#all the ocarina of time references are really cool

[kaymarie-bell]

TWST Main Story spoilers

translation done by me, expect some mistakes

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*Cater tells him to play along, and Leona changes into his Dorm uniform*

Leona:...I haven't held drumsticks in a while, but my body should still remember the rhythm

Leona: I'll play for you. If you can keep up with the beat

Riddle: Wow! That's such a hard¹ and cool outfit! It's such a waste to hide it behind the drum set! (¹yeah he does actually use the word "hard" / ハード)

Idia: Hehehe~ Someone please stop me from laughing...!

Idia: Mr. Riddle and Mr. Leona are forming a band, it's too funny...HAHAHA!

Ortho encourages everyone to keep going

Ace: Alright, it's time to make my case!

Ace: I'm a member of the unit produced by Vil Schoenheit himself, we participated in the VDC and ended up in second place!

Ace: Dance and chorus, I can do it!

Deuce: M-me too! I was in that unit too! I have the guts/willpower! Yessir!

Grim: Me too! Rook, the judge, told me "that's a dance only Grim can do! Beauté! 100 points!"

(they're all so proud of themselves 💖)

Ortho: I can do the synthesizer and manipulator². I can also do the live lighting and video production! (²a pitch shifter, used to transform vocals)

Sebek: I've tried a bit of violin because I admire the Young Master

Silver: I can play the ocarina. Father taught me when I was young

Riddle: A-amazing...!

Riddle: If everyone joins the band, it will be the most mad and chaotic band ever!

Che'nya: Unlike Trey, who would never join the band no matter how many times we asked him to, all these friends seem really into it right meow³~ (sorry I had to add the nya~ somehow)

Trey:...even the holiday plays we did in preschool would make me depressed

Trey: Art and music are required credits at mage school to strengthen the imagination...If it weren't for that, I would have never chosen those subjects. I could never be in a band.

Che'nya: Hehehe~

Che'nya: That's what you say, but you played the trumpet quite well in those plays, and your acting and singing weren't so bad either

Trey: Please stop talking about that! Ahem! So...what are we going to do now?

Riddle: Alright! Let's rally! We're going to my house!

Trey: Riddle's house?!

Riddle: It's right around the corner. And it's also almost tea time

Trey: W-wait Riddle, isn't it a bad idea to go there with so many people all of a sudden?

Cater: R-right. Why don't we just go to a café or something?

Riddle: That would just be a waste of the tea we had prepared. Don't worry about the number of people.

Riddle: I have tea parties with friends quite often. That's why I have a large table in the living room (BABY 😭)

Trey: That's not it

Trey:...Che'nya and I are not allowed into your house, right?

Riddle: Trey and Che'nya are banned from...?

Riddle/Che'nya: haHAHAHAH!

Riddle: What are you talking about out of nowhere? How could that be possible?

Trey: But, your mother⁴...!

Riddle: What about my mom⁵? I bet Mom would be happy to see Trey for the first time in a while

(⁴ Trey uses 母 / haha, the formal word to refer to one's Mother while ⁵Riddle is using ママ /mama, which is a more familiar word like mom/mommy unlike usual)

Che'nya: Yeah. She's definitely going to dote on you. I guarantee it.

Riddle: Nothing to worry about. Come on everyone, follow me!

......

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[magiowlio]

thoughts on this update and references i found!! a lot of references to the games. like. A LOT. i feel like i might have missed some 😭

first time doing one of these posts because usually i am comically late to see each update-

under the cut bc. i ended up yapping more than i thought i would

legend worrying about twi!! i love how he's teasing but you can tell he definitely cares about both of them

"does he still give you trouble" i think this is a reference back to that one post where twi tells sky not to let legend push him around, and sky tells him that people like legend aren't bullies

SKY'S SASS?? HIM ACTING LIKE A RABBIT?? GOD I LOVE THE HERO OF SASS

the way jojo gives them each their own body language! i might have missed some, but wars standing with one hand on his hip, wild doing the thing where he ruffles the back of his hair (he does this in gerudo town as well! i remember some of the others like sky and wind doing this in their games, i don't think it's out of embarrassment though) and twilight playfully pushing wild and saying "get out of here!" which he also did with wars in the dawn arc! he also puts his hand on other's shoulders A LOT. he's done it with wild a good few times, and legend, hyrule, and wars if i remember correctly

"you good?" "yeah" "no, are you good?" i think something similar occurred with four and twilight when they were leaving the inn as well!

"how you handle the world around you separates a boy from a man, it's not the battles you win but how you choose to endure what is set before you" i thought the first part of what time said could be a reference to ocarina of time with the 7 yr time jump, bc try and tell me he didn't have to suddenly start handling the world around him differently after how different everything was when he woke up...and speaking of handling things differently, botw is the game where there's so many different ways to handle each scenario! so it's cool that this is what he's choosing to say to wild, because he'd probably understand that you can approach one problem from many directions

twilight and wild. they're so brothers!!! they're so relaxed and casual with each other! i feel like this is gonna be a HUGE contrast to when wild splits up with wars

again with twi and wild, the fact that neither of them want to be paired with wars is sending me oh my god...and wild imitating twilight from when they entered the dungeon is!!! i definitely laughed at that part LOL (i laughed at multiple parts. this whole update is filled with silly moments oh my gosh)

references to their games as they split off!! wild with his torch, the shot of sky from the back and then to him steeling himself to enter (just like with all the sksw dungeons!!) and wind yelling "come on!" at time just like he did in wind waker! legend, twilight, and four with the lanterns (alltp, albw, tp, and fsa had lanterns!) and hyrule with the candle from loz and taol!!

again with the lanterns! (i might be looking too far into this...) wind looking kind of nervously at four, wind waker had lanterns hanging in really dark areas that surrounded link in a little bit of light so the player can see a bit of the surroundings. another thing i think might be making wind a little nervous is that the moblins in wind waker also held lanterns that looked similar (if im remembering correctly 💀)

i've seen a good few people talking about how time is talking more like the heroes shade as he worries about twi and i def agree! "and be safe..." PLEASE HE'S SO STRESSED GIVE THIS MAN A BREAK

[journalsouppe]

Mwah Mwah Mwah I love you the Adventure of Link <3 You're a tough game but you don't deserve all the hate you get. OUGH yall i love this game so much the soundtrack slaps incredibly hard

Genuinely one of my favorite Zelda games esp in terms of lore and musici, if I grew up in the 80s and played this this game would've been my special interest for sure

The stickers are from the ALTTP sticker pack by Comstock Cafe and I just took the stickers that were the most generic to use for this game and the original Legend of Zelda ^_^;

Writing typed below!

Rating: 8.0 Played: Sp 2023 Port: NES Switch Special Edition (YES I PLAYED THE EASY VERSION I WAS TRYING TO BEAT THIS BEFORE TOTK)

Comments

Initial thoughts: reminds me of the claymation mythology movies (aka Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans)

This reminds me a lot of Joust

little link statue <3

this feels nothing like a zelda game

(in reference to above comment) the mechanics are a little off putting but this is actually a very zelda game, it takes getting used to but i'm enjoying it

I'm actually really obsessed with the zelda II lore and story, love the magic system

omg the iron knuckle

interesting bosses! it would be fun to see them return

damn gooma was so hard

wolfheads can burn in hell

I like how much the future zelda games are insp by this game!!!

how would you ever know how to find new kasuto without a guide T^T

FUCK WIZZROBES

-> they were't too bad in this game bc you can actually block them (I hate top down wizzrobes and hate a visceral reaction lol)

i absolutely love that you can turn into a fairy, this should've been a reused mechanic

"this is the first game where Link shape shifts as well as the first game where the process is voluntary and beneficial" oh my god T^T

I love how Barba/Volvagian returned in Ocarina!!!! LOVE!!

I FORGOT THE CROSS

It's funny how Link can't swim in these games so he walks on water instead

items collected are used in the overworld

I love this game a lot actually

the mega demon looking bubble?? T-T

the regional differences are really interesting

the design of the thunderbird is crazy cool

love the shadow link fight also insane you don't get to heal and replenish magic

zelda and link having 2 different styles is so funny, link looks so goofy

This game had a massive difficulty spike compared to the original The Legend of Zelda game. However, I loved this game so much and you can see how much influence games like OOT and TWW took from it. The music is incredible and iconic, I love the enemy designs and their grittiness, and I love how despite never playing this game before, I had a lot of nostalgia for it bc I played Joust as a kid. This was a great sequel for its time and continued the story well -- Link has gotten 2/3 of the triforce pieces and rescued zelda and defeated Ganon in the first game. Now he has to complete multiple trials in order to get the triforce of courage and save zelda from the past. The end fight being a 2 boss rush AND the true boss being the shadow of youself -- AKA the hardest boss in the series if you don't cheese the battle, it's great what an incredible idea. And OOT used it again with another incredible idea -- reflection, conquer yourself. Are you a true hero if you can't even outmatch, out wit, out last your own self, your own shadow? UGH as a huge OOT fan I just loved this game and seeing all the influence it had. I'd def play it again in the future.

[saria88]

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Impressions

I completed Echoes of Wisdom, so here are my impressions. Spoilers included:

Gameplay:

The dungeons are a true return to form and I'm quite happy about that.

The Echoes were fun to use and led to amusing situations like Zelda sleeping anywhere and some enemies jumping into lava. I liked backing enemies into a corner with multiple Echoes.

I made a conscious choice not to use sword fighter form unless it was needed for progression and I think I was better off for it, particularly for boss fights.

The world was very nice to explore though the villages felt a little small to me.

Good variety of enemies and bosses.

Story:

It was interesting that being trapped in a rift took away Link's voice. I figured that if he got it back there was a chance he would say something as the big shocker. He did as I expected. Though we didn't get to see what he said the reaction of the characters to it was priceless.

I loved that much of this game was a love letter to Ocarina of Time. Though despite all the references Saria or the Kokiri still didn't show up. Sad.

I also felt that the Deku Tree could have been a bit more involved.

It was nice to see Deku Scrubs though. Their part of the story was fun.

It amuses me that Gohma once again got some characters addicted to substances it created. What group will it go after next?

When I saw the holes of lava in the Eldin Temple boss room I said to myself "Is this really going to happen?" I had the biggest smile on my face when Volvagia appeared.

I was also very happy to see that the Goddesses were involved once again. It was mind blowing to me that the creation story was expanded on in a such a way.

Null was a very interesting enemy. It was really cool to see that the entire world of Zelda was created as it's prison, making it the catalyst for many things in the entire series. I ended up feeling bad for it when it was revealed it simply enjoyed the peace the void brought it before it was taken away. I kind of wish Zelda had come to a compromise with it.

Protect Conde at all costs.

Overall I enjoyed this game a lot. It delivered with most of the elements that I felt Tears of the Kingdom was lacking in and was a very enjoyable experience. I feel a bit more confident about the future of the series if they choose this as the template to go forward with and keep improving on it.

[longroadstonowhere]

hey friends, i beat the main plot of echoes of wisdom (so now i can theoretically do other things with my life, like... i dunno, dishes or whatever)

literally was just watching the credits, which ends with zelda's cat on zelda's bed (before panning over to the framed tri rod) and my only response was 'SHIT I NEVER TALKED TO MY CAT'

the cat suit was a very funny item that i used precisely twice (once for its introductory quest, once for a seesyde village quest), so i'm not surprised i forgot about it, but it was like i bolted upright out of bed with the realization that i could've talked to my cat, ahahahaha

anyway, the game is awesome! definitely more a traditional zelda game, which i know some folks were not interested in breath of the wild or tears of the kingdom's break from tradition (i enjoy them, but as a very different kind of game - echoes of wisdom is definitely something more like ocarina of time)

the amount of design callbacks and references for various parts of the world - like, obviously river zora based on alttp zoras, but sea zoras based on oot/mm zoras, and then the deku scrubs were very mm coded, but then we got more botw/totk style gerudos.... just, super great all around, loved doing something and going 'oh i know this a little already'

the echoes were pretty fun to play with, although i had like five or six i used constantly, a handful outside that for niche situations (like the wind cannon for blowing sand away), and i don't think i ever even used like..... sixty percent of the echoes, at least, ahahaha, but it was definitely a great way to allow for puzzle solving - i definitely know i solved at least one puzzle with echoes that was supposed to be solved a very different way, and i'm sure there are a lot of work-arounds and skips that could be utilized if you did it the right way

the story was so much fun, with link an ever-present but absent character, the same way zelda can be, and i love minister lefte and general wright for their names alone - of all the little dungeon-related zones, i think the deku scrubs and scrubton were my favorite, because they were just so uninterested in what i was about and fully obsessed with their own things, it was incredible (plus the stealth mission was pretty fun, even if it took me a looooong time to figure out what was expected of me, since i kept forgetting i could move things with tri)

oh, speaking of mechanics i didn't utilize, i didn't unlock dampe's whole automaton thing until i was doing my pre-point of no return clean-up, so i got the first automaton and never used it - by then i had enough levels on tri to have three basic darknuts as my standard attack squad, and hitting a different button to get one guy out seemed silly, ahahaha (i'm definitely interested in trying it out when i clean up all the side quests, or on my next playthrough, since there were definitely times where i would've loved to need one less echo on the field)

i also really liked the development of tri as a creature who just fully did not comprehend what people and emotions are, but figured it out over the course of the game, in a pretty subtle way all things considered, and like... i'm cool with a fairy character getting just enough character development to be interesting, but not needing to be the center of attention all the time, you know?

all things told, very glad they made this game, and i'm really excited to get all the side things and to play the game again some day

[givesonl]

Weekly Readings - Game Design Workshop - Chapter 4

Below are some points I've summed up after reading Chapter 4 of Game Design Workshop.

Working with Dramatic Elements: Dramatic elements like tension, conflict, and resolution make games more exciting. They keep players interested in the story and characters, making the game more immersive and unforgettable.

Types of Players: Players come in different types, from casual players to hardcore gamers. Knowing these types helps designers make games that more people will like, making them more fun and popular.

Concept of Premise: The premise is like the starting point for the game's story and how it's played. It lays out the main idea or theme and guides how the game is made. A good premise grabs players' attention right away, pulling them into the game world and giving them an idea of what to expect.

Characters in Games: Characters are really important in games because they help tell the story. They can be guides, friends, or enemies to the player. Characters are different from avatars, which are like the player's representatives in the game world. Good characters make the game feel more real and help players get emotionally involved in the story.

Story of the Game: A good story gives players a reason to keep playing. It makes them feel like they're part of the game world and helps them understand why they're on their adventure. When a story is done well, it keeps players interested in the game until they finish it.

World Building: World building is about making game worlds that feel real and interesting. It includes everything from the way places look to the people who live there and their history. When the world is well made, it makes the game more fun to explore and feels like a real place.

Examples of the Dramatic Arc: The dramatic arc is like a roadmap for telling a good story, with different parts like the beginning, middle, and end. Games like "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" and "The Last of Us" show how this roadmap can make players feel really connected to the story. (Kate, H. 2023)

Conclusion: In summary, getting good at dramatic elements, knowing different player types, making a strong premise, creating interesting characters, and building cool worlds are super important for making fun games. When game developers use these things, they can make games that players will remember and love even after they stop playing.

References:

Kate, H. (2023). https://www.gamingbible.com/news/last-of-us-voted-greatest-game-all-time-201861-20230620

Fullerton, T. (2018). Game design workshop : A playcentric approach to creating innovative games, fourth edition. CRC Press LLC.

[ponett]

imo the most annoying thing about the zelda timeline is the fact that you can't even mention it casually without people crawling out of the woodwork to complain about it and tell you how they think they made the whole thing up on the spot to troll fans

like, i get it. it's silly to care all that much about where four swords or oracle of ages or whatever takes place in relation to the mainline games. the exact placement of the NES games is kinda arbitrary. it doesn't particularly matter. there has been lots of pointless nerd rage over these things. but literally every mainline zelda game since the '80s has been openly presented as a sequel or prequel to another previous game. lttp was called a prequel. skyward sword was always framed as the origin story. the opening of wind waker recounts the story of ocarina of time. they wouldn't keep doing things like this if the stories were never supposed to be connected at all, if they didn't think it mattered a little. it's easy to get lost in the weeds of the timeline stuff and overstate it's importance, but it's there

on the flip side, i actually do think breath of the wild's approach of saying that it's so many thousands of years in the future that all prior events are treated as legends containing some mixture of truth and fiction, with references to all three timeline branches to drive this ambiguity home, was really cool! that's a clever way to wipe the slate clean and simplify things without doing a full-blown reboot

but then totk is like "okay now let's talk about the imprisoning war and the founding of hyrule." and i go on twitter to wonder out loud what the game is trying to make me think about this. whether it's trying to do a big reveal about the imprisoning war that was referenced in previous games, or if this is all still just the story of a new version of hyrule in an era after all the old games had faded into legend. and i'm immediately inundated with replies saying the timeline is stupid, they made it all up for hyrule historia, they never should've published a timeline, OBVIOUSLY they've always just been doing unrelated retellings of the same legend, etc. etc. just for trying to engage with the story and figure out what it's trying to tell me in these lore dumps that the entire plot centers around. it's insufferable

[anarchopuppy]

It's time for another one of my long-ass Zelda posts that no one actually reads but that's okay because I'm just posting it for myself. The topic today:

The Zelda Timeline Actually Makes Perfect Sense If You Just Think About It For A Minute

Casual fans and non-fans will take any opportunity to mock the Zelda timeline, with their criticism often starting and ending with "Look, there are three whole branches! Three!" followed by not inspecting it any further. Even big Zelda fans who know the lore extensively will still claim (without giving evidence) that the developers never intended for there to be a timeline or shared story at all while they were writing the games, and just made it up post-hoc to put in Hyrule Historia. But is that true?

Even as early as 2003 (around Wind Waker's release), Miyamoto and Aonuma confirmed that they had an official document with the entire timeline laid out in it, and that claim was reiterated in several other interviews following that. So, there's that idea put to rest right away. Straight from the horse's mouth, there has always been an official timeline

Fun fact: Did you know that back when Ocarina of Time was still called Zelda 64, around the same time that the very first ingame footage was being shown to the public, before the time travel concept was even decided on - we're talking very early development - Nintendo reportedly told IGN that its story took place after Adventure of Link? Now, you may say that that proves that they don't care much about the timeline if they're changing it up partway through production, but to me it says the opposite. Even in the experimentation phase, before they had even come up with the central concept of the game, they were already considering where it would fit into the timeline

But the claim I made at the top wasn't that the timeline was considered beforehand, but that it makes "perfect sense"

The Official Timeline Is The Only One That Works

Let's consider the games in the Zelda series in release order and see how they fit with each other

First was Zelda 1. After that came Zelda 2, an obvious direct sequel with the same Link. Then LttP, which the devs clearly stated was a prequel to Z1 - and it couldn't really have been anything else, since Z1 ends with Ganon being killed and AoL ends with his resurrection being prevented. Link's Awakening is just a dream and could go anywhere on the timeline. Ocarina of Time is a clear prequel to LttP, exploring the origins of Ganon and the beginning of his life as a man, as established in LttP's manual (I'll talk more about OoT and the Downfall Timeline further down). Majora's Mask is a direct sequel to OoT

After that comes Wind Waker, the first seemingly ambiguous placement. The game begins with a legend of the Hero of Time, the player character from OoT, sealing Ganon and then disappearing forever. It's clear that this is referring to the timeline that Link left in OoT. And since in LttP Hyrule hasn't been flooded and abandoned along with the Triforce and Master Sword and Ganon's corpse (which is how WW leaves it), we can be pretty certain that this doesn't come before any of the previously released games. Nor does it come after, since it makes clear reference to the events of OoT and explicitly states that no hero like the Hero of Time has appeared since. So it must be a new timeline split from all that time travel stuff. Cool

Then is Twilight Princess, which also doesn't fit with any of the other games we've seen. In its backstory, Ganondorf was stopped before taking over Hyrule or even touching the Triforce, which doesn't match with either of the two histories that have been established. It does match perfectly with the timeline the Hero of Time returned to at the end of OoT, though, and there's other evidence (such as the Hero's Shade, which is heavily hinted in-game to be the Hero of Time) that supports that. Again, can't come before anything else we've seen since Ganon dies, and can't come after since Ganon never got the Triforce. So the only option that makes sense is for this to be another timeline branch following from OoT

After Twilight Princess comes Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, both of which are explicitly sequels to WW. Then Skyward Sword, which is heavily established as the first game in the series chronologically and came with an official timeline to prove it. Then Link Between Worlds, a sequel to LttP (in Japanese it's even a numbered sequel), and finally Breath of the Wild which has its own nonsense going on and effectively soft reboots the timeline

Ok, so where's that famous ambiguity and arbitrariness? Everything locks in pretty solidly, there's just no other option that makes sense. This is supported by the fact that the Zelda fanbase came to the exact same conclusions before there was ever an official timeline. There were some people who were so attached to a unified timeline that they came up with wild and varied theories to fit it all together, but among the people who recognized that there was a timeline split, they effectively all put the games in the exact same order that would later be revealed as official. But with one major difference - everyone agreed on the order of the 2D games, but no one could figure out whether they belonged at the end of the Adult Timeline or the end of the Child Timeline, with some even arguing that the split timeline "merged" somehow before the 2D games. No one had even considered the Downfall Timeline as an option

What's Up With The Downfall Timeline Anyway

The DT is the most controversial part of the official timeline. There are two timelines that are clearly explained by the events of OoT, and then a third that splits off at the same point that just exists for seemingly no reason. Before the official timeline was released, the fanbase couldn't make sense of the 2D games and how they fit into everything. So what gives?

As I said above, OoT was conceived of and established as a prequel to LttP. But even before the timeline split nonsense, that didn't really make sense. In the backstory of LttP, Ganondorf acquires the entire Triforce before being sealed by the sages - and in-game we do see Ganon in possession of the completed Triforce, even able to wish on it - but in the events of OoT Link and Zelda retain their pieces at all times. OoT is clearly intended to be the events of LttP's backstory, but the ending is changed, like a "what if" scenario where Ganon loses instead of winning

And I argue that's exactly what it is. The Zelda team wanted to flesh out the stuff from LttP's manual, but a game where you lose at the end no matter what you do isn't fun, so they had to make it so you can win. The DT doesn't make a lot of sense when you think of it in timeline order, in terms of how it came to be in-universe, but it becomes a lot more clear when you think of it in development order, in terms of why the developers made the decisions they did. Ocarina was a reboot, a "what if we won instead" story in the same vein as Age of Calamity

In other words, the Downfall Timeline split isn't something that mechanically exists in-universe like the Child/Adult split, and it becomes very confusing if you try to think of it in those terms. Instead, it's another story being told by Nintendo where a different version of events happened, like an alternate history. And when you realize that, the entire timeline starts to make perfect sense

Hold On You Left Out Like Half A Dozen Games

Yeah, you caught me

The other most controversial part of the Zelda timeline is the placement of third-party games. This is the source of the only retcon in the official timeline, which was moving Link's Awakening from after the Oracle games to before them. It also results in the "Vaati trilogy", which was clearly meant to be one continuous story, being split up by thousands of years across multiple timelines. Surely, you say, I can agree that that's confusing and arbitrary?

And I would respond, yeah. Trying to fit games and stories from third-party devs into a timeline with the mainline games post-hoc was a bad idea, and the Vaati trilogy, the Oracle games, and Tri Force Heroes fit into the history about as well as the CD-i games and the Nelsonic Game Watch do. They're great games, by and large, but they're spinoffs and should've been treated as such - trying to include them is the only thing that screws with the timeline. Throw them out, and everything makes sense

[caramel-catss]

cracks knuckles. if i talked a lot about phantom hourglass, then...

link's awakening is my #1 zelda ever, and i honestly have more hours on the original than the remake at this point (my first playthrough was on the remake). i always go to it for randomizers and replays, i seriously can never get enough of this game!!!!

i've written these two pieces about link's awakening, and another two that include or reference it. link's awakening has inspired a lot of my own art, and it is a beautiful game. extremely long infodump incoming:

link's awakening is also a big part of both zelda and gaming history! the soundtrack was composed by two women, minako hamano and kozue ishikawa. in the 90s!!! neither of them had composed for video games before this project, either! (i love the story of la development a lot... i've done extensive research on it. minako hamano composed the ballad of the wind fish, btw)

it's one of if not the first video game to include variations on a theme in its soundtrack, and it is the first zelda game to have a theme for each dungeon! in general, the soundtrack is one of the most famous zelda osts (and rightfully so).

the best part is that link's awakening was a passion project that was originally made after work hours. it started as "what if zelda could be made on the gameboy?" after approval from the higher-ups, it became an alttp port, and from there it became its own thing. shigeru miyamoto didn't work on this game! ...that's what i would say if he didn't become a playtester at the end of development. i can say that koji kondo didn't work on it, though!

development wasn't too strict. every reference to another nintendo character wasn't even run by the higher-ups for approval (ironically, during the remake's development they did ask for approval)! link was allowed to unequip his trusty sword in order to combine other items. this was an idea during alttp, but ultimately got ruled out because either aonuma or miyamoto (i forgot which) wanted the hero to always have a sword. kensuke tanabe, and this is my favorite story from development, had the idea of a giant egg on a mountain that ended the world when hatched for YEARS. he just had this thing in his head. for years. and thought "yeah i'll put that in gameboy zelda."

link's awakening is arguably the first story-based zelda game. while the previous 3 entries had a story, link's awakening goes heavier into worldbuilding and themes. also that guy got to finally do his egg thing so 10/10 in my book. also also, you literally get to GO ON A DATE with MARIN. and the photography mouse? there's just so many wholesome and sweet parts!!!! the plot twist is equally has gut wrenching and beautiful. literally this storyline is perfectly executed they went from 1 to 100 so fast

also, ocarina of time took heavy inspiration from link's awakening! the devs had all played it and cited it as a large inspiration for oot's story :)

the speedrun route of original link's awakening is fucking awesome and reminds me of gaming creepypastas. it's so unnerving in a cool way to see that actually happen in real time.

the game is an incredible mix of great gameplay and a beautiful story. the original still holds up to this day, which is a lot to say about a gameboy title!!! the remake is also extremely faithful to the original, especially with the music. also the music arrangements that added things? i mean... just listen to face shrine. chills

link's awakening is silly, whimsical, devastating, and bittersweet. it's a short game that stays with you forever. it's one of my favorite games of all time, and a perfect example of video games as an art form.

here are some analysis that i really recommend!

the strangest song in link's awakening - jalopestl

deconstructing: the 8 dungeons of link's awakening - jason m. yu

the story of zelda: link's awakening - gaming historian

link's awakening - an allegory for dreaming - liam triforce (note that he no longer agrees with his section on the remake, lol)

Link's Awakening is one of the few in the Zelda franchise that has received a true remake! Originally released for Gameboy, it was re-crafted with modern, adorable graphics and gameplay and is currently available on the Switch. You can read a walkthrough here or watch a lets play here!

Reblog and add what you love about the game, things you would like to see, or other resources for those who would like to learn more about it! Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Links to existing fanworks

Most underrated characters

Your favorite gameplay mechanics, story moments, etc

Analysis of story themes, character arcs, and so on

Favorite game items

Best music moments

That art idea you don't think you'll ever get around to drawing

Story tropes that are perfect but no one seems to include

(Don't know what's going on? Check out this post!)

[bananathebookworm]

TLOVM Season 2 Eps 4-6 Ramblings

EP. 4

- More baby twins. I love getting to see these flashbacks of things that were only briefly mentioned during the campaign.

- Trinket origin story! Baby trinket is so adorable.

- Ugh... and right back into this absolutely brutal moment. The first of several moments that are going to be absolutely gut wrenching to see animated.

- Trinket defending his mama. 

- “Take me instead you Raven bitch.” Love that they keep these iconic lines from the campaign.

- “Holy shit, I’m amazing.” Humble as ever Kash.

- Love Vex laughing in response to them telling her she died. Because sometimes it’s the only way to process things.

- Vax getting Death Walker’s Ward. And thus the decision that seals Vax’s fate in the end.

- Zahra is so cool. I love her.

- Vax’s flashbacks to the Calamity... I really hope we get a Calamity film at some point.

- And a passing of the torch from Purvan to Vax. Going from Vax getting the shit beat out of him, to him then accepting his fate and coming back and saving everyone. I love it so much.

- The tensions between Percy and Vax beginning... 

- The necklace for Trinket!

- Was not expecting that little jumpscare at all... though I really like them adding these Calamity flashbacks as part of becoming the new Champion of the Matron of Ravens.

- Westruun in flames...

EP. 5

- BABY KEYLETH! 

- “Pass through fire” reference. I’m a little sad that the context has changed so much, but I appreciate that the sentiment still exists in this world. I guess this also means we won’t be seeing Kerrek at all. (Which makes sense given Lyra and Thorbir were also cut.)

- Grog and Kraven Edge. Simultaneously the funniest and most terrifying relationship in the show. Also love that they included the Grog and Scanlan convo.

- Pike and Grog singing together! I love it.

- And the secrets of the broom unlocked!

- Was Vax this much of an asshole during this part of the campaign? I don’t remember him being this much of a dick towards Keyleth...

- KIMA AND ALLURA! HELL YES!

- “You know what you fight fire with?” “Fire?” “Me.” Never change Grog.

- “We can certainly try.” Fucking incredible. I love it so much.

- I love any time Percy loses his cool. 

- ALLURA. FUCKING. VYSOREN.

- I have very little recollection of Keyleth and her dad together in campaign, so I love getting to see them together here.

- I wonder if between the Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein series we’ll get to see Keyleth and her mother reunite.

- Keyleth is the best member of the team. I will not be taking any questions or criticisms.

- Seeing Keyleth’s new look, my brain immediately goes to getting the red tunic to resist fire in Ocarina of Time...

- Plane shifting beginnings.

EP. 6

- And now getting into Grog’s backstory a little more. I love that season one was them solidifying them as a team, and now season two is letting us see more into their individual backstories.

- Oh Percy...

- My recollection is that Scanlan never let anyone manhandle him in the campaign. He always insisted that everyone else heal themselves first and refused to be picked up most of the time. (With the occasional exception during battle like the fast-ball special.)

- Kraven Edge is terrifying

- Sphinxes are so cool

- Arcane Piano. This is ridiculous and amazing all at once.

- During the campaign I never stopped to consider what it actually looks like when Scanlan stop to sing in the middle of battle.

- Scanlan bonding with the Sphinx was not what I expected from this trial. But I love it.

- MYTHCARVER! Time to slay a Pit Fiend.

- Not as brutal as ending on Liam/Vax’s sobs last week, but that was still awful. 

- I'm interested to see where this goes because so far Pike is their only healer, unlike the campaign where Vex, Scanlan, and Keyleth were also able to heal when needed.

[game-boy-pocket]

How has Ganondorf evolved throughout the series?

Well there's a lot of youtube channels that can show you that exact thing i'm sure. But I take it you want that in my exact words. But that will be a long one so buckle up... for that we need to go back to 1991. Back in those days, we only thought of Ganon as some kind of evil wizard pig. We didn't know he was originally a human. But A Link to the Past comes along and reveals that Ganon used to be called Ganondorf, and he was the leader of a gang of thieves.

Now, Ganondorf didn't appear in a Link to the Past, he was only ever mentioned by name... or was he? Because my theory is that he actually is in the game, going by a different name. That name being Agahnim, the human antagonist with an unusual skin color ( light blue in this case ) dressed in desert clothing, who earns the trust of the king, betrays him, is defeated by having his magic reflected back at him, is only able to be damaged by the master sword, and Ganon refers to him as his Alter Ego... as you pay attention to the history of Ganondorf, this makes a lot of sense.

Ganondorf would appear under his real name for the first time in the prequel to a Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time. Here he's the King of a gang of thieves who live in the desert ( which supports my Agahanim theory ), he has an unusual skin color ( green in this case ) who swears fielty to the King ( I guess we're not supposed to know he's the king of thieves yet? Or maybe this is one of those cases where the english translation doesn't cover some things, as i'm learning is so often the case ) who betrays the King ( where have I heard that before ? )

Anyway, Ganondorf makes quite an impression every moment he's on screen in this game, and even when he's not, as Ganondorf is the one responsible for all the happenings around Hyrule, you'd think the Zoras or the Gorons would warn the King of Hyrule or something but I guess they were too busy with their own problems, and Ganondorf is still playing softball, until he follows Link into the sacred realm to claim the Triforce. He's a pretty brilliant manipulator in this game, he continues watching Link until the moment he reveals Princess Zelda's whereabouts. He grows in power after the 7 year time skip, and ruthlessness as he's cusing problems in Hyrule that are now much much worse. I think he's still pretty sane here because he's not outright destroying Hyrule, he's keeping people alive as long as they don't oppose him. He's even having the likes of Lon Lon Ranch raise his horses. Also he gets a really cool design change after the 7 year time skip, it's a detail I really like that not a lot of people talk about....

oh yeah... and you defeat him by sending his magic attacks back at him...... where have I heard that before?

Anyone who beat OOT knows how it ends. Ganondorf is sealed away in the sacred realm and Link is sent back in time 7 years... but the power of that seal fades away over time. Ganondorf returns, and Hyrule is flooded.

Aged, tired, and desperate, Ganondorf takes up shelter in an abandoned Pirate fortress, clinging to what little relics of Hyrule he has. and gathering any monster forces he can reach, he sends his new pet bird, the Helmaroc King, to kidnap any girl in the great sea that they can find, in hopes that one of them will be the descendent of Princess Zelda, who would carry the Triforce of Wisdom. In a pretty unusual twist in the Zelda series, this Ganondorf remembers events from the past game, being sealed by the sages, name dropping the "Hero of Time", the title given to Link in Ocarina of Time. And he also opens up about his motives for obtaining the triforce. Jealousy and suffering. The harsh desert that was burning hot in the day and freezing cold at night was a living hell for Ganondorf and his people. He opens up to Link and even promises not to kill him despite holding a nearly unconsious Link in the air by his arm. This is very unusual but very interesting. He also comes so very close to getting exactly what he wants... the Triforce. Unfortunately, he does the thing a vilain shouldn't do when this close to victory, and he monologues. The King of Hyrule yoinks the triforce and makes his own wish before Ganondorf can touch it.

His defeat at the hands of the Hero of Time has cracked his mind just a bit, but he still manages to keep a pretty cool head up until this moment, where he just snaps. This battle kind of takes away the magic attacks. Those are still in the game, but is now mostly given to his phantom Ganon form. I kinda wish they kept some kind of magic attack in the final battle instead of just giving him sword and that's it.

Well Ganondorf gets a nice new pair of cement shoes at the end of this game. Or rather, cement everything. It's a fan favorite version of Ganondorf, and for good reason, it's probably the best.

Ganon is once again mentioned in name only in Four Swords Adventures. Supposedly he's not the same one from any of the prior games. Who really cares at this point. But in this game he is a younger Gerudo, possibly not yet the King of the Gerudo, who decides to break into an old tomb to steal some sort of powerful trident, presumably the weapon that changes him into the pig beast Ganon.

A quick side bar to talk about Ganon.... his origin seems to change from game to game and it kind of bothers me. We didn't know Ganon had a human form in the NES games but after a Link to the Past, it was assumed he became a pig demon because the Dark World changes humans into a form that reflects their heart... but then ALTTP had a prequel game, Ocarina of Time, where Ganon is just some kind of form he can take using the power of haltered. And the most recent example I know of just treated Ganon as a different entity than Ganondorf? It's so dumb and confusing. Anyway, back to Ganondorf.

In Twilight Princess, we're lead to believe there is a new Antagonist. A guy in black robes with a freaky metal helmet named Zant... but no, it's really more of a Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine situation, with Ganondorf being the Palpatine to Zant's vader... except Zant doesn't get a dignified redemption moment at the end.

We learn half way through the game that Ganondorf was the leader of a gang of thieves who was captured and sentenced to justice... and if you pay for a special collectors eidtion book, we learn that he was brought to justice for plotting to betray the King and steal the triforce, because the Hero of Time and Zelda ( as children ) warned the King about his plot before he could do it... this is... a very stupid way to handle connecting Twilight Princess's plot to Ocarina of Time, by simply not doing it until after the fact. But it is what it is... anyway...

Ganondorf is executed and sent to the Twilight Realm, where so many people were banished, they formed a society. But hatred and resentment lingered in the Twilight Realm, and Ganondorf was nourished by the power of that hatred and grew into a god...who made a deal with Zant, and escape back into Hyrule... or something, idk, the story is kind of wacked. Ganondorf is not as wise in this game because he didn't learn from his experience in Ocarina of Time, he was defeated earlier in the game.

Here, his magic is back.... kind of... he takes control of Zelda's body, and has a battle with Link very similar to Ocarina of Time. You have to reflect the magic attacks back at him... then he tranforms into Ganon,which is a bit strange to not save for last. Ganon, in this game, is very bestial. A quadruped, and more like a hybrid of lion and boar. It kind of reflects Link's tranformation into a wolf... then you have a horseback battle with him, then he falls off his horse like a nerd, and monologues again to save face, then comes at you with the same sword he was executed with, which left a gaping hole in his chest. It's pretty cool, but I have to admit, I really prefer magic weilder ganondorf to swordsman Ganondorf... you kill Ganondorf, who dies standing up, there's some cut dialogue that implies he will reincarnate for all time, which would have been better in my opinion than what they do next...

Side note... Ganondorf is so ugly in TP... especially the HD version.

Anyway, Ganondorf would not appear in a ( canon ) Zelda game for some time after that. Instead we get Akuma from Street Fighter as a final boss. Some big bad generic demon man who is just evil for the sake of evil, and exists at the beginning of the Timeline ( even though we already got a "origin of all monsters" story ) and HE is the one who says a reincarnation of his hatred will follow Link and Zelda's successors for all time, which I feel really robs Ganondorf of his agency and I hate it. I love Ganondorf as a character and this has done serious damage to him for me.

Anyway... there was also Hyrule Warriors but I don't remember the story of that game, something about a horny witch making the multiverse happen or something. Ganondorf had Super Saiyan 3 hair and I didn't like it... moving on.

Ganondorf was not in Breath of the Wild. I had my own theories about that. But Tears of the Kingdom threw a monkey wrench in that. I have not beaten the game yet, but I am getting the impression that when I do finish it, I will be left with more questions than answers.

Ganondorf in TOTK appears to be back to his old tricks of gaining a King's trust and then betraying him, but he's also not even trying to hide that he is in fact evil. Oh and also he's a mummy who can project an giant image of himself in front of the heroes to monologue, like Shredder in the Super Nintendo TMNT game. That's pretty sick... but the problem I have with this is that Ganondorf shouldn't exist in this game... unless I treat it as a different continuity than the main series... at least I think this will be the case... again, I have not beaten Tears of the Kingdom yet, but I am pretty sure I already know everything I need to and it's not going to solve my conundrums in a satisfying way, and I am just going to have to fix this broken mess myself. I will have to get back to you on all of this later.

But for now, that's my take on the evolution of Ganondorf.

A mater manipulator magician driven by a mix of jealousy and greed who aged into a desperate forgotten swordsman king, then turned into a generic evil overlord who was always destined to be an asshole, and now he appears to be a crusty old power hungry king that, I guess wants to actually destroy the world rather than rule it? I'm still unclear.

I really think he's not as appealing as he use to be, but I still like him.

EDIT: My god I sound like an idiot and I have made too many typos and grammatical errors and just generally poorly structured this whole thing, I can't be bothered to go back and fix it all.

[daemon-404]

"Crossbreeding" in Hyrule

Alright, so, this has been bothering me for a while. It's not a new topic, I know, but I figured I might as well put my spin on it. A lot of this is based on vibes alone, but I put as much justification in as I could. Hope this makes sense!

Here's a basic chart for the overview:

Ok, now for specifics (under the cut of course). Apologies in advance if this is offensive to any people who actually study biology as my knowledge is... unreliable (even though I'm very interested in it).

The Easy

Hylian/Sheikah

Hylians and Sheikah are pretty much the definition of "cut from the same cloth."

According to Skyward Sword, the Sheikah are "Hylia's chosen guardians;" they were created alongside Hylians as the sort of "favorite races" of the gods, unlike other species that popped up around the time (Goron, Parella, etc). With the inclusion of the other games, it's clear that they're not minor gods (like dragons or Great Fairies) either, since they appear as and are referred to as a race of people, whereas minor gods are more like magical individuals than a species.

Besides that, they look and behave almost exactly like Hylians, with the only biological difference being that Sheikah can live for an incredibly long time. In SS it might be a little bit encouraged by divine intervention, but with BotW we know for sure it's at least over a century, probably around 200-250 years average. Even that gets more nuanced with, for example, Niko showing up in both The Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks (something of a century later) suggesting that Hylians might be able to live up to around 120 years.

Basically, I don't think it's too bold to assume Hylians and Sheikah are completely compatible and probably biologically function more or less exactly the same way.

Gerudo I

Gerudo appeared significantly later in the timeline, with their first chronological appearance being Ocarina of Time. (I think it's been said that they sailed to Hyrule...?)

In any case, with only one male born every century, they rely on reproducing with other races. This is mentioned in OoT ("They say that Gerudo sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends," Gossip Stone) and made canon in BotW, with the marriage of Rhondson and Hudson of Tarrey Town.

Additionally, their children are always 100% Gerudo (source).

This means they're not hybrid species. They just.. for lack of better way to explain, need to be fertilized to have their children. Generally that comes from Hylians, and thus probably Sheikah as well- which would make sense, seeing as all three of them are almost exactly the same in appearance- but maybe not limited to them. I'll get back to this later.

Basically, all of the the human-like species can have kids with each other.

Cool! But that's almost definitely not what anyone was wondering about.

-

The Less Easy

Zora

Here we are, the most "vibes-based" speculations I have for this post.

Zora... fish people, right? Wrong. What the hell are these things.

Scales, eggs, mammary glands (are they just fatty deposits???), both fish and sea mammal type tails and builds, even in the same family (Sidon is a shark but Mipha's a dolphin????)... not to mention that apparently, at one point, on the official zelda.com, it was said that they're not mammals.

Biological nightmares, that's what they are.

After a lot of consideration, they (specifically the Sea Zora, like in BotW, OoT and TP) are scaled, egg-laying mammals (both are technically possible IRL although not at once), due to most Sea Zora having mammal type head-tails. The difference in anatomy, patterns and resemblance to other species is just... something that happens. Maybe it's due to magic. Really, it's just a character design, video game thing. This isn't the 100% science based dragon game after all and I can't exactly hold them to evolutionary logic.

As you can probably tell, I'm leaning heavily on the "not mammals" thing being taken out of their description. After all, it was apparently over 10 years ago and things (namely: BotW coming out) have been changed. The devs change things after the fact a lot, so I don't think it's out of the question.

(I totally agree with this post by the way- I've just adjusted some things so that they're now specifically mammals and my speculations make a little more sense, even though it doesn't exactly make sense for their evolution. Call it a product of divine intervention... again).

Okay. Now that we've gotten that out of the way... Zora (and, consequentially, Rito) technically being mammals (dear Hylia that physically hurt to type) justifies a little bit more crossbreeding.

Due to vibes again, I think Hylians and Zora are male -> female compatible. Something how female Zora just won't give up on wanting to marry certain Hylians...

I think Zora have most if not all the Zora-specific traits in the egg itself, and Hylian sperm just happens to be compatible to kick off the fertilization.

However, male Zora -> female Hylian doesn't strike me as particularly possible, since I think the Zora part might contain Zora-specific features that just won't translate well.

For example (due to vibes of course), I like to think the head-tail is in the male part, making Hylian/Zora hybrid children tailless and Zora/Hylian children a little bit impossible.

insp 1 insp 2

Rito

Unlike the rest of the Hyrulean races, the Rito have an evolution we can track! They first show up- in the middle of their evolution, no less- in The Wind Waker.

They are a race of people that evolved- with the help of severe divine intervention, only a century in by WW's time- from the Zora.

Their evolution looks something like this, by the time of BotW:

During that middle period, I believe they'd be extra compatible with Hylians, fertile offspring and all. Their god-based evolution seems to have done a complete 180, so for the middle of that process where they have Hylian-like builds I think this makes sense. I mean... just look at them. That's a Hylian with a beak.

Now for the bird part. Notably, in Twilight Princess, a mural in Castle Town shows the Rito with an appearance much more similar to BotW:

And in the OoT manga, there's a short depicting a Rito-like race, the Watarara, who migrate through Hyrule sometimes but don't settle there. They have a much more bird-like appearance than WW's Rito.

I believe the "Rito" in TP are actually the Watarara from a different country, who are developing ties to Hyrule at the time, but don't yet majorly live there. Then, since they're probably around even in WW's timeline, once the Rito of that Hyrule evolve to the point of being slightly more bird-like they become compatible and breed resulting in the Watarara-like Rito of BotW and fully breaking off mutual compatibility they had with the Zora.

HOWEVER-!

While I don't believe a Rito can fertilize the offspring of a Zora, (here's another vibes bit), I do think somehow that there's a male -> female compatibility between the Zora and the Rito.

(I think it's much the same as Hylian/Zora, but the head-tail gene is simply discarded and the rest functions).

Gerudo II

Unisexual reproduction is when a species doesn't need its own males to reproduce, in which the species has haploid eggs (only one set of chromosomes), so the male's genome is discarded, but the sperm is still necessary to develop the embryo (source).

This would explain how every Gerudo child is 100% Gerudo, even with different species as parents.

Now, due to fantasy and magic, I'm going to say the Zora, Rito, Hylian and Sheikah races all have compatible sperm.

This is slightly backed up by in-game Gerudo travelers, like Laroba, stating that a man from any race could be suitable to be her partner. Even if she's talking about romance rather than sex, maybe being able to mate with every other race backs it up a little. She does include Gorons too, though, so that might be unreliable. I'm just throwing it in here.

One more thing- there is a type of unisexuality in which parts of the male genome "leak" into those of the children. I assume this is more or less why Gerudo have pointed ears in BotW and not OoT.

inspiration

-

The Easiest

Gorons are (most likely) asexual reproducers.

There are no "female" Gorons in the series. Even the ones in Gerudo Town seem to identify as male ("I thought men weren't allowed in this town... Why did they let me in?" Lyndae; "I made it all the way to Gerudo Town! But I'm not sure why they let me in..." Strade).

And, conclusively in my opinion, OoT presents a young Goron- Link, son of Darunia. Being that Darunia and Link (the Hylian) are friends, and Link (the Goron) is even named after the Hylian Link, you'd think we'd get an introduction to or even a mention of some kind of mother, or find a "wife"/"girlfriend" of Darunia somewhere, but there's nothing of the sort (equally, the same can be said about Yunobo, who's directly descended from Daruk- the former having no mention of a mate and the latter having no mention of a mother).

I believe that Gorons are genderless, and the use of "he/him" and the male identity has to do with working with Hylians (source).

I tend to imagine that Goron offspring somehow originate from the rocks on the Gorons' backs, therefore being directly related to them (it makes more sense for Yunobo to have Daruk's special power that way).

-

Bonus: The Deku Group

"The Deku group" is something completely different I could talk about, but basically boils down to Deku trees, Deku scrubs, Skull Kids and the Koroks/Kokiri; they're (mostly) all plant-based spirits of the Lost Woods.

In short, Deku trees are something of a minor god/species cross and kind of radiate magic, Deku scrubs are an offshoot of this magic and can and do breed as a very specific and unique case of being a race of spirits, Skull Kids are just kids who got lost and died in the Lost Woods and turned into spirits, and Korok/Kokiri are a mix of fairy and Deku, being both "the children of the forest/Deku tree" and referred to as "fairies" multiple times, so with that combination it's honestly likely that they're just made out of magic à la UNDERTALE.

-

And that's a wrap! For now!

As a bonus for sticking with me this far, here's another chart.

Not only is he probably just... magically fertile, but I think if Gerudo are compatible with every major race of Hyrule (save for the Gorons of course), Ganondorf himself would be able to... show that compatibility a lot more easily. So, technically, if we're rolling with this assumption, the Gerudo and the rest are mutually compatible.

[iatrophilosophos]

1) don't. Overpay. For cell service. A) The govt will pay your phone bill up to $25/mo if you're on any other benefit program (like food stamps) B) TracFone is a fucking rip off C) if you haven't already, switch to a budget carrier, you can get unlimited data for between 20-30 a month with ting or visible. Visible is Better bc it's Verizon, which has waaay better coverage in rural areas, but check phone compatibility. They're slower in big cities but that's not where u wanna be anyway, haven't experienced any throttling with either outside of metro areas.

2) List of (mostly art related) portable (/scrounged up from materials in a place that you can then leave there) hobbies below the cut. Depending on what you end up doing it's not unlikely you'll have a lot of downtime, which can get pretty mind numbing, especially if you're used to getting fun thru like video games and stuff. Having something that's just for you and just for fun is a really important survival tool.

Highly biased towards what's relevant to my interests but: Embroidery, drawing, and writing don't require much stuff at all and you can steal all relevant materials--u can also get into making tools, like foraged dyes/paints, homemade dip pens out of soda cans, etc. You can embroider clothes you already have (just don't do it on anything waterproof and remember you're adding cotton!). You can paint or embroider patches on scrap fabric. Botany, foraging and herbalism are fun and useful and you can download books from LibGen or zlibrary. Knitting is also fun but keeping knitting needles is annoying sometimes, theyll stab thru ur stuff, so picking up a pack of silicone point covers is a good idea, smaller projects are better like socks (plus you get good socks). Nålbinding is cool bc the needle is small and portable and you get stuff that doesn't unravel! Shuttle tatting (a type of lace making) is also great and portable. Bird/wildlife watching is cool, you get to see birds. Making cordage or tiny baskets with natural materials is a lot of fun. You can build little shrines and structures in the woods. Bookbinding is fun, you can make really cool junk journals/trash journals out of found paper scraps. Origami is challenging and interesting. Tinkering and making kinetic sculpture out of trash is a good time. Studying anything you think is cool that you didn't have time for before--philosophy, mysticism, science, art, medicine--again u can get lots of digital books for free from LibGen or zlibrary. Podcasts and audiobooks take less battery than TV, there's some really good independent serial fiction out there. There's a lot of small, cheap, sturdy instruments, like ocarina or recorder or harmonica, and you can learn to sing or whistle. Learn to juggle or dance. Make puppets out of random stuff and learn puppeteering. Steal or make yourself toys and play with them like you're eight, it really does help. Stick & poke tattooing is fun to learn, fun to do and fun to trade with others!

Projects can get heavy so it's important to do things while they're fun and then let them go. Digital books have the pro of not weighing much or anything but the con of being battery-dependent, if reading is really really ur thing or you want to have reference guides it might be better to get a decent, small external battery for your phone than carrying around paper books. You can copy down fibercraft patterns or print them at the library to conserve battery. Keep ur phone on airplane mode. Apparently sd cards are incredibly cheap these days (like ten bucks) so if u have a shitty phone u can get one to an Amazon locker or something you can download books, music, podcasts etc and use them on airplane mode instead of streaming (also means you need less access to cell service)

Big box craft stores like hobby lobby or Michaels are really easy to steal from and it's incredibly normal to bring in a big tote bag with stuff in it so you can match supplies you're getting to an existing project. Also normal to not find what you're looking for and leave.

I saw that post about what to do if you're homeless again (the one that starts by telling you to spend all of your money on motel rooms lmao) anyway, here's a few thoughts, specifically for trans girls, cuz I don't really care otherwise tbh:

1) plan ahead, most trans girls are in precarious housing situations, you will have a much easier time when it falls apart if you already have a pack with most of the gear you need in it. Also, if you find yourself in a situation where you cant make rent, dont pay part of it, spend that money on gear, pocket the rest and leave, youll have a much nicer time. Look up your local eviction laws, you have plenty of time. (Gear list at the end)

2) travel! If you're in Arizona in May, leave. it's about to be hot as hell. If you're in Michigan in October, leave. It's about to be cold as hell. If you're in a big city, leave. It's way easier to be homeless pretty much anywhere else. Amtrak is cheaper and more comfortable than greyhound, hitchhiking is free and easy, if you're alone it's not that much slower than the previous two, and it's more fun, and sometimes people buy you food or whatever or give you money. I promise it's not scary and you're entirely capable of doing it, no matter who you are. 95+% of people who will pick you up are very nice. All you have to do is take the bus out of town, as far down the highway you can, to an exit with a truck stop if possible, then just stand on the side of the road with your thumb out until someone picks you up. You can stand at the bottom of the ramp(on the highway) near where the merge lane ends or at the top of the ramp(where there's usually a traffic light), the former is more likely to lead to cop interactions but will maybe get you a ride faster, check on hitchwiki for how the cops are in the area. don't be afraid to take a commuter bus or Amtrak to get out of a shitty cop area

3) skip shelters if you can (they are very occasionally a decent place to get stuff from) and encampments, good places to sleep include the trees near railroad tracks or highways, wooded areas behind shopping centers, sections of parks without paths, overgrown empty lots. Hang a tarp above you if there's an appreciable chance of rain, there's tons of YouTube tutorials on how to do this, maybe I'll make a post about what I usually do some day. There are many habits more fun than motel rooms, save your money for them lmao.

4) get on food stamps. This is easier in some places than others, but it makes the whole thing a lot easier. Just tell them you're homeless, if they don't give you a card the same day, you can probably ask to pick it up from that office, alternatively some drop in centers/day shelters can receive mail for you, or you can have it sent to general delivery(USPS service, look it up)

5) dumpster. sidewalk trash cans, Aldi, Einstein's, trader Joe's, pizza places, etc. You need to develop a bit of a sense for it but it's an easy way to get cooked food or travelling food or expensive food without spending resources. Also it's fun.

6) libraries are great for charging your phone and using wifi, but also keep an eye out, plenty of random outlets on the outsides of buildings are also powered

7) hygiene notes: truckers get free showers from chain truck stops(loves, pilot/flying j) go there and ask them. convenient if you're hitchhiking, also you don't need to shower 3 times a day, really, you'll survive. Ditto with deodorant. Take care of your teeth though. Take your socks off every. day. Change them consistently. Safety razors give a good shave, work well without adequate water pressure, and the replacement blades are very stealable, they're kind of heavy though. Walmart makes these electric razors for women that take AA batteries and are pretty light but give a worse shave, also they kinda go through batteries, pick whatever works for you(cartridge razors suck)

8) traveling food notes: peanut butter is great, tortillas and bagels travel pretty well, tuna packets are pretty good protein for traveling(the ones with rice and beans or whatever are nice since theyre often the same price as the regular), condiment packets are free, hot sauce makes everything better, and mayo goes well with tuna and has a bunch of calories in it, salad dressing packets are free from truck stops and work well turning the Walmart shredded vegetable packages (labeled for making into slaw, next to the bagged salads) into a salad with real vegetables(not iceberg lettuce) in it or mixing in with tuna packets for even more calories than mayo

Gear world:

Necessary items(in order of importance): a gallon of water carrying capacity(an Arizona jug or other twist top jug is conventional, but a bladder+arizona bottles also works), a tarp(larger than 6'x9', not brightly colored), a hank of parachord, a sleeping bag (20° rated, synthetic insulation), a backpack with a padded hip belt(at least 50L, no more than 75), rain gear(a rain poncho might cover your pack too, a rain jacket can help with wind when its cold, a trash bag inside or outside your pack can keep it dry, a plan to watch the weather and not get caught also works), a z-fold foam sleeping pad, three pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear (at least one pair of boxer breifs strongly recommended if you arent incredibly skinny), a decent pair of shoes with good arch support, a functional jacket(skip if you got a rain jacket before), a base layer(wool or poly, absolutely no cotton)

Convenient items: a sleeping bag liner(cotton free, keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer), gallon zip locks to pack your stuff in(helps keep it dry and organized), no more than one change of clothes(as light as possible), a multi-tool(can opener, pliers, wire cutter), lighter(burning rope ends etc), spoon, floss and needles for patching

[tortilla-of-courage]

The Hylian written languages are a mess, man. But it’s nice seeing how they vary and how that’d affect how the Links communicate. I thought it’d be fun to share this since apparently written Hylian isn’t like, common knowledge in the fandom. Might be useful for art or the alike maybe? not sure

(really long post so. under a read more it goes! TL;DR of what’s in here: talking about and showing the written Hylian in almost all Zelda games, similarities between some, brief appearances in other games, and what writing system each Link would use according to all of this (basing it on the LU AU’s Links, but it could apply to any other Zelda AU out there), plus me trying to Connect The Dots™)

Written Hylian jumps from English-based to Japanese-based then back and forth, so in theory they could also sound completely different between each other, but that’s another issue. 

Anyways, here’s a totally-not-messy timeline of the games with their respective written languages (note: when i say english or japanese, i mean english/japanese-based Hylian, except in Link’s Awakening where it’s literally just those languages)

for convenience i’m gonna show and kind of explain each Hylian here really quick

First off, “English 1″, or the Skyward Sword Ancient Hylian alphabet

The first one chronologically. The start of a language-evolution nightmare. Anything you find in SS with this can be translated to English simply by replacing them with the latin alphabet.

Then we have “Japanese 1″, or the most common Hylian syllabary (syllable-based language) across the games

For some reason, Hyrule decided to switch to a syllable-based writing system all of a sudden and everyone said ok. With this one you can translate anything in Minish Cap, Four Swords/Four Swords Adventures, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks to japanese. It can be a bit difficult because of a lack of distinctions japanese has (double consonants and half-sized syllables for example) but it can be done.

(As a fun note, this one can be found in Ocarina of Time 3D in the carpet of the Temple of Time, and in Square Signs! And also in Twilight Princess, in some of Kakariko’s Gravestones)

Then we have “Japanese 2″, in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.

Alright still syllable-based. That’s cool. Though this one’s way more square-ish than the last one, and it’s missing some syllables, so it complicates translations. The missing syllables are the ones with the variation marks “Japanese 1″ had. So, for example, in this syllabary, “ha/ba/pa” are the same symbol.

Going by the Fallen Timeline first, in A Link to the Past we’re shown a variant of Hylian that is referred to as “Mudoran”... which is gibberish, basically.

As far as I know, there’s no visible Hylian or other in the Oracles games, but we can assume they’d speak/write whatever language Labrynna and Holodrum have.

Link’s Awakening seems to just... have English and Japanese. At the same time.

In A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes, we’re introduced to a new alphabet, “English 2″, which is also used in Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity, often called “Modern Hylian”.

It’s really similar to Skyward Sword’s Hylian, to the point of sharing many of its characters... except they’re all mixed up and/or slightly modified. 

Here’s a messy comparison between the two for funsies. You can technically crossread between the two but it won’t make sense for the most part. The only word i’ve found that’s the same in both is “NO”

In Zelda I and II there’s no written language to be seen like, anywhere because of the game’s limitations. While we’re at it, Hyrule Warriors doesn’t show any distinct Hylian either.

So! Child timeline! Termina uses the same “Japanese 2″ syllabary as OoT. That one’s easy.

Twilight Princess introduces a new alphabet, “English 3″, that’s the most similar to the latin alphabet out of the others.

TP’s many signs with this alphabet though seem to use it with English, Japanese, and/or gibberish. It really depends on where it’s being used. Most one or two word signs base it off english.

Also, this alphabet can be found in... Skyward Sword! Yeah, all the way back there. You can find it in the Sealed Temple and the Sky Keep (though it’s gibberish), as well as on one of the game’s covers:

Then Four Swords Adventures, and all the games in the adult timeline (Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks) use “Japanese 1″.

So. What does this mean for the Links, you might ask? After that stupidly long exposition text wall, I can finally go to that.

i’m basing these on the Linked Universe AU’s Links, but the info above could be used for the Links in any other Zelda AUs. For people unfamiliar with the AU, “Hyrule” here is the Zelda I/II Link, and “Warriors” is the Hyrule Warriors Link. “Legend” covers all the other games in the Fallen Hero Timeline, and “Four” is the Four Swords and Minish Cap’s Links. The rest I think are more obvious.

Sky uses “English 1″. He could, in theory, see Twilight’s Hylian and have the vaguest feeling of knowing it, but since it was on the doors of the Sealed Temple i’m not sure.

Four and Wind use “Japanese 1″.

Time uses “Japanese 2″. Like Sky, he could potentially see Four and Wind’s Hylian and think he’s seen it before, but since it was just on the carpet I don’t think he’d have paid much attention to it.

Legend and Wild use “English 2″.

Also besides “English 2″, Legend also knows Mudoran, English, Japanese, and Labrynna’s and Holodrum’s languages. Multilingual king.

Twilight uses “English 3″, and if he ever paid attention to the gravestones in Kakariko Village, might recognize Four and Wind’s Hylian too.

Warriors could use any of these tbh, considering the mess his game is.

I have no idea what Hyrule could use either. Probably English 2 like Legend? Something else entirely?

Sky, Legend and Wild look at each other’s writing like “oh that looks familiar :)” but when they try to read it it makes absolutely No Sense.

I’m pretty sure I had more points to this when I started this post but I seem to have forgotten about them and i’ve already spent maybe 6 hours on this.

Conclusion: Written communication isn’t really a viable option for the Links unless they teach each other their respective writing systems. Chaos ensues.

Bonus! Both “Link” and their nicknames in each of their writing systems (using “English 2″ for Wars and Hyrule as placeholders)

[mikauzoran]

Art Update

Hi, guys! I haven’t blogged about my art journey all month, so I wanted to give you guys an update. I feel like I’ve sort of been in a funk, but, at the same time, I’ve gotten better? Anyway. Here are some highlights from the past month. (Confession: I’m only showing you the ones I’m happy with. I’ve actually made a lot of art that was rubbish too. XD Oh well. All part of the process, right?)

Above is a watercolor landscape that I did along with an instruction video series. I’m happy with the puffy cloud in the center. I also like the colors of the grass in the foreground and the mountains in the distance. In the video, the instructor said they were supposed to be a line of trees, but mine are mountains because I said so. I think mountains look better at the end of a vast grassland.

I also started doing acrylic. I think I’m kind of getting the hang of watercolor, but acrylic makes more sense in my head with putting the darker colors down first and adding the lights and highlights on top of that, so I’m giving it a try.

I have a video series for acrylic painting too, so in one of the lectures we painted an egg in black and white. For my first acrylic painting and not knowing what the heck I was doing, I think this turned out really well. I really like the shadows.

I’ve also been doing a lot of drawing. Below are two pumpkins. They make me happy. The real ones are sitting on our dinning room table now looking all festive for the autumn season.

So, the below was actually a picture in a book I got from the library on drawing techniques. It’s three different ceramic kitchen jars and a coffee mug. It was featured in the lesson on hatching and crosshatching. I thought it looked cool, so I tried drawing it. It turned out really well! The image in the book is probably copyrighted, so I can’t show you a reference photo. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I did a good job with my reproduction.

It’s funny. It doesn’t look like I drew it. I feel like it’s too early for me to have a distinctive “style”, but when I look at the below, it’s obvious that this image didn’t come out of my head. So I must have some sort of basic, cohesive elements that characterize my work. I have no clue what those could possibly be. XD 

So, I’ve heard about this thing called “gesture drawing”, but I’ve never learned how one goes about doing it. ^.^; Below is a quick “gesture drawing” I did of my daughter Eiko as she was lying out in the yard. (Yes, she does lie with her leg sticking out in back like that. She also only eats lying down. She’s a strange, beautiful creature, and I love her.)

I tried to do one of my son Noiz too, but he didn’t stay still long enough for me to complete anything. XD

Lastly, here is the final project I did for my drawing class that just wrapped up. It’s my ocarina (dark blue), a tea mug (a slightly darker shade of blue), and a blue and white porcelain bowl containing three clementines. The colors are really pretty together. It doesn’t come across in my greyscale drawing, but know that I thought about the colors when making the composition.

The drawing turned out pretty okay. It’s a lot bigger than I usually work, so the size was a challenge. Looking at it after the fact, there are a lot of little things that I would finesse some more, but I kind of just worked on it for a few hours, got tired, and said, “Good enough. I’m going to bed now”.

There are things that I’m really happy with about this too. The mouthpiece of the ocarina looks really good in person. I also like the way the top of the tea mug turned out as well as the handle. The reflection of the bowl of clementines in the mug also looks pretty good. I think the right-most clementine turned out well. I had a little trouble with shading. It’s so hard for me to shade light, but I think the right-most clementine turned out well.

At the moment, I’m actually taking a portrait painting class. XD I’m super new to acrylic AND portraits, so I’m way out of my depth, but the instructor is very nice and supportive. (She’s the same one who did my drawing class.) All of the other students are way more advanced than I am, but that’s okay. We’ve only had one class, and I’ve already learned a lot. Maybe I’ll share my portrait with you guys at the end of the class. If it’s not too embarrassing. XD

Thanks for reading! <3

[thegeminisage]

ive done a terrible thing and accidentally turned on gloom hands for the map. i was only doing korok seeds/wells/caves/other bosses - i wanted shrines and hands to be a surprise, so i was just turning shrines on and off now and then to make sure i wasnt walking past any. but then i turned on hads to see how many there were and there's two in the next place im going for my korok seeds (crenel region). i would have rather not known :(

ugh man my compendium is SOOO empty...i miss the camera being on the first-person view. having it as an ability is so clunky! if i wanna 100% this i really gotta get on that bc no way do i or will i ever have the rupees to buy my way to victory

i looove btw, if i havent said. that if you kill an enemy while gliding/skydiving, you get the drops anyway. like they just appear in your inventory. VERY good

five bomb flowers in this chest! i appreciate it, but i almost have more bombs than arrows. (80-something arrows, 60-something bombs.) i got used to living without them. im a muddlebud girl now

ah i see. mining.

a well with nothing in it...there's gotta be more to it. haha it's the moor garrison ruins well so. that's a little joke. anyway im googling

okay, apparently google doesn't know shit either? surely there is something else here........

i guess not :/ bet i'll have to come back later...

WAIT I FOUND. STEPS THAT GO UNDERGROUND BUT THERE'S BARS HERE AAAA LET ME INNNNN

lmao the wall in the well is cracked can i actually bomb it?

answer: no

OH....................................

i thought ascending thru the ceiling would just take me back topside, but the well room was under this underground room! so i got in! ooough that dopamine. puzzle SOLVED all on my own!!!!

theres a treasure chest in one of these rooms, but the map tells me it's another fucking shield so im giving it a pass. i got the trick, thats what matters

shrine BELOW me? girl wtf

if i have to go back in that mining cave i just went thru.

ugh i checked and i DOOOO how did i miss it!!!

i DIED getting over there >:(

UGH and the enemies are back cuz of a blood moon :( i wasted 2 muddlebuds to NOT fight these guys...

i wish the totk fight music was better. i mean don't get me wrong, it's fine, but because of the way the soundtrack works the 3 songs i hear most often are the fight music, the shrine music, and the ambient bg music, which sometimes changes when in a snowy/high/watery area. i hear the fight music more than any other song and it gets stuck in my head CONSTANTLY and while much of this game's soundtrack is mindblowing and incredible, the fight music Is Not. it's simply not good enough for the song i'm listening to the fucking most. i'm already tired of hearing it and i'm only (checks) 95 hours into this game. ugh

>:( i'm mad that i probably won't be able to 100% it before i hit 100 hours...i wanted my whole hero's path on record...

anyway i found the shrine. finally.

NOT MORE OF THIS EVENTIDE SHIT

ugh i'm just gonna do it. honestly why couldn't they have just refined it to one island instead of microdosing us.......

COOL...there's a battle talus just patrolling back and forth along the road here!!

oh, a big tower fell over here...idr that from botw but i think it was in the trailers! neat

ok, i'm getting close to the area where the hands spawn :( i turned them back on on my map cuz im scared :(

oh man. so they spawn in these stumps full of water right...i can literally see those. they are so close to me. if i didn't Know i'd wander right in, unsuspecting...this is why i had that turned off. it's better not to know!!! than this anxiety!!!!!

what if i just...make them pop and then despawn them...

i can't do it. i can't. that is a TRAP i can see it's a trap those are high sides there's water like no fucking way. no way

GOD fuck a like like made a noise and i jumped out of my skin. the way the hands can scare you when you arent around AAAAAAAAAAAA

rauru settlement ruins...an innocuous reference to the ocarina of time sage in botw, but now...

i still have a few seeds left to get there and i know what i said about not doing shit today but i do actually have to do shit today. rip!