#Character Music (Rhoam)

[fragmentedlegends]

Every muse now has their own Spotify playlist! <3

I love making playlists for muses because it's a fun way to explore various parts of their feelings, thoughts, motivations, etc., and can help me find a unique "voice" for their narrative. I love seeing the differences and similarities between these playlists in styles, tones, and themes!

Randomly pulled lines from each playlist—

Hylia: In the land of plenty, we don't know what the word "no" means. Give it to me, give me all the things I want...we want violence, we want blood, we want superhero love, we want all the answers that you promised us, we want laughter, we want pain...A coronation, a beheading, from the funeral to the wedding, do you think they care where the crown goes?

Rhoam: I'm trying to get up, they're knocking me down, chewing me up, spitting me out, when I need to be saved, you're making me strong, you're making me stand, never will fall, never will end...you make me feel invincible, earthquake powerful, just like a tidal wave, you make me brave, you're my titanium, fight song rising up, like the roar of victory

Astor: Talk to myself, lie in the darkness so content, as the sun begins to rise I can barely shut my eyes, this crazed, delirious mess, laughing at everything I see, my sanity is spent...attention, all insomniacs, please raise your right hand and kindly repeat after me: "I guess I'll sleep when I am dead."

Ganondorf: Anything exceptional gets crushed by common people with jealousy and ignorance and all their common evils, this planet isn't special, collections made of clay, I'm waiting for the punishment, I know it's on my way, so cut me up, fuck me up...the last man standing gets no pity...you wanna win the war? Know what you're fighting for.

Sonia: Here's to us, here's to love, all the times that we messed up, here's to you, fill the glass, 'cause the last few days have kicked my ass, if they give ya hell, tell 'em go fuck themselves...here's to all we kissed and all we missed, to the biggest mistakes that's we just wouldn't trade, to us breakin' up without us breakin' down, to whatever's comin' out way, here's to us...wish everybody well, here's to us.

Link: You thought nothing could surprise you, you thought you’d seen everything but you never saw me coming, all eyes on me, ready or not I’m making waves, ready or not you can’t escape, ready or not I’m on my way, you can’t stop what I got, ready or not.

Demise: I came to stand tall, stare down the barrel of a gun that's aiming, 'cause that's all it ever takes, to change something you know's worth changing...it's what I want, it's towering tall in my heart, confusion between good and evil.

Revali: "You're never gonna make it, there's no way that you make it, yeah maybe you can fake it, but you're never gonna make it." Are you just gonna take that? Make them take it all back. Don't tell me you believe that. Are you just gonna take that? Or will you fucking fight back?

[ganondoodle]

just to note this, as much as i love botw, i am not uncritical of it, like while i personally like the weapon breaking and rain mechanics everyone else seemed to hate i do agree that the bosses and dungeons were kinda repetetive and there could have been more bigger sidequests, some more diverse epic music tracks also wouldnt have hurt tho i fully disagree with anyone trying to claim it didnt HAVE music, im convinced those people played it with sound off bc wth (edit. plus the unfortunately still orientalist design of the gerudo plus that belly dancer outfit for link ... that thankfully got removed in totk as far as i know but the rest still stands)

personal criticism id have that i would have prefered zelda never gaining her sacred powers but instead finding a different way to fight back, bc her gaining them like that kinda made rhoams abuse .. right, like turns out to activate her powers you need to literall kill everyone she cares about (at least thats why i feel a bit meh about that), her maybe not being as sidelined like that (tho youd have to change alot for that .. which totk had the perfect chance to and then kinda did it again but worse lol) and the yiga clan being less of one little side mission

(also way too many people kept hating on botw for the same few reasons, often without giving it a chance, i think we all heard all the endless complaints about usually little things so i dont need to retread all of that)

alot of those little criticism things got adressed in totk, which i LIKED, but overall its so much less in harmony, this should have been a game about rebuilding and recovering about working together and then zelda gets immediately booted off and we get introduced to characters we never learn enough of to really care and yet they still take away the mystery botw had left us for the world to feel more alive, they ripped out parts that were so internally organically connected to the world and pretended they never mattered nor existed, characters act off and i cant help but feel like the main 'plot' is, as much as i hate to use that comparison, a badly written fanfiction ... it builds on nothing and just leaves you .. or me at least feeling empty, like i am playing through a mockery of the game i loved ... like all the fun i had thinking about the things in botw, the theories you could come up with was all wasted time

i honestly cant describe it better than totk, despite the little QoL changes, and the changes i DID like, it just feels ... empty? not in a literal way but more ... mentally? it feels so shallow? like at multiple points i felt like the game was actively mocking me, when i reached the shrine of life and was faced with barren walls and a puddle of water i felt betrayed for caring so much about what botw had done .. i felt like i could hear the game laughing while i stood there not knowing what to think of it, and while this was the time when i felt the most actually physically compeltely betrayed, that feeling of being mocked kept happening, i kept feeling like i was treated like a dumb player character that just eats up anything they say without thinking or remembering the title this was supposedly a sequel of, like i should play with the little toys of glueing things together and forget the world around me like a 5 year old

that may sound harsh but that is how i, personally, feel about it

[loregoddess]

Whoo, finished Echoes of Wisdom today! still plan to run around and try to finish things I skipped over or missed, but overall it was such a fun game, even if it was a bit shorter (it's also entirely possible I went a bit crazy and played through faster than usual). Definitely gonna be a top-5 LoZ game for me, it was so delightful...

some extra spoiler-y thoughts under the cut

Really enjoyed the final dungeon and final boss, bio-castles are one of my all-time favorite environments for fantasy worlds, and the "primordial cosmic horror" feel that Null had as a character is something else I love a lot. Also the way the mechanics were set up to have Zelda and Link fight side-by-side worked out surprisingly well, and the dungeon was fun to navigate with Link as an active partner. I'd love to see a future game expand those mechanics even further honestly, they were a delight, and it's a shame they were limited to one dungeon.

It was cool that the golden goddesses were like, actual characters w/ speaking parts too, I don't think that's ever happened in a game before. Actually, the game overall had a lot of little things I'd wanted to see in a LoZ game in general like, how the King and soldiers actually do mobilize to help Zelda and the citizens of Hyrule (they're unusually passive in most games), or just how natural a lot of the writing felt for characterization in general.

Really liked the King in this game a lot, it's funny since the last Major Hylian King (Rhoam) was Not very popular with fans bc he was a bit of an asshole, and then EoW's King is like, "This is my daughter Zelda, who is amazing and wonderful and I love her so much and will support her in whatever she does" like, very doting father character that doesn't come off as overbearing, which is refreshing (Rhoam was interesting in his own right, but he was also like, dead, so it was interesting more in a "chasing ghosts" sort of way and less in a "this is a character who can actively and presently affect what is going on").

Actually seeing Zelda get to interact with other characters and really shine as her own character was really nice too. Like, all the people in castle town really seem to know her more casually, and seeing her interact w/ other rulers was super fun too. (Not that Zelda isn't a character in other games, but she doesn't always get to be as present as EoW Zelda).

Overall I loved the game a lot, from beginning to end. The gameplay and mechanics were super fun to play around with, the music was very notably present and felt unique to every area, the art style was so pretty and cute, and the story and characters were solid from start to finish. I know I'm a bit biased, having grown up with older LoZ games, but EoW really does play and feel like a classic Zelda game, from the top-down gameplay to the dungeon design to the quirky one-off characters to the bittersweet story ending.

I don't follow the business side of the game industry that closely, but just based off the lack of a line to wait in for preordering the game on release day, I'm worried that EoW won't do as well and therefore Nintendo will be like "well, that game was a flop, so we won't do something like it again" (bc it kinda feels like they set it up to fail, I mean it even released on a Thursday instead of Friday like most games do), but damn do I hope the game actually does really well and pulls off a Metroid Dread, bc I would love to see more LoZ games like this one. Playable Zelda was great, and the entire game design was so fun, I would love to have another game like this but a bit larger/longer.

Anyhow, now off to unblock the tags for EoW and finally take peeks at guides and fanstuffs (I was only missing two echoes at the end of the game and I have NO idea what they are even if I know where they're supposed to be, thanks to the clear-game giving the player access to the number of things they're missing).

Absolutely delightful game, will probably replay it lots and lots.

[sunset-peril]

The loreset known as HFS Minor will now be applied to a Hyrule's Final Stand spin-off series known as Hyrule's Final Stand - A Century Past

The first entry in the series is entitled Link, Wolfbred King and it is based on the Hateno Village subplot in Tears of the Kingdom. Musically, it is based on the 'Title Theme' from Twilight Princess, 'Midna's Theme', 'Midna's Lament' and 'Safe' written by Britt Nicole

The lore differences from the main HFS series is as follows:

Hylia did not feel the need to "safeguard" the Master Sword/Fi. Henceforth, Zelda did not become pregnant before the Great Calamity.

Because Zelda was not pregnant before/during the Great Calamity, HFS' entire Rhoam v Link subplot does not exist in A Century Past. Rhoam is not overthrown by Link, and Link does not become King before dying at Fort Hateno.

Link was never formally recognized as Prince of Hyrule. His marriage remained a secret. Only the Champions, Impa, Purah, Symin, Robbie, Horacio (Kass' Teacher) and King Dorephan were aware of the marriage. Most BotW characters (including Sidon and most of Kakariko) did not know Link was married, much less Prince of Hyrule.

Link and Zelda are King and Queen in TotK. However, due to infrastructure being a higher priority than politics, no one can agree on how to refer to them, and semi-self-governing municipalities can elect or appoint their own leaders. (Elections/appointments can still be overruled by the Queen and/or King. Link and Zelda can also appoint their own person instead of letting the municipality have an election)

Link and Zelda have the following title sets: "King and Queen", "Princess and Swordsman", "Princess and Hero", "Queen and Swordsman", "Queen and Hero", "King and Princess" (for some reason), "Queen and Consort", "Princess and Consort", "Mister Link and Miss Zelda" "Mr. Link and Mrs. Zelda" and "Grandpa/Great-grandpa and Miss Zelda" (by Reede's family and their friends)

The Korok War Crimes are a direct result of all of Link's frustrations + his grief over his wife's sudden disappearance (if you haven't read my Wolfbred post yet, Wolfbred were originally created to be the Queen of Hyrule's perfect, loyal-to-the-death personal army. When the Wolfbred were banned, this overpowering genetic urge was then projected in the following two ways:

A male Wolfbred's "queen" is his wife

A female Wolfbred's "queen" is her pups/children

Henceforth, Link's "queen" is Zelda and he has a specific genetic urge demanding he serve and protect her until he dies.)

The Korok War Crimes are isolated incidents, not wide-spread, and typically are feral-type incidents and injuries. (Not sophisticated, and rarely involving Zonai devices)

[i-mustache-your-opinion]

Meet The Competitors

Preliminaries have officially ended! Combining the winning characters from the preliminaries with the characters who received 3+ nominations during the submission period, we have officially finalized our 128 competitors. It will take some time to get the brackets and Round 1 polls together, so in the meantime here is the complete list of competitors for those who are curious.

Mustache Girl (A Hat in Time)

Count Olaf (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Damon Gant (Ace Attorney)

The Judge (Ace Attorney)

Marvin Grossberg (Ace Attorney)

Ice King (Adventure Time)

Magnus Burnsides (The Adventure Zone: Balance Arc)

Gordito Delgado (The Adventures of Dr. McNinja)

Captain Archibald Haddock (The Adventures of Tintin)

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie's Poirot)

Brewster (Animal Crossing)

Heimerdinger (Arcane: League of Legends)

Iroh (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Lawrence Betelgeuse Shoggoth (Beetlejuice: The Musical)

Bob Belcher (Bob's Burgers)

Tim Lockwood (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)

Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop)

Watari (Death Note)

Senshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

Harry Du Bois (Disco Elysium)

The Master (Doctor Who)

Sebastian (Doki Doki Precure)

Cranky Kong (Donkey Kong)

Captain Villads (The Dragon Prince)

The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)

Ramuh (Final Fantasy)

Cervantes (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

Alex Louis Armstrong (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Maes Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Kintoleski (Futari wa Precure Splash Star)

Kratos (God of War)

Lan Qiren (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

Old Man McGucket (Gravity Falls)

Stan Pines (Gravity Falls)

Gordon Freeman (Half-Life)

Mumbo Jumbo (Hermitcraft)

The King of Town (Homestar Runner)

Seneca Crane (The Hunger Games)

Isaac Netero (Hunter x Hunter)

Gyro Zeppeli (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)

The King of All Cosmos (Katamari)

Solomon David (Kill Six Billion Demons)

Chourou (Kira Kira Precure a la Mode)

Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda)

Daruk (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

King Harkinian (The Legend of Zelda CD-i)

Morshu (The Legend of Zelda CD-i)

Yosemite Sam (Looney Tunes)

Gandalf (Lord of the Rings)

Gimli (Lord of the Rings)

Treebeard (Lord of the Rings)

Daisuke Jigen (Lupin III)

Tim Wright (Marbel Hornets)

Broque Monsieur (Mario & Luigi)

Mr. Sinister (Marvel)

Odin Borson (Marvel)

The Bowler Hat Guy (Meet the Robinsons)

William Murderface (Metalocalypse)

Rich Uncle Pennybags (Monopoly)

Danjuro "Gentle Criminal" Tobita (My Hero Academia)

Shouta "Eraserhead" Aizawa (My Hero Academia)

Yamada "Present Mic" Hizashi (My Hero Academia)

Master Wu (Ninjago)

Maestro (Once Upon a Time...)

Dracule Mihawk (One Piece)

Edward "Whitebeard" Newgate (One Piece)

Franky (One Piece)

Gan Fall (One Piece)

Gol D. Roger (One Piece)

Jinbe (One Piece)

Kaido (One Piece)

Killer (One Piece)

Marshall "Blackbeard" D. Teach (One Piece)

Rob Lucci (One Piece)

Sanji (One Piece)

Trafalgar D. Water Law (One Piece)

Usopp (One Piece)

Zeff (One Piece)

Darius Deamonne (The Owl House)

Dell Clawthorne (The Owl House)

Paul Blart (Paul Blart: Mall Cop)

Davy Jones (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Entei (Pokémon)

Kricketune (Pokémon)

Probopass (Pokémon)

Raikou (Pokémon)

Samurott (Pokémon)

Sealeo (Pokémon)

Stoutland (Pokémon)

Drayden (Pokémon: Black & White)

Captain Kamado (Pokémon Legends: Arceus)

Warden Ingo (Pokémon Legends: Arceus)

Count Dracula (Popular Culture)

Santa Claus (Popular Culture)

Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)

Julius Pringles (Pringles)

Agent Wyoming (Red vs Blue)

James Ironwood (RWBY)

Remus Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Norville "Shaggy" Rogers (Scooby Doo)

Sea Hawk (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Ned Flanders (The Simpsons)

Master Eon (Skylanders)

Papa Smurf (The Smurfs)

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Kamaji (Spirited Away)

SpongeBob SquarePants (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie)

Henry Henderson (Spy x Family)

Will Riker (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Mirrorverse Spock (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars)

Hades (Supergiant Games' Hades)

King Bob-omb (Super Mario)

Luigi (Super Mario)

Mario (Super Mario)

Toadsworth (Super Mario)

Waluigi (Super Mario)

Wario (Super Mario)

R.J. MacReady (The Thing)

Ricky LaFleur (Trailer Park Boys)

Minimus Ambus (Transformers)

Asgore Dreemurr (Undertale)

Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

Jimmy T (WarioWare)

Nigel Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys)

Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)

Professor Crumbs (Wizards of Waverly Place)

[regnantlight]

KING RHOAM’S LAST GOODBYE

I get to watch you GROW UP now And make me PROUD, make all of those MISTAKES that make me laugh, oh darling lord how you make me laugh Get DRUNK for me, SING LOUDER than you’ve sung for me, GROW YOUNG each time that thunder in your lungs begins to rumble at the world Cos you were ALWAYS STRONG, When you were young, you’d kick things just to see if they would fall They said ‘that girl she’s WRONG’ But I’ll stick up for you, even though you haven’t got a CLUE, you haven't got a fucking clue And I’m SO PROUD of you And when they laugh at us You’ll feel my fingers down your back And when you scream I’M NOT ALRIGHT And throw my picture at the wall ‘YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY  LIGHT And keep me SAFE against them all How could you LEAVE ME here' you’ll scream And louder, I’ll scream back to you from that unknown And say

I know you’re strong enough to do this on your own

[sheikah-simp]

‼️PSA‼️ Astor is Zelda’s REAL, BIOLOGICAL FATHER.  Don’t believe me? Here’s PROOF 🔮😜

^^(Figure A. unedited footage from game)

FOR STARTERS, let’s start with what we KNOW in the game

1) Zelda was born with HAIR and EYES

^^(Figure B. Zelda with hair and eyes).

WHO ELSE do we know that was born with hair and eyes? Hmm?

HMMM??

ASTOR.

ASTOR AGE OF CALAMITY.

^^(Figure C. Astor Age of Calamity with hair and eyes).

Oh but it doesn’t stop there.

Zelda can often be seen hanging around with a tiny guardian.

A tiny guardian that plays an important song.

That song??

ASTOR’S THEME IN A MAJOR KEY.

This is confirmed. If you don’t believe me listen here for comparisons of Astor’s Theme, and the reprise, Zelda’s Lullaby.

It is very important to note here that Astor’s theme sounds like a music box.  This is significant because music boxes are often given to children, especially children with otherwise forlorn and mysterious pasts.  Zelda has a forlorn and mysterious past because her mother died tragically and mysteriously, and now she is haunted by the song of her tragic and mysterious father

Zelda’s guardian is running around humming her father’s theme hoping that one day she will remember. The only problem is he isn’t evil so he can’t play it in a minor key.

This causes the main conflict of the story, which is that Zelda can’t figure out who the fucking egg is.

Checkmate, atheists.

Oh but we’re just getting started you see. 

Thanks to the brilliant hawk eyes of @sherlocktheravencat​ for this fact, and this fact alone, we made the earth-shattering discovery that:

Astor’s hair?

Braided.

Zelda’s hair?

Braided.

ok now back to facts by me

Astor wears a silly little head thingy.  Zelda is occasionally seen wearing a silly little head thingy.

Like father, like daughter, eh, as they say??

Still not buying it?  Try this on for size:

Zelda was born: at some point in time.  We know this point in time was at least

17 years before the Great Calamity

Astor also existed: at some point in time

likely for at least 17 years before the Great Calamity

COINCIDENCE?? I THINK NOT

Zelda’s mom died when Zelda was six.  This means that Zelda’s mom died six years after Zelda was born. 

She likely existed six years before Zelda was born.

ASTOR ALSO MOST LIKELY EXISTED SIX YEARS BEFORE ZELDA WAS BORN.

This means Astor, feasibly, could have been Zelda’s father.  People who have children generally must exist before the children are born.  This makes Astor a perfect candidate for Zelda’s father.

But if that still isn’t enough for you, we must also consider what King Rhoam has to say in the game:

And lest we forget his writings from Breath of the Wild:

In Conclusion:

Astor is Zelda’s biological father

Yes, I am right about everything I say

The game 100% supports this.  The canon, un-doctored evidence is as clear as day.  What else left is there to say?  The truth is there, right out of the characters’ own mouths.  I can’t believe more people haven’t been talking about this.  But I guess it just took someone as enlightened as me to set the story straight.

This isn’t even getting into how Astor took the other egg from his daughter’s bedroom and turned it evil as a memento because that’s just too deep and too emotional for you fools

If you have any more questions, please, don’t ask.

[blog-of-the-wildd]

BOTW MUSICAL

• Link does not sing at all, but he is an excellent tap dancer.

• Revali has a song about how great he is. He keeps interrupting himself to make sarcastic remarks about how overrated Link is.

• Zelda and Rhoam have a song in which they’re discussing. Rhoam is backed up by a chorus that eventually drowns Zelda’s voice when it’s her turn to sing. Even though Link and Impa are present, they’re hidden in the shadows to convey how lonely Zelda feels.

• Link and Daruk have a duet (Daruk sings, Link taps) about food.

• Zora’s domain is a musical wonderland. That is all. Every single line said by the Zora is sung.

• The Rito instrumentals have a majority of wind instruments in their songs; the Zora, string instruments; the Goron, percussion instruments; the Gerudo, a mix.

• THE MONSTERS HAVE SONGS 👏🏼 Bokoblins, Lynels, Lizalfos and the other monsters sing. The lyrics aren’t very understandable though.

• Mipha has a song in which she tries to confess to Link but fails.

• KOHGA SINGS. THE YIGA SING.

• When Zelda apologises to Link, she doesn’t sing. She speaks to him because she genuinely wants to connect with him.

• When Link confesses why he doesn’t talk (or sing, in this case), he struggles to. There’s silence before a very soft melody starts playing. Link sings only around thirty seconds, but it means a lot to Zelda.

• Impa keeps breaking the fourth wall.

• Zelda sings her prayers. There are pauses in which Hylia is supposed to reply, but as she doesn’t, there is only silence.

• The Champions have an introduction theme and a reprise for when they’re battling the blights.

• The champions do a lot of acrobatics Newsies style :)

• The music gets very chaotic when the Calamity strikes. It is a cacophony and all the characters voices mix together into something unintelligible.

• But then Zelda awakens her powers. A chorus sings Zelda’s Lullaby, but then it stops abruptly when Zelda sees Link... who is dead.

• She cradles his body and weeps. There no music. The lightning turns a cold blue and they’re the only people visible in the scenary. After a moment, Link’s theme starts playing, but it’s distorted.

• Zelda has an EPIC solo as she heads to Hyrule Castle.

• The curtains fall. After a moment of prolonged silence, Zelda says “wake up, Link”

[fragmentedlegends]

Fresh tag dump

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Master Kohga Age of Calamity Trailer Analysis

I’m a speedy boi time for some thoughts on today’s new trailer

Ok first off THIS SHOT. Very important. Look at the Sheikah Slate filter. Last trailer I was able to write it off as some thematic choice since Robbie and Purah were Ancient Sheikah Scientists, but THIS trailer does not have that same connection. Couple this with this screenshot [credit to @rachelsmusicallife​ thanks for pointing this out to me!]

I’m under the impression that these cutscenes might be part of an overarching theme of reliving memories through the Sheikah Slate. Kinda fleshed out out theory on how this might be related to eggbot here.

“Hehehehe... Look. What. You. Did...”

The camera motion here is handheld (yes I know it’s not literally handheld but it has that feel) with Master Kohga here literally holding the camera. I’m assuming because this scene is from the direct POV of another character, perhaps Link. Which would make sense, since he is apparently accusing us of doing something. The lighting is also super weird, we’re in the Yiga Hideout (the area with the large pit where we fight Kohga in botw) but the sun is just setting with a shroud on the area. Although, I can’t exactly place the time of day because I’ve been through the hideout my fair share and no time of the day really lines up with this scene (because of the snowy Gerudo Highlands in the background, so the glistening of the sun is different) 

This is by the Great Plateau. I’m thinking near the Outpost Ruins considering this isn’t Gatepost Town since they Great Plateau’s entrance is not in view. In fact, I could probably specifically place this right....HERE

Flag poles, juts in the Plateau walls, road directly perpendicular to the Plateau. If my three years of staring at the Botw world is correct, [please Nintendo it’s the only thing I’m good at] then I’d say they’re at the Outpost Ruins. The only thing is that the houses seen here are mainly wood, while the ruins have clear stone walls

Well...I don’t mind.

This is not Master Kohga. Different voice actor, new character design, new villain! I’m assuming he’s some sort of second in command or captain, given he duel wields Windcleavers. Also not how he doesn’t have a scar on his mask in this scene

Further note, look at that chimney!!! I love that chimney, I haven’t seen that chimney before... it’s in a style that I can only really place in Castle Town, but the location is clearly not there, so best assumption is that this is another prominent Hylian Village. The Hateno style archway at the bottom right seems to support so. The house shingles definitely mean this isn’t an outpost or military ruin...[this weekend I’d love to hope into the game myself and place it exactly] the background cliffs mean this isn’t Gatepost Town either. The rock formations look like a turn by Scout’s Hill, of the western breach by the Outskirts Stable...I wouldn’t put the Rauru Settlements out of the question either. All in all, I’m hesitant to connect this scene with the other scene because one clearly has a dirt path, and the other a stony road. Plus the house shingles are different

Ok I can pretty much place this scene exactly. At least the bottom one, the top one is a separate scene that doesn’t flow into the other one (you can just tell by the framing and continuity) 

You can see the Great Plateau entrance, the line of sight is at an angle, placing this backflipping Yiga man somewhere here. Only inconsistency would be the trees, but perhaps it’s just grown over after a hundred years, you can even see a building in the middle of this forest in center left of the map.

Link is chasing Backflip Benny over here through to the exit of town, (you can see the town entrance/exit archway on the bottom right, similar to the one seen in the chimney pic) AND you can see that Backflip Benny also has a fresh cut on his mask, presumable gained after fighting Link, which is why he teleports away at the end. 

So that places these two shots definitely after whatever conversation happened on the roof. Yay for timelines! 

The stupendous Chief of the Yiga Clan! Master Kohga!

This takes place at some ruins of some sort. The rocks on the top right actually look Edlin or Akkala, but that might just be the lighting. The stony slabs and etches actually remind be of Zonai, but that doesn’t really seem right...I’ve never seen those designs before I don’t think...you can see from the way the stone slabs are angled that they lead to a circular pattern. It could be the circular pit at the Yiga Hideout, but that area is just sand, not stone. The smooth, plain style of these ruins is actually more in line with Gerudo Ruins so that might actually be the case; we know the Yiga have a history of taking Gerudo Ruins as their own (The Yiga Hideout is canonically an old Gerudo architectural dig)

I’ll also note that this scene has the same lighting as the first shot, and the last two shots which we’ll see later. 

*maniacal laughter* Oo? TWO new characters I see???? O????? 

This is definitely the Yiga hideout, you can tell from the wall design, plus the lanterns, and the general comfort of Master Kohga and Backflip Benny in the background. But, elephant in the room...who are YOU dear sir? 

I’ll talk more about them later, but just keep that Calamity glowing thing in their hand in mind for later.

He’s gonna kill you all...to DEATH! 

This is Master Kohga speaking again, if you couldn’t tell from his....very dramatic and in character dialogue. Maybe this game will actually make me like him now alsdfkjsdlk

Obvious is obvious, this is the Yiga Hideout again, similar lighting to the first opening shot, I’m thinking this might be sometimes before it though, considering he has his minions around. Maybe Link fights off the goons, which prompts him to ask “Look what you did” but we can’t know for sure. 

Also there’s grass? So maybe that other shot isn’t the hideout. Also a spotlight???!? Jazz hands?!?!? Leave it to Kohga to defy the fourth wall huh.

Also I haven’t mentioned this yet but NEW MUSIC it’s so good aughghug I can’t wait.

And...we end on another Sheikah Slate fade out on this mysterious new character. Eyeliner says: Avatar Kyoshi

Ok but seriously I have THOUGHTS!! So firstly, they’re obviously working with the Yiga Clan, perhaps they’re the reason why the Yiga are in the Gerudo to begin with considering they have the Gerudo symbol on their cape. [Cause am I the only one that thought it was weird that the disgraced Sheikah people are living in Gerudo, and not like...closer to Kakariko, or their suposedl arch nemesis of the Royal Hylian family?] Also note that this scene most definitly takes place in the Lost Woods. Perhaps they need something with the Master Sword...or are ambushing someone...hmm..

Based on that rock formation in the background I’m thinking somewhere in one of these three general areas but I really need to just pick up my switch sometimes soon and find it exact...so bare with me it’s only from memory but I’m pretty sure of myself when it comes to locations

My money’s on this being the true mastermind and antagonist, notice how their eye circlet is the same of that of the Calamity goop eye 

This person has...yellow? Brown? Hazel eyes? And light hair with a braid? I don’t think they’re Sheikah, but definetly not Gerudo either. So that leaves them to be some Hylian. A Hylian with an evil Ancient Core. 

[It’s definitly some form of Giant Ancient Core. But there’s runes on the side of it that I have yet to translate]

Thinking on their idenity for another second, you’ll notice that they wear a black robe, but their cape with the Gerudo crest is actually torn and tattered. So, perhaps they were disgraced? A runaway? Or perhaps it’s a disguise, perhaps a spy playing both roles on either side of the war? 

There’s an old theory that the fortune teller who initally told King Rhoam of the prophecy was actually part of the Yiga Clan. Seeing as, their actions led the King to dig up the Guardians, and cement the deaths of thousands of people. So, putting points in order here

Evil Magic dude

Works for the Yiga

Has connected to people in power 

Has an evil Ancient Core

Could it be that this mastermind fully knew that the Guardians would eventually be corrupted? Could they be the “fortune teller” that encouraged the King to excavate the Sheikah Technology? Sheikah Technology, that would be an insult to the Yiga Clan considering their people were banished for creating them in the first place? Hmmm....

Final NOTE! Remember that one scene in the other HWAOC trailer with Zelda holding a mysterious object? 

Hmm...Sheikah Scientists, weird egg robot, and now an evil Ancient Core...you may also remember Daruk mentioning in dialogue that something was wrong with Rudania...and cutscenes from Urbosa and Revali might point to the Yiga being close to the Divine Beasts...lots to chew on. I’m thinking the plot of this game will heaviliy revolve on the idea that there was some sort of plan that led to Ganon corrupting the Guardians and Divine Beasts, but we’ll see!

[ships-n-giggles]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity; How Nintendo Subverted Expectations and Emphasizes Unity over the Lone Hero Trope

Having played Age of Calamity to death, I was one of the many people who expected the same outcome of a prequel to the much beloved Breath of the Wild; an exciting, battle based game that ultimately confirms the outcome that we see in flashbacks of Link’s service to the princess before his 100 year slumber, a tragedy waiting to happen.

But, spoilers down below, the rug gets pulled from under your feet in the most positive and heartwarming way.

In order to emphasize the message of Age of Calamity, let’s return to Breath of the Wild for a minute. The game shows very clearly that this follows the Hero’s Journey, which we’ve played many times before in Zelda games. This Lone Hero Trope, as I call it, is the dedication of a single person for a greater cause, who shoulders heavy burdens on their own in order to carry out a noble mission. Both Link AND Zelda represent this trope! Not only do we learn of Zelda’s quiet, lone suffering as she struggles and fails to achieve her inner sealing power, but we see it visually when we play as Link, following his quest to defeat Ganon.

Just look at the Memory Images Link follows. When each one opens up, Link and Zelda often stand apart as time begins. Even their fellow Champions stand apart during the first memory where Link is being knighted, expressing doubts and concerns, while Zelda shrinks with reluctance.

But then when we see the opening scene of the first playthrough mission of Age of Calamity, our first shot of Link not only has him teaming up with an entire platoon, but they’re all united. Standing together, roused by a common cause to fight evil, and positioned close together. In many of the cutscenes thereafter, there’s an increasing closeness to all the characters, and a budding sense of familiarity.

What changed? Baby Guardian.

The Baby Guardian is only given a short period of time to be seen by the audience in the opening prequel, awakened by Zelda’s sealing power, and urged to flee back to the past to find her. We see the shift from Lone Hero to Unity right away; Baby Guardian knows they can’t carry out the rescue of Hyrule on their own and instinctively goes to find someone he KNOWS can. In doing so, he finds Link and Impa, who are pulled to Zelda’s side while chasing him. From then on out, this change draws more and more people together.

Now I have my own theory, which you can agree or disagree with. What we see of Baby Guardian in Zelda’s flashbacks of him hark to a childhood when her mother the Queen was still alive. And, to a smaller degree, we can connect this memory to another one not seen, but shown when Zelda gives her father a tool she and her mother found while investigating Sheikah technology.

Though her mother is dead, she is still sending means to protect her family, all of which are only achieved when the characters communicate and listen to each other. King Rhoam would most certainly have perished to the Guardian assault on Hyrule Castle if he had not accepted the tool Zelda gave him, and Zelda would not have developed her power to fight with the Sheikah tools had Baby Guardian not arrived either.

The very fact that there are literal swarms of monsters, more intense challenges, only drives home how hard it is to take someone down when they’re not alone. Any of the playable characters can take down literally hundreds if not THOUSANDS of monsters at a time because in most cases, they’re not doing it on their own. Just look at the characters we can recruit; while Hetsu, the Great Fairies, and Monk Maz Koshia are all aids to Link’s journey in Breath of the Wild, we never receive their aid as staunchly as we do in Age of Calamity. Even Kohga ends up joining the fight, when it becomes clear that Astor is a threat to their existence. And the more that join, the greater the offense.

Why change the future? What turns this prequel into a spinoff with a happy ending? It’s a shift in mindsets; from Rhoam’s to Baby Guardians.

Whether you can appreciate the King of Hyrule as a complex character or hate him for being a terrible father, the fact of the matter is that he is not only a leader, but a manifestation of Hyrule as a kingdom All kings more or less fill this role as a model for what a kingdom could be. Rhoam undoubtedly was raised to follow the Hero’s Journey to the letter, to expect a princess with sealing powers, a Hylian with a sword to seal the darkness and a monster to overcome. But when things don’t happen the way the stories tell him, like when Zelda can’t access her sealing power, he only buckles down on the importance of sole strength.

This ends up being a fatal flaw in Breath of the Wild, as he ends up pushing his daughter away. In his diary, readable in Hyrule Castle if you access his private office, we see his regrets, and decision to accept her no matter what....all far too late by the time he writes them.

But in Age of Calamity, when faced with the huge group Zelda has gathered with Baby Guardian’s help, as well as having been rescued by the very technology he tried to urge Zelda away from, he can’t deny the facts any longer. After Rhoam is recruited as a playable character, we see much less of him as a leader. He’s accepted his daughter’s growth, aided by the help of her friends, and seen the truth for what it is.

That a people united is a people saved.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I love Breath of the Wild. The music, the challenging shrines and boss battles, all of it. However Age of Calamity hit me emotionally and more or less exposed some of the weaknesses of most Zelda games. While there have been mild exceptions, we’re so used to carrying the burden of saving the whole world on our own, we forget just what a crushing responsibility it must be for these young people. We can see it in Zelda’s heartbreaking scene in the Spring of Courage, cursing her fate, pushed to tears, and standing apart. It sends a particularly poignant message to me now, often feeling like the only way something can get done is if I do it on my own.

But Breath of the Wild is evidence to why this doesn’t work. While we can see a true victory over Ganon, a kingdom saved, and a princess rescued, we also see the toll it took before it could be achieved. The Champions, King, and countless other civilians and soldiers are killed. Zelda and Link are left alone again to pick up the pieces of a fractured, weakened kingdom. The Hero’s Journey is set to continue, a long, solitary journey of hardship.

Age of Calamity on the other hand, showed how beneficial and wonderful it is to conquer a daunting world with your friends. Not only does it spirit you to the end of your journey faster, but it reinforces the message that “burdens shared are burdens halved”. And we get to save our friends, by calling upon the ones we made in Breath of the Wild through Riju, Teba, Sidon, and Yunobo. Most of the missions playable in the game, at least for replay, are able to be done by ANYONE. If you play the final battle with Link, you can replay it with Baby Guardian.

Anyone can be a hero if you fight together.

[only-by-the-stars]

the annotated Tome of the Wild

Part five: Babes in the Wood!

- A half-moon the color of yellowed pages hung high in the sky above the figures on the ground OH LOOK IT’S THAT SAME DAMN MOON AGAIN. DESPITE THAT DAYS HAVE GONE BY AND IT DEFINITELY WOULDN’T LOOK THE SAME AT THIS POINT.

- “Idiot child. Perhaps I should've done something to make you more intelligent, instead of just transforming your body.” And here we have confirmation that it was Koume that changed her into this.

- Of course, the centerpiece of this scene is the reveal of what Midna’s been up to this whole time. In the show, the situation for Beatrice is similar: she thought that Adelaide just wanted a couple of kids to do household chores, and was fine with just turning them over to her in exchange for the item she needed to break her and her family’s curse. Until, of course, she grew to like them and have second thoughts, as Midna does here. Which of course lines up with how Midna initially thought to just use Link in TP to help herself and her people, until his actions and Zelda’s made her reconsider her disdain for the people of the world of light. Here it’s her bond with Aryll and Link that makes her hesitate to hand them over: she really likes Aryll, and after a rough start with Link they’re now getting along, and she feels a lot of sympathy for his situation with Mipha. She doesn’t want to keep them from getting home even for a little while, and when she finds out about Koume’s true intentions she draws the line, as her moral code won’t let her hurt others for her own sake and she knows Zelda wouldn’t want her to hurt anyone on her behalf either. This conflict and growth are exactly why I had an easy time casting Midna in this role, and I loved being able to write her and develop the dynamics she has with Link and Aryll.

- “Only the voice of the shadow that lurks in the woods, the king of darkness that rules the night, concerns me...” King of Darkness is one of Ganon’s titles in the series.

- “There is only his way.” A line that will be echoed by the Beast himself much later.

- “Aryll, I know!” Link froze as soon as the words were out of his mouth. We’re at the point where Link is snapping at his beloved baby sister, showing just how stressed out he is right now. He was able to relax more when Midna was around, but now her betrayal is driving him further along that path to despair I’ve been mentioning. He immediately apologizes, to his credit, but he’s still starting to crack.

- “You are in grave peril, and your fate, your very lives depend on if you heed my words or not! The Beast stalks you, seeking your fall into his grasp... but you must not allow him to capture you, you must not give in to despair!” He’s not wrong! Listen to him!

- The shadow laughed, a long, low sound that seemed to ooze up from the deepest depths of the earth where eldritch creatures slumbered, forgotten by time and the gods alike. Calamity Ganon emerges from deep beneath Hyrule Castle.

- “You forget, do you not, that your daughter's safety depends upon keeping me happy?” The first hint of the deception that the Beast is working on Rhoam.

- Aryll is now calling her frog Alfonzo, after the engineer in Spirit Tracks.

- AND THEN THERE’S NAYRU AND KOTAKE. This was one of the most FUN things I got to play with. The episode this portion is an adaptation of is probably my favorite in the show, and I had an utter blast toying with expectations here just as the show did. Maybe even more! The show leads you to believe that the character Kotake replaces is the sinister and evil one, preying on the hapless young girl that Nayru is replacing, only to yank the rug out from under you and reveal that the girl is possessed and trying to eat the brothers.

now, Nayru is from Oracle of Ages. You meet her at the beginning, whereupon she quickly becomes possessed by the evil sorceress Veran. Kotake, meanwhile, is present as a villain in OOT and a linked Oracle game, and as a friendly shopkeeper in Majora’s Mask. We just saw the villainous version of her sister at the beginning of this chapter. So... is she evil too? If you’ve never seen the show, have played OOT and MM but not the Oracle games, you probably got taken in just like a first time viewer of the show is. Only to find out too late, as does Link, that Nayru is the people-eating one, and not Kotake, who is indeed her MM self and not evil.

- Nayru laughed too, a pleasant sound reminiscent of harp strings being played. Nayru gives Link the Harp of Ages in OOA.

- Aryll has switched the frog’s name to Dr. Calip, after the NPC in BOTW who gives you the Cursed Statue shrine quest.

- “It is thanks to you that I shall finally be free to roam the outside world, after all.” DANGER DANGER, the evil spirit wants to roam free and EAT MORE PEOPLE.

- Aryll spots the danger, but mistakes it for her desire to see Link end up with Mipha and no one else. Which we all agree with, of course, but it’s not the real reason she’s uncomfortable. Link, meanwhile, is oblivious to it, at least partially because he’s sinking deeper into despair and contemplating just letting Mipha go out of his intensifying self-hatred over what he’s done to her.

- Nayru's eager whisper broke into his thoughts. He glanced up and saw her eyes gleaming with a sort of hunger as she gazed across the room at him. DANGER DANGER, SHE WANTS TO DEVOUR YOU. Again, I choose my descriptive words very deliberately.

- Eerie purple light glowed around Nayru as she hovered in the air, and her face had been twisted into something that resembled a ReDead mask. Veran’s spirit form is indeed purple, and nobody who’s ever played OOT, MM, or WW can forget the ReDeads. my favorite monster I want them back dammit

- “Link?” Aryll pressed herself against his side and clutched at his arm. “There are a lot of skeletons in here...” Remember how Aryll was so excited about digging up a single skeleton back in Ikana? Not so fun anymore.

- In the show, the whole sequence of trying to avoid being eaten was creepy, but a bit more comedic too. I leaned fully into the horror that it truly would be here, not just because I wanted to write something scary, but also because I needed something that would traumatize Link enough to push him into the breakdown he has in the woods afterwards, setting the climax of the story in motion. His feelings of failure mirror what I headcanon he must’ve been going through just before he fell in Blatchery Plain as well, the despair he would’ve felt over being unable to prevent the fall of the kingdom, the deaths of his friends (especially Mipha, who he’s grieving the most), and knowing that he’s at his limit and about to die before he can get Zelda to safety. Which is another way that the appearance of that painting in the last chapter ties in.

- Aryll’s dream sequence! OH BOY. In the show, this is an entire episode, done in the style of 1930s animation, with musical numbers and everything. That doesn’t quite translate to prose, though, so I had to change and abridge it. More interestingly, though, there’s subtle hints in the show that the dream is not real, and is intended to lure Greg, the younger brother, into the clutches of the Beast. I decided to run with that. One of the hints in the show is that the gates you see seem to be made of ivory; in Greek myth, dreams pass through one of two gates, either horn or ivory. True dreams come through the gates of horn, while false ones pass through the gates of ivory. So naturally Aryll walks through gates of ivory to reach the tower.

The tower itself is the one located in the Cloud Tops in Minish Cap. Which, here, is ruled by Princess Hilda from Link Between Worlds, who has Aryll save her kingdom from the evil Yuga. This is all a HUGE hint that this is false, a trap. Because in ALBW, Hilda was conspiring with Yuga in a desperate bid to save Lorule. And who took over Yuga’s body as part of that plan? Ganon. BAM.

- And now the frog is being called Ezlo, after the talking cap in Minish Cap.

- Link is now so deeply in despair that the dekuwood is starting to grow around him, which is what motivates Aryll to make her deal with the Beast that brings everything to its eventual conclusion.

- A dark shape emerged from the curtain of snow; it was a small, plump man with a beard that covered the entire lower half of his face, rowing a rickety little boat. His eyebrows went up as he took in the sight of Midna lifting the unconscious Link into the air with her prehensile hair. “That is one strange fish you've caught there, missy...” This is the fisherman from Link’s Awakening.

- What Midna sees in the distance is the Great Deku Tree, but I wasn’t about to reveal that just yet.

and that does it for part five!

[wildshero]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mipha is shit at hiding her crush

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the yiga joined the good side? the fuck aoc

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

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

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

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

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

harbinger ganon... *squints*

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

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

also the eggs name is terrako

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

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

things that i kinda like, and appreciate character wise

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

urbosa defending link from revali’s bullshit

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

link is officially considered a champion, and talks with urbosa

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

sooga is the only character i want to see in botw2

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

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

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

i prefer this design of calamity ganon

the master sword lets FUCKING DISCUSS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[chiitaku]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Ok, I know, I’m rather late on this one, seeing as this game came out in 2017 and it’s near the end of 2022.  I played this on the Nintendo Switch, but it also came out on the Wii U.

To start off, the art direction of the game is amazing,  When I opened up the game on my tv screen, I was blown away by how rich and realistic the world of Hyrule looked.  For the most part, when you’re playing you’re exploring the countryside, on foot, horseback or paraglider (I did most of the first and third; I kept running into hills that horses couldn’t climb).  But you can still run into something that really gives off the fantasy of Hyrule.  A few days ago I was at Lake Hylia tracking down a Zora’s wife and suddenly the enormous lightning dragon Farosh just casually comes out of the water and takes to the skies.  

Moving on to music.  Like the art, it’s also amazing and never seems over-bearing.  There’s some callbacks in the songs to older songs like Zelda’s Lullaby, which is nice for anyone that played any of the older games.

The voice acting!  The game has voice acting!  Granted in cutscenes and during certain battle sequences, but still, voice acting in the Legend of Zelda!  Otherwise, you still have the rather dramatic sounds from people in typical conversation.  However, back to voice acting.  The voice actors did great work in bringing the characters to life.  Hearing Revali (Champion of the Rito) teasing me while I was trying to take back the Divine Beasts Vah Medoh.  Did I mention the callbacks?  There’s more callbacks.  If you notice the names of the Divine Beasts in the game, they’re named after the sages, though one of them has had their name rearranged.  

The fighting system is pretty typical, though you have some more stuff to play with like Parry, Perfect Guard, and Flurry Rush.  I never really got the real hang of those skills, but I still beat the game.  Perfect Guard IS a good way to help defend and defeat Guardians with their own lasers, so I would suggest learning that better if you can.  Anyway, you hack, slash, have a variety of weapons of differing ranges and weights.  Oh yeah, and your weapons and shields BREAK.  Even the Master Sword itself goes down for a little bit.  This made for some distressing incidents while I was playing the game.  I definitely found that I had to run away rather than take on everything I came across which was a very different approach than how I handled other Zelda games.

Regarding LARGER threats like the Divine Beasts, the battles where you had to disable them enough for you to get inside them were a lot of fun and were pretty easy to follow.  There are also Field Bosses that you can conquer, but they require some planning (when fighting Molduga, Bomb Arrows were my best friend).  There are also Lynel, which... no, just no.  I was forced to interact with a few of those things and each time I noped out of the area as soon as I got what I needed.  Those things are death incarnate.  Nope nope nope.  You get locked in a room with one in Hyrule Castle.  Thank Hylia there were open windows in that room.  Seeing that, I instantly ran for the walls and climbed out the windows because I was NOT doing that fight.  If anyone who is reading this has conquered one of those monsters, you have my respect.  

Now this game is the longest Zelda games I’ve ever played to the point I got burned out after getting the Master Sword.  What?  You want to know what it takes to get the Master Sword?  Ok, so mostly importantly, you need 13 hearts to pull out the Master Sword.  To increase your hearts and stamina you have to complete these mini dungeons called Shrines and then take four Spirit Orbs (you get ONE as a reward from each shrine) to a Goddess Hylia statue and that increases one or the other.  Provided you don’t get a Heart when you encounter King Rhoam, you have to explore 52 shrines total (all spread across different regions and terrains) to get the required hearts.  THAT IS A LOT OF WORK.  A lot of time too and a lot of changing which shrines to conquer if you’re not strong enough for a Moderate or Strong combat challenge.  So, pace yourself with the game, you’ll be playing it a while.

Cooking was a welcome mechanic.  You find animals, kill them, take their meat and throw it in a pot with some veggies and mushrooms and you got food.  There are recipes too, but I just basically just winged cooking throughout most of the game.  However, you have to follow some recipes to make elixirs, Hearty Lizards are your best friend.  If you see Beedle selling them, scoop them up.  One of those and a Moblin Horn make the strongest potion in the game and you will need those.  You will also need potions or certain food buffs to explore the different regions, so you don’t freeze or cook to death.  Your armor/clothing will also be taken into account for these areas.

Anyway, the game overall is a lot of fun.  The game was much more challenging than any previous one I played and they managed it without a time limit battle (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, IMPRISONED FROM SKYWARD SWORD.  TO HELL WITH YOU, PINEAPPLE DEMON).  Even though it came out in 2017, it’s still an AMAZING game that anyone should pick up and give a play. 10/10.

[desolate-rose]

Chapter 7 things are not fine.

In my never ending effort to retain my crumbling grip on my sanity I had taken up a new hobby! I always had a good memory for music even if my voice sounded like someone was violently skinning a still struggling cat, but now? Even my baby babble was pretty!

I couldn't quite get my tongue around words yet to sing but I COULD humm it was actually rather entertaining! It had started out as an accident, I had just mindlessly started humming one of the lullabies my mother would sing to me, and it just sort of clicked! I had been too self conscious to sing in my last life, but now? I died! Shame can go die in a hole for all i care (also i was a baby who was going to judge me)

My new hobby had also given me a new nickname, ‘little bird’ originally when mother caught me humming a little lullaby she called me ‘her little song bird’ but that was quickly shortened to little bird. The nickname reminded me of something but i wasn't sure WHAT. it was shouting at me from the back of my mind, but for the life of me i had NO IDEA what it reminded me of which was irritating.

Maybe I had heard that nickname before?

Must have been in some book I read or some show I watched.

Eh probably wasn't that important!

But anyways, we were going to be receiving guests today! The palace (castle manor whatever it is i still haven't ruled out the chance that i'm in a world unrelated to legend of zelda with a VERY unfortunate naming sense.) is almost as busy as it was before my… christening? Announcement? Baptism? Introduction? Whatever the party celebrating me is called.

My mother is especially excited, practically floating through the last few days. From what i've gathered one of the guests is her close friends who she hasn't seen since I was born, something about a recent rise in attacks. What sort of attacks, I don't know anxiety attacks, Panic attacks, health related, bear related, it's anyone's guess at this point.

I can't exactly communicate my questions to her.

I've also gathered that she is rather important politically, because of the way everyone is fussing. My new dad doesn't like her all that much either from the way he's been grumbling, but I was reserving Judgement until I meet this mysterious friend. She all ready had several points from me because she made mom happy and she was ending my boredom

______________________________________________________

THERE FINALLY HERE!

I’m so freakin excited!

NEW PEOPLE!

And their interesting people too! The Tall, tan, and entirely female contingent of warriors (i think they're gerudo!!!) had arrived early and everyone was in a tizzy. Mother was practically vibrating where she stood, strangely contrasting with the steady arms holding me.

The women looked different from your average hylian, their faces were still eerily symmetrical and their eyes were just as big their ears were also pointed but it was a gentle point some thing you would see in a depiction of a fairy of some sort verses the massive elongated ele ears us hylians were sporting. But even beyond that in a few ways they looked even less human then we did. Beside their obvious height and strangely colored hair (their were some with PINK hair!) their bone structure was all off, their rib cages were too small to short, their hip bones protrude obnoxiously, their spines strangely S shaped, and their waists were ridiculously small. They were beautiful, in their exaggerated femininity.

“Rhoam do you see her? Oh i am so excited!” mother practically sang iridescent in her obvious joy (then again everyone sounded like they were singing in this beautifully musical language of ours).

“No love… how about i take zelda so you can go ask one of her people where she is.” His voice was a warm rumble amusement clear in the quirk of his lips. “Oh thank you dear!” i was transferred to my new dads arms, “ill be back as soon as i find her!” with a quick kiss to both of our cheeks and a flurry of skirts she was gone.

I carefully grabbed the soft beard that was now within my reach, gently tugging at the blond hair peppered with white. I now had a toy within my grasp and an interesting view to stare at. What more could a baby want! Contentment filled my bones, Today was a good day.

“SPARKY!” a high pitched squeal echoed throughout the room drawing all eyes like iron filings to a magnet. My mother launched herself at a beautifully ornamented (gerudo?) woman standing tall surveying the rest of her people. The woman smiled and it was a ferocious thing all sharp angles, wild, and fierce in the woman's happiness.

“Queenie!” the woman laughed booming and bright, easily catching my mom and swinging her around like she weighed nothing. “Come come! You need to meet my daughter” my mother laughed as well her joy juxtaposed in its gentle chiming cheer as opposed to the loud and unapologetic joy of the stranger.

Drawing the woman over to us my mother cheerfully gested at myself “Urbosa! This is my daughter zelda! Isn't she the cutest!”

My brain froze fathers beard sliding out of my slack grip.

“She is the smallest little via ive ever seen!”

Did, did, did she just say urbosa.

“Your Vehvi is beautiful, congratulations” the woman grinned at my mother.

Urbosa as in gerudo chief urbosa

“Yes she's already a lovely little lady” my father preened.

Urbosa as gerudo champion, pilot of the divine beast Vah Naboris Urbosa.

“With queenie as her mother how couldn't she be!”

URBOSA AS IN A CHARACTER FROM BREATH OF THE WILD URBOSA!

“You flatterer!”

I'm doomed aren't I.

Also on FanFiction.Net! https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13547505/7/

[46hasu]

i just need to rant here a little here pls ignore me if you want

I feel that King Rhoam was the weakest part of Age of Calamity (ignoring the way they scrapped everything interesting about zelda and the fucking dues ex machina egg). King Rhoam's supposed death was executed perfectly!! He and Zelda had no chances to make amends or come to an understanding with the sudden rise of the Calamity. He was an abusive piece of shit of a father, but he was shown to love Zelda at least a little when he ordered Link to protect Zelda instead of ordering him to face the Calamity head on. It wasn't much and can be easily gleamed over but that was the point!!! His death wasn't meant to be a redemption arc where Zelda suddenly forgives him for the years of emotional neglect and verbal abuse. It was meant to be a tragedy!!! It was supposed to be about Zelda losing her father along with her kingdom!!! It was supposed to be about a man who was sure he could change fate only to be humbled by his regrets on his death!!!

seriously compared to the way King Rhoam appeared in the tutorial area of BOTW and the cutscenes before he was killed in the calamity are *very* different. The King Rhoam in the memory cutscene has an imposing figure that was announced by that pompous background music and the way he basically towers over Zelda as he belittles and humiliates her because he was so sure that what he was doing was right that he basically has his head up his ass and couldn't see that he was actually fucking up everything. But in the tutorial area??? he is a constant but a small presence that only nudges Link in the right direction. He teaches him how to hunt, cut wood, and even gives him warmer clothes for the cold mountains. He was * likable* in the tutorial area because of that (even if he did force-feed you the tutorials a little). The main point is he didn't push Link around 'to do this and now do that!' He let Link figure everything out for himself and only answered his questions when he was sure Link was ready. Which are all the things he didn't do for Zelda !! His death and regrets turned him into a more humble and patient man that made him the perfect candidate for the tutorial area.

And more importantly, he pleads Link to save Zelda when he reveals his identity! Not orders or demands!! He begs Link to save his daughter instead of forcing him to face his destiny and save Hyrule (which were things that he would constantly demand Zelda to do when she unlocks her powers)

So yeah!! His death is meant to be a tragedy that humbles him and knocks him back down to reality at how powerless he really is! He isn't meant to defy destiny or make the two chosen ones save Hyrule.

It is not a redemption arc!!!! It's a plot device that is meant to nudge Link to the main objective!! His character arc ended with his death where he was killed from the calamity and became more humble!!! He never redeemed himself!!!

But Age of Calamity???!?!!??!

"Oh let's GET RID OF THAT *ENTIRELY*"

The main problem with Age of Calamity is how it practically throws itself back to the Zelda formula that made the entire series have a weak plot to begin with. The writer's are too afraid to take risks that could make the story more appealing and darker. BOTW didn't have a masterpiece of a storyline, but Age of Calamity is a glaring step down. Zelda is now a two-dimensional character whose main characteristic is that she is ~insecure~ Impa coming in and out of the story at a drop of a hat. Link shows no signs of anxiety and pressure from being the chosen one. None of the Champions have anything added onto them. And the *fucking* egg

I have strong feelings about all of those things but this rant is about King Rhoam.

God where do I even start.

At first AoC seemed to have everything right about King Rhoam's arrogance and overall shitty behavior towards Zelda. But we hardly ever see any of that in the game. He hardly ever discourages Zelda from being a scholar and doesn't even humiliate her in front of everyone for the sake of seeming like a good leader and king. He only appears, shows his disapproval of Zelda and disappears until his "death"

ok this is where the real rant comes in

Again, i loved that scene. It was tragic. Zelda was weeping her eyes out, Link shows the first ounce of emotion in fuck knows how long. And more importantly!!! Rhoam is confronted with his faults!!!! He finally prioritizes Zelda above his kingdom!!! He orders Link to protect her instead of making him fight the Calamity!!! He can't bring himself to apologize to Zelda because there is no time!!! this isn't the place for it!!! He cares more about Zelda escaping alive than being forgiven!!!

yes I nearly did cry

He accepts his fate that he would die to the calamity with no means to make amends to his daughter. But then that happens

I was hyped af to learn about the mysterious device that Zelda always carried with her and I loved the touch that she and her mother both used to make theories about what it could have been used for cause it gave us just a little fact about the previous queen of Hyrule. (and it was the only thing we got akdghkadghjkJKDFK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG)

But then Zelda gave the device to

King Rhoam ???

ZELDA NO YOUR FATHER IS JUST GOING TO TOSS IT ASIDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING TAKE IT BACK TAKE IT BACK TAKE IT BACK

Looking back on it. He should have thrown it aside and admonished Zelda even more for prioritizing Guardian research over her destiny. It would have been in character and would have shown just how far he had his head up his ass. but noooooo

Instead we got the dues ex machina to end all dues ex machinas (second only to the fucking egg). That device activates just as he is about to die and saves him and his men from the guardians.

What??? How???? How did it activate??? How did he know how to use it when Zelda (the Guardian enthusiast who has been researching it most of her life along with her mother the queen and probably a shit ton of Sheikah scientists) couldn't figure it out??

"It's cause the previous queen was looking after him from heaven or whatever fuck is the heaven equivalent of the Hylian religion."

Listen, you and I both know it's not a valid reason. (though that is touching in the cheapest and smallest way possible cause I would have just watched him being desecrated with popcorn in hand if i was the previous queen)

And why did he not go after Zelda and Link after he was safe?????? Why did he let her think he was dead instead of going after her and going "lol nvm i didn't need a cool sacrifice scene after all" ???

So yeah all that emotional cutscene got undermined by that shitty plot device

You know, I'm starting to think that the whole saving King Rhoam was a last-minute idea that was hammered on cause they didn't want a sad Zelda game (oh okay so Midna's farewell wasn't sad at all, gotcha Nintendo.)

Ok moving on from the super cheap plot device to save King Rhoam let me now rant about his redemption arc.

FUCK THAT

Nintendo really tried to redeem him with a half-assed apology for the years of emotional and verbal abuse huh. Zelda should have shot lighting at him like Zuko did, that would have been pleasing tbh

You know I don't really have to go on about this section. We all hate the "forgiving abusive parent" trope so I'm moving on to why he should have stayed dead instead of being saved

Reason #1:

There was literally no more time left to explore Zelda and Rhoam's new relationship now that Zelda ~magically~ forgave him. In fact they never interact again after that scene. So what was the point of that forgiveness if they weren't going to build on it??

Trick question: there was no point. Nintendo just didn't want a sad Zelda.

Reason #2:

Remember that cool ass speech that Zelda gave to *HER* troops a day after the Calamity awakened and she announced that the goddess was on their side in that ugly ass dress that she insists on wearing for some reason (*ahem ahem* marketing reasons *ahem*)?

Yeah I enjoyed that scene despite the dress. Zelda is finally and officially a queen now !!! (no Twilight Princess and original Hyrule Warriors doesn't really count cause they continue to be called a princess for some reason *ahem ahem* marketing reason *ahem*) She has finally grown up and learned to be more confident!! She's ready to take charge and lead her troops!! It's Zelda time bitches!!!!

but no

King Rhoam is actually still alive. So Zelda is still just a princess so no queen Zelda action there.

ok but she's still in charge cause she has the goddess's powers now right???

no

After that half assed apology we had to sit through (I feel you Kohga I was also crying about how bad and cheesy it was) King Rhoam immediately takes back the charge of the troops, making Zelda stand aside.

"But she lead the charge towards the castle!!!"

no she didn't. She only said "onward!!" cause the big speech before the final battle got taken up by King Rhoam.

Yeah,,,, he really should have stayed dead

Reason #3: THE EGG

if you are reading this rant then you were just waiting for this part weren't you???

Well so was I and without a further ado....

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT????

HE JUST TOOK THE EGG FROM A SEVEN YEAR OLD???? BRO WHAT THE FUCK

"But you just said that king rhoam was meant to be arrogant and how his death and regrets humbled him!!!"

i did, didn't I?

But let's say that we did have our hearts moved by the apology scene and cried our eyes out. The father and daughter have finally come to a mutual understanding!! King Rhoam wasn't actually a shitty person after all!!

no

we get slapped with the memory of how King Rhoam stole Terrako away from Zelda cause uuhhhh *checks notes* a seven year should focus on saving the lives of millions instead of having time for herself to play.............

,,,,,,,,,,,,

DID NINTENDO JUST MAKE US SIT THROUGH ONE BIG KING RHOAM ISN'T ACTUALY A BAD GUY TO HE'S ACTUALLY AN ASSHOLE???

WHAT IS THIS NARRATIVE STRUCTURE????

DO YOU WANT US TO SYMPATHIZE WITH HIM OR NOT???

and that flashback is entirely new to Zelda!!! How is she supposed to feel about her father now????? She just forgave him (which she shouldn't have tbh) and she just got slapped with the memory of just how shitty her father was!!!!

Did their mutual understanding fall apart from that memory??? Did her forgiveness in him crumble???

Well we don't know cause it is never shown :^)

Yeah good job Nintendo what a nice story structure amazing 10/10 I'm in tears all our questions are answered and crops are watered bless

Real talk though, was anyone's questions answered from Age of Calamity??? Did the character have added depth from Breath of the Wild??? Did we really learn anything????

I don't know about you all but I'm just left with more questions than answers and more salt then I don't know what to do with

Again BOTW didn't have a strong storyline. But Age of Calamity had destroyed so many good things that the game *did* offer. And yes King Rhoam's character was just one of many

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THAT FUCKING EGGG THAT RUINED EVERYTHING HOLY FUCK

Remember that time in Age Of Calamity where they tried to pull a King Rhoam redemption arc and he’s like “Oh boo hoo it took me nearly dying to realize I was being an abusive father. Pleeeeease forgive me.” But then any sympathy we may feel for him is immediately lost when he’s shown in a memory taking away what is essentially a pet/friend from his grieving and lonely child?

Yeah....