#basically sad big brothers/uncles who are incredibly guilty but also go ‘damn kid. holy shit.’

[merriclo]

YES EXACTLY IT’S DOUBLE-SIDED ANGST. Legend can’t look them in the eye, and in truth they can’t handle the shame of looking him in the eye either. they hear he’s lost at sea and feel that it was their cruelty, intentional or not, that set him off on that journey to begin with. they see scars on his legs and hands and wonder distantly if it was their blade that put it there. they hear Legend’s gruff and raspy voice and they know it’s vocal damage from screaming in both fear and agony. he’s a quick kid—he had to be to escape them.

just. ouugghrjjfjfie the guilt and shame that comes along with trying to murder the child you called son.

uhm. in light of everything, i think it’d be beneficial to provide context from the games to maybe help open up other avenues for people to explore the linked universe characters with. i’m gonna start off with one of my favorite aspects of the ALTTP games that’s largely ignored in the LU space:

the knights in Legends’ Hyrule are not, on average, cruel.

in the opening of A Link to the Past, the knight at the castle gates calls Link “son,” and tells him to go home and get some rest (it’s night at the beginning.) another one has this heartbreaking interaction with Link, saying, “After Agahnim took over, everyone has began to act strangely. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before I’m affected, too.” any hostility the knights show him is not an act of free will; the knights were put under a spell by Agahnim, and then forced to hunt down a little boy they once called son.

even in A Link Between Worlds, the knights only attack Link after Yuga takes over the castle. seeing as this game was made as a parallel to ALTTP, it’s safe to assume a similar situation (especially considering how many of them spawn off the palace walls from Yuga’s paintings. that game is weird and difficult to explain. play it if you can it’s great.)

i think that there’s something so deeply heartbreaking about Legend being hunted down by those he used to have such reverence for. and to make it worse, it wasn’t even their fault, so can he really be mad at them? and then he goes on to be a blacksmith’s apprentice and ends up helping make the very weapons they unwillingly pointed at him,,,,

i’m NOT saying you can’t write the knights in legend’s era as total jackasses. i’m just elaborating on aspects from the game that most people likely don’t have access too.