#and how many of those people also like BOTW…

[4ce-of-2pades]

Okay so I might actually make this into an AU.

[valgeristik]

Ничего не останется от нас, Нам останемся, в лучшем случае, мы

hi. hello. listen to this song

i have so many thoughts about these two. oh my god. maybe i will write it out some day, but for now drawing it out will do

translation will be under the cut! knowing the words does add to the work so i do recommend reading it. or just enjoy the art <3

Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List

E-sims donation

heres the translation, color coded according to how i broke it up for the art. just in casies

first page:

Love is scarier than war

Love strikes more true than steel

second page:

More true, because of your own volition

third page:

You run towards all the winds

Let there be pain and eternal battle

Not atmospheric, not earthly

fourth page:

But definitely with you

caption:

There will be nothing left of us,

we will be left with, in the best case, ourselves

[ganondoodle]

okay, bc i have seen this argument alot now (and it also seems to be the view point of aonuma himself..) is that "zelda cant do everything link does bc whats the point then"

and i take personal offense on that bc its a stupid argument (in. my. very. personal. opinion.- not judging people for liking it. its a ME thing)

whats the point? its that its her. its still a different character, different in story, background, personality, but i WANT to play zelda and she can do everything link does, why does she have to be so restricted and be bend over backwards to find some new way to make her 'useful' when link gets to do basically everything no questions asked (the only thing thats hers is like .. sealing power and sacrificial maiden, which i find a little underwhelming to say the least), if theres no point to it why are there always modders that model swap link with someone else, and in that case it has even less impact bc its an artificial model swap with no changes to the story (which can and should still be different when its the vanilla game with a different protagonist... its still a different character), clearly theres joy in just the model being a different one- and that isnt even to mention the story possibilities, since, again, its stil a different character

if we ever (never ... i know who we are talking about here) get to play as ganondorf i want to him to be just as versatile and active as link is, if we got a point and click adventure game for him instead bc 'whats the point' id be disappointed too- you can find any sort of excuse/explanation for zelda to be singled out but the fact remains it tracks with how female characters are often treated, and that hits a very sore spot for me

i guess i am unfortunately one of those annoying people that want to see female characters be treated exactly the same as male characters, possibly bc i am myself afab but identify as agender and have a deeply personal dislike for anything 'traditional' feminine bc i cannot and never will be able to truly live as myself in real life, it influences all of my work, my work is as just as much as my opinion on this, very personal

and in line with my point about modding, i see theres joy in just beign able to play as her even if its like this, i get that, i also get it for the creative aspect (though that mechanic worries me even more for the future bc it really seems to be the path now that -freedom = good, linear anything = bad-) it is a different idea and its not like i cant see that value- im not trying be "right" either, just bc i have that opinion doesnt mean i need everyone to agree, its a very personal thing, if you like it good for you! not for me though, and i think both of that is equally valid

i just personally wish she was allowed to be just like link, fight just like him but be different bc its still her and not him in the end- to be physically/playstyle like jsut like him, but you know ... as her, i dont think shed stop being zelda if she could wield a sword just like him

i dont really know how to get my point/feelings across, i dont want to step too much into personal stuff nor spam people with something that ultimately doesnt interest me alot, im just saddened by it really

(EDIT: bc i forgot to add this on here again; this isnt as much of a problem as it might sound like here, just the main topic i wanted to talk about; why im so uninterested in it is MAINLY bc i dont trust them to write anything interesting/care about lore anymore after totk, im always on the more pessimistic side that thinks its most likely worse than id hope and i know even the past games arent perfect or super interestingly written, but now its much more just a general distrust, together with everything like the price ... im just much less hopeful and cant get excited until i see more of it, like im waiting for the game to get out and reveal that its just as much of a mess and money i regret spending- kind of fear)

[theofficialvincenzo]

I only just got into the Legend of Zelda series a few years ago with BotW, and I absolutely love it. But every time I play through one of the older games, I discover connections to the newer games and find myself baffled by how many people just like, actively refuse to interact with some of the lore.

Like, the Zelda community is such an amazing place for community theorizing and conspiracies, and the people involved are so smart and passionate about this stuff. But then the moment I try saying "Hey, I think the Ancient Robots from SS and all the glowing-green robots from TP might be related to the Zonai Constructs from ToTK"

or "Hey the ancient guardians from those astral-realm trials kinda look like the Zonai, and also have 3 eyes??"

or "Hey, ancient mysterious flying islands with blocky Jomun-inspired architecture also appear in Twilight Princess and Four-Swords Adventures..."

"...Do we think the writers had this in mind for longer than we thought? Or maybe they're connecting older unanswered stories to try fleshing out the world's history?"

I'll definitely see a few people point these things out but then I see an overwhelming amount of people who just respond with "hmm. Nope. Can't." or "Stop putting so much thought into it it's not that deep."

Like omg who cares if it's not that deep? What happened to forcing Nintendo to retcon in the "three timeline" thing? Where's the pizzaz? Where's the imagination?

These games are so much fun to try connecting together

[pasteilian]

Do you have a recommendation when designing a black character? Or tips, or maybe pages you visit for references?

Suck at explaining stuff but I’ll try

‼️ Ethnic Features ‼️

So, the art world is in a very weird place when it comes to ethnic features. The conversation was about how using POC ethnic features as an insult in media was damaging and needed to stop, and that somehow morphed into people being scared about drawing people with those features.

Black people have big ears, big noses, and big lips. That's not the problem. The problem was that media was using it to make us look like giant ape, monkey, monster creatures. It's okay to give them these defining features.

Also, remember that brown people have lighter pigment under their feet, hands, and bottom lips. 🌸 (didn’t really know where to put this but drawing mix people is basically a spin the wheel we come in all different shapes and sizes and features. There’s really no wrong way to draw a mixed POC.)

‼️ It's Just My Style ‼️

I'm so goddamn tired of hearing this goddamn excuse. A style does not mean you can't properly represent POC. I would even go on to say that if your style is stunting you so grossly that you can't draw a proper black person, you have a bad art style. Sorry—not really.

Media has shown us that style does not stop representation. The only thing stopping that is your ignorance and refusal to improve. Great examples of ranging styles still being able to represent different POC are "Adventure Time," "Disney's Soul," "Proud Family," "Afro Samurai," etc. I'm just saying this because I've seen this excuse be more prevalent in the art world, and it's just better to nip that in the bud.

‼️ Whitewashing + I Don't Know How to Use the Color Brown ‼️

I've seen people make the excuse that the skin color is lighter because they use a pastel style, but they never bring up the fact that the only color in the art that's lighter is the skin tone. 💀

Also, the whole thing about people saying they don't know how to shade and color brown palettes is just completely bullshit. I would even say that trying to shade pale colors is harder than shading darker colors. Additionally, there are multiple artists and tutorials showing you exactly how it's done. You have no excuses other than you just don't want to.

YouTuber Sinix has a great video on painting skin tones!

‼️ Black Hairstyles ‼️

I love dreads. Dreads are a very pretty hairstyle. However, we have more hairstyles other than dreads. If you're going to draw black characters, I would encourage you to branch out and explore beyond dread heads. There are so many unique black hairstyles out there. We need to move on from just focusing on dreads.

YouTuber Ari has two wonderful videos on black hairstyles in video games. I would recommend checking them out.

‼️ References ‼️

I love referencing old black media such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "The Proud Family," and "Little Bill" (before all the Bill Cosby stuff came out). I also appreciate how "House of the Dragon" implemented black people into the lore. Other references include "BOTW/TOTK Rottmnt," etc.

Some artists I reference all the time are Mohammed Agbadi, who doesn't do many art tutorials anymore but often discusses black characters in media, and his art is still amazing. Ethan Becker has a very interesting video on the racist triangle that I recommend checking out.

On Instagram, I love the art of Jojo.Dreamie, Chibichanga12 (holy shit, love their art), Bruniosktch, and Caw.Chan. I also just reference my family a lot. 💀

This is a lot of rambling, but what I’m gonna say is don’t stunt yourself by tricking yourself into believing that your art can’t include POC 🌸🌸‼️💌💖💌💌🎀💕💘‼️🧁

[silentprincessofhyrule]

i always found it weird how so many npcs in totk don’t remember link.

yeah i know i’m not the first person who’s made a rant about this before, but this just really annoys me.

like, what do you mean you don’t remember link, the guy who sealed the calamity? the guy who sealed the 4 divine beasts threatening to destroy your home town?

link, the guy who went all across hyrule helping citizens, the guy who also built terry town? it just makes no sense that some npcs just refer to him as zelda’s knight and don’t know his name, or some just forgot him!!

also, consider this: if everyone remembers zelda, (who hasn’t been exploring hyrule as long as link ever since 100 years ago) then why don’t they remember link? i’m assuming link stayed by zelda’s side as zelda’s chosen protector during post botw to totk. it just dosent make sense.

and don’t get me started on how totk dosent even acknowledge that botw existed. yeah there is some little easter eggs/mini references to botw (like the divine beast helmets) but you know what imo is one of the biggest ‘fraud’ things of all?

how do people not remember the divine beats or sheikah tech at ALL????

this is something that really makes me confused. how in the hyrule does nobody remember those 4 big animal looking robots trying to destroy your land? how does nobody remember the scary creepy guardians scattered all across hyrule? oh, and what about the shrines and those humongous towers all across the land? absolutely nobody acknowledges these things!!

the champions!! practically everybody in botw remember urbosa, mipha, daruk, and revali. however in totk… it seems like they’re forgotten. mipha is out of the question though because she got an entire court built in her memory in totk, but that’s it. during my playthrough of totk, they DID make some references to the champions but it was small. really small. daruk was referenced in the yunobo quest, and his statue in the mountains is still there. urbosa got a mini mention in rijus diary, but that’s it. and now there’s revali. i don’t know if revali was mentioned at all…

in the end, totk itself is a really good game. personally, i don’t really like how the story was handled, this is just 1 aspect i didn’t like.

[symmetrycrypt]

i was pretty moody when i made the original post, but yeah. botw felt special in a way totk completely dropped the ball on. i'm personally a totk hater, but i'm not going to go into major detail about that here on this particular post, but something else i will say is: maybe it was just me, but i remember enjoying just standing around in different areas in botw and just taking in the atmosphere and view, while in totk, despite its beautiful scenery in the sky and whatnot, i just. found myself so bored 90% of the time and didn't get that same sense of just wanting to vibe in it, and instead basically speedran it when i played, not even caring to do most of the sidequests.

another thing that kind of really annoys me, back even before i started really accepting just how much i disliked totk (because trust me, it was really hard for me to accept it), is how when it first came out you had so many people being like "there's no reason to play botw now/why would you still play botw in 2023 and on?" like idk, maybe because it's a game you all seemed to be obsessed with for 6+ years?? it's still its own game with its own story and lore (that totk clearly did not follow up on)? like, idk man, i just do not get the whole "new game out, this game sucks now" mindset, do you all really move on that fucking easily even when you claimed you loved that game so much before? i play totk and find myself just wanting to replay botw, not the other way around

[birb-boyo]

(Some of his skin is black so clicking on the picture might be a better ideas-)

SO UM THIS IS MY GUY HIS NAME IS MAYAN

He’s a god actually and the god of companions and birds and stars too

He’s also the Father of the first fairies

Naturally, he’s Hylia’s brother as well as being Fierce’s brother too as well as the golden three. Can’t decide if he’s older or younger than them

I like to say that he was the reason the hero’s weren’t alone before they met their respective Zeldas

Like, Hylia was forging the Goddess Sword and Mayan was like, “You’re going to send a boy out to fight our brother, Demise, and have him alone the entire time other than whatever else you’re planning?”

Hylia was like, “You’re probably right. What do you suppose I do?”

Mayan: “Give him a guide. That way he isn’t burdened with this fate alone.”

That’s how Fi happened. And then, in most reincarnations, Link has a companion.

Midna wasn’t really his fault, but he was able to convince her to work with Link in anyway she could because they would both need each other in the end.

The reason why Link didn’t really have someone in botw is because people didn’t really worship him much, so he lacked much power. So, with the little power he had left, he staked King Rhoam’s spirit to the Great Plateau so that he might be able to help even for a little bit. Mayan let go of Rhoam’s soul after Rhoam explained everything to Link.

He makes his home in the midst of the Lost Woods, forever keeping his children safe by the fog surrounding and only letting those who deserve it to survive their trip to the “cursed” forest.

Or he’s in a cave in Satori Mountain, chilling with blupees. I also have this thing where blupees are a type of fairy. So that being said, blupees would technically be his descendants too.

He also rarely visits his daughters, the Great Fairies, but when he does, he’s there for days and many Hylians call them “Spottings” but he doesn’t care too much.

He also has a hawk that follows him, as it is the closest surviving animal to his original symbol, the Loftwing. He laughs sometimes when he sees that the Hylians used a Loftwing crest to represent his sister.

So yeah, here he is to the 8 people that cared<3

@trippygalaxy @vio-starzz @whiteperle3 @lunawolfiefoxy @mushr0oms-and-m0ss @thenmichael @shadowlinktheshadow @soniayonce @isasan347 @treasure-goblin um I don’t know who voted so I’m just guessing here

[the0maski]

Dungeon analysis! Part 2

The screaming owl statue

This statue is the same Twilight used to control in the future, to distract Wars and Hyrule.

In Twilight Princess the Dominion Rod, is used to control Owl statues, another indicator that these statues are owl based.

Owl statues, like the dragon ones, could also be just a recurring hylian symbol of architecture. Since there also in MC,MM, Alttp, OoA+S, TP, Botw and Totk.

Columns with the ball on top

Those types of columns are often found outside of dungeons in LoZ 1.

But also in Minish Cap at the Palace of the Winds.

Theory:

Since many things speak for Hyrule’s Era, there is the possibility that they really are in the Era of Decline, maybe at the end of that Era even.

If so, there are in a time long since Hyrule was alive, meaning the reincarnation cycle will take millennials to bring a new hero, which in LU canon would be Warriors.

The people in the future from the village, never heard of any calamity or tragedy big enough that a hero had to be involved. And I love how Jojo takes the long periods of peace in Hyrule in count for her story!

Also since these it what spook most to me: The moon cycle!

Don’t think there will be any meaning to this but as a moon enthusiast I have to at least mention it.

Drink enough water your wonderful people!

[t-5seconds]

i'm doing a hunger games simulator of @minas-linkverse ! the game is under the cut, the stats (placements and such) will be in a reblog.

our lineup! i had to cut team C, less because they're not canon and more because they were too many characters. the four swords, oot, and loz1&2 zeldas don't have linkverse designs as far as i know, so they're not here.

HYLIA DIES IMMEDIATELY. great start

interesting team up. everyone seems to be doing okay

NEVERMIND. WORLDS IS A TRIPLE MURDERER. sksw zelda, st zelda and hyrule are all out of the running! both hylia and hylia 2 dead on the first day. and first stole from a child. this concludes the reaping

everything is going fine. sailor is in his natural habitat

EVERYTHING IS GOING BAD. hero tries to kill... his own past self... but tp zelda stops him! so i guess time paradox prevented but first is still going to die in the future. albw zelda dies at the hand of alttp zelda. botw zelda kicks ass, defeating tetra and killing masks. legend kills mini, which admittedly i could see him doing. hilda takes the hylia route of dying all by herself. hoods somehow stalks a wolf without him noticing

ending off day one, feathers has some water. good job buddy. nine people are dead

that was a really deadly day one. worlds is currently in first place, from his triple murder. district 12 has been wiped out

everyone is having a great night, except tetra, who first just killed.

yeah, everyone except tetra had a good night one. four & hoods and botwzelda & ravio are cuddling, which is cute. time for day two!

the triple murderer is defeated! nobody killed him, he just ate some bad berries. also feathers has a sprained ankle now

i guess fangs did notice hoods stalking him! not much happened today. only two people died

now that worlds is dead, first, legend, alttp zelda, tp zelda and botw zelda are tied for first place. district 6 has been wiped out! only ravio lives to represent albw

alttp zelda kills sailor and gets herself into first place! also, four receives another hatchet. he has two now

ravio dies, the last remnant of albw. there were four of them, twice as much as other games had, so their odds were good, but not good enough i suppose. onto day 3

casual interactions. hoods and tp zelda are a fearsome team, i wonder how that happened. also four is doing very poorly even though he has two hatchets

a bad day for mental health, but a good day for staying alive! after two people died in the night, everyone left managed to survive all day.

districts 7 and 8 were wiped out. alttp zelda is now in first place.

first takes after hylia: death by falling. fangs and his zelda have a nice talk

legend kills feathers, cementing him and his zelda as the frontrunners. minish cap zelda questions her sanity again. maybe she's not doing so well.

ALTTP ZELDA KILLS LEGEND? they were on the same team, but i guess she didn't like having competition for first place! hoods and fangs kill tp zelda, despite having both previously teamed up with her- and she was on fangs' team! four kills botw zelda! mc zelda stops questioning her sanity for long enough to murder engie! what a day! a lot of people just died, and it was 50% betrayals! 75% if you count four backstabbing botw zelda!

these five are the only people left alive. when those four were hunting for "other tributes" they were just looking for alttp zelda. but they never took her alive

seven people died. districts 1, 2, 5 and 9 were wiped out. everyone is tied at one kill. there is nobody in the lead and no full teams left.

mc zelda and fangs are friends! that's nice. nobody dies in the night

fangs betrays mc zelda immediately! but she survives. no casualties today, so let's move on to the next night.

mc zelda and fangs are now friends again! make up your minds

OH OKAY. hoods and mc zelda are down! it's just fangs vs four now.

they're tied for kills. it all comes down to this... the final battle

...that was a fast final battle.

congratulations to four! i'll reblog this post with the placements and stats.

[babbletaels]

I don't know exactly how to put this into words without rambling too much. I saw some people say something along the lines of "totk and botw have bad stories but so what, all zelda stories are bad because zelda games focus on gameplay". Now, of course I saw a lot of people and youtube videos proving this post wrong by pointing out the amazing stories in oot, majoras mask, twilight princess, and more.

But something they fail to ever mention is.. breath of the wilds story is not bad!!!! It's just not!

Breath of the wilds story IS:

Short

Simple

Told in a very new format

Not experienced totally by the protagonist

But that doesn't make it a bad story! But all these qualities DO make tears of the kingdoms story bad, and that's because the way of telling the story of breath of the wild was curated perfectly in order to tell that story, not tears of the kingdoms story. It's very clear to me that with this brand new open world format they thought very hard about how to make the game "as free as possible" and still make it interesting to play through, and they did this by putting you totally in Links shoes: You and Link both wake up with no memories of where you are or why, with the vague idea that your name is Link and that you're supposed to like save a princess or something. You and Link both set out to explore this world in the way that you want to do it. That's how they made you relate to the protagonist, not by giving him a gripping story but making him and you have the exact same experience going through this world. Instead of throwing you into a world where the protagonist knows everything but you don't, and making the protagonist learn things that he probably already knew, they made him and you be in the same boat. I don't know about you but I loved exploring this world and wondering what different places could've been a hundred years ago, so that's what my Link was doing. All of the "bad" game decisions made in this game were made so that you could feel as free as possible. Yes, the divine beasts were all the same kinda which is boring, but they did that because they wanted to emphasize the freedom in this game, they wanted it to be a totally new kind of zelda game. Yeah it was a bad decision, I agree, but like that's their idea on how to make the game as open as possible, okay? I personally don't care how many "walking through the door" cutscenes a game has, but that's me and whatever they wanted it to have as little as possible, that was their vision for this game.

The actual story of breath of the wild is not bad, but it IS short and simple, and it takes place 100 years before we come into the picture so it feels a bit detached, however I personally found it very gripping figuring out what happened all those years ago and very tragic knowing that there's nothing I can do to save those people who I failed. I don't want to ramble on about the zora storyline but that story is especially gripping as suddenly everyone in that domain knows who we are and blames us for the death of their princess or were jealous of your relationship with her and just finding out how much she loved you and realizing yeah, they're right, she did die because of you. She only joined this mission because she wanted to help you and your cause because she loved you so much. I felt sad learning this in the story, and knowing there's nothing I can do to bring her back or make things right. Not only because of Mipha but also because of Link, how tragic his story all of a sudden became, knowing that he can't do anything to right this wrong and imagining the future that he could've had if all of this never happened, possibly a future together with someone he loves, but all of that's gone now. The story feels detached because it IS detached and it's so tragic because of it, and the world feels so lonely because of it.

This format does not work in tears of the kingdom. If there was any chance of me having actual emotional attachements to characters from 10 000+ years ago that my character never even interacted with, that chance was minimized by a million percentages because they were the exact same cutscene where they say the exact same thing, they always wear masks so you can't even see their face, and we just know literally nothing about them. We get to know three characters a little bit, but it's like.. Can I really be that invested in what my new girlfriends adoptive parents and aunt did 10 000+ years ago? Yeah I want to find Zelda and finding out she's a dragon and all that was very cool and stuff. But the story doesn't work, especially since it doesn't fit in with anything we saw in breath of the wild AT ALL except one npc saying she can see a castle in the sky. Ooh we're finally learning what the Zonai ruins were! Oh, they're actually not where the zonai resided at all and actually the ruins didn't even look like that somehow someone built the ruins around a different ruin how do you even do that using stone? Are the zonai ruins made of clay since they're wrapped around the older zonai ruins? Like idk they didn't tie any of this to anything we were emotionally invested in, so why is it in a direct sequel? Oh wait I know why, because they wanted to reuse the world since they had already created it and it's so big and it did have untapped potential. But then make a story that actually has anything to do with the story that its a sequel to!!

Actually, majoras mask did the exact same thing as tears of the kingdom, kind of. Except the story in majoras mask, while largely detached from ocarina of time, is an actual good and gripping story!!!!!

Okay I can't rant any more. Breath of the wild is an actual good game that actually had a good story even if it was short and simple, and it accomplished exactly what they set out to accomplish, and it does not deserve to get dragged as a bad game just because tears of the kingdom had a bad story and used the exact same format as botw. Since you're reading this I assume you have played botw and don't need me to explain exactly what happened in the story. Like you know, how everyone failed? How the kingdom fell to ruin because literally everyone failed at their job? That story.

[sheikah-simp]

Okay fuck it today I’m finally gonna talk about how cheap Zelda’s draconification was and how it robbed so much from not only the player but also undercut the entire premise of botw.

Long post below because boy do I have some THOUGHTS.

First, I do wanna say that I don’t completely hate totk. It absolutely hurt me at first and I despised it because it was a betrayal of botw in so many ways, but it does do some things well, and it’s grown on me. Despite the story being shit, the execution of it is done very well. Genuinely I cried multiple times through the game because they just made certain things so beautiful. Even during the draconification scene when I was pissed off beyond belief. And the ending fight is admittedly really cool. Some of the bosses are a bit too easy despite being really fucking cinematic (colgera) and I like how versatile the devices are. Link’s abilities also mesh with the game really, really well. As a “game,” I think totk supersedes botw. However, as a narrative, botw is far superior.

Alright. Let’s just rip the bandaid off. I absolutely despise Zelda’s transformation into the Light Dragon. It completely destroys her entire arc in botw and completely destroys botw itself. Not only have we CLEARLY split the timeline again (ugh) it just seemed so out of character and they helplessly damselfied a Zelda we had just watched grow so so strong. (Maybe how well Age of Calamity handled Zelda’s arc has also colored my perception of this but I digress).

In botw, we watch Zelda grapple with failure, duty, and selflessness. She is constantly faced with her feelings of failure and the looming threat of the Calamity and undue pressure from her father, trying to convince her to give up the one thing in her life that actually brings her joy (researching ancient sheikah tech). This pressure occasionally leads her to acting really bratty, especially towards Link. She is selfish not in a way that is arrogant, but rather is self-conscious because she is so consumed with her own thoughts of failure she can’t often see what other people are giving up or going through - it’s a very natural human reaction many people with low self esteem have. It is still, however, a self-centered outlook. She can’t get out of her own head and stop blaming herself for her problems.

But then!! Just when all hope is lost and the Champions are caught in the Divine Beasts, she and Link are cornered, she steps up and does one big selfless thing. She jumps in front of Link to protect him from the blast of a guardian, and this awakens her powers. This is significant to her story for a couple reasons:

#1) Zelda does something selfless for Link. Even in this situation that seems hopeless, and how in a scene before she’s shown blaming herself, she finally decides to take action in spite of the circumstances. She defies hopelessness even when all hope seems lost. She’s demonstrated not only does she deeply care for Link, but she isn’t going to let a hopeless situation stop her.

#2) This is the bigger one for me. Zelda deactivates a guardian. In that cutscene, her blast is shown to be so powerful that it actually deactivates most all the guardians at Fort Hateno, and maybe across all of Hyrule. All those decayed guardians you’ve been seeing throughout the game? Yeah. Half of them or more could be directly because of Zelda. Her connection to ancient Sheikah tech is ultimately what helps her save the kingdom. No, in that moment she didn’t sit there thinking “Aha! I know how these operate and therefore—“ but it really isn’t lost on me thematically here that Zelda’s major interaction with a major piece of Sheikah tech is what saves everyone. Her own talents are her strength. (This is even more pronounced in Age of Calamity but again. I digress).

So then Zelda buys them enough time to take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. She drops the Master Sword off with the Deku Tree and then you know what she does? With her newfound power, she goes and fights Calamity Ganon in a cage match, herself, for 100 years. She is locked in that fucking egg with him holding him back one on one, and she is still able to communicate with Link while doing so. That is objectively badass. After overcoming hopelessness and failure she is so strong she can hold back a literal force of nature, herself, for a century. And it’s another selfless act. She’s been in there one hundred years keeping Hyrule safe until the Master Sword is restored and Link is better enough to finish the job.

And then when everything is done? The final shot in the completed ending of the game is Zelda setting out on her next adventure. She’s still talking about the Sheikah tech (Vah Rutah) and what to do about it. Her power is fading, but she’s ecstatic. And the final thing we see of her is her smiling and laughing (the first time she’s really done so!!) and then the camera pans out to this entire field of Silent Princess flowers - the flower that cannot thrive in a domesticated environment. A flower that can only thrive out free in the open - in the wild - and is such a clear metaphor for Zelda I feel like I don’t really have to get into it at this point. Zelda is free of all the chains that once held her back and now she is free to explore her actual interests and talents, out in the field, out in the wild. And it’s fucking beautiful I still cry thinking about the last shot of those flowers. It’s some of the most powerful imagery I’ve ever seen in media, let alone in a video game. It’s on the fucking cover art with the Master Sword. It’s about rising from the harsh, uninhabitable ground and thriving. You show me a silent princess flower and to this day I will weep.

So now this brings us to how totk betrays this (and uses the silent princess flower to slap me in the face I guess idfk).

Look. I get that they cannot keep Zelda in god mode. I get that her letting go of her power is actually an important part of her arc. But you’re telling me she has nothing? This awakened Zelda we already know who’s saved Hyrule doesn’t have any remnants of her light power? I guess they needed it all for Mary Sue- I mean Rauru jfc. And I get the time power thing is a callback to previous games but in the context of this incarnation of Zelda it seems really out of place. I’m glad she got a mother figure for a little bit though. Even if she was then murdered directly in front of her face.

So now we have this Zelda, who we KNOW is kind of a genius at all things ancient tech. And who we KNOW has already saved the world once. (Putting aside how this game can’t decide if it’s a sequel or not). And. Oh my god! She was sent to the past! She was sent to the past to interact with a highly technological race! This should be like a dream for her! She should clearly be able to demonstrate how knowledgeable and competent she is in these situations, right? Right? RIGHT!?!

No! She isn’t!! She is flopping around completely useless back there!!! Rauru and Sonia are shown doing everything while she just watches and kind of picks up her time power eventually. We get little tidbits more of her interactions in the Ring Ruins, but none of this is shown in game. The Zelda we get on screen is helpless, has no idea what she’s doing there, no idea how to get back, and sits having conversations with her mommy about how much she loves this boy back home. And maybe she needs that ok. She didn’t have a mom. But still. Come on. We see NONE of her old talents and capabilities showcased in an era where she was perfectly poised to do so. SHE IS OUT THERE FREE IN THE WILD. She regressed in personality and has less interesting traits than when she was being a selfish brat to Link. Come on. Look how they butchered my girl. She is a damsel. It’s really sad.

And so then!! Then!! They have the balls to sprinkle in this dragon stuff and SUDDENLY make it the big overarching thing of the game. I think the dragons are very cool and an awesome idea for a game, but I don’t think they’re integrated very well into botw, let alone totk, to justify what a suddenly massive role draconification plays late in the story. I wish they were. Because it’s a really good idea. But it is NOT well executed here and serves to undercut her arc and her personality further. The immortal dragon thing is like a side throwaway line in ONE CUTSCENE from Mineru. No one dwells on it. It is not presented in a way where it seems like it’s gonna become A Thing. But it’s made clear to us that OOOO IF U BECOME A DRAGON U BASICALLY DIE. U ARE NOT URSELF ANYMORE U DESTROY YOUR SPIRIT AND SOUL AND PERSONALITY AND DIE. Like oh god ok I get it. Swallowing ur secret stone is suicide by dragon. I get it. Okay.

And so then, instead of being competent in this situation and environment like she should be, we have a useless helpless Zelda floundering around in a hopeless situation where once again all of her friends die. This Zelda who has already overcome this hopelessness and all of her friends dying once and rose above it with god level power. And they are on the brink of failure and all her friends die and what does she do?

(bottoms up, and the devil laughs).

AND SO WE KILL OURSELVES???? KILL OURSELVES!!!???!!

On one hand I really don’t blame her. The devs gave her absolutely no power or agency in this situation and so this is the only option she has. Because she has no power, this is the only way she can get the Master Sword to Link. It’s forced and cheap, but also makes sense on her end given what she’s working with. But I cannot emphasize enough how much she does not know if this will even work or not and how from her POV and everything we have been given to know about this process in game, she is just killing herself over this sword. And that is not MY Zelda.

Not only is she killing herself over Link and the Master Sword, but it makes you feeling invested in the scale of her sacrifice in botw seem cheap and stupid in retrospect. Like, Oh?? You thought it was bad Zelda was locked in a fight with Ganon for 100 years?? WELL TRY ONE MILLION BAJILLION SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME AS A DRAGON WITH A SWORD STICKING OUT OF HER HEAD!!!!! Like god ok I get it!!! Sorry for caring!!!! Sorry for thinking her sacrifice in botw was really badass and cool and meant something!! you’re right this sacrifice is waaayy bigger and waaayy worse and scarier god im sorry!!!!!

Like. I'm kind of glad she doesn't remember any of it then. But then why the hell did you need to make this seem like a bigger scarier deal that took a shit on all of her choices in botw? 100 years with Ganon seems pointless and like nothing in comparison to that, and as a sequel, that's bad.

But like I'm sorry. I just can't get over Zelda killing herself in this environment she's supposed to be thriving in. She has NO options?? she can do NO research with Mineru? She can make NO PLANS to get herself OUT of draconification (we're returning to this is a second, don't worry) or find a different way to get the sword better?? My god. What have they done to you girl.

And then. Then these fuckers have the absolute GALL to slap down a ton of silent princess flowers at the end of that final scene. You fuckers didn't even make that a recurring symbol in this game. How dare you put the silent princess flower, the symbol of breath of the wild, the symbol of a girl who rises up out of hopelessness against all odds, who thrives her best out in the wild, tacked on to the end of a cutscene where she does exactly the opposite of all of that. Seriously after watching that entire sequence it felt like they spat in my face. I was pissed.

So then you do the rest of the game that's a wild goose chase except you know the goddamn answer the whole time. You know where Zelda is. She's up there in the sky. You don't need to find her. She's right there. And the ending fight sequence is cool, but as we've established, Zelda was not conscious during that, so really she had no part in the badassness at all. She didn't even actively choose to fly in and face Ganon. The dragon did that.

And THEN!! AND THEN!!!!!!! Rather than create some interesting postgame content (which could have involved the ring ruins!! which could have involved Purah or the forgotten temple!!! you know that room you have to walk through where you very clearly have to walk around this object that looks like a fucking lotus?? yeah?? that one?? that LOTUS that does FUCKING NOTHING????) we just get not even a deus-ex-machina, we get Rauru-ex-machina, yet again, stepping in and fixing Link's arm and turning Zelda back just because he can do that now or something. Because suddenly they can defy all established laws of the game and it means nothing. That big sacrifice we cheapened botw to make also meant nothing because Rauru can just. Reverse it lmao. There is no reason they should just be able to do that now. And if there is, why does the player not get ANY part of this? (Such as in Age of Calamity, where after the main storyline you can go back and put together Terrako and unlock the true ending. Age of Calamity was a better companion story for BOTW than TOTK ever was, in this essay I will--)

Anyways. Those are my thoughts. I was really excited for the Ring Ruins to have some sort of meaning in terms of turning Zelda back (especially because you know. they're a big ring. a circle. like the logo of the game. like. an ourobouros. like. yknow what nvm.) and the whole, Impa being a part of that. and the rest of the Sheikah. But instead I just got Mary Sue Rauru fixing everything and taking his arm back (because I guess he could have just fixed Link's arm regularly the entire time) and the Sheikah, descendants of the OTHER highly technological race, floundering around completely useless at the foot of these mysterious rocks that do nothing but get you an armor set that gets you to a skippable dungeon. Totk. Stamping all over my cool ideas and hopes and dreams once again.

I could go on about this. But I can't. I just can't go on anymore. They've broken me enough already.

[ashleyleygraves]

Every time I look at Tears of the Kingdom criticisms, they aren't even about actual criticisms, they just don't like the story. It's fine to not like the story. But when you criticize, you need to explain why and how you would've fixed the problem. (No, saying "I would've changed the whole story" is not the why and how.)

For example, I didn't like that there wasn't any explanation on where the Sheikah technology went until a developer basically panicked in an interview and said that it just vanished after the Calamity. I would've made it so that while Purah is explaining the Purah Towers and/or Purah Pad, she offhandedly commented that she got the parts from the guardians/shrines/Divine Beasts.

What really irks me is the "but the story doesn't line up to past Zelda games" that's right. Good job on understanding that. Ocarina of Time had 2 direct sequels: Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Zelda 1 has a direct sequel: Link's Adventure. Wind Waker has a direct sequel: Phantom Hourglass. Breath of the Wild has a direct sequel: Tears of the Kingdom.

The only thing that was promised was that it was a sequel (and technically also prequel) to Breath of the Wild. People take the timeline way too seriously. Twilight Princess is technically after Majora's Mask, but we are only told that from the timeline. The Hero's Shade was hinted at being the Hero of Time, but just like the Bridge of Hylia existing in BotW/TotK those hints were just made as a reference.

The Zelda timeline doesn't make sense. Why did 4 Sword adventure take place in the Child timeline? How does a "the hero is killed" timeline exist if the hero canonically wins? Why is it only Ocarina of Time that had the timeline split when time travel is a common thing in many Zelda games?

Sure, you are allowed to not like the story, but stop blaming it on Nintendo not caring about the Zelda timeline. They were all meant to be a brand of games with the same name, we as a community just wanted a timeline, so Nintendo just made one and threw it at us.

If you want to argue that it has no connection to Breath of the Wild, please replay the game again and see how many things are connected:

If you've played BotW, your horses transfer over

Zelda has made monuments dedicated to the people that lost their lives to Calamity Ganon

People still remember him. I've seen arguments that people don't; so I will say: talk to the Zora, the people around Lookout Landing, Master Kohga, the Sheikah, some of the Rito, Riju and her right hand, and Yunobo.

If you've beaten the Champions' Balad DLC, you keep the picture of the Champions.

Anyway, I just needed to rant because I keep seeing "criticisms" that are just bitching at the story, which as I said before: if you don't like the story, that's your opinion, but don't think that's what a criticism is because it's not.

[ganondoodle]

so guess what they released more interviews and i think given what a writing shitshow totk was and what they have been saying in all these interviews is actually painting a really bad picture; i dont have the time, nor the energy to go over every detail

but they were commenting on people wanting the more linear format back and aonuma himself basically said that he thinks people who feel like that do so only bc of nostalgia and "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?"

what .. the fuck, more freedom DOESNT automatically mean better??? like ... restriction can be a GOOD thing just as tooo much freedom can be BAD?? like in totk??? are you fukcing shitting me- what the hell are games even for then, has he had an awakening to the fact that he actually just loves sandbox games without realizing it???? im not playing fucking zelda for a sandbox, especially not when its advertised as a somethign else

its pretty clear that they want to keep this format going with everything they say there, ... maybe it really is over huh

also i hate how they kept talking around answering anything about story/lore; they go asked how ganondorf even connects to ganon since theres nothign about it in game, and all they got out was welllll we dont wanna say anything bc its up to the player; about every question you got the answer of "make somethign up yourself" which is just ... its really clear they dont actually care but dont want to say everything is meaningless actually, so they try to be vague about it and with doing that really just confirm they didnt think about it and they dont care- so no lore actually matters, nothing thats been said or established has any meaning bc they will get rid of it the second it crosses paths with their new -more freedom equals better- philosophy, they say its bc they want you to be "free" to think up anything but apparently dont realize that when there are no rules, no consistent lore or anything that it ROBS it, it stops having meaning, its fun to connect dots only when there are rules you need to work with and dots to connect in the first place, when you have an established world with its restrictions it drives you to think more creatively about things- but when there are no rules?? its fucking boring!! thats what it is!!

when you discard all rules i wont care to get invested into anything bc i know it will not be considered again, be done away with without any reason and wont have influence on coming or previous games ... bc there are no rules, anything is possible and everything can be changed any second, so nothing matters

(they also talked about the many viral videos of those very few dedicated people that make godzilla mechs in totk and how happy they are about that- i get that to some extent, but the way they kept talkign about it really just felt like it confirmed my suspicion that that whole mechanic was mainly implemented to let people do that since that gets shared around en masse making it seem like that is why people enjoy it while neither the game nor the narrative are build around it in any way ..)

it just makes all the time i spend thinking, feeling and theorizing about zelda like a true waste of time, bc nothing matters and there are no rules-

i am someone who greatly enjoys working with and around established lore/rules, its fun to me to recontextulize things by being smart or creative with it all without breaking anything or as little as possible of the established things!

if i wanted to do just do anything i want I COULD HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT bc theres nothing actually stopping anyone to just make up what they want! i DONT need canon to lose all rules for that??!!

maybe ill have to make myself believe the franchise ended with botw on a good note ... ono

[zarvasace]

Hello! This is the first time I have ever interacted with you and if it’s ok I would like to ask a question about your space au:) I’m just curious as to how some of the game mechanics would work in your fics. Stuff like mipha’s grace or the wind waker, basically the abilities that the links have

Hello!! Nice to meet you! Of course it's okay to ask questions, I love talking about stories. XD

And this is an excellent question. It isn't something I've considered TOO heavily before, especially for the examples you provided, but it's really fascinating to think about! Nothing is "canon" until I write it in a story but here are some thoughts...

Hyrule's abilities have been discussed a bit—they're not too unusual for his people and planet, though it is unusual to have multiple like he does.

Twilight's have been mentioned. He has used darkness to travel, essentially turning into a shadowy wolf to do it, which is a product of his half-Twili heritage.

Four is an android, and thus anything out of the ordinary that he does can be explained that way.

Sky is mostly Hylian, which is unusual, but he is also from many generations ago. He doesn't have many traits or internal abilities that people wouldn't be familiar with. Wars is the same, though his Hylian genes are sort of more "distilled" and thus a bit more uncanny. Neither of them have odd magical abilities that come as a result of anything other than items or friends (so they think.)

Legend is Sheikah, which in this AU have malleable appearances, and he's trained to take that to the limit, which explains his transformations. Other magic he does, i.e. the LBW painting thing, the LttP medallions, and whatever else, are mostly explained through clever use of technology, sometimes combined with his natural talents.

Wind is half-Zora and partially aquatic. I haven't quite decided how his wind waker abilities translate in this AU, but I think the chances of it being technology are pretty high. The "Great Sea" is a grouping of small planets (or asteroids? I don't remember off the top of my head) so I think it would make sense for his Wind Waker baton to either somehow control the weather on a few of them, or perhaps atmosphere between them, or even just his ship itself. Or maybe it is a kind of magic he was granted! That would be cool too! They're all fun options.

As for Wild and Time's abilities and magic... Well, Deities sure are mysterious, aren't they? ;)

Okay just kidding. Those elemental/combat abilities absolutely have to do with their heritage of Deity. Remember how Deities change to look like the people they grow up around? Their inherent abilities do something similar. Wild trained early on in a lot of high-risk, him-against-a-lot combat, so his blessings manifested as what the champion abilities are in BotW. He associates them with the champions because they resemble real abilities the champions had (coincidence?) Time didn't have examples quite as strong, and he didn't grow up as militant, so his blessings manifest with more blunt power on the elemental side. They're still refining and shifting, but they'll always be rather devastating.

...👀

And Sun's Deity blessings manifest very much out of a desire to keep herself and the people she loves safe. She is quite powerful, and can actually handle some time manipulation. How else do you think Skyloft station escaped the Calamity so cleanly? (Her Deity heritage remains a secret.)

[skyward-floored]

More totk things I did/saw yesterday:

Sticky lizards. Sticky lizards sticky lizards sticky lizards. Sticky lizards. Did I mention sticky lizards.

The glowing cave fish are so pretty, I love their colors. I just love all the glowing stuff in the caves, and the caves in general, they were a superb decision on nintendo’s part

I fought some of those crazy monkey bokoblin things. I forget what they’re called. I maybe screamed a little because they startled me. But also something about them reminds me of the Mogmas in skyward sword and that worries me a little (even though I’m sure it’s a coincidence).

PELICAN RITO!!!

Penn is the best. He’s so silly goofy. I love his little salute he does as he leaves and “soar long” abshdbdjdbd. I really hope he carries stuff in his beak at some point (letters would be REALLY funny).

Since when can the trees attack by the way? what happened to those trees. Who hurt you. Ents gone rogue. Rebellious teenage Ents maybe.

Didn’t expect to find Impa in the middle of a field but okay! why not. Thought I’d have to hike all the way over to Kakariko to see her. I was also surprised she isn’t dead but I guess Sheikah just live longer. She’s gotta be pushing 130 at least...

(The rest is a little long so it goes under the cut):

The geoglyphs are really cool. Part of time is thinking they’re just a way for the developers to take up space without having to put anything but eh I’m forgiving.

The geoglyph of Rauru looks like he’s in a wheelchair. I don’t have anything further to say about that I just think it’s interesting.

Dragon tears... mysterious dragon... dragon people... hmmmmmm. hm.

Zelda: *wakes up to see a lady with poofy hair and a literal dragon dude standing over her* oh it’s going to be one of those days isn’t it

Jokes aside I’m glad Zelda isn’t alone at least? Even if she’s ten bajillion years in the past or however long it is. At least she didn’t wake up basically alone like Link did. Plus Sonia and Rauru are funny hehe

Got three game overs from a battle talus thing and then ran away 😔

Zelda sounds really into the blood moon thing tbh. Like in botw it sounds like a tired warning, but in totk it’s like HERE COME THE MONSTERS BABE *cue the you better watch out vine*

Second geoglyph memory tear thing was very interesting. That view from the great plateau is incredible, I want to look around hyrule from a bajillion years ago. How come only Zelda got to go... anyway interesting how Sonia could sense she and Zelda were related. And also if they are indeed related and therefore Rauru is too then how come Zelda just looks... Hylian? Are Zonai genes just extremely recessive or something? Or has it just been so long with so many Hylian genes that they’re just all gone. I have Questions.

Also Rauru has a big sister? Little brother Rauru?? hehehe

I feel bad for thinking it but the blizzard situation is kinda fun ngl. I know the Rito are struggling but I LOVE snowy areas. I LOVE THEM.

And the music is different in rito village aaaaaaaa. Again I feel real sorry for the Rito. But I love the vibes. I love the snow. I love it here.

KASS’S GIRLS ARE OLDER aww!! I got a little burst of pride seeing them they’re all so responsible now *squeals*

Side note it’s weird that the botw shrines are gone. It’s like I know something should be there but it’s missing. And nobody acts like it’s even gone. But I know it is. It’s missing and it should be there but it isn’t.

...Is this what Link feels like all the time?

Anyway.

Tulin sounds like Spike the dragon from mlp but honestly that just makes me love him more. He’s a cute little responsible and rebellious teenager now!! And Teba is dealing with that haha. Also a promotion!! I’m sure it’s rough being village elder, but I think you’re doing a good job Teba.

Oh I forgot to mention the newspaper place, that looks like it’s going to be a fun sidequest! And the music is great there too (also Penn again!!! Beloved!!!).

And I think that’s all :)