#age of calamity // spoilers

[noirandchocolate]

Age of Calamity is such a funny game when you think about it because most of the characters go through Events and use their strengths and suffer hardships and stuff, but honestly they mostly end the game the same as they started it. It’s not “bad storytelling” or anything to have most of the main characters (Link, the Champions, Impa, etc) not change very much character-growth wise, I’m not insinuating that. They’re heroes and it’s fun to watch them BE heroes and in some cases have nice heartfelt moments together, etc.

But it’s just hilarious to me that the characters in the game who DO get some form of character development arc are:

3. King Rhoam (a distant third place but he does realize his kid’s interests were helpful not frivolous and he apologizes and lets her continue leading the army and fights by her side)

2. Zelda (expected, she is the main character after all, and she gets to grow from doubting herself based on her father’s words and how special and talented everyone around her seems to be in comparison, and being upset at not being able to help more, to realizing her worth as a capable leader whose love and passions were what saved everyone)

1. MASTER FUCKIN KOHGA (goes from trying to peace out and let his lackeys take care of every fight, to desperately NOT wanting to leave Sooga and the others behind (poorly and obviously hiding it behind “come on stick together so you can protect me!” while he as the PC for your first play of that mission is clearly doing all the work to protect them); ends up not only joining Zelda’s faction to protect/get revenge for his Clan despite his hereditary beef with the royal family, but PERSONALLY taking to the battlefield including in the final deadly dangerous missions; declares during that final battle that HE is gonna “send that giant menace packing,” ie the very same monstrous entity he previously served)

Like. It’s not even close. Master “Top Banana” “Kill You All To Death” Kohga. Has THE most character development in the game.

And it’s just. So unexpected and therefore great and entertaining to me.

[gothic-soda]

Sometimes self care is playing Age of Calamity and reminding yourself that there is a world where the Champions, Link and Zelda are all happy and alive. Age of Calamity is just a 100k “Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies” ao3 fic come to life and I fully support that.

[giriduck]

I put off starting BotW for five years for various reasons, including many IRL hobbies, knowing that the game would suck me in and consume all of my free time as I played through it, and various concerns over the direction they took the world and lore.

In the end, I loved that game. I enjoyed that version of Hyrule and—because I had started playing it during pandemic lockdowns—I used it to replace various local adventures I had enjoyed in The Before Times. The open world and nonlinear aspects of BotW were exceedingly well done and an interesting change for the series.

Although I enjoyed both the present-day and fallen Champions and a glimpses into the life and times of The Saddest Zelda Yet, most of the characters of BotW did not resonate with me until I played Age of Calamity.

I loved that game. It is a ridiculous and lovely fix-it fic that paid attention to the details of the original and expanded on it in such a marvelous way. You could experience more of pre-Calamity Hyrule, spend more time with literally everyone (including some WILD surprises), and see a nice “what if” arc for Zelda herself. The game made me really like the older Champions, Sidon, Master Kohga, and I adored that take on Zelda.

With TotK, I feel none of the connection that I had the first two games. Hyrule is largely the same—except for the addition of caves—so the thrill of exploring is dampened. It’s like returning to your childhood city and discovering an odd blend of nostalgia and sadness when you see how parts of town had changed in vaguely unsettling ways.

The Depths—while really cool press-your-luck-in-the-darkness is interesting (it kind of feels like running to the BotW shrines in unfamiliar territory), it’s exhausting to explore. There is so much of it and it’s relatively empty of both interesting things to see and lore. Give me lore! Tell me more about what this place even was! What happened here?? Meanwhile, traversing the sky kind of stresses me out in a water temple kind of way, and so many of the islands are duplicates and simply repetitive.

While catching up with literally hundreds of NPCs in TotK was truly delightful (especially playing BotW rather recently beforehand and seeing how much genuine care they took with continuity), the TotK content on the characters we had spent the most time with in BotW and AoC was rather light, as were the new characters. It was difficult to emotionally attach to anyone and cheer for them. It felt weirdly retrospective, both in the ancient era and the present era. It felt like a game all about catching up with people and then doing a million little tasks for them.

And—as much as TotK is proclaimed by the dev team as a supposedly non-linear story, it’s not. Instead, it’s a linear story carved up and then scattered nonsensically onto a map, and—while it was an interesting experiment—it was a poor experience. They should have had a waypoint lead to the next in chronological order instead of pretending that it is a fully open world and therefore the order you unlocked the memories didn’t matter. While it was frustrating to people returning from BotW, I can only imagine that it must have been bewildering to new players.

All this is to say that AoC really made me appreciate the BotW era, and I really hope that Omega Force makes a TotK Hyrule Warriors, because I would love to see how they expand the otherwise sparse lore and help me learn to like these characters more.

Also playable TotK Ganondorf when.

[starryoak]

So… has anyone realized that the mummified Ganondorf and Rauru’s arm totally must still be under Hyrule Castle in the Age of Calamity timeline? How do you think that would go? After all, while Tears of The Kingdom takes place a hundred years from Age of Calamity, I still can’t help but feel disturbing his grave would unleash him regardless. That seal can’t have been holding well for a long, long time.

I guess my question is, how would the Upheaval change the Age of Calamity world, and how would the events of Tears of The Kingdom be changed by the Champions still being alive and Hyrule having never collapsed in the first place?

[offbrand-deltatraveler]

One thing I love about Sooga that I realized earlier today is that that whole thing about “A message that concerns Zelda’s impending death” was just him testing the waters to make sure Astor’s words held some truth and Master Kohga wasn’t just being manipulated by some random schmuck off the road (Hence “I suppose destiny is at work then”)

And Master Kohga wasn’t with him either, nor is he ever shown to be aware of what went down, so this was an attack led exclusively by Sooga

[illusion-of-death]

I’m almost done with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Here’s what I’ve learned about the champions so far:

[ID: four instances of Spiderman memes. The first three, a screenshot from Into the Spiderverse featuring an adult Spiderman thinking with one hand on his chin while a child Spiderman copies him, are labeled Daruk and Yunobo, Urbosa and Riju, and Mipha and Sidon respectively. For Mipha and Sidon’s, the child Spiderman is edited to be much larger than the adult one. The fourth image, the Spiderman pointing meme, is labeled Revali and Teba. Like Sidon, the Teba Spiderman is also edited to be much larger than Revali’s. /end ID]

[gravedice]

The way age of calamity said, all these characters who made sacrifices for the narrative get to have a happy ending, just this once, was really fun and cool actually.

[golvio]

Calamity Ganon’s EX quest description is so funny to me. It’s the exact same copy/paste description, but the context makes it absolutely hilarious.

EX Violent Obsessions

Calamity Ganon craves records of past battles. It falls upon you to feed this hunger or leave the appetite unanswered.

Required materials:

Report: Hidden Battles, Report: Monster Ecology, Report: Relic Analysis, Report: Battle Records, Report: Vicious Monsters.

By absorbing knowledge from records of battle, Calamity Ganon gained an unnatural new power...

...What, you mean he studied old reports like some kind of nerd and learned something from them? OoOoOoOoOo, so spooooooooky! It’s studying, but evil! Evil Studying!

But it also makes me imagine a scene that’s like:

Calamity Ganon: *holds a bundle of records in his hand*

Calamity Ganon: *shoves records into his mouth*

Calamity Ganon:

Calamity Ganon: i know now

[robot-gaming]

Zelda Timeline question; How is Tears of the Kingdom gonna affect the timeline?

Obviously, there’s the theory that Tears of the Kingdom leads into Skyward Sword and loops the timeline.

But I also wonder about Age of Calamity, since it has it’s own continuity it creates separated from Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. Is that timeline still separate, or will it also be contained in the loop?

I’d love to hear theories in the tags/reblogs! This topic perplexes me greatly and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[navysealt4t]

just finished age of calamity with my cousin AND I FEEL SICK. in this different timeline where they were able to seal ganon like??? so much changed . zelda and link never changed bc they weren’t able to seal ganon, link never was able to start from square one, find who he was without the sword and zelda LIKE. and zelda still follows her father and didn’t spend those 100 years in an endless cycle with the calamity IM SO ILL . AND AGE OF CALAMITY IS SO INTERESTING…. what does ‘present day’ (when botw took place) look like now ? oaiauyghhhhh i’m so. holding this in my hands

[starryoak]

Maybe I wouldn’t be so broke if they didn’t charge so damn much for apples!!!

This just in: The dorks are too broke to afford two darned apples, lol. It's okay, Sooga, they'll pay you back, or at least Impa will.

I hope he's not suggesting they steal some pocket change from Zelda or the King.

What do you think they spend their money on? Noble Pursuits? Frog items and accessories? Hair spray?

---

So hey, I streamed this in the Discord server, from sketch phase to cleaning to coloring, if you're ever interested in watching, do drop by sometime, I'll keep doing this in the future, it's been fun!

[little-trash-mammal]

Somewhere in the astral sea Laerryn Coramar-Seelie is laughing her ass off rn

[giriduck]

Age of Calamity left such a lasting impression that I may need to commission an artist to make a version of the classic Akira movie poster, but with Zelda walking toward her motorcycle.

[rosesandmary]

rewatching a playthrough of loz age of calamity HRGGGGGG sidon coming to save mipha and yelling that he wont let them take her again. AND THE MUSICCCCCC oh my god

[offbrand-deltatraveler]

One of Hestu’s voicelines is “I learned a thing!!!” and that’s actually so f#%king adorable I can’t

[bluebelledmoon]

love how the botw fandom went fucking wild when age of calamity came out in 2020. and no one talks about it anymore. don’t you remember HIM?????

and THEM??.

and all of THIS????