#Link took care of Zelda Post-BoTW

[sheikfangirl]

"Shhh Link... I'm right here. We're home. It's okay... "

♥ Hurt & Comfort time ♥

Post-Totk Link is still plagued with nightmares of the Light Dragon, Gloom Hands, Phantom Ganon...Puppet Zelda...loneliness.

He wakes up at night screaming, hyperventilating, sobbing. But Zelda is there and she comforts him with love, kindness and patience! Like Link did for her Post-Botw.

It's gonna take time...but Link is gonna be fine ♥ Zelda too.

They are all gonna be fine and live happily ever after!!!

And Hateno domestic fluff resumes.

Gotta love when Zelda comforts her knight

[linksthoughtbrambles]

HUMMMMMM

What about Links to Zelda’s point of view of pre relationship after calamity BOTW, where everybody and their brother (AND SISTER) is in love with Zelda and hits on her, she’s oblivious of course because, yknow super in love with Link.

Every place they travel to post calamity, poor links cheeks STAY clenched.

Thanks for the prompt, @raziasark! I have been very slow, so I decided to post this one in installments. This first one is about 1100 words. I hope you enjoy the beginning and I'll try to be less slow 😂

Thanks @newtsnaturethings for bouncing ideas back and forth with me!

---

The Princess Vibe

At first, Link didn���t notice. He had a lot to deal with, and he was disoriented. Who could blame him? He’d just shot a giant purple boar on magenta-fire with magical golden arrows which somehow emerged from his soul while riding Geranium (who had somehow materialized in Hyrule field despite Link knowing for a fact when he last left him, he was happily munching hay at Riverside Stable).

Zelda’s arms around him were even more disorienting.

“Thank you, Link. Thank you,” she said, over and over like someone still half-dreaming, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

He held her firm, but so, so careful—she deserved every ounce of support he had in him, but she was his Princess, half-remembered and half an ethereal vision from his life before. Was it real? Was she real? Did he love her? He thought he did, but nowhere in all those glimpses of his past life had he said or done anything about it.

He could be imagining things, especially if they were in the past.

His head could be coping with all that secondhand drama.

Past-him might’ve just been doing his duty.

Past-her might’ve expected him to do his duty, too, and that was it.

Now-her might be glad he finally finished his duty, but that’s all.

Zelda shook like a dry, crackling leaf against him.

Link stroked her hair without thinking. He winced, waiting for an objection, but she just kept thanking him. He swallowed the taste of malice-fire, acrid and sulfurous in his dry throat.

She was free for the first time in a hundred years. She deserved that freedom. He wouldn’t foist his own feelings on her.

Later, he found himself wishing everyone else would see it that way.

--

They arrived, filthy and exhausted, at Riverside Stable.

“Huh?!” Ember said, his mouth agape as they approached on the unmistakable giant horse. “When’d you take him out?”

“Snuck him out like a thief in the night, eh?!” Gotter said, squinting at Link. “Why didn’t you ask us like normal?”

Zelda’d been half-dozing against him in the saddle, but her head rose at that. “Indeed not. I teleported him.”

“You-“

“What?!”

“I apologize for any inconvenience,” she said.

They stared at her.

As Link dealt with Ember and the logistics of re-boarding the horse, Gotter seemed unable to stop staring at Zelda, who’d sunk onto a stool to rest.

“Eh- do you- teleport often?” the portly stablehand asked in a strange tone of voice.

“Only recently,” Zelda replied.

“O- oh. I see, so- eh-“ Gotter wrung his hands and took a step closer to her. “What kind of things have you- tried?”

“Only Link and that horse.”

“Oh! You can teleport people?!”

“Not anymore,” she said.

“Eh? Why not?”

“I suppose it must be due to my renewed corporeality.”

Gotter scratched his head with a befuddled squint.

Link finished exchanging rupees just in time to see Zelda listing sideways. He rushed over, thinking to scoop her up, but she hugged his leg instead.

“Thank you,” she said.

He blinked. “You’re welcome.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked up to see a sort of intense vacancy on Gotter’s face, totally fixed on Zelda.

Link hadn’t planned on staying there overnight anyway, but it gave him the creeps. He whipped out the Sheikah Slate. “Ready?” He asked.

Her face turned up, her eyes glazed and smeared face pale. “For what?”

“Let’s get you somewhere to rest.”

“Oh! Oh, there are beds here!” Gotter said.

Zelda started pulling herself up with Link’s thigh as anchorage. He helped her. Gotter reached out a hand, then pulled it back with an odd little…

Giggle?

“Oh- you have it, haha,” Gotter said.

Link had enough of the weirdness. “Ready?” he asked again as her arms wrapped around his neck. At her nod, he reached around her shoulders and tapped the icon for the Myahm Agana Shrine.

He adored her little gasp by his ear as the blue energy shivered through them. It was lucky, really—he could pass his own shiver off as that, instead.

--

They spent days just recuperating.

Zelda slumped onto a seat at his table as soon as they walked in, but he didn’t let her stay there. He carried her to his bed, deposited her there, and took her sandals off for her—she was already asleep.

He wrapped the comforter around her, grabbed a bedroll, and laid it out on the floor beside her. (This, it turned out, was unwise, since she stepped directly on his bladder about two hours later when she awakened to empty her own).

That incident aside, they each slept the rest of the night and morning away. Link awakened to the gentle pat of Zelda’s fingers on his cheek, and he turned to find her hanging partway off the bed to reach him.

“Where do you get your drinking water?” she asked.

Link was up like a shot and trotting to the well around back for her. He drew three hot baths that day, too—two for Zelda and one for him.

Time passed in a complete haze while they got used to being rested, clean, fed, and safe again. Link kept startling with this sudden feeling he’d forgotten to do something important—a false sense of urgency, leftover signals rattling around his nervous system (except on that first day, after Zelda’s first bath, when he realized with horror the only women’s clothing he had was his vai outfit, and he would feel like a monumental ass if he offered her that, so he offered his typical day clothes instead and that was worse—the way she looked coming out of the bathhouse with his undershirt and—shorts?!).

“Oh, uh,” he'd said with a nervous tremor in his voice. “Yeah, so those are undershorts, the pants are-“

“Too tight, I’m afraid,” she’d said with a furious blush (Link felt awful for embarrassing her), “around my- ah- posterior.”

Link had started to sweat as he feverishly searched his brain for the meaning of the word “posterior," which he knew he knew when his internal monologue wasn't screaming.

“Perhaps,” she’d said, “you could spare those Sheikah tights instead? They ought to stretch.”

“Oh! Sure,” he’d said, extremely happy for the excuse to escape any potential revelation of his temporarily-depleted vocabulary.

He later had a small moment of enlightened panic when he realized how she must’ve known about his tights (“every step” of his journey? Every single one?!).

There were quite a few other small panic attacks involved in not looking at all, not one little bit, at how those tights fit her. Eyes up, straight out at all times, absolutely no looking anywhere below neck-level at Zelda. None.

But apart from those things, his jumpiness was nothing but leftovers.

At first.

---

[To be continued! Not sure how long this will be, but clearly a multi-installment fic!]

[russeliarat]

Maybe this is just my brain being stupid at 1.40am after not having a great night, but I've been feeling really melancholic lately. In like a bittersweet way, for the past few weeks.

I've had this blog for about 3 years now, coming up to 4, and a lot has changed in my life. Since starting it, the blog went from a general Zelda blog so I could talk about my BotW fic Oath of the Forsaken to being a shared Zelda and Linked Universe blog, took a while not using it to restore my mental health after leaving a toxic environment and having a world-shattering realisation about having DID, then came back around the time my brain was clawing for interests with Chonny Jash and Ghost, to finally coming back to Linked Universe and Zelda again. Not only that, but I went from a naive highschooler to a thriving college student, I have a partner, I've made so much progress with my trauma too.

And I've realised that in the year or so that I wasn't hyperfixated on Zelda or LU, a lot changed. Back before I had that horrible online mental breakdown and left tumblr for like a year and a half or something, I had people coming back to my tumblr as mutuals and anons, I got frequent interaction and love for my artwork, and people loved Oath of the Forsaken (the like... couple hundred people that read it in all its unfinished glory - I may come back to that one day). And I know it might seem silly or childish or even a bit selfish to think about it in such a way, but I'm really sad I don't have those interactions much anymore because the people who used to engage with me have moved on. I love the people who still choose to visit my tumblr with all my heart, I am very much a being that seeks validation from people I care for.

Sometimes, I do wonder if going back to very few reblogs on my page, only posting Zelda/LU art and ideas, and writing Oath of the Forsaken again is the right way to go. Maybe I'm just clinging to an idealised version of one of the few things that kept me going in a time of intense trauma, I don't know, but all I know is it felt good and I feel very nostalgic for it. I don't tend to handle change very well in general so now that I'm in a patch of my life that's incredibly uncertain and breaks away from my expected routine completely, I kind of just want the comfort of what used to make me happy.

...and yeah, maybe I do lie a little bit when I say that I don't care if no one sees my posts. Just a little.

I really hope this doesn't come off as needy or selfish or attention-seeking or something of that ilk, especially for the people who do actually look at my blog. I treasure them all so deeply and don't want them to feel as if they're not doing enough - I'm always so so happy whenever you like or reblog my posts and even happier when you send asks!

Russ

[curseofpower]

Finally I'm doing it. It's been over 3 months since I nearly 100% ToTK and studied every landscape on my stupid hoverbike. But here it finally is.

My big ass ToTK post.

After I completed the game, my mind was going wild with theories and possibilities about what happened to Ganondorf.

I could not and still do not believe he was 'born evil'. I think something happened to him, and it happened right around the same time Zelda showed up so we never got to see who he really was. Not entirely, anyway. I believe the evil Rauru sensed was the ancient evil spoken of in the shrines (because why else would he be so familiar with the feeling of it?) and what do we know about the ancient evil? It existed before Ganondorf. Possibly long before, because there were old looking shrines connected to lightroots in cutscenes from the ancient past before Ganondorf became the evil's source.

I believe the ancient evil is something that came from the depths. It was unleashed by the ancient Zonai due to their excessive mining. I believe they created the lightroots and shrines above to try to control it, but when they couldn't, they simply left.

Because they knew the world was doomed.

As for why the evil would have ended up with Ganondorf and not some other powerful leader? Well, before the Zonai disappeared, they must have closed up all the holes they'd used to get to the depths in an attempt to bury the problem before leaving.

All except one.

The one in the Gerudo desert which is in an area that had once clearly been inhabited, before we knew there would even be depths in the world (botw). The damn thing even is a massive plot point in both games due to the Yiga clan. It's not subtle. It's there.

So here's where the evidence ends (mostly) and the story formed in my mind. I'll be posting snippets from something me and my partner co-wrote based on my idea.

While my original plan had Ganondorf fighting the demon alone and losing (becoming possessed) only to come back home alive and be hailed a hero for his apparent 'victory', our story has Link going into the past to make sure that failure doesn't happen, and he has the souped up master sword to do it with.

---

The lightroots began to go out with no one to care for them. The ancient evil, no longer contained, started to seep forth. This thing I call a demon, was too weak to break forth immediately due to being indisposed for so long, so it began to attack the closest civilization to it.

This started with a plague.

The demon was angry. It's entire being is hatred and greed personified. It wanted to lash out just as much as it wanted a host in a position of power so that it may more easily inflict eternal suffering on the world above. Ganondorf and the Gerudo were prime targets in all regards, as back then, they were very well off and well established.

So here's where Link arrives at the kingdom. Still Ganon's pov.

As you can see, I didn't go with the popular idea that Ganondorf's Second and Third are Koume and Kotake. I made a couple OCs instead out of those two in the cutscene. Sorry. Neither are Nabooru either because uh this isn't OoT as much as it wishes it was. lol

Anyway, Link's POV, written by my partner.

Ganon's POV

That's all for now.

This is a slow burn ganlink story alongside... everything else it is. I took massive liberties with Gerudo culture based on what I know from other games later on in the story, and also played much more on the fact Ganondorf is a sorcerer than the game did. I took away what I could, however, making him adept at creating illusions mostly.

Also I'd like to say the way Link gets to the past is much different than what happened to Zelda. It's a doozy, but since my cowriter came up with it I'll let them decide when I can reveal that.

But anyways this post has gone on long enough. Let me know what you guys think, if you want!

[valancedbreakfast]

the more i think about the story of totk the more the whole thing reads as propaganda

but like, not even "the memories link sees and the stories rauru told link and zelda are fake to secure his power and legitimacy" but like "even the actions we see link and zelda take in this story are part of the lie being told to US the viewer"

the GAME ITSELF is imperialist propaganda designed to legitimize rauru's rule

and the bits and pieces of it that let us see it as a lie are the cracks in the story. the ways it contradicts itself and the established history that we do know from botw

the fact that when faced with an attack on his life by princess zelda, the zora king hid himself away fearing that she could and would do far worse to him and his people despite all other parts of the story saying how perfect and wonderful she is

"link and especially zelda are absolutely complicit. it actively undermines them as characters"

no no no. i'm saying the actions we see them take are also lies

the entire game is a fallacy

look at the zelda from botw. there is nothing of her real personality present in totk. instead she's been replaced with a perfect queen who is self sacrificing and acts with dignity and poise

how the fuck is that the autistic girl we saw trying to get link to eat a frog? how is that the girl we saw abused and terrorized by the weight of the monarchy?

oh really? according to this legend about the great and amazing past of hyrule she was transported back to hyrule's founding where the benevolent rauru took her in as his own because he's so caring and kind. oh after rauru's wife was ruthlessly murdered by the very evil dark skinned man from a far away land, zelda sacrificed herself to give the hero the ability to defeat that evil once and for all? oh and then her great personal sacrifice was rewarded by being returned to her original form in the present day? how convenient

good thing our wise brave and perfect princess SAW the founder of hyrule with her own eyes and can assure us of his legitimacy. it would be silly to doubt the monarchy when we know this

like the whole thing reads like a lie told purely to convince us that rauru is the true ruler of hyrule instead of some schmuck who came from "the sky" with his people who mined all the resources from the lands and then fucked off with them, leaving behind just rauru who has an uncontrollable fascination and love for humans

oh, the whole game being propaganda and rauru just being some guy who took over also makes the timeline make sense again.

all the timeline we understand is still the same. but in the tens of thousands of years since those timeline, the zonai show up, subjugate everyone, mine all the zonaite and fuck off, but rauru encounters the hylians, becomes fascinated by them and stays behind, inserts himself into their existing mythology by renaming himself rauru (the sage of light from legend), meddling in the existing cycle of reincarnation between ganon, zelda, and link by sealing ganondorf in a way that disrupts the cycle and then long after he's gone and relegated to myth, his meddling results in the calamity because an infinity stone empowered ganondorf is chilling in the basement pouring malice into the world

what follows then is a cycle of fighting the recurring calamity aided by the shiekah tech, 10k years pass, the calamity happens again and then botw happens

link and zelda did explore under the castle and accidentally unsealed ganondorf, but where the propaganda that is the game says "oh and they saved the world with the help of rauru from the past!" in actuality, it's just a really typical loz story and they defeat ganon. zelda never actually went back in time or became a dragon, link never lost his arm and had it replaced with rauru's arm. They literally just didn't do basically any of the shit in the game. they just did a really normal post apocalyptic world saving like every reincarnation of them that came before

which is why when we see them after defeating ganondorf, they're just as they were before going under the castle

what the upheaval actually revealed was the proof of the zonai's existence and clues about how they subjugated the peoples of the past

[thepacifistrouter]

About the Portal Zelda AU

So, I wanted to post this to specifically talk about 2 of the 3 Triforce Holders in this AU.

Since I think we can all agree Chell is the most easy to understand , let's talk about the other 2.

Tbh, this, also, was born from my friend's mind, but I'll try to explain it wirh mu words cause it just clicked with me.

I know some of you, maybe even a lot of you, must think Wisdom is not exactly the Triforce piece that fits better with Wheatley exactly and that Power (or maybe none at all) would fit him better, but-but hear.... read me out!!

If you're a Zelda series fan, even if you haven't played all the games, then you must know that Princesses Zelda's role in the games are normally more like passive than active, normally the one who need to be helped or that help giving Link (who's normally the muscle and the puzzle solver) answers, directions or weapons to defeat the evilness around. She rarely takes direct action.

Far from what some think and what the game (or more like GLaDOS) wanted us to believe, I've never thought Wheatley is a moron, not a genius either, but he is not a moron, he just has his own way to think and people around him took that as moronic ideas/actions/decisions. Even if you are agreed with me about that or not, there is another important fact here... wisdom is not really attached to inteligence. Is actually more tied to the knowledge we have about life and our surroundings, how we use it and the decisions we make about it. We can see both in differents Zeldas AND in Wheatley.

Just think about it, he was easily crushed by GLaDOS when we were right in front of her, BUT, knowing there was no way he could do something to fight her so we could escape, who thought about a plan to let GLaDOS disarmed? who guide us to the right place where we could do that with no being catched in the process or to the Portal Gun? who helped us escaping from that final GLaDOS test chamber? lighted our way thinking he could die if he did? and even as a bad guy he came with some silly, but also some good ideas for his own purposes.

And some of you must be thinking, but we haven't had evil or corrupted Zeldas, we haven't had Zelda being our companion during the adventure. Uuuh, yes, yes we've had (SPOILERS FROM DIFFERENT ZELDA GAMES ALERT), for this first, what about Hylda from Lorule (a Kingdome that use to be like Hyrule), what about when Ganondorf possesed Zelda in Twilight Princess? not to for the second, we've had Spirit Truck's Zelda and we could debate if BotW Zelda could count as an spiritual companion until some point. Not to mention how she was so insecure about her fate and destiny.

Heck, we could even debate OoT Zelda's smartnes of her decisions!

As for GLaDOS

First of all... like... come on is GERUDO GLADOS, I mean, how cool is that?? how cool could that look?!! besides, I think it fits her pretty well

Let's remember GLaDOS was not meant to be the main boss of the Facility in the first place, the whole thing was made for Cave Johnson at first, but things turned out... different and here we are.

Apart of that, she is very Ganondorf coded. Arrogant, powerful, ambitious, intelligent and cunning, a great planner, she only cares about her own ends. She tried to kill everyone as soon as she was activated, and every time they tried to stop her they failed, even tricking most people into believing that she didn't. But she's not the wisest, she just happens to insult where it hurts someone who not only hates her, but also has too much power (which was indirectly her fault). She's perfect to be the first final boss of the… game?… let's say the AU.

You might be thinking, but there are not redeemed Ganondorfs or even allies in the games!!... and you're right :P but, this AU would also include a bunch of first times in Hyrule's hystory. There are things that still need to be builded, but we're letting that for another day.

Aaand that's it for.

Sorry I'm bad at summarazing n.n

Pleasedon't doubt into letting any doubt you could have about this See you next time!

[mistresslrigtar]

Written for @hurricane105 for @zelinkcommunity loftwing letters24! Happy V-day, hurricane! I hope you like this post-BotW slice of Hateno life Zelink story. Have a fantastic day☺️

Sowing Seeds of Love

Summary: It's an annual tradition in Hateno for women to offer gifts of appreciation to those they care about on Sowing Day. Little does Zelda know that the gift she gives Link expresses more than platonic affection. Will she realize that perhaps he means more to her than she has dared to realize?

1.6k Read below or on AO3

The pouch slung over Zelda’s shoulders shifted with each step, bouncing against her hip as she walked through Hateno village. Periodically, she couldn’t help but reach inside to ensure the small, white box tied with a satin blue ribbon was safely tucked away. It was a Sowing Day gift for Link she’d chosen at the East Wind on her way home. The store’s merchant, Pruce, had assured her that it was a traditional Hateno custom for women to give appreciation gifts on Sowing Day.

She’d picked a sand seal plushie for Purah and a potted tomato plant for Symin to give tomorrow when she saw them. Zelda’s heart fluttered with memories of Urbosa as she thought of the gift she’d chosen for Link: three rich chocolate truffles imported from Gerudo. They were a delicacy Zelda had always enjoyed, and she hoped they would also bring joy to Link. 

Crossing the bridge to the home she shared with him, Zelda could hear the faint sound of him tending to their small garden at the side of the house. 

“I’m home!” Zelda called as she headed inside. 

Pushing the front door open, the sweet, honeyed fragrance of apple blossoms permeated the air. A vase, filled with the blooms Link must have pruned that day, sat in the center of the already set table. Zelda pulled the box out of the bag and placed it in the middle of Link’s bowl before making their dinner. In the past year, Link had taught her some basic cooking skills since, pre-Calamity, Zelda had never had to cook. She hummed happily, feeling lighter than she had in ages as she peeled and chopped a swift carrot and hearty radish to add to the stewed meat she’d left to simmer all day over the fire in the hearth. 

By the time Link came in from outside, the stew was ready. Zelda placed it, sliced bread, and rice on the table while Link washed up. She took her seat and waited expectantly for him to join her. 

“It smells good, Princess.” His mouth curled into a bemused smile when he saw the package in his bowl. “What’s this?”

“A Sowing Day present for you.” Zelda sat forward in her seat, returning his smile. “Open it.”

Reaching for the end of the ribbon, Link untied the bow and lifted the lid on the box. Zelda’s stomach roiled anxiously as his expression changed from delight to shock to confusion. His brow furrowed, and he blinked several times, clearly processing the unexpected gift of truffles nestled within the waxed parchment. This was not the reaction she’d expected. 

Feeling self-conscious, Zelda stumbled over an explanation. “Urbosa always brought these for me when she visited. They’re my favorite. Don’t you like them?”

Link’s expression softened, and he gave her a shy smile. “I do. They’re my favorites, too.” 

Despite his smile, Zelda couldn’t help but feel she’d somehow upset or disappointed him. “Did I do something wrong?”

Link shook his head slightly and cleared his throat, a hopeful glint in his blue eyes when he looked at her. “Do you know what it means to give chocolates on Sowing Day?”

“Pruce said women gave gifts to show their appreciation. I bought Purah a plushie and Symin a plant. With your sweet tooth, I thought you’d like Gerudo chocolates.” Frowning, Zelda pulled her brows together when Link’s smile faltered, and the brief light in his eyes faded.

“Ah, I see.” Link nodded politely. “Thank you, Princess. We can enjoy them after dinner.”

He set the box aside and spooned rice and the creamy meat soup into their bowls. Zelda’s cheeks flamed, realizing she’d missed something significant regarding her gift, but she was too embarrassed to press Link further. They spent the remainder of the meal discussing how they’d spent their day. After cleaning up, Link declared he was tired from working in the garden all day and departed to the room he’d fashioned for himself in the lean-to behind the house. Zelda spent the night sleeping fitfully, wondering if she’d misinterpreted Link’s response to her gift.

The following day, Zelda rose, intending to ask Link again if he was all right, but found a hastily scrawled note on the kitchen table that he’d gone hunting and would be back later that evening. Sighing, she gathered her satchel and headed to the Ancient Tech Lab. Along the way, she greeted her fellow villagers with a friendly wave and nod. Once past the village proper, Zelda fretted over Link’s odd behavior as she trudged up the winding path, and the rising sun warmed the top of her head.

The clang of a hammer rang in the air before the building came into sight. Cresting the hill, Zelda saw through the open front door ten-year-old Purah standing at her lab table, fully absorbed in pounding a rectangular piece of metal. Spare circuits and wiring were spread over the surface, that wasn’t already covered with pages of schematics. As usual, Symin cataloged his specimens at the back of the room.

“Good morning, Purah and Symin.” Zelda smiled, pulling out the gifts she’d brought them. “Happy belated Sowing Day!”

Purah’s eyes lit up when she spied the sand seal. “Check it!” Grabbing the stuffed animal from Zelda, she ripped it at the seams and pulled out the stuffing. “I love it, Princess! This is just what I needed for my next project!”

“Ah, Princess Zelda, you shouldn’t have.” Symin’s cheeks pinked when he accepted the tomato plant.

“It’s the least I could do for all you two have done for me over the past year.” Their reactions were exactly how she’d hoped Link would have responded yesterday. Biting her lip, Zelda pulled her research journal and the Sheikah Slate out of her bag before stowing it beneath the lab table.

Ever observant, Purah instantly pounced on Zelda’s melancholy. “Is something on your mind this morning, Princess?”

Zelda shook her head as she laid the items on the table. “Oh, I was just thinking about Link. I gave him chocolates for Sowing Day, and he acted strangely.”

“Oh, snap!” Purah pushed her red glasses down her nose and leaned in, peering owlishly at Zelda. “You did what?!”

Taken aback by Purah’s reaction, Zelda flushed. “I gave him chocolates, as a gift, but he was… confused.”

“I bet he was!” Purah's snicker fueled Zelda’s blush. “Giving chocolates on Sowing Day is a romantic gesture!”

“It’s true!” Symin chimed in from his corner, cheeks reddening in sympathy to Zelda’s sudden plight.

“Romantic? I didn’t know that…” Zelda’s mind reeled as she processed this disturbing information. She’d grown to admire Link, but the thought of romantic love had never crossed her mind until now. Recalling the hopeful gleam in Link’s bright blue eyes, Zelda’s heart skipped a beat, and butterflies erupted in her belly. Had she confused platonic love for true love?

“Looks like our princess unintentionally confessed her love!” Purah gleefully clapped her hands and grinned mischievously, tearing Zelda from her reverie. 

Zelda’s cheeks flamed further, and her breath hitched in her chest. “Purah, please! I don’t even know if he feels the same!”

Emitting a most unladylike snort, Purah’s grin widened. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Right, Symin?”

“It’s clear he’s smitten,” Symin agreed.

“What am I supposed to do now?” Zelda didn’t know how to face Link when he arrived home that evening. Just thinking about seeing him again suddenly made her heart race with nervous anticipation.

Purah tapped her finger against her lips, contemplating the question. After a moment, her eyes brightened, and she waved her pointer finger flamboyantly in the air. “Actions speak louder than words. I say, lay one on him.” 

Zelda gasped, shocked by Purah’s proclamation. “Are you suggesting I kiss him?!”

Purah shrugged. “Why not? Link may be courageous, but he’ll never make the first move. It’s up to you.”

As it was, Zelda could hardly focus on her research for the remainder of the day as visions of what kissing Link would be like consumed her. Finally, she gave up making any progress and headed home. However, as she was passing East Wind, an idea came to her, and she took a detour to purchase a few cooking supplies. The knowing smile Pruce gave her as he wrapped up the goods made her cheeks burn. It seemed an affliction she couldn’t shake today.

At home, Zelda prepared her recipe in the cooking pot outside their house, and sat by the fire occasionally tasting and idly stirring the contents. 

When Link arrived a while later, he paused a few feet from Zelda. Dropping the boar slung over his shoulder, his nostrils flared, sniffing the rich scent filling the air. “That’s… a lot of chocolate.”

Zelda lifted her head to meet his steady gaze. “It’s a fraction of how much I think I may be in love with you.”

If the confection she’d made weren’t already tempered, Link's bright smile would have done the trick. Standing to close the distance between them, the taste of chocolate was still on her lips when Zelda kissed him.

End Cut Scene:

After Zelda left, Purah turned to Symin, a mischievous glint back in her ruby eyes. “If things turn out how I suspect they will, I can’t wait to see what Link gives the Princess on Harvest Day!” 

Her expression turned thoughtful as she eyed Symin. “Speaking of, what are you getting me for Harvest Day, Symin?”

Purah cackled delightedly at the crimson flush coloring Symin’s cheeks that perfectly matched the setting sun.

Author’s note: I loosely based the Sowing Day/Harvest Day Hateno tradition on the Japanese Valentine’s Day/White Day tradition.

[some-internet-stranger]

revalink!!

https://www.tumblr.com/dizzying-faust/614856861677699072?source=share

(Answering that Other ask gave me the motivation to answer this one as well)

Thank you for the ask, it was a TON of fun, even If it took me forever to answer. Also, a little warning, this Post is LONG as HECK and Kind of rambly

Revalink- Ship It!!!!!!!

What made you ship it?

I played Breath of the Wild in 2021 during the lockdown because I was finally bored enough I guess? (Funfact, I actually hated Botw before it came Out, because I was a little hater and didn't Like that the Zelda formula was changing lolol). The important takeaway Here is, that I already knew the Story and all memory cutscenes before I played it. The Other cutscenes Not included were new to me, however.

Revali was the first Champion I ended up saving (revali's gale is the best ability and I needed it for the towers). I was faintly aware of the existence of Revalink but never seriously considered it. Now while I was freeing the Terminals and got Bits and pieces of dialogue I thought that it was funny to interpret Revali having a crush on Link and that being the reason he's so mean to him. And it is funny tbh, but at that Point it was Just a joke to me.

And then came the fight against Wind blight, and oh. The dialogue right before?? The dialogue after?????? I should mention at this point that I played the Game in German, so many translations were different. In english, right before the fight, Revali said something along the lines of "Good luck (...) I only lost because I was winging it" and german He tells Link to be careful ("be careful, you hear me?")(also the delivery of that line, bro, voice actor was Not messing around) This in on itself didn't make me ship it, but it Set the tone.

The scene after the fight when Revali is saved and gives Link His gale... I almost dont know how to Put it into words, but the tension in this Scene? When He Looks at Link as If waiting for him to say something? When He Turns around "nevermind Just Go"??? It feels Like there are so many Things left unsaid, Like There's so much more to be said, even though their relationship is technically wrapped up at this point? It honestly caught me so off guard. Not one Scene with any of the Other Champions has this Kind of tension, Not even mipha (who is a Love interest for Link).

Well, then I went on Tumblr and my fate was basically sealed, lol.

TL:DR: because I played the game

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I Love the Potential of this ship! Theres so many ways how this can be insanely funny (this is one sided rivals to lovers, does it get any better than that?), it can be so incredible sad (death!! Amnesia!! Letting Go!!! One sided!!! Unspoken!!! Not meant to be!!! Lots of Other Things Im forgetting!!)

Its INSANE how Well they Work together, especially since I doubt it was done on purpose.

I have so many more thoughts, but I can't Put them together properly, so I'll leave it at that. The next point is Sort of a continuation of what I Love about this ship anyway

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

The fact that this ship isnt Canon and will/can never be canon is actually one of the best things about it, in my opinion (dont know If its an unpopular opinion)

It fits right in, in a way.

I Love it when two characters are written in a way, were they Sort of complete each other. Where they Share parallels, goals, have opposing personalities that still Match somehow, where they are each Others Drive and Motivation. Where their Stories Just fit so Well together that you know that they were clearly written for each other.

Link and Revali were Not meant to work Well together, Not Like this at least. Of course Revali was written as a foil to Link (correct me If I'm wrong please, I think this was the Case), so them being opposing is intentional.

If you think about these characters for a certain amount of time, Just slightly more in depth, you will find yourself with the revelation that they are so very similar, they would likely be able to be friends If they Just worked through their differences. But they never do! They never have the time/ are too caught Up in pushing others away in their own ways. They could have been something, but never ended Up being.

This ties so nicely into the theme of destiny and fate (kinda.... I feel Like despite setting this Up as a theme, botw doesnt really Go anywhere with it, so it mostly works nicely in fanfiction and such... Although, If you think I missed something about botw, pls let me know. I'm Not an expert on themes)

Theyre doomed by the narrative and the narrative Said they could never be, so they never were (Its kinda fun how that element is true in the real world as Well as in game)(is what I'm getting at)(theyre Not written as Love interests but MAN do they Work as a romantic couple)(cruel, poetic, amazing, ughhh?!???)(them working Well together as a couple was a coincidence, which again, opposes the destiny thing)(this ship has me in a chokehold, can you Tell)

I'm Just saying a bunch of words, I Hope they make sense... I might have also went off the rails a bit... Eh

If you're still here, thank you so much for reading!!

I do actually really Love answering my Inbox and playing ask games, pls dont let my imcompetence to answer them in a timely manner discourage you from sending one😅😅

[rawliverandgoronspice]

New anon. I've been a few reading your thoughts and general posts, and I really agree so strongly to many of them. Some of my biggest pet peeves in the story were really how weirdly disjointed it felt, with missing reasoning and foundation? If I may share my thoughts? I wish they had genuinely focused more on characters besides Zelda, because by the end of the storyline, and having watched all the tears, I was left more confused and empty, and not satisfied at all. Not to be rude to Zelda, but I really stopped caring about her because I was so hyperfocused on wanting to know more about the Zonai, Sonia, the Sages, and Ganondorf... and then nothing, well except two tears, and they gave almost no plot relevance? It was such a pity. The sages? Who? Why? How? Every sage showing the exact same memory with only a tiny bit of their personality sprinkled, but nothing about them as sages made me miffed. Ganondorf felt really like a missed opportunity, I think you, other anon's and everyone has already said it. In my words: Lost potential. I don't even need a big sobstory or anything, a monologue like in WW? Yeah he's angry that the Zonai are wasting their "god like powers" but WHY is he so angry about it? How are the lives of the Gerudo? Why are they split? Even if he was raised to crave power, just getting more of a look at why would have been nice. The Gerudo sage would have been a perfect candidate to get some explanation. (I'd have much preferred that over some of the more slice-of-life Zelda tears tbh.) I know it's called "The legend of ZELDA!" But I always took that to be more along the lines of "This is the legend of Zelda, but we (the player) see the legend from behind the scenes." Zelda being a major player and royalty would obviously be more interesting to in-universe historians, and easier to write down, with Link always just being "The hero clad in green!" But us, as the player, we see what really occurred, how the hero came to be, and that he's not "just a hero" but he's actually just a guy, who then takes up the mantle of hero. I just wasn't too invested in Zelda's story, especially since she's just background noise for a lot of the story. (Idk how to best word it, pardon me.)

Hello, thank you for the ask and sorry for taking so long to reply!!

Yeah, I mean I don't even think that Zelda got much opportunity to be a character either, despite her being the throughline for most of it. I don't feel like I learned anything new about her character that I didn't know from BotW, and some aspects developed in that game were gone entirely. As you said, she does feel like background noise, a witness to other people's story. Her nerdiness is set-up and then never really paid off (despite her and Mineru interacting), she gets no personal interaction with Ganondorf... I actually don't think they ever speak to one another directly, for the whole game????

Just went out to check that out and... Ganondorf says Zelda's name to her once, then Zelda asks him how he knows their name. That's it. That's the entire sum of their conversation in the entire game, and it happens in the first 5 opening minutes. Unless you count fake Zelda, but even then that would only be a single sentence, and honestly I don't think it counts?

The more I dig around and the more I'm truly baffled by some of the narrative choices made in this game. Like I want to be Normal about it again (and managing, slowly, just getting through the last asks) but.... honestly I don't understand what happened. The straight up refusal to build up any kind of actual dramatic tension between the leading trio is so baffling to me. Like, not to dip back into the TotK Rewrite Well, but: why didn't they fully commit to the OoT route, since they were already so far down, where Zelda is the only one to suss out Ganondorf is out to get them, and so the tension is concentrated between the two of them, where she tries to save Rauru and Sonia from his scheme but can't (which would also give weight to her sacrifice as she turns into a dragon)? Then you'd have an actual reason to feel invested in the plot and want to avenge her and those she cared about! Why are the stakes so split out between Rauru, Zelda and Mineru, to the point where nothing has any oomph and you, as Link, feel pretty much uninvolved in the entire situation?

Like, sure the buildup to the final fight was amazing, the soundtrack is sooooo sososo good, the mood and ambiance is probably at its best, the fight itself is a little treat, but. I really felt like I was a Hyrule appointed cop having to walk into the freaky abandoned basement and yelling "sir I've been mandated by the royal family to formally ask you to stop dumping experimental chemicals into the sewers of the kingdom" to the local weirdo squatter in his broken hot tub, and then fighting about it.

But personal investment and stakes really didn't land for me. I was glad to see Ganondorf, tho I would have prefered him telling me anything other than generic anime villain stuff before repeatedly punting my face into the floor. But yeah. The story was disjointed, and it kept me from enjoying the extremely carefully crafted mechanics to their fullest capacity. :(

[mountmortar]

as someone who only ever beat four swords adventures. can i hear the lore on why the newer games are annoying. if you dont want to get into it in public though i totally get it lol

OKAY SO LIKE. let me put this under a cut.

so me thinking the newer games are annoying is a personal thing. i'll put that out there to begin with. i completely understand why they're games that people love a lot—for people who like open-world games with lots of exploration and building shit and whatnot, and don't really care for games that have Plot and Stories and Meaning behind them, they're probably damn near perfect games.

but like. MY main problem with the games, specifically (which could be easily ignored if not for my MAIN BIG PROBLEM WITH THE FANDOM which i'll. get into after this), is that while i will concede that they may be Good Games to those who play them (i watched a playthrough of breath of the wild Once and am currently trying to get through it myself and not only am i bored to tears but i hate the art style and when i say the soundtrack fucking sucks. the soundtrack Fucking Sucks. like it is legitimately the WORST fucking game soundtrack i've ever heard in my LIFE which makes doing anything in the game absolutely unbearable to me) they are, absolutely, terrible ZELDA games.

the legend of zelda franchise for almost forty years now has built up a series dedicated not ONLY to exploration within the game, but also music and wonderful stories that each game tells. like pokémon, in its own way—but even in pokémon, when the story is bland (xy, swsh) or just plain bad (usum) you can always count on it to have a great soundtrack. breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom took both "plot" and "music" and just threw them out the window. the overworld music in breath of the wild is nothing except a few piano notes every five minutes. the battle music when you encounter an enemy is the most boring, lackluster shit i've ever heard in my life (AND THE MUSIC FOR THE BOSS BATTLES IS SOMEHOW EVEN WORSE). basically imagine pokémon legends arceus except instead of all the wonderful overworld music we got for all the different areas, you just have dead silence. that's pretty much what running around in breath of the wild is like.

and the story? get ready for the blandest characters you've ever met in your life. you will not get attached to a single one of those cardboard cutouts. anything that adds meaning to the story is locked behind paid DLC which automatically makes it not even worth my time or money. basically, breath of the wild was like "what if we took the original legend of zelda from 1986 and its sequel from 1987 and added modern mechanics to it. and throw in a new plot that isn't even worth getting attached to." i would literally prefer playing those old 2D games over that game. their plots were entirely constrained to the game manuals because they couldn't fit them into the actual games themselves because they were 80s games and they were STILL more interesting than botw/totk.

but whatever! it's not a big deal. i can ignore the games. it's not up to me to dictate what people should and should not play as part of a franchise. again, people love the games for a reason, and that reason is usually because breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom are like "what if legend of zelda but throw in some minecraft elements about it". like....okay. WHATEVER!

my problem is with the fandom. the Giant Portion Of The Fandom That Has Only Played BOTW and TOTK and NOTHING ELSE. you literally cannot escape it. you know the types of people that spam the tags of every game in their game series just to make EVERYONE look at their post about One Particular Game? yeah it's like a literal army of those people. i MAINLY stick to posting about the older games from the 80s/90s/early 2000s (i.e. four swords/four swords adventures, the original legend of zelda + its sequel, a link to the past, the minish cap, ocarina of time/majora's mask/etc etc etc you get me) and everywhere you look there's somebody doing everything in their power to bring botw/totk into it/spamming the tags with botw/totk posts/just spreading blatant misinfo regarding the older games???? because they've never played them???? and like whatever i can ignore that too but i mean!!!! at some point it just gets so ridiculously irritating!!!!!! basically it's like. do you know how the pokémon company keeps bringing kanto into literally every game somehow + will not stop with the charizard hype to the point where everyone is sick and tired of charizard. that's pretty much what's happening except it's botw/totk. and i am so tired of hearing about the metaphorical charizard HAHAHA

[somethingwittyandweird]

What's your favorite game you played this year?

You've activated my “review of my year in gaming” trap card! I was already going to make this post in some form or another, you've just given me the perfect launching point. So, the first thing you should know about asking me for favorites: I never give just one. How could I, when it's been such a banger year of games? (Heads up, this one's going to go long.)

I loved Tears of the Kingdom to death, and it took home my most hours played on Switch. It is a shining example of what devs can do with an extra few months to polish a game. There were so many remarkable moments that testified to how much care and ideas the devs were able to put in. I loved how it used the time since the first game to develop familiar places and characters, adding depth (no pun intended) and also making sure every familiar location had some new twist. The story was a much stronger followup to BotW, and I think this overall has my new favorite ending sequence of anything in the series (I'd love to make a full post sometime about how the final Ganondorf battles just keep getting more spectacular with each new title). I am so, so, so, so normal about this incarnation of Princess Zelda. 

Also in my favorites this year is Fire Emblem Engage, which hit at just the right time to scratch my strategy itch. As a long time FE fan it’s not a surprise I enjoyed this one- though it lost the political intrigue of its predecessor in favor of a more traditional/tropey story, I still had a lot of fun with all its gimmicks and gameplay innovations. Also it is hands-down the most visually appealing game in the franchise, a title previously held by the series’ GBA entries which are masterworks from the peak era of beautiful sprite art. From the incredible crit animations to the spectacle of super attacks to the battle maps which are so beautifully detailed that the game lets you free roam around them after a battle just to appreciate them better. 

I finished the Link’s Awakening remake this year! It was a charming trip back to an older era of Zelda design philosophy and I found it fascinating to compare the ways where the classic puzzles and challenges differ from what the game would be like if it were made today, as well as the places where modern technology allowed for better QoL changes that weren’t in the original. I really enjoyed the music as well, which I find to be a standout among the series still.

Here at the end of the year, I have to give a shout out to Sea of Stars. It has everything you want in an indie darling- very pretty pixel art, very nice music, turn-based battles with timed hits I joke, but Sea of Stars does a great job balancing evoking/paying homage to icons like Chrono Trigger and bringing new gameplay to the JRPG formula. I like its pared-down take on JRPG combat which revamps skills/mana into a much more dynamic resource that’s constantly being spent and regenerated, and I’m a known sucker for character combo attacks which this game has in spades. The later parts of its story are told with a lot of heart, and again I am a known sucker for certain character archetypes. Surprisingly also, I think the movement and exploration is absolutely a standout- not something that’s typically emphasized in the genre. But this game constantly has you hopping across stepping stones, balancing on tightropes, climbing walls and ledges… the emphasis on interesting traversal and verticality is a strength few games like it can boast. 

Before my final pick, I’m including a special section for all the games I didn't play myself but watched my friends play and still want to praise: Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Mario Bros Wonder, Pizza Tower, the Minish Cap Switch rerelease, and more all came out this year and all of them have brought killer music, excellent gameplay, and stunning visuals that I’ve enjoyed to no end. Anyone considering to pick up any of them would find a quality product without a doubt.

With all that said: I think ultimately it has to be Tunic in the end. Underneath its premise of a Zelda/Souls-like adventure game there is a wealth of secrets that goes as far down as you have the courage to delve. It’s a game built to evoke nostalgia for games that you didn’t understand yet, posing as a game that you watched an older sibling play or a game you could only find a poorly-translated foreign copy of. It obscures everything and teaches you its secrets through context, exploration, and discovering in-game pages of the manual (remember manuals?). It’s a game made for lovers of secrets and puzzles, full of hidden paths and trophies that reward inquisitiveness and observation (and taking paper notes). It was when I saw that it not only has a conlang, but that it gives you the hints you need to fully translate it, that I knew I had to get it myself. It spurred me to screenshot every in-game piece of menu text, then spend evenings cross-referencing it to identify phonemes and construct a key.

The rush I got on completing that key is one of two moments I knew this game was absolutely special. The second standout moment is when the game teaches you its hugest secret, and then invites you to prove your mastery of it by presenting you a huge, multi-part puzzle. But, Tunic does the same thing that one of my other all-time favorites, Outer Wilds, does so well: powerups via knowledge, “unlocking” abilities that you always had, you just didn’t know that you did. The pieces to this puzzle are hidden in plain sight; it’s only when the game tells you what you’re looking for that your understanding shifts, everything clicks, and your eyes are opened to the path you have to follow. I don’t say it lightly, but I consider Tunic to be a one-of-a-kind title, and one that delivers completely on its unique vision. 

In case that brick of text doesn’t make it clear, I love this game. 

I love all of these games.

It's a fine time to be alive.

[sheikfangirl]

Post-TotK fluff ❤️

No more nightmares. Zelda is really back.

Link can sleep peacefully ❤️

Cheers!

[kosalupp]

soooo ive been giving this "roleswap turned rewrite" some more thought

part one (?)

i think the first thing to fix would be the timeline ? ik Nintendo doesn't really care for it but they've established something with skyward sword that they can't really take back and trying to revamp the entire timeline (and foundation of Hyrule) when botw leans heavily on the whole blood of the goddess and spirit of the hero thing is plain stupid.

spoiler alert i haven't played/watched all the games which makes me inadequate in actually trying to fix the timeline lmao but i try my best

ik most people are miffed by the time travel/draconification because it took away a lot of the mythical and spiritual part of botw and I won't deny that. but im a whore for a good old causal loop so ill keep those elements in although it would be more interesting to replace the zonai era by post-ss era. on one side you've got a kingdom that has fallen to the calamity a hundred years ago trying to rebuild itself now that the threats of evil have been defeated and on the other side there are the hylians who descended from the sky into a land that hasn't been explored yet and have to make do with probably unfamiliar ressources. both would be stories of communities building and expanding their settlements to offer a better life for their people (less talk about royalty more about community the push to stick to traditions, ancient legends and hierarchy was one of the major issue encountered by link and zelda pre-calamity)

as for the ancient sheikas id assume 10,000 years before botw would still be taking place after all the other zelda games so after a convergence of the three timelines ? the fallen hero timeline ends with a pretty... dead Hyrule, no settlements afaik. the child timeline kept traditions and the royalty alive and in the adult timeline we know that Tetra and Link refounded Hyrule and found new continents, they made hyrule their own and technological advancements flourished. it wouldn't be far fetched to imagine the sheikah built upon those growing technologies.

after that we know the sheikahs endured genocide at the hands of Hyrule royalty, id like to think that because of this, Hyrule fell into a dark age, it would explain why so much was lost to recorded history after the first calamity.

to me all of this would make the timeline cleaner, we don't need hundreds of variations of Hyrule refounding itself but im not willing to touch upon what botw has established and moving it around the timeline probably wouldn't work.

this is the first time ive tried to put all those thoughts on paper lol it's still vague in my head and im not really eloquent sorry :')

[paranoid-poppies]

little bit about me :)

16, almost 17 (yay!) | she/her but I really don’t care what pronouns anyone uses for me on here, just no neopronouns and no it/its | call me Pop, Poppy, or anything like that! Not my real name so any spelling is chill and might as well be correct | I think I’m demi but I’m still figuring out labels | this post will def be updated now and then

here’s a list of my interests/favorites:

Legend of Zelda 🐉 mainly botw and totk, don’t test me i’ll literally yap for hours

Spider-Man 🕷️ all , but favs are itsv and atsv cuz they kinda fueled the obsession

Heathers 💥 musical and movie are both bangers and you can’t change my mind i love them

One Piece 🏝️ almost through skypiea or however you spell it, ex put me on it and it’s got a chokehold on me now. I only wish I had more time to watch it

Pokémon ⚡️ got into it a bit because of my ex, don’t ask me to name too many tho. I’ll cry. Still relying on those charts for help too

Sims🧍 i have over 850 hours on the game, let’s just say covid took a toll on me. I’m not too familiar with the lore tho

Don’t Look Up ☄️ easily fav movie of all time, I’m a sucker for shit that makes me want to live life ykyk

Minecraft 🌳 sometimes I feel a passionate rage when I play it but it’s a nice thing to do with a video on in the background or something

Some of my fav books:

The Song of Achilles 🌊

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue 📖

elsewhere 🚢

Tales from Outer Suburbia 🏠

The Bunker Diary 🛏️

What Moves the Dead 🐇

Masterlist Post (poems n stuff I’ve written)

[WIP ⚠️ gotta link this on a computer and I’m too lazy to do that so just have patience or use tags listed below]

Tags you can use to find my stuff:

#Paranoidpoppy - anything I post or add to with a reblog

#Paranoidpoppy writes - exactly what it sounds like, the poems and whatever that come straight from the noggin

#ParanoidpoppyHELP! - posts asking for advice or suggestions with something, usually art related but maybe life too

[candy8448]

Playing Twilight Princess for the first time

Lakebed Temple and the Master Sword

---------

This was over two sessions a while apart but ill just put it in one post

Got in, nothing much to say, spent a while at the very start figuring out i had to use a bomb arrow to make those steps.

But went thru, not much to say,

But it is kind of a challenge keeping track of where you went and what doors you saw and how to get back to them so you can explore them later once you did this thing,

Its actually kind of fun

Im liking this dungeon

But its a zelda water dungeon (not botw and totk flavour) so idk

Maybe it will get hard

I was also seeing the clawshot holds everywhere and from the begining of entering, i guessed that this would be the dungen item, and i was right >:)

Anyways, what am i supposed to do with this information?

Got up there by accident but okay

Im so used to the sksw double clawshots so it felt weird to not be able to aim and grab onto the next bit while already hanging

(One more point towards sksw)

Anyways i got stuck in that room with the cogs and the abbys down below, so next time i decide to play ig i will use a tutorial for just that room

...

Forever later i came back and i finished the temple quickly, didnt end up using a video, safe to say i hate underwater fighting

Anyways, the midna's lamnent (which i thought would be later in the game) was kinda less impactful cuz it kept getting interupted by the battle music which i HATE normally but it was made worse by ruining the sequence. Also it didnt really make sense where to go at first. I did not think of going to telma so i used a tutorial video which told me that.

But midna's ragged, pained breaths and i think her thinking she is going to die, only to tell zelda to help us in order to help our own world instead of the twili realm, the way the music stops... dang, that was good

Anyways i did that and now im writing as i go along

Photobomb XD

Im in the sacred grove and the sequence to follow skull kid is annoying. Those wooden puppet things dont give ytou a chance to use the [B] attack so i ignored them and just went for the kid. I do like how its like oot where when you face the correct direction, the lost woods theme plays. When i heard it kick in i got so happy, i love that tune.

Anyways im now at the guardian puzzle game and its so annoying >:(

After many times of restarting and failing and figuring how they work andgetting them in this position

I realised i had to get them both on opposite sides so that took me another ages

Then i realised i had to get them in the rows of three at the top. I got them there but on the same line and then realised i had to be very careful and then i got them into this position

Then two moves later and i did it!!

I was so tempted to give up and use a video but then my stuborness got me there in my own and now i feel good.

Anyways time to grab the master sword

Heh i kinda wanna draw this

I can transform when i want! Im so efficient now in both fights and travelling! :D it was so annoying to get somewhere before!

Anyways, ive seen people shipping link with shad so ive been preparing to meet him to see if the ship works. I feel lile an older sivliing trying to make sure that the guy their youbger brother is dating is good for them lol

DUDE! >:(

You can RIDE THEM?!?!?!?!? The BOARS?!?!?

Anyways i left it there. This post way way longer since it happened over two play sessions

[selenityshiroi]

Random TOTK thoughts since I'm back in work today but am very 'head empty, only Zelda' so have some things I'm in love with:

I love how, although there is some 'who are you? Oh, yes, you're that swordsman' reactions to Link, in general NPCs (especially ones who had side quests in BOTW) know who Link is. It makes everything more cohesive and gives a depth to the world for both games

All BOTW side quests are canon. Link's house (which Zelda now lives in *wiggles eyebrows*)? Canon. Tarrey Town? Canon. Yiga Hideout? Canon. Weirdly presented penpal quest that creeped everyone out? Canon but JUST FRIENDS.

Mattison implies that around 5-6 years have passed (since she didn't even exist in BOTW but now is a walking, talking, reading child...unless Gerudo grow and develop quicker than we expect). And you can see that in the age of some of the younger characters like the Sheikah and Rito kids. And it also helps with the belief that they had time to dispose/repurpose the Sheikah tech into the new tech. Especially if it all stopped working.

Link is so much more expressive this time round but in appropriate ways. They took care to not just have him blank faced or generic emotional response. The first tower scene is panic and wtf but all the ones after that are slightly different than that first one because he knows what to expect. I wish they'd had different reactions for the different geoglyphs but the spoilery post final one has a much more intense reaction at least.

I still haven't stopped opening the item menu everytime I want to change abilities...

The cutscenes are getting me right in the heart. No spoilers but I had to spoil myself for the end because I got too emotional and couldn't wait the next 100 hours it's going to take me to finish to find out how certain things are resolved.

Yahaha you found me! I still love Koroks but, no, I can't help you find your friend right now. I'm busy. (But I am going to go back and do all the friend ones later)

Shrines are genuinely difficult at times. Probably because I keep underestimating some of the abilities. I've seen some uses online that are so 5 head it's unbelievable. I'm going to watch so many let's plays when I can to see how people did things differently.

Gimmie all the clothes. I will explore every nook and cranny of this world for a shitty tunic.

This whole game is 'Oh, what's that? Oh, what's over here? Oh, a quest marker! Hmm, that's weird I should check that out. BLUPEE! Wait...what was I doing?' And it's GLORIOUS.

Tulin my beloved...please stop jumpscaring me with your sound effects that are soft but just close enough to make me think I'm gonna get shanked by an enemy

I have stumbled across more than a few enemies that I have noped back out of ASAP. Even with my new confidence on fighting enemies from my recent BOTW playthrough. That is a later goal.

All the new characters and existing significant NPCs are amazing so far. And there is a lot of hope in the rebuilding which is nice despite the Upheaval. People are looking to the future everywhere and it warms your heart :)