#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

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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)

[livmightlive]

DONT GET ME WRONG- I am a huge advocate on the Wild and Hyrule being bffs front BUT I think it would be so so SO funny if they hated each other at first.

Wild and Hyrule

The similarities between Wild and Hyrule are genuinely poetic, I mean botw is literally a spiritual successor to Zelda 1. Their friendship was written in the stars.

But their differences… I think in the beginning Hyrule would envy the shit out of Wild. Both of their eras are in severe decline but Wild’s is green. Everyone in the chain knows that Wild’s memory is lacking. They know that one day Wild woke up with no memories and answered the call to be a hero, just like that. Everyone thinks it’s highly admirable to choose to be a hero without even knowing what you’re saving, just being innately good. But Hyrule doesn’t think so. If he woke up and saw a world so beautiful… There isn’t even a choice in defending that.

He’s also jealous that Wild can just… fuck off if something gets too dangerous. When they’re in Wild’s era they learn that he can use his slate to teleport anywhere he wants as much as he wants. If Wild accidentally disturbs a Lynel he can literally disappear to a sunny beach, get a drink, and lay out. He even has a map that updates as he moves. If he got lost, even with his slate not working, Hyrule has no doubt Wild would just run into an apple tree, a clean spring, and venison. He can scan an object to tell whether or not it’s poison. It didn’t matter how young, sick, or tired Hyrule was, if he stumbled upon a Lynel it was either him or it. He had to learn the hard way what he could or couldn’t eat. If Hyrule got lost there was no way his maps could save him. His era was mostly one huge bruise of dry grass and dying trees. Food and landmarks were scarce.

Because of that, Wild gets to goof off. He’s impulsive. He’s loud. He’s everything that should’ve gotten him killed years ago.

What he doesn’t know is that Wild is also jealous of Hyrule. Hyrule is just so… competent with so little. Hyrule never needed the master sword. In fact, Hyrule still uses the same sword he’s had since he was 10. Hyrule doesn’t break things. Hyrule doesn’t need people to find him when he’s lost, he doesn’t need maps. Hyrule doesn’t complain when all they have to eat is hard tack and water.

Hyrule could find a needle in a haystack without even burning it down. He’s just… everything that Wild can’t be. The shrine of resurrection healed as much of Wild as it could but the brain is a complicated thing. He wonders if he was always so impulsive, if he used to miss social cues, and if his memory had always been awful. Flora said something about damage to his frontal lobe but unless he looks up the definition in his slate, Wild can’t remember what that means.

Wild feels so embarrassed having had to use so many tools in his quest. Everyone calls Legend the hoarder but Wild quietly knows that it’s really him. Just standing next to Hyrule makes Wild look bad. It’s like the guy glows.

So they both resent each other at first, Hyrule for what Wild has and Wild for what Hyrule has.

I think if they were both teens, 17??, they would take this out on each other by being relentlessly petty. I think aside from Wind, they would be the youngest in the chain. At least in this scenario. Wild holds his breath praying that Hyrule will fuck up at some point. Hyrule “accidentally” keeps sabotaging Wild’s attempts to sneak off. Whenever the other gets lectured they get a sick feeling of accomplishment.

The chain picks up on the fact those two don’t like each other. Most of them don’t get it, two teenage kids, the same age, both heroes with a love for adventure and sneaking off. Why wouldn’t they get along? Wild and Hyrule never do actually fight though, until they do.

It starts with little things, Hyrule being annoyed after being asked to patch Wild up. Wild under or over seasoning Hyrule’s dinner portion just to test how far he can push him. Just little things to push at each other’s buttons.

And then they finally do fight, maybe after months of it brewing. And GOODNESS if it’s not a glorious fight. It doesn’t matter who started it. Hyrule has a fist of Wild’s hair. Wild throws sand into Hyrule’s eyes. The chain doesn’t even know what to do by the time they finally get them split up.

Well, Time does. Time makes the two of them start doing EVERYTHING together. Patrols, skirmishes, chores. The only way they’d be closer is if they were tied together. They hate it.

But it’s because of this they get captured together after a portal splits up the chain. Maybe they’re lost, arguing when cultists, a sick combination of both Yiga and the Eyes of Ganon scoop them up.

I think that while the Eyes are hyper competent they’re not necessarily cruel. This is a means to an end for them, they believe the death of the hero will save their families. For that, the hero doesn’t need to suffer. Slitting his throat will do. The Yiga are cruel but not very competent. They want to string the hero up, humiliate him. Torture him if they can get their hands on him… These two forces combined make something both competent and cruel.

So Wild and Hyrule are united in their shared terror. Hyrule and Wild finally start talking, trying to collaborate when they realize the cult wants to toy with them both before ritualistically sacrificing them. Through this, they finally understand each other.

Hyrule learns how insecure Wild is and why. How Wild’s era failed him and pushed him into something when he literally didn’t even have the mind to do so. That Wild is struggling to cope in a world that he barely understands.

Wild learns that Hyrule never got to cope, that his entire life has been one big chase. That Hyrule also didn’t choose to be a hero but had to be. Hyrule never catches a break. Hyrule never had the chance to get to break something.

Through their impromptu sleepover and some light torture, they grow close in the span of 72 hours before they escape their captors hand in hand.

They reunite with the chain who are shocked to see them arms around each other’s shoulders like brothers. Laughing, and more concerningly bleeding, at new inside jokes.

From then on they become a dangerous force. Time almost wishes they didn’t get along so well bc the new trouble they’re getting into is much more stressful than the old isolated incidents. They learn each others anxieties and weaknesses and do their best to uplift each other. They’re besties 💕💕💕

Hehehe sorry for the long ramble but I think about these two a lot. I think it’s so cool how their games are related but they’re also kind of opposites in some ways? This is probably ooc but I had a lot of fun writing. Lmk any thoughts!!

[hbiscuit]

Trying to Understand Why LU Warriors Is the Fandom’s Least Favorite Link

A Passerby Reader’s Observation on Linked Universe: Trying to Understand Why LU Warriors Is the Fandom’s Least Favorite Link

I like him. And it baffles me that in several polls, he ranked as the least liked Link? Genuinely, I thought he would rank higher - definitely not last. I’m not upset or disappointed, just so befuddled that I dug up my old Tumblr from its grave and wrote this observation note instead of working. I need to comprehend this curious phenomenon.

I fell into the Linked Universe rabbit hole in 2024, originally looking for LoZ fics that focus on friendship. I was very happy with what I found in the fandom. But then I was alarmed that I couldn’t find LU fans on the platforms I usually haunt. My options were Tumblr and Discord, which basically feel like entering an agora and trying to follow people’s conversations mid-dialogue. (I miss the golden era of webboards so badly.) Nevertheless, I joined those platforms and binge-read a lot of content.

This is my observation, based on my 21-ish years of being in fandoms. No philosophical articulation, no theories or statistics to support the claim. Just hunches and non-educated guesses.

Warriors is the most bishōnen Link. That’s why my first thought, upon being introduced to him through fanfics and Lu comics, was that he must be well-liked. I’ve seen some fans analyze that his unpopularity might stem from his fanon characterization: vain, a womanizer, mean, or a comedic relief side character who only rarely gets a moment to shine.

To me, the closest trope for fanon Warriors is the ‘magnificent bastard’ archetype - someone who seems shallow on the surface but occasionally reveals a sharp mind or surprising badassery. They have layers, but hide behind a pretty face or vain personality. The satisfaction of liking these characters often comes from the delayed gratification of watching them subvert expectations.

I honestly thought that kind of fanon characterization would make him more popular. Seriously.

What a culture shock.

Of course, those archetypes tend to be polarizing. But I assumed he would also be well-loved as well-hated, like other bishōnen forefathers before him like Oikawa, Sanji, or Reigen ,etc.

I suspect age, and perhaps the geopolitical makeup of the fandom, might play a role here? I’m not sure how many Thai fans are in this fandom, but I think if they found LU Warriors, they’d love the life out of him, fanon or canon.

Comic-canon Warriors is neither a womanizer, mean, nor vain. But based on those polls, the fandom at large still seems warming up to his character.

It made me scratch my head with my feet.

Maybe this has nothing to do with fanon or canon characterization? Maybe Warriors simply embodies certain traits or virtues that don’t resonate with most of the fandom, especially compared to the other Links. I suspect this has something to do with a young adult audience's aversion to (perceived) authority figures.

Let’s talk about LU Legend. His popularity makes sense to me. He’s passionately loved and hated. I think a character like Legend resonates with younger audiences, people who feel oppressed by the system, because he’s often portrayed as young but already jaded, snarky, and burdened with trauma. Hurt but defiant; competent and kind but still not give in or become part of the (problematic) system which might make his fans feel both vindicated and empowered. Legend isn’t seen as an authority figure, despite being overqualified for the role (and is seen stepping up in the comic). I think that makes fans feel safer liking him.

Wild, Wind, and Four also don’t come across as authority figures. Wild is especially popular, fitting the hurt-young-protagonist trope/ headcanons well. Unlike Legend, he’s not portrayed as tsundere, so he generates less contradiction and feels more vulnerable (also botw/totk are very popular games).

LU Time and LU Twilight (and even fanon LU Sky, the ‘mother cucco’) look and act like adults but get different treatment than Warriors. Time fits the role of the wise, jaded, disillusioned old man. Fans agree he’s been through a lot. His choice to live a quiet farming life makes him seem like someone who wouldn’t impose order on the younger cast. Fans see him as a source of wisdom the young protagonist can turn to. Meanwhile, Twilight and Sky are often cast as supportive adult allies. They don’t represent authority in a threatening way (maybe a little overbearing.)

LU Warriors, though, does represent authority the most. That’s likely why there are so many headcanons portraying him as authoritative, distrustful, and bossy, making him a convenient antagonist. He looks like an adult. He acts like an adult. Whether or not he’s a victim of the system (knighthood), he chose to stay. And that’s why I think some of his fans empathize with him, myself included.

I believe his character might resonate more with those who have to manage people, give orders, and make decisions their younger selves would have hated them for. Because maturity comes at the price of doing inescapable duties and being disliked. The nuances of life *sigh*

In conclusion, Warriors seems to be an acquired taste. And I can confidently declare I’ve acquired him since the moment I laid eyes on the strings of fanon words that turned him into a vain, pretty boy.

[ezlo-x]

Pardon if I'm misunderstanding bc he in fact has always been green, you're upset about the skin lightening in shade, right? That he's been darker green before and they lightened him to be more palatable/digestible to white audiences? I feel as though in oot, he just had a dark shade of olive skin, still brown with green undertones which got misread in ingame lighting and merch and was made to be green throughout further iterations. Totk sucks ass for many reasons, but I want to fully understand your pov

Yea OoT Ganondorf has an olive skin tone, he looks the most brown out of the others. I made a post abt it a year ago yoiking every ganondorfs' uv maps to grab his in model skin tone (Here)

My issue here is that Ganondorf is the only brown man in the series with an essential role in the story. Also, the fact that he is the only man of his race, while the women are all brown skinned. Yes, OoT Ganondorf may look the most brown from his other iterations, but he still looks green compared to the other Gerudo in OoT. I'd argue it's very much the classic fantasy racism tropes, the games don't do anything remotely interesting with it, just that the green man is strong, evil, and powerful. And the fact that it is clear that the Gerudo are based on SWANA people, however, more in the harmful orientalist stereotypes, even continuing on to the BotW/TotK era.

I dont know if this is a canon thing or just something all of us just agreed upon, that Ganondorf's skin got greener (and darker) due to the corruption of the triforce. And now with TotK Ganondorf being completely separate from the other Ganondorfs...what's the excuse of him being green from the get-go? But also, it was definitely delusion of my end, being so used seeing fanwork of pre totk-era/rehydrated Ganondorf being brown skinned. That I was taken back seeing him be green, cause I believed we were done with that yknow.

And I wondered about other brown characters who had an important role in tloz stories, and all I could think of is Tetra and Queen Sonia. But with those two, one was turned white using the triforce, while the other was instantly killed before she could do anything remotely interesting. Gerudo characters like Urbosa takes a motherly role, I don't recall what Riju does tbh, and Nabooru is a rebel but sides with the good guys tm. Brown characters are either sidelined, aid the white character, or have their skin color erased whenever needed.

I found this article while trying to find information on the issues of green-skinned characters in fantasy media, though this goes more into detail about how the film industry handles these tropes.

[shadowy-suitcase-herring-neck]

You guys know the command melody in wind waker right? We all know Wind can technically mind control People... But it also effects statues. Not sure if we're going by these statues specifically are special or say perhaps this expands to other statues by technicality. maybe any statue with a somewhat consciousness. Does that then include robots or anything like that? What are the limits to the powers available to wind? Back to the previous point; Wind can control statues. This is terrifying. he can recreate weeping angels. Those statues that move when you aren't looking. Wind has all the tools to straight op traumatize anyone. Make them never trust a stone sculpture again.

horrifying. (i love wind sm <3) Hold on wait- Imagine him trying to do it with a goddess statue. (this can not end well in any way shape or form.) Or the horned statue in botw. This will surely end in possession.

What if this combined with hyoi pear tomfoolery and everything with phantom hourglass and such means Wind's soul or consciousness is a little bit more loosely connected to his body.

There is just, SO many technicalities i feel are a little unexplored with the Wind's windwaker abilities. (and that's not even touching on the stuff with the elemental arrows and fairies.) You could go by strict game logic and say anything you can't do in game is impossible. But also... How far can you push it?

I want to see the misadventures of Wind experimenting with magic.

[ghosthoard]

i don't have money or time to play video games

i do want to play all the zelda games eventually for my own sake and my own writing but my friend gifted me totk two years ago (i think) and i still haven't played it because i know if i played it i wouldn't have time to create art or write because i'd be sucked in (which i can't risk because i need to focus on studying too). i've only played botw, again cause my friend bought it for me. games are expensive first and foremost and also they take a long time for me to finish and require me to set aside time. i really wish i had gotten into it when i was younger, when i had more time, but well, i got into it in grad school.

if i were to wait until i played all the games to create anything for the fandom, i wouldn't be able to create anything until at least 5 years later.

so i tend to be discouraged by people who say things like "they haven't even played the games".

it's odd, because this really reminds me of the fans in the batfam fandom who insist that the fans who haven't read the comics are dumb and really talk down on anything they make. i think i saw most of them on twitter when i used to use twitter. i'm glad i don't really see stuff like that on ao3. but again, the problem is, a lot of the fans don't have the time or money to read comics. (also for DC in general, it's a pick-your-canon situation because there are so many comic writers that have their own version of the characters too so i don't understand people who say that comics should be where you get all your information when the characters vary from writer to writer, just like in fanfiction, it's about finding a writer you like) AND ALSO DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY GENERATIONS AND ITERATIONS AND COMIC RUNS EXIST IN BATFAM ALONE??? ITS NOT LIKE MANGA WHERE IT'S A CONTINUOUS STORY BY ONE WRITER, IMAGINE IF NARUTO WAS WRITTEN BY OTHER WRITERS MULTIPLE TIMES ACROSS ALMOST A CENTURY. YOUNG JUSTICE AND TEEN TITANS THE ANIMATED SHOWS ARE FANFICTIONS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT.

anyway

i don't think its reasonable to say i should play all the games before i create something. i want to create. i want to be happy. this is supposed to be fun.

i think i'd agree that those who insist that an interpretation of a character is wrong/right when they haven't seen the source material or try to do an analysis of the character in the context of the source material shouldn't do that, if you want to do analysis posts about canon, that's when you should know the source material, but a lot of the time it's the fanon version of the character they're talking about through headcanons. and also a lot of the time, these types of fans that only know the characters through fanon are children and/or are new to the concept of fandom. i would assume the version of a character that i've seen first or that everybody is talking about was the only way to think about it too if i was new and young.

in fact at my grown age, i was one of those people who tagged a non-LU art as LU, because a lot of the links across link-meets look pretty similar, because people are designing their links based on canon so they're going to share similarities. i saw another au creator state that they were scared of giving twilight a fur detail bc it would look too much like LU but did it anyway bc they wanted to (as they should) but also i feel like that proves how easy it is to mistake the designs. after the creator of the art i tagged incorrectly corrected me, i was more alert about it going forward (honestly i've just been sticking to LU creators to be safe at this point).

and people are right, LU is very popular. it's the ONLY links-meet i knew about when i emerged from botw and my friend told me about it. i honestly wasn't aware there were other versions until way later. especially because the names are pretty similar across links-meets and again the designs are too so i don't think it's all that surprising people get confused and just tag it LU. now imagine you're new to even the concept of fandom AND still in junior high. (side note, i have a couple of cis-straight male friends who are zelda fans and they don't use twilight or time or wild to call the characters, which i think is crazy because it'd be much easier than "twilight princess link" or "ocarina of time link". actually, speaking of cis-straight male fans, a lot of them say the same thing people hating on the LU fandom say, that we (transformative fandom) as a whole haven't played the games, especially when we say we headcanon the characters as queer or if they have autism or if they act differently than the "cool, masculine character" they think the links are.) this (different links-meet aus) is a very unique situation in fandom i think, from my go-around fandoms, naruto, one piece, batfam, haikyuu, the hobbit, etc haven't had different au beef to this extent or at all. it's honestly so fascinating. it's like everybody wants to be separated from each other in a way. (edit: i GOT IT! IT'S BC THE LINKS HAVE BECOME PERSONAL OCs MORE THAN SHARED CHARACTERS, THEY'RE NOT FIGHTING OVER SHARED CHARACTERS, NOT EVEN THE INTERPRETATION OF SAID CHARACTERS LIKE MOST OTHER FANDOMS, BUT SINCE THEY MADE THEIR OWN STORY, THEIR LINKS ARE MORE THEIR OCS THAN ANYTHING THEREFORE SOME PEOPLE FEEL MORE DEFENSIVE THAN FANS IN OTHER FANDOMS WOULD, IN THIS ESSAY I WILL—also most aus are shared between fans in other fandoms, like in batfam they have talon!dick or reverse robins, in the zelda fandom it's more a personal project, also in the microcosm that is LU the LU fandom have aus within the au which are exactly how other fandoms usually do aus, it's all so fascinating!) also i think the fact that LU is so much more popular than any other au adds to it. i've never seen such a phenomenon in other fandoms where one iteration is so much more well known.

LU is popular, i think the most popular links-meet au, at least on tumblr. (jhoca and ovega-karts works are getting more attention as a result of the comic dubs voice actors have done on YouTube) it's what one of my friends called "the gateway links meet au" which means a lot of the new zelda fans are getting funneled through LU first, which means a lot of them are young, new to fandom, new to zelda, or a combination of those. (also, especially for the first two, young and/or new to fandom, means they are susceptible to purity fandom culture, watch out for that). i'm not trying to excuse if people have done harmful things on purpose in the past or in the present but i feel like ignoring this context is doing more harm than good: the context being that because LU is popular it's where all the newest fans end up, and new fans are still learning.

and i really sympathize with creators who keep having their art tagged wrong, whether it was an accident by the tagger or not, because after a while i can understand for some people it can get annoying. but like this recent situation i feel like this pent up frustration is causing people to get too eager to jump on any perceived slight and honestly come off as a bit of an asshole.

i saw someone say they should just block every LU fan at this point, (meaning for it to be a punishment i'm assuming), but honestly yes, please do if it will give you peace. we don't want to be in places we're not wanted either. but it'll be hard, because again, LU is the gateway new zelda fans will come through and they will keep making the same mistake.

[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

[gemsofthegalaxy]

one thing that interests me in Linked Universe is the invitation of comparison of themes/ideas across the games that i might not have thought of otherwise. currently, i'm thinking of knighthood.

for example, both Sky and Wild were trained as knights, but 'being a knight' in society meant something vastly different at those two time periods in Hyrule(/Skyloft) history.

For Sky, being a knight originally seemed like a fairly mundane thing, there was a quaint little school for knighthood that everyone went to, it wasn't particularly special. Link himself wasn't even that special (the special thing about him wasn't his prowess with the sword but his utter dedication and determination to keep his loved ones' safe, not being good in school necessarily). Yes, he goes through trials to prove he is the proper protector of Zelda, the Triforce, and Hyrule, but that image of knighthood comes a bit later, especially in his life. His time at school seemed fairly relaxed, allowing him to be the type of student who sleeps in but still gets by just fine.

meanwhile, Wild has a... much different time becoming a knight. Having a sword handed to him at a young age, he was raised to believe his life's purpose was protecting the Princess and Hyrule. It's a noble pursuit and purpose, sure, but it leads him to silence and stoicism to deal with the pressure he's under. I believe his natural personality could have been at least a little more like Sky's, given the types of dialogue options we get in BoTW and all- Link without his memories seems to be a bit more lighthearted, often a little jokey. And, obviously some things depend on how you play him, but I know I have a hard time not rescuing the Hylian travellers if I see bokos going after them, and given how many helpful sidequests he has, it seems Link is genuinely kindhearted and helpful towards the people of Hyrule. In a way, he's still bearing the burden of protecting and providing for them, but he does it without the heavy weight of specific expectation that he's some complete and utter prodigy.

Sky and Wild are two of my favourite iterations of Link, partially because I'm drawn to more lighthearted stories- even though Wild's is quite tragic, it's not as heavy or dark as some of the other entries (and I actually had the chance to play it firsthand rather than only start it or watch gameplay of). It's deeply interesting to me to compare and contrast the two- I feel like they have a decent amount in common. They also had to work specifically to make themselves 'worthy' of the Master Sword, just as Zelda had to work to reach the Goddess and access her power. And, in both cases, Wild's version had a bit more of a troubled, rough time rather than just performing something ritualistic. It's funny, as the first and most recent at least in the storyline, they hold an interesting mirror to one another

[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.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

Do you agree ?

The more I read and really think about it? The more I'm like "technically yeah" than an actual hard yeah because while I get it's a meme and stuff the things presented can be half truths:

Doom Guy yes 100% in green (except for optional skins in the modern games that doesn't really count) Link 99% green 1% being blue in botw/totk (who also has costumes in those games and therefore also doesn't count)

"Never talks" isn't correct as both have canonically talked, with Doom Guy it's much more explicit and you hear him in Doom Eternal and TDA, with Link you don't outright hear him but he does speak through dialog prompts since ocarina of time and more modern games have given a canonical explanations why recent iterations are selectivity mute like this. So it's not "Never talks" but rarely talks or what I like to interpret as only talks when it's important.

"Intended to symbolize the player" used to be the case for Link in the very older games, Doom Guy has had an established backstory since 1993 but it did I guess have some wiggle room to insert yourself in but 2016 came and wiped that potential insertion away. They've had their own unique identities for years now. They are not self inserts.

This is where they're different, Link is different a different person each time, only rarely getting more than one initial adventure through direct sequels - Doom Guy is the Doom Slayer and Doom Slayer is the Doom Guy, with the exception of Doom 3 (people can fight me on that idc) he has basically been the same person in the games since 1993. With Link it's reincarnation of stepping to your destiny over and over again while with Doom Guy it's: "I punched my CO once and now I'm fighting Cthulhu."

Yeah.

Most monsters are considered "demons" in Zelda I guess but not all of them, some things are clearly just plain nature in natural habitats defending itself and its territory. In Doom they are explicitly just demons or things equally in the realm of fucked.

No. Besides some finishing moves on bosses (mostly Ganon/dorf) Link has nothing on Doom's glory kills.

Big pocket brothers.

In Zelda things just poof into smoke so no blood baths. Rip and Tear is Doom's mantra.

I mean, Link is in a Nintendo game so I don't know what you're expecting anything actually sexual there but Link is very respectful of every woman he meets, especially Zelda (🥰 ) and is always at her defense no matter what and which in skyward sword and botw/totk is very very clear in your face that they have something romantic going on through context clues than being outright stated (because Nintendo are cowards) In Doom given its a M rated franchise its different because they could've gone there (be a Duke Nukem) and given he's such a badass had him have many love interests and have him having sex all of the time but they haven't which is based, in The Dark Ages they could've easily done that with Commander Thira but Hugo Martin confirmed that things between her and the Slayer are pure platonic meaning their interactions in the game are nothing but just pure respect and honestly? I like that approach more with them than a tacked on romance it would've been with the series first woman that isn't in a antagonist role who has her own arc learning how to control her abilities and the Slayer respects her. Being respectful to women and more focused on slaughtering demons is cool👍

Everyone is legally obligated to play ocarina of time and Doom 2 Right now.

Either way they are cool and based 🗣

Thank you for the ask 🫶

[distantkairi]

Link would never sleep around with all these different women. It needs to be said that Link (all versions) is a young hero with a big heart, not some uberChad his fans wish he was.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT ANON. Omg. Even my partner hates this and it has actually lowkey ruined Link for him. He doesn't even want to cosplay as him anymore with me because of how Link's fans are and how they see him this way.

It's just such an out of character, disgusting and misogynistic way to characterize Link. Especially when they ship him with someone like Riju. Like what? Link first formed a relationship with Riju when she was 12 years old, and according to the code of the game she is still a teenager while Link and Zelda are adults:

According to the code of the game, Riju is closer in age to Tulin. She has nothing in her diary that even remotely suggests she herself even sees Link that way

I'm sorry but what part of this is "oh she must be in love with Link!" ???

it explicitly says Link is just her friend

and if you are naked during the gibdo fight, not only does she not react to it in a shippy way whatsoever, she tells you it's a bad idea to go into battle like that.

She is, also, canonically uninterested in romance.

"Unlike the other gerudo who love love talk and fashion"

It is insane to me that people are actually arguing someone like me "doesn't see Zelda beyond Link", weaponizing the idea that Zelda being in love with/in a relationship with Link is sexist in some form, meanwhile at the very same time the exact same people want to act like Link can't ever have a single platonic female friend and Purah and Riju, who have never once been interested in Link that way, simply must want to ride his master sword, just because they, as a player, got horny off the character designs. People love to slander zelink as "heteronormative", but they're oddly quiet about the heteronormativity in crap like this. It serves no purpose but for insecure men to feel validation from the thought of having multiple women on their arm at once.

It grinds my gears like nothing else, especially when comes people who say they like zelink. So like ok what, in their headcanon universe Zelda is supposed to just be the "cool reddit wife" who happily accepts being cheated on and betrayed by Link and her friends with a smile? And with a minor no less? Yeah nah, sorry but Zelda deserves way better than that. I would rather she not end up with Link at all in that scenario.

It's just so dreadful on so many levels. Two adults the same age is "heteronormative" and "toxic" somehow, something something therapy speak, but Link coming onto a child or waiting for a child to be legal is fine? Calling it "cute", "wholesome" even? Why did you all hate those two creepy male botw npcs, again? Because it seems you want Link to be just like them...

It is genuinely so trashy and like a scenario you would read an incel cook up on 4chan that I can't believe this is some people's take away from the story of totk. That it should be like a garbage harem anime or something and not a story about community, True Love and friendship saving the day. Nothing has disappointed me and my partner more about this fandom than realizing that people not only don't appreciate this game and it's story or touching moments at all, they are only able to see it as porn with their self insert gigachad pedophile Link who runs across hyrule sleeping with every man, woman and child with a pulse.

Oh but remember, women aren't allowed to be with another man though, that's an ego threat *cough* Tauro *cough*

Remember kids, women must be pure and loyal, but a man can do whatever he wants!

This is also unironically why some people are mad about Zelda being the protagonist of Age of Imprisonment and arguing for it to not actually be the canon story of totk, despite all of the marketing so far and despite complaints Age of Calamity faced for changing the story of botw. They're pretty much just mad about the prospect that their uberchad insert, and (what they see as) their harem avengers won't be in it if it's the canon pov of Zelda during TotK.

And all of that is why my Link actually has a heart that is good and true, actually devoted and loyal to Zelda, only has eyes for her and missed her desperately all throughout totk from the moment he missed her hand, was crushed by the revelation but refused to give up. Because clearly, this fandom hates that idea more than anything else.

[descendant-of-truth]

Few things drive me insane like the claim that "3D Zelda was getting stagnant anyway, so even with its flaws, Botw was a necessary change for the series"

What stagnancy?? Was 3D Zelda stagnant when they gave Link four separate, unique social standings in his hometowns across each new version? Or when they flooded Hyrule in one game and had it be an undiscovered land in another? Was it when they turned Link into a wolf for half the game, or had him fly around on a bird, or sail the seas, or transform between three different species by swapping out different masks?

Did 3D Zelda effectively showcase stagnancy when it gave every single entry a completely unique, visually striking art style and atmosphere? To the point where even Majora's Mask, famous reuser of assets, is impossible to mistake for its predecessor?

Everything I've heard to justify this mindset that Zelda somehow "needed" such a drastic change falls completely flat in the face of just how much the series was thriving before Botw came out. Every single major 3D release was just nonstop back-to-back bangers, and yet somehow people are acting like they were just OoT copy/pasted several times.

And they always end up reaching for the most, just... inane things to use as evidence for this supposed lack of originality.

"They were reusing too many of the same items!" Yeah because the items were cool and people liked using them. Also they were very much adding new items to the familiar pool each time, so I fail to see the issue here

"The story is always the same! You start somewhere with lots of trees, then you go to the same old locations with water and lava, blah blah blah you're the chosen one and have to go save Zelda and fight Ganon" Hey you know what other game you're describing the plot of. Breath of the Wild

(But honestly it was hard for any of that to feel stale for me when the execution of each of those steps was different each time. y'know. the thing that actually matters in storytelling)

"The intros in Zelda games used to be sooo long, but now I can even run straight to Ganon if I want!" So what you're admitting here is that not experiencing the story is a positive thing for you. In a game series that heavily prioritized its narrative up until now. I mean, based on that statement alone, being able to skip the majority of the game is supposed to be a positive? In a game THIS gigantic?

Also, let's not act like Botw's intro is better just because it can be completed quickly. It doesn't even hold up narratively compared to the others. There's intrigue, yes, but in terms of your immediate activities? Nothing particularly bombastic to write home about.

Ever notice how every other 3D Zelda before Botw has an inciting incident whose consequences are immediately followed up on? But sure, go on, tell me more about how boring they were because they dared to develop things before tossing you to the monsters.

And no matter how you might try to spin it, switching to an open world is not inherently a "natural progression" for the series. It's just something completely different from what it was doing before. That's like saying Battle Network was a natural progression of the original Megaman formula - neither one is bad, but nobody was playing Megaman and thinking "man, if only this was a pseudo turn-based game with a deck building mechanic and my movement was restricted to a grid"

Anyway, join me next time for when I talk about how Botw Link is far and away the worst-written Link despite my personal enjoyment of him, and how sick I am of people acting like this is when he finally "got a personality"

[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

[lolli-popples]

You know I think (at least in TotK, in BotW it's unclear) that there are probably more Yiga clan members than like any other settlement group in Hyrule.

Because they are ALL OVER THE SURFACE, and the depths are RIDDLED with them, there are TONS of both disguised Yiga and Yiga laying traps, and all the living trees are Yiga and they have tons of bases like-

HOW MANY OF THESE GUYS ARE THERE???

Even if they're moving around and aren't actually in all those places at once, there HAS to be WAY more Yiga than like, Zora or Rito or Gerudo or Gorons. Maybe even more than Hylians!

I mean, there were also a lot in Breath of the Wild too.

Idk it's just interesting to me that there's like, a handful of Shiekah in Kakariko and then TEN BILLION YIGA CLAN MEMBERS.

Like are you guys sure *they* broke off from *you* to go be evil, or did *you* break off from *them* to go be peaceful. Seems like your average Shiekah is actually evil and likes bananas.

Which, I'm guessing is because less Yiga died in the Calamity than regular Shiekah, just based on proximity to the Castle. It's possible lots of Shiekah lived in regular villages or towns outside of Kakariko and they died to guardians or monsters, while the Yiga were safe in the outskirts of Gerudo Desert.

And I could talk about the difference in numbers between BotW and TotK but that's like, true for every group, sometimes people just appear out of nowhere IG. Yiga are pretty notorious for it, actually.