#but all the photos were taken by zelda oh godddd

[sortarapunzel]

going back to zeldas house after doing all of the stable quests and getting horrifically emotional about recognizing what the pictures are capturing now

[dont-ever-forget-the-tears]

I’ve been too busy playing for an update. I guess I should fix that.

After my earlier adventure into unknown territory ended in a terrified retreat, I got myself back on the proper path and arrived in Hateno Village. Before I checked out the lab, I explored the village and found a nice dye shop that could dye my outfit, so I experimented with that. And then I found this very obviously gay guy:

He was a builder and he and his people were tearing down this unused house. And there was an offer among the conversation options to buy it from him? Of course, it was waaaay too expensive... But Bolson offered to bring the price down to 3000 if Link also brought him 30 bundles of wood. ...Which was still too expensive at this point in time. I explored the town some more and discovered a furnace with blue fire. There were a bunch of torches around town, so I set about lighting them all, and eventually found my way up to the lab where I was actually supposed to be going and lit the furnace there. That was apparently what I was supposed to do, because the little girl inside commented on it. And she recognised Link!

This little cutie was actually over 100 years old! She looked like a kid because of an experiment gone wrong, which I found out by reading her diary was because she had tested an anti-ageing rune on herself. Which she had been working on use on old soldiers to build up the Hyrulean army before Calamity Ganon arrived. And she’s the one who put Link in the Shrine of Resurrection and, as I later found out, Impa’s older sister! Using the power from the furnace I fixed, she repaired Link’s Sheikah Slate which added the Camera and Hyrule Compendium. There were a bunch of photos already on it, and Purah said that Zelda had probably taken them, and directed Link back to Impa for more info. She could also upgrade some of the slate’s features for Guardian parts! The only one I couldn’t upgrade was Stasis because I had never even seen the Ancient Cores required. And speaking with her assistant linked my Sheikah sensor with the Hyrule compendium so that I could take photos of things and then use the sensor to search for them! A very handy feature. :3

At this point I thought I’d try out some of my amiibo. Obviously, the first was my Wolf Link amiibo, which I made sure had full hearts the day before I got this game. I tried out the Smash Zelda amiibo I had too, and they gifted treasure and resources. But I got something special from the Link one:

So I took her to the stables and:

So I’m guessing this is why there were conflicting reports about Epona being in the game. She’s only in it if you scan her in. (Presumably. I don’t know if you can find her somewhere else and this is a way to get her early.) Also:

Hee.~ I returned to Kakariko, and Impa suggested visiting the places where the pictures were taken in order to see if it’d help his memory return. While I was in the village, I found this guy who had a lead on where one could find a Great Fairy who was said to reside nearby. He wanted a picture of her fountain in exchange for the information. I found her easily enough, but her power was much reduced. She wanted 100 Rupees to restore her power, and fortunately I had more than enough to do it. And it’s just as well, because she provides a valuable service:

Handy.~ After those enhancements, I returned to the guy and showed him the picture. I was also able to show him another picture, one of the ones that Zelda took. He was able to identify the place as being at the base of Mount Lanayru to the north. I’d also come across another person who had suggested that Mount Lanayru was important: there was a Spring of Wisdom up there said to have been used by Zelda herself.

But instead of going there, I wanted to explore the western regions of the map. While I was heading there, I found a sidequest involving these guys looking for treasure:

lol. And!!! While I was investigating that, this happened:

YOU CAN RIDE BEARS!!! ...Of course, you can’t register them at the stable and they’ll run off as soon as you jump off, but it’s still fun! Anyway, I moved on to the west and ended up near Lake Hylia. And it was around that area that I stumbled on my first memory, completely by accident. I spotted a glowing area and went up to investigate. And it triggered a memory of Link and Zelda taking shelter from the rain. Link was practising with his sword, and Zelda complimented his commitment to his training.

And then she asked what if, one day, he decided that he wasn’t meant to be a fighter, but people around him said that because he’d been born into a family of the Royal Guard, he had to become a knight no matter what. And... Yeah, you’re talking more about yourself here, aren’t you? :(

Also, speaking of Lake Hylia, look what I spotted there:

DRAGON!!! ...I wasn’t sure if it’d try to fight me or not, so I went carefully around the lake. Further along I found some guys camping. One of them mentioned rumours about a GIANT HORSE which I just had to investigate. ...Of course, the guy also mentioned seeing a monster that looked a lot like a horse when he went to check it out himself, which meant a LYNEL. So I took the careful route of approaching from the mountaintop and sure enough there were TWO Lynels along the way. At the dead end of the area, I found the largest herd of horses I’d seen so far, along with one big one, and went down to try to catch him. But he was clever and always ran off when I got close, even when I was sneaking up.  Eventually I went back up the mountain and glided down onto his back from there. I required a Stamina Elixir to break him, but in the end I was successful!

This one is very obviously a descendant of Ganondorf’s horse! Of course, I then had a new problem: this beast of a horse would not go faster than a canter, and I had two Lynels to get past to get it out of here. Instead of doing that, I tried forcing him up the mountain, bit by bit, and I successfully got him out of there! And I found another stable nearby to register him at! I called him Demise. :) At that stable, I also did a little horseriding minigame that got me a fancy new saddle and bridle to use, and there was a girl there who would swap out gear and change your horse’s mane, so I prettied Boon up:

Couldn’t change anything about Epona though. (Not that I’d really want to!) There are also options to give your horse a mane in blue and pink etc, it’s amazing. I also found a new GreatFairy Fountain in this area. The fairy there needed 1000 Rupees to regain her power, but she also provides a valuable service:

I wandered around this area a bit more. I explored Faron Woods for a bit and found Lake Floria, where I spotted that dragon again. There was another stable in that area. And I found a nice little fishing village further along the path, and did some sidequests there. Then I returned to Lake Hylia and went north.

Up there I found another stable, and that guy from Kakariko again. He looked at another of my pictures and directed me to some nearby ruins. Another person mentioned a white horse belonging to the royal family being there too, so I went to check it out. I caught the horse first and took her back to the stable:

I named her Hylia to go with my Demise. :) When I showed her to the guy who told me about her, he gave me the royal saddle and bridle to put on her! Then I returned to the area to find the memory spot. It featured Link and Zelda riding their horses, and Zelda thanked Link for giving her advice on how to handle her mount. Then things got serious, and she talked about praying at the springs of Power and Courage, and how they hadn’t awakened anything within her. But she had hopes for the third:

After this I took a good look at the pictures to see if I could identify where some of them might be. One of these was obviously Gerudo in origin, so I took it as an excuse to head out to the desert. Sure enough, I found a stable along the way and Pikango was there again and pointed me to Kara Kara Bazaar, an oasis outside of Gerudo Town. And at the stable, I spotted my first Gerudo lady:

Oh yeah... I know all about them. One thing I learned on my exploration was to always be wary of unnamed travellers. Because they are always not what they seem. They take on the guise of regular people you may spot on the road, but when you speak with them they’ll fight you because they’re actually from the Yiga Clan, a bunch of Sheikah who split from their people to serve Ganon. But they always give Rupees and bananas after you defeat them, so they’re worth fighting. ...The first one I fought took me by surprise and nearly killed me, though.

On my way out into the desert, I ran into this lady:

Different body types among Gerudo... :’) When I approached the Bazzar I got my first look at one of the Divine Beasts:

Of course, I didn’t go anywhere near it. I went to the Bazzar and found the memory spot. It was a memory of Zelda being attacked by the Yiga Clan, and Link swooping in to protect her:

I went around talking to people, and found a Goron and a Rito, and this OLD Gerudo lady:

And I spoke with a Gerudo who was looking for the love of her life and was disappointed that no men saw the appeal in her tailoring abilities. She gave the exposition about how men are rarely born into the Gerudo and how they have to travel to find mates. Also, this lady is relatable:

After I finished exploring this place, I took another look at the photos and left to find another place. I did think about continuing on to Gerudo Town, but that would’ve required some heat resisting clothing or food, which I did not have. I checked out a spot I thought I could manage to find because Hyrule Castle was in the background and after narrowly avoiding a Guardian, I found it! It was a memory of a ceremony for Link as the chosen hero. Zelda was reciting some words as he knelt before her, and all of the Champions were there too. And Zelda looked STUNNING:

SPEAKING OF GORGEOUS WOMEN:

Oh my godddd. Oh my gooooddddd holy shit i’m in love. Those muscles tho shit my god. Please take me now.

...aNYWAY. The Champions were watching the ceremony and Revali said that he was on the same page as the princess regarding Link, suggesting that Zelda didn’t really like him. And then Urbosa said Zelda saw Link as “ a living reminder of her own failures”?

After this, I thought I should return to Impa to see if she had anything to say about my progress, and she gave me a gift!

I returned to the road and found Hestu again near a stable! He’d tried to find his way back to the forest, but had gotten lost. He expanded my inventory a few more times before he remembered where to go and left again. And I found Pikango again and was pointed to another memory. In this one, Link and Zelda were headed to Goron City, and Zelda was talking about making adjustments to Daruk’s Divine Beast. And then she stopped and asked Link if he could hear the voice of the Master Sword on his back.

And I was pointed to another memory, and this one hurt so badly. Link and Zelda were fleeing, and Link lost his grip on Zelda’s hand. Zelda was despairing. The Guardians and Divine Beasts had turned against them. Mipha, Urbosa, Revali, and Daruk were all trapped in their Divine Beasts and she and Link had fled and left everyone to die. She blamed herself:

I hope all those people who saw her like this in the trailer and called her a weak crybaby without understanding what she was going through are having really bad days. 

I explored more after this and found the Lost Woods. I tried to find my way through it, but the fog kept rolling in and sending me back to the entrance. I gave up eventually. I’m sure I’ll find some hint about the correct pathway somewhere... And I found another memory of Zelda patching Link up after a battle, and look at all those monsters he destroyed, holy shit:

Zelda talked about her fear that the increase of powerful monsters was an omen of Calamity Ganon’s return.

After all this, I ended up returning to Hateno Village and buying that house! And then I could buy some furnishings for it. After I bought him out, Bolson added a heap of additional furniture for the place for free, and I ended up with this:

From here, I figured I should probably finally head up to Mount Lanayru to find this memory. ...Of course, since I approached from Hateno, I ended up missing the gate I was looking for and just went straight up the mountain. As I approached the peak, the music started to get ominous, and I thought that was a weird change. But once I actually got there, I realised why:

A voice from the goddess statue here said that the dragon was Naydra. It was supposed to be an attendant of the spring, but it had been infected by Ganon’s Malice. After I shot one of the eyeballs on it’s head, it took off flying, and I had to fly after it to continue destroying the Malice on it’s body. It was a very athesetically pleasing battle, but not much of a fight. After I destroyed all the Malice, it was free:

I was told to shoot an arrow at it and, when I did, a scale dropped lose. I was then instructed to offer that scale to the statue, and that unlocked a new shrine! Seeing Naydra made me realise that the dragon I had seen at Lakes Hylia and Floria must be the Faron dragon, and I probably have to do the same with one of it’s scales at the Shrine of Courage. I’m pretty sure that dragon isn’t infected with Malice though, so it should be easier to claim a scale from it. Finding the shrine is probably the difficult part...

After this, I headed back down the mountain and found the gate I was looking for. There was a memory about Link and Zelda returning from Mount Lanayru to the waiting Champions, and it was revealed that Zelda felt nothing at the Shrine of Wisdom either. Urbosa comforted her, and Mipha spoke for the first time, trying to offer Zelda some help by describing what she thinks about when she’s healing, but they were interrupted by a tremor. Revali flew into the air to take a look around, and Calamity Ganon had returned and was at the castle. Revali flew down to relay this news, and Daruk spurred everyone into action. Urbosa wanted to protect Zelda:

But Zelda was not in favour of that idea:

This got long, so I think I’ll stop here. I also found out that one of the memory spots is actually at Hyrule Castle, but there’s no way I’m heading anywhere near that place yet.