#does Link hate Hylia? Have complex feelings about her?

[mylonelydreaming]

CW Religion/Religious themes

Thinking about the fact that it's a gameplay mechanic to pray to Hylia and wondering if that makes Link some kind of fantasy world equivalent of catholic and then the possible strangeness/spiritual conflict that could come with that when Zelda is basically god herself and what it means to communicate with Hylia when Zelda is a dragon, what it means to have lost the most important person to you for the sake of a holy weapon to use in a war between gods

[skittlewrites]

LU Boys Headcanons

Hey! I have some headcanons that I'd like to share, and most of these will make, at the very least, brief appearances in my stories. Some of the boys have more than others, but oh well.

To start us off, we have Wind!

-He certainly looks small and sweet, but he's a terror when he's angry.

-He's super protective of those he claims as family.

-The wind reacts to his emotions and feelings without prompting. It has a mind of its own when it comes to its champion.

-His hair is bleached blonde from all of the time he spends out on the ocean (He despises the cap of the hero's clothes).

-He can dual wield! I feel like this would be very fitting for him (This has made an appearance in ATS as well :) ).

-Full name is Link Aalto (Aalto is wave of water in Finnish)

More under the cut!

Wild

-He's super good with animals. Small, large, feral, domesticated, anything really. He understands them to a certain extent, and they generally understand him as well.

Legend

-He's one of the more graceful ones in the group, but the most graceful.

-Doesn't really have an issue with Hylia, and is a fan of Din and Nayru (During the Oracle of Ages/Seasons, he made good friends with them both, imo).

Time

*shrugs* nothing yet

Hyrule

*shrugs* nothing yet here either

Twilight

-Country accent 100%. When they're in his Hyrule, it gets so crazy thick and the others tease him relentlessly about it.

-Loves pumpkins. As Ordons' main crop, he's a huge fan of all things pumpkin, and he and Sky trade recipes.

-Best friends with Dusk, evolved into a relationship.

-Loves to gossip with Warriors.

Four

-Speaks the same dialect of Hylian that Sky does (Ancient Hylian), so they tend to gravitate to each other when they get frustrated or overwhelmed.

-Has a bit of an accent compared to the others, but its nowhere near as prominent as Sky's.

Sky

-He's the most graceful in the group. His fighting looks very similar to dancing in the sense that its fluid and smooth.

-He dances with Fi. During his quest and once Sun was stuck in the crystal, Fi would occasionally force him to slow down and stop pushing himself so hard. They would dance together, Fi teaching Sky some of her favorite dances, and Sky teaching her Skyloftian dances in return. They both loved it.

-Sky hasn't danced since Fi returned to the Sword.

-Sky has a prominent accent. In my head, it sounds kind of like Fi when she speaks in-game, melodious, smooth, and ancient.

-His ears are very expressive. They move with his expressions. Skyloftians also have much better hearing than other Hylians. This comes from spending so much time on their Loftwings, and the necessity of hearing others flying with them, and needing to be aware of Skytails.

-Sky will startle and/or spook easily, but he doesn't get genuinely terrified very often at all. There's only a few things that will truly scare him.

-He's really good with anything with wings, and cats. Since Remlits don't exist outside of his era, this translates over to cats imo.

-Uses a lot of statistics and probabilities. This carries over from Fi, and he's aware that he does it, but tries not to most of the time (Sun thinks its adorable).

-His anger is quiet. He doesn't typically yell, but he gives off an entirely different vibe when he's angry. Depending on the situation, he can sometimes be quick to frustration, but he'd never take it out on anyone except himself.

-Speaking of, he feels like most things are his fault. Huge guilt complex. Sun and Groose hate that he feels this way, but despite their best efforts, he finds a way to blame himself for most things. :(

-He's a silent crier. He's always been on the quieter end, and he doesn't like to bother people when he's overwhelmed or upset.

-He's very light. I feel like most of Sky's 'bulk' comes from his layers. Living in the sky, the nights must be frigid, and the wind certainly doesn't do anything to help. So, he wears multiple layers, all Skyloftians do. I fee like Skyloftians might have a different bone structure than other Hylians, especially as the Loftwings carry them around, and can catch them out of freefall so easily.

Warriors

-Loves pumpkin soup. Had some when he was on Skyloft in the War of Eras, and has wanted more ever since.

-He knows Fi fairly well, having spent so much time with her during the war. He and Sky sometimes talk about her for hours at a time.

-Gossips with Twilight.

-He can understand a good deal of Ancient Hylian, but not as much or as well as Four can.

-He struggles on and off with speaking. Proxi hangs around him more often than not, and she'll help out when he needs it.

Good grief, I didn't realize how much typing this would be. But regardless, here you have it! Sky's got more than the others because I love him and I have a lot of Feelings about him. I know that Time and Hyrule have nothing, but I don't know their characters very well, so I just don't know what to think about them. Lol.

Have a good day!

[creativesplat]

for the character ask meme thing, what about Zelda?

First of all, I am SO sorry! This has been in my inbox for like a month now, and I had totally forgotten about it!! My humblest apologies Anon!

I remembered this one because I was struggling to write Zelda in a fic I'm working on and I thought analysing her character might help me with that, and then I stumbled back across this. (again so sorry for lateness!!)

Zelda is quite the complex and wonderful character, so this one might be a little bit long, not quite as long as the Revali one though (hopefully)!

What I love about her:

I love how she works so hard on self improvement, and how she comes out on top, despite her struggles.

I think she’s an outspoken and fun person, who isn’t terribly empathetic, but tries her hardest to be anyway (sort of the opposite of Revali, who I think probably does understand other’s feelings but tries his hardest not to). I think her innate nature is quite bitter, selfish, and uncaring, and she tries her absolute darnedest to work against that, to be as kind and as thankful and as wonderful to everyone as she can be, even though her innate instincts are against that, because of a cold upbringing.

When she pushes past her defence mechanisms of callous coldness and bitterness she’s an absolute darling and the bubbliest sweet-heart ever!

She’s really sweet and I love how inquisitive she is. Her brain works so amazingly and she is so so sharp. She thinks she hasn’t unlocked her powers, but, honey, one of your powers is intellect, recognise your positives! Hehem… anyway. I love her, and she’s a really complex and beautiful person.

What I hate about her:

I love her, buuuut she’s so mean to Link. I completely understand her anxieties and despondency with regards her sealing power, but taking it out on Link is slightly frustrating, (it must have been genuinely quite bad, because Link remembers several memories in which she is unpleasant to him, but can’t remember his own family), so I don’t like that part of her.

However, it’s the same as Revali. Both are damaged people who have quite strict defence mechanisms and take it out on our main protagonist.

Once they both get past that (although one might argue that Revali never does, but I'm not so sure (for another post I think)), they're both better, stronger, nicer people.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

Resolve and Grief is my favourite Zelda moment. She seems very mysterious and ancient in that memory, and the line “Can you hear it yet…hero?” Gives me chills. Zelda really feels like Hylia incarnate in this one to me, and I’m not sure why.

I just love the intrigue and Hylia-ness she gives off. It's badass.

What I would like to see more focus on:

Rhoam trying to fix things with her. In AoC Rhoam tries to sort things out with Zelda, and he was going to just before the calamity struck in BoTW, so I feel like more of an exploration of her strained relationship with her father, with moments of how much they both care for each other, would be so good to explore.

What I would like to see less focus on:

Her anxieties about getting the sealing power. In AoC, where she gets the Sealing Power earlier, she is still an amazing and fun person. Her struggles don’t define her, like they do other characters in BoTW, they make her more realistic. She’s still inquisitive and bubbly and silly without the ever-present doom of Hyrule’s destruction.

I understand how important her struggles are, how they shape her, but they’re not all of her. Revali is a snarky bird who’s really cool, an aspect of him is his insecurity and jealousy, but its not all of him (but it is more of him than Zelda's struggles are of her, because she works against her problems, to combat them, and arguably Revali works unintentionally to worsen his problems, perpetuating them, but I could talk all day about Revali and Zelda parallels and contrasts and I am not going to right now!) . Urbosa is a badass mum to everyone, who also struggles with grief and loosing Zelda’s mother, etc. Zelda is a fun inquisitive princess who feels unworthy because she can’t unlock her powers, but that still means she’s a fun inquisitive princess, and I’d love to see this explored more. (Btw, I know I’ve been plugging this fic a lot, but @wanderingnightingale’s Zelda in Dropping The Sword really shines as an example of this)

Favorite pairing with:

Honestly I’m not sure. I really like ZeLink, but personally I’m more of a MiphLink shipper myself. If I was to pick one it would be ZeLink, though, because they would work quite nicely together in a post calamity world.

Favorite friendship:

Urbosa and Zelda. They’re really sweet, and Urbosa’s motherly vibe is really lovely! I had a go at exploring that in Time Together chapter 5 (and 6 but that was with Revali), and I think it's something I want to write more of, because I really enjoyed it!

NOTP:

ZelPha. Mipha made an engagement gift for Link, Zelda is also (more subtextually so you can disagree if you want to) into Link, so there’s that. But I also can’t see it working in other ways. Mipha and Zelda interact very little, they both have to get over shared animosity, they’re both very lovely wonderful people but I don’t really see it working out.

’Tis just an opinion though, feel free to disagree!

Favorite headcanon:

BoTW’s incarnation of Zelda is disastrously bad at archery. All the other incarnations of Zelda across time have been archers, but this one should stay away from a bow. Revali swore that she was unteachable. In comparison to the usual Zelda’s, this Zelda is pretty good with a short sword, and can use a rapier.

BoTW Link is pretty good at archery, where as other Links haven’t been quite so good.

Also, sorry for all the comparisons to Revali, he and Zelda are surprisingly similar/ parallel each other quite nicely and it seemed applicable if I used some of him to compare to her.

Thank you so much for the ask, and I am so sorry it took so long to get back to you!! :)

[queenof-literature]

Hi! Ik u usually only write abt wild but I’m getting desperate for some wind content since I’m pretty sure I’ve gone through what little there is for him so I have a req if it’s okay! Could you do something revolving around the theory that since Time technically didn’t die in Wind’s timeline the spirit of the hero couldn’t move on so when Wind forced the gods to make him the hero they created a entirely new spirit of the hero with him as the base which resulted in him having some 1/2

2/2 little differences to the other links? And this is where the actual req comes in can you write about the links finding that out abt Wind and their reactions? Thank you so much if you do!   

I’m sorry anon I didn’t completely understand the theory so I did my best. I’m sorry if it’s not what you asked for! I hope you enjoy it though! Also I haven’t physically played Wind Waker so please forgive the mistakes. 

    Wind knew he wasn’t like the other heroes. It was the stark difference that tipped him off. He had never ridden a horse, he had never been completely landlocked, his entire Hyrule was flooded for Hylia’s sake. Wind figured that’s why he got along with Sky so well, the fellow hero was also from a land far different from the Hyrule the others knew. Every Hyrule had its differences, but Wind and Sky seemed to be in a world that wasn’t even Hyrule. If Sky he supposed it was true, Sky was from Skyloft and Hyrule was the unexplored surface world. But Wind was from Outset island. That was his entire world until Aryll was kidnapped. Wind thinks that the Hyrule he explored was Time’s, but he didn’t want to tell the older that his Hyrule was flooded. Not the Hyrule he lived in with his wife. Not the one he saved just Wind to go and screw it up. The one he suffered to save over and over. He was terrified that Time would be furious with him, that he would think Wind was a failure. Wind didn’t want the others to know about his boat, how when King Hyrule died his boat went still and the eyes were milky and glassed over. Wind didn’t want them to blame him for everything. 

    “Wind? You with us buddy?” Warriors asked, placing his hand on WInd’s shoulder.

    “Huh? Oh yeah sorry I was just thinking!” Wind claimed cheerfully, burying his doubts down quickly. He could tell Warriors wasn’t fooled, but he at least didn’t have to worry about the older questioning him until they were alone. 

    “You know where you are in the timeline bud?” Legend asked. That’s right! That’s what had started the train of thought. The others were trying to figure out how the timeline was laid out. It wasn’t necessarily that important, but many of the Links were curious. They thought Wild was at the very end, Warriors was some branch off, and Time had made a couple different ones, it was all hard to keep track of. Time didn’t go into detail about it, but apparently his name had come from him messing with time throughout his quest with his ocarina. 

“Um. I’m not sure.” Wind said, trying desperately to change the subject. Please change the subject. He didn’t want to admit what he was thinking. That he wasn’t even one of them. He wasn’t the same spirit of the hero. He didn’t think he belonged with them and saying it out loud would only confirm it. 

“You have no idea?” Hyrule asked curiously. 

“Well… um…” Wind stuttered out. How can he explain this and still have his older brothers see him as one of them. He was already the youngest! He didn’t want to be the outcast in any other way. 

“This is confusing for all of us kid, don’t be embarrassed if you get it wrong. None of us know for sure.” Time comforted from across the fire. 

“It’s not that. Um…” Wind started. He might as well tell them. His grandma always told him not to bottle things in, otherwise it would come out in unhealthy ways. That was advice he always tried to take to heart. “I don’t think I’m like you… I think I’m a different hero’s spirit.” Wind got out, looking around to see the other’s reactions. They all looked some degree of shocked and curious.

“What do you mean, Wind?” Four asked. 

“Well when Aryll got kidnapped I went after her. I didn’t give shit who the hero was, I needed to save my sister. We always celebrated the Hero of Time so I figured I could do something similar I guess.” Time’s eye widened in shock. “So I went after my sister and eventually that turned into me pulling the sword and making the Gods make me the next hero because I was going to save my sister goddammit. But on Outset some of the elders told us they think the Hero of Time’s soul never died out so the hero never passed on his soul.” Wind continued on talking about the odd complexities of the Hero’s spirit and how it wasn’t quite passed on. Luckily they were used to Wind’s fast paced talking. “And anyway I think I’m an entirely different hero.” Wind finished with a big breath as he usually did when he was done with his rants. The other heroes looked at their youngest in shock, Time especially. He didn’t realize he would create so much chaos when splitting times. He didn’t have any other choice but still… and what does it mean the Hero’s spirit doesn’t pass on? Is there some way to solve it? But if he solved it, what if something happened to Wind. Time itself was so tricky…

    “You forced the Gods to make you a hero? That’s fucking badass!” Four called out. Wind felt his shoulder’s relax. How could he think the others would hate him?

    “How did you even do that?” Legend grumbled, not wanting to admit he was impressed by the little pirate. 

    “That is really impressive Wind.” Hyrule spoke up from beside Wild.

    “I’m not really that surprised you practically forced all powerful beings.” Warriors smirked, ruffling Wind’s hair, which the younger fought out of habit. 

    “Me either.” Wild spoke up. 

    “Can’t say I’m that surprised either. It explains a lot.” Sky smiled at Wind. 

    “Get ‘em pirate!” Twilight whooped, the rest of the group laughed, and WInd finally felt the knot in his stomach loosen up now that the light atmosphere was coming back. He looked appreciatively at Twilight. 

    “I feel like I should apologize.” Time spoke softly once the laughter died down.

    “There’s no reason to Old Man.” Wind said confidently, hiding his turmoil. He couldn’t tell Time about what he thought was his Hyrule. He wasn’t even sure it was Time’s. “It was a legend. We’re not even sure it was you. Who knows what happened in between then?” Wind stared down Time, daring him to argue. Time eventually relented and chuckled. 

    “Fair enough. Who knows how all this happened or if the time is even linear.” Time agreed. The rest of the group began chatting again, debating the potential timelines that led to each of them. Time moved from across the fire to next to Wind, sandwiching him between Time and Warriors on one log. 

    What else is on your mind?” Time asked. Wind sighed, he should have known Time would catch on. He wouldn’t lie, but he didn’t want to tell the whole truth. Not tonight.

    “I worried about what would happen when I said that. That you guys wouldn’t think I was a hero. I know it’s silly now but I was still worried.” Wind stated guiltily. The others wouldn’t think that, they weren’t that shallow. But was still his main concern when he spoke up.

    “Kid. You stabbed Ganon in the fucking skull. You’re a hero.” Warriors confirmed, leaving now room for argument.

    “Age doesn’t matter with heroic actions. If anything it makes them more impressive.” Time bumped his shoulder against Wind. It felt nice to hear it out loud from some of the people he respected most. 

    “Thanks guys.” Wind laughed. He was a hero. 

    The Hero of Winds.

[farons-kokiri]

It's not controversial if it's just true and engages with media and the audience in a far more complex way than the opinions of those you're speaking of! Ngl I kinda forgot there's a side to this fandom that just hates Zelda- a character the franchise is literally named after yygeghhdhfhhrhe

I wholeheartedly agree with everything said and I don't mind being Controversial ™️ and as someone who primarily loves Zelda villains, I also love the heroes as well if not more, this includes Zelda.

I've been a tloz fan longer than I've had a public fandom presence so I want to impart a few facts from... The literal games that actually bolster this post and can serve as perhaps a convincing point for those new to the games who dont understand the deep ass lore bc nintendy hates making its older game properties available.

Hylia, as an active goddess, does not exist in any Zelda title. The whole point of Skyward Sword was that Hylia gave up her immortality and most of her god powers to be mortal. She did this to partially help Link and to possibly be able to use the triforce since it's against the triforce TOS for gods to use it. Any time she interacts with Link in SS, she does so through mediums like Fi who have been given messages to relay to Link. Even in botw it's more likely to assume the goddess statues you speak to aren't actually Hylia responding, but almost like a pre-recorded robot answering machine.

In botw the whole gimmick of Zelda struggling with her awakening and begging Hylia to help her is that she is Hylia. Hylia was never going to respond to Zelda because they're sort of the same person but not. All we know about the whole awakening process is that when Zelda does awaken, she is sometimes given memories of her previous lives (or her life as a goddess) and her divine purpose- to seal away darkness.

Zelda's divine powers do one thing and only one thing. Sealing away darkness. She cannot reassume godhood and stop the reincarnation cycle. Her powers don't even kill darkness, they just seal it. So as long as it comes back she will have to reappear to stop it. Her god powers are a one trick pony, she's a cleric who knows only one high level holy spell and that's it.

This is more nitpicky but there's a whole ass, gigantic cutscene when Link finally catches up with Zelda where she (perhaps) cries and apologizes to him for all the shit that Hylia- and her by proxy- put him through. She's completely aware of how hard this all was for Link and feels that she used him. This is where we first become aware that when the gears of fate begin to turn, Zelda is powerless to stop them.

Also, some important screen shots to sell this last point:

At a risk of being controversial: I really dont enjoy the fanon trope of making Hylia a villain. I dont claim people who do that are evil or sexist, there’s obivous writing potential there and people are allowed to explore it. I personally however find it uncomfortable, and I want to speak out in case someone else feels the same and would be relieved to not be alone.

Hylia as a character is a …fairly new addition to franchise. We first learn of her in skyward sword, a game that’s story aims to explain the reincarnation cycle’s excistence.

I think due to that, and how in botw we see the first canon story that potrays the cycle as bad, its easy for new and old fans to point at hylia and go: I dont trust this. (It doesnt help Hylia is connected to vague christian imaginary and people have their own issues with religion.)

Again I dont blame people for this, some fans are new, some are coping with religious trauma, and some just wanna explore the cool concept that is reincarnating heroes.

However, my discomfort comes from a few facts in this matter that I want to put out there for people to consider.

My first issue is that Hylia is not the person who started the issue. We know the evil force that is Demise existed before the cycle, and for some reason or another Hylia nor the other goddesses could not stop him. Hylia made her plan in order to seal demise away for good, and it didnt work. It just didn’t work.

It doesnt matter if demise cursed the reincarnation thing or if Hylia decided it’d repeat forever. The fact is that theres a malicious unquestionably evil force that a goddess tried to stop and failed.

You can dislike her plan all you want, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that—

Okay, breather, I am passionate about this but I know my opinion isnt the objective fact. Maybe Hylia could stop this cycle and try something else, maybe she is inhuman in mind and spirit and doesnt comprehend the horrors she has caused. We don’t know and you can fill these blanks as you see fit.

But uhm, this does bring me to my second opinion, which might be harder to take seriously it you’re disagreeing with this post already.

I think there’s sexism around how fans treat Zelda and Hylia, not helped at all by Nintendo’s own actions.

I see people be put off by skyward sword Zelda, perhaps writing her unemphatic and clueless of Link’s battles to find her. So much so that we ignore the fact she too was ripped from home, told she has to be someone else, and forced to drag her best friend along so the world wouldnt end. She is a victim too, but why do we forget this?

In my opinion it’s partly due to the bad writing of women Nintendo keeps doing. Zelda is written so… perfect. Nintendo refuses to aknowledge her flaws as a person and instead is like look how pretty she is, she apologises and Link forgives her, so you should too! …When, if you dont do so, it feels like you’re being manipulated or dismissed whenever she is on screen.

An issue that repeats with Hylia as well. With many Zeldas in many games.

To react to that tonal dissonance with writing Zelda/Hylia as evil is… normal, I think. I don’t blame people for feeling that way.

But,, That seems unfair to me. A female character with potential to be complex and good was failed by the writers, and now we as fans continue from that point with making her even worse.

I dont dislike fans who do this, you’re just participating in fandom the way you see fit, but I cant enjoy it, it makes me upset. These women are not evil, Link isn’t the only character being hurt deeply, and if you could please consider female characters beyond how they hurt ya boy, I’d be so relieved.

…

I’ll repeat what I said at the start, I dont claim people who do this are evil or sexist. People are having fun in fandom, and ngl demise sucks as a villain and Hylia is way more interesting to explore.

I just… I think its worth asking yourself why her. Why you don’t or do like Zelda. Engaging in things you love with an analytic eye is genuinely good for you and the media you’re enjoying.

This in no means is meant to come off as an attack, Im just requesting we look at another angle of things, maybe just to say we did.

I uh, thanks for reading.