#botwlore

[techmomma]

I definitely agree, at least with the sheikah-made ones. And, I mean. Considering Robbie then went on to create the Ancient Arrows, one of only three (minus DLC) weapons that can defeat Dark Beast Ganon, with Master Sword beams and the Light Arrows, I’d say that’d be well in line with their goals.

[askmerriauthor]

BOTW AU/Lore Character Thoughts Gerudo Merri After much deliberation over what Gerudo Merri’s name might be in Tech’s BOTW AU, I did some digging to find all of the Gerudo characters in the game and realized that “Merri” is actually a perfectly suitable name based on their standards.  Which makes me highly inclined to just keep calling her “Gerudo Merri”, in the sense that the other folk she hangs out with call her that as an affectionate nickname.  Like how someone might be “Big Jim” or “Mean ol’ Mister Henderson” - she probably explained very bluntly that she was a Gerudo upon first meeting Eddy to try and contextualize her presence, as if her being a 10′ tall bronze amazon with abs you could break your fist against wasn’t staggeringly obvious enough.

Gerudo Merri’s basic presence in the story is minor compared to the others, especially folk like Momo or TB who stand in for pivotal figures in the original context.  She’s more or less a support character and occupies a role similar to that of Urbosa - functionally a kind of post-Calamity Champion.  Eddy’s diligence at fighting back roving Guardians kept them from spreading out too much, but in his withering years he’s been unable to keep up and more started to filter throughout the landscape.  The Gerudo became aware of the problem as Guardians began encroaching on their territory more and more frequently, pushing further than ever and requiring constant push-back to quell the increasing numbers.  Gerudo Merri, as a result, set out into Hyrule proper in search of the problem’s cause and a way to fix it.  Which eventually leads her to Eddy’s doorstep and gets her directly involved in all the heroics the plot requires, along with a fair amount of doting on the creaky old bastard.  For Eddy’s sake, he’s probably got plenty of reason to welcome her presence as she’s a skilled warrior more than capable and eager to destroy every Guardian that looks at her - she can do what he can no longer do, and in working with her he has a second chance at redemption.  Gerudo Merri herself is content to just keep fighting the good fight, filling in where Eddy left off and thus assuring that her hometown and kin remain safe as a result.  Even though, bit by bit, she gets more involved in the Actual Story surrounding Calamity Ganon, the Hero, and figuring out a way to put an end to it all for good.  Thus she ends up going around in the background, facilitating events and putting her muscle to good use making life easier for the Hero - whomever they may be - which is how she eventually ends up yoinking the Master Sword (and a big chunk of the pedestal) for their sake.  Sort of a “hey, I saved you a dangerous trip - here’s your magic sword” sort of thing.

Neither Fi nor TB are fond of her, I suppose.

Narratively speaking, she’s sort of a “ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” character who’s always in the background doing things that don’t seem immediately consequential right up until the pieces all start coming together.  She’s precisely as relevant and useful as the narration demands, as her basic function within the story is to otherwise maintain the status quo of keeping the endless waves of Guardians suppressed until such a time that the Hero appears (or stops shield-surfing and setting Bokoblins on fire long enough to get to the Final Boss).  At any point she can be counted upon as the “I get shit done” person who the others can trust to do just that in short order.  Regarding personality, she’s as much Merri as ever - the stern-and-stoic, yet endlessly compassionate mother hen/mama bear variety.  Unlike other Gerudo she doesn’t have any interest in catching a man; she went right past the dating scene and straight into the “I will adopt any unoccupied child I encounter, see if I don’t” mothering.  She’s just naturally inclined to be a caretaker and a protector, which can end up looking rather different than one might expect given that she is, in fact, the aforementioned 10′ tall bronze amazon with chiseled abs.  Like, she probably spent a lot of her time accompanying her sisters when they went man-hunting as a wingman/bodyguard; not to keep them safe, per say, but to keep the men safe from them.  Making sure everything stays kosher and nobody makes any bad decisions - basically acting like the designated driver for such outings.

[techmomma]

I feel like there’s evidence for multiple (like, three or four or more iterations of) Temples of Time, Lost Woods, and Hyrule Castles in BOTW. A number of places certainly seem to match up to multiple games. 

[techmomma]

Thoughts about BOTW’s story and why I kind of love it a lot.

The pre-calamity story is one we’ve heard before. A princess under pressure from her loving-but-harsh father, her stalwart knight with burdens of his own, grow closer as the threat of ultimate evil looms and the ghost of mourning hangs over the princess. Along the way, they team up with four heroes from each race: the Mom/Aunt character, the Dad/Uncle character, the second love interest with a heart of gold, and antagonist rival who warms up to the knight (and possibly loves the princess). There are fun side-characters, like the eccentric sheikah prodigy researchers Purah and Robbie, the caring guardian of Impa (with whom there is a separate side-story with Purah and Robbie), the sheikah poet jealous of the knight but learning to respect him. All of them become a found family, growing and strengthening each other as the day of apocalypse draws closer. We’ve seen this in a hundred thousand different stories--some straight from previous LoZ titles.

At the end of the day, when hope seems lost in the clutches of evil who has pulled a fastball on them, the destined heroes prevail against the great evil as the princess taps into her powers in the nick of time after realizing her love for her knight, and the kingdom is narrowly saved from defeat. A king learns his mistakes and a father and daughter repair their bond. Princess and Knight realize their feelings for each other. 

Except, they didn’t. They failed. 

The princess receives her powers too late. The knight dies. The four heroes of the found family die, alone and trapped instead of banding together and overcoming. The king dies before the bond between father and daughter can be repaired. The apocalypse happens, and the kingdom is lost.

Like, that’s such a fun take on this story. Obviously tragic, but I love this take on this. This is such a fun, interesting deconstruction on such a popular plot setup. I love the chance that the writers took with turning this plot on its head.

[techmomma]

I like to think the sheikah have a couple inborn traits, and some taught to them as part of a spiritual/martial culture built around protecting the bloodline of Hylia.

Their natural traits and what sets them apart from Hylians (with quite a few exceptions) are obviously the white hair, with red eyes rare, enhanced physical abilities and longer lifespans. In addition, they can move completely silent, and a lot have uncanny balance. Children walking on gables and tree branches like cats is not unheard of and probably a fun way they play games.

Children and young adults are taught a degree of basic self-defense and martial training, both for wellness, and part of a code to be perpetually ready to defend the goddess-blood. Most though, unless following the warrior’s route, don’t really follow up or continue martial practice, save for probably meditative reasons. By the time a regular sheikah reaches middle age, they’ve usually forgotten most training, save for whatever skills are still necessary for them, like archery for hunting, blade discipiline for watchmen, so on.

[techmomma]

Kakariko | Real world parallels

[techmomma]

Also interesting: the sheikah in breath of the wild write in hylian. You only find sheikah text proper in the shrines and ancient sheikah artifacts. Even in scrolls in people’s homes, the text (though written in an up-to-down right-to-left format like japanese) is in Hylian.

I suspect this is likely a cultural effect of the sheikah banishment centuries ago (or perhaps direct consequence of). If any speak it, or speak it naturally, or just write it, I suspect usage is a private affair not for outsiders to hear, or its used for special times like particularly sacred events.

I also suspect a valuable position on the Royal Researcher’s team was a translator for old texts--if not for the sheikah, then for the hyrulean associates.

[techmomma]

[mipha’s theme plays in the background]

Part one | end

[techmomma]

“I’m so happy one of us made it.”

[techmomma]

Hokay, so... based on this screenshot, Link comes up to about here on a guardian. 

To make that a li’l easier to see:

That puts Guardians at somewhere around 3 times Link’s height.

So Link is estimated about 5′7″, so... at three times Link’s height, that puts Guardians at somewhere nearly 17 feet tall. We’ll say a good 15 feet and over, to be on the safe side.

The tallest African elephant recorded was 13 feet tall.

You’re welcome.

[techmomma]

I like the idea that, even if the sheikah traditionally have white hair, they all have variations of it. Some may have what could be a blond, some have a cooler white while others fare warmer, some may even have the lightest of pinks and purple. Some might have stripes of shades, or ombres.

If it could, from a distance, be considered “white,” it’s probably fair game. 

[techmomma]

tfw your bosses are arguing and also related to each other and you can’t stop your test but they’re just there arguing and you can hear them all the way from the courtyard and your funding is riding one one of their happiness and

[techmomma]

Turns out Dinraal has only one path. Not multiple paths.

In fact, I went in and charted out each dragon’s paths, following them for as long as I could. 

Larger image here.

Dinraal: Dinraal actually starts over the spring of power! I happened to look up at the night sky just as I had skipped to night, looking around toward the northern part of Akkala from the Ancient Furnace, and lo and behold, there’s Dinraal materializing. You can put a marker on the dragons even though they eventually move past them, and after a few tries and careful positioning (the sheikah slate won’t go high enough if you’re too close), managed to put a pin in Dinraal’s position just as it appeared. Dinraal has a long-ass path, though you can’t really follow it from one end to the other; he always disappears or gets too far ahead at some point. If you skip ahead to night though while following the path, you can see it’s one long continuous journey for Dinraal.

Naydra: Naydra had no actual discernible starting or ending point. I tried my damnedest, but Naydra always seems to spawn just out of sight somewhere along that path, and seems to just keep following it. There may be an end point, but I haven’t been able to find it.

Farosh (Gerudo Highlands): Farosh spontaneously materializes over Maedela’s Mantle, following Risoka snowfield, through the ravine on Gerudo Summit, over the Cliffs of Ruvara, over the Vatorsa Snowfield, back over Maedela’s Mantle, finally heading through the dragon portal over Mount Agaat.

Farosh (Lake Hylia): Breaches the water on the northwest side of the lake, makes a circular pattern around it, then flies over Farosh Hills, disappearing over the Popla Foothills, right around the Spring of Courage.

Farosh (Lake Floria): Breaches the water at the Riola Spring, flies down and over the Floria Falls, then Floria Bridge, finally disappearing into Rassla Lake.

Naydra, two of Farosh’s routes, and half of Dinraal’s route are definitely understandable. Lake Floria is associated with Farore and Faron the water dragon. Lake Hylia and the Spring of Courage, certainly, are expected to be associated with Farosh. Dinraal starts over the spring over courage and flies around the northern part of the Eldin Region.

But again, Farosh flying around Gerudo Mountain and Dinraal’s path over the Forgotten Temple/Skyloft don’t seem to make much sense. What’s so special about the Gerudo Highlands, man.

[techmomma]

One of the most fun parts of designing humanoid Hyrulean characters for me is figuring out how to make unique pointy ears for everyone.

I really don't think there are any stereotypes regarding ear shapes within Hyrule. If you asked someone what traditional hylian, sheikah, and maybe gerudo ears look like, there'd probably be a lot of shrugging and "I think Gerudo ears are sort of blunter?" And some miniscule differences between hylian and sheikah. (I like to think hylians have the most classically elvish, while sheikah taper a lot, but you'll find plenty of either with the reverse.)

I do sort of like the idea though that among the upper classes in old Hyrule, before Calamity, there was some hoaky phrenology bullshit about ear shapes and lengths and what "ideal" ears look like (hint: they thought it was hylian).

[techmomma]

I wonder which region of Hyrule would be best for wine-making. Hateno? It has that mediterranean feel and apparently gets plenty of snow despite the climate--frost is important for wine production. Though I imagine areas around the Taobab Grasslands and Tabantha Frontier might have the right kind of heat. 

[techmomma]

Momo, currently, may have ideas about possibly returning to the throne once he’s out. He’s a little busy at the moment though! 

But once he’s out, he’s probably going to change his tune pretty quickly.

The Hylians, while a scattered people who’ve had their culture smashed to pieces, are doing pretty well by themselves. They’re not starving, they have their own leadership who’ve never been under the Hyrulean monarchy--save for one, and she only barely counts since Kakariko’s been doing their own thing anyway even before the Calamity. The monarchy’s been irrelevant for years. The last thing they need is someone they don’t know coming in saying he’s king of a country that doesn’t exist anymore--but your village so happens to be in its former land, so he’s your king now. He helped save the kingdom, yes, but that itself isn’t really merit to be a king.

Granted, that’ll be... a pretty heavy blow to his sense of self. He spent 20-some-odd years framed as the prince of hyrule, heir to the throne, years and years of governing and diplomacy and various studies under his belt now mostly unneeded. 

He really is heir to a throne of nothing, now. Hyrule is safe now--but what’s his place in it, anymore? 

But that’s where he starts to realize that all of those classes, tutoring, schooling, experience, can still be useful. He can be a diplomat without being a king, after all. There are things he knows or at least, has enough of an idea that more specialized persons can use as a jumping off point. He knows enough about the old masons that he could point the new masons in the right direction. He knows about battle strategy and civil engineering, old histories that were lost with their historians 100 years ago. He can still help.

and, well. at the very least... he would feel awkward taking the title of “king” when granddad is still floating around, technically. Some part of Momo may think it poetic that a dead kingdom should have a dead king, after all.