#but then i was like... what if monster ganon... that takes on aspects of the things it eats and thats why it looks like a pig...

[hellafluff]

Cant sleep bc tummy hurts but its given me more time to think about my personal Zelda iteration and I think I finally came up with what this settings version of ganon is and it's really fun

I realized earlier that I had accidentally created themes of duality and trying to reconcile the different parts of yourself with Zelda and Links characters and I had already wanted to make this version of Ganon two seperate characters (inspired by the twinrova.)

So I have this idea of a rogue Gerudo who wants power and control, thinks the Gerudo people deserve it, and of course she should lead them. I'm gonna call her Gala but I havent settled on a name yet. She either summons or finds Ganon and hes this horrible beastial monster, barely has form, and all it does is hunger. Gala starts setting up more and more raids to feed this thing, thinking that by feeding it she can control it and its power.

The other Gerudo dont want this, this is insane, trying to raise Ganon back up? Gala has always been an intense woman but they never realized how much she craved power and control. She beats down anyone who tries to stop her, many Gerudo die or become possessed and mindlessly work for her. Many more flee further into Hyrule.

A small detail is Zelda and Link learn that the raids have been hitting a pig farm really hard, most of the livestock taken.

By the time the duo find Gala, Ganon has taken on structure, a massive monstrous pig like thing, barely held back by whatever Gala is binding it with. She's so proud of her monster, so happy that the Princess and her Knight are here to see the start of her reign. She releases Ganon, intending the two to be its first victims.

This monster doesn't know friend from foe, it only knows Hunger. Gala is directly infront of it. She turns just in time to see its jaws come down around her.

Ganon starts shifting, changing, the pig body collapsing and coalescing into a human shape. The thick body, dark skin, red hair of Ganondorf emerge. The lust for control and power and the Gerudo shape of Gala and the mad hunger of Ganon mixed together to form the man before them. Zelda and Link are forced to flee.

[vampire-wizard-solidarity]

i think the way totk references skyward sword only highlights the problems with totk and gets a little insulting at times.

this is mostly about ganondorf’s demon king form being highly reminiscent of demise. i get that it makes sense, since ganon’s power most likely comes from demise’s curse, so when it’s amplified it visually references that. that’s neat, and not an inherently bad idea, even a good one in some aspects.

however, all it does for me is highlight just how much of a non character ganondorf is. demise is, to an extent, also a non character: he isn’t deep nor extensively fleshed out, but the thing is, not all characters have to be. and him, he works. most of the game is spent with ghirahim, his much more expressive and motivated sidekick. he’s fun, intimidating when he has to be, and balances being silly and being an actual threat well. demise is the kicker, the final punch, when ghirahim spent the entire game building him up, we finally get to see him, he’s intimidating, he’s serious in contrast to ghirahim, he immediately shuts the villain we spent most of the game fighting up, and reduces him to an object to be used to fulfil his own goals. his boss fight is cool, and so is he.

demise is a god of destruction, he doesn’t have a motivation beyond the fact that he is a representation and wields power over evil. and that’s the point. skyward sword’s themes largely center humanity vs inhumanity, link spends a large portion of the game running around fulfilling a plan he doesn’t fully understand, being roped into this ordeal before he even finds out about it, not really comprehending what’s happening or why for a long time. so, it’s only natural the final force he has to face is an equally incomprehensible threat, and he defeats it not because he comprehends it more now, or understands the ancient conflict between gods or any of that. he does it because he wants to protect someone he loves, he does it because he forms a genuine bond with the robotic, originally emotionless guide who was made only for the purpose of aiding him in this godly plan. humanity triumphs over godhood. humanity triumphs over inhumanity.

in totk, however? there really isn’t much difference between ganondorf before and after he becomes the demon king. he has no particular motivation before or after, he is a king who wants to rule over hyrule with evil, and then he becomes a more powerful king who wants to rule over hyrule with evil. he looks more like the god of destruction now, but that signifies nothing other than he is more powerful now. ganon has always been associated with power, and the way power corrupts has always been a fitting theme for him. he could’ve had development throughout the game, and him becoming more like the literal godly representation of evil could’ve signified that development. maybe he was a king with an actual motivation, an actual in story reason to oppose hyrule, we could’ve been shown his human side, what he actually cares for and why he does the things he does, and then we could’ve seen that side of him dissolve as he taps more into his power, becomes more like a being of destruction that destroys simply because that’s what it has power over. him taking visual cues from demise could’ve actually meant something, could’ve been a visual representation of the way his power corrupts him. instead, we get nothing. there was no reason to bring ganondorf back, because he still acts like a motivationless monster, who is evil simply because he is. all talk of this being “his game” was a lie, considering he could easily be replaced by a generically evil monster and nothing would’ve changed.

ultimately, i still wouldn’t have been happy with this story because it would still lean heavily on the orientalist narratives still alive and present in zelda, but this would’ve been at least something. the way it is, the fact that he takes visual cues from demise pisses me off because it highlights just how one dimensional his character is, it makes me feel only cynicism because it makes it clear that ganondorf was only brought back because he’s a popular and iconic character and not because he had any purpose in the story or because the writers had anything interesting to do with him.

[golvio]

One of the less jokey reasons why I’d love to see a Cultist Simulator style game with Ganondorf is because I feel like a Ganondorf game would be the best opportunity to explore a side of Hyrule we’ve never seen before.

CultSim & Book of Hours were all about this secret side of the world devoted to magic, the eldritch and esoteric, and the forces trying to suppress it so individual quests for ascension don’t cause too much collateral damage (which then go too far, as police and bureaucracies often do). The game’s format itself was based around peeling back the layers of the mundane world to get at that secret world, and from there to go still deeper to discover the purpose of your game and possibly ascend to godhood/end the world/etc.

In Zelda, we get constant vague references to a secret occult world—a cult of dorks in black robes who live in the woods in AoC, a reference to an unnamed tribe of dark mages in FSA, mentions of “lost writings” or deteriorated scripts holding forbidden knowledge in TotK, etc. And there are countless witches here and there, from Maple to Twinrova, which suggests there might be at least a couple less formal covens kicking around, some transference of more secret magical knowledge between masters and apprentices throughout the ages.

So…who are these people learning this obscure and sometimes forbidden knowledge? What eldritch secrets are there to actually know, beyond the bright and fenced in path of what Princess Zelda is taught, diluted down to “what Link/the player needs to know in order to do their job?” Who keeps preserving the knowledge of Ganon’s existence? Who keeps trying to resurrect Ganon and why?

Not to mention who are these people, specifically? Cultist Simulator featured all sorts of factions that borrowed inspirations from everything between Mesopotamia to the lost ceremonies of the Mysteries of Ancient Greece to the Spiritualist and Occultist movements in the UK and US in the latter half of the 19th century. On one end, you had grand spiritual societies like the Ordo Limiae, which devoted itself to the study and navigation of boundaries between the occult aspects of magic, only to dissolve into countless schisms and petty infighting once the society’s heyday had passed. Then you had more recent up-and-comers like your own cult, with even more petty infighting and backstabbing between upstarts jockeying for ascension into the Mansus in the vein of Aleister Crowley’s rivalry with William Butler Yeats. Then there are the Libraries, which each devote themselves to the collection, preservation, and distribution of occult knowledge, as well as the containment and dispelling of cursed tomes that could be dangerous to the general populace. And then that’s not to mention what the Edge folks have going on, with the underworld organizations that traffic in tallied years of life, loosely organized bands of monster hunters, that one Edge/Heart cult that was “a society of physicians and duelists” obsessed with the saving and taking of life, and so on.

What kind of networks of occult knowledge would a hitherto squeaky-clean and spiritually orthodox universe like Hyrule have? What other gods are out there, once you stray from the kingdom-approved domains of the church of Hylia and vague myths of the Golden Goddesses before her, beyond even the more localized shintoist style cults in isolated villages worshipping local nature spirits and tutelary deities? What were the networks of people both Ganon and his mothers studied under, who made Twinrova who they were, and, in turn, made Ganon who he is?

Who is Ganon to these people? An aspirational figure? A god/demigod the mages just getting started down this path whisper prayers to? A fellow acolyte of forbidden knowledge they could learn from? A rival to backstab to guarantee their own ascension? A resource to exploit? More importantly, how does Ganon feel about all this? Does he ever communicate with any of these people, or does he fuck off to a tower somewhere until Link shows up and the cycle starts over?

I doubt anybody at Nintendo has ever thought about this as hard as I do, but overthinking is kind of my thing. Right now, I’m overthinking the question of “Where the hell do all these dark wizards keep coming from?”

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

You know, miraculous fails at rivals And Lila is the greatest example of why

But since I want to make a argument I’ll compare her to 4 other rivals which showcase how to make a good rival

First we have…

Dr.Eggman:the doctor is the total opposite of he’s rival in all aspects, Eggman is red and sonic is blue, one likes machines the other likes nature, one is old and the other is young, one wants to slave the world and the other wants nothing but freedom, one is a man and the other a animal, one makes things to fight for him while the other fights with nothing but he’s quills. The brilliance of Eggman’s rivalry with sonic is how they are nothing alike and that makes a parallelism, they are two sides of the same coin by being the total opposite, I know people usually talk about shadow,metal sonic or knuckles when talking about the hedgehog’s rival, but everything this three have that rival sonic, Eggman has it and does it better

Meanwhile lila does not parallel Marinette in any way, shape or form than being evil. Lila is a lier… but Marinette ain’t that clean either (that time he tried to steal Adrien’s phone for example)

Now we have…

The blights of Zelda BOTW:if you don’t know about zelda then I’ll just make this quick. In this game there’s four champions representing their race and each with their own powers pilot a giant machine to aid in the war against the Calamity of Ganon. However Ganon designed something to get rid of the champions and take over the machines. The blights (fire,water,wind and thunder) do what a good rival does, do what you can do and do it better, the water champion who is a trident user? Water blight can freeze water and is a even better spear user, The fire champion with a almost indestructible shield? Fire has a better shield with a even greater power to break your shield, the wind champion who’s a amazing archer? Wind blight is a even better quick shooter and can control the air to make he’s flying and arrows turn basically useless, the thunder Champion with a great talent on the sword and shield? Thunder blight is even better and has the speed of a thunder making it able to be almost untouchable. The blights perfectly rival and surpass their champions because they are made to do so and that makes their fights so epic in the first place

Meanwhile Lila has illusions, it fits her personality and way of work but outside of using it smartly I don’t see the parallel

The next one is…

Venom:what hasn’t been said about venom? They have a personal vendetta, they hate Spider-Man with all of their soul, they can do everything spider-man Can plus the tentacles and not activating Spider-Man’s spider sense. They are different enough while similar enough to make for a perfect rival in fight, but he’s person is also perfect. Spider-Man betrayed the symbiote and Peter Parker ruined Eddie Brock’s reputation, now all that hatred joins into a corruption of the image of Spider-Man into a hulking monster searching for revenge and vindication

Then we have Lila which only has a personal vendetta against ladybug meanwhile she’s just a sociopath against Marinette, Lila is just crazy which isn’t bad but making her more evil than Hawkmoth and some other choices I made but I’ll won’t spoil… Jesus

Now we have a personal favorite and the most similar to Lila…

King K.Rool (hear me out):K.rool at first was nothing but a sociopath, he wanted DK to die by starvation so he could conquer the island… but then he kept changing after every defeat. He was humiliated so he kidnapped Donkey but he got defeated again and he’s homeland was destroyed, so he tried again kidnapping them to use them to conquer a new land… but that failed as well and now he has nothing but he’s followers… then he tries to blow up DK island out of pettiness! But then he fails again, the brother he imprisoned was freed, he’s new fortress has crashed, and he’s literally kicked out of the ring in the final match (he’s given four uppercuts, he gets he’s head smashed by the ring lights, he slips on a banana peel, he’s toes are crushed and he’s smashed by someone of he’s own size) and then he disappears for years… But he returns and he’s different. He now mimics DK’s moves but he can do them better, he can counter every attack of DK, he’s strongest attack always involves blowing up DK island, he now moves like DK to the point he imitates he’s run like a animal (he even mimics he’s alternative color pallets) and the most important is how he’s main song even mimics DK’s, he’s song starts with even monkey noises DK and crew make, but the song is quickly drowned by drums and trumpets making way for him, guitars and similarity’s to he’s other themes show and he even has a rap segment which seems to talk about how great he is and how you should praise,fear and aid him on he’s quest to conquer and ends with a chorus mocking Donkey Kong saying “you go: Banananana”. K rool sheer hatred made him imitate and improve DK to humiliate him at he’s own game by being the Cooler DK and he succeeds

Lila lacks any connection, any parallel, every reason and every thing that makes a good rival by being nothing but a bad guy who only wins because everyone around her turns into a idiot. I wish Lila tried to step up her game and instead of making Marinette look bad because she already failed at doing so, she would imitate her and be better because People believing her lies does nothing but showcase the moment she actually has to do something by herself without help or puppets involved or when the plot takes her power to make everyone around her stupid, I just know she will lose because she’s not a rival but a plot device

I don’t want Lila and Chloe to be the main villains because they are kids. But if Chloe or Lila ever become something else I just hope they stay has rivals who only want to prove themselves and show they are better than Marinette without having Adrien involved because if you involve Adrien then that will just give everyone another reason to make Adrien the main character, Marinette needs a enemy which couldn’t care less about Adrien and instead just wants to beat her because even if astruc claims this is her show, everyone and everything should he revolving around adrien even if he’s not the best character (I’ll die on this hill)

The thing about Chloe and Lila was that there actually was something to contrast them with Marinette, but the show never did anything with it.

Consider this: Marinette, Chloe, and Lila are all held in high regard in one way or another.

Marinette earned the status of being the hero of Paris and the class's "Everyday Ladybug", but stays humble about it.

Chloe was born into high status by being the child of the Mayor and a successful fashion designer, but feels entitled to more attention and power.

Lila tricks and manipulates others into believing that she's a super important person with all kinds of connections, but tries to use that influence against the people she views as enemies.

If the show focused more on the connections that Marinette, Chloe, and Lila had, we could have an interesting battle of wits between the three, with Marinette getting the help of her allies to prove she isn't wrong about Lila, Chloe using her influence to make things harder for Marinette/Ladybug, and Lila coming up with new lies to cover up any holes in the ones she's already told to keep her facade going.

Instead, the show just lumps Chloe and Lila together into a single unified force this season, and little is done to actually acknowledge how much influence they have among their peers, while Marinette never uses her connections as Ladybug to deal with Chloe and Lila in the first place.

[ordon-shield]

Ok, so recently I saw this post by @tenten18282 and the art got me thinking so gave some AUs based on it! (Using the LU names since it’s what they used but this could also be seen as general LoZ).

(Content warnings for the expected, mention of suicide, some mild body horror, character death).

Bellum!Wind

It starts when Bellum takes over Wind instead of Linebeck. Linebeck has to take up the Phantom Sword to fight him. He tries his best but it’s not enough, even when he’s able to attack the weak spot with the help of Ciela, it’s too late. Bellum is a parasite that’s now fully integrated with Wind’s body, making it impossible to separate the two of them without killing him. Oshus appears, saving Linebeck, Ciela, and Tetra, but leaving Wind behind.

In the aftermath they end up in an unwilling partnership of sorts. Bellum gives Wind the freedom to do the human things like eating food or talking because it’s more convenient that way, but controls the body most of the time. At one point Wind tries to get rid of both of them, with the logic that at least Bellum would be dead, but it doesn’t work, and in the aftermath he starts to become more cynical about everything. He slowly starts to resent the freedom of the people caught by the Ghost Ship, working more with Bellum, and offering them cruel choices with no good options a

Ganon!Hyrule

It starts when he’s caught by servants of Ganon looking to revive him using his blood, but he manages to escape halfway through the ritual and at first, everything seems fine. Then he starts to hear the whispers, subtle nudges that feel like his own thoughts. They build on his paranoia, anyone could be an enemy, they drive him to get stronger, to keep himself safe. Eventually he notices that where he once would have risked his life standing between a traveller and a monster attacking them, now he quietly moves away before he’s even noticed. After that, the whispers in his mind shift in their goals. Now they tell him he should be fighting the monsters, that he should be figuring out how to use his magic to take out more at once, that he should be making them fear him. When a group of monsters he’s been going after particularly ruthlessly offers their loyalty if he stops hunting them down… why not take the deal? It keeps everyone safe after all and he doesn’t even have to fight.

Through all of this, he starts getting dreams, ones he only remembers impressions of at first, of a desert in the distant past. Trusting his own mind less and less, he decides that he should give the Triforce to the Zeldas to protect, but the moment he sees them he has to fight the overwhelming desire to attack. His case is more one of a gradual merge, the centuries of memory held by Ganon and the strength of his emotion overriding what was there before. He still remembers his past, still cares for the people he knew… it just takes a lower priority now.

Vaati!Four

At the end of the final fight with Vaati in The Minish Cap, he realises he’s about to loose, so he uses the Mage’s Cap in a last ditch effort to survive. Only one person comes back from that fight and he looks like Four… but he’s completely lost his memories. His grandfather and Zelda try to help him recover his memories, but he can’t seem to manage it, not even remembering some simple everyday things. He discovers an interest in magic, something that gets attributed to his experiences with magical items during his quest, and he tries to see if there’s a magical method to recover his memories but can’t find one. He also has off dreams, ones where he’s attacked by his own shadow screaming in fury.

For the next few years, everything is peaceful— until Hyrule is attacked by Ganon, a Gerudo man corrupted by the ancient darkness of a magical trident, and Zelda asks him to draw the Four Sword once more. He draws it, splitting into four aspects of himself, but Ganon takes advantage of his distraction to steal away his shadow, giving it a physical form. The Shadow joins Ganon willingly on the condition that he be offered the power necessary to defeat the four he came from. Of the four heroes, taking the names Green, Blue, Red, and Vio, the latter is the most different. He’s much better at magic than the other three, something they attribute to him being the smart one, and he keeps pushing for them to go after their Shadow and defeat it.

Eventually they end up fighting the Shadow and that’s when the truth comes out — the Shadow is actually the original Four, and the one that drew the Four Sword was Vaati possessing his body. When they split, Vio was able to access some of Vaati’s lost memories. Before the others can fully process the reveal, Vio kills the Shadow by shattering the mirror he was tied to. After defeating Ganon, they debate over whether they should merge back together or not, as they could regain their memories of being Vaati, and they’ve grown used to their life as the hero of Hyrule. In the end they agree and merge back into one. Zelda is there to welcome them home and realises too late that they’ve betrayed her, with Vaati revealing himself, and extracting the light force inside her.

Majora/Fierce Deity!Time

In the final fight with Majora in the heart of the Moon, Majora sees how powerful he is with the Fierce Deity mask and decides to take that power. The mask is forced onto his face, over the mask of the Fierce Deity which fights back, trying to protect him, but during the fight they become irrevocably intertwined with each other and to Time. He technically still has control of his body, but he’s sharing his mind with two other entities that have strong opinions on what he should do. Even if he he tries to just ignore them he ends up with debilitating headaches that keep him from doing anything at all. For a while he tries to just stay on the Moon, but the entities inside his head push him to leave, Majora wanting to terrorise Termina once more, and the Fierce Deity wanting to defend it. Leaving the Moon, Time soon ends up doing something he regrets and in his panic, he plays the Song of Time, resetting back to the First Day. He doesn’t have to worry about Majora, the mask he brought back with him replacing the one that was originally in that timeline, but now he has a way to erase anything he does at the urging of the mask now fused to his face.

Sometimes he’ll follow the desires of the Fierce Deity, befriending and helping the residents of Termina. But sometimes… he listens to Majora instead, taking what he’s learnt through the cycles against those he once considered friends. Sometimes they even summon the Moon once more, and wait for the last possible moment to play the song and set it all back to the beginning.

[namine-rae]

crack Lu au idea (from a very tired rae)

a Tokyo mew mew au

So like, basic premise:

the chain (who are at least mostly unrelated to/don’t know each other) becomes a Magical Girl team to fight the aliens/the monsters attacking the city (castle town?)

each of them gets animal dna from a creature from their respective games

the cafe is run by the goddesses time is a baker/manager while the boys switch between kitchen and server jobs (eight servers for one small cafe is a bit much I think)

The bois themselves are mostly in high school, with wind in middle and time being a Married Adult and is still Dad Age compared to the rest

Most direct character role swaps off the top of my head: - wind takes Bu-ling/pudding’s place looking after gran and Aryll - warriors takes zakuro’s place -hyrule takes retasu’s place and I’m not sure who would take ichigo and minto’s places

Everything would need to be adjusted to better fit the chain and their personalities. I don’t picture any romance aspected being involved since it would be a focus on team-as-family, and I don’t know if there would be any one “main character” since they would all deserve to have some spotlight (but wind is my favorite so knowing me it’d probably end up wind-centric)

it’s probably be demise/ganon behind the attacks, with the shadow in place of quiche. But it could also be fun to swap in other villain characters like griahim or Vaati. Maybe get spicy and do a villain redemption for some of them

Marsha’s character would be swapped for a fairy companion like Navi, Proxi, or Ciela. Like either a rotation/team of the fairy companions or a fully new one.

I’m not sure if the chain would have gone on their respective adventures before any of this, but I think it would be cool. No idea how to blend them all together without them knowing each other though. Maybe instead of different eras it’s different neighboring kingdoms/countries? Idk.

now for the animals for the bois: - twilight has his wolf form or ordon goat - legend has his rabbit form, but it would be fun to explore other options for him - sky would totally get remlit. While loftwing could be really cool, I think sky fits remlit much better. (Plus the loftwings can still exist in this au. I like them too much to just remove them) - wind’s games don’t have that many animals that aren’t sentient races, so that leaves pigs and kargarok. Kargarok I think would be best. For the angst potential and air connection - four would get minish. I know they’re a race and not an animal, but a sorta minish form is too good of an opportunity to pass up. Could add multiple tails to represent the colors like my in progress minish form design - similarly hyrule could get fairy, but if the Masha equivalent is a fairy that wouldn’t make much sense. I don’t know much about his games so I’m not sure what other options there are. - warriors is a similar issue. I don’t know what animals are in his games, though something like a horse might be interesting? A lion or peacock could be fun, but I really want to stick with in-game animals. - wild has a lot of animals to pick from. Though I’m leaning towards bear or deer. a bug or lizard might be cool too if there are any that fit with Wild’s personality. (I’m not including totk here because I haven’t played it yet and want as little spoiled as possible before I do) - time is giving me some trouble too. I haven’t played any of his games. Maybe something based on his masks? Like a great fairy or deku scrub? (Again with the sentient species vs regular animal problem that hyrule and four have) definitely should be something forest-related to tie back to the kokiri/growing up in a magic forest thing.

all of their weapons with either be their respective swords, or a unique one from each of their games

and that’s about it for now

[blueskittlesart]

Thoughts and opinions on the gerudo?

SIGH. i would love to talk about the gerudo free of any stupid weird orientalist transphobic racist bullshit but unfortunately nintendo will be nintendo. so mandatory disclaimer i fucking hate a lot of the way they were handled in botw particularly but the issue carries over to other games as well. for the sake of analysis im going to ignore some of it. this does not mean i do not notice it or that i excuse it. anyways

the gerudo in botw have some incredibly interesting implications for the greater lore in SEVERAL ways actually and all of them make me crazy. In previous games the gerudo were either unnamed "desert people" implied to be nomadic or clusters of small towns instead of a larger, centrally-governed civilization, or they were specifically servants of ganon; his "band of theives," and were all evil criminals who deliberately aligned themselves with him. in some games, the desert is completely uninhabited except for monsters (notably alttp and twiligh princess, which don't line up on the timeline, meaning there were 2 seperate incidents in which the desert was abandoned?) botw is the only game in which they have a clear-cut civilization governed by someone other than ganon.

Aside from that lore, the most important piece of info botw gives us about the gerudo is that calamity ganon was, at some point in the past, a gerudo man. it's implied (but never directly stated iirc) that there have not been any gerudo males born since, and that's why the gerudo are a female-only race (and perhaps the origin of their disdain for men within their walls.)

what we can extrapolate from this (or what i have extrapolated from this lol) is that the reincarnation of demise almost always takes place in the desert. at multiple points throughout hyrule's history, the reincarnation of demise may have driven people out of the desert or fragmented what little civilization WAS there. this accounts for the complete lack of civilization in the desert at multiple seperate points on the timeline, as well as the lack of un-fragmented civilization at every other point in the timeline, because up until botw there were very few periods of peace in which there wasn't an incarnation of demise wreaking havoc there. The reason that gerudo city is able to exist in botw is likely because of that 10 thousand year period in which there were no reincarnations, giving the remaining desert people more than enough time to congregate and form government, an opportunity which they had NEVER had throughout basically all of hyrule's previous history.

The man-hating aspect of the gerudo is, again, never outright stated in-game to my knowledge, but the logical conclusion seems to be that the birth of the man who eventually became calamity ganon, the last male gerudo, was such a catastrophic event for the desert people that they eventually swore off any interaction with men at all. the fact that this tradition survived for 10 thousand years while things like. the literal TRIFORCE were lost to time speaks numbers to how catastrophic ganon's impact on the desert people must have been when he was human.

[lemonlurkrr]

@aureateart​ ok. My favourite parts of twilight princess  (and some other random thoughts about TP sprinkled in there) taken from my monster TP word vomit google doc :

Link lmao

Ok but for real, I like this incarnation of Link :)

I love Ordon (it just seems like such a chill and cozy village)

ALSO love how easy it is to interpret Link as being a sort of older brother figure to the Ordon kiddos. It’s just,, super cute? AND GHHH nice nice good thanks nintendo for giving me characters to care about/characters that I can imagine Link caring about

He didn’t sign up for any of this (tbh, none of the Links really signed up for this jshdjsd). But I mean like, dude was just going to take a trip to castle town, drop a gift off for the royal family, and come back. But haHA oopsies he did get to castle town eventually but definitely not the way he expected hsjdhsd

He’s just a little dude?

AND FUCK. HE REALLY HAD NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OF ORDON UNTIL ALL OF THAT

everything is new for the player AND Link

Midna

She’s cool :)

she really just

*teleports into your jail cell* hello whore.

I am no master at writing but AYYYY she do got a character arc!!!

She was actually pretty helpful sometimes, I ALWAYS checked in with her before turning to a game guide

Other NPCs

NICE

Love all of the TP character designs (ASHEI’S ARMOUR??? AOWOAOAOOAO)

Saving Zelda and all of Hyrule was important yea but thinking back maybe it was more like, the Ordonians and the kids were what was pushing Link to keep on going

I like the Resistance members :) Very video gamey of them to have one NPC assigned to each dungeon but hey!!! Kinda cool getting to see a little glimpse of each of em

Idk, it’s just fun to imagine Link popping into Telma’s bar after each dungeon and taking a little rest :) (or to celebrate? maybe just chat, idk, give this man some downtime!!)

Honestly it was just kind of nice that Link wasn’t entirely alone. I mean, I know Midna was there the whole time, but I am always for giving Link a big group of friends (see my love for hyrule warriors, age of calamity, and LU LMAO)

Hero’s shade, very very cool, kinda sad he died with regrets but HEY. He got to pass on his knowledge eventually

AND the connection to OoT?? AND assumed to be related by blood too????? GOOD SHIT

Ilia, I REALLY really wanted to like her (er, it’s not like I dislike her, she’s just,,, kinda there for me).

It definitely seems like Nintendo was pushing to make her the romantic interest, but GHHHHH they really threw that out of the window for me by having her lose her memories

I saw a text post a while ago that said it would have been interesting if Ilia was Link’s sister instead and YES!! That would have been cool too :0

Wish we got to know Zelda a little more

I feel like we barely know anything about her

Idk man, like I said earlier, I never really had any sort of drive to save Zelda during my playthroughs

She obviously knows Midna, so maybe if they gave us just a little bit more of that relationship I’d be more interested in her?

TP WORLD BUILDINGGGG

Botw has good world building too, but each race felt kinda,,, isolated? I absolutely love the different architecture and vibe each town has (and all the the weapons too) but ghhh yea everyone felt so separated. As far as I can remember, we don’t see tooo much of the races interacting with each other? Now that I’m typing that out maybe that’s to be expected because of the calamity but KLSJDKJFD ANYWAYS THIS IS ABOUT TP

The world feels nice and alive, love how populated everything is

Castle town I like castle town a lot, it feels dense and busy and I really like how you can’t talk to every NPC you see

Very cool very fun that we got to see the Gorons hanging out in multiple spots

kinda wish we got to see the Zoras a little more (I guess they are a bit limited since they need water but GHHHH the tp zoras are so prebby,,)

BUT HEY, I do remember seeing a zora or two hanging out in the hot springs around death mountain after beating the lakebed temple (I think, might have been a different dungeon) 

but aaaa would have been nice to see them in at least a couple of other places. I think it would have really added to the “congrats Link!! You’re restoring peace to Hyrule” feeling you get from seeing the Gorons hanging out in Kakariko and Castle Town

ORDON

Love how chill it is and how it’s kind of separate from Hyrule proper

They really do seem to be doing their own thing apart from the rest of Hyrule

Just kinda adds onto the “he’s just a regular dude minding his own business” kind of vibes I get from TP Link

Also I like Ordona :)

THE LIGHT SPIRITS,,

Love their design

And love how they’re not exactly like a pure white?

Different spirit representing each aspect of the triforce my beloved

But yes hi I think Ordona is very cool

Who are you, how did you get here, which goddess do you represent? Do you even represent one of the three golden goddesses? Do the Ordonians know about you? Have any of them ever SEEN you??? Do they worship you? Does anybody even know about the existence of the light spirits?? FUCK so many questions but ghhh I like how they broke the status quo a bit by throwing in a fourth spirit :)

I feel like this one is kinda weird but I like that voice sample they used in the light spirit music. It’s spooky and pretty at the same time :)  

cutscenes mmmmm

Ok ok, the spooky lanayru cutscene is very good

BUT THE “Link, Chosen Hero! Lend us the last of your power!” CUTSCENE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LOVE IT SO MUCH

IT just

Idk man

It just hit different

I like the music

And seeing the light spirits swimming around in the light juice water whatever it is

Summoning the light arrows?

AND HHHHH “Lend us the last of your power!” THIS IS IT. This is the final battle.

Seeing Zelda bow down, and then Link putting his hand out 👌👌👌

Link: ok bud, let’s do this together :)

Connection to OoT (did I already mention this? Maybe., Whatever)

Very cool nintendo :)

I love seeing connections between all the diff zelda games.

Because like, on one hand, they’re all separate from each other because of yknow, individual hero stuff. BUT ALSO, they’re all connected because of the reincarnation stuff

Grrrr walking through the sacred grove and going “The Hero of Time walked around here a long time ago” FUCK THATS SO COOL

Is the Hero’s Shade watching me? What does he think of me? DIsappointed? Proud? The Hero of Time went through HELL so this timeline didn’t have to deal with any of the shit Ganon was gonna pull with the triforce, better not fuck this UP Link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Midlink is cute

Kinda hurts that she smashed the mirror but that was probably so Nintendo didn’t have to worry about people going “but what about the twili??????” for any of the other games LMAO

BUT ALSO LIKE SKJDKLJFJ There are some pretty massive plot holes in TP anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever it’s fine we’ll just use this for angst because GOD do y’all like angst

So is Shadlink

Honestly don’t know where this ship came from but it’s cute so whatever

THE MUSIC??

Love Midna’s theme and how they referenced the dark world theme from ALttP (I remember trying to learn the dark world theme on the piano and doing the Leonardo DiCaprio point meme at the little jingle I recognized from Midna’s theme)

Hyrule field theme SLAPS.

Apparently references a couple of the other over-world themes from the previous zelda games (I got this from 8-bit Music theory’s video on the over-world zelda themes, he talks about TP at around 11:40 but def recommend watching the whole video if you’re into music analysis stuff)

So there’s this bit of the Hyrule Field theme, I don’t know the official name for it but I remember seeing somewhere it being called the “at an advantage theme” since yeah, you hear it during the boss music whenever you expose their weak points. FUCKINGGG LOVE THAT. Didn’t notice it during my first playthrough, but hearing it during my second was like a little easter egg for my ears every time :)

Midna’s lament is very pretty (and fun to play on the piano)

COURAGE THEME.

I didn’t care for it too much when I started playing the game but hearing it in ZREO’s arrangement of the Hyrule Field theme literally makes me turn into a puddle of emotions. Also hearing it around and of the Ordon kids (I think it plays after Link saves Colin) AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Orchestra piece #1 and #2 HOLY SHIT???????????????? 

Literally, the first time I listened to those I just,,,, plugged in my headphones, volume 100, layed on the floor/against my desk and silently vibed. I don’t know what the hell it is, but those two just fit so well with TP?? I still avoid listening to them nowadays cause if I DO I definitely will get overwhelmed with the “god I love this game so FUCKING MUCH” kind of feels.

Wolf link sucks at singing

the first time I heard him howling Zelda’s Lullaby I lost my shit because LKSJLDKSGLKJFSKG god that was.,, Bad. Anyways, hearing him howl some of the songs from OoT was cute :)

TP STAFF ROLL??? 

VERY GOOD. IT’s like 10 minutes long and GOD do I love every single second of it. It doesn’t have the same energy as the skyward sword staff roll or the orchestra pieces but GOD does it hit good??

Nice and calm after that big exciting adventure. Maybe it would have been more fun or emotional to have a higher energy piece but it was really nice getting to sit back and watch the camera fly around Hyrule. Seeing like, the Gorons and the Zoras having a good time, the kids returning to Ordon? GOOD SHIT.

and AAAAA that end, when you hear the main Zelda theme and see Link riding off out of Faron woods on Epona… good shit. It gets you thinking, where the hell is he going? What is he doing? Off ot do more adventuring? Going to help out the resistance or something? Going to help Zelda? Or maybe he’s trying to figure out a way to restore the mirror of twilight? Whoooo knows.

hhHHHHhhh it’s just that final reminder that YES!!! YOU JUST PLAYED A ZELDA GAME. JUST ANOTHER STORY APART OF THE WHOLE EPIC OF THE ZELDA SERIES AS A WHOLE

I also want to acknowledge the instrument/samples they used for all the twili stuff.

They’re all just so unique and contrast SO well with the rest of the TP OST. LIKE FUCK!! Anytime I hear the screech from the Twilit Kargarok? Sends a shiver down my spine. I associate those sounds SO strongly with the twili realm. (Like, the same way you associate the BSHEWW VVWWMMM sounds with light sabers)

I love it so god damn much

literally any time there’s a certain sound or motif associated with something I lose my shit

Sacred grove sacred grove sacred gro-

lovely lovely lovely so much fun playing that on the piano. AND again, I did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme when I heard the theme from the lost woods come in GHHHHHHHH

shoutout to TP Faron Woods for helping me study and get through all of my schoolwork

BLEGUUHHH can you tell that I really love music?

and also yea I guess TP is kinda cool too :\

IF YOU READ ALL OF THAT THANKS I GUESS

[sheikah-simp]

So Exile//Vilify is complete, what comes next?

(The following is a really long post both on my thoughts on the end of the novel and what it means to me personally, as well as my plans looking into the future and where you’ll be able to find me from here.)

First of all, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and coming to the end of this fic. It was a monster of a project and I’m both sad and relieved to see it come to an end. It started out just as an idea that would not leave my mind, inspired by a song I somehow came to associate with him, playing on repeat over and over again the same way I pictured him brooding over his fate and exile.

Images of him staring out over the canyon and thinking on the castle, a place he might have once loved and lived in, as he watched the king raise armies and the Divine Beasts that would only serve to seal his doom. How Astor, knowing this, simply watched it all happen, beholden to his own part in the prophecy, destined to take his part against him, like something on a giant chess board the two of them were forced to play out.

Ever since December of 2020, I have wanted to do that picture of him justice, and while the story evolved to put much less focus on the mental chessboard between Astor the king - the makers and defiers of prophecy - I found that truly a lot of set-up and explanation was needed in order to build a world in which Astor would inhabit, love, and be doomed to destroy. A man who is destined to have everything stripped away from him in the name of Ganon must have something to strip away in the first place.

It also started from a point of observation for me, something about the world in BOTW and the Legend of Zelda franchise as a whole I had been mulling over long before we met Astor. And that is, in their world: it seems like there is no free will. Zelda must awaken her power despite her own desire to focus on Sheikah tech, Link is chosen by the King, and then the sword, and simply must fight because he is destined to be a hero, and that is what heroes do. There is so much focus on fate and prophecy in the LOZ series as a whole, and the more you think about it, if prophecies are always meant to be true, and some people have no choice in being heroes, others must then have no choice in being villains. People in prophecies are “chosen,” they do not choose, and even on a meta level, as this is a video game franchise, the player is literally controlling every aspect of the character and their movements. Their actions are not their own. They are being puppeteered.

I played through BOTW the first time and progressively thought about how unfair it all seemed - the very same thing had happened 10,000 years ago, and how it was rearing its ugly head again. Did Rhoam, like many a tragic Greek figure, actually fulfill and exacerbate his doom by trying so desperately to work against it? These are the very same questions that plagued my mind when I began the fic, posed by Thelem at the end of the book. I use my writing to explore concepts, ask questions and discover the answers for myself through the process of writing a book. And in the almost two years I spent to write Exile//Vilify, I found myself ending with just as many questions as I had at the start, with not a single one of them answered. No knowledge gained, nothing completely worked through. The same doomed prophecy as it was at the start, and nothing anyone could do about it.

But by the end, I realized that it didn’t matter. I wrote 150k words about a life to be stripped from - a life we all knew the ending of from the beginning - and just like many of the characters kept repeating, it was about the moment. The process. Loving and fully living in each moment even if you fail, even if you know where it will end. Failure is something I fear desperately in my own life. I have great anxiety about putting so much time and effort and love into making my dreams come true, only to have them fizzle out and stripped away from me in the end. What if I fail despite how hard I try? What if I am destined to fail, what if I have no say in whether I fail or not? And while this book by no means made me overcome that fear, it did draw my attention to it, which I should have recognized from the beginning when I joked about Astor being such a failure as a villain. Unlike Astor though, I am happy I get to live in a world with free will, where even if I do fail, I can try again, and make choices on how to respond, and know my life is mine to do my own with.

Astor is not as fortunate.

I know I’m not alone when I say that I felt robbed of Astor as a villain. He seemed so interesting, to have such great potential, and yet he was hollow and near pointless in his existence. I wanted so badly to fill the gaps, to do justice to an otherwise eschewed character. I love doing that in my work - focusing on the stories that lie between, that other people may write off or ignore. My writing of this fic was an act of appreciation, in a way, or a proposal for something that could have been, something we - all of us - had the freedom to create after being given such a one-note villain who will be nothing but thrown away and forgotten in a spinoff game. It doesn’t matter, because he matters to us, and that is what makes the difference.

I’ve been told multiple times this fic has been viewed as “the bible” in our small but mighty Astor community, and I can’t tell you what this means to me. It means a lot for me to be viewed as someone who had that kind of influence on our collective idea of this character. I’m certainly not claiming to be an authority, but I’m glad my fic has come to have its place in our literature and that so many people have come to recognize and enjoy it. It’s a gen fic with no major romance about a side character in a side game, there’s no way it was ever going to reach the levels of big mainstream loz fics out there, but that doesn’t matter, because Astor matters to me, and he matters to us, and the nearly 4k hits and 150 kudos the fic has at the time of writing this - along with all the comments - are more than enough for me.

But now that the fic is over, what do we do?

I’ll admit I’m still going through the writer’s mourning period/withdrawal after finishing a book, but I can feel the recovery coming on soon. I have a few smaller ideas already on the table (along with Trouble Will Find Me), one regarding an alternate route I almost took for Astor in Exile//Vilify (more explicitly as a reincarnation of Ganon’s seer). That would be a very small one-shot fic. I do still have Stories from Exile for you to read and will occasionally update (have a lot of ideas still on my list there). However, that said, these are no longer my top priority in the same way Exile//Vilify was. Because until I started writing Exile//Vilify, I hadn’t really considered myself part of the loz community at all. I was a Pokémon writer, and I have a trilogy that I took a detour from in order to get this fic out of my mind. I’m going to set my focus on returning to that series now, although like I’ve said, I do still plan on popping into this community. I’m not going to ghost you all, I’ll still answer asks, stay active, and post every now and then. You, and this fic, have meant too much to me over the course of this journey for me to go away like that.

So please, don’t be a stranger! Your thoughts and asks and messages are always welcome. If you want to make art or other fics inspired by my worldbuilding, please do. I thought this was clear, but I’ve never explicitly stated it. You’re fully welcome to use my ideas as long as I get a shoutout - mostly just because I also want to see it :). I worked too hard on this for too long for other people not to use it for ideas. Please do. Show me your art. Show me your things. I want to love them.

So where can you find me now? Here on this blog, of course, although tumblr seems to have not necessarily “shadowbanned,” but blocked some of its functionality after the ios ban. So if you’re not checking here, you can reach me on my main @silverjirachi.

If you are interested in my pokemon series (focusing on the hoenn region and hardenshipping, Archie and Maxie) you can follow @the-dead-sea-trilogy and @hoenn-pride, my pokemon side blogs, the first of course for my fic related things and the other for general pokemon things.

And of course, you can still find the rest of my work by browsing my author page on AO3. I’ve posted WIP wednesdays and previews of my coming fics there.

Also-

In the coming weeks or a few months into the future, I may be making a special offer regarding a physical release of this book. I get all my fics hard-cover bound for my own personal collection, but I’ve already had a few people ask me about having copies of their own. Keep your eyes open for an update on when/how this will happen if you are interested. It will be a very small, one-time thing to friends and close fans as, naturally, it’s going to be a gift coming from mostly my own wallet.

I’m going to conclude by dropping a bit of music here. (Slight Exile//Vilify spoilers, so if you haven’t read the ending yet, please do). But, as you might have figured out by the ending, Thelem is somewhat of a narrator character. He was my way to ask questions of the fic - the questions he asks at the end - and acted as a guardian angel of sorts of the book. He is my representation of my love for the story, and of the story of Astor as a whole. It was very, very early on in my writing process when I realized what would have to happen to him by the end, and I cried and was frustrated about it when I realized, but somehow that made me grow to appreciate and love him even more, strengthening his role in the novel as a whole. There was one song by The National - who also wrote the song Exile Vilify (The National, weirdly, has inspired all my fics thus far) that I came across around this same time that somehow I came to associate with Thelem.

The lyrics, though indirect, speak to me of a man resigned to yet content with his place in life, and how that place is flooded with this melancholy sort of love informed by the pain of the reality around him. This is in such stark contrast to the way we see Astor throughout his life - who knows no peace with the weight of prophecy that weighs over his head. I kept turning the lyrics, “Sorry I hurt you, but they say love is a virtue, don’t they?” over in my mind, like this man knew how things would end and let it happen anyway - out of love. He knows what he has to do is painful, but he does it because love - devotion - is a virtuous thing that is not always happy. And so as much as the song Exile Vilify is the namesake and first inspiration for the fic, Sea of Love has been its secret, underlying theme. It followed shortly after, and has always informed my perspective in writing it, knowing where it all would end, and I’m glad I can finally share that with you.

Because while I thought I was writing a book about prophecy, about the inherent “fucked-up”ness of being a chosen one, in a weird way, the fic was written about, and at its heart, is about love. Love of the character, love of the process, love of the story, and the twisted, distorted love of prophecy. It’s about how all those things affected the courses each of their lives - both for better and for the worse - at the time of Astor’s demise. It’s not the ending, it’s the moments shaped by love in between. Because, as Thelem says at the end of the book - love, while painful, still lessens the fall of everything.

And so that is how I will choose to end. Once again, thank you so much for all the support, for making me feel like I was part of a community, and for reading my story of Astor to its ending. It made such a difference to me, and I’m looking forward to the next things on the horizon.

[heleentje]

4 and 9 for A light so steady 💖

A light so steady

(I'm switching the order around for spoiler reasons)

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Not really! The first draft was originally written in February, as a character study for Yunobo that I considered good enough to make into a sidefic, but even back then we already knew where Yunobo's arc would take him. The only edits I made were just little details to make sure everything matched up with Moonlight proper.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Putting this behind a read more because it contains some pretty heavy spoilers for Moonlight! But definitely this part, because I love Daruk and I love it when he gets to be multifaceted.

When we were drafting out the plotlines for the different characters, @ginneke and I often used 'stable, not static' to describe Daruk (as well as Teba and Urbosa). He has his life together, but that doesn't mean he doesn't get to show different aspects of his personality.

“It’s not that I don’t want to help,” he says, seized by a sudden burst of courage. “But the Calamity…”

“Is terrifying,” Daruk finishes with a faint chuckle. “You want to know something? Back then, before the Calamity appeared, I really thought we had it handled. We had Rudania and the others, and the Guardians on our side. No way that monster stood a chance, you know?”

Yunobo nods, although he cannot imagine the Guardians, with their spindly legs and pin-point accuracy, ever being on their side.

“And then I got to Rudania and that monster attacked me. It wasn’t even all of Ganon and it terrified me. Everything I did, it countered like it was nothing. It even broke through my own power and it’s only thanks to Rudania that I’m still alive. I’m forever happy that Link destroyed it. Truth be told, I don’t even know if I can fight the Calamity without freezing up.”

If even the Great Daruk is so scared…

“But you’ll do it anyway.”

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Link in DnD 5e (2.0)

With the release of both Mythic Odysseys of Theros and now the new big expansion in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, I figured now would be a good time to reexamine Link with the context of new subclasses, class features, and game mechanics that weren’t around the last time that I built him. While I won’t do this for every character I’ve built before, characters who have new options made available with these updates will get a new rebuild for 2021. If you want to compare and contrast this build to the original, I will link that build right [here].

The Spirit of the Hero

Link’s a Hylian and that’s just a fancy way of saying elf. His best racial options are either the High Elf, the Wood Elf, or the Half-Elf. Half-elf’s extra skills are tempting, but as Link is never given any parents or an ancestral family tree, we can’t really justify him as a half-elf. We’ll call him a Wood Elf for the extra +2 to his Dexterity and the +1 to his Wisdom as well as that woodsy vibe. But if you wanna go for a Half-Elf for the power build, I won’t tell anyone.

Link’s alignment is tricky. On the one hand, he is shown kneeling before the monarchy, defeating the forces of evil and darkness, and doing odd jobs to help the common people he comes across. However, he can also start forest fires, break into people’s houses, smash pots, steal people’s life savings or personal belongings, and attack the chicken population until they attack back. I’d wager he’s Neutral Good if for no other reason than his morality is highly dependent on the player.

My first choice for Link’s background would be the Folk Hero for Animal Handling and Survival. However, Link’s background is so inconsistent, it’s easier to just list out the skills he tends to have and tell you to pick a background that has those skills, or create your own: Animal Handling, Athletics, Investigation, Nature, Perception, or Survival. There’s a case to be made for other skills as well. Acrobatics works a little and his jumps did involve sick flips in Majora’s Mask, but Link doesn’t tend to balance or platform jump very often. Link can play instruments fine and danced in the Subrosian Dance Hall in Oracle of Seasons for Performance proficiency, but he’s usually playing instruments to activate effects, not to actually perform for a crowd. Link shows some Stealth skills in Breath of the Wild, but this hasn’t been a longstanding skill of his, so I didn’t lump it in with his main skill list.

Becoming a Hero

When it comes to his build, Link has made some use of spells in the past, but he’s nowhere near the spellcaster that Zelda and Ganondorf are. Link is definitely more of a martial fighter who augments himself with a wide arsenal of magical items. So when it comes to picking Link’s class, we have a few things to keep in mind.

BARD

Link is a talented young man, and he has had magical instruments in a few games over the years, as well as dancing in Subrosia, among other things. While I don’t subscribe to the idea of Link being a bard myself, I understand why people would come to this conclusion, as Link isn’t really bad at anything... except talking. And lying. And looking threatening. Or haggling. Yeah kind of hard to depict Link as a CHA caster who isn’t proficient in any CHA skill checks. 

Spirits (UA) This doesn’t fit for every Link, but especially for Breath of the Wild where Link gets help from the spirits of his fallen comrades, the flavor of calling on the dead works for Link. For a non-BotW example, maybe Link can tell stories of his past lives, and the memories he shares with each of them.

Valor This college has the downside of being built as a cheerleader, while Link really should be built for solo-combat since that’s how he approaches most fights. But Valor is better than Swords and also gives Link proficiency with martial weapons and shields, while Swords does not.

FIGHTER

While there are many martial classes, the Fighter differentiates itself by being the most down-to-earth option. It’s not beholden to rage, or smites, hunting, or sneaking. It is the simple skill of the blade, and this is a skill Link has in spades. From the earliest games, Link has been a master of the sword, the shield, and the bow.

Battle Master Link is a strategic fighter. He looks for weak spots, and he exploits them the best he can. Of all the fighter subclasses, none is more clever than the Battle Master. Its many maneuvers resembles the numerous sword techniques Link has learned especially in the later games. Even in Smash, Link showcases how clever he is by being able to combine his arrows with his bombs and shoot a bomb arrow. To my knowledge, none of the other characters can combine their abilities like this in Smash.

Cavalier The subclass is poorly named, and was better in its initial name as the Knight, as that is really what this subclass is. It is the idea of the knight in shining armor. They can also be flavored as bodyguards, a traveling sellsword, or castle guards. So Link does not have to be glued to Epona to make use of this subclass. The main reason to want this subclass is the Warding Maneuver, as giving Link the chance to either block or reduce all damage he takes is going to seriously improve how well he can tank a hit, and help keep him in a fight longer.

PALADIN

More than any other class, the Paladin actually stands for something. They fight for a value or a belief. They swear their life to a cause and are prepared to die fighting for it. Link works on a lore level as a Paladin. Especially when he’s dedicated multiple lifetimes to the same cause. Across every timeline and game over screen, Link has always returned and stood in defiance against whatever evil may come. 

Ancients This oath makes Link sworn to the forces of nature, such as the Great Fairy, and protecting the balance and harmony of the light, life, and love against death, decay, and darkness. The Ancients Paladin is all about protecting the balance in the world and valiantly opposing evil wherever it might arise. It also has a druidic or fey aspect, which kind of works for Link.

Crown With this vow, Link serves the Hyrulian Royal Family. This makes Link the princess’ personal knight, and an agent of lawfulness, order, and peacekeeping in the land. While 5e has backed away from typecasting Paladins as Lawful Good, this is probably the most Lawful subclass one could pick, as it places the authority of the royal family above all else.

Glory Instead of being sworn to the light or the law, the Glory Paladin is the harbinger of the goddesses. They are flavored as legendary heroes of destiny, possibly being demigods or the personal errand boys of the setting’s pantheon. This subclass is clearly focused on being a frontline warrior, and the features make Link a true force on the battlefield.

RANGER

Anyone who’s played Legend of Zelda knows that Link is very good at surviving. The games don’t tell you how to navigate the wilderness, Link just has to figure it out for himself. What’s more, Link may be willing to venture into the wilderness, but he’ll be hard-pressed to find many NPCs that far outside of settlements or cities. Yet what they fear, he thrives in. And it’s no wonder that this is the class most peole would assume for Link.

Hunter This conclave is the slayer of all things that threaten civilization. They can choose to be better at chipping away at one enemy, counter attack bigger monsters, or mow through hordes of minions with more ease by taking out multiple at a time. Especially at higher levels, this conclave excels at ripping apart Ganon’s forces with nary a golden curl out of place.

ROGUE

The rogue doesn’t need to be a wanted criminal on the lamb. They can be a clever fighter with a variety of skills and a knack for evasion. That speaks a lot more to Link’s skill set than one might assume at first glance. It’s not a perfect fit for Link, but it’s really not that inaccurate either.

Inquisitive This roguish archetype is defined by being clever in combat, looking for weak points to exploit. They’re also much more observant, making them better at discovering clues or secret passages, or telling when they’re being misled. At higher levels, their ability to look for weaknesses can even increase their sneak attack damage. This especially fits some of the older games where boss fights were focused on using items to exploit the dungeon boss’ weaknesses, rather than hacking away at their health bar. In these older titles, Link was less of a straight up warrior and more of a clever trickster pulling off strategic victories.

Scout The Scout Rogue has heavy Ranger vibes, as they get free expertise in Nature and Survival, enhanced mobility, the ability to disengage from fights more easily, and at higher levels become masters of ambushes. This fits well with Link’s sneakier sniper playstyle that can be done in Breath of the Wild, as Link can take out entire camps without ever being seen.

Thief While Link is not a standard cutpurse, Link is a treasure hunter, a dungeon delver, and the jokes about him robbing the people of Hyrule and breaking into people’s homes doesn’t exactly help. The thief also gets to use more magical items, allowing Link to use things such as enchanted instruments without being a bard.

WARLOCK

Link usually isn’t the hero of his own volition. He often starts his journey with Triforce of Courage, a source of power gifted by his patrons. It’s honestly a weak connection, but it loosely works, so I’m including it. 

Celestial While this subclass is geared toward serving something other than a god, I don’t see any reason why a Celestial Warlock couldn’t serve the Triple Goddesses of Hyrule or even Hylia/Zelda directly.

Hexblade The most obviously martial warlock option, this is a good choice if you want to incorporate Fi into your character.

Link’s Toy Chest

Hero’s Sword - Longsword (+1-3) Mirror Shield - Repulsion Shield Hero’s Bow - Oathbow Gale Boomerang - Storm Boomerang Fire Rod - Wand of Fireballs (requires spellcasting) Mastersword - Sword of Zariel, Holy Avenger Longsword* Hylian Shield - Shield of the Hidden Lord  Goddess Bow - Ephixis, Bow of Nylea Golden Gauntlets - Gauntlets of Ogre Power Zora Tunic - Cloak of the Manta Ray Pegasus Boots - Boots of Speed Hover Boots - Boots of Levitation Hook Shot - Rope of Climbing

SIDEKICKS

Sidekicks are a new edition from Tasha’s that let Link bring allies on his hero’s journey. Experts are skill monkeys who focus on Help actions, Spellcasters dip into the INT, WIS, or CHA spell lists, and Warriors are trained to fight and don’t have to talk, so they can be animals.

Epona - Defender Warrior Riding Horse Navi - Expert or Healer Spellcaster Sprite Sidon - Attacker Warrior Merfolk Sheik - Expert Noble (Elf) Wolf Link - Attacker Warrior Wolf

Theros Piety

The Piety System from Theros lets us be devout to a god and earn features from worshiping them. As far as I’m aware, this is an optional feature, and not every DM will make use of these, but if you’re able to, here’s a handy guide. These gods really stood out as the clear choices for Link to go with.

Iroas - God of Victory

Domains: War Virtues: Achieve a great victory, Overcome slim odds honorably, Defeat a foe in single combat, Perform a great feat of strength or skill Sins: Being a coward in battle, Beat an honorable foe through deceit, harm innocents Piety Bonus: +3 Learn Compelled Duel spell +10 Learn Crusader’s Mantle spell +25 For 1 minute, creatures cannot gain advantage on you +50 Increase STR or CHA by 2 to a max of 22

Keranos - God of Storms

Domains: Knowledge, Tempest Virtues: Solve a riddle or puzzle, defeat an unwise enemy, plan ahead for an upcoming challenge, build or restore a temple to Keranos Sins: Jeopardize others through foolishness, ignore a wise course of action, fail to plan for a challenge, give in to anger or self-destruction

Piety Bonus: +3 Add 1d6 lightning damage to melee attack up to INT mod turns. +10 Reroll a failed INT or WIS saving throw +25 Advantage on Initiative rolls +50 Increase INT or WIS by 2 to a max of 22

Nylea - Goddess of the Wild

Domains: Nature Virtues: Help any wild animal, stop those who hunt for sport or profit, win an archery competition, slay an aberration, fiend, or undead Sins: Kill an animal without reason, Dedicate a building to or make a sacrifice for any god (including Nylea), protect a city from a natural disaster

Piety Bonus: +3 Learn Hunter’s Mark +10 Learn Speak with Animals +25 Attacking creatures must pass DC 15 WIS save or change targets. +50 Increase DEX or WIS by 2 to a max of 22

Cunning Tactician

Battle Master Fighter (12) Inquisitive Rogue (8) Fighting Style: Dueling Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Thieves’ Tools, Mason’s Tools

While Link is brave and strong, he is most defined by his clever mind and unorthodox solutions to boss fights. With this class split, Link has prioritized strategy and tactics over everything else. While it leaves him a little squishier, Link is still a very capable warrior. As a Battle Master, he got a free tool proficiency. Mason’s Tools allows Link to find secret passageways in stone walls, which most dungeons tend to be made of. On top of that, with his Feinting Attack, Link can give himself advantage, meaning he can use Sneak Attack even in a 1v1 fight, which fits his solo adventurer playstyle.

One-Man Army

Battle Master Fighter (12) Hunter Ranger (8) Fighting Style: Dueling, Archery Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Hunter’s Prey: Colossus Slayer, Multiattack Defense Tools: Mason’s Tools

I used this build once in a level 10 campaign. 6 levels of Fighter, 4 levels of Ranger with a +2 Longsword, and let me tell you something. This build creamed the competition, which was the other PCs at the table, who were also built as level 10 characters. Link nearly defeated his first opponent in a single round, dealing around 70 damage between his four attacks. When I say this is Link’s “power” build, I mean it. I didn’t even sweat when an adult blue dragon showed up after the tournament ended, that’s how much faith I had in Link’s ability to fight. I honestly forgot to even use Link’s battle maneuvers, he was just dealing so much damage that it slipped my mind. You could swap Battle Master for Cavalier, but for me, the Battle Master is more accurate to Link’s favor of techniques over basic hack-and-slash.

RANGER SPELLS

1 Absorb Elements, Ensnaring Strike, Hunter’s Mark 2 Cordon of Arrows, Healing Spirit

The Hero of Hyrule

Battle Master Fighter (12) Glory Paladin (8) Fighting Style: Archery, Dueling Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Mason’s Tools

As a Glory Paladin, Link is driven by a desire to be a legendary hero, and at least in the UA version, the Glory Paladin served the gods, as Link does. Like the two builds above, Link balances the brute might of the Glory Paladin with the tactile diversity of the Battle Master.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Cure Wounds, Divine Favor, Guiding Bolt, Heroism, Protection from Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Enhance Ability, Find Steed, Magic Weapon, Warding Bond

Oaths and Promises

Glory Paladin (12) Celestial Warlock (8) Fighting Style: Dueling Pact: Blade Invocations: Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Maddening Hex, Relentless Hex

The builds from here on are more for the flavor than necessarily Link’s character. As a Blade Pact Paladock, Link becomes a CHA-focused martial with some extra spell slots that turn his smiting sword strikes into a bokoblin slurry machine. This build focuses Link more as a servant of the gods than anything else. Just make sure he has the Hex spell, but you can replace Maddening Hex with Agonizing Blast if you want to use the Master Sword laser beam at full potential.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Divine Favor, Guiding Bolt, Heroism, Protection from Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Enhance Ability, Find Steed, Magic Weapon, Warding Bond 3 Blinding Smite, Crusader’s Mantle, Elemental Weapon, Haste, Protection from Energy

WARLOCK SPELLS

C Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Sword Burst 1 Armor of Agathys, Cure Wounds, Hex 2 Lesser Restoration, Misty Step, Shatter 3 Spirit Shroud, Summon Fey 4 Galder’s Speedy Courier

To Serve and Protect

Battle Master Fighter (12) Crown Paladin (8) Fighting Style: Dueling, Interception Maneuvers:  Bait and Switch, Brace, Disarming Strike, Goading Strike, Parry, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Mason’s Tools

Link is Zelda’s knight, bodyguard, and servant. So this build prioritizes features that makes Link the loyal emissary of the Princess of Hyrule. As such, this build changes Link’s role to be more of a defender to the princess than a solo hero. This build assumes that the princess or someone else who needs to be protected is joining Link on his adventure.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Command, Cure Wounds, Divine Favor, Heroism, Compelled Duel, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Find Steed, Warding Bond, Zone of Truth

After all is said and done, I hope I gave everyone a lot to work with. Of course my suggestions are not law, and if nothing else, I hope it gives you an idea of how you want to build him. Last time I built Link, I gave one set build for him, but I still laid out other options. Recently though, I’ve been trying to show multiple builds at the end of my build posts to offer a wider idea of what building a character can look like. Happy 2021 everyone, and let’s hope this year goes smoother.

[hyrule-kingdom-updates]

Astor nodded. He and paced the hall and muttered under his breath.

“I see...I never meddled in the realm of technology...but to think that Sheikah Technology could hold such a secret.” He tapped his chin, staring at the astrolabe on the other side of the dungeon bars. “I suppose it makes sense. The advanced accomplishments and feats that such technology is capable of...it’s only naturally that it is powered by unconventional means.”

Siv spun the Sheikah Core on his index finger like it was a ball. “Yeeeep. I’m guessing that’s what allowed the super old dudes to beat the Calamity all those years ago.” He shook his head. “So, yeah. Dick Lord Ganon is gonna use that to turn the Guardians and Divine Beasts against us. And even if the science peeps keep researching into them...well.” He looked up at Astor. “Obviously, they would never figure out this crucial little detail even after a hundred years of science-ing. So this is our little secret, capiche?”

Astor nodded again. If what Asivus was saying was true (And it was) then Hyrule were truly doomed. The Calamity would exploit this secret, and use it to flip the entire war on its head. This is what Ganon would use to turn the Divine Beasts against them.

If any of the researchers found out about this aspect of Ancient Technology, and adapted to it, then Ganon would lose his biggest advantage...and it might be possible to...

The seer quickly shook away the thought. No, even if they knew, the world would be helpless all the same when the Princess fails to awaken their powers. In fact, it would probably be more brutal if Ganon’s forces were reliant completely on the bludgeoning and stabbing that came with monsters. Machines would have avoidable patterns in a post-apocalyptic world, but monsters of malice would be exceptionally harder.

So yes...We keep this info from everyone. Especially Robbie and Purah and...

“How sure are you that no one else could figure this out?” Astor asked.

“Decently sure. I mean, it’d be pretty hard to guess such a crazy thing.” Asivus shrugged.

“Are you positive? Because I know my—” He stopped in his tracks, suddenly stumbling on his words. “I—in reference to random researchers—other non-specified—she’s not—Look. There are very talented and intelligent researchers across the kingdom, surely someone—”

“Did you say it yourself? Everyone’s way to arrogant around here!” Siv threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “No one’s gonna look for faults in their perfect little war machines! They shoot lasers, and don’t talk back. It’s a general’s wet dream. Even if someone figured out this secret, no one here would listen to them.” He waved his hand in a circle and gestured towards his half brother. “Case in point: You.”

Astor folded his arms and sighed. “Alright, fine. So that’s how the Calamity will turn the Guardians and Beasts against us. But what’s the actual execution of it all? The plan? What’s your play in this? How did the Guardians in the yard get corrupted?”

Siv was silent; thinking. He seemed to be endlessly swimming through thoughts and words and memories. The man fiddled with the discs surrounding the astrolabe, eyes drooping in misery. Interesting.

“I was supposed to make them. That’s what he wanted,” Asivus finally said. “Beast of water, lightning, air, and fire. Or, demons? Blights or something. Creatures that were to take on the Divine Beasts.They’re built slightly different than Guardians, so he needed a little something special to deal with ‘em.” He blew hair off his forehead with a huff. “It all sorta just came into my head in the minutes before I fucked up those Guardians, so the details come and go, but that’s the gist. I make the Blights, Ganon does his thing, then I wait at the Sanctum to achieve true happiness or whatever he was bullshitting.”

“But you failed.” Astor interjected. “You failed to make the blights, and thus today’s calamity failed. At least, in this timeline.” Siv opened his mouth to object, but he continued to think outloud. “The Guardians were a fluke, then. You were not capable of creating Blights, but wielded enough malice to corrupt a Guardian. Although that brings into question how you control malice to begin with...and why you were chosen specifically for the task...”

Asivus was silent again, spinning the astrolabe on the floor. Astor observed him for a moment.

“Is he speaking to you? At the moment?” The seer asked. “Every time you fall silent is when you start looking down at that device. That thing I can correctly assume is the instigator of all this, given that you look at it every time I ask about the recent Guardians you ruined.”

Asivus narrowed his eyes at him, annoyed at being so readable.

“Ganon isn’t in your head, as you said you were overcome with this information in the minutes you truly held that astrolabe and walked by the Guardians.” He thought back. “Earlier before the incident you said you had a dream, and then you found the astrolabe? You leave it on your desk as a paper weight, before developing the decent moral to drop off a potential lost item to the Sheikah. But then you were holding the astrolabe in proximity to the Guardians, and subsequently are suddenly given the revelation to the Calamity’s plan...”

He locked eyes with him. “Combine that with the truth about all Sheikah Technology itself...and the fact that your eyes only change when that core is in your possession...”

Astor walked closer and gripped one of the bars, calmly. “That astrolabe is the link between you and the Calamity. It speaking to you through it. It’s lending you the power to control malice. It’s a manifested vessel of Ganon’s ill intent for this world...perhaps made of whatever malice plagues yourself. Perhaps he chose you for the job because you’re brimming with his favourite substance.”

Assivus started at the seer, and blinked once. Astor took that as confirmation, but asked anyways: “Am I wrong?”

Siv bit his tongue for a moment, before sighing in defeat. “You’ve got Ligero’s mannerisms down to the T. The perceptiveness nearly makes me wish I had actually paid attention to his parenting attempts.”

Something twisted inside Astor at that comment, and his voice grew a dangerous edge. “I’m nothing like him.”

“It’s alright, don’t take it personally. I just have a love-hate relationship with smart people.”

“Tsk.” The prophet stared down the corridor in thought. “Don’t we all.”

“But you’re wrong about one thing.” Siv added, and he looked up at Astor with a new seriousness. “I didn’t ‘fail’ to make the blights.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I didn’t fail to make the blights, I didn’t want to.” Asivus raised his voice, and rolled the astrolabe to the other side of the cell. “You can’t fail something you never really attempted in the first place.” He winked. “I mean, that’s been my philosophy on life for the last 15 years, heh.”

Astor blinked in surprise. “But...why? The world is doomed, and you were handed a position of life and power on a silver tray. Chosen above anyone else.  Why wouldn’t—?”

“I didn’t do it because I’m not like you, pissface!” Siv snapped. “I jump outta my socks to make a selfish decision. I don’t just run away from any inconvenience in my life.”

Astor nearly laughed. “Oh? And what exactly is it that you do, then? You’re really going to preach to me, Mr. Assivus Asunder?”

“YEAH! That name is exactly why I decided this!” He waved his arms in the air, and gestured to himself as he slumped against the wall. “Taking action and fighting for anything, regardless of what, sucks ass. Initiating change? Bad. Acting on what you care about? No likey.” Siv pounded his chest proudly. “The ideal ending for Asivus Ex-Hartell is to just chill out, and wait for the end. Drink in hand!”

He raised his empty flask, but nonetheless pretended to drink.

Astor frowned, but let the distant drip of leaking water echo in the corridor.

He watched Siv for a few more minutes, silently tapping his fingers on his elbow.

“You still care about your brother.”

It was a good think his flask was empty, as otherwise he would have spit out his drink. Siv angrily sputtered. “The fuck does that have to do with anything—?!”

“Why are you just relaxing in there after all this time?  You think you deserve this? Don’t want to be a burden for others?” Astor looked him up and down.

“Listen, you little shit. I know at this point it shouldn’t be a surprise that my family is made up of asshole, but—”

“You know when I first saw you around the castle, I did recognize you. The eyes, you see. But of course, I didn’t see the need to trouble you with my story, but I did watch you.” The prophet sneered. “Dear Asivus Hartell, sneaking into town to share a peach cobbler with his niece. Assivus Asunder, teaching his nephew to shield surf, and trying to encourage him down a more righteous path than his own. The Royal Orator Siv, who thanks his little brother for taking care of him by spending four hours making perfect hand drawn rat doodle cards.” Astor leaned down with a smirk. “You’re not the only one who paid attention to the captain’s birthday presents.”

“Alright get to the point, fuckface.” He waved the prophet off. “What? I screw around with my dumb family. What’s it gotta do with anything?”

“It means that for all your talk of laying down and dying and giving up, your action seems to indicate that you don’t actually believe that.” He jabbed a finger at Siv through the bars. “Or at least you don’t fully. Maybe you don’t want to. So don’t go blathering about your sorry life, only to try and insult me in the next minute. This isn’t about your apathy. You’re just scrambling at this low bar Ganon gives you as you drool the rare opportunity to unequivocally be an undeniably good person. You just want to tell yourself you’re a hero.”

Quiet.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“OK.” Asivus curled his lip. “I didn’t want to join Ganon, because I’m still stupidly trying to not be an asshole. I’m too much of a wuss to commit to the dickhead role I was probably meant to fulfill. I’m pathetically trying to keep control over my image—is THAT what you want to hear, magic man? Congratu-fucking-lations. You turned the tables, you can see how pathetic I am and can feel better about yourself. How do ya feel?” The astrolabe had rolled by Asivus’ lap, and gold speckled in his eyes.

Astor sighed and answered honestly. “...Well. I’m envious, truth be told.” Siv blinked, but let him continue. “I haven’t bothered trying to be a hero my whole life, much less have such a driven (and these days useless) hunger to be ‘good.’” The seer shook his head, staring down the hall again. “I’m envious, but I do think you’re a fool. I’d take the opportunity to wield the future in a heartbeat, no matter the consequences.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Siv chuckled. “This malice stuff is fucked up.”

“Only because you don’t understand it.” Astor replied, offended. “I’ve studies it for years, and it’s often misunderstood. There’s a beauty and usefulness to it, even detached from the Calamity. You’re just not intelligent enough to get it, I understand. ‘Love-hate relationship,’ like you said.” He snorted.

“Are you sick?! This Ancient Core thing made me walk through so many shitty memories and thoughts...I wouldn’t walk through that again to end OR save the world.”

“Again. All due to your plight of ignorance. It’s not your fault.”

Asivus rolled his eyes. “You know what? Why don’t you explain it me then?! If you’re so excited about it? Talk aaall about how I’m not fit to properly wield this and how pathetic I am?”

Siv dangled the astrolabe in the air between his fingers.

“Go on! Explain how great this malice is, and maybe then if you’re so eager I’ll just leave the thing in your care!”

[bobbincosplays]

[Part 4] The thoughts of someone playing Ocarina of Time for the first time, a highlight of my progression.

Hyrule Ganondorf's Castle:

I really wasn't expecting this. I really wasn't expecting this... how destroyed it is here. Shit just got real

What is this thing in front of the fairy fountain entrance? Why can I grab it but not move it?

Okay this bridge the sages just made is really pretty

Shadow Hallway:

Fuck.

*after going through all of the hallways* ... wait a second... Are y'all dead...? Did the sages die?

Ganondorf's Tower:

I like that the organ gets louder as I get higher up the tower. Builds up the suspense

Oh he's playing the organ. Ganondorf just got 100x hotter

These windows are pretty 😍

[I'm a sucker for some stained glass]

Ganondorf battle:

Chaotic ping pong

CHAOTIC PING PONG INTENSIFIES

This is disappointingly easy. The only difficult aspect is getting to the stable platforms after Ganondorf has destroyed the unstable ones.

[I will discuss this battle more in my final thoughts]

What's that green shit covering him? [It's blood, they apparently censored the 3DS version].

I love how much we experience of the story. The devs could have cut to Link and Zelda outside the tower as it collapses, but they allowed us to experience the hustle and panic of getting out of the tower in time.

Idk why I didn't expect another fight with him. From what I've seen, a second fight seems to be consistent across the titles. Again, disappointingly easy.

Zelda you're making me cry 😭 stop being sappy.

I finally finished it!

It only took me 6 and a half years.

They packed A LOT into this game. I honestly wasn't expecting how much there was to do for the main story; however, for a newbie gamer, like me, it was a bit much sometimes. About halfway through Jabbu-Jabbu, I started using a guide because there was an overwhelming amount of information that I haven't had the chance to process yet. There are so many monsters whose attack patterns are had to learn only to never see them again.

Final thoughts:

The final boss fights did not meet my expectations. Not only did the hype of the community influence my expectations, but so did the actual game. When I saw the room absolutely filled with fairies that will heal you, I got nervous. From the time I entered the castle to when I beat Ganon, I used one fairy, and it was in the shadow hallway.

Y'all thought Calamity Ganon was too easy? The final boss in Majora's Mask [the next LoZ game I will play unless I get AoC first] better be insanely difficult otherwise y'all are liars and your criticisms of the BOTW bosses are 100% invalidated. Weapon durability and the easy final boss fight are the common nitpicks of BOTW, and I've constantly heard that the fights in other LoZ games are so much harder which is why Calamity Ganon is such a disappointment. I came into the Ocarina of Time battle thinking this is unlike I've ever seen before considering how much praise this entire game gets. But this Ganondorf fight is WAY easier imo. Ping pong, shoot, whack, repeat. Shoot him when he builds up the big lightning ball, whack. Fall? Get up, get on a platform. Need some hearts? Magic? Arrows? No problem, it's all in the final boss room with you and it constantly respawns. Ffs Ganondorf/Ganon is nothing compared to Bongo Bongo, and they're in the same game.

Despite my criticisms, they didn't take away from my overall experience of the game. I thought it was amazing overall. The story was well thought out, the abilities and weapons/items were placed in great areas so you accumulate them throughout the game, it was engaging, the songs were beautiful and fun to learn, and I had an overall blast playing the game. In comparison to BOTW, I personally think BOTW has the upper hand over Ocarina of Time, but they are both fantastic games and I loved playing both of them. I'm excited to play Majora's Mask and Age of Calamity next. I'm officially hooked on this series.

Favorite dungeon: (tie) Spirit Temple, Water Temple

Least favorite dungeon: Shadow Temple

Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 --- Part 4

[zeldauniverse]

I warned last time that we were now heading into a decline in The Legend of Zelda TV series’ quality. That was certainly the case from the mediocre “Stinging a Stinger,” which followed the contrasting and excellent pinnacle of the cartoon, “Underworld Connections.”

“Hitch in the Works” continues this trend, skirting dangerously close to becoming the most boring episode in the series. Thankfully, the episode is saved somewhat in the final sequence, but overcoming the filler beforehand is a trial that even Link would hesitate to pursue.

Doofing around

Link tells Doof about his plan to simultaneously drop his cleaning duties and win Zelda’s affection. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

There is a surprisingly ominous opening to this episode, with a castle door slowly opening and a suspicious shadow being cast across a dimly lit room as foreboding music plays. As it turns out, the mysterious figure is just Link sneaking around, navigating his way out of North Castle to go fishing before Princess Zelda can find him and force him to do chores. It’s a fun and compelling little opening sequence while it lasts, but things quickly become much less engaging from here.

Zelda inevitably finds Link and orders him to get back to his duties. Link avoided chores before in “Cold Spells,” wherein he faked a cold to avoid the labor. He doesn’t get off so easily this time, which is unfortunate for both him and the viewer as watching him bumble around the cellar is a chore in itself.

Allow me to quickly run you through the first half of this episode to save you time and boredom: Link does chores. Link meets a robot. The robot breaks. The robot belongs to a man called Doof, the castle handyman and Link’s friend. Doof fixes his robot. The robot makes a mess. Moblins arrive and break the robot. Link fights the Moblins. Doof fixes the robot again. The robot collapses yet again and Link is scolded by Zelda for goofing off. Link resumes his chores. We’re now halfway through the episode, but this robot seems important, right?

It isn’t seen again for the remainder of the episode.

Far too much screentime is given to Doof’s robotic cleaning servant, which contributes very little to the episode.

It’s not that I wouldn’t be open to seeing more slice-of-life scenes in this series; it could be a refreshing change of pace to watch Link and Zelda spend more time at North Castle, rather than adventuring in Hyrule or the Underworld. The problem is that nothing interesting happens in the first two-thirds of this episode, and certainly nothing that makes me think, “This is The Legend of Zelda.”

As for Doof himself, he is similar to Sleezenose in the previous “Stinging a Stinger” episode: a non-canon character with a single-episode appearance and very little to offer the series. Despite the amount of screentime Doof has, he has very little relation to the final Underworld sequence, which feels incredibly detached from everything that leads up to it. In other words, everything that occurs before the final five minutes of the episode feels like filler.

Zelda overhears Link’s plan to make Doof’s fake Moblins capture her and decides to play along.

After Link is done cleaning up the assaulting Moblins, Doof’s robot crashes into him, rendering Link unconscious. Zelda wakes Link up and accuses him of sleeping on the job, refusing to believe the castle was ever under attack. Link, still determined to get out of doing his assigned chores, asks Doof if he can use his magic and craftsmanship skills to make some fake Moblins. Link’s plan is to fool Zelda into thinking she is being captured, giving him an opportunity to “save” her, win her affection, and get out of his cleaning duties. Unfortunately for Link, Zelda overhears his plan, and when real Moblins attack again, neither of our heroes attempt any resistance against what they perceive as Doof’s manufactured minions. Following this error in judgment, Zelda is kidnapped more easily than ever.

Thank Hylia for Ganon, who���s about to save this episode from all of the tedium endured so far.

The princess bride

Ganon’s Jewel of Control is designed so that anyone who wears it obeys the evil wizard’s orders.

With the princess in his clutches, Ganon plans to use his new device, the Jewel of Control, on her. This is a necklace that forces the wearer to obey all of Ganon’s orders. Ganon announces to Zelda his plans to marry her so that he may become the new ruler of Hyrule, and while she initially and unsurprisingly refuses in disgust, she promptly agrees as soon as the Jewel of Control is placed on her. Like the Force Field Ring in “Doppelganger,” the Jewel of Control is another item that is exclusive to the TV series and not based on any of the items from the games, but it feels like a plausible enough device that may be used by a Legend of Zelda villain.

Link inevitably arrives to crash the wedding, but Zelda isn’t in a hurry to be rescued after becoming a slave to Ganon’s command. She insists on marrying Ganon, which confuses Link and puts a halt on his escape plan.

Having Zelda hypnotized into serving Ganon introduces an interesting dynamic for the series that, unfortunately, isn’t explored enough

Having Zelda hypnotized into serving Ganon introduces an interesting dynamic for the series that, unfortunately, isn’t explored beyond Zelda mindlessly agreeing to get hitched. If only the episode hadn’t wasted so much time before this point, the Jewel of Control’s influence on Zelda could have had much more potential. It would have been fun to see Zelda conform to Ganon’s orders as his new servant, stealing the Triforce of Wisdom from North Castle under the guise of the ordinary Princess Zelda, and being forced to fight Link. It’s an interesting concept that feels squandered and rushed by being crammed at the end of a dull and failing story, rather than being used as the core of the adventure as it deserved.

Let’s not lose our heads, though

When Link’s rescue mission goes south, Ganon summons the Gleeok for a rematch against Link.

Ganon has an ace in the hole to deal with Link’s interruption and unleashes a familiar face (or three) from “Kiss ‘N Tell,” the Gleeok. The heads of the Hydra-like hellion aren’t as talkative this time around, roaring in anger rather than blathering amongst themselves. It makes sense, of course: Link made a mockery of the Gleeok last time they met, and there is no time for goofs as vengeance burns in all six of those eyes. It may not sound exciting to watch Link repeat the same fight as before, especially after already watching him battle the commonplace Moblins and Stalfos to reach this point, but there is one aspect of this fight that makes things incredibly entertaining.

After avoiding the beast’s incoming flames, Link zaps the Gleeok three times. A successful series of Crissword zaps usually results in enemies vanishing back to the Evil Jar, which is the case here — but only the creature’s body disappears. The Gleeok’s heads remain, flying through the air, chasing Link, and spewing fiery breath in his direction. This is a special moment, as this is what happens when Link fights the Gleeok bosses in the original Legend of Zelda game.

This time, the Gleeok enters its second battle phase, with its detached heads flying furiously at Link.

Fighting a Gleeok is a little more graphic in the game — at least technically. The simplicity of the game’s sprites and animations help keep the gory details of Link’s battle vague on the screen, but the game’s manual says, “Heads that Link cuts off from its body fly around in the air.” Rather than having Link sever the Gleeok’s heads with his blade, which may have been too violent for a children’s cartoon, the TV series cleverly gets around this by instead having Link using sword zaps to make the Gleeok’s torso disappear.

With the heads furiously flying toward Link and relentlessly hurling flames at him, Link decides to avoid confronting them directly. Instead, he runs toward Ganon, luring the heads to crash into their master and explode upon impact, allowing Link to take Zelda and escape back to the surface.

There aren’t any new enemies introduced in this episode, but there is something very familiar about the monster who presides over Ganon’s wedding ceremony. This Grim Reaper-like figure looks almost identical to the Magician from The Adventure of Link’s artwork, with the purple cloak, white skin, red eyes, and lined face making the appearance uncanny.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The wedding scene from the “Hitch in the Works” episode of the TV series.

Official Adventure of Link artwork of the magician (courtesy of Zelda Wiki).

From a Zelda lore perspective (within a non-canon story notwithstanding), it could also be interpreted as a Wizzrobe with a scythe. Either way, the creature is never addressed by a name or title, so it’s assumed to just be a generic creature that resides in the Underworld. The influence of the visual appearance is very clear, however, and makes sense considering that the TV series’ production team was likely given many materials to work from, including official Zelda game artwork. It feels like a fun little homage, even if the context is vague.

Hitch your wagon elsewhere

Ganon looks about as bored as me watching this episode. At least he made the right decision to shake things up toward the end.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about “Hitch in the Works,” especially as the majority of the episode is very forgettable. Zelda doesn’t get the chance to engage in any action this time around, and even her role as a mind-manipulated damsel is dull and underplayed. As is a common problem within the TV series, the dialogue isn’t particularly inspired, either. Link delivers the most lame and slapdash comeback ever when arriving at the wedding and giving his reason why the couple should not be wed: “Yeah, I got a reason. And here it is: Back off, Ganon!” Speaking of Ganon, however, he remains the best part of this series and is the saving grace of this episode.

We still have another poor episode to go before the series picks up in quality again, but let’s not end this review on a downer. After all, I may have been a bit harsh on “Hitch in the Works.” That’s right, I lied: There is one magical moment aside from the Underworld battle. I don’t need to describe it to you. Just observe the animated GIF below.

https://zeldauniverse.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/tv-series-episode-10-hitch-in-the-works-link-shield-bomb-jump.mp4

"Thankfully, the episode is saved somewhat in the final sequence, but overcoming the filler beforehand is a trial that even Link would hesitate to pursue." The Legend of Zelda TV series retrospective: Episode 10, ‘Hitch in the Works' I warned last time that we were now heading into a decline in The Legend of Zelda…

[awwrealmonsters]

Top 12 Breath of the Wild Monsters (Part 1 of 2)

The most recent addition to Nintendo’s beloved Zelda Series, Breath of the Wild was remarkably well received, with fans praising the beautiful graphics, huge open world, and engaging updates to the series traditional gameplay mechanics. The world of Hyrule is indeed stunning as it is presented here, with the many wonderfully updated incarnations of  the series monsters and races serving as a real highlight for new and old players alike. Today I’d like to take a look at some of the best monster designs this game has to offer.

Honorable Mentions:

The Gerudo - The upgrade this amazon like race of badass warrior women received from their previous roles as villains to plot essential allies was a real highlight of the game for me, as their striking appearance and exclusively female society really left an impression. And while Botw does a great job updating the race to truly make them unique from the hylians, with their remarkably tall statures, clearly defined muscles, and red-shaded hair, they are still far too “human” to be included on this list. I still felt they deserved to be recognized though so here they are.

The Dragons - As far as Dragon designs go, BotW’s are fairly standard, but they are well executed. Seeing their long, glowing bodies dance in the backgrounds sky makes the world feel that much more fantastical, and the elemental additions of ice, fire, and thunder are a nice touch. The combination of their large eyelashes and multicolored eyes makes them seem a bit goofy in my eyes though. 

The Guardians - Honestly these deadly robots really deserve a spot on this list. With their wholly unique shapes and terrifyingly accurate laser “eye” (the bane of earlier players existence) they would certainly be near the top. In the end I couldn't decide whether they actually count as Monsters however, as they operate more like self-automated drones than actual sentient creatures. If I put a laser on my roomba does that make it a monster? Anyway they are absolutely a great addition to the series either way, so they deserve a mention here. 

#12 - Calamity Ganon

In some ways I believe the Dragons actually deserve this spot over Ganon, as they are much nicer to look at, but originality really does count for a lot and this incarnation of Link’s greatest foe is certainly very, err, original. On the positive side this thing was designed to be intimidating, and it succeeds there. Ganon’s many spider like legs, viscous sludge body, and huge size combine to make him quite disturbing. Combined with the mechanical elements of his body, he really does look like some sort of unholy, unnatural creation, which was likely the point. Those same elements do bring in the downside though of the creature just looking too busy. With the exception of the glowing sludge, the colors end up overlapping too much and mixing together, and the mechanical aspects are not very well blended into the body. The overall result ends up cutting down the intimidation factor quite a bit after the first viewing, as its form becomes more confusing than scary. There’s also the issue of his mane, which seems a little out of place here. It’s almost as if it was added to remind you that yes, this is indeed Ganon, as he is such a far departure from his previous incarnations that you’d have no way of knowing otherwise. While I’m not a purist by any means, it is a bit disappointing that they went for “Big and Scary” this time rather than taking greater inspiration from the previous Ganons, especially if they were just going to have him transform into a more pig-like form later anyway.

#11 - Gorons

I feel a bit bad placing the Gorons so low on this list considering their importance throughout Zelda canon and generally uplifting and pleasant personalities in-game. Their ability to roll around on their rock-encrusted backs has served as a neat basis for these mountain-dwellers since their introduction, and their strong arms, short torsos, and large bodies give them a very sturdy looking appearance suitable for a rock-based species. I also like that they returned to the more round and friendly look of the Ocarina Gorons rather than the vaguely intimidating look of Twilight and Skywards models, as it matches their personalities better (Although anything would be an upgrade from those awful rock nipples). Overall though the Goron designs have always lacked a bit in variety and BotW doesn't help much. Aside from some very minor changes in the facial hair and eye size of the main NPCs, the Gorons are all pretty homogeneous. They also tend to be pretty plain looking (especially from the front), with their single-colored and mostly-human appearances not standing out among some of the more monstrous species of Hyrule. I think it would be interesting to see future Goron designs incorporate different patterns of Rocks and Gems, or possibly different body types or face shapes. 

#10 - Moblins

I’m not sure if I actually prefer these guys over previous Moblin incarnations, which were certainly a lot more intimidating than these dopey looking dorks. But where the old Moblins had intimidation, these new guys have style. Their elongated bodies and stretched limbs give them a unique, vaguely neanderthal look, and there’s a lot of nice little details in their coloration, like brightly colored tongues and markings that get more complicated as they reach stronger levels. The face is the real highlight of the design though, as the mix of the long snout, tiny eyes, and protruding horn somehow make these creatures look simultaneously threatening and goofy, like some sort of cross between an aardvark and a dinosaur. This also brings the design down a bit unfortunately, as the result is a monster that’s not quite intimidating enough to be memorable but not charming enough to be used in merchandising. Still, a pretty solid design.

#9 - Wizzrobe

Much like the Moblins, the Wizzrobe’s face is what really makes this design work. Most of the Wizzrobe’s body is wrapped in an (obviously wizard-inspired) cloak, complete with gloves and a hood to keep almost every part of its body a mystery. Under the hood we see mostly shadow, but if you get close enough you’ll be able to see undefined, glowing red eyes, and a big old slasher smile. These are all staple horror designs, and for good reason. The glowing eyes convey the animalistic nature of the design, the coverings add to the sense of unease at the unknown, and the smile tops it off with an unhinged madness. That being said the Wizzrobes don’t actually come off as that scary, they’re relatively short, they move in a flouncing, skip-like manner, and you can see their knobby little legs coming out from their robe. They have child-like wands rather than staffs, and the general feel you get from them is more mischievous than threatening. This fits well into the type of game BotW is, and is generally just a fun design. There’s nothing super unique about it, but the elements work well together. 

PART 2 here- https://awwrealmonsters.tumblr.com/post/613983194298073088/top-12-breath-of-the-wild-monsters-part-2-of-2

[octavoh]

heard you had an Octavo AU and I'm curious: Is he a puppet of Vaati ? Who hurt this poor boy™ and what is this AU about?

OHHH???? YOU’RE APPROACHING ME??????????

I AM VERY GLAD YOU ASKED BECAUSE BOY DO I HAVE A LOT OF CONTENT… 

So the premise of the AU is that Vaati shares a body with Octavo due to some kind of curse. There’s a lot more below, including art for the AU. Please talk to me about it anytime!

I’m copy/pasting this from a doc. My notes are kind of incoherent, as I haven’t solidified the storyline too much (and most of them are just from me rambling on discord). 

Context for the AU:

Vaati dies at the hands of the Hero in the Minish Cap. When he’s defeated, he casts a curse that binds his soul to a vessel. I don’t know what the parameters for the curse are, but it binds Vaati’s soul to Octavo’s.

Octavo knows that Vaati’s sharing a body with him, and Vaati can appear as an apparition to him. And since Octavo is born a few years after the events of MC he knows who Vaati is. That makes Octavo isolate himself, so at the point where shit goes down he lives as a hermit in the middle of the Minish Woods. He is, however, also a traveling musician who hoards instruments in his house.

16 years after Octavo’s birth, Ganondorf invades and takes over Hyrule. Both the king and queen -MC Zelda and Link- die at his hands. (They were barely adults at this point :(  ) However, their daughter, Zelda, escapes with Impa. 

And the plot:

The actual plot takes place 6 years after the fall of Hyrule. It’s anarchy, monsters abroad, Gan seeking the princess, etc. Zelda, now disguised as Sheik, takes refuge in Octavo’s house while being hunted by monsters. I made comic thumbnails about it. Click on the link to see ‘em

So Tavo opens up the door and hes like “bruh wtf” at all the monsters… and gets his ass beat. When Tavo’s knocked out, Vaati takes the chance to blast the monsters away (but doing so takes up most of the power he’s accumulated over Tavo’s lifetime, RIP).

Sheik sees this all happen. They know that Tavo’s gonna have a target on his back due to both his appearance (Since his color palette is kinda sheikah-like. I don’t know. It’s the pale hair) and, he just obliterated like half a platoon of monsters. 

In the meantime, Ganondorf senses Vaati’s magic outburst. He takes it as a sign of the princess’s return, and mobilizes his forces.

Sheik and Tavo end up travelling together. This is a rash decision on Sheik’s part; they know that they could’ve left him behind without endangering him. However, Tavo’s also the only person they’ve really interacted with in three years and both of them are starved for human contact, so they end up clinging to each other.

For a while, they just travel without purpose, helping whatever people they meet on the way. (At this point they also hear about the Link of this AU. I’m still not sure where I’ll implement him and how, though, so I won’t elaborate rn.)

Then they meet [NAME PENDING]. He’s a suspicious old man that Tavo and Sheik just. Keep. Meeting. Eventually, the man confronts the duo. He’s the guide of the story, and tells Sheik about their mission and how they can defeat Ganon. He tells them to find Link.

Congratulations! [NAME PENDING] joined your party! 

… Kind of. He disappears for days at a time. (Eventually, days become weeks. Weeks become months. Months become never again.)

And another major event that happens early on: while Tavo and Sheik are off adventuring, Tavo fucking dies. It’s probably not even a heroic death he just trips on a moblin or something.This activates an aspect of Vaati’s curse. 

So Vaati and Tavo make a pact (a la Ava’s Demon) before their souls really die. I’m still figuring out what exactly they promise each other. 

This is what the pact does, though: 

- Vaati takes somewhat of a “backseat”. However, if it’s necessary, he can take over Tavo’s body for a while. (Doing so puts immense strain on Vaati and he can’t do anything for a while).

- It lets Tavo and Vaati communicate via dreams. 

- Vaati also surrenders his magic power to Tavo (until the pact is … accomplished? Its conditions are met?) but Tavo, being a dumbass… doesn’t find this out till later. 

- It changes Tavo’s appearance… dyes the dude purple. 

- Vaati’s powers magically amplify Octavo’s music, letting him summon monsters and manipulate the elements (to an extent) with it. I might give him the wind waker because it’s the perfect weapon for Tavo (Is baton, has wind powers).

The rest goes something like this:

- Old man disappears altogether. 

- The party finds Link. (Link is a soldier who was chosen by the Triforce of Courage after his predecessor, MC Link, died in battle. He leads somewhat of a one-man rebellion against Ganon.)

- Link also remembers all his past lives (Granted, there aren’t many of them at this point in the timeline.) This includes MC Link. 

- Link is immediately hostile towards Octavo. Their animosity is probably going to be a major arc in the story. (…I’m probably not going to write it. F)

- Sheik and Tavo fight Link at some point when Link attacks Tavo. Eventually they get along and travel together lol

Also I think that the stuff that happens when the party gets to Hyrule Castle deserves its own section so it’s here. My notes also get a lot more incoherent from this point on, so beware

- As Tavo, Sheik, and Link gradually approach Hyrule Castle, they notice something different. The (Hylian + some Gerudo) citizens are happy and healthy. The castle is not in ruins. There are no monsters. It’s eerily idyllic.

- The castle is surrounded by an aura of malice, but everything else is peaceful.

- When they enter the Castle, the staff seem mostly be Gerudo. They welcome the party warmly. (The party is literally just waiting for the sneak attack, but it never comes).

- I don’t know what these are but they’re probably quotes/explanations from people in the castle

- “Six years ago, our king, Ganondorf Dragmire, came to Hyrule. Contrary to what you think, we did come in peace; we were to strike a trade agreement benefitting both our nations. During the last few days of negotiation, Ganondorf fell to a bout of madness- some sort of possession. Nobody had seen anything like it before.”

- “He came back to his senses to discover the blood of a thousand Hylians on his hands.”- [bitterly] “He still disappears to who-knows-where, only communicating with us by notes. We are doing the best we can to make amends for his own actions.”

- [From… Nabooru?] “I grew up with him as a child. He is hiding himself because he thinks- no, he knows- he will hurt others.“ 

And stuff from/about Ganondorf:

- Gan does his best to keep the will of Demise at bay.

- The Thing Happened when he touched some evil artifact in the Hyrule Castle vaults, which enabled Demise to use him and wreck shit up

- Gan has been researching the triforce to better understand what happened to him and learns about the Link/Zelda/Gan cycle thing.

- So the party meets Gan. Link’s in FIGHT mode from the start- Sheik and Tavo recognize Gan’s voice. Oh, wait. That old man…. Huh……..

- They fight and you can see that Gan’s holding back. But before Link can deal the finishing blow Gan goes apeshit because he can’t hold back Demise’s spirit anymore

- Cue epic boss fight but it’s sad because oh man that’s the old dude

- I know i mentioned [NAME PENDING] for like 2 lines but he’s an integral part of the story and becomes a little bit like a father figure to Sheik (and a lesser extent, Tavo). So they’re fighting a close friend. it’s not fun.

- By the end of the battle everyone’s exhausted, triforce pops out and forms that wish-granting triangle thing

- Guess who boops it. Surprise mothafucka, it’s Vaati (having taken over Tavo’s body.)

- He does the evil speech thing and taps the triangle with malicious intent. But there’s been a Vaati redemption arc throughout the story where he learns to empathize with people and become a decent dude. And though his wish sounds evil, but the interpretation is surprisingly neutral/good because his heart’s not really in it, so to speak. i havent even decided to use that particular event or not, though.

I’ve got a doc (It’s kinda inconsistent with what’s here. I need to update it)

And refs! 

Tavo:

Sheik/Zelda:

Link:

Headshots of Octavo, Sheik, and Link respectively:

Yeah! Thanks for reading through all this; I’m really glad you asked!!