

While up in the air, I feel like there's enough evidence to suggest that my theory could be possible.

LoZ Wild Masterlist

[aegon-targaryen]

Zelink Week Day 2 - Forbidden

read on AO3 | read on FF.net | @zelinkcommunity

Major TOTK spoilers below!

Link flexed the fingers of his Zonai hand and tried to remember the last time he’d obtained a Light of Blessing. If he didn’t need the powers that came with it, he would take the whole limb off just to make it stop hurting. Would he still be her knight, then? He had the vague sense that someone had trained him to fight lefthanded before the Calamity, but as usual, he couldn’t recall who.

It didn’t matter. He could still close his fingers around his broadsword and draw it forth, stepping out into the hollow heart of the Dueling Peaks.

Ganondorf’s imposters had all been empty and cold-eyed and alien. The woman waiting inside the metal cage was different. She wasn’t trussed up in that white Zonai dress Link knew she would hate. Instead she wore her beloved Champion’s colors and dove-grey cloak, her hair clipped back from her face and shining like a golden halo in the morning sun, looking just like the day he’d lost her.

And she was smiling at him. It was the wrong smile, girlish and carefree, not the marvel Link had kept tucked into his heart as far back as he could remember. Of course the enemy could never understand what it meant to survive what she’d survived and emerge glowing on the other side.

“Oh, Link!” she trilled. “You came to save me!”

The voice was wrong too. So was her unguarded posture. Even if Link had never found that pool of tears on the Akkala shoreline—the last gift she left him as she ascended, screaming, to the sky—he would have seen straight through this façade. Yet he found himself rooted to the spot even so.

“Well, aren’t you going to get me out of this cage?” the imposter wondered.

Link did not move.

“You’re him, all right. Blond and dumb as rocks!” She twirled away in a sunburst of crimson magic and reappeared at his side, still grinning, the choppy golden hair he’d cut himself brushing the hood of her cloak. “Don’t you have anything to say, Link?”

Her fingers slid around his Zonai wrist, burning everywhere they touched.

Whatever her intention, she went flying before she could execute it, slamming into the bars of the cage and sliding to the ground in red Yiga leathers. Her two companions burst out of hiding and charged.

Instead of retreating like they wanted, Link barreled forward recklessly, sliding right past one Yiga’s guard and falling upon the other. His sword flashed up—hooking through the center of the Demon Carver—then down, raking across the man’s arm and wrenching the weapon from his grasp in one movement. Kicking his legs out from under him for good measure, Link whirled to ram through the last Yiga’s attack with his shield, sending them both tumbling to the stone, his fist connecting with that masked face again and again.

Only Penn’s arrival brought him back to his senses. Link lurched away and let the Yiga scurry off, clutching at his shaking, gloom-cursed hand. That’s not me, he thought in horror. I’m not cruel. Zelda, I don’t know who I’m becoming without you.

“You all right, partner?” Penn asked, looking Link up and down as he handed over a pouch of Rupees.

Link nodded blankly, but he sat there a long time after the Rito left, wind threading its cold fingers through his loose hair. He thought of a warm bed, a slow morning, a body that didn’t hurt all the time, and Zelda sleeping safe and sound beside him.

Finally, he gathered the courage to touch the ring on his second finger.

Mineru appeared in a shower of blue-green light, the limbs of her construct clinking as she faced him. “Yes, Link?”

“Dr—draconification,” he said, stumbling over the big word in his small voice. “You called it forbidden. That means…she wasn’t the first.”

“Or so the stories would imply,” Mineru agreed. “The details have been lost to time.”

Link had always suspected the dragons were far from mindless beasts—Naydra had even lingered at the Spring of Wisdom as if to thank him for freeing her from Malice. Yet she, Dinraal, and Farosh circled Hyrule endlessly and pointlessly, never resting, never going anywhere. Had they been people once, too? Had they made the same sacrifice as Zelda?

Clutching his legs to his chest, he looked up at Mineru and voiced the question he’d been avoiding for weeks: “Can it be reversed?”

“Oh,” she sighed, her metal face emotionless, her voice full of grief. “I’m sorry, Link, but…not to my knowledge.”

He hid his face in his knees.

“She was certain of her choice,” Mineru told him gently. “She told me that she had more faith in you than in anything else.”

A river of agony flowed from Link’s right shoulder to the tips of his fingers. He made a sound at the back of his throat, choking on the brutal reminder of those final, gasping moments beneath the castle, when he’d let Zelda fall into a place of no return.

He hadn’t even gone to see her, except as an insect on the earth while she soared far above his head. Link had faced his own death; he’d faced the Calamity that caused it; he’d faced the shattered remains of Hyrule and found his place in it, even after losing so much else. But he truly and fundamentally did not think he could face this.

Nonetheless, he would have to. Over a century ago, Zelda had collapsed in the ashes of their burning kingdom and told him she’d sacrificed her childhood for nothing. He could not let the same be true of her humanity.

.

.

.

The Light Dragon screamed, twisting violently enough to throw him off his feet. Link clung to the sword he’d been born to wield and smothered the echoing protests of his own heart.

“It’s me!” he cried out, the deafening wind swallowing his weak voice. “It’s me, Zelda, you can let go—”

She silenced him with another roar. By some desperate miracle his boots met the soft earth of her golden mane. Even the perfect shape of the Master Sword’s hilt felt like nothing under his nerveless Zonai fingers, but there was another sensation: that of the sword reaching for the lost phantom of his real hand, reaching for the center of him.

And Link was ready. He was still ready, no matter how much it hurt.

Despite his terrible strength, he tried to be gentle—yet still Zelda screamed and writhed, and her pain drove the voice from him. Link poured everything into the blade instead: his apologies, his precious memories, all his broken-hearted love.

She yielded, relinquishing her hold, and it was over. Link raised the Master Sword towards the boundless sky, tears sliding down his face as it passed on Zelda’s final message.

By the time he opened his eyes, he wanted to burn the world down. He wanted to take her place. He wanted to tear apart everything that had ever hurt her: with this sword or any other, with his own teeth and nails if necessary. Better yet, he wanted to be back in their bed the morning before it had all gone wrong, when he still had a chance to keep her safe.

But some failures could never be undone. Link had learned that while kneeling in the sunlit waters of the Ash Swamp, remembering his own death.

He balanced between Zelda’s glowing horns, sheathing the sword so he could smooth down the moon-white fur that had been parted by its blade for so long. “Thank you,” he whispered shakily. “I—it’s going to be okay. I promise.”

She had fallen quiet, turning in a wide arc towards the Temple of Time. Link watched the green fields roll by beneath them, the tiny shapes of his brave friends at Lookout Landing, the flock of geese flying in perfect formation across the shimmering wetlands.

He loved Hyrule, he really did; for a long time, he’d considered the whole wild expanse of it his home. But that was before he’d entwined his life with Zelda’s. Now home was her face lighting up as she made a discovery, her hand cradling his scarred jaw when they kissed, the certainty that he could tell her anything and she would never turn away.

Link wouldn’t turn away either. Zelda was still there inside the Light Dragon’s wide, frightened eyes. He knew it because he felt safe and stable and calm, everything he hadn’t felt in the presence of the enemy’s imposters. He sensed her the same way he sensed his phantom arm—too much a part of him to ever be truly lost.

“We’re going to be okay,” he insisted, wishing the words didn’t feel so empty.

.

.

.

After that, Link went to see her as often as he could. He cleaned her back of loose scales, shot the Aerocudas who tried to approach, and spent hours curled up in her mane, talking to her when he could manage to find words.

The best he could say was that she was aware of his presence. Sometimes her eyes shifted towards him, and sometimes his desperation sought recognition there, but the brutal truth was that Zelda had lost herself. So the sky and the silence were all they had—all they would ever have, until the end of Link’s short mortal life left her alone again.

He held that thought at the forefront of his mind as he stood before the Demon King with the Master Sword in hand, amplified by its union with a piece of the Light Dragon’s horn.

The enemy had knocked the Sages out like an afterthought, and his strength kept growing, even as Link’s waned. Everything hurt, and his legs trembled with exhaustion, and there was nothing left for him at the end of this. Lose hope, lose the fight, someone had told him once, but he had forbidden himself hope that day in the empty place between the Dueling Peaks.

Anger, though—Link had plenty of that.

He had never been so fast or so savage. The Master Sword was afire in his hand, blazing with Zelda’s sacred light. The Demon King billowed at the peak of his crimson power, but every one of his counterattacks seemed pitiful, so pitiful that Link saw fear in his enemy’s eyes as he swallowed the secret stone.

Link hadn’t wanted to die, the first time around. He had clung to the Master Sword, to each breath, to the sight of Zelda’s wildflower-green eyes, and he’d fought so hard that he woke up a century later to find her again.

Now—trapped in the Demon Dragon’s maw, bleeding along the razor’s edge of its fangs—he was still fighting, because he could hear her call, and he could feel her piercing through the corrupted sky. When Link let himself plummet into the golden clouds, she caught him, like he’d failed to do all those months ago.

He pressed his face into her mane as she shot upwards. His sides were wet; his head spun; he tasted gloom with every breath he took. The enemy stormed after them, an undulating nightmare of mindless rage. He was always so big, and they were always so small.

But Zelda had come for Link.

And as he rose to his feet, drawing the sword she’d forged for him, he realized he had been hoping all this time. He would go to his grave hoping, no matter how much it hurt, because he loved her too much to stop.

She caught him again and again, until their nemesis roared in final agony, until his ruination faded into the beautiful dawn, until Link—trailing Rauru and Sonia’s blessing like a falling star—finally returned the favor.

At the water’s edge, Zelda opened her eyes and found him. Clutching at the miracle of his flesh-and-blood right hand, Link’s breath caught around a sudden terror that this was a dream, or another lie, one he didn’t think he would survive.

Looking just as confused, Zelda climbed shakily to her feet, making sense of the birdsong and the clear blue sky and the shapes of the Hyrule she knew. And then she tipped her face up to the sun, letting it shine upon the smile that had saved Link from his silence, conquered the Calamity, and carved her path home to him through the millennia.

Only when they were tumbling to the grass in each other’s arms, laughing and crying, did he let himself think: It wasn’t for nothing.

It never had been.

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.

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[gloryseized]

(also) for link, thoughts on rauru, sonia, and mineru!

Thoughts On... -- @flockrest

Tapping his chest, he taps his hand to his temple before sweeping away. He then carefully fingerspells Sonia's name. << I don't know Sonia. >> he admits. Although he has seen glimpses of her through the geoglyphs. Palms up, hands shake back and forth next to his sides before he taps his chest again. Pointer and middle fingers split into a 'V' sweeping from top-down off the to the side. Palms down, his hands roll around each other. << From what I've seen, she is very kind. >> But then a small smile blooms on his lips. Tapping his chest, his palms then face his chest, circling around each other. After fingerspelling Zelda's name, he points off in the distance. << I am happy she was there for Zelda. >> he adds as his expression saddens. Hand curling into a fist, he circles his hand in front of his chest. Both hands, palms up, wiggle by his sides, before both pointer fingers stick out as he flips his hands over. << I am sorry what happened to her. >>

Shifting slightly, glancing down at his right in arm particular, a crease forms between his brows as he considers the ancient Zonai king. His experience with Rauru is much more substantial than his time with Sonia, but still in some ways it seems inadequate. Tapping his chest with a hand, both hands tap at his chin, pulsing a couple times before swinging forward. He then points at his given arm before fingerspelling Rauru's name. <<I am grateful that he granted me his arm. >> Link cannot deny the sacrifice that would be and was, even if Rauru was only a spirit at the time. But the picture that emerged of the king from the geoglyphs is a complicated one and Link's not sure he's one to judge. Link never wanted the rule of kingship before, and after seeing the geoglyphs, he desires it even less. Tapping his chest, his pointer finger taps his temple before swinging down to meet his other hand in front of him. Both hands reach forward before tugging backwards. Hands join together in front of him, first right hand on top and then flipping to join with left hand on top. Then his hands part to smooth away to the sides. << I believe he wanted to find peace. >> Although Link isn't sure he went about it the best way--not that Link has any better suggestions.

But his expression softens at the mention of Mineru. She's another who joined on his quest, and even beyond that, selflessly remaining since ancient times so she might be there to help him. Her perseverance reminds him of a particular someone and his throat twists at the thought. Tapping his chest, both hands reach up to touch his chin, touching that spot twice before swinging down. Then left fisted hand rests on the palm of his right hand, thumb sticking out of his left hand. Both hands lift slightly in to the air before he fingerspells her name. << I am very grateful for her help. >> he says, signs definite, eyes overbright. Fingers start splayed apart before he moves his hand across his chest, bringing his fingers closer together. Left hand taps his chin, before sliding down and underneath his right flat palm. Both thumbs pin together, pushing forward slightly. << And humbled by her perseverance. >> Link pauses, considering for a moment. Tapping his chest, he reaches forward and pulls back slightly. Pointer fingers and thumbs of both hands form small rings, meeting together in front of his belly and then circling up to the front of his chest. Both hands flip palms down next to his sides before flipping up palms up next to his shoulders. << I want to be worthy of her sacrifice. >>