#ergo: she knows how to wield a sword bitches

[morningstargirl666]

SNEAK PEAK

Not actually wip wednesday lol but I've just been writing this and HAD to share. Comes from the same chapter as this sneak peak, which is centered around Rebekah and flashbacks of the past. Trigger warning for scenes of child abuse.

“Father! STOP!” Elijah yelled, lunging forward and grabbing their father’s hand, trying to wrestle the whip out of his grip. Mikael snarled, staggering, but held steadfast. With a wild, violent movement, he had thrust his arm out, hitting Elijah across the face and sending him flying to the ground. She watched as her brother blinked sluggishly at the blood between his fingers, touching his brow.

Mikael paid him no heed, already turning around and bringing the whip down on Niklaus’ back all over again. This time, their brother couldn’t hold back his scream.

“He’s going to kill him,” Kol breathed beside her.

Wide-eyed, Rebekah looked across at him, the dawning horror on his face matching her own. She didn’t think he was speaking to her. She wasn’t even sure he had registered that she was there, his eyes fixed solely on their father and the bloody whip being brought down on their brother’s back. He was frozen, feet rooted to the floor, petrified by fear. Rebekah’s eyes trailed down, landing on the sword sheathed at his waist. Then she looked back over at their father, just as he brought the whip down again. It wasn’t even a choice.

She lurched forward, drawing her brother’s sword from his waist. Kol’s head whipped toward her at the sound, eyes widening at the sight of his sister wielding his blade but it was already too late. She was already heading straight for Mikael.

“REBEKAH!”

Hearing Kol’s shout, Mikael stopped and turned his head, just in time to see his daughter gracefully swing Kol’s sword into a reverse grip and slam the pommel into his face, instantly breaking his nose. Mikael staggered back, dropping the whip, shock flooding his features as suddenly his legs were kicked out from under him, sending him crashing onto his back. Blood spurting from his nose, lips red where he’d bitten his tongue, he blinked his dazed eyes open to the sight of a tip of a blade pointed at his neck.

“Lay another hand on him and I’ll kill you,” Rebekah warned, face flickering with a hundred different emotions. Her hands shook, so she tightened her grip on the sword, poised with it in both hands.

The entire room froze.

“Rebekah,” Mikael said eventually. He held up his hands, gesturing for her to lower the sword. “Don’t be stupid, child. Put the blade down.”

“You think I wouldn’t do it?” she snarled, eyes suddenly blazing with fury. The sword jumped forward several inches, kissing Mikael’s jugular. A small bead of blood welled at the tip of the blade where skin had been cut. Mikael gulped. “I won’t let you hurt him anymore.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, she could feel Niklaus’ eyes on her, his expression an emotional mix of awe and terror.

Mikael’s face twisted with rage. “You wouldn’t dare,” he ground out, eyes challenging her to do it.

“This is no mercy for the weak.” She lifted her chin, staring down at him ruthlessly. “Isn't that right, father?”

The snarl on his face died, eyes widening as he finally saw her for the first time. When Niklaus had started laying hunting traps for the rabbits, it wasn’t him that slit the bunnies' throats. It wasn’t him that gutted them after, not even fazed by all the blood drenching her hands and smeared across her face where she’d wiped sweat from her brow. Rebekah had grown up with five brothers and although she spent her days helping their mother, weaving flowers into her braids, it wasn’t like she was short of sparring partners when she decided to pick up a blade. Nor did she lack the stomach for it.

Rebekah Mikaelsdottir was not some weak-willed girl that sat beside the fire while men died for her.

Quite the opposite.

[mysterious-prophetess]

Age of Calamity feelings and thoughts

I did a review but this is going to be even more all over the place and full of speculation and theorizing. 

Tl:Dr about the review-I liked the game despite a few things here and there that frustrated me. Like the divine beast sections. 

So Feelings? The game did make me happy and I’ve had a really terrible setback in what I thought my life would be and that occurred two weeks before Age of Calamity was released. 

I failed my Comps and therefore was dismissed from my doctoral program. I used this game, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and Hades to cope somewhat. 

So...if I’ve attached a little more of my emotions to this game, it’s because it’s helped me through this shitty time of my life. 

Anyway. This game really made my inner ZeLink shipper so very happy. Yes, I know they’re never really going to go as far as they did with Skyward Sword, but it was still enough to get my little shipper brain going. 

I also feel they made Revali more belligerent towards Link without him already starting as the Hylian Champion/Knight Who Wields the Sword that Seals the Darkness, and I think this is Revali’s own inferiority/superiority complex coming into play. 

From what I’ve read into this, it seems like Revali thinks Link is just a knight sworn to protect the Princess and therefore doesn’t even compare to Revali-who is the best Rito Archer, invented his own quasi magic technique (Revali’s Gale), and is the Rito Champion chosen to be Divine Beast Vah Medoh’s pilot. Yet, this nobody is in the thick of it and being trusted to do stuff that challenges Revali’s image of himself at the top of the pile.

Never mind the fact that one of his fellow Champions is the Chieftain of her people nor another is a Princess of hers, Revali sees Link the Knight as a threat to his own perceived view of things where he-Revali-is top bird. 

I think it’s because Link can used any weapon he come across, including the bow, with proficiency. Revali can’t stand Link because he thinks Link is a threat to his own perceived idea he is the BEST. In canon BotW, at least he could take solace in the fact that Link was a fellow Champion from the start and therefore, while not as exceptions as himself (from Revali’s perspective), he at least was the Hylian Champion. In Age of Calamity? Revali doesn’t even have that much for half the story.

Daruk doesn’t get much of an expansion beyond what we learned in the Champion’s Ballad. He’s steady and willing to indulge in some sassing at Revali whenever the Riot Archer’s arrogance gets to be a bit much. 

My favorite moment was  in the story Mission “Freeing the Korok Forest” when he made the comment “If only there was someone who could fly ahead and scout it out.” in the midst of Revali’s bitching. 

His interactions with Yunobo were cute too. Honestly both Gorons got the short stick in this as far as their characterizations were concerned. 

Doesn’t help that of all the Future Champions, Yunobo is my least favorite to play, tied with Teba. So, I was less inclined to do much with him. 

On the other end of the scale, we get Mipha and Sidon. Mipha’s interactions with Daruk helped flesh out her crush on Link more as well as her own motivations for helping others AND seeing both baby Sidon and the adult he was in BotW was interesting too. It’s not often we get to see that in a game. Sidon’s desire to save his big sister resonated with me a bit more than the two descendants- Riju and Yunobo- saving ancestors they’d likely never have met regardless of them dying then or dying of natural causes later. Sidon, on the other hand, as a Zora is part of a very long lived race and knew her and this adult Sidon has lived longer mourning his sister’s death than with her alive. Mourning her and wishing he’d been bigger or stronger to save her. Seeing them together made me so happy because I’d always wished he’d gotten closure, even if all he’d seen was her ghost from a distance. 

Teba? Aside from being tied with Yunobo as my least favorite future champion to play as, he only showed that he grew up idolizing Revali and was shocked to see Revali was a bit of a jerk. I remarked to my friend that it was sad to me that the only legacy Revali seemed to have was his flight range, but now with Teba’s hero-worship (and shock that Revali is a jerk), perhaps the legacy was also the legend of a fantastic archer and hero of his people too. 

Teba does seem to understand Revali isn’t what he portrays himself to be, and that is what I think he means by “seeing the face behind the Champion.” He sees through all of that posturing to see Revali as he is: deep down a hero who does care about others and not just himself and his own glory but also has an image he likes to project (which is why I think he has both an inferiority and superiority complex a la Bakugo of BnHA). 

Now to the character I have the most feelings about: 

King Rhoam Bospharmus Hyrule.

Learning he married into the royal family, and therefore, is not of the blood of Hylia does make his lack of knowledge of how to raise an heiress to the golden power make a lot more sense. This was something I gleamed from across the two games and the DLC. If Zelda’s mother had the golden power, she is the blood of Hylia, ergo, Rhoam isn’t and married into the family. 

I’ll go one step further. I think that despite being the “Kingdom” of Hyrule, the bloodline of Hylia is matrilineal and therefore only daughters of the royal family can inherit this power. Though, for some reason it’s still a patriarchal society. 

Zelda’s dead mom died before she could start to teach Zelda, and therefore Rhoam ever saw the external stuff that his wife might have done. He also seemed to have little patience for the metaphysical despite knowing a lot of that was real (at least when he was alive). 

His approach to it was wrong and it damaged Zelda to the point that her powers awakened too late to stop them. 

Also, Rhoam was trying to be too clever by half. In trying to just replicate what their ancestors did, he missed the point that the ancestors had a full understanding of what it was they were up against and what they’d created. Rhoam thought Calamity Ganon was just this beastial force and that underestimation was why he had all his plans blow-up in his face and the collective faces of Hyrule. 

This is where my theories come into play. 

After playing as him in Age of Calamity and finding his move set surprisingly effective, I’ve come up with a theory: The Magical Queens of Hyrule tend to choose men with extremely good Martial Skills as their husbands to create a balanced pair to reflect the first Zelda and Link who were Goddess incarnate and her Knight. 

No, this isn’t just my Zelink shipper talking. Ok it IS partly but it would make sense. From a traditional standpoint (and Hyrule is steeped in tradition), the pairing of Goddess and Warrior being reflected in the Queen and her consort King makes sense. 

It would also explain why Rhoam is so very military minded in attempting to get things done. I think he was nobleman who was either a general or captain or something similar. Which is why he’s so focused on training and getting rid of “distractions” from Zelda’s training (even if she’s a FUCKING CHILD and you shouldn’t do that to a kid who isn’t ready for such a regimented lifestyle). 

Now, I don’t know that they were a love match or not, but either way, I think his prowess as a warrior was part of what drew Zelda’s Mom to him. 

I’m saying it outright: I think Hylia, her incarnations, and her female descendants have a type and it’s men who kick serious ass. 

Now I touched on this in my review of Age of Calamity but the story was very AU because in Creating a Champion it was revealed Link was TWELVE or THIRTEEN years old when he pulled the Master Sword free of its pedestal in the official canon BotW timeline and Link being around eighteen during the events of 100 years before and Age of Calamity, therefore should have had that sword but didn’t. It’s on page 376 btw. 

Ergo, something affected this timeline and Link didn’t go into the Lost Woods and pull the sword. 

In my review I speculated that this might have still been in part of Zelda’s wish that helped the little guardian go back in time. It might have had a ripple effect that allowed Link more time as just a knight and not THE Knight Chosen by the Sword that Seals the Darkness.

It also allowed them to have a much better relationship without Zelda’s resentment of Link achieving his destiny so much faster, and easier, than she was with her training amounting to nothing. 

I also think after she and Link grew closer in BotW and she found out how much bearing the Master Sword for so long affected how Link viewed himself, she might have also wanted to grant him more time as another knight without the pressures that come with his destiny. (not that Age of Calamity really played that up).

Not going to lie, I loved the parallels between their awakenings in Age of Calamity. His with silvery-white light and hers with golden light. Both reaching for the other because they care....ah, that pleased the shipper in me. 

I know Link doesn’t talk because reasons but I almost wish he did because I’d have loved to have seen a scene where the Future Champions all talk to him and he’s like “Uh.....do I know you?” or even some sort of silent version of that scene to preserve the lack of speech on his part.

The time travelers present a lot of funny moments of them speaking about stuff BotW Link did that his HWAoC counterpart didn’t. 

The Future Champions, on the other hand, also present an avenue for angst. They’re from what is essentially the darker timeline. Their predecessors died lonely deaths and were trapped as ghosts for a century while Link awakened alone, without memories or his sword and Zelda lingered in divine form keeping Calamity Ganon at bay. They have to go back to that darker timeline after having gotten a moment to meet those they’d have-likely-never met or really knew well, with the exception of Sidon and Mipha. 

It’ll hurt worse for Sidon knowing a version of him will get to have his big sister and all he has is some closure in knowing that in a version of events she got to live and he saved her. Sidon is a blinding beacon of positivity after all. 

Plus, how would that conversation go down in the future?

“Hey, we’re back. We time traveled and saved our predecessors in a different timeline.” That just seems like a way to rub salt in the wounds of Link and/or Zelda depending from when they were pulled from into the past. Post-Game or just before Link defeats Calamity Ganon. 

Again, there is potential here with this. It’s just not the angst a lot were expecting since we all thought this would be a prequel to BotW, major character deaths and all. 

Instead it was an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic full of everyone lives, no one dies except the bad guys. 

Considering my personal circumstances, I needed a story like this where the past can be changed for the better even if it is in an alternate timeline.

Also, this being an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic gave them more wiggle room than just following the events of 100 years pre-BotW. There they’d have to had either made the build up to the Calamity longer (and less fun) or just had a much shorter story. What they did instead was what was needed for a full game. 

Maybe when I get some inspiration, I might play with these ideas in fic form. 

Maybe I won’t. Either way, this game gave me a lot to work with.