#but that really shows the level of Mipha's care for Link

[sunset-peril]

The reason Mipha made Link the Zora Armor even without being in an established relationship with him was directly related to Link's place in the Wolfbred society and the Wolfbred at the time. Primarily, the fact that Wolfbred don't require any sort of dating relationship before marriage/matehood like other tribes do. They tend to select their life partners from the pool of people they were raised around. And Mipha knew this because the Zora and Wolfbred were close allies. Wolfbred males aren't biologically compatible with Zora females due to the sheer difference of their reproductive systems (primarily that, without being too graphic, the Wolfbred reproduce through pregnancy and the Zora by egg laying) and the Wolfbred's literal genetic modification (which of course affects how they reproduce in general) locking them to only be viable to other Hylian-based races like the Sheikah, Gerudo and of course, Hylians. However, Link was in a desperate place for a mate, and the Tribe was just as desperate for him, so Mipha decided that (due to Wolfbred culture) she'd decide to shoot her shot.

After all, the Wolfbred tend to select mates from their childhood friends/acquaintances.

if you see this reblog with a fun fact about your WIP (world-building, lore, characters, anything!)

[airplanned]

Castletown Academy 3

Link’s friends are...hesitant.

I love all these characters, they’re all trying their best.

---

"Mipha!  Daruk!" Flora charged out of her room to be hoisted into the air by the Goron before he'd even made it through the front door of the apartment.  "Guess what.  I'm getting a brother!"

Welp.  There went the careful explanation Link had practiced.

"Is that right?" Daruk asked, lowering her to the floor and bending down to listen to her at eye level.

"Yes.  His name is Ralphie, and he plays the piano, and he likes to read, and he likes strawberry ice cream, and he doesn't talk much."

Daruk nodded as if taking her very seriously, while also obviously not believing a word she said.  "Wow.  Strawberry, huh?"

"He's small, but he'll grow, but probably not as much as Sidon."

"It would be hard to grow as big as Sidon.  He's quite tall," Mipha said.    She gave Flora an indulgent smile and leaned in to give Link a hug.

"And we're going to live in his back yard."

Link couldn't let that one pass.  "We're not living in his yard.  We're going to live in an apartment."

Flora corrected herself.  "An apartment in his yard."

"Technically yes, but don't tell people that."

Mipha gave him a questioning look, her smile flickering in confusion.  Daruk stood, rubbing his chin.  "You're moving? What's all this now?"

Link cleared his throat.  "Can we talk in the kitchen?  I have to stir the sauce."  This gave him twenty whole seconds to piece his explanation back together, but also twenty whole seconds to panic.  His friends were going to tell him this was a terrible idea, because it was a terrible idea, and he knew it and didn't want to hear it.

He stirred the sauce and Mipha and Daruk slid up to the passthrough to watch him.  It was like they couldn't decide if they should be bemused or concerned and the longer he waited, the more they leaned towards concern.

"You know how I told you about the trouble we're having finding a school?"  He darted his eyes in Flora's direction.  He didn't want to talk about his money problems in front of her.  He didn't want her to feel guilty at all or ashamed.  His friends caught the look and nodded in understanding.

"Well, I met this other single parent, and she's trying to get her kid in too.  And it turns out that it's easier for siblings to get in together.  So...we're teaming up."

"Teaming up?" Daruk asked.

"You're adopting her son?" Mipha asked, looking aghast.

"No.  No no.  Step siblings."

They blinked at him.

"We're getting married."

They blinked at him again.

Daruk was the first to regain the power of speech.  "Well, that's one way to do it, I guess.  Congratulations?"

"Congratulate Flora.  She got her acceptance letter today."  He grinned at her, and she bounced on her heels.

"Well!" Daruk said.  "That's great news!  Well done, Little Pebble!"

"Daddy made a cake!"

"We're very proud of you," Mipha said.  But then she gave Link a look from the corner of her eye.  "And...Ralphie?  He got his acceptance too?"

"Yep.  Oh!  Let me show you."  He pulled out his slate and pulled up the picture Zelda had texted him of Ralphie absolutely beaming after getting his acceptance letter.

For a moment everyone cooed over him.

Then Mipha looked up, "And...the problem you were having?"

"Ralphie's mom--Zelda--she's taking care of it."

"Taking care of it."

"Yeah.  Everybody wins."

"How about that!" Daruk said.  "If everybody wins, then everybody wins."  He elbowed Mipha a bit roughly and gave Link his biggest grin.

Mipha did not.

"RahRah, why don't you go show Daruk how your ficus is doing," Link said.

"That I'd love to see."  Daruk offered Flora a thick finger, which she took to drag him back to her room.  On the way out, he murmured to Mipha, "Careful now."

When they were alone, Link sighed.  "They're a really sweet family, Mipha.  The kid's selectively mute.  He was getting bullied so bad at his last school that he needs to get out."

Her look softened.  "He seems very sweet."

"Yeah."

"And his mother?"

"His mother is grateful that we could help get him in."

"So grateful that she's paying for both kids?"

"Yeah."  And his rent, but he wasn't going to mention that.

"And you don't see this as her paying you to marry her?  Holding Flora's education over your head?"

"What?  It's not like that at all."

"Then what's it like?"

"It's like we're both desperate to take care of our kids.  We both have what the other needs, and we're both trying to hold it together, and we're trying to be as professional as possible."

"You're calling a marriage professional.  You can see why that worries me.  You wear your heart on your sleeve, and if you let yourself fall, you fall hard.  That's why you haven't let yourself date since--"

"I'm not dating Zelda.  We're doing a legal thing.  It's not romantic."

"Are you sure it's not romantic for her?"

"I'm positive."

"Are you sure she's not hoping for it?  Are you sure you're not hoping for it?"

He rolled his eyes so he could look away.

"You're sure she's not going to break your heart?"

"There's not a lot there to break."

She scoffed.  "That's nonsense and you know it.  You have so much love to give.  Look, you're already pouring it out on this little boy.  Do you really think you won't latch onto his mother too?  I know you.  You're a little tender and a lot desperate, and that seems like a situation in which someone could easily take advantage."

He turned back to stir his sauce.  "We're both well aware."  His eyes glazed over as he stirred.  "That's why we're being professional.  That's why we're being careful.  She's desperate too, and I think she's also in a tender place.  I don't know.  She gets it, and I...I trust her."

Mipha bit her lower lip and nodded.  "Okay.  I'm here for you.  I'm only voicing my concerns because I care."

"I know."  He smiled at her, but then broke into a grin.  "I bet Sidon offers to throw me a bachelor party."

Giving a dainty shrug, she said, "I am the lone voice of reason."

An elaborate rhythm beat out on the front door before Sidon burst in, carrying a bottle of wine and a jar of hummus.

"Sidon!" Flora shouted.  "I got into Castletown Academy, and daddy's getting married, and I get a new brother!"

"What?"  Sidon hefted her into his arms and blinked at her once.

Then his face split into a sparkling grin full of teeth.  "What wondrous news!  Congratulations!  I should have brought better offerings!  Link, my good friend, where are you?"

Link laughed as he left the kitchen to accept a squeezing hug.

Behind him, Mipha rubbed the bridge of her nose.

[awkwardspontaneity]

The heavenly Sword and the "Ballad of the Goddess" prompted me to another request. How would the Champions from Botw react to the fact that the reader is a goddess, and she is Hylia's sister. She owns the precious triforce, which passed to her long ago after the death of Hailya as an inheritance. Thank you again ( ╹ ▽ ╹ )

Heyo!! Sorry this took me so long school and work has been a lot lately. Anyways this is a joint headcannon for the Champions as a whole so enjoy!!

I'm gonna make this an age of calamity timeline sort of because some things will change with you around

First of all, you were a wandering goddess, helping out where you could without using your full power. Without the Triforces power you were strong but you preferred to allow humanity to solve their own problems. With a little heavenly guidance

Your main power that you used was music. You could play a melody on your flute and it would guide a person's soul, helping them to understand their desires and purpose.

With calamity rising once again you decided to investigate the castle where you knew Ganon would strike. What you weren't prepared for was the organization of the Champions to be in the castle and for the princess to notice you.

You had snuck to the lowest levels of the castle with your little egg friend to try and place a seal that would hold Ganon back as long as you could when you felt her.

This girl looked so much like your beloved sister, but the aura told you all you needed to know. This was her. Your sister reincarnated once again

Behind her stood a member of each kingdom scattered across Hyrule. You easily connected them as the elite guard you had heard whispers of.

It took some convincing but with a show of your powers and carefully sharing your aura with Zelda, although you had to approach like they were scared animals when faced with the protective circle around the princess.

Zelda was the first to trust you, although your little guardian may have seriously helped with the process. You allowed her to spend all the time she wanted with it and you got to know eachother.

Zelda confessed to you about her struggles with her powers and you declared you would do everything in your power to help unlock hers.

It took time but you managed to help her learn. It came down to her accepting a lot of emotions she had pushed down and finally allowing herself to be free of expectations. Yeah. Not an easy task. But you managed to help her feel confident and your efforts were greatly appreciated by her and the ones who cared for her.

In the beginning you would have to play your flute to allow her to find that inner harmony and then she could use her powers of light

Urbosa was someone who came around pretty fast. She has this mom instinct and despite you being thousands of years older her brain saw you and Zelda giggling as you did research in the fields and her brain went ah yes. Another child to take care of.

She also has a really good judge of character and do she knew immediately you only had the best intentions.

Mipha loved to hear your stories. You once found her talking to Vah Rutah and you mentioned that her ancestor Ruto would be proud of the Champion she became. Mipha asked to hear about stories and you gladly obliged with her wishes. Telling her all about the young Zora sage and how she had fallen in love with the hero too.

Mipha saw you as a mentor person and you would share your knowledge of her kind and you would help her perfect her ability with her trident. With your help she learned to defend against any attack and to carry that confidence into her life outside of battle.

Revali was a tricky one to get close to. He didn't trust you and the closer you got to the other the more he came to resent your presence. It wasn't until he found you atop Hebra peaks playing the flute when he finally allowed himself to get close.

The Rito are a musical people, not that Revali would ever allow others to witness his incredible prowess (yes that's a quote). But seeing you nestled in the snow playing that melody, each snowflake twirling around you as if by your command. He understood why everyone was so in awe of you.

Soon enough, Revali would meet you in the highest peaks of the Hebra mountains to play together. He would confess how he wished he could do more than play the side character but you would remind him that without his assistance Link and Zelda would never be able to defeat Ganon. His role was not small or unimportant nor was he.

Daruk may have been the easiest to befriend. You visited Death mountain and there was a rockslide. You punched one of the rocks splitting it into pieces and the big man was your new bestie.

Not to mention that super spicy marinade for a tasty rock made him know you were as stand up as they come

Honestly you and Daruk could be a dangerous combination. Super powerful dirty meets indestructible shield. You once blasted his shield with you powers and sent him bouncing down the mountain. He was fine but you were both banned from hanging out without supervision.

Link was one person who could not be that supervision. He tried his best to be the stoic hero everyone expected of him but if you three were alone together, the brain cells ran away fast.

To be fair it was a great combination in battle. You could use stasis on Daruk and Link would hit him as hard as he could creating a meteor of mass destruction barreling into your enemies.

After a battle you all would have a camp out where you and Link would work perfectly together to whip up something mouth watering. You had millions of recipes from your time wandering and just as many stories to tell around the fire.

It took time and convincing, but you managed to get each champion to bring along an instrument and play through the night. Sometimes Daruk would get a little crazy with a drum solo or Revali would get snarky if he felt like he was being stared at but eventually you would all relax. You would lead a melody and they would all fall into step bringing forth a tube that could bring a year to your eye or convince you to dance.

It wasn't long before Ganon came forth, malice reaching out across the land and taking hold of guardians and Divine Beats alike

Using the power of the Triforce you placed protection on each of the Champions. They would be unable to die until the sun rises

With your divine blessings and the power of the Triforce you were able to grant the Champions a boost on their strength and powers. You focused all you had on protecting them from injury and fatigue.

Unfortunately the sun would rise soon

With the help of your little Guardian you tapped into the warp pads on each Divine Beast and teleported yourself, Link, and Zelda to them.

Each battle was draining on your powers, you had extended you halo of protection to all of Hyrule. No citizen would die while you were watching over them.

Finally the Champions we're ready to face Ganon. Together you and Zelda merged you powers to trap him in a bubble of light. The Champions locked the Divine Beasts onto the beast and blasted him. You forced him into his beastly pig form where Link and Zelda together could finish the battle

Powered by the Guardians blasts you created a gate around the fight keeping him contained. Using your flute, you played a rythm to confuse Ganon.

With the Master sword and the bow of light, Ganon was finally defeated.

Hyrule was saved and you were finally done with your goal. You giggled as your egg teleported the Champions together to celebrate.

You were tired from the long battle but happy nonetheless. As you watched the Champions celebrate- even Revali grudgingly allowed Daruk to ruffle his feathers- you smiled. You thought of your sister as you watched over her creations and you knew she would be proud.

[divetothefandom]

Legend of Zelda Boys | All

Alright, favorite game of everyone:

Haru: Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, there’s just a lot of water, he’s also the weird kid that really likes the water temples in Zelda games.

Rin: Majora’s Mask, the stories of mourning helped him a lot when he was in his own duel.

Makoto: I want to say Ocarina, but a lot of shit could scare him (looking at you Shadow Temple), so maybe Minish Cap and Four Sword Adventures

Sousuke: A Link to the Past HE’S A MAN OF CULTURE, OKAY?! And he probably likes the Oracle games too.

Nagisa: Link’s Awakening (Rin cries at the ending)

Rei: Twilight Princess IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL

Asahi: I see him getting fired up with the previous roasters of Hyrule Warriors.

Ikuya: Skyward Sword because the love story is adorable.

Hiyori: probably just does some minigames like Tingle’s games.

Momo: He gives me Link Between World Vibes to brag that the saved 2 worlds but wouldn’t actually do the Oracle games.

Nitori: Fucking Triforce Heroes, everyone is just what?!? I feel like someone showed them to him as a joke, but he really liked it.

Kisumi: Skyward Sword because he think it's the funniest.

Natsuya: Twilight Princess because he thinks it's the scariest and he likes the thrill.

Nao: Minish Cap, it's challenging and fun but lighthearted.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Okay, ever since the first Breath of the Wild trailer dropped, the squad is hyped, just AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! They all waited for it to come out and they adored it.

Everyone can agree that Breath of the Wild is cool as fuck.

They made a race to finish it's main story and then to get all the shrines and stuff.

Everyone teasing Rin because he looks a lot like Sidon UwU

Makoto loves the side quests because the town is happier.

Haru is mad because their is no underwater gaming.

They cry at the dead champions.

They argue about the ending because they wanted a happier ending like in Minish Cap or Ocarina of Time where everything is fixed at the end.

Haru probably had a crush on Mipha/Sidon (whatever suits your view of him, could be both for all I care), like FISH WAIFU?! Yes.

Rin and Makoto have a fucking crush on Urbosa, fite me. Giant powerful god tier woman got them doing oogly eyes.

Rei and Nagisa fighting over Zelink or Miphlink, Rei, sorry we all love Mipha but Zelink for the win.

All trailers since make them lose their minds. The DLC, Age of Calamity and the so awaited sequel. Specially the sequel.

Hyrule Warrios: Age of Calamity

Everyone is excited to see the original invasion but also afraid to see the champions die.

Nagisa is the kind of person who calls Revali “Ravioli.”

They all agree Daruk is best boy and Mipha is baby.

They buy the game and they’re already screaming on the intro.

They’re all taking turns in pairs, either at the chance of the level or at a death.

Alright, your character roaster

Link: everyone, everyone is good with Link

Impa: Nitori is actually very good with her, and they have the same personality.

Zelda: Rei and Nao.

Mipha: Haru, he called dibs, so what you gonna do.

Daruk: Makoto, because big and kind? Of course he likes the Goron. Sousuke is A+ too, absolute tank.

Revali: Rei, Rin and Asahi

Urbosa: Nagisa

Hestu: Momo and Hiyori

Sidon: Haru and Rin fight over him.

Yunobo: Momo and Ikuya

Teba: Natsuya, also everyone finds hilarious how he gets upset about Revali.

Riju: Makoto really likes her because she brought a pet, but Nao uses her best.

Master Kohga: Probably Nagisa as a joke. It also turns big like in the DLC.

King Rhoam: Nitori, I feel like he wants to carry a big sword 7w7.

Great Fairies: Nagisa because he think it’s hilarious, everyone is crying tears of laughter every time they are on screen.

Monk Maz Koshia: Everyone kind of avoids him because they’re not over the DLC, but Seijuro plays it because he loves scarring everyone.

Terrak: Nitori and Makoto

Calamity Ganon: Makoto terrifies everyone by being fucking OP player with the main villain like WHAT?!

They all love Mipha and Daruk, they’re babies.

Ravioli causes mixed opinions but there’s a lot of laughter.

Urbosa has all the room blushing because she’s so cool and pretty.

Hetsu is a silly character they all like

Makoto fired up to help him, “YEAH, I’LL HELP YOU!”.

Encore of confused screaming over the wizard guy like at the trailers.

EXCITED SCREAMING WHEN LINK UNLEASHES THE MASTER SWORD

Battling in the Divine Beasts makes everyone lose their mind

THEY ALL JUST SCREECH

Learning they already knew when Ganon was arriving got them all screaming.

When the Champions are about to die there’s chaos, Rin is crying a river. Everyone is hysterical wanting to know if they can still do something.

Rei and Haru remind them all that they knew it was coming.

OOOH OHOHOHO BUT when you get to have the time crossover to save the champions everyone goes mad.

There’s LOUD screaming everywhere.

There’s a lot of tears of joy.

A lot of question of the timeline’s fate but who the fuck cares we’re saving the babies.

Sidon and Mipha reunited makes everyone emotional 🥺.

He’s so happy to see her… 💖.

There’s an actual group hug when they manage to save the four Champions, tears, and everything. Absolute love.

Rei actually very confused about the timeline split this could cause but…

Shut up Rei they’re all safe, and he doesn’t argue because he actually got too emotionally invested with the character.

Everyone laughing at Teba’s disappointment with Revali’s personality.

The Blood Mood at the final battle has everyone screaming.

They replay the final battles a million times before going to the next one so everyone gets a turn because it’s fucking epic!

As soon as they win, they just fall down almost fainting.

It’s a pure ecstasy trip.

F in the chat for Terrak, they’re all sad, a lot of tears.

DID THEY KILL ZELDA’S PET?!?

“ZELDA KICK THEIR ASSES! AVENGE TERRAK!”

They all go insane with the Calamity Ganon redesign

“WAIT BUT THEN WHAT ARE WE BATTLING IN BREATH OF THE WILD THEN?!”

“DID LINK JUST PARRY A FUCKING BUILDING?!”

“TERRAK IS ALIVE!!!” Everyone is ecstatic until they realize where that scene is going…

Sousuke, Nao and Haru have to console everyone because they’re all crying.

Not even Makoto could help himself.

AVENGE TERRAK encore

Saying goodbye to the future champions is kinda bittersweet.

Sidon: *gets teary*

Everyone: “look, that’s Rin”

Rin’s too busy crying to argue.

But now they’re all alive, this is canon fuck you BOTW

Breath of the Wild's Sequel Trailer

Ever since the first trailer NINTENDO GIVE US THE SEQUEL ALREADY, ALL THE NEW MECHANISH

GANONDORF?!?!?

Ikuya and Kisumi losing their mind because SKYLOFT?!?!?

While everyone is losing their minds over the new mechanics (like Rin with the flamethrower) Haru is praying for underwater gameplay.

Makoto and Nitori probably got scared half of the trailers but are also very excited. Still hug them.

My boys are in tears. All of them.

And just like their last movie, it'll all go down in 2022 😭

[agoldengalaxy]

The Silent Knight

read on Ao3

Zelda hears Link speak for the very first time.

--

Zelda remembered meeting Link all those years ago, filled with a wide range of emotions - some nerves, some fear, some anger - but mostly confusion. To her younger self’s surprise, it was Link’s father who had done all the talking, while the boy stood close, staying in his kneel far too long before his father brought him to stand again.

“Link is an incredibly capable warrior, Your Highness.” The man - whom Zelda vaguely recognized as one of the royal guards - assured Rhoam with a kind smile. “But you see, he…” he paused, looking to his son. Link dropped his gaze to the floor, and the knight continued. “He does not like to speak. Why, even I have only heard him utter but a few words in his fourteen years with me. But I assure you, he will be a great soldier.”

While Rhoam had thought over the offer, Zelda found herself looking curiously at the boy. Doesn’t like to speak? Who didn’t like to talk? She was certainly the opposite, having her handmaidens often tell her to be more ladylike and allow others to speak every now and then. Link looked up and found her staring. His eyes were almost piercing in their blue color - she’d never seen anything like it. Feeling heat rise to her cheeks, she looked away.

The king rose from his throne, stepping down to their level, looking to the soldier. “You’ve served me for many years. Of course I trust your judgement, however…” his gaze fell to the boy, who swallowed and looked up to meet it. “Link, was it? Perhaps you’d show me what you’re capable of, first.”

Smiling, the man put a hand on his son’s shoulder, nodding. “Of course he will.” All of a sudden, the boy’s face hardened, and he nodded. Perhaps he was up for the challenge.

And with that, Rhoam guided them outside, and Link grabbed a training sword. Soldiers willing to participate ran at him, though they seemed to take it easy, at first, due to his young age. They learned very quickly that his age would not stop him. He took on hoards of Hylian soldiers without help, with loud cries of exertion and speed that Zelda had never seen before.

She just couldn’t look away. It was like he was a completely different boy from the mute one she’d only just met. He really was amazing - and as his father had promised, the boy came out on top, breathing hard as the soldiers lay on the ground, breathless. Rhoam, of course, was impressed - how could he not be?

Two years passed before she was told that Link would become her appointed knight. Some part of her was almost happy for the chance to get to know him better - perhaps he might even open up a little. She’d seen him laughing and smiling with other soldiers before, but other than that, he was stoic and silent. It got worse when he received the sword that would seal the darkness. He never smiled when he was around her, he barely showed any sort of emotion. She knew it was because he had the same amount of pressure on him that she had on her.

And yet, she still couldn’t help but be angry. She shouldn’t need her own knight to protect her - she was trusted with the Goddess’ power, she should be able to protect herself, to protect everyone around her. But there was Link, standing in front of her at a moment’s notice, not thinking twice about his own well-being. And he didn’t ever seem to have any trouble.

She took it out on him often. But he just stared blankly, just like he normally did. She didn’t ever seem to have much of an effect, considering no matter how much she shouted or said awful things to him, he still came back to save her, to help her, to occasionally make her laugh. And she was beginning to feel something more for the silent knight, even though he’d never said a single word to her.

“Hey, princess! Snap out of it!”

Zelda blinked out of her memories, finding Impa standing beside her with a hand on her hip, a small smile pulling at her lips. “Impa, I-I apologize, I...got lost in my thoughts for a moment…” she trailed off, her gaze fixated ahead of her.

The sound of Link’s yells filled her ears, something that had become rather familiar, and she sighed softly as she watched. He was training with Mipha and Daruk while Revali stood off to the side, most likely making snide comments to anyone who would listen. Urbosa, of course, waa most likely not listening. Just as he had that day, Link didn’t seem to have much problem fighting. That sword of his...they really did work well together, didn’t they?

“Pardon me for being so blunt, Your Highness, but you seem to get lost in your thoughts a lot while watching Link. Care to divulge?” There was just the smallest hint of smugness in the Shiekah’s tone, but enough to make Zelda’s cheeks grow pink.

She cleared her throat and shook her head. “It’s nothing.” That was true, of course - before, it had all been jealousy, but now it was a mix of jealousy, determination, and...and something she didn’t really want to think about. “I’m going to the Spring of Courage to train,” she decided, mostly because she didn’t want to continue having this conversation, but also because she might as well continue trying to awaken her power. Link and the Champions weren’t giving up, so why should she? As Impa tried to argue, the princess just shook her head. “I’ll be fine, Impa. I promise.”

And with that, she mounted her horse and rode off. To her knowledge, no one knew of her leaving. She hadn’t wanted to break Link’s concentration, and it wouldn't be fair to interfere with his training. So she went alone.

But as she stood in that all-too-familiar cold water, staring up at that stone statue that had never offered her anything no matter how hard she prayed, the distant sound of hooves grew closer. And she sighed, but she smiled, too. Her knight, always coming to her rescue.

She was learning now to be more...empathetic. To understand that he was under pressure too, that he was only carrying out his duty to protect her. It wasn’t his fault. Really, her anger should be directed toward her father, but...that was out of the question for now.

Quiet steps signaled his entrance, and she took a deep breath, then straightened up a little, turning around to face him. Perhaps he’d been expecting an outburst, but she simply greeted him. “Hello, Link. I apologize for running off without telling you. I simply didn’t want to interrupt your training with my own.”

His face was as blank as ever, though she wondered if she imagined the slight twitch to the corner of his lips. Still, he shook his head, which she knew to take as It’s alright.

“I haven’t been making it easy on you, and I apologize. I’m just so…” she trailed off, a gasp escaping her as her arm flung forward in a point. “Link, look out!”

Behind him, a Lynel roared - somehow it had gotten so close to the entrance, it had fit itself through the archway. Link gasped, turning around, and immediately unsheathed the sword. Though she couldn’t see his face, she could imagine it clearly - the way that his eyebrows furrowed and his gaze hardened, just like the day she met him.

All she could do was stand beside the statue, feeling useless, watching as Link hopped around the stone, ran through the water, waiting for an opening to strike at the monster. It charged, and he tried to dodge but moved a moment too late - he was flung across the room, tumbling to the ground without so much as a noise. Zelda filled that empty space with a cry of her own, which caught the attention of the Lynel. Snarling at her, it struck its hooves upon the ground, then charged. Covering her eyes with her arm, she bent down, waiting for the impact -

But there was a quiet grunt and the sound of a sword hitting those tough horns, and she looked up in surprise to see Link standing in front of her, shoulders heaving with how heavy he was breathing but protecting her nonetheless. Glancing over his shoulder, he nodded once, which she knew meant she had to get out of the way. Moving backward, she hid behind the statue and peeked out from behind it, watching him take a deep breath and spin the sword around, earning a pained roar from the Lynel before it fell to the ground, unmoving.

The only sound that filled the spring was his breathing, matched with her own. The sword was sheathed, and he stumbled a little on his feet. “Link!” she cried, racing to him, placing her hands on his shoulders to keep him steady. “Are you alright?! What’s…” she trailed off, noticing a trickle of blood trailing down his right temple. “Y-You’re hurt.” Her voice was small and broken, and she didn’t like it. “We...Let us get you to Mipha. She can help.”

Link nodded, though the action made him wince. She felt even worse. Placing his arm around her shoulders, and one hand on his chest, she guided them both out the door. She would return later to get his horse, but for now he was in no condition to be riding. Helping him up onto her own, she grabbed the reins and headed back to the castle.

Her thoughts raced as the horse galloped. Link lay his head on her shoulder, his grip tight on the saddle. All she could do was murmur, tell him that he was going to be just fine. But she couldn’t help but think it was all her fault. All of this was her fault. It always was.

When they reached the castle, she found the rest of the Champions exactly where she had left them. “Mipha!” she exclaimed, pulling the reins of the horse, feeling her eyes burn, “There was a monster, and I-I...Link hit his head rather hard, please, please help him…”

Urbosa and Daruk exchanged a look, and even Revali was silent for the moment. Mipha nodded, clenching her jaw. “Daruk?”

The Goron nodded, stepping forward to gently take Link from the horse, cradling him carefully so as to not hurt him further. “Easy does it, little guy.” Link’s eyes were half-closed, and Zelda felt her heart break at how small and vulnerable he looked in Daruk’s arms. Almost like that boy she met two years ago.

Sliding off of the horse, she moved to step closer, but Urbosa stopped her. “Give Mipha some space, little bird,” she said gently, though her gaze stayed forward. Even she looked worried - but then again, each of the Champions had taken a liking to Link, besides Revali. And even he looked a little uneasy.

It took awhile, but eventually Mipha stepped back. “He will be alright,” she assured them, her gaze falling upon the princess with a small smile. “He just needs to rest for a little while.”

Zelda felt herself let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and nodded. “Thank you, Mipha.”

Daruk took Link into his arms again, and she guided him toward her own room - after all, he deserved to rest properly in a bed, didn’t he? She thanked the Champion once more before he left, then found herself alone with her knight yet again.

The blood had been cleaned up, though he still looked quite pained, even in sleep. She swallowed, trying to push away her guilt as she stepped forward, gingerly pulling the blankets up to his chest. He didn’t move, and she found herself sitting in the chair beside him, just...watching. The pit in her stomach felt heavier by the minute, and she let out a shaky breath as she leaned forward, gently brushing some hair from his eyes.

What kind of a princess was she? She was supposed to be the one to protect everyone, but people...but Link would keep getting hurt for her.

She sat there for a long while, not sure how much time had passed before a soft groan escaped him and his eyes fluttered open. Immediately he tensed in the unfamiliar environment, and she placed a hand on his arm, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s alright, Link. You’re safe. You’re just in my quarters.”

He blinked up at her, then tried to sit up, his ears reddening at the statement. She knew how unprofessional it was for her own knight to be residing in her bed, but no one would know. Besides, it was perfectly reasonable. She shook her head.

“Please, take it easy. You’re alright. Just lay down, Mipha ordered you to rest.” Upon realizing she wouldn’t take no for an answer, he sighed quietly and lay back down. “Do you remember what happened?” Thinking it over for a moment, he nodded slowly, a hand coming up to touch the temple that had been bleeding earlier. Her guilt resurfaced and she nodded. “Yes, you...saved me again.”

She had to look away, feeling her eyes burn. Closing them so he would not see, she pulled her hand back from his arm and let out a shaky sigh.

“You must be tired of it, Link,” she continued, her lower lip quivering. “Coming to my rescue day after day. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if you simply walked out on my father one day. I’m so sorry I can’t...I can’t do what I’m supposed to do. Everyone’s paying the price for it. I’m just...I’m so useless.”

Staring at the wall, she found herself holding back tears like a child. How she wished things weren’t so difficult - she knew her studies wouldn’t be enough, but…

“You’re not useless.”

Three words, said in a voice she didn’t recognize. Her eyes widened and she gasped, looking over at him. His eyebrows were furrowed and he’d propped himself against the headboard. “Link, you...you spoke !” Now that she thought on it, his father had said something - that Link only spoke to those he was most comfortable with. Did that mean…?

He swallowed, nodding. “It...will be alright.” His voice was soft and pleasant, though scratchy without use. All she could do was stare. “It will come. And I won’t leave.” There weren’t many words to go on, but she could tell they were sincere. And her eyes filled with the tears she had been holding back this whole time, leaning forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder.

She felt him tense beneath her, and hesitant arms came to wrap around her. Hearing words from her silent knight may have been what she needed, after all.

“Thank you…” To know that Link believed in her was good enough for now. He wouldn’t leave. He’d always be there for her.

And she was going to seal Ganon away for good.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

casual anon checkup how you doin

Let’s see, well we just breached 4am, and the sense of urgency to complete some school work has finally kicked in. I got my laptop propped up on the kitchen counter, and I just finished making some houseblend coffee that I loaded with milo powder for “health” purposes. Gotta finish up this AP Stat quiz while pretending I have some semblance of what the hell is going on in the class that I don’t pay attention to. I got my fancy bluetooth headphones that I connect with the wire anyway because I don’t like using up the battery, and I’ve had this acoustic cover of Solitary Warrior Revali looped for a few minutes now--I need those soft vibes to distract me from my thoughts about how the only reason I’ve been so sluggish with my work overall is probably due to years of ingrained perfectionism and inability to adapt my standards to the currently circumstances of the world along with my slightly declining mental health so you know--music’s nice. 

Oh! And my dad got me this electric coaster (as pretentious as that sounds, I know. Leave me and my not-cold drinks alone ok) for the holidays and it matches with my favourite mug that I’m drinking from right now so, it’s the little things :3 Plus, not to derail myself from my school life intentionally, I’ve been working on this sheet music for one of my songs for a few weeks now and it’s starting to actually sounds pretty decent so yaay!! Probably won’t share it for a long time though...I’ve really been only working on it on and off again when I have “free time” [which may or may not just be my online class gym period hey you can’t prove anything to the cops]

Uhhh what else can I shove in here...”How you doin” pfft, I don’t really know how to make this ask funny or entertaining. Well I’ve nearly finished up this zine piece about the Royal Tech Lab so that’s fun (shameless plug for the Memorabillia Zine) aaand, I’m picking my kalimba again to learn Mipha’s theme. About time, cause I have to record shit for the [REDACTED] project I’m working on >:) heh. Oh fucking SHIT now that I think about it I have like three different secret projects I’m working on huh...haven’t even finish the script for that damn au...OK what it, right, “how am I doing” well, I’m doing everything and nothing currently, if that makes any sense. Your possible regrets about sending this to me aside, it feels good to just lay everything on a plate, shit out a post, and then never talk or acknowledge it ever again. It’s like birds, you know how they just take a ten pound shit in the mourning and never look back? (That way they don’t need to go during the rest of the day) That’s what this is, just a giant load of bullshit that I’m gonna set out at 5am and then never look at again. 

You know as unhealthy as it sounds I really do dedicate a lot of time to this blog and this fandom. I mean sure not all of it (arguably any of it) is productive, but hey it’s something. The fuck else am I gonna do with my time...you wake up, you slam your keyboard awake to show up to online class, you take a nap, you spend a few hours keeping up the cishetallo gifted student appearance to your parents and then spend the rest of your time finding enough serotonin on the internet to make your brain work. Hell if I’ve talked to another human being in real life all year. Even my parents just kinda talk about the news and “how was class” during dinner which lasts like 10 minutes. My dad just kinda pisses off to work as soon as breakfast is made, and my mom just kinda stays in her office until everyone’s back and she makes dinner. Wait, that’s a lie, she does talk to me on Sunday mornings when she informs me of how I’ve ruined her day before church. So you know I do prefer it that way anyhow, why the hell would I want to talk with them when I got perfectly entertaining internet companions. What’s a “what scholarship programs are you doing?” to a *checks notifications*, “why are Rito fingers like that if they molt to they just lose the ability to--” god fucking dammit...

So! What were we saying--how am I doing? Welp. Guess it’s up for interpretation cause I sure as hell don’t know the answer to that. The hell would you do with the answer anyway. Pity points, praise points? I don’t particularly care for either. God I just realized you introduced yourself as “casual anon,” HA....apologies this is the opposite of casual isn’t it. Or, well maybe it isn’t. I’m the one just having a nice little chitchat with myself as I sip through my mug o’ caffeine. I might have to add a keep reading bar to this so I don’t blog up the dash, but also that would be ironically humorous to see for such a stupidly small question huh. Idk, contrary to popular belief I don’t have a spine so I’m probably not gonna unload all this shit on my followers like that out of the blue. Hell I’d be surprised if I actually posted this. Then again...5am and vibin with bad decision making.....plus the sentiment of putting something out to be seen is always nice.

You ever watch Bojack Horseman? Fantastic show, it’s just on a whole ‘nother level when it comes to writing. And yeah, I probably should have been watching it in the first place, BUT.............yeah ok there’s real excuse I probably shouldn’t be watching it/have watched it. But there’s this one episode in Season 4 I think? It’s where Bojack gives a eulogy for his mother’s funeral and the entire episode is just that, it’s just this giant monologue of him giving his eulogy. And that episode always facinated me because it is probably the most interesting episode in the entire show and one of my favourites, and like...how did they do that?? How did they make twenty minutes of talking so engaging and entertaining? I mean, yeah, I could probably analyze the pacing and structure to find the answer, and hell if I’ve watch my share of youtube video essays on the subject. But like, just the entire concept that someone had the idea to make 20 minutes of talking an entire episode....that’s just insane (forgive the language). 

It’s one thing to want to talk about yourself for a long time and be interesting, but to pour all kinds of energy to make some made-up fictional character talk about THEMselves for a long period of time...is that sad? Or maybe it’s respectable. /to make an audience care more about something that’s not real rather than you. Well, perhaps that’s selfish thinking. 

Oh! You know what, I just got this super nice message from someone the other day about a Raybands giveaway. Obviously, I’m not in the need for sunglasses during this day and age so I kindly declined and ignore the offer, but it got me thinking: how liked to you have to be in order to sway someone to clicking a random link. Like I’m talking about your friends or something, but like, if you opened your door oneday and Mr. Rogers was there selling clementines, would you buy them? Or if Lin Manuel Miranda offered you a vaccum, would you buy it? What’s the standard of known niceness that constitutes to you complying with what they’re asking? I sure would like to know....not for manipulation purposes but just for...idk, just having that tangibility of something. 

Ah well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw how am i doing. Well I’ll tell you what I’m doing, I’m procrastinating. Procrastinating on work and wips and conversations and dilemmas. You don’t fail all the shots you don’t take afterall *wink wink* aaand for legal reasons that was a joke. Idk, you tell me how I’m doing, fuck if I know. According to this empty mug, I’m doing well, but I also will be doing a piss in the bathroom probably.

[mysterious-prophetess]

Review- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

I’ll admit this here: I’ve never played a regular warriors game. 

I played the previous Hyrule Warriors, but I’ve yet to beat it. I’ll get around to it...eventually.

I also played the CRAP out of Breath of the Wild. It’s now my favorite Zelda game, knocking poor Ocarina of Time of its pedestal.

Ok, they share it, to be perfectly honest. 

Twilight Princess  has sentimental position up with the others because it was the first Zelda game I ever beat. 

The first one I played was A Link to the Past and I was far too little to understand it at the time. 

I digress, I’m here to talk about Age of Calamity. 

I’ll go through a non-spoilery section and then move on to the spoilers in the next bit.

The gameplay was actually pretty fun. Hyrule Warriors could get repetitive, something I’m given to understand is an issue of the main Warriors series. 

Age of Calamity is actually more fun. Yeah, it’s still a similar game style but they implemented enough of Breath of the Wild and Zelda into it that it doesn’t feel anywhere near as same-y to play as Hyrule Warriors could be. 

I’m not saying that Hyrule Warriors had too much in the way of same-y game play but it definitely felt way more repetitive to me. 

Each character has their own way they play and if you don’t click with them, you’re not going to enjoy playing them but those you do click with can then be a lot of fun in Age of Calamity.

The Divine Beast sections were not a highlight for me. I just am not a fan of them. Three out of four felt epic. The fourth was not.

Yeah, I’m talking trash about Vah Rudania. Would not recommend that Divine Beast. Which is a shame because of the Champions, he is easily the one I handle the best in combat. Or he was untilI figured out how to play Mipha. 

The story is much more a Zelda story this time. The other story just kinda felt....not. 

Hyrule Warriors’s story just sort felt like a massive crossover fanfiction. 

And, this won’t be the last time I reference fanfiction either but that’s for the spoiler section.

The game was pretty cohesive and the incentives for 100% the side quests (aside from leveling) are nice enough and easy enough to obtain that it’s not a total grind to do it.

Speaking of leveling, I did have a bit of an edge for that. You see, I got the demo and it transfers save data and I’d max-leveled Link for that demo (level 20 in case you were wondering) which meant if I found enough rupees, I could instantly get most of my crew up to that level. Zelda and Impa were mid to high teens whenever I was done with the demo btw. 

In Hyrule Warriors, it did feel a bit grindy at times but I didn’t have that nice 20 levels from my demo advantage. 

There are relatively few buggy moments in this game but once when I was playing as a character I can’t mention without spoilers, they got caught in a sort of loop where they’d do a move and I couldn’t get them to stop.

Sometimes the camera angles would fight me when I was up against bigger foes like the final boss or Hinoxes. 

Beyond that, the game runs fine. 

I enjoyed it but for those looking for a straight up prequel to Breath of the Wild, the only non-spoilery thing I can say is-it’s not this. It does touch on a few things and we do get to play the Champions but it’s not the game you think it is if you want to see what happened before Link ended up in the Shrine of Resurrection in the game this spun-off of.

Tl;Dr-I do recommend this game if you like Zelda and want a game where your weapons don’t break every five minutes and you like feeling like a BAMF as you mow down enemy after enemy. 

If you don’t like Warriors games or wanted that dark prequel-you might want to pass on this.

Now leave if you want to avoid spoilers.

Ok everyone who wants to avoid spoilers is gone?

Good. 

First, I’m just going to say it: This is a total Fix-It Fic of a game with its plot.

As Nine’s gif said, Everybody lives.

The Champions and the King and the soldiers (whose asses you’ve been saving this whole game so really no big deal), Hyrule in general. 

Everyone lives. 

This was already in AU territory with the little guardian-it’s name is Terrako- time traveling back to fulfill Zelda’s wish that she could have saved everyone. Parts of Calamity Ganon go with it and posses its past self. 

That means this isn’t just a Fix-it Fic, this is a Time Travel Fix-it Fic.

That’s one of my favorite kinds of Fix-it Fics, so naturally, I was biased to like this plot.

It is a bit schmaltzy that everyone gets to live? A little but a Fix-it Fic tends to be more on the sweet and fluffy side of things. 

I did not see the future champions coming. Yeah, I knew the little egg-guy was a time traveler but I thought Link and Zelda together were going to save each champion one by one. When out of left field, here comes the future Champions.

I was very happy to see Adult!Sidon appear. 

I was just expecting this

and got this too

It does, however, confirm this is a total Alternate timeline. 

Wouldn’t be the first time for the Zelda series.

The Four Future Champions were pulled from Canon Breath of the Wild, and likely Post-Canon or Near the End of Canon since they know Link. 

I knew it was an AU from the fact Link didn’t have the Master Sword when he should have. I own the book Creating a Champion and it mentions that Link of Breath of the Wild found the sword at some ridiculously young age. I’d look but that book is in a pile of stuff and I don’t feel like digging it out.

Best I can figure is Zelda’s wish also affected the whole timeline beyond when Terrako arrived allowing for her and Link to form a bond without resentment on her end. Which, we actually don’t know when Terrako and the Pieces of Calamity Ganon arrived in the past. They could have showed up five years prior with Terrako inactive and Harbinger Ganon using his crazy proxy.

Would explain why Astor was so bat-shit insane at that point.

Since I’ve mentioned him, this would be a good time to talk about Astor, or Not-Vaati as I called him before I learned his name. 

Astor is every evil cultist serving some destructive force that is shocked that betrayal comes. 

Especially, after he backstabbed the Yiga Clan causing even their leader to switch sides after the Yiga clan served Ganon for 10,000 years.

Astor is boring. He’s just another purple wearing evil dude who is serving a dark master who doesn’t actually need him after a point and gets a sort of comeuppance. 

In this case, it was possession/assimilation. 

I just beat Monster Boy and the cursed Kingdom and -spoilers-, in it there is a purple wearing evil guy who backstabbed others and was then backstabbed by the evil entity he served. He was just cursed into a ridiculous form instead of assimilation, though.

So, yeah. Astor was boring. The VA did what he could but Astor was just not compelling to me.

I did like the form that resulted of Harbinger Ganon absorbing him, though. 

It was a very nice change of pace from the Blight-like form Calamity Ganon had in Breath of the Wild. I actually almost wish this was his form instead-though with the stringy hair all the Blights and Calamity Ganon had. Maybe as a between form? Either way, I liked it. 

And that’s my opinion of the whole game; I liked it. 

There were times I’d get frustrated (mostly having to do with time limits and characters I don’t enjoy controlling). I may not have liked the Divine Beast Sections but they weren’t enough to ruin the game nor was their inclusion to the point that it could ruin it for me. 

The story, while a bit over-the-top with the wish fulfillment of everyone living, was still enjoyable for me and had its poignant moments. Especially with the Future Champions going back to their own(likely the canon) timeline where the Calamity wasn’t averted. Getting this glimpse of what could have been but isn’t for them.

All the younger Zelda flashbacks were bittersweet since we sort of saw how happy she was before her mother died and saw her father start his terrible parenting routine.

I don’t care that it was for her that he did it, it was still bad parenting. I sympathize with Rhoam, but that won’t excuse that he wasn’t a good father. 

He loved his daughter and was trying his best but he still did damage in his attempts to defy destiny.

I just have a lot of feelings about this game. 

I’ll just end this post here.

Age of Calamity was worth it, in my opinion.

[consentaclecthulhuwrites]

Free Bird, Chapter 6

The next time Revali saw her was at the informal ordination of Link as her sworn protector and chosen knight. The ceremony had supposedly been crafted to be uplifting, and a symbolic beginning for the dangerous journey upon which they were all about to embark. However, if this ritual was meant to set the tone for the entire mission, Revali could only dread the outcome of the plan.

The commentary while Zelda stood above her chosen knight suggested Revali was not the only one with this sense of foreboding.

“Gee, this is uplifting.” Daruk sounded disarmingly sarcastic. “She’s making it sound like we already lost.”

Revali piped up, “Wasn’t this your idea? You’re the one who wanted to designate the appointed knight with all the ceremonial pomp, grandeur, and nonsense we could muster. And if you ask me, the whole thing does seem to be overkill. I think I’m on the same page as the princess regarding… this boy.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Urbosa sighed. “That boy is a living reminder of her own failures. Well, at least that’s how the princess sees him.”

Her own failures? Revali didn’t understand what Urbosa could have meant. From what he knew of her, Zelda was an accomplished scholar and the pride of the Hyrule legacy. She had modesty, charity, and chastity. She was elegant, well-spoken, truly kind, and carried the weight of royalty like it were gossamer. There was something weighing her down to be sure, but Revali couldn’t imagine it had anything to do with her royal lineage.

Especially around the boy, she seemed more distraught than ever. What was it about this chap that got so under her skin? All the boy had was a stupid destiny. Unlike some people, the champions actually had to work for their skill, for their place in this league of future legends. It was apparent that Zelda had more than earned her reputation as one of the foremost scientific minds Hyrule castle had to offer, as well as a devoted acolyte. Sure, the murmurings made her sound more fanatical and eccentric than anything, but Revali chalked that up to shallow minds with shallow thoughts. It was the squabble of the little people, and what did they know or matter? It was their ignorant hides that needed saving.

After the ceremony had concluded, the champions were allowed time to explore the grounds of the castle. Link had gone to the stables with Mipha, Daruk was off near the armory, Urbosa was in the dining hall carousing with some of the younger soldiers, and Zelda had supposedly returned to her quarters. Revali observed that the princess had slipped out of sight rather swiftly, and none seemed eager to attend her despite what was clearly a downtrodden appearance.

He wondered...

Zelda hunched over the desk in her lab, scowling down at her journal. Why did she ever listen to Daruk? He was such a blockhead sometimes. She appreciated his sentiment; for a man of stone, he certainly had a warm heart, but the ceremony had been an absolute disaster. All the muttering amongst the champions while she spoke the ceremonial script… She caught bits here and there.

“Already lost…”

“Overkill…”

“Failure…”

Her face burned with shame. She wanted the ceremony to be meaningful, positive, and give hope to everyone. She should have known that endeavor would fail. Zelda had no hope herself. Since childhood, the inkling of the goddesses, the innate sense of their presence, just did not exist for her. Her prayers were answered with silence. Her fasts were met with ravenous spiritual hunger. She even offered up plants as sacrifices, then cried with guilt for wastefully plucking them without result. For whatever reason, the goddesses found her… unworthy.

She scribbled hastily, trying to put down the words as fast as they entered her brain. On the verge of tears, she noted, “It is as if there is a great chasm between the goddesses and I. I shout and shout for them to hear me, but only my voice bounces back from that deep, unending void.”

She heard a noise and snapped her journal shut. Someone was clearing their throat. She whipped back to the doorway, but no one was there upon opening the door, nor waiting at the end of the bridge that led from her scientific tower to her bedchamber.

She began checking the windows and at last, she saw a fierce green eye surrounded by blue feathers floating within the frame of one of the slit-sized windows.

“Champion Revali, I believe it was you who reiterated that it was rude to eavesdrop when we first met.”

He hoisted himself up to where he was fully visible in the window frame, flapped his wings, and gave a bow. “My sincerest apologies.”

“Also, do you not think it inappropriate to come see a member of the royal family in their private chambers?”

“But I’m not in them, now am I?”

Zelda laughed. “Are you in need of something, master Revali?”

He offered a gallant smile. “Perhaps your majesty would care to join me for a walk on the grounds. I can see everything up here, but I’ll admit… Hylian structures are baffling to me. I wondered if perhaps you would be willing to educate me.”

The warmth of the smile that grew on her face told Revali he had succeeded in breaking her out of whatever dismal reverie she’d been in when he peered in at her, scowling at her journal.

Zelda met Revali at the base of the stairs. They began to explore the walkways leading down the primary battlement of the castle with a leisurely gait.

“Here we have the entrance to our library.”

“Library?”

Zelda blinked in surprise, then ushered Revali inside.

“What in Hyrule…” His eyes widened as he glanced around the massive room filled wall-to-wall with books.

“Surely you know what a library is, Revali.” Zelda giggled.

Revali rolled his eyes and ruffled his feathers, then said, “Of course I know what a library is… I’ve just never seen one this massive. There is no actual library in the Rito village.”

The princess’s head cocked to the side. “Why not?”

The Rito raised his wing up to the princess’ field of vision and wiggled the most controllable, dexterous portions of his wing, which still looked wildly unwieldy.

“Oh… penmanship and flipping pages must be difficult!”

“Only disciplined Rito, dedicated to the art, actively pursue reading and writing beyond a primary education. We are creatures of oral tradition and have little use for books, though some of the oldest legends are inscribed on tablets of stone.”

“Is it mostly birdsong?”

“Yes. Why would we speak about the legends of the Rito when we could sing the ballads of heroes, the laments of our tribe, the lullabies our fathers learned from their fathers?”

Zelda pondered this for a moment. Then asked: “Do you sing, Master Revali?”

“I can, but I generally do not.”

Zelda had led Revali up a cascading set of stairs and was clearly determined to show him a specific volume. She was scowling and tracing her fingers along titles as she walked along the upper level of the library.

“I could have sworn it was in this section… Found it!” She pulled out a broad but thin volume, clearly weighted, almost square enough to be used as a breastplate for armor fitted to the girl. A harp was crested into the volume’s cover, gilt in gold.

“This is a musical volume of songs from Hyrule’s history. Do the Rito use notations like this?”

She showed him a page with a simple melody. The notations were similar but…

“We use lines like this but typically our musical staves are much larger…” He squinted at the page and then pulled back. “Our notes are not all round. We use shapes and lines to indicate different note lengths…”

“Fascinating! Could you read a melody like this?”

“I am not well-versed in musical notation. We received basic training in childhood, but after those initial years, my studies were dedicated elsewhere. However, this melody is similar to one we learned as nestlings. The Ballad of the Goddess, I believe?”

Zelda laughed with excitement. Revali could not help but notice her laugh was high and sweet, almost birdlike with a chirpy nature.

“Would you sing it for me, Revali?”

“I would rather not.”

The disappointment that fell across her face was immeasurable. It nearly ruined Revali’s day to see her so put out; he felt he had to explain, even if the reason was made up on the spot.

“I do not like the way I sound when I sing from prescribed notes; the planned nature feels stifling. I would rather you not insist.”

“Oh. I would never dream to impose upon you. I’m sorry!”

Revali turned very stern, and gazed at her directly. “Do not apologize. It is not for someone of your position.”

Zelda was a bit taken aback by this admonishment. Most did not speak to her in this blunt fashion. No one but her father had spoken in unfiltered directives. She understood the Rito were a singularly bold people; perhaps tact was not really part of their vocabulary. Her facial expression betrayed her utter bafflement. She nodded sharply.

“You’re right, Revali.”

At that moment, a member of the royal guard emerged at the top of the stairs and was clearly headed in their direction. Revali moved from the princess’ side just as the guard focused his attention on her and said, “Your presence is requested by his majesty King Rhoam.”

Zelda turned to speak with Revali, but he was already taking a bow.

“Till we meet again, your highness.”

The guard extended his arm, and Zelda passed him by, where he took up her rear as he escorted her from the library, following her quite closely.

Revali watched as she disappeared down the staircase, the royal guard following behind her. Why send a guard? Why did he follow her with so little space between them? What an incredible sign of disrespect. It’s as if they expected her to give chase if they even dared to blink. He hoped nothing was amiss. But he couldn’t help to wonder, yet again…

~*~*~*~*~

Link to Chapter 5 HERE

Link to Chapter 4, Part 2 HERE

Link to Chapter 4, Part 1 HERE

Link to Chapter 3 HERE

Link to Chapter 2 HERE

Link to Chapter 1 HERE

[razorblade180]

So I finished Age of Calamity

[spoilers]

Thanks to the beauty of holiday time off I have logged in 40 plus hours into this game and just beaten it, so naturally I’m gonna talk about it a bit. I’ll save the spoiler stuff for a little later though.

The game

This game might be my favorite game of 2020, or at least top three. Not just because of the world, but because everything is over the top! So far I’ve done 131 missions and 90% has the consistent energy of “we are fucking under attack” and it’s almost overwhelming in the best way possible. It really felt like you were on a battlefield field. Your map is just a sea of red and it’s your job to clean it up. What kept me engaged in the fights was all of the character’s different uses runes. I found myself constantly ordering my teammates to face certain enemy types that match best with how they fight.

Originally, I really wanted to be fair and rotate between characters. That didn’t last long. Mipha and Link in my opinion don’t have a single bad move. The bias only got worse whenever the master sword is obtained. Before that, my Link had a spear most of the time but that sword is just handy. Especially with item drop rate and attack range on it. In the end, my strongest characters were Link 74, Mipha 70, Impa 60, and Zelda 60. It’s been awhile since I played the first hyrule warriors so I can’t remember if they had the level up system were you can pay for experience but or definitely came in handy. Combine that with how many guardians were in this game and I quickly found out I needed Link with a shield on a regular bases. I also learned I didn’t forget how to time a vase amount of blocks and dodges.

The amount of characters you get to play quickly became too massive for me to juggle, but they all had their own merits for the most part, though I did find a few of the gimmick characters a bit of a hassle. My opinion on who was viable was constantly changing as I unlocked more combos. Originally, wasn’t the biggest fan of Urbosa. That second and fifth combo modifier changed everything.

The real portion of the game that really kept me wanting to play more was not only the ability to order other people, but seeing them fight along side you. I’m a softie for things like this, but genuinely felt relieved or hyped whenever I was fighting something crazy and I can see Impa rushing over towards me while text from soldiers scream “Just keep pushing!!!!” The AI wasn’t dumb either! There’s plenty of moments that controllable and NPC characters will just go where they’re supposed to, or kill targeted enemies. I remember not wanting to switch over to Link because he had low health, so as I’m running over to him as Mipha to heal him, the madman kills the Lynel. Ran all the way over there to watch him flex. That combined with elemental reactions you can cause in a fight, and the entire spectacle just felt elevated. The feeling of fighting three Lynel’s at once becomes a little less scary when you have a lightning rod and puddles everywhere.

The only negative I found in a gameplay perspective is some of the resource gathering. Gaining the trophy notes for killing a type of enemy isn’t too much of a hassle, but I found getting the materials they drop to be a bit harder, even with increased drop rate statuses. Most of this I find irritating for two reasons. One, specialized enemies show up in relatively small groups in a majority of missions, so getting things from them could be a flop altogether. Number two, a fair amount of these missions take a decent chunk of time if you’re being thorough and killing as much as possible. So grinding is a pain. Fortunately most missions a majority of what you need . If the game wanted chu chu jelly, I knew one of the missions coming up had chu chu as an enemy. You could also keep track of what you needed with material sensor that told you when you had enough.

The story

I’ll be honest, I was upset with this game for a hot second. It was advertised as a prequel to BoTW and while sad, I was truly invested to playing the events that lead to the fall of the champions. What this game didn’t tell you is it’s like most LoZ games, on its own separate part of the timeline. This isn’t the story of they lost. It’s the story of how they win, thanks to the little adorable robot mascot that has the ability to not only show the future, but bring people from the future; the champion’s descendants. At first I was upset with this. Mainly because I’m a little tired of time travel plots and it felt really out of place here. However, time travel gave way more to this game than what I expected this game to have in the first place. It allowed at least six more playable characters that wouldn’t have been possible in the other timeline, and a wellspring of interactions through missions. Every time Mipha was with Sidon, I smiled. Having Urbosa being this super encouraging role model to Riju was so nice since BoTW had expressed just how much those two admired and missed those people. Revali was nice to Teba! They were vibing. Even the soldier commentary on the new champions were a treat. So I got over the time travel issue pretty quick. It made things sad as well when the new generation leaves because they’re going back to a time where they lost it all. There was no great union that took place across hyrule to fight Ganon and their beloved champions failed. I do appreciate that the diverge in the timeline really takes place on the day they’re supposed to die, moments before the final blow. It still lets the player see the definitive moment where good was supposed to lose.

The “new” villain is meh. I wouldn’t really say he stands out. His entire thing is thinking he’s gonna win because he doesn’t realize that he isn’t seeing hyrule’s future. He’s seeing another hyrule’s future. What comes out of his character is cool though because it gives a different, yet same finale boss. I wasn’t expecting to basically fight a giant Ganondorf. Honestly, you can kinda say you fought Demise. At least aesthetically speaking. Or Yuga. This game has also made me care about robot. Something I haven’t done in awhile. A few scenes near the end felt hammy, but also amazingly realistic to how a lot of people would feel when someone breaks your favorite thing. The war was already personal, but now it’s really personal. Quests open up after the game that plays on those emotions too. It’s very clever.

Overall, Age of Calamities story felt like a love letter to everyone who loves this rendition of hyrule and the characters in it. They even another one named Sooga, who just might be my favorite. That man has no choice but to be the brain and muscle of the Yiga. It kinda makes me sad he’s introduced here because you can assume he didn’t make it in the other timeline, so he has no descendents. The amount of serotonin I felt just seeing all of these characters fighting together as the absolutely conquer the battlefield was more than satisfying. Definitely worth the money. I don’t know if they can, but Nintendo might wanna consider some sort of audio patch. The mixing is bad in certain parts. Voice lines get really quiet. Other than that, this game is real solid. I’d give it an 8.5/10

Side note

The music is really good. Especially the Zoe’s demain track. Also, I never noticed frame rate dropping or lag, except on two occasions. Both of these happened to be me pushing the game to its limits. The first is being surrounded by enemies in a small space as Mipha. Creating the water vortex and raining down bombs makes the game wanna cry a little. The second one is a similar case. Sidon’s fifth or sixth combo made the made the game drop frames because it’s incredibly fast, involves timing, makes a vortex, and i was in a small space with tons of enemies. Other than that, not even Urbosa’s or Riju’s lightning made the game freak out from what I noticed. That may have something to do with me never using them in a place where there’s constant rain. That might actually be the cause of the drop in combination of everything else.

[casuallyimagining]

I Missed You

Revali x Reader

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Anonymous asked: Oh sorry! it was from one of your earlier reblogs it was “I missed you so much” thanks for responding

Oops! It’s long! Enjoy?!

Send in a Request | Masterlist

The dust had barely settled after Zelda sealed the Calamity away, and you were on your horse, attempting to get across Hyrule as quickly as possible. So much of your life since the Calamity had relied on the hope that Purah had been right. That the Divine Beasts’ internal functions hadn’t completely been taken over by Ganon.

Much had changed in the past hundred years. Hyrule had become a shell of what it once was. People had grown less friendly, more scared. And you… well, you supposed you hadn’t changed too much. Purah and Robbie had needed a test subject for the second round of their anti-aging technology, and you jumped at the chance to assist them. The scientists were two of the only survivors from the devastation at the castle, and the three of you had become close.

By the time you reached the Breach of Demise, you could feel the nerves in your stomach. You weren’t quite sure what would happen if Purah was wrong. It was Daruk who had discovered the hidden room near the control panel of Rudenia, and when the Shrine of Resurrection was discovered and Zelda made the connection between the two, you knew that no matter what happened, things could turn out okay.

Now, 100 years later, you clung to that belief.

The Rito Village finally came into view as you exited the Tabantha Hills. You could just make out the inhabitants gliding between the many levels of the village. Above, Medoh stood resolute on its perch, the red targeting beam gone now that its enemy was vanquished. You paused at the stables just outside the village to leave your horse before continuing on foot, crossing the several bridges, waving at the few Rito guards who patrolled the village’s entrance.

You didn’t realize you were practically running up the stairs surrounding the great central stone column until you were halfway to Chief Kaneli’s home. The village was surprisingly empty, but the higher you climbed, the more you understood. You could hear the rabble of conversation and the faint lilt of singing; the Rito were gathered together on Revali’s Landing. Perhaps that was a good sign.

You stood on the stairs just below the Landing at the back of the crowd, clutching the bag slung across your chest. One of the Rito leaned over to talk to you.

“It’s a miracle!” she exclaimed. “The Goddess has created a miracle.”

You grinned. Purah was right.

The crowd didn’t disperse for another few hours, but you stood patiently off to the side, watching and listening as the Rito greeted their Champion. You could hear the cockiness in Revali’s voice as he spoke with his people, relaying his accomplishments in piloting Medoh and assisting in the defeat of Ganon.

A hundred years looked good on him. Although, you supposed you shouldn’t be surprised. The resurrection chamber in Medoh had kept him from aging. His feathers were still the same silky shade of Prussian blue, and his braids were barely mussed. And even from this distance, you could tell his electric green eyes were still as sharp and observant as ever.

Revali had been one of your best friends before the Calamity. You had met him after a quest the king requested you to fulfill, and immediately found his confidence endearing. Since then, you made a point to see him every time your travels took you even relatively near Rito Village. You had been the one to suggest Revali to Zelda as a potential Champion, and of course you were the one to ride ahead to warn him when she set out to meet him.

When the villagers started to disperse, you wandered up onto the Landing. Teba, Harth, and their families were still hanging around, so you decided to hang back. The Hebra Mountains had always been gorgeous this time of day. You weren’t sure how long you stood there, staring out across the lake towards the mountains. The Landing had quieted, though, and for the first time in a century, you were alone with Revali.

For a moment, the only sound on the Landing was the breeze rustling through the trees. Then, the sound of talons clicking against wood as Revali approached.

He stood beside you, his wings folded behind his back. “You look… so familiar.”

You took a deep breath. Purah had warned you that, just as had happened with Link, it was entirely possible that the Champions would lose memories upon exiting the chambers.

“I should hope so,” you managed softly. You turned towards him slightly, but your eyes stayed focused on the mountains across from you. “We spent enough time together.”

He hummed, and for a few long moments, you felt his stare on your face. “Well, you must be important, then. Not just anyone can hang around the Great Master Revali, you know.”

You laughed. You couldn’t help yourself. His ego was as inflated as ever. “Oh, so you’re great now, are you? Goddess, we leave you alone for a century and you somehow fall even more in love with yourself.”

Revali narrowed his eyes. “You’re one of the Hero’s friends, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that. We’re friendly.” You shrugged halfheartedly. “I’m closer to the princess, really.”

He nodded. “You’re her advisor.” It wasn’t a question. Your eyes snapped to his. The confusion was evident on his face. “I don’t know how I know that.”

“What else do you remember?”

Revali shrugged, shaking his head. “I’m not sure. How do you know what you remember when you aren’t even sure what you forgot?”

Silently, you dug through your bag, producing a leather-bound notebook. It had aged well. The pages were yellowed with age, and the leather was worn, but the Rito had taken good care of it before giving it to you.

“Maybe if you read this, you’ll have more luck.”

He looked at you, confusion again evident in his eyes. “My journal? But how…?”

“Just read it.” You gave one last glance to the mountains. The sky was red as the sun set behind the Flight Range. “I should be going. I haven’t even seen the princess yet.” You smiled at him sheepishly. “When you’re done with that, come find me. I’ll probably be with Zelda. And I’m sure she’d like to see you.”

---

It was days before you saw Revali again. You had already met up with Zelda and Link at Zora’s Domain to do further research on Ruta. Apparently, there was something wrong with the Beast.

He showed up at your camp the third night you were in the Domain. Zelda had insisted on making camp on the cliffs surrounding Ruta so she could research later into the night. You were alone in the camp for the moment; Zelda and Link hadn’t returned from their day’s adventures with Mipha into the Beast.

“Not to worry, fair maiden!” the Rito called, flapping his wings hard to land beside you gracefully. “The Great Revali is here to keep you company.”

“Thank the Goddess.” You flashed him a smile, which he took as an invitation to sit beside you near the fire. “Whatever would I have done without the Great Master Revali?”

“Eternal boredom. Infinite suffering.” He shrugged. “Especially if you have to spend time with the Hero.”

“You know he has a name.”

“Everyone has a name, my dear. Some people just aren’t worth the breath it takes to say it.”

You laughed. “Naturally.”

It was silent after that. You watched the fire flicker in the light of the approaching. Revali shifted beside you, adjusting his scarf to sit flatter against his chest. After a moment, he cleared his throat before holding out his journal.

“So… I read this.”

“Oh?” You turned toward him, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

He nodded. “Cover to cover. And I, uh… I do remember things. Certainly more than I did before.”

“That’s great, Revali.”

His eyes were soft, and a gentle smile played at the corners of his beak. He reached a wing out and brushed his silky feathers against your cheek. “I can’t believe I forgot you.”

You grinned, leaning into his hand. “I missed you so much.”

Revali hummed happily in response, nuzzling into your neck. You sat there with him in silence, his wing lightly wrapped around you, watching the sun set across the Domain. 100 years was a long time to wait, but you supposed the reunion was sweet enough to make it worth it.

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 49

Link slid into the stool beside Dorian. It was by no means five o’clock, so it came as a surprise when Cottla told him where to find her father. He never picked him to be a barfly, but he was the last person to judge. It had been a few weeks since he and Aryll found Cremia, and thus discovered their strange inheritance, and since then, Link found himself at a loss with what to do with the money. 

Since then, he had picked up his job again, thanks to Sera, and before long, Aryll had returned to school to begin her final year in high school. Everything was relatively back to normal, and despite all that had happened, Link felt like he had his life in control. Still, he couldn’t help but to feel a strange emptiness when he was home, which brought him to the decision that it was time to move on with their lives, for better or for worse. He had to leave the place he once called home and start a new life for himself.

“I heard you met Camilla,” Dorian said, not looking at him as he sat.

“Where did he get the money?” Link asked, his gaze hard on Dorian.

But Dorian only smiled, not meeting his gaze. “Don’t spend it all at once,” he said cryptically.

“I’m not taking it,” Link hissed. “Not unless I know where it came from.”

“Why does it have to come from anywhere?” Dorian said. “He’s had that thing around for a long time.”

“Nobody has that kind of money,” Link said. “Not unless you’re the damn king of Hyrule.”

Dorian shrugged. “Heroes need to get paid. You said so yourself. Your father saw to it that you would get just that.”

“And I’m supposed to just accept that?”

“Yes,” Dorian said simply. “If you don’t want it, I’ll put it to good use.”

“Yeah, right,” Link said. He sighed.

“Just take it and be grateful,” Dorian said. “It’s what he would have wanted.”

Link looked down at the counter for a moment. When the bartender came by for his order, Link shook his head.

Dorain turned his gaze to Link. He stared at him for a moment, longer than he intended. When Link met his gaze, he turned away.

Link’s brows furrowed. “What?”

Dorian smiled. “Nothing,” he said at first. “I forget how much you look like him.”

Link turned away, but said nothing.

“We sat at a lot of bars together,” Dorian continued. “It kind of felt like that for a second.”

“I wouldn’t have picked you for a bar guy.”

Dorian chuckled. “I wasn’t.” He shrugged. “What are you doing here, anyway? Did you just come to give me shit?”

“Yes,” Link started. “Among other things.”

Dorian raised a brow.

“I decided to sell the house,” he said. “Once Aryll graduates, we’re leaving the city.”

Dorian simply nodded.

“Don’t worry,” he started. “I’ll be sure to come by once in a while to bug you.”

Dorian smiled. “Right.”

“And I got more shit than I need to take with me,” he continued. He pulled an envelope out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “I thought you might want these.” He passed it to Dorian with a shrug. “We have plenty, and I don’t care for your ugly mug.”

Dorian opened the envelope and pulled out the photos inside. The image on top showed a young Rusl and Dorian. They both had a beer in hand and were dressed in their uniforms. Rusl was flipping the camera the bird while Dorian seemed to be mid eye-roll. He smiled down at the picture, then proceeded to flip through them. There were various other pictures, including some of him and his wife, and all three of them together. There was even one of Rusl with Dorian’s daughters. Cottla was on his shoulders, though he was crouched down on Koko’s level while she tried to get at her younger sister.

“Who knew he was such a sucker for kids?” Link said.

“I called him out on that once,” Dorian said. He frowned. “He punched me.”

Link turned away. He studied the bottles on the shelves behind the bar. “I know everything,” he said softly. “I know that he… he didn’t plan on coming back.”

Dorian was quiet for a moment. His voice was soft when he spoke. “There was nothing you could have done. You never would have been able to utilize your full power as long as he lived. It has been that way since the very beginning. The spirit of the hero manifests only in the one worthy of the Triforce. The one with extraordinary qualities that make a hero. And, in turn, it takes two extraordinary people to bring such a being into the world. A part of that spirit rest within your parents. And as long as that part of the hero was there, you would be unable to utilize your full power, especially without the aid of the Master Sword. It has been that way for each and every hero before you and will continue on. That’s just the way it is.”

Link looked down at the counter. “I wish… it didn’t have to be that way.”

Dorian glanced at him. “I know.” He sighed. “For what it’s worth, I was on your side. I tried to stop him.”

Link’s lips pulled into a small smile. “And all this time, I thought you weren’t on my side.”

“Yeah, well.” Dorian sighed. “I have a lot of regrets. But everything I did was to keep you and Aryll safe. And, once in a while, keep your damn father alive. Hylia knows he didn’t make that easy for me.”

“Yeah. I know.” He stood and turned to Dorian. “Well, thanks for everything. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Sure.”

“See you around, D.”

“Don’t call me that,” he sneered.

Link grinned and left him alone in the bar.

*****

To his dismay, there were two extra women in his house when he returned home. Aryll, Mipha, Cremia, and Anju were sitting around the table, each with their own bowl of ice cream, and Cremia was in mid sob as she spoke to her friends. She paused when Link entered, then seemed to forget about whatever crisis she was facing, beaming at Link cheerfully.

“Well, look who it is,” she said in greeting.

“So,” Anju started. “Are we done talking about the bastard that cheated on you?”

Cremia sighed and put her chin in her hand. “This is not how I planned on spending my first day as a senior,” she said.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t fuck in the bathroom,” Aryll said dryly. “But you’ll have all year to be disgusting.”

“Please,” Cremia said. “I’m classier than that.”

“I don’t think you are,” Anju said.

“I missed this,” Cremia said. “I’m glad you’re not mysteriously on the lam anymore.”

“Yeah,” Anju started. “So, you’re really not going to explain that, like, at all?”

“I told you,” Aryll insisted. “We were on… vacation.”

“You went on vacation,” Cremia started, “with your brother and his girlfriend?” She grinned at Link. “What a buzzkill.” She then turned her attention to Mipha. “You could have dumped her on us.”

“Why?” Link started. “So you could get drunk and crash another car?”

Cremia slouched in her chair. “Oh, you remember that, huh?”

“You’re lucky we went on vacation after that,” Aryll said with a grin. “He would have gone all Hulk on you, otherwise.”

“Hulk?” Anju echoed.

Aryll dismissed her with a wave of her hand. She put a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. “So, how are we getting revenge on that dick?” she asked, changing the subject. “You can’t let this first day define the rest of the year. You gotta put him in his place and make him regret the day he was ever born.”

“You are in the perfect place to destroy his entire senior year,” Anju added in agreement. “We have to take advantage of that.”

“Wow,” Link muttered. “Is that what women really do?”

“You should have seen what we came up with when you and Mipha were broken up,” Aryll said casually.

Link glanced at Mipha, and she shook her head, but grinned.

“She’s pretty twisted,” Aryll said. “I wouldn’t piss her off if I were you.”

“Trust me,” Link started. “I know.”

“Anyway,” Aryll continued. “We gotta make this year epic. Really go out with a bang.”

“Not a car crash,” Link added.

Aryll ignored her brother. “Because after this, I’m ditching this joint.”

Anju frowned. “You guys are really moving out of the city?”

Aryll nodded. “Well, they are. I haven’t decided where I’m going, yet. I’ve got my pick of colleges.”

“Remind me how that happened, again?” Cremia asked suspiciously. “Last year, you were pretty sure you weren’t going to college.”

“I changed my mind,” Aryll said. “I’ll earn some money stripping or something. That was the plan all along, really.”

“Makes sense,” Cremia confirmed with a nod.

“Or,” Anju started. “Hear me out. Scholarships.” She grinned.

“Well, sure, there’s that,” Aryll said. “But I liked my plan, better.”

“So, are we getting pizza?” Link asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject. “I’m thinking pepperoni?”

“I don’t want to look at another pizza for the rest of my life,” Mipha sneered at him. “I am so sick of pizza!”

“We need a divorce,” Link said.

“I can’t believe she just said that,” Aryll said with a grin. “Next thing you know, she’ll tell us we can’t have peanut butter and banana sandwiches.”

“You are both hopeless,” Mipha said, shaking her head. She took the empty bowls. “Don’t you have a summer project to do?” she asked Aryll.

“Yes, mother,” Aryll hissed.

“How come you got an extension?” Cremia whined.

“I met special circumstances,” Aryll said simply.

“Your month long vacation is a special circumstance?” Cremia raised a skeptical brow at her.

“I don’t think they were on vacation,” Anju said.

“Probably witness protection or something,” Cremia said, rolling her eyes.

Aryll laughed. “Right. That’s it.” She stood. “Are you going to help me bullshit this project or what?”

Cremia sighed. “So, I guess we’re done talking about me?”

“You’re never done talking about you,” Anju said dryly.

“We’ll come up with our revenge plan while we work.”

“You know,” Cremia started. “I did my project. Why should I have to help you?”

“You called that a project?” Anju said. “It was pathetic.”

“You’re gonna help me because you almost killed me,” Aryll reminded her.

“I could have died, too, you know.” Still, she followed Aryll and Anju upstairs, leaving Mipha and Link alone in the kitchen.

“I don’t remember high school being that dramatic.”

“We were too busy fighting Ganondorf’s minions,” Link said. “We had our own drama.”

Mipha smiled. “Wow. I feel really, really old. I can’t believe that was like, ten years ago.”

“Yeah,” Link started. “I think I’m already getting gray hairs.” He pulled at a few strands. “This one is Aryll, and this one is Mipha. And look, here’s a bunch more Arylls. Hm. Way more Arylls than there are Ganondorfs.”

Mipha pushed his arm playfully. “You know,” she started. “It will be nice to finally have a house to ourselves.”

“Where should we go?” Link asked. He grinned. “The world is our oyster.”

[all-hail-trudos]

I have a fresh appreciation for Zelda

I could write a blog post, and maybe should, about how much I love Zelda in Breath of the Wild. I’ve just beat the Champion’s Ballad, and so much of it was beautiful and amazing (if maybe a bit short). I wish Nintendo would give us more DLC to tide us over until the next game. But right now I just want say how much I love Zelda. Honestly, she might as well be the main character of the game with how much the narrative focuses on her. (Note, there will be light spoilers).

It still bugs me that Anita Sarkesian would dare to sum her up as “another damsel in distress” continuing the dated series tradition, when especially this time around she is so much more than that. Zelda is the young woman, forced to sacrifice her passions, life, and personal freedom to her royal duty, which requires her to awaken her powers and save the world from the impending return of Calamity Ganon. A duty that grows into an unbearably painful burden as she’s stuck with the insurmountable wall of having no idea how these powers are supposed to work, while being ordered to go everywhere and try everything to see if the key can be discovered with enough mud thrown against the wall. And it’s all the more tragic that if she’d only had a little more time, Mipha might have given her the key after everything else, and she would have been able to repair her relationship with her father. But instead the triumphal moment is overshadowed by desperation and the urgency of taking care of Link and confronting Ganon before he can destroy the world. But I digress, I’m not here to summarize the story, but to explain why what I admire most about Zelda is her strength, and how the writing of the story and her character elevate her to being the best incarnation of Princess Zelda yet.

Possibly more than Link’s adventures that we experience in the present timeline, Zelda’s story has her overcoming more poignant, personal obstacles to try and claim her birthright. Dealing with her (intentionally and painfully self-aware) overbearing father, leaving behind her passion for field work and studying ancient shiekah technology, and continuing to go on and not give up  while being faced with failure at every turn takes amazing strength. The story of her personal struggles and adventures could easily be put into a 300 page novel, and she would be a worthy heroine. And yet that’s only the beginning of her story. The moment of her awakening arrives in the process of trying to save Link’s life, and though she succeeds, her boyfriend his injuries sink him into a coma, and Zelda is left to think on her feet, swallowing her own panic to direct the start of Link’s recovery and quickly putting things in order before she goes to stare down Ganon. Alone. We don’t know if she was hoping for the backup of the Champions, but she would have realized very quickly it wasn’t coming. But she still stood up, took the master sword to the Great Deku Tree, and likely then marched on Hyrule Castle with her head held high to meet fate, determined to do what she could to save the world.

And hers was a horrifying fate. Staying bound up with that hideous beast Calamity Ganon for a hundred years, keeping him suppressed with her powers, takes enormous strength. Even if she was a disembodied spirit in a state of suspended animation, there must have been the knowledge that the great king of evil was right there next to her, and the wondering how long she would be able to hold on before he escaped her grasp, if Link would awaken and come to save her and Hyrule, and if even after all this they would really be able to avert the end of the world. (I don’t even want to get in if she was physically conscious the whole time. Other than, how the hell did she not go mad?! That would take the horror levels up to eleven.) Despite all this, she holds on, she buys her kingdom time. And after Link wakes up, possibly the most impressive part of all is how she talks to Link. Never after he awakens does she break down and plead for him to come save her. Not once does she tell you to stop blowing up your thousandth fucking bokoblin and get your ass to the castle. You could be forgiven if you thought Impa felt things more urgently. Her tone throughout your adventures is calm, gentle, supportive, and encouraging. Celebrating in your achievements and your steps towards regaining and surpassing your old strength. Even as she’s still barely holding herself together in the tower, slowly losing her grip on Ganon and the fate of Hyrule, knowing she’s now at her limit and he could escape at any time.  I can’t help but think that shows even greater strength than any of her prior achievements.

BotW honestly has such a beautiful story, and is even managing to overtake Twilight Princess as my favorite entry in the series. But while the exploration and freedom are incredible and unprecedented in an adventure game, Zelda is honestly like 75% of why I love this game so much. Because even as each entry in the series has given us better story and deeper characters, this new incarnation stands head and shoulders above all of her past incarnations as one of the strongest and most beautifully written women, not just in the Legend of Zelda series, but honestly even in video game history as a whole. Because you would be very hard pressed to write a better heroine than this, who took an active role in her own story and continues to actively play a passive but necessary role in the current one.

[botwriter]

Rewritten, Chapter 6: A Day Off

Read this on Fanfiction.net ➜ /throws fluff in the air

“I can’t believe it, I actually caught one!” 

- A day-trip to look for shrines near the Military Camp had ended in slaughter. Link sat atop the hill he had to fight his entire way up, still breathing heavily, when Zelda knelt down suddenly, closer than he had expected.

“One of them got you,” she stated, immediately pulling a small cloth out from her bag and tapping it gently against the top left of Link’s forehead. He grimaced slightly from the sting, but appreciated the distraction from the Princess being so close to him. They’d been getting along much better since the desert, and now Link found himself somewhat torn. She was such a strong personality, as Daruk said; but his previous crush… the girl he thought he loved, Mipha, was increasingly faraway in his mind. They had been close, but now that so much had happened, Zelda was leaving much more of an impression. Link felt guilty for it as a result. He wasn’t known to be fickle. Not to mention, if any crush was going to be completely hopeless, the Princess of Hyrule was it. But he couldn’t control his heart. Just his mouth.

“There’s a fine line between courage and recklessness, you know,” Zelda reminded him suddenly, jolting him out of his daydream. She was looking at him with a type of certainty. “As brave as you are, that does not make you immortal,” she added, tucking away the cloth. Link shrugged with a grin, finally sheathing the Master Sword. He’d have to clean it later.

“That cut doesn’t look too bad now, actually. You’ll be fine for now.”

“Thanks,” Link replied, touching it tenderly and then looking back out at the swath of defeated monsters he’d left in his path. “Did I mention to you I heard the sword?”

“What!” Zelda gasped, and Link was taken aback at her level of surprise.

“Oh - I’m sorry, just - tell me these things sooner!” she exclaimed, giving him an apologetic smile. “So? What did it say?”

“It introduced itself to me,” Link replied, looking down at it now, in its case. “It - er, she - is a spirit chosen by Hylia. Named Fi.”

“That’s wonderful news, Link,” Zelda said happily, though as he looked back at her he could see the slightest pain in her eyes. He knew she was happy for him, but his progress would always remind her of the lack of her own. “And very interesting! A spirit chosen by Hylia… so it - sorry, she? - lives within the sword? She must have been there, ten thousand years ago, then…” Zelda mused, and Link was a little surprised he hadn’t realised this himself.

“I wonder if we’ll be able to ask her about the past, and the Sheikah technology,” Zelda said, looking at the blade from next to Link. “Keep working on it. I’m proud of you, Hero.”

Before Link had the chance to respond with anything, the Princess was already looking out at the bodies of the monsters along the path.

“It seems that… not only has the frequency of these types of attacks been on the rise, but the scale beasts we’re facing as well. I fear that… this might be an omen which portends the return of Calamity Ganon,” she fretted, but before Link could console her, she’d stood up and was brushing dust off her clothes.

“If that’s the case, I’m ready to expect the worst. We need to make preparations as soon as possible.”

Link stood up a moment later, nodding in response. “Right.”

“I have some… herbology, I guess you could say, that I wouldn’t mind getting done today before we head in. Care to join me?” Zelda had turned back to look at him as they headed back down towards the Castle. “Something a little more relaxing than killing monsters?” she suggested, but her voice gave away that she wanted him there; not just as Appointed Knight, this time, but as a friend.

“Sure,” Link said simply, unsure what she really meant by herbology. Her interests were so varied and vast, he couldn’t help wondering how she kept up with all of them. She led him back down to their horses, and after that, into the ridge above Hyrule field, which was filled with wildflowers.

Pulling out the Sheikah slate, she began taking pictures of the flowers, all the while chatting to him.

“The flowers in Hyrule aren’t only beautiful, they can also be used as ingredients for a variety of things! Take safflina, for example - there’s so many different types, and they all have different properties depending on where they grow!”

Her enthusiasm was catchy. Link had never cared much for plants besides the ones he ate, but he felt now that he could listen to Zelda talk about them for hours. He wondered how much time she had spent in the field by herself before; she had some friends in the castle, sure, but many of the royalty would never have gotten their hands as dirty as she did. He felt privileged to be able to enjoy this time with her, and happy to provide her company.

Something distracted her not a moment later, and she moved quickly, putting the Sheikah slate away and kneeling forwards to a new flower, alone among the others. Link leaned curiously from behind her, trying to see what she was looking at. It had a much bigger bloom than the rest, vibrant royal blue and white in colour.

“This one here is called the Silent Princess… despite our efforts, we can’t get them to grow domestically yet. They only thrive here, in the wild. All we can hope… is that the species will be strong enough to prosper, on its own.” Zelda had fallen quiet, and Link craned to look at her face, to make sure she was okay - but her sudden gasp surprised him. She fell forwards, hand clasped over something unknown in the grass, and she practically fell entirely into the dirt as she did so. Link was about to reach forward to help her up, but she immediately got to her knees and looked at him excitedly, despite the couple petals and blades of grass now stuck in her hair.

“I can’t believe it, I actually caught one! This delicacy is known to have very, very potent effects in the right circumstances! Ta da!”

She shuffled closer to him, and opened her hands to reveal - a frog. Link was a little surprised, but also impressed, that the Princess had managed to catch one in her bare hands. Even more surprising, she didn’t seem to care about holding onto it; weren’t they slimy? As she continued to tell Link more about the frog, he could not help but stare at her, amused.

“Research from the castle shows that ingesting one of these could actually augment certain abilities! We wouldn’t be in a controlled environment out here, but with your level of physical fitness… you’d be a perfect candidate for the study! Go on! Try it!”

Link moved back from the frog as Zelda held it closer to him. He felt immediately conflicted; as much as he wanted to make her happy, and eating the frog surely would, it was still alive and something about that bugged him. He was uninterested in eating raw frog - maybe cooked - but not a second later, it took the opportunity to escape from her hands.

The Princess looked stunned, and for a moment resembled a child that had dropped a plate of dessert, and Link snickered a little before bursting out into a full laugh. Zelda watched him in shock  - he had never done that, not in front of her, not since receiving the sword - and the Princess sat back on her knees, content to watch him let loose, at least for now.

“You’re crazy,” he told her, finally coming out of his laughter. “Couldn’t we at least cook it?”

“Well there’s - there’s been a dispute on whether the properties are most potent before or after cooking,” she replied needlessly, laughing in spite of herself.

Link met her gaze then, the two of them still smiling, and took the opportunity to stare. In the setting sun, the knight found himself trapped in her eyes. They were like emeralds - or the leaves on the trees above them. It was a green that made him feel more alive.

The wind picked up a warm breeze that tossed the grass and flowers around them, and Zelda seemed to realize how long she had been simply staring back at him.

“The sunset from here is beautiful,” she said quickly, turning to look at the horizon, although Link was sure she could tell that he was still staring at her. Finally he tore his eyes away, and let out a small “mm” in agreement.

“Link, I… want you to know that I am trying my best,” she said suddenly, head dipping as she spoke, “I hope days like this… don’t make you feel that I’m slacking off.”

“Don’t,” Link replied simply, and Zelda looked at him in surprise.

“What?”

“Just… don’t even go there. I know how hard you work at your prayer. Even on your days off, you’re stil  learning new things, studying, or helping me train,” he shook his head at her, a bemused smile on his face. “I would never think that about you.”

Zelda responded with nothing but a grateful smile, and it was all Link needed. They stared at each other a little - each seemed more curious about the other - when Zelda suddenly shook herself out of it, and stood up.

“We should head in before the sun sets,” she suggested, though she looked a little sad to let a fun day end.

“Right,” Link reluctantly agreed, standing up with a sigh and heading to the horses.

“We’re heading to the Zora Kingdom tomorrow, right? I want to double check on Vah Ruta, and make sure Mipha is doing well,” Zelda continued, then looked curiously at Link. Even at Mipha’s name, the Knight wasn’t giving anything away, so Zelda didn’t say anything further, but it was clear that she was waiting to see a response from him. Even if he wanted to, he wasn’t sure what he would say; Mipha still held a place in his heart, and he was excited to see her, but their training and adventures recently in preparation for Ganon had allowed Link to get to know Zelda better than he could ever dream. And she was… she was a dream, but… possibly even more out of his league than a Zora princess.

“I haven’t been to Zora’s domain in a while,” Link replied, and this seemed to put Zelda a little at ease, though he wasn’t sure why she would care so much besides curiosity. The mere idea of her… liking him at all, let alone returning any feelings to him besides gratefulness and friendship, was benign to him. Maybe she wanted him and Mipha to be together after all. It would do wonders for the relationship between Hylians and Zoras, and Zelda was always into that stuff.

“Me neither,” she responded as they rode back through the field towards the castle. “King Dorephan is always excited to see me, though. Last time I went, I got to meet Mipha’s new little brother, Sidon - he is so cute,” she exclaimed, casting a smile to Link, who laughed.

“I feel like… all the babies in other races look cuter than ours,” Link thought aloud, and Zelda gasped.

“Me too! Have you seen the Rito’s little ones? And their downy feathers? I can’t handle it,” she laughed, and Link smiled, happy to chat so casually with her. It felt like an illusion though, which didn’t last long; as soon as they reached the castle, the guards greeted Zelda with a salute, and Link with a piercing stare through their helmets. 

Recently he had been the talk of the town, some good and some bad, but there had been a lot of envy and bitterness directed at him from some of the senior knights who felt it was their duty to keep Zelda safe, and not some seventeen-year-old boy. Link couldn’t blame them, in a way; but as long as he was just following orders, there was nothing more they could do than gossip among themselves. The only painful part was spending so much time alone now, when he wasn’t with Zelda. Even Poppy, his fellow knight graduate, had been talking to him less and less. It wasn’t grandeur, then, to be the Chosen One, but the tradeoff of exploring Hyrule further and spending time with Zelda made it worth it.

“Princess! Please be back before sunset. It’s not very safe at night for you.”

“Link is always with me when I’m out and about,” Zelda replied casually as she hopped off her horse and walked it past the gates, with Link following behind, “so please, there’s no need to worry.”

“The appointed knight may not always be prepared to keep you safe. We’re merely concerned for your wellbeing,” one of the guards argued, and Link cast him a curious look. Julian. That Sheikah guard specifically had it out for him - or he had feelings for Zelda… or both. He was always dragging Link down.

“Link has proven himself more than capable to look after me,” Zelda argued, and it seemed as though she wanted to continue, but stopped abruptly. “Nevermind. Please, Link, meet me early in the morning on the east side, and we’ll make our way north,” she addressed him, and Link nodded before she turned on her heel and headed upstairs, to the royal quarters.

“You might be her Appointed Knight, but I’m one of the only people here that actually cares for her,” Julian said in a hushed whisper as Link walked past him. “I don’t care that you have that sword on your back. It doesn’t make you more experienced than some of us, who graduated years ago. I should spit at your feet,” he snapped then, and Link stopped, parallel to the taller man; a Sheikah from Kakariko village, he was very thin and able-bodied.

“Whatever makes you feel better,” Link replied shortly, his piercing blue eyes flicking sideways to stare at the man’s. He wanted to be able to recognize him better.

“Tch, attitude? At one of the royal guards? I’d expect better from the Hero,” he smirked back at him, and Link wondered if what he was about to say would really be worth it.

“I’d expect the royal guards to not have their judgment clouded by feelings for the Princess,” he replied, turning to face Julian now, staring him down despite about a foot difference in height. The guard didn’t respond except for a brief flash in his eyes. Link had given him away, and the Sheikah had no response, so Link continued down the hallway to his own room, heart racing. Even if he had been right, he wasn’t just talking about Julian. It applied to him now, too, and knowing this gave him no peace of mind. How could it be appropriate for her Appointed Knight to have feelings for her? He would sacrifice himself for her, no matter what; but if he let anything be known, the resulting gossip could be enough for the King to relieve him of his duty. So, it was decided: he couldn’t tell her. He’d never be able to tell her.

[dany36]

botw link and his expressions (spoilers)

earlier i was reading @rudyskatopianiii ‘s botw impressions and i wanted to emphasize on something he mentioned that really bothered me about botw link and why i think he’s such a huge step backwards in comparison to other links, specifically, the console links:

Even Link in almost all cutscenes is a deadeyed straight faced machine who does what he’s told and has no real expression in reaction to things happening around him.

this to me is one of the biggest misses in botw and it’s important to point it out because it’s just so….bad and unacceptable. beginning with tww, nintendo had started to do such a well job with portraying link’s wide range of emotions when reacting to situations. tww and tp were great at this and SS Link even took this to a whole new level. earlier i had mentioned link's lack of emotional expressions but i want to go deeper into this . allow me to demonstrate a few examples at how tww, tp, and ss do such a great job at truly using link to convey his emotions and portray them to us the players and why botw link fails spectacularly in this area(spoilers for tww, tp, ss and botw below):

when link sees his aryll being kidnapped by helmaroc king, his shocked expression shows how horrified he is at the sight of seeing his sister being taken away. who wouldn’t be after a giant bird swoops right in and flies off with your little sister?

this scene of link waving goodbye to his grandma is one of my favorites in the whole game because it truly expresses how sad he is at leaving her behind. he rushes to the edge of the ship and waves his arms in a desperate manner to try and make sure his grandma sees him waving at her and see how much he’s hurting at having to say goodbye. he knows he must go on an adventure to save his sister, but it shows that this decision still hurts him.

link finally finds his sister, the whole reason he set off on his journey, and his face shows how delighted he is to see her again. she’s safe after all and it shows that he cares! :)

when link ventures to the forsaken fortress for a second time and gets to aryll’s cell, he tenses up at the thought that the helmaroc king could sneak up on him again.

during the ending, link desperately holds out his hand to the king of hyrule. a truly heartbreaking scene in which link tries to do what we wanted to do as well after adventuring with the king throughout the whole game: to try and save him from the flood falling on hyrule :(

i could go on and on about tww link’s many expressions and how he reacts to the situations he encounters throughout his adventure, but i’ll stop here and move on to twilight princess link who, although doesn’t have as many expressive moments as the wind waker link, he still has some good ones:

link is surprised when he finally sees his childhood friend ilia again, only to be disappointed that she doesn’t remember him at all :(

....but once ilia DOES remember link, our boy link shows just how happy he is that his childhood friend has her memories back!! :)

link gasps and is horrified at the sight of seeing that midna could have died at the hands of ganondorf! if you didn’t have the same expression when you saw midna’s helmet get crushed, then maybe you'll get along just fine with botw link.

and man is link HAPPY to see her alive and well in her true form! an iconic moment, to be sure.

and now skyward sword link, who ties (or is maybe even better?) with wind waker link in terms of expressing his emotions:

link desperately reaches out to his childhood friend zelda, who is falling right into the imprisoned’s mouth! scary but it’s the least link can do to try and save her, and it shows the lengths he’ll go to in order to save her!

in perhaps one of the best scenes in the entire game, link watches helplessly as zelda seals herself and says goodbye to keep demise from wreaking havoc into the world. we as the audience can relate to link here because we’ve spent all this time chasing after zelda and trying to catch up with her, only for her to say goodbye to us in such a heartbreaking way.

...but man is he DELIGHTED once again when zelda finally wakes up from her seal! all this fighting was worth it! and we as the player feel rewarded as well because we get to see them rejoice and be glad that our efforts paid off as we get to enjoy this scene!

and this. look at this. this is right after ghirahim reappears and breaks up the sweet reunion that zelda and link were having. link is PISSED and is not afraid to show it, and we as the player are too because damn it we did NOT just do all of that for nothing!!

but botw link....man....is he soulless or what?

now, i know that in botw, link doesn’t remember anything after waking up from the chamber of resurrection so he has to go and relive all these memories, right? but that’s the biggest problem: because link doesn’t remember anything, all the interactions he has in the present with the zoras, gorons, etc. feel so empty and devoid of any emotion because link is a blank slate and has no reason to care for these people. and we as the audience don’t either because the characters he meet in the present are so flat and one-dimensional who get almost no screentime at all, so why should we care??

if link’s blank face would only happen in the present, then it’s understandable, but it’s the same >:| face even during the memories, which….are supposed to be full of emotion because this is where it’s supposed to show why we should care to save zelda and avenge our friends!! so how are we, the audience, supposed to connect with someone who is our “link” to the game when they themselves barely show any emotion at all? some examples:

zelda talking about the divine beasts and how they can use them to fight back against ganon obviously angers link because he has this face >:( throughout the whole conversation.

“omg zelda you are seriously boring me with all this talk about divine beasts even though you are obviously so passionate and interested in the subject >:|”

zelda just finished yelling at link that she doesn’t need his protection but he doesn’t care, he just goes back to his :| face and follows her because that’s what the king told him to do and who is he to have any emotion or say in that?

link is training while zelda opens her heart out at him on how she thinks she’s not meant to wield the sacred power. link has to stop swinging his sword around because he has to pretend he cares for what zelda is saying while continuing to have his :| look. truly the sign of a good, caring friend.

this memory of zelda trying to get link to eat a frog was such a missed opportunity to make link show some goddamn emotion because as she’s pressuring him to do it, the camera goes behind link and the memory ends soon after that. why not show him with a surprised or disgusted look?

another example of a missed opportunity is when daruk pats link heavily on the back. that sure looks like it hurt but hey daruk obviously meant it in a good, brotherly way!!! i bet link chuckled a little bit at his friend daruk for being like that huh?? well who knows because right after that happens it cuts away to a closeup of daruk’s face because link is obviously PISSED that daruk would dare do such a thing to the knight of hyrule. friendship counts for NOTHING here!

i guess when zelda fails yet again to awaken her sacred powers at the lanayru spring link changes a little from >:| to <:| because i GUESS he feels bad for her?? maybe a l’il sorry??? who knows OR cares because he just stands behind her while the rest of the champions try to comfort zelda and tell her it’ll be ok.

and that’s when it gets annoying because you realize that a lot of the scenes where link COULD show some emotion, the camera is not focusing on him so you can’t really tell what he’s feeling. when mipha, one of link’s love interests and beloved childhood friends (or so we’re told??? we don’t really get to see this), tells link they that she will always be there to heal him no matter what and that after the battle with ganon is over she wishes they could spend some time together, the camera doesn't turn to face link at all!!!! mipha is out here pouring her heart out on how much she cares about link and all we see is...actually NOTHING because the camera doesn’t show him whatsoever!! is link embarrassed, happy, flattered, yawning his life out?? who knows!!!

“wow mipha who cares, NEXT memory please”

another example is when the king is yelling at zelda for wasting her time and not focusing all her efforts at awakening her power. he literally says that the people of hyrule gossip that zelda is “the heir to a throne of nothing...nothing but failure”. oh man how dare the king talk to zelda like that wtf!!! surely link has something to say to that old fool??? why is he going to let him insult zelda like that??? oh i guess he WILL let him talk trash to zelda because all he’s doing is kneeling down while his friend is getting chewed out by her father and he's just gonna pretend nothing happened and won’t try to comfort her at all. link could be pissed af that the king would say such things at zelda but the camera is obviously not showing a closeup of link because who the hell cares right? what a good friend.

even in this scene, where zelda is obviously extremely frustrated and discouraged at not being able to awaken her power, link is just standing there...doing....nothing...AGAIN.........while zelda screams out her frustrations at the SKY i guess because link might as well not be there if all he's gonna do is just give her a look of pity.

hey what about when zelda and link are running for their lives because holy SHIT all of the champions just died at the hands of ganon and link better protect the princess with all his power because she's our last hope!! he won't ever let zelda out of his grasp because she--oh shit did she just lose her grip on his hand and fall?

....and link is obviously worried about her!!!!

i could go on and on at how poorly of a job the memories do to try and get us to connect with link and to truly show just how close he was with zelda and the champions. it's poor story-telling and it's such a huge step backward at how much tww, tp, and ss had achieved in terms of getting the player to feel what link is going through. in the present it doesn't get any better because link once again doesn't show any emotion when he's interacting with sidon, yunobo, riju, and that rito guy (whose name escapes me because HEY they aren't that memorable and barely have any screentime/interaction with link!!!), who are supposed to be the descendants of link's friends, the champions from the past. the game suffers in this because if link can BARELY remember the champions of the past, why are we supposed to care for these descendants who we don't really talk to much during our adventure?

the worst offense is during the ending. here is link, about to face off against calamity ganon, the fiend who killed off his dear friends in the past, the one who has caused zelda to be locked away in the castle for 100 years to try and keep him from destroying hyrule, the beast that killed link and caused him to go into a deep sleep for 100 years. surely link is ANGRY beyond belief like when ss link got pissed at ghirahim, and is ready to give ganon a kick in the ass, right?!?! right??!!!

..............oh......he's just....standing there, i guess....maybe he has his >:| look again to show....that he's angry??? just like when zelda was talking on and on about divine beasts??? once again who cares about the emotional impact this scene could have, it’s just another boss that you have to fight and kill i guess.

ok ok ok. but what about when link FINALLY defeats ganon and frees zelda, the person whom he has done all of this for! the person for who he climbed mountains, fought off an army of guardians, underwent arduous trials to prove his worth as a hero, traveled all over hyrule to gain the trust of the descendants of the champions and awaken the divine beasts so that they could help him in the final battle to save once and for all the princess of hyrule and most importantly, his last true friend!! maybe we'll get a heartfelt reunion just like how we got one when ss link finally awoke his childhood friend zelda from her slumber!! surely he must be happy to see her again???

.........i.....guess?? i mean we can't really tell?? the camera doesn't really show a close up of link but i guess he has his :| face again to show how...delighted he is...just like how....delighted tww link was when he reunited with his sister....i mean idk....,,,,not even....a smile...somewhere????

and it's sad, because even zelda asks "i wonder, do you really remember me?" as if she already feels disappointed that link has his :| face again after she kept ganon imprisoned for 100 years just so that link could appear and save hyrule. she did all of that for a blank face in return! no happiness, no smile, no joy, no nothing! there’s no emotional payoff for us because the reunion between the two just falls so flat and cold, just good ol' botw link just STANDING there once fucking again. even in the “true” ending we don’t feel that connection between link and zelda, because while zelda is smiling and talking about what the future holds, link just seems to follow blindly behind because it’s his “duty” and not because he truly cares about zelda. it’s just business as usual for botw link. the whole ending scene focuses on zelda’s emotions and feelings while we get distant shots of link’s back or the occasional :| look, so we don’t really know what the hell link is thinking or if he even is the tiniest glad that he saved the princess, aka the supposed friend that he worked his ass off to protect. if link doesn’t SHOW that he cares for zelda (or any of the people he interacts with), why the hell should we?

this post has gone on to be longer than i thought it would be, but i hope it truly shows just how FRUSTRATING it was as a long-time zelda fan to watch botw link just stand there and do/convey nothing while zelda and other characters around him pour their hearts out at him. even ocarina of time link showed more emotion in 1998 than botw link did almost two decades later, and it's unacceptable that nintendo took such a huge step backwards in their portrayal of link's emotions. it's already sad that botw had a lackluster story, it's even SADDER at how link's emotions were [mis]handled throughout the game. i hope that in the next zelda game we'll get a link that actually LINKS us the audience with him and is not just a blank face with a deadeye expression after having come so far along in that department. cheers.

[joshwrites]

The Highs and Lows of Breath of the Wild’s Combat

Breath of the Wild has been out for a little over two months now, and I still occasionally pop the game in for hour or two of trekking across Hyrule to find shrines, enemies, gear and NPCs. The game is certainly an immersive and satisfying experience, which means it’s more than accomplished it’s goal and deserving of praise, but I think it’s important to be critical of the game’s features. It won’t be long before the next Zelda game is out, and it’s already basically been confirmed it’s going to be similar to this one. I don’t want Nintendo to grow complacent due to glowing reviews again like they do on many of their franchises, so I think it’s important to be firm and hold them to an even higher standard next time.

Today, I want to talk about combat, and how it..kind of doesn’t work?

Okay, “doesn’t work” is a bit of an exaggeration. By all definitions it more than “works” and is pretty satisfying, especially in the beginning hours of the game. The game’s combat is focused on the dynamic ways Link can interact with his foes, and this shines the best in the game’s early stages where you’re constantly running short on gear and have to improvise. The game’s equipment system is good in that in the beginning stages it constantly puts you on your toes and forces you to consider a variety of much less traditional options that the game has built in.

One of the moments that stuck out to me the most on my first play-through was when I was surrounded by a mix of wolves and Bokoblins with low health. I quickly switched to my fire sword and swung at the first wolf that came at me, riding the resulting updraft fire from the corpse created up above the enemies and onto a nearby cliff-side. This was exhilarating and satisfying in so many ways. In a completely dynamic series of events, I was presented with a problem and solved it in true Zelda fashion.

You can use Link’s runes to pick up objects and swing them around like an impromptu sword, stop enemies in place giving you time to position yourself or grab some nearby gear,  create ice blocks out of water to put yourself on some cover. You can start a fire and burn the battlefield to bits while you use the updraft to escape. You can run away and hide until the enemies forget you were there, scurrying off into the dark thinking only of revenge.

I think the problems with the system become clear when the “revenge” comes though. Because of the way Breath of the Wild is structured, you can beef your Link up at an alarmingly fast rate. Better weapons, shrines that contain spirit orbs, and gear are EVERYWHERE in this game, with weapons being the only thing that have some kind of finite use. I was about halfway through the main quest and had barely scratched the surface of the side content before my Link was beefed up in such a way that the only thing that combat became a bit of a non issue. I could tank hits from a lot of weaker enemies thanks to a combination of good armor and the magic spells the game gives you for completing the four main dungeons being pretty much geared toward making the game EASIER instead of more versatile. Mipha’s Grace and Daruk’s protection are both pretty much passives dedicated to making getting hit matter less and covering my mistakes in a game where enemies telegraphed their attacks far too obviously and struck too slowly for it to be necessary.  I realized I didn’t particularly enjoy this once I had them on for a while. 

Thankfully, the game gives you the option to disable these abilities but I didn’t realize this until I was a good ways into the game, but it doesn’t mitigate all of the issues. Ultimately, the game kind of tilts from one extreme to the other regarding how much of an upper hand Link has over his foes. It’s just that the lower end of the extreme is that much more engage than the higher end. Scrapping to use whatever you can find and gain whatever advantages you can to help you survive fits the game’s systems more than letting the player run amuck and mash buttons.  The game tries to mitigate this a bit with a scaling system where some types of enemies get stronger as Link does, but this doesn’t really change their behaviors and the damage soaking abilities just turns these tougher variants into bigger damage sponges. It ultimately feels good to have this sort of progression in the game, but I wish it was harder to become as strong as I did.

If I were to change this, I’d just slow down the game’s rate of handing the player weapons a fair bit and make them last a bit longer to compensate. This would also go for gear. I’d also remove the game’s spells entirely and try to replace them with more runes for the player to mess around with. Instead of giving players more ways to mash buttons, give them more ways to approach combat and let them find the solutions to troubling situations with their tools.

The second thing I want to talk about is the actual, direct sword combat you partake in in the game. There are a lot of improvements here that I’ve talked about before: Link can’t instantly finish foes he’s downed anymore, only really being able to get some extra damage in. Enemies attack you all at once instead of relenting and taking turns, making each situation much more dangerous and require more thought before you engage. There are more weapons than ever before with 3 “classes” that have their own simple movesets with variants in each instead of the superfluous directional strikes and sword arts from previous games. The parry from Skyward Sword was kept with the timing tightened a bit to make it riskier to use. These are all excellent changes that I want to see become the standard for Zelda combat in the future.

There’s a few things that hold it back a bit though. Only one type of weapon out of the three lets you use Shields and in a game where you largely don’t have a choice of what weapons you can use this proves a bit annoying. The shields feel like a bit of a waste and I would be holding onto some for a dozen hours at a time in contrast to the weapons which I would burn through very easily. No shields meant I didn’t have access to parries though which is a major offensive mechanic in the game. This critique wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal on it’s own considering each weapon types have advantages and drawbacks so it’s only natural that they make balance changes like this, but it goes hand in hand with the game’s other big offensive mechanic being a bit of a problem.

Basically, I think Flurry rush is a bad mechanic. Probably the only outright bad mechanic in the combat in it’s entirety, but it sticks out a ton to me due to this. Link has no invincibility frames on any of his dodges, so he has to either clear the way entirely of an enemy’s massive swings or parry the blow to get inside and do some damage. Because of the above problem with shields and Link’s generally slow movement though getting “in” and “out” feels a bit clunky. It seriously feels like the roll from previous games of it’s type is missing here. Nintendo seems to have come up with the flurry rush to mitigate this a bit: Link dodges an attack “at the last moment” as the game says to enter a slow motion sequence where the player mashes the attack button to Link lets loose a series of rapid blows on his foe. Outside of the button mashing this sequence is pretty much scripted and lets Link gain a bunch of damage for free.  The problem here is that it’s incredibly scripted and boring next to most of the combat. It doesn’t help that the timing is hilariously lenient to the point where you will trigger it all the time while trying to execute a simple dodge. This leads to an offensive mechanic that’s a bit boring and unsatisfying to use. The simple thing that they can and probably will do is fix the timings so it will feel more rewarding to execute, and there’s nothing wrong with that approach.

If I wanted to add a bit more depth to the combat however I’d just give Link a dodge roll with some invincibility  frames that you see in other action games. You can now “stay in” with a one handed weapon by timing your dodges, but it would be more difficult than a shield. It also requires a much more active player to know when to attack and when to roll compared to how easy the flurry rush is. A more careful player can stick to a more reserved play style, and aggressive players now have a difficult but satisfying way to express themselves no matter what weapon type they’re using.

The last thing I want to address is the seeming focus on quality over quantity when it comes to the enemies.

Breath of the Wild’s Bokoblin enemies are shown to be very fleshed out. You fight them, trick them, scare them, set them on fire, freeze them, throw them off cliffs, or do any kind of thing to them and they’ll respond like creatures with a survival instinct a lot of the time. The other enemies show a similar level of work put into how they’ll respond to Link’s actions, making each encounter varied.

This approach has a pretty big drawback when it comes to just how much variety there is in what you’re fighting. I’m almost 100% certain the FIRST thing you got tired of in Breath of the Wild aside from fiddling with equipment screens was seeing a bokoblin camp. The game hides it’s lack of enemy variety well enough that I think you’d go a while before you notice it, but it’s definitely a thing that wears down a game focused on exploring new horizons. Fighting the same enemies with the same movesets is bound to get old and might cause one to avoid combat altogether.

Thankfully this is the easiest fix of the bunch. Build on what you have next game. Bring back classic enemies like Darknuts and Like Likes(A Zelda game based on finite equipment doesn’t have Like Likes, guys.) and bring plenty of new ones to add to the set.

Overall though, the combat is the most solid it’s been in some time and has a lot of room to go up. The next Zelda game should have great combat if they focus on fine tuning this.