#3 heart ganon run

[ocarina-of-memes]

4 years ago, on a broken controller and a janky WiiU, I tried running right from the plateau to Ganon. I ragequit after about a month because aiming without gyroscope and flury rushing with a sticky right trigger was near impossible.

I am once again asking for your support as I give it another go, this time with a functioning switch.

[nyxire]

i got back into totk and although i firmly stand by my 'it could've been better' thta most definitely doesn't make it a boring game

[powdermelonkeg]

An Unwanted Crown

Rating: T

Fandoms: Baldur's Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom

Summary:

The ill-spoken words of a Wish spell lift an entire city from the Sword Coast and drop it into Hyrule's heart. Magic dwindles and vanishes, whole pantheons go silent, and what little stability Baldur's Gate had managed to cling to after the illithid invasion shatters. This was never what Zelda expected to deal with. This was never anything she even wanted. The Kingdom of Hyrule is a distant memory, her role as its princess something she was more than willing to let die with the rest of her failures. With the specter of Calamity Ganon finally starting to fade, she had hoped that Hyrule could come to its own peace, its own governance, without her retaking the throne. But she has a responsibility to fulfill. Frightened people beget chaos, chaos begets death. The Baldurians don't understand the world they've been dropped into, why the full moon shines red, why their spells no longer work, why their prayers go unanswered. If she were to turn a blind eye and wash her hands of the affair, the water she used to clean them would run red with blood. Her crown remains where she left it, hidden beneath a rock at the foot of Mt. Lanayru, her name engraved upon the inside. And it demands to be worn.

[moonglide]

pokemon echoes of wisdom hours 2 & 3

-ok first i just want to say two things

-1. that mention of 'hopefully my nuzlocke experience will help' two posts ago was supposed to be a joke. Why is it accurate. This game is actually pokemon. I am seeing a moblin and saying, oh that's a fighting type, time to send out the flying type keese! I'm seeing deku babas and sending the fire candle guys because fire > grass.

-2. some people are complaining that you can't get up close and personal as zelda and I'm like. that's not a bad thing. the levels of strategy i have to employ is insane. I feel so clever. Zelda feels different to play than link does, and I think that's a good thing. I'm not playing a linkle game, I'm playing a zelda game.

spoilers below the cut, i guess. i hope i do it right.

--got the rupees for the heart piece

-went in caves and got like six different monsters. flame candle is my fave so far.

-went into the still world. the music is creepy. i hate it. 10/10.

-i was not expecting a first dungeon this early but I'm not complaining

-god these puzzles are fun.

-dark link was a fun challenge. my initial plan was to use a darknut to distract him and then set him on fire, but spamming ropes ended up working better.

-ropes are actually really useful because even though they die in one hit, they attack really quickly and you can summon a ton of them

-it's really fun to distract some strong foe with like three monsters and then take a nap to restore health

-oh also i figured out bed strats. when you first enter a bed, you gain a half heart after around three seconds, and each succesive heart takes about five. If you get out and sleep again after getting your first half heart, it goes quicker.

-ohhh i can use keese to hit the rock guy's weak point

-damn that's a lot of tris

-excuse me??? they use the echo ability to restore the land and people??? doesn't that mean that the restored people are just copies???

-hold up the corrupted people are just copies too. is there an evil tri loose?

-wait, ganon came out of the rift, which means that the ganon from before might've just been a clone, and real ganon got rifted. hmmmmm

-no, lefte, i don't want to travel together. let me ignore the plot minister lefte. please. lefte.

-ok so you can upgrade the sword with impa's brother. okay.

-oh also hold on what the fuck impa is the only one that can't see tri. I think she's been rifted, and she only helped us with the guards to gain our trust to pull a totk puppet zelda on us

-and also i got a bottle earlier and the fairies just jump into it. which means that fairies in bottles aren't being captured, they just like to be in bottles. fairies are hermit crabs. change my mind.

-got some water types and met the great fairy.

-i tried to run away from the plot. saw a sign leading to seasyde village. went there. found plot. I hate how well this game is railroading me without my realizing. i am playing checkers and nintendo is playing six-dimensional chess.

-got some shark guy, is very strong. best water type.

-oh god zora cove is MASSIVE. even bigger than lake hylia. god i hope he hydrology in this game makes more sense than in totk and botw.

-you can stack octorocks. you all need to know that.

-delivering fish. found a moblin evolution. killed it. absorbed its essence. mine.

-favorite pokemon monster: ropes are probably the most useful, but ignacio or whatever its name is is my favorite. he's just a destructive little guy

[luimagines]

Visitors From Another World Part 3

Masterlist

Part 1 Part 2

Part three will include Time, Twilight and Warrior.

Content under the cut!

Time

Time was going to wage war against the gods- of this he was sure by now.

“I wonder where they are.” The young boy in front of him pokes and picks off a few leaves from the nearby bush. “My dad would be home sometime next week but grandma and Bubbah would be wondering where I am.”

“So... Link...” Wild has to pause a little, feeling the name sit strangely on his tongue. “You say that you’ve never left home like this before.”

He shakes his head. “I usually stay home with Grandma and my cousin, Zelda. But Bubbah left for a long time a while ago. They haven’t come home yet, so I should look for them too.”

“Do you know anything about Ganon...or Ganondorf?” Wind pokes his shoulder.

Time winces. Standing next to each other, it only shows how young they really are. Wind is still significantly older than the boy. He might be younger than he himself was when he first started.

Said boy shakes his head. “Who’s that?”

Many of the boys shift uncomfortably.

He notices and hums pensively before he tugs on Wind’s shirt. “Is he the one in charge of the monsters? Bubbah went to go fight them when they attacked. Is he a bad guy?”

“One of the worst.” Wind replies instantly. “So you’re sibling went to fight them?”

He nods. “I got caught by a HUGE one! But then Bubbah stepped in and saved me. I got to stay home after that.”

“Sounds like you got lucky.” Legend runs his hand over his face.

“Well we’ll try to get you back home safe and sound, just as before, ok?” Time kneels to look him in the eye. “That way no one worries about you.”

The boy smiles and nods, entirely too trusting. “Ok!”

Something catches in the back of Time’s throat. He’s not sure what it is. This boy should be on his adventure by now. The youngest of them yet. But instead for the love they had for him, he had someone to take his place. No one knows if they’ll come back. He might be first to have escaped the worst of it.

Time reaches over and ruffles his hair. “We’ll make sure nothing happens to you, ok?”

“We’ll need to give him a name.” Four points out. “If we’re all named Link, we can’t exactly call him either.”

“Woah- you’re all named Link too?!” His jumps a little on his toes. It looks like there’s little stars in his eyes at the thought. “I thought I was the only one named Link!”

Time snorts. “It’s quite common actually.”

With a small hum, Time pokes his shoulder. “How about we just call you Lucky? That way no one gets confused when we’re trying to talk to one another.”

He giggles happily and juts his thumbs toward his chest. “I am pretty lucky.”

“Then it’s settled.” Time ruffles his hair one last time and stands again.

“This is going to be interesting.” Legend bites the inside of his cheek. “He doesn’t knw how to fight.”

“And he won’t learn.” Time mutters his breath. “Not if I can help it.”

“That doesn’t sound wise, Old Man.”

“He’s escaped fate enough as it is... I won’t plunge him any further.” Time turns to the group. “There are nine of us. Surely we can all look after one boy.” 

Lucky tilts his head and grabs Time’s hand. Something about these people seem safe to him. So they can’t be all that bad. “Ready to go when you are!”

Something in Time softens even more. “Alright.” He turns to the others. “Let’s go.”

Twilight

“I am Lenora, daughter of Apollo.” The blade poked close to his throat as the young woman stared him down. She couldn’t be much younger than him, if at all. “Who are you and why am I here?”

Twilight can feel his heart beat in his chest as he eyes her. “I am Link... you are in Hyrule but I wouldn’t be able to tell you why.”

There’s a power in her blade, he can feel it. He goes to touch the edge of it and push it aside. Only for his finger to completely go through the blade as if it didn’t exist.

They both freeze.

Twilight does it again. And again. And again.

“Ok that’s enough.” She coughs and pulls her blade away, sheathing it on her back. “That clearly didn’t work as well as I had hoped.”

Twilight stands, dusting himself off. “Can I ask you one question before you go off again?”

“I really don’t think it would work a second time but ok.”

“Who’s Apollo?” 

She freezes a second time.

“Is he some important figure? A king? Chief?” Twilight tries guessing. “You must be from really far away because I’ve never heard that name before-”

“He’s... a god.” She cuts him off. Twilight shuts up in an instant. “The god of music, youths, art, healing, the sun and light-... virtually everything?”

She sees that none of it is clicking for him. She deflates a little. “The one time I get to throw that title around and of course you don’t even know who he is.”

“Our goddess of light is Hylia.” Twilight answers for her. “Are you even from Hyrule?

“Never heard of her.” Lenora sighs. “I’ve never heard of this Hyrule eith- wait.”

Twilight waits.

“What did you say your name was again?”

“Link.”

A beat passes. Lenora takes a deep breath turning around to pull at her hair before she turns back around again, sticking her hand out. “I owe you an apology.”

“I doubt it, but I’ll take it.” Twilight takes her hand. “Does being a daughter of Apollo makes you a god too then?”

This could be quite dangerous for them if that was the case. Twilight didn’t exactly know the protocol here on how to deal with gods- but he had hoped that perhaps he could just treat her like he would Zelda and not get cursed in the process. He hopes her gods were just as forgiving as their own...or so he can imagine. He was never the spiritual type to begin with. He’s never felt so out of the loop.

“Good grief- no way!” She waves him off and his unvoiced fears. “I’m only half. I’m just as human as the rest of you but I have like powers and stuff. Nothing fancy. If anything it only gives us trouble. Getting hunted down by monsters since you’re young isn’t exactly a fair trade.”

“Monsters, huh?” Twilight tries to smile. “We have those here too. You should meet my traveling group, they probably more familiar experience with that than I do. Most started out younger than me.”

“Oh yeah.” She puts her hands on her hips. “Would they be able to help me get back home?”

“Doubt it.” Twilight explains. “But they would probably be able to explain what’s happen better than I can.”

“Great. More questions. Love that.” She rolls her eyes, walking past him.

Twilight follows her, putting his own hands behind his back. “I know the feeling.”

“Let me guess...End of the world?”

“Most likely.”

“Monsters coming from different realms and time periods?”

“You know it.”

“...I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

Warrior

Warrior didn’t know what to think about their new comer. They were opinionated and headstrong. Someone he thought he knew how to deal with- but Warrior wasn’t sure what to think of them. They’ve only been around for the span of a few days and even then he was already at his wits end

He pulled his shirt over his head, diving into the river to think and clear his head. It wasn’t often that he indulged himself with a swim, but with so many others keeping an eye out, he didn’t think there was any harm in it.

Beside him is another splash and Warrior has to bite off an earth shattering groan. He dips under the water in hopes to avoid coming in contact with whoever joined him but he needs breath sooner than he realizes.

Coming back up with a gasp, he shakes his head, freeing the water from his hair and wiping it away from his eyes.

“Hello Captain.”

“Yes, hello.” He looks up and screams. “Ah!”

Bare chested and unbothered, the woman in front of him keeps running the water through her hair now that it’s been let out of the daily up do. She stands there coming it with her fingers. “Is there a problem, sir?”

Warrior feel himself flush instantly and looks away to save face. “You’re a woman?”

“Always have been.” She shrugs, still unbothered. Then she pauses. “Did you not know?”

“No!”

“I never tried to hide it.”

“It’s harder to figure it out when you dress and act like a man.” He rubs his hands over his face. Differing opinions makes more sense now- but now Warrior begins to come to the conclusion that there’s getting out of this.

She seems to start taking offence. “And who was I supposed to act?”

“My god.” Warrior gasps, horrified. “I wrestled you!”

He turns around to say it to her face- only to turn right back around and cover his face again. His entire face has turned red by this point. It stretches from the tips of his ears to the base of his neck and travels all the way down his back until his body is a bright pink color.

A beat passes, letting Warrior struggle with his inner turmoil before the woman behind him starts to laugh. 

“You did wrestle me. ...And lost.” She adds through her giggles.

“I don’t care about that.” Warrior whines. “I’m going back on land- you can just... I have no clue... keep doing what you were doing, I guess. I’ll let the others know not to bother you.”

“It’s not that bad.” She adds. “The soldiers back home didn’t have a choice. We get used to it.”

“I’d... rather let you keep some dignity- soldier or not.” He add, moving out of the water. He’s never been so happy to keep his trousers on. He can’t face her anymore. “Is this why they call you Mulan?”

“She was a hero who snuck into the army, pretending to be a man.” Mulan dips backwards, floating on her back against the water. “I got found out a lot sooner than she did but I was allowed to say because they couldn’t afford to kick me out. The General hated it, but eventually we came to see eye to eye.”

“I’ve never heard of that story.”

“I thought it was quite obvious.”

“Well its’s nOt.” Warrior shucks his shirt over his head, ignoring his voice crack.

“Are you going to tell the others?” She gets up suddenly and Warrior senses that there’s an underlying fear there.

He keeps his face to the ground as he talks to her. “No... I don’t know the laws of your land but our queen typically leads the army. It’s not unheard of to hear of women in the army. But we all have secrets. If you’re not going to come out and say it, then I’ll keep this to myself.”

She seems to relax, sinking into the water with a small smile. “Thank you.”

“Yes... well..” Warrior clears his throat. “I’ll get going then.”

To then walk directly into a tree.

He powerwalks away, ignoring the giggles he leaves behind. He’s got some reconfiguring to do before he can get anything else done.

[bahbahhh]

PLS TALK TO ME ABOUT "BEGIN AGAIN" I WOULD DO SOOOO MANY ILLEGAL THINGS TO READ IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AGAIN </3333333

Oh man, begin again. Where do I, well, begin?

It started with the end — that is, the first I knew was I wanted to write a story that ended with Link giving Zelda Hateno house.

I became obsessed pretty early on in my play-through of totk with the changes between it and botw. And when I say obsessed, I mean annoyed. I love botw. I love the world and the landscape and the characters and the story. It just felt like too much was wiped away without explanation and I decided, damnit, I was going to fix that.

Here are so fun facts/ hidden gems/Easter eggs:

Chapter 1

She is not aware of a word that accurately describes the feeling of being forgotten by the person you tethered your heart to; to have it remain connected to that person and witness it drift behind them, becoming more of a dark cloud than guiding light.

This is a little nod to like someone would. I totally Link runs from his destiny a little bit before he faces CG. And writing from Zelda’s POV, I felt like I had to recognize the pain of witnessing that.

He jokingly calls it an ‘adventure pouch’.

Call back to SS!

Chapter 2

“Even the Divine Beasts?”

“Especially those,” he asserts.  

Another nod to like someone would Link. I always feel like, similar to how SS Link would have hesitation being a child of the sky entering temples, especially underground, this Link would hate entering the divine beasts. It feels like a living tomb. I wanted this contrast between he and Zelda’s perspective where, earlier, she thinking about all the ways they could be repurposed to help Hyrule, Link only sees how it can fall again. And the pain they have already caused.

“It trapped his soul inside his body,” King Dorephan says.

I hc Link was very much dead in botw. The shrine of resurrection essentially tethered his soul to his body long enough for it to be prepared so his soul could be convinced to remain inside. I have a wip sitting around about Link’s time in this stasis and how all three of this trio (Zelda, Ganondorf, and Link have all spent some time in it) but who knows if I’ll write it.

To this group, so revitalized by new hope, united and rising from a hundred years of ruin, her proposal of clinging to their ashes might feel like poison. 

Like malice.

I’m a little obsessed with thinking about and justifying how at any given point, Zelda and Link could become a calamity as well.

“You said you think the Shrines work like the Divine Beasts? So in theory, those stopped working because our friends—” Grief, unexpected and sudden, crackles in her voice. She clears her throat. Pivots. “You can’t use their gifts any longer, right?”

Link flexes his fingers slowly. Like he’s just missing something that keeps passing through his fingers. “I let them go.”

This was a very important change I wanted to spend time on: The champion’s gifts. It broke my heart to think when mummy ganon attacked Link, he stole their gifts (essentially their souls) away from Link. And I decided it lined up with Link’s characterization in this story, that he would let them go versus hold onto them longer than needed. He especially, down to his very core, knows what that is like.

> Rest? <

I wanted a plausible explanation for how the shrines disappeared from the map and I just thought this was so clever when I came up with it, hah. That souls fixed for so long, so dedicated and driven by purpose might need permission to let go (HINT HINT ZELDA) And also, Link had the answer all along because, essentially, it’s what he did for the Champions when they let the gifts go.

Chapter 3

A bit of a logistics chapter but I wanted to wrap it around moments of feeling. Grief and living with grief is a huge theme through the entire story. I just love the “I’m 18” scene and how she’s physically moving forward before she’s emotionally there.

With her soul is exposed and pulsing like a nerve, she can sense the entirety of the Sheikah Technology network - all the shrines, every guardian, the towers stretching up into the sky, the furnaces burning outside the Labs - all these things without a mouth suddenly have one, and they open wide and desperate, and begin to siphon energy from her.

In theory, since the Sheikah tech runs on soul energy, I felt like it would make sense it has a hard time recognizing what is fuel and what I not. So every time Link fast travels, it’s like he’s bargaining with the horned statue. I always felt like you should lose a half heart when you fast travel in botw.

I was a little nervous it would fit with the story, but I really love the letters. It was the perfect opportunity to show Link has a lot going on in his head behind his few spoken words.

It does feel fast, but at the end of it all, it's just another year. Important things take time. 

This comes back in chapter 6 when Link tells Zelda how he feels about her.

You want to know where my favorite place in Hyrule is? There is a spring on top of a waterfall north of Lake Floria. It's where I first saw Farosh. Came right out of the water and climbed up into the sky above my head. Nearly scared me to death. I can’t really explain it well, but it's where I realized I wanted to actually be here. Ruins and wild and all. It's where I realized I wanted to be the one to save Hyrule. To save you.

Another like someone would reference. Also laying foundation of Link connecting with dragons…light dragon feels.

It’s just, sometimes it feels like this destiny asks too much, you know? 

This is a big theme in the depths au. A lot of my stories are connected/have passages that inspired others.

Chapter 4

The shrine Link got sick from was Noya Neha shrine. It’s next to Hyrule castle and it’s a cave shrine. I wanted to subtly introduce gloom sickness in a way it would take several years to become a problem consistent enough for Hyrule to pay attention to. In the beginning, I see it as something just chalked up to a random virus/illness. While Link and Zelda have more of a resistance to it, I argue because of all the fast travel and not taking the best care of himself for weeks, he was in a weakened state and more susceptible to the gloom in the cave.

“What are you talking about? Who will–” Paya freezes as Impa pulls off her hat, revealing a thin coil of silver braid on the top of her head that partially uncoils and drops down by her ear. 

It only felt right that Impa would drop a bomb on Paya and announce her retirement so casually.

The thin coil braid is a nod to SS Impa.

Calamity Ganon could easily be mistaken for a dragon. Can you imagine? Facing off against a wicked version of Dinraal or Farosh?

Foreshadowing the demon dragon.

You can clearly see she was Hylian by the ears, but the hero has none of Link’s features. He barely looks human. They chose the Champion blue from the color found in the threads that make up the ancient hero’s armor, but up close, she can see it’s a blending. They could have just as easily gone with green.

Nod the ancient hero’s aspect design. I’m so desperate to make this feel connected to botw because it doesn’t, haha.

‘It needed to heal,’ he signs. ‘I decided to let it.’

Again, an easy way to let Link’s characterization explain the detail of them having to retrieve the Master Sword before they descend under castle to investigate in the opening to totk and the Master Sword needing/being able to heal (Zelda’s decision to swallow the stone in totk).

Chapter 5

“Strong name.” The old man tugs off his hat and bows his head. “My name’s Toffa, by the way. My grandfather was head groom for the Royal family a century ago, Princess. His name was Talon.”

Nod to OoT.

Link drops down beside Zelda with two plates of food. He sets one in her lap, ignoring Tauro completely until Zelda picks it up. He’s unusually close. There is a strange edge to him; she feels it along the long line of his thigh against hers. Like she's thumbing the edge of a blade.

It was really fun to make Link a little jealous of Tauro and Zelda be completely oblivious to it.

I just love the entire Riju and Zelda scene. It felt really important for me to spend some time on Zelda facing her grief with Urbosa. I wrote a scene in the Killing Moon where Zelda uses Urbosa’s sword to cut her hair and I loved it so much I wanted to keep that theme with explaining her haircut. And of course, the most simple change between games (Zelda’s appearance) became a moment of a deeper significance.

Chapter 6

“It’s just, I remember reading that the Rito were once thought to be water dwelling.”

Nod to fandom lore Rito evolved from Zora.

“Our ears. They used to be longer.”

Another nod to fandom lore. Hylian ears once being longer to hear messages from goddesses. Sonia longer ears.

Purah’s change in appearance felt like an important change to spend some time on, not just because she’s suddenly older but also why Robbie and Impa didn’t de-age, too. It stands to reason, the same tech that ages her up could be used to alter Robbie and Impa’s age.

The air is damp and heavy. It smells – she thinks about Link and the cave shrine – funnier than it should. Musty and mineral and sickly sweet, like something is rotting behind the bedrock.

Another tiny foreshadowing of gloom.

“Just burn it.” She hears her father in the harshness of her tone. There is ink on her fingers. 

Fun fact- this is happening in the exact spot you get the memory in botw where her father scolds her.

“The song you are humming,” She fails to keep the edge out of her tone. “What is it called?”

He’s humming the song of storms in this scene. It’s why storm clouds are approaching and Farosh flies overhead.

“Kondo. The court poet’s name was Kondo. He was a Sheikah.”

Nod to the music composer for many of the iconic LoZ themes- Koji Kondo!

‘I choose you. Do you choose me?’

I wanted to say I love you without saying I love you. And for these two, bonded by destiny, choosing each other feels so much stronger, more significant and romantic to me than a declaration of love alone.

Chapter 7

The entire scene of her walking through the village and being stopped multiple times is my explanation why she eventually wants/needs the secret well.

I wrote the first passage of the story- Zelda wanting a bed- and the last passage - Zelda getting a bed/house- at the same. I broke it up when I gave it to my beta reader and only edited it a little when it was time to put it into the final chapter.

[bunnyscar]

The King's Assassin Part 3

Failure

trigger warning: description of pain

Once again, Link found himself underground, this time crawling through a tunnel that was barely large enough for him to fit. He pulled himself along, one arm in front of the other, rough stone scraping against his knees and scratching his arms. At last, he reached a trap door. After listening for a moment and hearing nothing, he opened it.

Below him was an empty hallway, splitting into two directions. After making sure that no one was approaching, he dropped down lightly and started down the right tunnel, sticking close to the wall and stepping as softly as he could. At the next corner would be the room with the triforce. Quietly, he slipped up to the corner and peered around. Two men stood guard at the door, and Link readied his dart gun.

Thunk! Thunk! The guards fell without a sound, and Link scurried up to the door. The lock was surprisingly easy to pick. This whole operation had been too easy. No guards in sight except the two at this door, an easy-to-find and relatively comfortable tunnel, a map that was quite accurate….

So far, the hardest part had been the three day journey to get to the desert. He was beginning to feel very uneasy, but there wasn’t much he could do except go with the original plan. Glancing about, he slipped into the room. 

Except for a pedestal in the middle, the room was bare, not even any torches on its rock walls. And on the pedestal sat the triforce. Impa had been right, you could not miss it. 

Despite being no bigger than a butterfly’s wing, the triforce pulsed with golden light that filled the room and created dazzling patterns on the ceiling. Slowly, Link approached. It looked like solid gold, but when he picked it up it was light and thin as paper. A small warmth pulsed within it. Link almost felt as though it were alive.

“So, they hired a thief?”

Link spun around to see that a man had entered the room and was blocking the door, the only exit. Cold fear gripped his chest. The man’s skin was a sickly gray color, but he didn’t give the impression of being weak. On the contrary, the muscled arms beneath his tight vest looked strong enough to break Link’s neck, and his long legs looked as powerful as an ox’s. His bright orange hair and beard curled around his face like a lion’s mane. Though he wore a pleasant smile, his red eyes bored into Link with murderous intent.

Link took a step back, swiftly hiding the triforce behind him. Not that that would do much good, for its light beamed out from his fingers, clearly showing where it was.

“If you hand over the triforce now, perhaps I might be inclined to let you go peacefully,” the man was saying, approaching Link slowly.

He took another step back, his heart pounding. If you meet Ganon, drop everything and run, Impa’s words rang in his head. He was almost certain this man must be Ganon. But the more he looked into those cruel red eyes, the harder it became to look away, the harder it became to do anything. 

“Wh-what are you going to do with it?” he stammered.

Ganon’s eyes narrowed, his smile becoming more sinister. “I’m going to create a new world,” he said softly. “A world without you foolish Hylians, a world where the beings of Twilight can reside without you humans getting in the way.”

“What are you talking about?” Link muttered, stepping backwards carefully until his back was against the wall.

“Once upon a time, dark and light worlds lived in harnony together. But then the denizens of the light oppressed and destroyed the dark world. I am merely going to set things right and create a place where the dark beings can be free and safe.”

“And what about the people of the light world?” Link asked, eyes flicking about quickly. Ganon was almost upon him.

“I’ll make them disappear,” Ganon said coolly. He held out a hand. “Now, give me the triforce.”

“I don’t know what you mean by all this dark and light stuff,” Link replied. “But you’re going to use this to kill people, aren’t you? No way am I giving this to you!” He darted away from Ganon, lunging for the door.

Wham! Ganon’s leg caught him as he passed, and Link slammed into the wall. Sparks danced in his eyes, and he wheezed for breath, scrambling to get up and keep moving. Fortunately, he still had tight hold of the triforce. But when he finally could see again, Ganon was right in front of him. And he was not smiling anymore.

“Hand it over,” he said in a chilling voice. 

Link backed up as much as he could. He glanced around the room desperately, but the door was still too far away. If he tried to dash around Ganon again, he would just get pummeled once more, and he doubted he could slide underneath Ganon’s legs either. What should he do? Hand over the triforce? Ganon might not let him live even if he did capitulate, especially since he’d already tried to run. He was going to die whatever he did.

“Give it to me!” Ganon ordered, reaching out for Link’s arm.

Swiftly, Link popped the triforce into his mouth and swallowed. It went down surprisingly easy, almost melting in his mouth and tasting slightly sweet. He grinned at the shocked look on Ganon’s face, just visible from the lamplight that came in through the open door.

Ganon’s shock turned into absolute rage. “You…you will regret this,” he said in a very low voice. 

He raised a fist and purple flames suddenly burst around it. Before Link could even register surprise at this, Ganon slammed his fist into Link’s right arm, and the world exploded in pain.

He could no longer see, only felt pain, unbearable pain. It burned in his arm, spreading like wildfire across his body, tearing him apart. He couldn’t take it. He wanted to die, wanted it to end…and finally darkness took him and he fell unconscious.

Part 2 || Part 4

[blueskittlesart]

not the same ganon anon but in your tags you offered strategies?? send help plz 🙏🏻

yes ok here is blueskittlesarts extended spoiler-free totk ganondorf strategy guide! specially formulated for players who generally suck at combat because me too bestie LMAO

pre-depths preparations:

as many sundelion foods as you can physically carry. fuck other healing food it just takes up inventory space. make sure your food can both restore your hearts and get rid of gloom-infected ones at the same time, and make sure you have A LOT of it. food that gives you extra hearts will also be VERY useful.

gloom-resistant food from dark clumps is ok but less useful because it doesn't stop ganon's hits from infecting your hearts, it only defends you from gloom that you might wander into on the floor of the arena. if you don't trust yourself to avoid it, bring some, but keep most of your inventory space for sundelions.

get good at flurry rush dodges if you can’t reliably perform them right now. trust me.

you want at least 100+ arrows and 60+ bomb flowers. seriously do not skimp on these things

as many STRONG shields as you can carry. try to get brand-new ones to maximize durability

i would not EVER go into this battle with less than 15 hearts. i had 17 when i fought it and was still dangerously low by the end. trust me on this

pre-ganon segment (depths):

im gonna be real you wanna savescum your way through this to maximize your survivability with ganon. do not use your food when you get hit, just reload a save and go again. save every time you beat anything, and avoid enemies at all where possible. use arrows when you have to fight but do NOT use your bombs, save those for later. the goal here is to get to the ganon’s army fight with full health without using any of the food you prepared, because there’s no teleport waypoint down there so you have to get through everything in one go. (if you have the travel medallion you may be able to negate these preparations by placing it once you get down to the last section of the depths before the battle kicks in, but I didn't so this is how i did it lol)

ganon’s army:

bomb arrows. bomb arrows are your best friend. the second each segment starts, dash as far away from the enemy spawn points as possible and fire off bomb arrows at them. don’t worry about running out your arrows or bombs because they are useless with actual ganon. this is what we brought them for. again, your aim here is to NEVER get hit so you can enter ganon’s battle with full health and all your food. this means staying far back and firing arrows like your life depends on it. ignore the sages, their abilities are useless here.

ganon phase 1:

this is the most straightforward phase i think. guard, dodge, and flurry rush. you should never try to hit him outside of a flurry rush because that gives him easy openings on link & he will often dodge your hits anyway. keep your shield up until he swings, and go for a perfect dodge every time. he has decently wide dodge openings so once you figure out the timing for each attack you should be ok. try to get hit as little as possible. you still want to maximize your food by saving it for the third phase.

ganon phase 2:

same as before, except extra phantom ganons make it extra annoying. they have the potential to fuck up your targeting, so your first priority at all times should be to make sure you’re guarding from the REAL ganon and not one of the others, because he will ALWAYS be targeting you. you can mostly leave the phantoms to the sages. continue dodging and flurry rushing in this stage, but be mindful of phantom ganons because they can mess up your dodges if you run into them or they hit you.

ganon phase 3:

this one is the hardest. use your food liberally now; this is the last time you will need it. do not try to hit him with melee attacks, even flurry rushes. it will not work. don’t go for arrows either (one online strategy guide claims arrows are the way to go in this fight. they are WRONG), it usually just gives him an opening to hit you back, and his attacks in this phase are capable of permanently DESTROYING your hearts, meaning even sundelion food wont get them back. your objectives here are 1. DO NOT GET HIT and 2. hit his own attacks back at him. when he goes for melee attacks, dodge or guard and then jump back as far away as possible. the further you are from him the more likely he is to go for ranged attacks, which is what you want. when he fires off balls of scary pink fire at you, hit them back at him with the master sword. they will do comically little damage and you will initially be frustrated. this is a waiting game. as long as you can wear him down with his own attacks while avoiding getting hit by him, this part of the battle is decently easy to win, it just takes a LOT of patience and dodging.

ganon stage 4:

this one is easy. if you’ve gotten here, you’ve basically already won the game. good luck!

[salamispots]

I woke up at 3:45 am with shrine music in my brain so I'm gonna yell a little about totk spoilers below fhhhhh mostly about game things no real plot stuff haha

the intRO :'D that mononoke touch ahhhhh idk why but specifically the scene/shot of link's hearts going down from the wiggly worm demon smoke thing is stuck in my brain/makes me feel emotional

also the whole 'I was gone for a bit and the world looks different but sort of the same/everyone moved on' made me feel a little like the evangelion movie when shinji wakes up and he's still the same gives me feeLINGS not necessarily bad; maybe a little bittersweet? idk

I keep giggling at how GOOFY some of the weapons look when they're fused and the names (like...thick stick stick or something LMAO)

the glee of using a rocket for the first time also I'm building the most basic shit hahah I'm not particularly good/creative at stuff like this

ahhhh I loved how there's still those big stone talus in the game and the first one I come across is disguised as a base for bokoblin

the instantaneous fuck off panic of running into those red arm/hands and panicking because you run out of stamina while running away hahah

speaking of tHE MUSIC OH MY GOD I love the shrine music so much? and the first time when you go to the depths when you're falling the tone shift is so eerie

exploring too far into an area where you're too underleveled and getting one hit killed by something haha

when you leave the sky islands for the first time I was hanging out at the very top and was like...surely they're not saying just to jump off? I thought you were supposed to build something to get down but I sorta just fell off for the heck of it and I was extremely charmed by the fact that they said yes you can jump off and just dive into some random body of water from miles above in the sky and again I love the music for that/when you're first introduced to the sky islands

sky islands fun but it's nice being on the ground hahahfg/having a glider now and not constantly breaking into a sweat at hEIGHTS haha like....I went to the top of the temple and crawled all the way around to the other side of the locked doors lmao but the amount of times I slipped and fell of those tiny ledges

I still love freefalling and using the glider at the last second

running into a tree for the first time HAHA and the ominous tiptoeing after you

also yeah controls feel better now/just had to play more but I still definitely keep pressing the wrong buttons for things

I think once I got off the sky islands and to the ground that was kinda when I got fully invested? like again before actually buying the game and playing it I was kinda like ehhh I'll probably play it some point

also the game reigniting my need for link zelda ganon ot3 content :'D

the fondness of having character designs be 3/4 torso ahahha

PURAH I love her ouTFIT

the little detail of chasing fish and the fish trying to escape actually beached themselves on the shore??

LINK HUMMING WHILE COOKING I've only recognized one song so far (saw someone on reddit say they also heard song of storms and it clicked in my brain so now two haha)

oh! I love the amount of nooks and crannies to explore! like all the wells and caves >:0

ngl didn't end up finishing botw (I absolutely did look up the ending before I played totk HAHA >:'D ) because I ended up exploring the majority of the map/got bored after that and I didn't particularly like how the map felt empty/the same after a while? idk if the same thing will pop up again for me in totk but I do like how there's some new enemies and it feels more lively so far? we'll see

ALSO LMAO fighting bokoblins with a moblin and the moblin just straight picking up a bokoblin and throwing it at me??

[game-boy-pocket]

I beat the Ocarina of Time Randomizer.

25/25 Triforce Pieces collected, I got most of the major items, just not Nayrue's Love or Farore's Wind, or the Biggoron Sword, although I got the Eyeball frog in a chest, I failed to get the eyedrops to Biggoron on time and some how got the Perscription rather than the frog when it restarted me. I don't think I need it. I'm still going to beat Ganon, just for funzies, but I don't think I need to update anyone on how that goes.

Love the new music options, but I need to remove a few selections. Overworld was one of the most boring Zelda songs of all time, the Phantom Hourglass Dungeon theme, and the item get fanfare, the PS2 start up sound, frequently broke the audio. I don't know what song was used for the minibosses, but it would constantly continue playing after the miniboss died. I tried to remove all the games I didn't know about from the song rotation but it seems there were still songs I didn't recognize.

But this is definitely the way for me to play OOT again in the future, it really made things feel fresh, I tried 3 heart runs and no death runs but they didn't make things feel that different because the only threatening enemies were Stalfos and Iron Knuckles.

It was decently challenging, I died a lot, it helps that I cranked up the damage to be doubled. Next time I play, I'm going to increase the number of required triforce shards, but I'm going to attempt a zero death run, and have to restart if I die. I'm pretty sure the file select still tracks your deaths on the randomizer. Might even go for Master Quest, because my intimate knowledge of OOT helped me out a lot in this run.

If you love OOT but have had a hard time making the game feel fresh because you know it too well, I highly recommend this. It worked great on my real N64 if you have an Everdrive.

[maryellencarter]

i have all the towers except for ridgeland and central! i have also done 40 shrines, so if i want i could switch my stamina into hearts and go pull the master sword, but i don't want to yet. i'm really curious how much of the game i can complete with majora's mask and one badly damaged torch. (i had to jump-strike to reach a few of the shrine switches and hitting the floor damaged the torch.)

i'm grabbing warp points for shrines i can't finish yet when i pass them, mostly tests of strength, although i refuse to try mogg latan (synced swing, satori mountain) without a shield jump and there are some others that require bows as well. some warp points can't be gotten without a bow, such as kam urog (cursed statue) and sasa kai (pierce heaven's light), and because i'm very short on octo balloons i'm not bothering to lift the door thing on top of kah okeo (the one hidden in a crack in the southwest corner of tabantha) because i can't beat it without a korok leaf anyway. and possibly bomb arrows. the intended strategy doesn't use bomb arrows but i find the intended strategy annoying.

i did grab two of the three labyrinth shrines so far. and ne'ez yohma (zora's domain). i'm getting a nice collection of armor, and between the travel medallion and the zora armor, i should be doing okay on traversal when i go back to hunting koroks and chests, even though i don't have revali's gale yet for obvious reasons.

i've never gotten ridgeland tower without a level three shock resistance buff. two parts of the rubber armor and possibly all three are unavailable to me until i have weapons -- can't do the song of storms shrine without a metal weapon, can't pick up the axe on top of faron stable, and i've never tackled the thundra plateau without stasis or with only using bombs for stasis momentum -- but i did just get zuna kai shrine (skull lake), which is an easy glide from the rok woods where there are approximately 30 zapshrooms. i think i'm going to see if i can figure out the wizzrobe patterns and sneak past them, because the ones at lanayru and woodland towers were far less annoying than expected and didn't even spot me, but i definitely want the shock buff just in case.

once i hit the point where i actually start picking up weapons and killing stuff, i will have a Decision to make in regard to scaling. botw has a hidden experience system where killing certain enemies causes other enemies and weapons to rank up. so i need to decide if i want to push the rank-up as fast as possible (probably by rushing the divine beasts before doing any other kills), or if i want to kill everything that gives 0 XP first in order to prevent the low-level enemies that would scale from ranking up.

specifically, the enemies that give 0 XP include keese, chuchus, octoroks, red/blue bokos and moblins, green/blue lizals, and level 1-2 guardian scouts. enemies that do give XP include wizzrobes, black and higher bokos/moblins/lizals, guardian scouts 3-4, all lynels, all kilton-medal bosses, all non-scout guardians, yiga blademasters, master kohga, blight ganons, and dark beast ganon (not calamity, because you have to fight dark beast right after him anyway).

there are a *lot* of enemies that give 0 XP in their base state but will scale up if you let them. red bokos that can eventually become silver, type of thing. reds are obviously a lot easier to kill, but the higher level enemies have better loot drops, including gems from silver enemies. (and gold ones, but i do not play master mode. yet.)

since the master sword technically has infinite durability, i don't actually have to worry about "what if i break every weapon in the entire game", but i do worry anyway. since there are infinite dynamic yiga spawns once you defeat master kohga, i can't technically run out of bows either, and the duplex bow is even one of the long-range models. i think i could potentially break every shield in the game, but i'd have to work for it, given that the hylian shield exists with its 800 durability. i am really bad at parries though.

(i know you can also buy the ancient weapons at robbie's lab, but guardian parts are going to be in *extremely* limited quantity, because the only renewable source without blood moons is one guy on the road near hateno who will sell you a single one of each part except giant cores once a day, and two of those types he only sells if it's raining. giant cores are completely nonrenewable, and one of the available ones is in the bonus chest at mirro shaz "tempered power" which i really don't want to have to get. so i'm going to focus on getting and maxing the ancient armor before i spend a single guardian part on anything breakable.)

i keep leaning towards pushing the scaling early because i'm curious, but i can't unscale the world afterwards if i don't like it... i might have to do math about, like, the total difference in health values vs the total difference in durability-times-damage values. like, i'm planning to do as many sneakstrikes and environmental kills as i can, but still.

(at least i'm not playing in master mode. health regen is the real killer.)

[faroreskiss]

Heya bestie, hope you feel better soon, life can be a bitch sometimes *pats your head*

Since you want angsty requests, mind if I requested a scenario of Link/Zelda (either of them) x reader where reader gets... idk fucking killed or gravely injured? Not sure if this makes you uncomfortable or if it's too much for you, if it is just ignore it.

(Tbh I'm not feeling too hot mentally, either lol, nothing like angst for these moments)

Hi Nova, thank you <3 *becomes smol under your hand*

Hopefully it will also work out for you!!! *hugs*

I'm just whipping it up and leaving it here raw, to get back to it at a later point (hopefully).

Can you guess the pairing and where this came from before the name pops up? Don't look at the tags yet! 😏

Acceptance of the waves

CW: Raw non proof read text, angst, possibly no comfort, not nsfw but mature content, mention of death

~

She would have to accept it at some point, she had to truly understand what happened. She couldn't go on with life otherwise.

Alas, there was no time for deliberations.

With pain in her heart as she watched the castle blow up, spikes of grief stabbing her insides for reasons unknown to her within the swirling chaos of her emotions, she fought.

She didn't want to feel now, she forced herself to focus, as she held the sword that seals the darkness. Oh the irony, could the sword also be the bane to the darkness in her heart now?

Ganon was no more. But at what cost?

As she mourned silently and bitterly, she imagined carrying your unblemished and limp, now soulles vessel, at least to a grave. But there wasn't even a body left to say goodbye now, was there? Did that mean she could see you again? Maybe you were okay?

No.

Moments following the battle's end, the hero was barely able to stand, knees weak. She begged to Princess Zelda, she begged her to get you back, to do something. The princess just looked away, unable to meet her gaze. 

She pleaded to the Goddesses, she pleaded to Hylia, silently in her heart. She would pray to any deity to see you.

Then, over in the distance, she saw a hue of light. The light spirits were gathering, spreading their warm light towards her. She saw a little dark speck within the hue of light. A gestalt of a body...?

Once she realized it was you, she started running towards the light, despite her injuries. Despite how it hurt just to take a step. A glimmer of hope and the rush of adrenaline, air burning in her lungs. There was a tint of uncertainity, but the hope was too strong. She kept running, she was almost there, her smile covering her face, her eyes watery. Tears stinging the scars in her face. But she didn't care as she exploded with joy.

She had to see you, she had to taste your lips and finally tell you how much she felt for you, all her feelings. She had to say goodbye to you properl—

Goodbye?

Wait, why would she want to do that? Just moments ago you were fighting together. Covering each other.

Then...

Then she remembered.

She remembered how you got struck by one of the swords that were thrown off at you, as you protected her with your body.

-----

"You know, I'll have your back, always" you had told her only a day ago, before you stormed the castle. You had that playful glint in your eyes. She had just scoffed at you, before she smirked back. There would be some 'talk' to have after you guys were back. She had had promised herself to finally open up to you.

-----

She remembered the enraged state she was in as she defeated the beast in the throne room. How she was transported away by Zelda's magic, to the outside of the castle. How she defeated Ganon with the arrows of light, then seeing the castle blow up.

Nobody could survive that.

-----

She woke up in sweat and tears once again.

Grief comes in waves, they said. The frequency of how it hits you is the only thing that changes. You just try to live your life for another day, and then another.

She would have to accept that you were truly gone, at some point.

Even if it meant being haunted and tortured with the memory of almost getting you back, even if just to say goodbye. Even if just to say she loved you.

Linke was even denied that.

But she would have to accept, otherwise life could not go on.

Closure was a luxury that was sometimes denied, after all, she remarked to herself as she kept silently sobbing to her pillow, a case made out of a tunic of yours.

[colourstreakgryffin]

Not a request, but more of crack scenarios I thought of

Obanai and Kyojuro: *Fighting over who gets to be with Wild!Dokusha* (that's what I refer to them as)

Wild!Dokusha: *In the background either fighting a demon that looks like Ganon or running from something that's like a guardian*

*Muzan's daughter with a tray of cookies and hands one to Muzan*

Muzan's daughter: This one's in the shape of a heart, that's how I feel about you :3

Muzan: *Happy crying noises*

Muzan's daughter: *While looking at the Upper Moons; points to a cookie on the tray that looks like the state of Michigan* This one's shaped like Michigan, that's how I feel about you

Upper Moons: What does that even mean?!?!

Oml! That so cuteee!! 🥰 Papa Muzan be happy crying and I love itttt~

Hehe. Also, Obanai and Kyojuro XD

[ezlo-x]

@pomgore I was planning to originally reply to where u posted this but I feel like im going to say A LOT so hope u dont mind :]

so how to kill gloom hands/phantom ganon even when you are at pretty low hearts/stamina (this is mostly for ppl who want to fight him at the beginning of the game when randomly encountering the Gloom Spawn NOT the final boss battle!!!)

to start off with foods and potions, you should have at least multiple plates that fully recover your hearts plus giving you extra hearts or an elixir that does the same effect. You should also stack up on gloom resistant foods, personally I did food plates than potions as I can also get partially healed when restoring your hearts from gloom effect. IF you haven't upgraded your armor at all I do recommend also making defense foods/potions. I recommend trying to make strong defense foods/potions like they gotta have that defense up to 2 or 3. Out of all of this I personally recommend to make a lot of foods that are gloom resistant and also just stock up on regular foods especially roasted food.

Armor! I don't have the strongest armor yet as I haven't done the Great Fairy sidequest yet. So I tried to make the most of it that is in Link's wardrobe, one armor set you definitely need the gloom resistant armor. Armor of the depths as it is called. At least wear one of the armor pieces but if you have all of them just use it tbh when it comes to fighting Phantom Ganon as he surrounds himself with gloom. Which makes it tricky when you want to walk up to him and attack.

Weapons! It all depends the Phantom Ganon you fight tbh, i dont know how it works on the other locations where you can encounter him but ik he has different weapons. The one I fought was in the cave that you encounter early in the game right next to the first dragon tear memory and the skyview tower. In that one he was wielding a sword. PERSONALLY FROM WHAT I REALIZED IS that spears are most effective in this fight especially if you dont want him near you KJDFNKJDNFG weapons that are above the 25+ attack points is good above 30 attk points is excellent the fight moves a lot more smoothly. Black Bokoblin horns are pretty good monster parts to fuse, if you have a polished weapon basically its not afflicted with gloom and it has a little sparkle icon next to the name of the weapon. When fusing those weapons with a material that does a lot of attack points with doubles the attack points by two making it pretty handy. From what I've seen the depths and through amiibos you are able to find polished weapons, I think a Rock Octoroc also helps you polish your weapon similar to botw basically.

How to kill Gloom Spawn 💥 you have the be the one to first spot it before it does. If you see one quickly try to climb somewhere high where they don't reach you, but you gotta be close enough where they don't despawn. The most effective way is to literally shoot arrows at it specifically bomb arrows make sure to keep your distance so you don't explode along with them. Idk if its effective but I also shot puffshrooms at them at it seems that it works to keep them distracted from the position where I'm at. And helps me keep a bit of distance when shooting bomb arrows at them. One thing for sure do not stop shooting, cause they will eventually leave. Just keep on shooting until every single arm is dead. Once you defeat the Gloom Spawn, Phantom Ganon should appear

How to kill Phantom Ganon ❤️ In this fight that I had he was wielding a sword. If you are an expert dodger at this game this will be a breeze since a lot of it is to just dodge his attacks. So very much learning how to dodge his attacks will make the fight easier. Phantom Ganon tends to jump back and charges at you, if his sword is swinging horizontally you dodge by doing a sick backflip, if his is swinging vertically you do a sidejump. HE ALSO DOES SPIN ATTACKS...I haven't really pin point when it happens during a fight I just run away when he does that

Once you kill him you'll get his bow (the bow's attack points depends at what state you are in the game progression wise) and his sword that is at a whopping 41 attack points. tbh I think the tedious part is to summon Phantom Ganon by killing the Gloom Spawn but overall its a very fun fight :]

[celestialorcas]

Only just thought to start liveblogging my Wind Waker HD Hero Mode, No Death run right now...very near the end- Just completed the Savage Labrinth and OOOOO i got close- ran out of faries and only had 1 soup thing left, got whacked by a darknut, down to half a heart, and in the frame before the fire breathing statues hit me, managed to down the soup...god damn that was harder than i was expecting, but I made it out with the Hero's Charm! Currently at 14 Hearts, 2 heart pieces Got all triforce shards 22 maps And all item except for the magic armour No deaths yet! Think im past the hardest now (other than the puppet ganon worm fight, that has me worried) so i think I got this, with my 1 soup and 3 faries im safe from any stupid mistakes, so its just tough battles (which theres 1 more of)

Loving it as always, but the number of frustrating things in this game has me wanting to replay more and re-evaluate what my fav Zelda is...

[beardedhandstoadshark]

Hopfully comprehensive list about things in Zelda 2 that might be important for folks doing fan stuff for the game but don‘t wanna play it for expected reasons cuz tbf, yea the game is hard!

(because if I read "8bitrule is a deadly wasteland" one more time I‘ll delete my save file and go join the Yiga Clan XD /lh)

It got VERY long so I sorted into different categories for some semblance of order lmao. It goes:

Backstory

Plot

General info on Hyrule

Towns

General info on Link (+ move set)

Spells

Items

Collectibles

And other funky stuff

Hopefully this will be of help/interest to someone. And if not, oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Not enough Zelda 2 stuff out there anyways, so more is always good!

I do like talking about this game so for extra info pls feel free to ask :3

Backstory:

2 Zeldas, the new Zelda is actually a great-great-smth aunt of Zelda 1, and the reason it‘s called "the Legend of Zelda“

Long ago, her bro (and his wizard buddy) pressured her into telling them the secrets of the Triforce she got from their dead dad. Zelda didn‘t tattle, wizard buddy tried to strike her down via spell in anger

Spell went out of control, put Zelda into eternal sleep and killed wizard buddy in one swoop

Prince lost sis and buddy, fell into remorse, locked her in a tower Sleeping-beauty style in hopes the spell would be reversed one day and decreed every princess shall be named Zelda from now on

Plot:

16 old Link chillin his life when a triangle starts glowing on his hand?? Asks Impa for help, she brings her to the magically sealed door where Zelda the First sleeps, cue Backstory

gives him crystals he needs to put in statues in palaces to unlock a seal on the temple that holds the Triforce of Courage (because he did not have that before)

All the bosses are guardians of the statues + Dark Link is his actual shadow that he fights against to prove his heart is pure enough to hold it

It was brought to life by some old guy hanging out there (never explained but he’s probs supposed to be a sage and looks a lot like the Old Man from Zelda 1, though much like all Wise Men in this game do)

Ganon has literally nothing to do with any of that, his monsters just really want Link dead so they can sprinkle his blood on Ganon‘s ashes and bring him back. (Since they need him dead, it probs needs a lot of blood)

Hyrule:

different areas : fields, woods, beaches, caves, swamps, mountains, deserts, graveyards, and one Lake Hylia

2 continents divided by sea, west and east + a small island that is one big labyrinth (named maze island)

different towns, all of them have the names of Oot sages plus Harbor Town Mido and Kazuto Town

the locations/"elements“ of towns do not match their future sages in the slightest (Saria gets water. Ruto‘s in a valley. Nabooru‘s by the sea, fully green and far away from the desert sands).

towns in West Hyrule are well connected via roads

East Hyrule has broken roads (if at all) and Kazuto is even completely ransacked by monsters

there‘s a new Kazuto Town hidden in some woods, while Old Kazuto is an actual Ghost town

Stonehedge is not only a thing but appears in multiple locations

Big Fairies are a thing, but they come without Water Fountains. Instead just hang out in the woods, stonehedge, wherever

streets are always safe. You will never see a monster as long as you stay on it. If you stray, monsters will spawn (though sometimes its fairies instead). If you run back on the street and a monster gets you there, the "battle“ will be empty and you can just walk out. Streets are always safe.

the main graveyard got the King‘s Tomb in the middle of it; has a secret tunnel to one of the palaces

there‘s a smaller graveyard near Death Mountain by Spectacle Rock that‘s apparently supposed to be the Zelda 1 graveyard -> Zelda 1 played in a small part of West Hyrule

third graveyard near The Valley of Death (name is accurate gameplay wise too ._.)

Towns:

very lively communities

different styles of houses, some have bushes, fountains (with drinkable water), different sections separated by gates, etc.

you have to climb on roofs and jump through windows to get into some buildings

Link can get multiple things here: free healthcare from a lady in red, filled up magic from an old lady in orange, a side quest that usually leads to either a new sword skill or magic spell. Those can always be obtained from a knight/wizard in the basement of the main building.

pretty much all villagers can be talked with and either give: generic Hi‘s, vague hints about the next goal, the sidequest, some praise him as the hero and wish him luck

Sometimes they also turn out to be Aches (monsters that look identical to villagers until you talk to them, upon which they turn into bats and attack); pretty much exclusive to the later/Eastrule towns

Link:

16y old and left his equipment at home, only got a sword and shield

Zelda 1 was years ago for him

learned to wear pants between Zelda 1 and 2 (they‘re brown, same color as his shirt. You could make it a onesie if you want to)

hair color‘s somewhere between brown and ginger

Left handed gang

certified recorder player

silly goober

given that Impa got to him so fast, good chance he‘s at the castle often enough

if botw Link is a parry god, he‘s a blocking god

shield is only small enough to cover half his body, hence him learning how to move it at hyperspeed

unnamed sword but the Magic/White Sword from Zelda 1 is on the cover so it’s most likely that one

gains new equipment throughout the game via dungeons

can gain exp and level up, but unless you specifically set him up pre/during his quest, you wanna treat this lad like he‘s maxed out

skills: stab, crouch stab, up jab (like the one from smash), jump/down jab (also like the one from smash, this is where it‘s from)

Spells:

Shield (turns his tunic red and up‘s defense),

Jump (lets him jump high),

Life (restores 3 blocks of HP; your max possible HP is 8 with all Heart Containers. Doesn‘t start out the most expensive, but unlike most other spells barely gets cheaper with higher magic levels, making it the 2nd most expensive in the log run.)

Fairy (turns him into a fairy; small, no fighting but flying, and lets you skip through locked doors! 3rd most expensive.)

Fire (shoot fire from your sword; some enemies can only be defeated this way)

Reflect (reflects magic attacks, lets you block spells that would otherwise go past your shields; basically magic defense)

Spell (turns some enemies into slime + unlocks a secret area in New Kazuto)

Thunder (rains thunder on the whole screen; needed to defeat a boss. Most expensive spell in the game, regardless of magic level.)

the other spells are all dirt cheap in higher levels

if you wanna be real detailed: one magic meter block = 16 MP, totalling for 128 with a maxed meter. A fully leveled (in mp) Link will use 60mp for Thunder, 50 for hp, 40 for fairy, 8 for Jump and 16 for all others. Otherwise, here‘s a table for MP usage across levels.

Items:

Candle: equivalent of the magic lantern, infinite light source. Unlike Zelda 1, this one doesn‘t let you commit property damage :(

Hammer: breaks giant boulders on the road, letting you access shortcuts. Also lets you cut down any tree tiles on the overworld, turning it into fields- Property damage is back baby!

Handy Glove: Lets Link crush blocks with his sword. Even more destruction and a good compromise for the lack of vases imo.

Raft: used to cross from West to East Hyrule.

boots: let you straight up walk on water, but only in certain places.

Whistle/Flute: is actually a recorder (flutes are held sideways, recorders forward. That‘s like. The biggest difference between these two instruments, bar the reputation.) Used to make a monster blocking the road disappear and summon a palace, similar to how you shrink a boss and drain a lake in Zelda 1. Doesn‘t let you teleport though. Does play the same tune, though. It‘s the one also heard in the oot intro!

magic key: the key to end all keys, lets you open all the doors in every dungeon forever (despite the name does not need MP)

Cross: regarless of what some more zealous fans of the series claim as a means to justify their unjustified bigotry, Christianity is not canon to the series. But much like other Japanese media, it sure likes borrowing from its aesthetics! Case in point, this item is just the Kirbo meme. It lets you see invisible ghosts so you can kick their ass. (you don‘t need it to hit them, but they‘re a pain to dodge/ hit even with it.).

Collectibles:

magic jar: same as ever. Blue fills 1 mp block, red fills all. Doesn‘t fill instantly, so if your meter’s got points left you can wait till its half full, use a high mp spell, and still get the rest of the points that‘d otherwise go to waste. Dungeons sometimes contain statues, which drop one jar (or start attacking you).

treasure bag: holds exp (money doesn‘t exist in this game)

key

doll: weird but surprisingly cute doll that looks exactly like a miniature version of Link and gives you an extra life. (The game has lives- if you get a game over, Ganon gets resurrected on screen.)

Bowl of Hearts: Looks, acts like, is a Heart Container. Gives you 1 block of HP; you start with 4, for a max of 8. Can be found wherever Heart Containers would be.

Magic Container: Looks like a filled jar; Heart Container but for MP.

Other funky stuff:

you rescue a kid that got lost in caves

has instances of Link talking in 1st person; one appears by looking under a stranger’s table in a house: "I found a mirror under the table“.

Everyone knows the man the myth the legend, the npc named "Error“, but there’s actually a 2nd guy named "Bagu“. As in, Bug. Game bug.

Bro has a pet Bot (this games‘ version of Chus) sleeping in his house. You can annoy it into waking up and it‘ll tell you where he is so you‘ll finally leave

the waters are NOT poisonous in the slightest (seriously, where did that come from) …but they are infested with jumping Piranhas.

Saria Town only lets people use the bridge connecting the 2 sides of the river if you‘re a citizen or get a permit from Bagu. Vaguely remember you could also take a long road around it tho

With 9.5 towns, a lot of greenery everywhere, and ACTUAL. FUNCTIONAL. ROADS :O This might be one of the most well-off Hyrules in the series (ironically >v<)

Aaaand *looks at length of this post^ ok yea that is enough lmao, I might genuinely hit the word limit here, oof. I‘m a rare Zelda 2 enjoyer can yall tell XD