#I knew putting on Skyward Sword was a mistake lol

[skyloftian-nutcase]

I will never get over the face Link makes when he gets a letter from Zelda ❤️

[vortexbeyondthestars]

so a while back before i had tumblr i had a BIG zelda phase and with it came all sorts of fun things.

like making a crackhead zelda theory. and since i have no one else to share it with you all get it <3 how lucky

demise’s counterpart (+ history of lorule i guess)

yall i just came up with a crackhead zelda theory bc that’s how i do.

ANYWAY, what if majora is actually the lorule version of demise??? all we know abt majora is that it was created by some ancient tribe that used it for hexing rituals.

so what if that ancient tribe was in the original version of lorule, inhabited by the original people of lorule (as in, not the loruleans in albw), and the ancient tribe created majora’s mask, based on a god they worshipped, the god of chaos?

they used it for their hexing rituals, and powerful people such as the leaders of the tribe would get to wear it. however, when they wore the mask, they would become possessed by their god’s spirit, so the others could worship it. the mask gave its wearers great and strange powers that made them the most feared and respected person while they wore it.

however, after taking the mask off, the leaders would noticeably be crazier and less morally sane than before. the tribe still continued to use it, despite its effects, and the god grew more and more comfortable with the tribe and started to ask them for things like sacrifices and whatever else.

the tribe listened. it went fine for a long, long time, but then there was a breaking point when someone who wore had worn the mask had gone mad and slaughtered half of the tribe before they were stopped.

the tribe realized their mistake, and so they tried to hide away the mask.

the mask caused so many problems that “they locked it away,” according to the happy mask salesman. what if the golden goddesses and hylia noticed what was going on in lorule, so they created a twin for hylia to watch over lorule, who would be much like her but not exactly the same?

that twin would be loria, whom would eventually become hilda. loria chose her hero much like hylia, except loria’s was a man name ravio. ravio and loria sealed away majora for the ancient tribe. the goddess then breathed new life into the world, the loruleans were created, and the ancient tribe was allowed to stay in lorule as well for their part in helping seal majora away. (the ancient tribe eventually faded away and derailed into what we see as the monster cult, but that’s for later.)

but the seal was not perfect. loria knew this would happen, that majora would break free, so like hylia, she sent out herself as an incarnation.

like in skyward sword, the first hilda is taken to purify herself, while her counterpart ravio is trained to defeat majora. he has the counterpart of the master sword and the spirit, mi.

so ravio defeats majora, and it’s sealed away again inside the mask and not the sword like demise is, proving the be the first mistake the loruleans made. the only thing keeping majora inside the mask was the power of the master sword, which in turn was powered by the triforce and the golden goddesses.

however, majora gave one last final hurrah and spat a curse on ravio and hilda: they would be plagued for the rest of their incarnations of its chaos and hatred. this curse causes, you guessed it, yuga!

the mask was watched over for ages, while various incarnations were born, until eventually, one of the hildas destroyed the triforce. when the triforce was destroyed, so was the sword, and thus the seal on majora’s mask. so majora broke free and took control of its own prison, with nothing to contain it. this happens around the same area in the timeline as right before the child timeline in hyrule.

there were still yugas, though majora had broken free, its curse still reigned strong. this majora was not the same as the god anyway, it was a twisted version of it, driven mad in the time it was stuck in the mask.

majora became even more chaotic and demented than it was before its imprisonment. it no longer wanted to conquer- it wanted to destroy, and it wanted to destroy anything it could set its sights on.

however, majora realized that without most of its powers, it would be practically useless to try and destroy lorule, even without the triforce. so it wanders.

unfortunately for everyone, the first person who finds the mask is someone who isn’t exactly sane. this person put on the mask, and though they managed to take it off, they were driven mad. they stumbled around, wandering wherever their crazy mind told them to, the mask still trying to leech its mind. though majora had broken free, its powers were nearly gone, and so all it could do was try and nudge the person sometimes.

the person eventually runs into the happy mask salesman, who is traveling from hyrule in his attempt to find majora’s mask. luckily for him, the unfortunate person stumbles upon him. the happy mask salesman offers to take the mask from them, and so he finally succeeds in his goal.

the happy mask salesman was actually one of the last members of the ancient tribe. his ancestors managed to travel from lorule to termina to hyrule, and so the happy mask salesman grew up with the knowledge. he also grew up with the tales of majora’s mask and wanted to have the mask of his ancestors back in his hands, and he wanted to have its powers, too.

and majora recognized his aura from even far away, so he influenced its poor host to move towards where he was. majora knew that the happy mask salesman was a descendent of one of its creators, and so it wanted to find him.

and the happy mask salesman wanted to find the mask, too. he managed to get majora some of its magic back with his ancient magic.

side note: this is why all of the moon children appear like the happy mask salesman. majora remembered its original creators, but only barely. it modeled the moon children after the happy mask salesman because that was the only member of the ancient tribe it remembered.

anyway, many of majora’s powers are restored, except for the invulnerability to everything except for the lorulean master sword. since the sword is gone, so is its hold on majora, and in turn, so is majora’s hold on it. majora can be damaged by anything now, which is how link manages to defeat it.

skull kid steals the mask from the happy mask salesman, yada yada yada. then majora’s mask (the game) happens. the reason majora is so vindictive against link is not only because link “interrupted its game,” but also because link reminded him of the man who had sealed had it inside the mask in the first place… which makes sense considering that link is hyrule’s ravio!

anyway, majora is killed, and instead of being sealed in the mask like last time, it is released into the world, spreading like dust in the wind, since link was unaware of its true nature. it manages to return to its lorule, where it bides its time until it can strike again…

ok so there’s my background for majora n stuff, but now i wanna explain why i think this is a cool theory.

demise’s personality is quite the opposite of majora’s. demise seems to be calculating, having whole plans and grand schemes. majora is a psychopath. “lorule versions are just like their hylian counterparts in this version, though,” you must be wondering. i actually have an explanation for that!

when the triforce and master sword were destroyed, so was the hero’s courage, the princess’ wisdom, the incarnations’ incredible power and coldness. and the god’s sanity and calculating plans. ravio became cowardly. hilda became unwise. yuga became weak and reliant on ganon for power. majora become demented and psychotic.

essentially, it became the opposite of demise, just like ravio is the opposite of link, hilda is the opposite of zelda, and yuga is the opposite of ganondorf.

plus not only is majora’s mask in link’s home in albw, but there’s the mask cult in lorule. like i mentioned above, the ancient tribe eventually degraded into that masked monster cult, as all of their old customs got flanderized into what we see in the game. the only thing that remained the same was the heavy reliance on masks. they didn’t even remember their god, majora, but they would later…

yeah this became a LOT longer than i wanted it to be lol. i might add more later.

[bsidesthepoint]

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: DARK SOULS?

So apparently Nintendo is hiring a key level designer for the next Zelda game and that got me to thinking...so here comes a potentially unpopular opinion (I apologize in advance):

I've recently become enamored with the souls-like genre.  You know, DARK SOULS, DEMON SOULS, and my personal favorite so far, BLOODBORNE.  For those unaware, they are extremely hard, but not unfair games that take joy in killing the player, but not so sadistic that they allow you to learn from your mistakes and actually use death as a tool to figure out how to beat obstacles in the game.  That's skimming the surface of the subject but it's the basic truth. There is something I like even more about the souls-like games from From Software, and that is their level design.  It's not universal, but the thing that tend to be known for are their interconnectedness, and their surprising amounts of secrets.  Exploration may get you killed, but it's extremely rewarding when you find treasures hidden away in hard-to-reach areas, or when you find a door that leads you back to the start of the level so that you don't have to backtrack and hoof it as much if and when you die again.  

What's more, though, is how the games tell their stories.  Which, can be argued, I guess, is that they don't tell them at all, really.  There are sort of overarching narratives, but it's never really spoonfed to you, and it's never really the focus of the game.  It's up to you, through context clues and bits of lore mostly accessed through item descriptions, to kind of piece the story together yourself, and get a broad idea of what is going on in the game's world, rather than having it broadcast to you over loud-speaker the whole time.  It gives the games an air of mystery and really promotes player participation if they want to understand more about the world.

Now, when it comes to the next Zelda, no, it's not as simple as me saying, "YOU SHOULD MAKE IT MORE LIKE DARK SOULS."  Mostly because, weirdly enough, Nintendo already has.

I love BREATH OF THE WILD; it's ZELDA, undeniably, but in a lot of ways, I feel like it's the Zelda game that Miyamoto wanted to make originally, the kind that emulated exploration and the kind of gaping joy one has when finding something you didn't expect.  But to do that, Nintendo didn't just throw out everything and start over from scratch; they borrowed and lifted things that worked from other games to make them work within that familiar Zelda framework.  So it's not hard to look at BREATH OF THE WILD and also see echoes of SKYRIM, as an obvious example, or even weirdly surprising inclusions from games like MINECRAFT, etc.  I didn't realize until after having played BLOODBORNE how much BREATH OF THE WILD actually seems to have in common with souls-like games, even if it's circumstantial.

Not to outline every single instance of it, but to highlight a few things: it's markedly harder than some of its predecessors...it's possible for enemies to kill you in a single hit...it's entirely possible to find enemies and areas that will kill you mercilessly, because you aren't strong enough to defeat them yet.  That includes bosses, some of which are optional.  The game is packed with secrets and urges you to find them, but in doing so you put yourself at risk and frequently into peril to find them.  Some areas have interesting connections to other areas you don't know about till you explore them all.  And the story, while not as obtuse as anything found in BLOODBORNE (or DARK SOULS III, which I'm playing now), is very much up to you to put together, even if cut-scenes and exposition are a little more ham-fisted.  It's not a carbon copy, but there are certainly things in this game that remind me of a From Software game.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: it wouldn't kill me if Nintendo leaned hard on DARK SOULS for inspiration for the next Zelda game.  That comes with a ton of caveats and I will preface this by saying: that doesn't mean Nintendo turn it super dark, gory, and/or rage-inducing.  But they can keep what works in BREATH OF THE WILD and can continue borrowing things from the souls-like genre that makes it so engaging and addictive.  Ideally, I think it would be something like this:

Keep the storytelling minimal.  Not to say that we can't have a sweeping epic story (in a way, BREATH OF THE WILD denies us that, at least when it comes to what I feel is not a satisfying finale), but the way it was being handled in BREATH OF THE WILD is definitely the way to go in future games.  Accessing memories, cut-scenes not always giving you all the answers, having to find and earn certain story-beats instead of them happening in a pattern or a rigid structure.  I want to put the story together myself.  I would almost argue they could be MORE subtle and obtuse, but I don't think that would be too popular an opinion.  I'm probably alienating people enough right now.  But I know the idea of a Zelda game where I truly didn't know what the heck was going on and forced me to put the pieces together makes me super excited.  And I don't think I'm out of line by saying that I'm not the only fan who kind of wishes the series would let me just figure out what's going on myself, instead of forcing it down my throat.

No dungeons.  At least, not in the sense we've seen them in the past; and, being frank, I think the series could exist without them.  BREATH OF THE WILD more or less did away with them except for the shines and the Divine Beasts, and a similar dynamic can be preserved in future games.  But (and here comes another unpopular opinion) I think SKYWARD SWORD was onto something when it was taking things you typically found in a dungeon, and putting them in the overworld environment instead.  Puzzles, pitfalls, and bosses.  BLOODBORNE did that amazingly well; I never really knew what would be around a corner, because I wasn't going through the motions of finding a boss key knowing I was going to have fight Gohma for the nth time.  I had similar feelings rounding a corner and seeing a freaking Hinox asleep in the area in front of me, forcing me to stop and rethink my position.  It throws preconceived notions out the window; all the things you've learned through Zelda games of the past get thrown out the window.  Lean hard on that, Nintendo.  I want to feel like the overworld is one huge dungeon, so I never know what to expect.

More to the point, perhaps superficially, I like the idea of future levels looping back on themselves and connecting to places in surprising ways like they do in the SOULS games, only accessible through exploration, puzzle-solving, and toil.  Perhaps that won't work all the time, and that's fine; it's one false move away from being gimmicky anyway.  But I remember some of my fonder memories from SKYWARD SWORD, a game that has very little love from fans for good reason, was solving a puzzle that made an area accessible that previously wasn't, and looping back around to an area I'd already been, streamlining my progress going forward.  It felt like a reward.  I liked the idea that the puzzles were not confined to a dungeon and instead were out there in broad daylight, and on occasion a freaking giant scorpion boss would jump out unannounced, instead of me knowing I was about to fight one in a boss room.  Discovery and happening upon stuff like that made me instantly fall in love with BLOODBORNE, even though I died in Inner Yharnam easily around 80 times.  

"I'm going over this bridge and HOLY CRAP A BOSS BATTLE I'M NOT READY OH GOD I DON'T WANT TO DIE OH WAIT THIS IS FUN OH WAIT I'M DEAD...well, gonna get stronger and beat this guy later."  :D

It's hard for me to get into specifics, but I think I've belabored the point.  I think BREATH OF THE WILD built a pretty sturdy foundation for future Zelda games, but I feel borrowing smartly from DARK SOULS and BLOODBORNE could only make it more compelling.

(And, yes, I realize a key thing here that differentiates the two games: you can't climb everything in BLOODBORNE.  Yes, that might be a problem, lol.)

[potionxshop]

A very (very) long BotW theory

This is a looong post so if you don’t wanna read it please scroll really fast !

So few days after Nintendo showed this amazing BotW trailer during Nintendo Switch presentation, I watched a video made by two french youtubers (Bronol and Ico) posted on their second channel called “Team Trash” (their main channel being “Trash”) in which they exposed some of their theories regarding the upcoming loz game. I had stopped watching all these theory videos tbh but I had some time to kill and since I really enjoy these guys’ work I clicked it. And holy sh- I found it really interesting *-* In this video, they mostly talk about BotW’s spot in the timeline (which they situate after Ocarina of Time, in the “Hyrule’s decline” branch). I promised @rikzpt that I would translate it and share it with you all. It took me a long time to do so, since the video is 18:30 long ;u; Thus, I haven’t translated every sentence, I skipped some “unecessary” bits, and I apologize in advance for any typo or grammatical mistake.

↑ Here’s the original video, in case some of you want to watch it even though it’s entirely in french !

Here goes the translation ! (︶▽︶✿)

Bronol : A new Botw trailer just came out and it was amazing and full of new information. So Ico and I anlayzed it, frame by frame. We felt dumb cause we hadn’t seen it coming but Botw Link could actually be the same as in Ocarina of Time. […] So let us explain our theory.

What the Timeline says

Bronol : First there are three official timelines, Ocarina of Time has created some kind of… temporal paradox. There is a branch where Link leaves after defeating Ganon and thus leaves the people without a legendary hero. Then Ganon breaks its seal and since there’s no hero around well he just… destroys everything easy peasy which leads to Wind Waker’s world. In the second Timeline, after Link defeated Ganon, he goes back in the past then he and Zelda denounce him to Hyrule King. Ganondorf is then judged by the sages and is exlied in the Twilight Realm. [...] In this Timeline Ganondorf has never become Ganon and the line of Links could carry on. And then there’s this kinda phony third timeline, the one where Link loses against Ganon in the final battle of Ocarina of Time. Until now this timeline was pretty unclear, we could think that the sages had still sealed Ganondorf away despite Link’s death all of this was fuzzy and looked like a weird patchwork (don’t lie). Excepted that Botw could be in this timeline -as its missing link-. We tend to say that since (OoT) Link was deprived of the Master Sword at the very beginning of the battle against Ganon […], it is highly possible that Link was then killed by Ganon since he had no weapon to defend himself with. Then we could imagine that the sages somehow found a way to seal Ganon and took Link’s body to put him into stasis, since they knew they’ll need his help again, I’ll explain that later… […] Hence in BotW we would play as OoT Link after being resurrected [...] since -as we saw during this year’s E3- the first location we encounter in the game is called « The Shrine of Resurrection ». Regarding Ganon, the official chronology tells us that Zelda and the sages managed to seal him, however, despite being emprisonned in the Sacred Realm he still had the three parts of the Triforce so the sages knew that -with such power- it would only be a matter of time until he could escape from the realm. We also know that even if Link was defeated, they need him since he’s the only one who’s able to truly stop Ganon, we learnt that in Skyward Sword.

The connection with Ocarina of Time

Ico : Well it’s pretty obvious. Many elements were shown in plain view such as the Temple of Time which is exactly the same as in Ocarina of Time and what’s below this Temple ? The ruins of the former castletown, especially the huge fountain. Moreover this new Zelda game is full of references to the Sheikah tribe and please note that sentence that we read in the description of the Sheikah slate : "You've never seen this device before, and yet... there's something familiar about it." From there, to say that it is a gossip stone miniaturized thanks to new technology, there is only one step.

Let’s now talk about Calamity Ganon’s design. It’s still a spectral form but we can distinguish few things. Look at those eyes, looks at those horns, just look at this silhouette, it exactly looks like the Ganon we fight in Ocarina of Time.

Well on top of that, there’s this fairy that looks like the great fairies from OoT and MM [...], there are gerudos […] and there’s also the Great Deku Tree ! And he evens tells Link « That look on your face tells me that you have no recollection of me » why of course Link doesn’t remember him since the last time he saw him he was still in his sprout form.

What occurs in this new Zelda

Bronol : So now that we’ve talked about the similarities, what does this new trailer tell us ? First (and the royal family could expect it), Ganondorf broke the seal and has destroyed the new castletown. He had already destroyed the one in Ocarina of Time, then the hylians had rebuilt it in the meantime and he came back to destroy it again. Since the notion of time between each game is often unclear, we don’t really know how much time has passed before Ganondorf could escape from the realm. In any case, the hylians were given a sufficient amount of time to rebuild some kind of kingdom and see a new Zelda (maybe few generations) accede to the throne. Well yes while it might be the same Link as in Ocarina of Time, it doesn’t mean it has to be the same Zelda. […] Also, regarding Hyrule King’s voice that we hear in the trailer, we are almost certain that he’s in fact that old man we meet during the first minutes of our adventure, the one who acts like some kind of guide which really resembles King of Red Lions’ personality in Wind Waker, so couldn’t this be the same character but in a different universe ? (meaning different branch of the Timeline)

The Master Sword and its connection with the other games

Ico : Zelda has probably taken the sword after the battle against Ganon and has hidden it in one of the last barriers against the malevolent forces which is : the Kokiri Forest -since the Great Deku Tree has the power to push them back-.

Just a reminder : The Master Sword helped Link to defeat Ganondorf. Hence, Ganon -knowing how powerful this blade is- would obviously seek a way to destroy it completely. Thus the sword could not be replaced in the Temple of Time since this would be the first place where Ganon would look for it. This can also explain why the temple is in ruins since Ganon might have ravaged it. […] It was crucial to hide the Master Sword in a safe place since this blade is Hyrule’s only hope to defeat the king of evil for good. Now it becomes really interesting for this could also explain why the Master Sword looks so rusty. It has rusted because it does no longer benefit from the « temporal protection » dispended by the Temple of Time -since we know that this temple well… controls time-. This is why the Master Sword in TP is not rusty since it still stands in the ruins of the Temple of Time. Regarding WW, the Master Sword is still in good shape and yet we find it in Hyrule Castle, not in the Temple of Time itself. Well, since we know that the castle has been destroyed in Ocarina of Time, we could think that WW Hyrule Castle has been rebuilt around/on the former Temple of Time, leaving the sword where it belongs. All of this can also explain why we find the Master Sword in the Lost Woods in AlttP, which is a game that would take place -according to our theory- after BotW.

The races and their evolution

Bronol : About the Koroks : Ico and I believe that the Koroks are actually the Kokiris’ true original form. Okay we know that in WW, it is said that the Kokiris had to turn into Koroks in order to adapt themselves to their new surroundings. However, we encounter the same Koroks in BotW and yet the world has not been flooded as in Wind Waker. This could mean that their Kokiri appearance was actually a way to adapt themselves to a situation. Let me explain… We can notice that the world of Ocarina of Time is very « civilized », there are lots of Hylians. The Koroks would thus be well advised to modify their shape in order to look like « humans » and make the relations easier. But now that Ganon has (more or less) slaughtered the whole Hylian race, they no longer have a reason to keep their human form. They’d better go back to their original form which allows them to hide in the forest etc.

« What’s the connection with AlttP ? » you’ll ask me, since there is no Kokiri or Korok in this game, and there’s no Great Deku Tree either… Well, the answer is simple : they’ll die in BotW (lol) :) We’re pretty sure that the Great Deku Tree will die in BotW and what happens when the Great Deku Tree dies ? The Koroks/Kokiris die too, as Mido tells us in OoT (only in the french version apparently :c )

What about the other races ? First let’s talk about the goron we saw in the trailer. Well this guy looks like… every goron we know. Did you notice that the goron tribe is the only one (along with the Hylians) that doesn’t evolve throughout the ages ? As the years pass, the fewer they are. Take WW for instance which takes place a hundred years after OoT and there are only… 3 gorons left. They don’t fit in this new environment and yet they have not evolved unlike Zoras who turned into Ritos. Talking about Zoras ! We saw them in the latest BotW trailer and we know that they also appear in AlttP but the interesting thing here is that in AlttP… they’re bad guys. And take a look at their design in BoTW. We’re far from the simplistic Zora from OoT or MM, now they look like real warriors, they look like freaking sharks and all… I mean… I would not mess with them if I were you. […]

The role of the Sheikah

Ico : Okay guys, remember that this is only pure homemade theory. Here’s what could possibly happen regarding the Sheikah tribe in BotW. What if the Sheikah were the main antagonists in BotW ? What if they made an alliance with Ganon to invade the kingdom of Hyrule ? We came to that theory thanks to this lil’ guy who’s fighting against Link

[…] Let’s not forget the « Life in the ruins » trailer which starts with a Sheikah eye shedding a tear that turns into a puddle of blood (which evokes war) over which a forest will grow evoking a return to the wild. I don’t think one could make it less explicit. In Ocarina of Time, we learn that there had been a war before the beginning of the game. We don’t know who the enemy was but many theories speculate that it was the Sheikah tribe, which has then been defeated and tortured and humiliated (→ just look at all the torture devices you can find in Kakariko Village’s pit). This theory allows us to (potentially) imagine that the remaining Sheikah would have been banished from the Light World and sent into the Twilight Realm thanks to the Mirror of Twilight, thus becoming TP’s Twilis. We also know that Ganondorf’s main forces (aka the Gerudos) have switched camps and have become our allies after we showed them our badassery back in their fortress. By the end of OoT, Ganondorf had thus no remaining ally and no army and eventhough he is very powerful, it is hard to imagine that he could take over the whole kingdom without armed forces. Why not imagine that Ganondorf could have laid his hands on the Mirror of Twilight and freed the exiled Sheikah who would feel a desire for revenge and side with Ganon put the royal family at risk. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it ? […] But let’s not forget that originally the Sheikah tribe’s main purpose is to protect the royal family and the goddess Hylia, so inevitably some of them would still be on the « good side », like those that we meet in the shrines.

The story of Breath of the Wild

Bronol : Let’s sum this up. At the end of OoT, Link loses against Ganon (not Ganondorf). Despite his death, Zelda and the other sages still manage to seal Ganon away. After the battle, Link’s body is brought to some sort of sheikah sarcophagus to preserve him cause they know that Ganon will eventually come back with the whole Triforce in his possession and that it’s only a matter of time before the seal breaks. They just don’t know when it will actually break and they don’t know if a new Link would have appeared in the meantime. Hence, they prefer to keep the « old one » and resuscitate/revive him, because Ganon must be (and can only be) defeated by an incarnation of the hero.

Ico : […] Knowing that Ganon will eventually escape from the realm, Zelda has to protect the Master Sword and hides it in the last barrier against the malevolent forces, that is to say the Kokiri Forest, protected by the Great Deku Tree. Link will need this weapon to defeat Calamity Ganon. Some years pass (we don’t know how many), the kingdom is being rebuilt step by step and then Ganon comes back. However, Link is probably not ready to wake up yet (for whatever reason) so when Ganon kicks in… Link does not appear. It’s only one hundred years after that Link will finally awaken and discover a wild and completely devastated land, and will meet a new Zelda before setting off on a new adventure, helped by the princess. We can imagine that our hero, the Hero of Time, will have to awaken the sages’ descendants in order to finally seal the evil for good. And yes I said « seal » and not « kill » because this is what is said during the opening scene of AlttP. […]

Bronol : […] If you look closely, you can see that every huge 3D loz game holds a key role in the Timeline :

- Ocarina of Time is the centerpiece of the chronology

- Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild are the three junctions

- Skyward Sword is at the very beginning and relates the origins of the Timeline

And when we realized that (Ico and I) well… we were excited like kids, y’know.

Et voilà ! ᕕ(  °▽° )ᕗ ♥