#No timeline can bind the unbreakable spirit of the hero

[matcha-squid]

Linktober Catchup! 23: Element

OHOHOHOHO COLGERA'S BATTLE IS SO FUCKIN COOL!! AAAH!! That part where it cuts to DRAGON ROOST ISLAND OOOAAAHHH 😩 ITS TOO GOOD!!! I was listening to the theme and it got the creative juices flowing, so I started sketching. I remember not knowing what to do for the element day and it came to me: AIR! WIND! Totally not an excuse to draw the hero of winds lol. Definitely not.

[occasionallyprosie]

Thinking about the Hero's Spirit

Okay, so, when Time left the Adult Timeline... he took the hero's spirit with him. There was no hero's spirit to reincarnate when Ganondorf re-emerged and (as of the goddesses flooding the world) no other spirit born that could become the bearer of the Triforce of Courage.

Until Wind. Wind, whose spirit is its own spirit, came and becomes the embodiment of courage unlike any other hero. He forges his own spirit into one unbreakable, restores the Triforce, and defeats Ganondorf at the age of twelve.

But his hero's spirit is stubborn in a way everyone else's is not. He doesn't need the goddess to bless him with reincarnation, he wasn't even born with the Triforce of Courage (due to the fragmentation) he restored it and out of sheer will became the one to bear it and he knows it. So out of sheer will and stubbornness, he reincarnates.

Enter Spirit. Spirit, who is a hero in every right, but he doesn't follow the beaten path because Wind's hero spirit doesn't do that. He chooses to be an engineer instead of a hero or a knight.

But then the timelines merge, and suddenly, there's two hero's spirits? What? Well, obviously First's goes to Warriors, but where does Wind's go?

Linkle. Linkle, because their spirit doesn't follow the beaten path, it makes its own path, it sails through the waves rather than with it, it forces the winds to yield to its call and its power, the limits of death does not bind it, the expectations of ghosts of the past does not force its hand.

First's, Sky's, and every other hero's, their spirit is one of tenacity, one of pain and suffering, one that can take every hit and still stand and fight. They share a spirit of determination, one of courage, one that is unbreakable because it will stand in the way and be the immovable object that will always be there to hold back the darkness.

But Wind's spirit? Wind's, Spirit's, Linkle's, their spirit is also one of determination, but theirs is one born of choice, theirs is a spirit of free will, of stubbornness and a need to stand their ground. They were not forged by pain like the others, but by love (for Aryll, for Phantom/ST!Zelda). They take every hit, but they don’t stand because they can and they must, they don’t get back up because they have this undying need to endure and to persevere, they get back up because of their loved ones and the people they protect. They are the unstoppable force that drives darkness back.

Don’t get me wrong, the original Hero's Spirit is still stubborn, those heroes are still an unstoppable force, they are still seeking to protect the people they love, but if you have a hero hated by all, a hero who has nobody they should logically be trying to protect? They would still fight because that's what's right, that's what their heart is like, the whole world could hate them and they'd still protect it because 'the people in that world deserve to be saved'. The Adult Timeline's spirit is much of the same, they are similar in spirit, but there are differences.

The original spirit is a forest, one that will never truly be destroyed because something will always survive and that something will regrow and restore the forest that once stood.

The second spirit is a river, carving its path through mountains and valleys, overcoming insurmountable odds and creating great canyons. Nothing can stop them for good.