#best gerudo

[ganondoodle]

lets reverse back into tloz for a bit, found a new totk rant video that almost exactly points out everything i hate about the game in a really easily understandable and entertaining way

[myststone]

Residents of Gerudo Town when the desert starts undesert-ing, lasers are all over the place, ancient structures start rising from the aforementioned undesert-ed desert, and the ancient embodiment of all evil from their fairy tales turns out to be not so much of a fairytale.

[weepingtalecowboy]

Fanfic prompt: during the final fight of windwaker daphnes didn’t antagonize ganondorf

And he , wind and tetra all came to an agreement that he can bring his people to Hyrule (or what remains of them because he was gone for a while)

And he quickly realized that the Gerudo and hylians cooperated enough that now there is nearly no full blood hylians and Gerudo

Because both were people and in enough desperation to throw race separation into the Dead Sea

Because there is no way both could survive by themselves (inspired by wind waker's round but pointy ear art style like they are SO round )

And now he has to drag everyone into Hyrule because he did say all his people would find a safe haven in his kingdom

And all the people are happy to go because living room is getting smaller with the rising population and Hyrule has a ton of land to offer

So many people go to Hyrule and the triforce wearers build the government up again

Tetra still has problems with ganondorf but she is also under no circumstances giving up her freedom to rule

So they just go and drag wind into the position of heir so that ganondorf has to give up the throne to someone she trusts with her entire life

Because she doesn’t want to be Zelda so he can be princess Zelda if he is this obsessed with fulfilling the king’s wish of a new land (she established the new land she did her part already now leave her alone destiny)

She does sometimes appear to throw in her five cents in during discussions

The Rito are happy to make peace but only if their savior who has saved their great Valoo ends up as part of the leading group

Everything’s going well and a small settlement has already been made and trade with the islands is going well

Ganondorf is insisting on reviving cultural traditions of the Gerudo tribe

And phantom hourglass was over in 10 minutes anyway so it still can happen in this story

Then linked universe happens and with the heir of new Hyrule just gone

Everyone freaks out badly because without the “princess” all agreements and alliances would be in danger

And a massive search happens

Everyone is pinching in because the new settlement could fall apart and the people can’t afford to lose their new homes

The Rito who probably consider the hero of the winds the next best thing after sliced bread

Ganondorf has to give the throne to the one who holds the name Zelda to appease the king (who hasn’t left and stayed salty over ganondorf living in his land

And Tetra and her crew are not going to lose their baby crew mate and she also genuinely doesn’t want to be Zelda

So when the chain appears in Wind's Hyrule they immediately get arrested for stealing the heir of new Hyrule

And time and the chain flips out when seeing ganondorf as the king of Hyrule

Because that looks like an uprising in the making

Time and ganondorf officially hate eachother because they remember each other

Divorced couple goals

Time gets wind every weekend

[krizeros]

Dohna the Princess Chief

[rawliverandgoronspice]

anyways, still deeply invested into my read of Ganondorf being an immense bully to children partially because, in a way, he rationalizes that putting children through the grinder is baaaasically kind of helping them to grow up faster, in a throwing you into the river to teach you how to swim kind of way, and if they can't handle the grinder, they were weak and it's on them and they can either suck it up and try harder, or get wrecked and die

and obviously that says absolutely nothing about how his own upbringing may have been handled, right twinrova, nor anything about how he may have buried a profound bitterness about the fact he was never really allowed a childhood of his own, and it's not fair others, especially hylians, get to spend their own carefree.

of course not.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Zelda sniffled and huffed, blowing her nose loudly. She felt miserable, tired and achy all over. How could a princess function in such conditions? She’d tried using her magic to bring her some relief and all it did was drain her even more.

“Ugh,” she groaned, laying in the grass.

Fancy Hands watched her uncertainly. “You really don’t look good. How about we just pitch tents here?”

“There are still other Links to find,” Zelda grumbled nasally before coughing. “Because somebody won’t admit to anything.”

Their latest companion huffed, arms crossed, looking unimpressed. He’d rescued them from that blasted dungeon, had a mysterious air to him, and fought gallantly - he had to be the one. But she couldn’t rule out anybody else until she was certain. In either case, if she continued on this venture, she could hold this Sir Edgy hostage, as he’d agreed to escort them to the nearest large settlement. If she found all the Links in the small villages and then bemoaned how it was so unsafe, she could make him stay longer and figure out more about him.

This stupid cold certainly helped delay things. Perhaps Fancy Hands was right - if they made camp here, she could interrogate Sir Edgy further.

“This is stupid,” Zelda finally admitted defeat. “I feel awful.”

“You should rest,” the mysterious fighter said evenly. She could almost hear concern in his tone.

Zelda pouted, “What I need is comfort and love, actually.”

Sir Edgy huffed, looking through his adventure pouch. “Apologies, princess, I’m all out of those items.”

Zelda huffed, throwing her snot infested handkerchief at him. He scowled, swatting the projectile with his dark cloak.

“I could… give you a massage if you’re hurting?” Her friend offered hesitantly. “Just don’t cough on me.”

“Thank you,” Zelda said heartily, glaring at Sir Edgy. “See? He cares.”

“He’s young and naive.”

“HEY!”

The man’s dog interrupted the ensuing argument, licking Zelda’s face until she was breathless with laughter. As her friend guided her to lay on her stomach and gently worked at the knots in her shoulders, Zelda sighed happily. Maybe taking a break from her quest was a good idea, after all.

[ezlo-x]

TLOZ fan theory: I can't remember where I saw this one way back when, or all the exact details, but the theory that the Twili in Twilight Princess are very distant ancestors of the Gerudo. Specifically in that all twili we see are red headed, the mirror of twilight is located in the Gerudo desert, and all "evil" magic using Gerudo in the series are Gerudo who have cooler skin tones like the twili do (Twinrova and most iterations of Ganon/dorf).

Not necessarily submitting this following "theory", but after totk came out I tried to make a theory board about this theory and connecting the Zonai to the Sheikah (strong magic, white hair, third eye imagery), the Sheikah to the twili (red eyes, strong magic, history of getting banished), and the twili to the half Zonai champion of old (long pointed ears, blue skin, patterns on skin, red hair), but I just had a lot of seemingly interconnected dots and no solid theories to conclude lol. I will say tho imo it's fun to consider everything being connected in a whacky web like that.

I'm combining these as they fall into the same category of theories, but I gotta be honest... I don't enjoy these theories, especially when they involve the Gerudo. To me, it's uninteresting trying to connect two races over something, or in the "Groose theory" case, a single person to a group of people. With that one, I can argue that the word Gerudo already existed through that Dragonfly you capture in SkSw. When I realized the parallels the Zonai have to the Sheikah I made a loud groan cause it just completely strips away what made the Sheikah interesting in BotW. The Twili one I can't see the vision aside from the points that you mentioned, but like I said. It makes it so uninteresting I wish the lore of the Gerudo could stand on its own to have interesting worldbuild.

[the-mountain-flower]

Theory/Personal Headcanon

So, without going too deep into the many issues with how The Legend of Zelda portrays the Gerudo, there's one part of it those issues that actually has to potential to be less problematic and make a lot more sense, if you view it in a non-binary perspective. Specifically, in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Disclaimer that this totally isn't the intent behind how the Gerudo are written or anything like that. However, the canon portrayal has so many issues that I really don't care for it, and this theory makes so much more sense anyway. It doesn't decrease the issues with canon, but it makes for a better interpretation.

So the whole "all-warrior-women who get one man per century and that man is destined to be their king" thing really doesn't make sense. It's one of those things that, despite being so obviously fictional creative liberty, I could never really suspend my disbelief about.

Groups of all-warrior-women definitely aren't unheard of, most of which nowadays take inspiration of the Amazons from Hellenic mythology. That's not the part that I have trouble with at all, in fact the trope itself can be pretty cool if handled well.

It's the "king-male-per-century" part that just reeks of sexism. Only partially because in an entire culture of badass warrior women, a single male shows up and is automatically destined to be the most powerful among them. What the heck?! And that's not even touching on the extreme sexualization of Gerudo women, or the many other issues that arise from the way they're portrayed.

Now, story-wise this does make a liiiittle sense, bc "the one with a unique trait unlike any other is a Chosen One" is a really common trope, and them getting destined the title of leader/ruler is something that happens fairly often. And, it gives credence to another theory of mine, that the reason the reincarnation of Demise's hate has been a Gerudo man at least three time, is specifically because that position automatically grants him so much potential for power.

But if that's the case, why would the Gerudo keep the "Gerudo man=king" rule? And of all ways to use that trope, did it really have to be in the form of "man > any other woman"?!

And, finally getting to the point, it's so strictly binary. And as anyone with an ounce of critical thinking knows, sex and gender is never binary.

It doesn't account for intersex or transgender Gerudo, and has shown no way of accounting for any natural divergence outside of that system.

BOTW and TOTK isn't any better at this. In fact, it reiterates almost all bigoted tropes the series has played into over the years.

It did however, introduce the Gerudo having their own language, including the terms "vai" and "voe" which allegedly mean "woman" and "man". Basically every time it's brought up by a Gerudo person, they say "vai" and "voe" instead of "man" and "woman". While it's implied that this is because the terms are interchangeable, in practice this doesn't seem to be the case.

My theory is that "vai" doesn't directly translate to "woman", and "voe" doesn't directly translate to "man". Instead, those are just how it's translated into Hylian, and is falsely portrayed as a sex binary when it really isn't.

I think the biggest example to support this is the presence of gorons in Gerudo Town. In the Era of the Wild, as well as in the series as a whole, we apparently never see any female gorons. All gorons referred to in third-person pronouns are referred to using "he/him", and all call each other "brother". Language that is most commonly used to refer to those who are male. But if that were the case, then why (diegetically) wouldn't they have a corresponding explanation for why we apparently never encounter a female goron? And, most importantly, why would they be allowed in Gerudo Town, a place that so strictly forbids the presence of voe?

It makes infinitely more sense that A) gorons don't have societal differences between sexes, if they even have significant sexual/gender divergence at all, and B) "voe" isn't actually the same as what's labeled as "male", and the gorons fall into the category of vai instead.

It's entirely possible that gender doesn't play a role in whether someone's a vai or voe. It would answer the question of how intersex and transgender Gerudo would fit. It's a binary is, at least partially, separate from sex/gender.

So why is it translated as "man" and "woman"? Well, because that's it's being translated into Hylian. Hylians/humans are usually the dominant species/culture in the world of TLOZ. If the characteristics of Gerudo vai are most commonly shared with Hylian women, and those of Gerudo voe most commonly shared with Hylian men, then it's reasonable to assume that it was either used as an indirect translation, or that it was assumed to mean the same thing.

Not necessarily part of the theory bc this is a fantasy world, but it does still lend it credence: In the real world, most cultures do actually account the existence non-binary identities. The societal construct of a strict gender binary, as well as binary gender roles, are the direct result of white colonization. And in Zelda lore, there have been instances of Hyrule falling into the role of colonizers, and it's not a stretch to say the government of Hyrule hasn't always been on the right side of history. And, the Hyrule royal family has always been portrayed as white (they even made Tetra become pale-skinned when revealed as the princess WTF), and the Gerudo has always been portrayed as brown.

[ladyrijus]

I'm not sure if the creators realize, but based on its title alone, Tears of the Kingdom has the potential to turn around the entire Legend of Zelda franchise in terms of its storyline.

Let me explain.

I think we can all agree that in most of the games, there is a core narrative of light versus evil that outlines the game. Link and Zelda are the benevolent heroes of the story and Ganondorf / Ganon is the irredeemable villain. Storywriters for the franchise like to use this formula for the franchise because hey, it's worked so many times, and gained lots of reception, so why not?

But just because it has worked doesn't mean it's right or suitable. 

Firstly, given the history of our world, it is problematic that the face of evil for this game series is a dark skinned man from a tribe of women who are based of the caricatures and sexualization of women raised in the MENASA regions (MENASA stands for the Islamic countries in Middle East, North Africa, South Asia) and the face of good is always two white characters who are held in the highest regard. Not to mention, Ganondorf and his foster mothers Koume and Kotake had their character designs in Ocarina of Time based on anti-semetic caricatures. This overall set-up speaks volumes already, but it doesn't stop there. The franchise decided to expand upon the lore of the Gerudo in Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, explicitly and implicitly establishing that the tribe was, in fact, oppressed, ostracized, and underwent genocide. Some people may argue that this information is up for debate, given that a lot of it comes from Ganondorf who is an unreliable narrator; however, this argument fails to consider that even then, it never proves that Zelda and Link are any more trustworthy. After all, the victors write history. With these complexities added in, it becomes hard to discern who exactly is in the right or wrong. In reality, the matters were never black and white to begin with.

This segues to my next point: the light versus darkness trope is not suitable this time around. It's a very two dimensional, inaccurate representation of the world of Hyrule that conflicts with the goals the creators are trying to achieve in Tears of The Kingdom. If they truly wanted to concentrate on the duality between light and darkness, they've already done it with Breath of the Wild. We had Calamity Ganon, a sub-sentient manifestation of hatred that sought nothing but death and destruction, and it was up to Link and Zelda, who strove for the preservation of life and progress, to seal it. So why continue to expand on that? Why bring back Ganondorf? Personally, I see no point in his return. 

Unless… the "Tears" of the Kingdom refer to the Sheikah. 

"But, wait!" you ask, "All this talk about the Gerudo and for what? What does the Sheikah have to do with this?" 

To explain this we'll have to start at the beginning. No, not Skyward Sword, though it shares striking similarities with Tears of the Kingdom, such as the return of the magatama relics, a character with a likeness to Demise, and the juxtaposition between land and sky. No, we have to go before even then. We have to go to the Era of Hylia.

The Legacy of Hylia

Not much is known about Hylia beyond the fact she was meant to protect the Triforce as supposedly ordained by the Golden Goddesses and the people worshipped her for it. But, notice how we learn this story through Fi, a creation of Hylia, with few additions from Impa, from the Sheikah tribe that Hylia established herself. The Triforce is seen as something to protect in this story they share, though interestingly, the relic itself is designed to be as unbiased and uncaring of the individual that seeks it out. It is, without a doubt, divine (as it quite literally is a means to warp reality), but there is also no tangible morality associated with it.

So why did the Golden Goddesses think it had to be protected? Why is Hylia chosen to do it?

…Why did Demise go for it?

If it wasn't clear enough, Hylia is much more flawed than the creators let on. She feels entitled to the Triforce, though there is no reference but the Golden Goddesses (whom no one has ever witnessed) that says she should. It's selfish, almost childish even, that she gatekeeps it away from any user. It's human. Perhaps her traits are a reflection of the time she had spent with the civilization that worshipped her. Because of this, I consider her to be a demigod rather than god. Not so distant and otherworldly like the Golden Goddesses, but a force of nature that can't be subdued but still respected. Time is ruthless, it flies and it trudges. But I digress. In short, for all that is said about Hylia and her divinity, she was certainly stubborn in her efforts to prevent anyone from wielding the Triforce so that her world could remain the way it is, perfect and idyllic. 

But that's the thing, life was not idyllic like she wanted the Sheikah and the rest of the world to remember; no, it was terrible enough to spur Demise and his "demon" forces to seek out the Triforce as a means to wrest control from her. Again, I want to make it clear that Hylia and Demise go beyond the bounds of good and bad. A lot of lives were lost to Demise, to the point the humans nearly went extinct. There's little to redeem on that end. But we're never told the stories from the other side of the battle, so who's to say they hadn't suffered as much extreme casualties? Either way, there had to be something Hylia had done (or even not done) for Demise to take severe measures. The hatred he feels is all consuming, but there is something to be said about how hate does not bloom spontaneously — it is cultivated and grown. Keeping all of this in mind, I sometimes wonder if Demise's name was in relation to Hylia, as in he was her Demise, and that those demon forces of his were actually the demonized. We'll never know. But what we do know, is that the Triforce was the Golden Goddesses' way of giving hope to the mortals, to be able to use divine power to shape the world as they see fit (at least, according to the first Zelda, which is a fantastic moment of irony if you ask me) and Demise had every intention of seeing his future through.

The Sheikah's Story

Now, let's fast forward a few eons and come back to the tears. Many people have associated the tears from the title to be the magatama relics seen with Zelda, Sidon, Riju, Tulin, and Ganondorf. But the tear's symbolism in the franchise has been around for much, much longer, thanks to the existence of the Sheikah. The tear is a part of the eye symbol for the Sheikah, and according to the The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, it represents their willingness to go any lengths so as to support their divine mission of protecting the Royal Family that possesses the blood of the goddess Hylia. Given that information alone, wouldn't it make sense that the title "Tears of the Kingdom" refers to the Sheikah?

"Okay sure, but what role would they play in the game?" That's not the point. It's not the role they play now. It's the role they played in the past. Something of particular interest to me when it comes to the Sheikah is how differently the Sheikah are characterized between the games of Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, and Breath of the Wild. In Skyward Sword, they were a tribe who patiently for the day to protect the goddess's reincarnation and went so far as to transport her through time repeatedly. In OOT, they were agents who went so far as to secretly carry out the Royal Family's dirty work. In BOTW, they were inventors and sorcerers who went so far as to recreate divine power to protect the land. 

But guess what never changes? The fact that they write history.

Above everything else, they are the storytellers, and they have seen everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. But with the role of storytelling, they have the ability to alter it, embellish it. And in the Sheikah's case, they have a tendency to omit the negative, so as to promote support for the goddess and her Royal Family. Think about it: Impa never explains why Demise wanted to take control of the world in Skyward Sword and she's the first to jump to fix issues at the Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time so no one has to bear witness to what the temple had actually turned into. If she did, Hyrule would surely fall into chaos. To Hyrule, the governing powers like the goddess Hylia and the Royal Family are the pinnacle of morality. That image can't be compromised.

And for a time, it wasn't, until we reach Breath of the Wild. That's when things get interesting.

In the tapestry, as shown above, a majority of it is occupied by the tale of the warrior with the spirit of a hero, a princess with divine power, and a technological army pioneered by Sheikah. That's what the game's creators want you to see. But do you see that little strip at the bottom?

Yeah, that. It's a tiny piece of the story but it's a big one. By now, most game fans know that is the history of how the Yiga Clan came to be. Cado, one of the Sheikah that stands guard in front of Impa's home, elaborates on this imagery, remarking that once upon a time, the Royal Family (more specifically the King of Hyrule) did turn on the tribe that swore nothing but utmost loyalty to them.

Of course, this seems counterintuitive. Why punish the people who protected you? What was their sin? As far as we're told by Cado, Sheikah technology had once been praised as "the power of the Gods". Now, I won't get into too much detail about this, but the Triforce, which you might have noticed isn't really mentioned by word of mouth in Breath of the Wild, is now a power of the Royal Family that is passed down. All parts of it. It's a lot to take in, given my lack of elaboration, but I recommend watching THIS video by Monster Maze who does a fantastic job exploring the nature of the whole Triforce being hosted in an individual body.

But what I want you to take out of this information is how there is, essentially, a rivalry between the Sheikah and the Royal Family, a sudden leveling of the playing field that the latter party does not want. It's eerie how similar they act as their ancestor god. The entitlement is present yet again: you cannot change the world like I can, you cannot be as powerful as I am. I have the final say. This certainly paints a more explicitly, vicious picture of the Royal Family, but it's nothing really new. After all, the Sheikah remember everything cruel that had been done to others by this family, by them, but hid it for the purpose of the "greater good". But once they become the target, everything changes. The Sheikah don't remove it from history. They remember it. Some more passionately than others.

Ties between the Gerudo, the Sheikah, and the Yiga.

Something else on the Sheikah tapestry that seemed out of place for me is the depiction of the hero.

He is clad in green, which one would imagine, is a reference to Link's green motif throughout the games. However, I fully believe that detail is a red herring — that is to say, it's meant to throw us off. And from what I have seen, most fans of the game agree. Why? Because that same individual has red hair and a sword that looks more like a golden claymore than the sword that seals the darkness. And well, given that the Gerudo are the ones who use golden claymores, plus the way the figure is drawn to have a knee bent, there can only be one person this image is referring to:

Ganondorf.

Keep in mind how the Sheikah have erased his name, but did not erase him, and that the Yiga swear their allegiance to Calamity Ganon. To be completely honest, I think the Calamity did not have the name Ganon to it 10,100 years prior to the events of Breath of the Wild. But, to explain why it suddenly does in Breath of the Wild, I do believe Ganondorf had a calling to malice, whether the kind left behind by the Calamity or the kind that was already existing throughout the land. Read THIS post by @golvio to get an idea of what I mean. The only change I would make regarding this theory is that the people did not originally see the malice as inherently evil. A little rot was needed to clear the space for new growth. But with great power comes great responsibility, and I think Ganondorf might have utilized the malice in a manner the King of Hyrule was not pleased with. 

How so, and why? Well there can be different reasons to choose from for the creators, but I have a personal favorite theory that explains why the Sheikah and Yiga remember Ganondorf more acutely than even the Royal Family and why there's ruins in the Gerudo Desert: As a last resort, to protect the Sheikah who helped him defeat the Calamity, and to reclaim the technology they lost, Ganondorf used the malice to take over the guardians and to get rid of the soldiers wiping out the civilians. In response, Zelda from that time was tasked with defeating him with the help of the other "Sages" (those who possess the magatama relics/tears) and one of those sages sealed him away with the Zonai hand. Zelda's betrayal breeds the hatred that Demise foretold would reincarnate, time and time again, leading to Ganondorf internally accepting that a peaceful world is a world without the Kingdom of Hyrule, without the Royal Family, completing the cycle once more.

And so here it comes, the big storyline change that Nintendo stands on the precipice of:

To break the cycle, Ganondorf is not the one that needs to necessarily be redeemed. It's Zelda. That isn't to say that Ganondorf isn't flawed and should not repent; there are a million things he could have done better or have not done, whatever it is that lead him to be sealed. And what I mean by Zelda having to be redeemed is that even though she technically has done nothing personally to Ganondorf, it is her blood that binds her to the ancestors who spurred the very hatred that fueled the Calamity and left behind a legacy built on the maintained misfortune of others. If anything is to change, she must be the first to cast aside her fear so that the cycle cannot repeat again, and instead work on understanding her family's past and building her faith. And no, I don't mean her faith in the goddess (she has lost too much trying to), but faith in the goodness of a man who was unfairly pushed to become the worst version of himself to protect the helpless.

[ganondoodle]

since i cant stop thinking about things i care about and also i cant shut up ever im gonna say my bit about the "well of COURSE they destroyed everything shiekah after botw bc it nearly killed the entire country DUH do you not understand basic worldbuilding??" type of comment i had directed at me (mostly on twitter to no ones surprise and almost exactly worded like this)

--how would you even destroy it, the only thing you can actually damage with anything are guardians and nano-guardians, anything else cant even get scratched, hell you cant even climb the darn things, are you seriously trying to tell me they somehow completely pulverized not just the shrines but titans (divine beasts), the shrine of life and the pillars holding the guardians in storage around hyrule castle and the dome beneath it (whereever that went lol) when it was built to and DID last over 10 000 years ... and if you did somehow find a way to dismantle literally all of it why would you not ... use its parts for something else and also research it (lets be real here, purahs new towers are just the sheikah towers but more impractical and would by all means not need all of the material from all the missing stuff and the purahpad is just ... literally the shiekah stone but looking more like the switch and also worse bc its got almost none of the functions the shiekah stone had) they were so integrated into botws landscape removing them and their chambers would have been so much effort better spent in other places and just so unnecessary (think of the shrines at the twin mountains, removing all of that would be so dangerous and difficult to do), removing the pillars and the dome under the castle would endanger it collapsing no? there also would have needed to be a giant mechanism down there to make the pillars rise up, why would you go and try to destroy that instead of focusing on rebuilding the most important infrastrucutre

(on a sidenote, yes there are holes to the underground in the place of some shrines but its by far not all of them .. .even so there at the very least should be some rubble of them lying about at the bottom plus in most of their places its just plain earth, or sometimes even a cave locked by some puzzle which is.... so weird)

really the only explanation would be that it all just ... disappeared after zelda sealed ganon, which wouldnt only be hella unsatisfying as an answer but also again pose the problem that i would have caused the castle to collapse considering how shiekah tech was so integrated into it... unless it turned to earth somehow ... which would explain that but still be as satisfying of an explanation as 'it was all just a dream uwu' additionally, the zonau stuff under the castle wasnt even that far down so it must have intersected with the shiekah stuff, like the pillars or the dome?? but no its all just zonau ruins now wahoo

if literally all traces were gone and totk was a paralel to botw but with zonau instead of shiekah OK, they still called it a sequel tho, they still talk about the events of botw but in a way that sounds like it was just another lost legend, the tapestry exists as well, and there are a few old guardian parts on top of the hateno institute (still feels like an oversight considering how cleanly everything else was wiped off the map), plus purahs towers and the purahpad are clearly based off of it, so it cant really be some time fuckery either, some things still remain; it just doesnt add up and its frustrating as hell .. ... especially if you were like me completely thrilled and intrigued to learn more about the ancient shiekah, what WAS that dome under the castle for?? what WAS ancient energy really and why was it found in these specific places only?? did they know about ganondorf?? if they built stuff down there shouldnt they have inevitably come across the old tunnels?? the monks literally talk to link in botw why would they withhold that info, what reason could they have?

--by far my biggest annoyance with that excuse is that ... if you are so afraid of tech you dont fully understand being taken over by the bad guy again to the point you destroy not just the titans you basically worshipped as divine protectors but also immovable shrines that literally couldnt do shit to harm you even if they were pumped up to the brim with malice/miasma after they have already become non threatening/non functional anyway... HOW could you just go and fully trust and personally play around with new tech that LITERALLY rained from the sky out of nowhere, from a group of people no one knows shit about (like at least the shiekah were still existing and had a small part of recorded history) and never cared either until now that they are suddendly everywhere, even if it cant get corrupted somehow (kinda disproven by the spirit temple) how the hell would anyone know that?? if anything this would be a reason to be MORE afraid of it

even the ancient king that persecuted the shiekah bc he was afraid of their tech when they invented it didnt order them to destroy it, just bury it, despite them of all people knowing the best of how to completely destroy it??? and zelda doesnt seem like the type that would order old history and relics to be destroyed liek that??

it would have been such a golden opportunity to show that hey, the ancient shiekah based their tech on that of the zonau, they found the mines and tech and reasearched it to built their own from it, strucutres that show they were down here building the shrines from underground, titan prototypes, you cant do anything with it, its old and broken, but its there, environmental storytelling and all that

the shrine of life especially pisses me off bc thats like .. ok it was kinda not the best maybe but it still saved links goddamn life, even if it all became useless for some reason at least leave it there as a sign of respect, if there needs to be a cave have it be half collapsed after the cataclysm or something wheres the problem

(also idk if im the only one with that but in botws true ending when zelda says that vah ruta, i think, has stopped working it seemed like a good setup for more? and that she wanted to investigate that in the sense of ah shoot i want it to keep working tho and not in the sense of hell yeah lets smash it to pieces i know this is theory territory now but it seemed like it somewhat confirmed that the titans need a pilots strong spirit to work since they are not connected to the ancient energy network and the spirits of the champions passed on at the end ... the idea that ancient energy was spirit energy either gained from luminous stones or directly spirits is so neat, and i loved that idea of hey the reason why all of the energy went out all of the sudden is bc ganondorf is breaking free after having been kept in a stasis to use either his malice or his strong spirit to fuel it all has never left my mind since i first read about it bc its such a good setup for intrigue, like oh heck the ancient shiekah werent so coolio and 100% perfectly good either, maybe they knew about gans 'future' or history and hey why not trick him or sth into being sealed against his will so that problem is out the way and whoop hes pretty much an infinite source of energy nice lets use that for our research and not tell anyone oh no we created a monster (calamity gan) l guess we are gonna use the tech we fuel with his own life against him lol, OR you could have connceted it to the zonau maybe doing the sealing first and the shiekah discovering him later and being like oh neat an endlessly rich powersource we arent gonan tell anyone about weehoo

it would have tied into the ancient shiekah stuff, explained why it doesnt work well anymore, give a reason to explore the underground and discover it all, give a reason to why it was kept a secret bc no one wanted to admit yeah we made this monster ourselves whoops, give ganondorf a reason to be this angry and make it all more nuanced bc yeah ok maybe the zonau knew about gan and in their effort to prevent it caused it instead by sealing him before he became a problem and it all started a domino effect of disasters leading into all this mess that now poor zelda and link gotta solve

im not saiyng this is the better version or that i am better but again you can literally do so much with the setup for it all and what totk ended up doing with it feels so ... not even underused but straight up backwards treading you had it right on front of you INFINITE POTENTIAL AAARGH)

theres only so much fun gameplay and fantastic music can save and man can you imagine what could have been if the story got the same polish as the gameplay and music ;__;

[luchia-a]

Little sketchs i did back in 2021 after I finished botw 🌝

[link-is-a-dork]

God damn the Rito section in TotK was really the best part of the entire game, wasn't it? Colgate Colgera's theme being the best piece of music in it.

No wonder the game was pushing so hard for you to do it first.

[thebleedingeffect]

Loz hyperfixation so bad that I'm completely rewriting hw Link and hw Ganondorf's relationship in game

[rawliverandgoronspice]

oh nooooo not me forgetting to not go on zelda youtube and being forced to reckon with the sheer magnitude of its fanbase's unchecked racism

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Zora Prompt: Zora OC My brain: A ZORA NAMED LINK FOR FORSAKEN ZELDA TO FIND

Zelda: Ok, I got another lead! This one is a bit different, though. Gerudo Link: Oh? Zelda: He's in Zora's Domain. Link: The--Princess, that's hostile territory, not to mention we have to climb waterfalls to get to it and-- Zelda: *clapping her hands together* I never back down from a challenge! Let's go!

Turns out they have to sneak in disguised as a Zora, and the best idea Zelda came up with was to sit on Gerudo Link's shoulders while they wear a trench coat cloak with sunglasses the hood on.

[thecluelessdoctor]

Hey dotty do you have a fursona?

Indeed I do anon!

My fursona is a Lutino Macaw! Probably my newest favorite bird lmao. I've recently learned about them and ofc, I fell in love with them. Not only are they macaws, literally my favorite kinda bird, but they are also such a beautiful orange!! And y'all, I'm not called Dotty Orange for no reason lol.

But yeah! Birdy Dotty