#DARUK WAS RIGHT

[skyward-floored]

Sometimes I remember how baby-faced Wild is here and just yell because HE LOOKS SO YOUNG

[weepingtalecowboy]

Fanfic prompt: wind has the ability to see ghosts right

What if the ghosts were using him to tell people things they are incapable of saying anymore and want to move on or whatever

But it is just all the chain's ghosts telling him cryptic threats and wind relaying them word for word in the worst possible times

Like it is just time sleeping together with Malon having a good restful sleep

When he wakes up walks into the bathroom and then he just sees a something written on his face

“He told me he wants his face back or there will be consequences”

And then he freaks out badly because that sounds familiar

Time didn’t even have the time to understand what just happened to him and if it was a weird hallucination but that man was having the anxiety of his life

Or

Legend finding a note in his bag (he freaks out how someone even managed to put one in there despite the protective charms)

And it just says “It wasn’t your fault that he (never) woke up”

(Marin and legend's Uncle)

And it just gives him horrible anxiety

Or

Wild finding a note on his slate that says “you won’t survive as long as you continue like this”

(Mipha was just particularly annoyed at him that day)

Wild took it as a threat

Or

four got a single word

“Shadow”

Then decided that he is probably cursed

And it just wouldn’t stop because wind is just doing what the ghosts want

The escalation happens when he either slips up and gets caught or if Twilight figures him out because he also can see ghosts

[muchmossymess]

A Revali Fanfic Recommendation

I urge you all to put your life on hold for a moment and go read this brilliant fanfiction:

A hundred years after the fall of Hyrule to Calamity Ganon, and the hero Link has finally sealed the darkness and freed the Divine Beasts of their curse - and with it, their pilots are finally free. But not just as spirits. Awake once again, the four Champions of old have a second chance at life and must re-adjust to this future world with their decendants. Well - all except for one Champion, who doesn't have a decentant. Or even anyone left alive that knew him. Teba is happy to take in his revived ancient idol as one of his own, but sharing a living space with a hundred year old Champion with an ego the size of his divine beast and who might have some issues he's not willing to share can be a lot sometimes and they don't always see eye to eye. Revali thinks he should return to leading the new generation of Rito warriors. Teba thinks this actual child should never have been leading warriors or fighting a war in the first place. Tulin is just excited to have the infamous Rito Champion in his house.

Beautifully written and lovingly crafted, this baby can fit so much trauma and whump into the most gut-wrenching and heat-breakingly found family story you may ever read. 130,000 words, 36 chapters (and still regularly updating!), and a CRIMINALLY low number of kudos. If that doesn't sway you, here is some gushing under the cut <3

You think you've read a champions revival fic before? This will have you saying "how the FUCK have I not seen this before" and completely change the way you view everything (mild exaggeration. m i l d). We have all of your favourite revali tropes: being a dick and getting owned, being a dick and being right, getting own and never showing those feelings to the light of day, getting killed, getting unkilled and loved, showing emotions but being super weird and revali about it, bonding with tulin!!, bonding with teba and the rest of rito village, bonding with the champions, having panic attacks and trauma, vah medoh being the best ever, being a terrifying force of nature, being an idiot kid, and so much more!

Do you like grumpy dad teba? Do you like revali swallowing his pride? Do you like revali immediately spitting his pride back up and being a bitchy bird? Do you like mipha and revali as gossip buddies? Do you like the complete and utter fool revali makes of himself everytime he so much as hears the name link? Do you like people seeing right through his facade and calling him out on it?

AND NOT TO MENTION THE WORLD BUILDING??? this fic is so in depth of the political climates, racism, lore, changes in culture during times of war, colonisation, biology of the races and just fucking everything?? It adds so much life to the world of hyrule I am genuinely shocked at how much this person clearly loves these games (botw/totk/aoc) and they are able to incorporate all of this amazing information in a way that flows so naturally and just hhrnngngg I am fucking insane about it. THE SCIENCE, oh my god how did I forget all the wonderous thoughts surrounding the divine beasts and the sheikah tech, oh god and how they write the magic system? Guys I swear it's so good.

Characterisation is on point, everyone feels so full of life and that they are reacting exactly how you would expect them too, and they just seem so real, like they are right beside you as you're reading. The author does an IMMACULATE job of drawing you in and making you feel a part of the story, all the while being just beautifully written?

Don't get me started on the attention to rito culture. I have never seen someone pour so much love into something before, genuinely on of the greatest things I've seen. I've always had a fascination over how the races of hyrule view each other, similarities and differences, how their cultures and histories intertwine, and conflicts that may arise. But oh. my. god. My jaw was on the floor every time, it's so rich and beautiful but not without the horrors (and oh god, they are Horrors tm) and again it's just so real!!!

Be warned, however, that there is gore and viscera and terror and hurt and war crimes and death (duh), but for each terrible thing to happen it is repaid tenfold in love and kindness somewhere down the line. (Unless you are into hurt no comfort, then sorry buddy!) It is a beautiful narrative and the exploration of trauma and self is mind boggling and just go read it!!! 😭 😭 😭 I just love this fic so much, it has instantly sky-rocketed to one of my top 3 favourite fics I've ever read, and I'm so grateful to have found it and now be along for the ride that if I could bring that to one more person then by god I will fucking do it

[amiharana]

totk should have been about reviving the champions and then finding the secret fifth divine beast that link & zelda pilot together in order to create an overpowered sheikah voltron and then they battle against ganondorf's demise voltron to save hyrule

[tashacee]

Broke: Daruk calls Link ‘Little Guy’ because he’s a Hylian and therefore smaller than him.

Woke: Daruk calls Link ‘Little Guy’ because Link is so objectively short even for a Hylian that even Daruk has noticed

[uncreativebean]

I love how in the Champions Ballad quest you fight all the blights with what the other champions had as their weapons/defense just to see how difficult it was. I just really like that touch and oh my gosh it made me so freaking sad

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

As mentioned before, I spun a wheel with many options and what we landed on was:

Zelda: BOTW

Link liked Daruk.

He appreciated all the Champions -- yes, even Revali.

Sometimes.

Occasionally.

And Mipha had been his friend since, well, since about as far back as he could remember.

Aren't kids supposed to have memories outside of a career? Did Father have to present me to the king so young?

But there was something about Daruk that was different. He didn't look at Link with the childhood nostalgia of Mipha. He wasn't the King of Hyrule, always watching, always measuring, sifting him to see whether he was truly worth anything. And Daruk was not one of the Hylian soldiers. He didn't have the first clue about what rank Link's father held, and he had absolutely no opinions regarding how well Link was measuring up to Arn's legacy.

Daruk expected nothing of him save for courage in battle and a hearty appetite afterward.

Rock Roast isn't that bad, Impa is just being mean-

Why did Daruk care so much about whether or not Link was eating well, or had adequate protection from the deadly heat? Did he fuss over his subordinate Gorons like that?

In Hyrule, everyone had always left him to figure everything out on his own. First aid, starting a fire, shaving, communicating, even. It was like...like they thought he had come into this world already bearing the knowledge and experience of every Chosen Hero who had lived before him.

He was supposed to know these things! He was supposed to excel at everything!

...and Father wonders why we never talk...

But Daruk never demanded excellence. He didn't frown in disapproval if Link didn't balance just right, and he wouldn't make Link drill for hours if he performed a classic attack incorrectly, like the Knight Captains used to.

like they still would if I weren't so much stronger than them, now-

It was strange. Sometimes Link caught a glimpse of Daruk out of the corner of his eye; he saw the barrel chest and sideburns and sometimes almost mistook him for Arn.

But it's been a long, long, time since Father had the chance or inclination to ask me what I thought...

"You okay, little guy?" Daruk jostled him amiably. "You look like you got some pebbles not sittin' right in your gut."

"Just...thinking." Link responded, then blinked. Usually he answered with facial expressions or sounds. Did Daruk know Hyrule Sign?

Daruk's eyes crinkled at the corners. "Hoo! That Hylian accent is thick, boy! Those hands are dripping with fancy manners. You know any miners' jargon? It'll make talkin' to the brothers around here a lot easier."

The smile was out and about before Link had time to even process the question. Daruk understood! It had taken weeks for Mipha to learn how to talk to Link. He'd expected Eldin to be much like Lanayru.

"I only know Hyrule Sign, and some words in Zora," Link answered, "Will you teach me?"

"Is Death Mountain hot?" Daruk retorted, "Of course I will! Come on, little guy, let's see if we can find you a teacher!"

...maybe...maybe it's okay to not know everything. At least, it's okay with the Gorons.

[chai-en-kaadhale]

It would be so funny if Sidon was just comically unaware that Link dated his sister

[echidnana]

been a little bit in love with the word bigender lately

[chatter-crow]

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN???

[noirandchocolate]

All the Champions’ demises at the Blights’ hands are tragic, but Mipha’s is forever the one that fucks me up the most when we play BotW because out of the group she is the only one that, one hundred years after the Calamity, should not be dead.

By the time that the game is taking place, Urbosa, Revali, and Daruk would have passed of old age even if things had gone right. But Mipha would still be in her early prime. Not even Queen of the Zora yet! Now that’s not to say her death is more compelling simply because she had a longer possible lifespan ahead of her. All of our companions were taken unjustly, too soon. No, what destroys me about her story every time is that…

Mipha has living family and friends.

The others are celebrated among their people, but only the Zora explicitly have citizens who personally remember their Champion. While Daruk has an entire mountain carved in his likeness, Revali has many admirers among the Rito, and Urbosa’s people speak her name with reverence, Mipha is still actively mourned. By people who knew and loved her.

Her now elderly teachers, who remain angry over her untimely loss. Her young-adult peers who recall playing with her and Link as kids. Sidon, who still wears the whistle he had as a child and who, after you complete the Vah Ruta mission, never tears himself from the plaza before his sister’s statue. King Dorephan, who asks Link about Mipha’s fate, because even after a century, he never fully gave up hope that she might be trapped, but alive.

Mipha should not be dead, but she is, and her death remains a fresh wound.

And she knows it, too. And that’s why, even when her spirit is freed, unlike with the others her story has such an air of melancholy amid the eventual triumph. She looks down upon the Domain from atop Vah Ruta, and…

“Father…are you well, I wonder? I want you to know... I have always followed my heart. I'm sorry I made you worry... I wish I could see you again... Even just once more..."

She could be there. With her father, with her little brother who is so big now, and who is trying so so hard to be like his sister. But she’s not. And she is terribly missed in a way that’s unique among the Champions.

God, it just rips my heart to pieces.

[ganondoodle]

it may not look like it but this took a long time to make

heres a rough ability breakdown for the totk rewrite project (i know its hard to read in the pic so let me clear it up and add some extra info)

theres two ability wheels now, sages are not frame rate killing glitch ghosts around you but their abilities are selected through the wheel on the right (pic is rough concept, it is clearer what is selected and what isnt + it has names in final version, symbols are placeholders as well) and bound to the player, when you acitvate it an aura appears similar to the arm abilities and their ghostly form appears besides you, charging or firing when you hit A while the ability is active

SHIEKAH ARM WHEEL

ANALYZE: zelda tells you info about targeted enemy/NPC, it gives you info about it and informs you more dynamically about important things than the foto-entries do

FOTO its fotos :) zelda joins selfies tho and does silly poses with you

REWIND: functions like the time recall in canon, but this time it is a more developed version of stasis instead

AMIIBO: its ... amiibo

HOOKSHOT: grab onto anything (perhaps restricted but not yet decided), you pull yourself+zelda to heavy stuff, light weight objects are pulled to you (including light enemies like bats or small slimes) grab onto something and hold onto it, usable like a vine (think, ww grappling hook) but with limited duration (battery power?)

AUTOBUILD: like in canon but it uses luminous stones if material isnt all there (or other material you put out to so its more versatile and you are more aware of what you have, no accidental spending then)

BUILD: similar to canon, but no glue (it kinda just fuses with no extra graphic unless pehaps like a bolt or sth), you put stuff together anyway you want; build is also used for weapons (no extra ability needed), you just build a weapon on the ground and pick it up afterwards (it has to be a weapon handle part and then sth else to it, otherwise it wont turn into a weapon)

INFUSE: infuse somethign with ancient energy, useless on normal objects usually(?) but reactivates broken or deactivated tech like elevators and doors; used to dynamically access caves and especially labs (labs serve a similar function as shrines, they are old shiekah labs that broke over time, puzzles are diverse things like traversal and little quests in which you help the researcher ghosts of the people that died in these labs (by the calamity, earthquakes, accidents, or killed by the royal army when their tech was banned and they refused to give it up)

SAGE WHEEL:

WIND GUST: same as in canon

LIGHT SHIELD/LIGHT LASER: zelda uses a shield of light to protect herself in combat, it does not affect the player (or perhaps only when you happen to be within range, which is small, this is more a character thing for her than useful for you) for the player through the selection wheel; aim and tell her to shoot a light laser like rauru did in the moldora cutscene in canon totk (a bit more dynamic) it deals very high damage to anything hit but has the highest cooldown of all abilities; deals extra damage to miasma enemies

THUNDERSTRIKE: similar as in canon, it charges through you however (so the charging only gets stopped if YOU shoot an arrow or get hit)

FIRE .. BOOM THING: similar as in canon but yuno has a little animation of daruks shield around him again :)

YIGA TELEPORT/KOGA CLONES (undecided yet): A: target a location in range and koga grabs you like a naughty kitten and teleports you both to the targetted location, you spawn in a little above ground giving you time to either perform a bullet time move or a sword attack from above B: summons a bunch of koga clones that serve as a distraction for enemies and combat support, they die in one hit (reference to kogas and monk moz kyoshias similar moveset; since there are no sage ghosts around you all the time and a max of two companions (zelda always, sage in sage dungeon) it serves as a replacment for that)

WATER ...WELL(?): sidon gives you a shield of water, elemental effect is applied to weapon and lasts as long as the shield does no matter how many times you attack; if it is hit by an enemy it breaks but you dont take damage; if the shield lasts it entire duration without getting hit it it grants you a percentage of your missing health back upon dissolving (ref to mipha healing powers anyone??)

im open to constructive feedback but overall im quite happy of makign it work out like that, although there are quite a few things that need polish i think this is both realistic and works well with what else i have been writing; remember tho, this is my rewrite so im undoing the things i dont like, like riju never being there when you need her bc she runs right up to the enemy and her losing her charge bc she keeps getting knocked over + overall uselessness of minerus robot (to me)

(totk rewritten project)

[weepingtalecowboy]

Ghost Dreamwalker wind au

Fanfic prompt: Considering that wind got his ability to see ghosts in a dream

What if in order to see ghosts in real life he has developed the method of livid-sleepwalking (which essentially means that the person has their eyes open and a bit of processing ability but still is functionally asleep and does extra weird shit)

And the chain got the “joy” to experience wind at his most deranged

Like Time is sleeping together with Malon when suddenly something scratches the door from outside

Opens it up and then wind just wakes him up with shit like :

“It’s... under the river, where the stars can’t swim,’

‘You have to burn the red thread before it knots, or the moon will forget to rise

He wants his face back and I am afraid…umh..no good”

Then before time even gets the chance to process the words he just heard wind is already between both of them and not waking back up

He knew nothing about the subject next day

But then it just kept happening with everyone while Wind was (they know now) sleepwalking

Legend gets his lost lovers entire back story from Wind (and he is also have a crisis over it because how the hell did wind get Marin’s name right her dad's name and why the hell does he know about the whale god)

Wild gets “HIS” backstory from Wind while Carrying him on his back and not being capable of giving him to someone else

He hasn’t slept well that night

Wind always looks like a doll when he is busy with terrorizing everyone and it makes him more cryptic

When four hears wind continuously tell people that his shadow is kinda gone because of his mirror

He was starting to think that maybe

Just maybe wind isn’t just making stuff up while only half lucid

[cooking-with-hailstones]

The Legend of Zelda: stats of the kingdom

A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3

I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason I find it calming. So over the past couple weeks, I’ve been making this spreadsheet!

DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the Legend of Zelda fandom on AO3.

Feel free to go explore the spreadsheet. My own observations and analysis under the cut.

TL:DR, Link has a lot of kinky sex. Sidlink and Zelink are vying for who’s the most popular ship. Also, this fandom has a shit ton of sub categories that are truly islands unto themselves and have their own conventions.

Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of AO3 results (20 fics per page) sorted by:

Hits

Kudos

Comments

Bookmarks

Anything tagged under the Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms tag that was in the top 20 most hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks made it into the spreadsheet. This ended up including 51 fics in total.

I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!

Popular fandom subcategories:

Botw (41 fics tagged as such)

Linked Universe (9, including one mostly set in the world of BOTW)

OoT (2)

(I do wonder what it would be like to run these numbers on other fanfic sites, given the popularity boom of ao3 over the last 15 years or so. But also, Botw was an insanely popular game even by Zelda standards, so… who knows?)

Tags:

Character tags: Obviously, Link was by far the most popular character, but here are the characters that had a minimum of 3 appearances per category. Yay champions!

Zelda

Sidon

Mipha

Urbosa

Revali

Daruk

Story tags: Again, just going by sheer numbers, here are the story tags that appeared at least 3 times in every category:

Slowburn

AU – canon divergence

With honorable mentions to fluff, angst, double penetration, anal sex, amnesia/memory loss, and mute or selectively mute Link, who all cracked above 3 instances in 2 separate categories.

Relationships:

This was a tight race, but shoutout to Sidlink for eking out the win for the most highly rated ship in the Zelda fandom with 13 fics qualifying in my ranking. Zelink is close behind at 10 fics. (That being said, Zelink takes it by volume: 7,797 fics tagged as Zelink vs Sidlink’s 2,193)

Other popular ships:

Revalink (8) (this one surprised me! I didn’t realize my beloved birb was so popular)

Miphlink (3)

Link/Monsters (2)

Sidon/Reader (2)

Ganzelink, Ganlink, Malink, Miphzelink, and Miphzel all made single appearances.

(Pls don’t start ship war discourse in the notes kthanx)

All right, let’s deep dive into the numbers!

Fics in all 4 categories:

Interim - starkraving

Sands of time -tirsynni

Congrats you are officially the most popular Loz fics across all of ao3! at least according to my particular scope of analysis.

Fics in 3 categories:

Displaced - socksock

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

Popular authors (people who show up more than once in multiple categories sorry comments georg)

MarquesGillette

MaryDragon

SilvermistAnimeLover

ObakeAri

Hits:

Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:

Displaced - socksock

Interim - starkraving

To Save Hyrule - orphan_account

Sands of time - tirsynni

Drown In Me - bacchanalia

First page by hits:

Min: 117,917 – Sidon’s Epic Pining Adventure (ObakeAri)  

Max:  189,622 – Displaced (socksock)

Average: 145,385

Average wordcount for fics with the most hits:

140,909

Kudos:

Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Interim - starkraving

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

26 Minutes and 42 Seconds - T_5Seconds

Blood Moon Rising - MarquesGillette

First page by kudos:

Min: 4917 – Finding Link (Umbreonix)

Max:  10321 – Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy (Icka M Chif)

Average: 6981

Average wordcount for fics with the most kudos:

41,136

Comments:

Top 5 most popular fics by comment count:

Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes - KR5

This is an Adjuration - notfreyja

My Art - KR5

Sidon's Epic Pining Adventure - ObakeAri

Priestess of War - KR5

Woohoo! You all get to meet KR5 aka Comments Georg. Comments Georg has long conversations and RPs in the comments of their ao3 posts, which are usually fanart. TO BE CLEAR, THIS IS TOTALLY FINE AND COOL! I think it’s quite delightful! However, it does completely bork my ranking system because outside of comments, these posts do not have a lot of engagement (like, less than 100 hits and less than 20 kudos) and I don’t think they count towards my analysis of “what is popular in the Zelda fandom writ large”. But they qualified based on my criteria. Which I think speaks to the weakness of my criteria more than anything else tbh…

Anyways, shoutout to Comments Georg for truly showing off what it means to be a statistical outlier.

First page by comments:

Min: 1568 – The Quiet River Rages (MaryDragon)

Max:  43808 - Carlos from MarvelandZeldaFan's Children of the Heroes (KR5)

Average: 4131 (which goes down to 2042 if we exclude KR5’s impressive max, which is a full order of magnitude more than notfreyja in second place with 3470 comments. Very much demonstrating the power of a statistical outlier!)

Average wordcount for fics with the most comments:

275,593

Bookmarks:

Top 5 most popular fics by bookmarks count:

Interim - starkraving

Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Icka M Chif

Sands of time - tirsynni

To My Dearest Friend - surveycorpsjean

Alone We Fight - SilvermistAnimeLover

First page by bookmarks:

Min: 973 – Expatriate (thehoyden)

Max:  2984 – Interim (starkraving)

Average: 1468

Average wordcount for fics with the most bookmarks:

70,027

Fic Ratings:

G: 3 (literally all fanart from KR5)

T: 22

M: 8

E: 17

Unrated: 1

Observations:

I ran this twice. Once including crossovers, and once excluding crossovers. This filtered out a lot of large drabbles and things like “flash fiction fuckings” which, no judgment, you do you, they just weren’t super relevant for what I was looking for. If you wanna see these stats including all the multifandom stuff that shows up, here’s the link for that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DXDKXutIzVC-Iac93fFSDohAkphrn67yV-DmRt9xXmU/edit?usp=sharing

(I’m going to break academic professional analysis here and get on my soapbox for a sec – please don’t post big multifandom one shots where you tag like 20 different fandoms and every single kink that gets written about across 103 different chapters. This is literally what series are for. These kinds of things just clog up the tags, and it also makes it harder for people to find the things you’ve written that they want to read! I know this was a convention on ff.net, but this is not ff.net! We can make authors' lives and readers' lives easier!)

There were 38,427 fics in the tag “Legend of Zelda and Related Fandoms” (including crossovers, that goes up to 41,634). I manually added one back in though because it was entirely a botw story, just loosely inspired by another game.

Linked Universe fans comment a LOT. Strong correlation between high comment and Linked Universe fandom subsection. Y’all are very involved and active, and you show support to your authors. I salute you!

Sidlinkers, y'all are horny and I respect it.

Zelinkers, dear god we do love a slowburn.

All the most highly kudos’d fics are very low in the comment count. It’s almost an inverse correlation.

Excluding crossovers increased the correlation between hits and kudos quite dramatically.

There were not very many au’s other than canon divergence. Only one modern au as far as I could tell from a cursory examination of tags.

Lots more clustering, far less disparity between min and max numbers than when I ran this with A:TLA numbers.

Far less consensus on a vibe. Way fewer big writers, but lots of little writers doing their own thing.

Truly a lot of E fics. We are horny bastards.

We need more stuff written for games other than BOTW!!

There aren’t as many fics that are like “oh everyone in the fandom has read these fics”. There are probably those fics in each subcategory of the fandom, or within the specific ships, but there aren’t as many general fics that have entire fandom-wide appeal.

Thank you for reading! This was a lot of fun, and I hope you found it interesting. Shoutout to the Hateno Hangout discord for helping me refine this mess :P

Further shoutout to my partner who helped with writing some SQL to help with tag analysis. Truly partner of the year.

If you want more of this kind of egregious nerdiness, I did this with the top fics in the A:TLA fandom a couple weeks ago: https://www.tumblr.com/cooking-with-hailstones/751749202663669760/statistical-analysis-of-the-most-popular-atla

[gothic-soda]

BoTW Theory: The Champions were unarmed when the Blights attacked

Losing my mind I just realised this detail in BoTW and I had to share it. Maybe this has already been pointed out, but I wanted to dive into it. In Memory 15 “Return of Calamity Ganon,” none of the champions are shown with their weapons, except for Link.

See, no weapons.

And when Revali flies up to get a better look at the Calamity, we can see he doesn’t have his Great Eagle Bow.

The only one with a visible weapon is Link, who has the Master Sword.

We can assume that the champions headed straight to their divine beasts while Link and Zelda headed to the castle. Daruk clearly orders all of the champions to immediately head towards their Divine Beasts.

And really, if you think about it, the original plan was for the champions to strike Ganon with their Divine Beasts, they’d have no reason to think they’d need their weapons, because the Champions themselves were never meant to face off with Ganon directly.

Then there is also the fact that each Champion’s respective villages has kept their Champion’s weapons in a chest for 100 years after the Calamity. This is even though no one had set foot on any of the Divine Beasts in 100 years, so if the champions DID have their weapons on them during the battle, how would it be possible for each champion’s race to have their weapons in their possession? And they couldn’t have been retrieved after Link freed the Divine Beast, because Teba makes a comment that he is not strong enough to use the Great Eagle Bow without it slowing down his flight. I don’t exactly buy the idea that Teba, while injured, would have immediately tried the Great Eagle Bow the second Vah Medoh was freed. He most likely did so at some point before freeing the Divine Beast with Link.

We know from BoTW that each divine beasts has chests containing weapons that the champions could have potentially used to defend themselves, but they are all spread out throughout the divine beasts, so it certainly would have been difficult for them to get their hands on any weapons even when they did realise they were under attack.

The only weapons onboard each divine beast were:

Vah Medoh

5x Bomb Arrows

10x Ice Arrows

1x Knights Bow

Even the best archer in Hyrule (which Revali canonically was) would not be able to defeat Windblight with that.

Vah Naboris

1x Knights Bow

1x Knights Shield

The only thing Urbosa would be able to use here would be the shield, she’d still have her fury, sure, but that’s hardly a fair fight. And even if she knew how to use a bow (which there is no canonical basis that she does) there weren’t any arrows aboard Vah Naboris anyway.

Vah Ruta

10x Fire Arrows

10x Ice Arrows

1x Knights Halberd

The only weapon Mipha could even use here is the Knights Halberd. She’d have no use for arrows without a bow, and same thing with Urbosa, we have no idea if Mipha knows how to use a bow anyway. I should also mention that the halberd is in quite a difficult place to get to, right at the top of the Divine Beast. So this really wasn’t a fair fight for poor Mipha.

Vah Rudania

1x DragonBone Boko Club

2x Knights Bows

10x Arrows (in two separate chests, so 2 chests each with 5 arrows)

5x Ice Arrows

Nothing here would be particularly useful for Daruk. The Boko club is made out of wood, so it would catch on fire. And I don’t think Daruk would even be able to hold the Knights Bow, it would be too small for him even if he knew how to use a bow (which again, who knows if he does or doesn’t). Daruk seems to have to worst luck out of everyone.

And yeah maybe there were other weapons on the divine beasts that the champions did use, but my point is to illustrate that most of the weapons they had available to them were not ideal.

The sad part is that these chests were all unopened, so the champions likely didn’t even get a chance to defend themselves, they were taken completely by surprise.

It also puts into context that most of the champions make some kind of comment about their opponent fighting dirty, it literally wasn’t a fair fight.

[wild-dagon]

I’ve been thinking about the totk spirit dragon AU and I have some more thoughts about the champions.

When their spirits first come back in the past of course Link is over whelmed and there is a cute reunion but there’s a bigger roll at play.

With them Link is a walking mini battalion five warriors all of different races and all at the top of their skills. And they have to travel together. This makes Link Ganondorf number one problem. But we will get there in a second.

Once Link is at the castle and getting to know Rauru, Sonia and Mineru he starts learning about his powers.

I think the first time he summons the champions he tries to keep them with him for as long as possible and ends up passing out from exhaustion. He’s not used to using these powers. To Rauru and Sonia they are walking this strange boy and his four spirit guards to the castle and the next to boy is dropping to the ground. The spirits reach for him but dissipate as he goes down.

When he wakes in the castle he immediately looks around for the champions. Mineru and Sonia have to talk him down and explain that he has to practice his powers.

Through out his stay with them Link starts to master his new abilities able to keep the champions around for longer and longer periods. Keeping all four out is draining but keeping one out becomes a healthy exercise. The champions take turns being with Link. The don’t want to leave him alone in this new world they have all found themselves in. And while they would all prefer to be out they don’t want to make Link pass out again. If he passes out no one can watch over him.

Slowly he learns how to make the champions physical. It takes a lot of training with Mineru and Sonia. (She might not share his powers but she is to much of a mom not to be around encouraging him)

When Ganondorf launches his first attack on the kingdom Link is able to not only change his spirit powers to Rauru but also the powers of the champions which is what leads to Rauru’s light blast being so powerful.

After the first attack and Ganondorf swearing “loyalty” to the king Rauru knows he needs to talk to the leaders of the other races. He gathers the future sages and asks them to train with Link. At first this confuses the future sages. How would they train a hylian in the ways of their people? Until Link release the champion.

I think this would happen one at a time. Link would go to train with the Rito sage (I’m going to call them Medoh) and at first Medoh is super confused why the king sent this little hylian to train with him. He’s also a little offended think that the king believes anyone can achieve the Rito’s command over the wind. Until Link summons Revali. There has never been a bigger ego contest in the history of hyrule then champion Revali (who taught himself mastery of the winds) and Medoh great warrior future sage and control of the winds through birth right. Eventually they realize they have a lot to learn from each other. Revali gains better to control of the winds and Medoh learns archery techniques from Revali.

They go until Link can’t keep the connection up and Revali’s now drops from his hand as he is nothing more then a spirit now. (They have been at it from dawn to dusk Link is exhausted) He flys back down to Link and tells Medoh they will pick up another day before waving over whatever guards Rauru sent along to help Link return to where they are staying (a roost in Rito village, a stable, or the castle itself.

As the leave Medoh realizes what this was. It wasn’t just training for him and the spirit Rito. It was training to see how long Link can hold his projections. Every move Revali made every time he used his powers drained Link. They were training Link’s endurance.

With each training Link becomes stronger.

He meets with the Gordon sage (we’ll call them Rudania) at first Rudania is conserved for this little hylian and how he’s suppose to train him. Then Link arrives waves in creating and without a word summons Daruk. It is the Broiest Bros to ever Bro. Rudania and Daruk get along like a house on fire. (The might also accidentally set a house on fire) they are having a great time. Rudania learns Daruk’s shielding ability and Daruk gains some skill is creating fire. They walk everywhere instead of rolling because Daruk wants to carry Link up on his shoulder. He knows how hard the kid is working to bring them back and doesn’t want to over work his friend again.

Eventually they have to stop. Link can only take so much but it’s been hours but Daruk knows link needs to rest especially when he starts flickering in and out of existence. He wishes he had noticed Link’s exhaustion sooner.

Training with the Zora is different the Zora sage (Ruta) is a master of combat abilities when it comes to water. Far more so then Mipha or Sidon. Yet she has very little skill in healing. When link arrives Ruta assumed that this would be straight combat training, when Link arrives and summons Mipha she is stunned. They explain it’s actually Mipha that Ruta will be training with.

The two Zora’s start their combat training. Mipha is holding her own in the beginning but it is getting progressively harder to block the other zora’s aggressive strikes. Ruta is frustrated. She was told she would be trading the little prince. The people of hyrule had watched Sonia’s young ‘cousin’ arrive from no where and instantly get adopted by not just the royal couple but also the king’s sister. Ruta thought she would finally see what was so impressive about their new prince. And in away she had. He somehow had a Zora spirit tied to him. How is that possible? Why would a young Zora like Mipha tie her soul to this hylian after her passing. The whole situation is weird and Ruta wants to know what this Hylian can really do.

So on her next attack on Mipha she fakes striking from the left only to jet herself to the right. She uses the water to launch herself at Link. She knows she caught him unprepared so this should be and easy hit. She wasn’t going to kill him. Just knock him down. But Link’s sword is out faster then she can blink and blocking her strike. Well almost she nicks his arm. The guards watching over this start to rush over but Link calls them off. The attack wasn’t meant to kill him.

Mipha rushes over to join them and Ruta gets ya ask her questions about the two of them. The explain as best they can. They grew up together. Mipha lost her life to a dark creature. Link had freed her spirit and she had stayed with him ever since. Ruta still doesn’t get it until she sees Mipha healing Link’s arm. Zora healing magic is special and normally fueled by love. No matter what kind of love there is between the two Mipha cares for Link dearly.

The continue their training Mipha learning combat skills from Ruta and Ruta learning some healing tricks from Mipha. They do have to stop earlier then the others. Link wasted energy fighting Ruta so their first training was cut short.

When the ides of training with the future sages came up Urbosa was hesitant. She asked that training with the gerudos be delayed as she wished to observe them more. Rauru agrees with her. They had to be carful of who they picked to train with Urbosa. And Urbosa knows just how loyal her people are to their chief.

It isn’t until the future sage (naboris) reach’s out to King Rauru that Urbosa decides to meet with her. King Rauru invites Naboris to come and meet him at the castle. Link is with him when she arrives. The conversation is stilted at first, Naboris knows her chief is in the wrong but how does she communicate that to the king? Can the king be trusted?

After dancing around the topic for a while Urbosa finally appears. She had been listening the whole time but was waiting until the right time to step forward. She understands the tough spot Naboris is in. But they need to stand against Ganondorf. Once she makes this decision there can be no wavering.

The two Gerudo women get along well after that. Training is an even back and forth. Both women are equally skilled with weapons and lighting and just push each other to further mastery. Urbosa also help Naboris plan for what is to come next. After Ganondorf is gone someone has to lead the Gerudo people, she is helping Naboris plan for that future.

The champions and sages train together many times each time strengthening themselves while also building up Link’s power.

Link has grown a lot. He trains with Mineru, Sonia, and Rauru, as well as the training with the sages. Pretty soon he can keep on champion in a corporal form all day with out a struggle, then two. He could also summon all four in a battle but if he substantiated a serious injury then his powers would falter.

Rauru trust Link. Not only because of his skill but his willingness to help everyone around him. His compassion and service to the people is obvious. He can also tell that Link is used to protecting and guarding people. When Ganondorf arrived at the castle Rauru asked Link a favor. Rauru and Mineru were close to untouchable but Sonia and Link were not. Rauru asked Link to watch over Sonia. Partially to protect his wife but also to protect Link. If the two were ever attacked he hoped that Link, Sonia and the champions could handle what ever it was until he arrived.

Which leads us to Ganondorf’s attack on Sonia.