#except i actually haven't connected shit. it's just a bunch of newspaper clippings pinned to a board with red thread connecting them

[fourswords]

the cautiously negative light that the four sword is viewed with in the games never fails to intrigue me. like when you contrast it with the master sword...the master sword is viewed as extremely powerful but in a fundamentally good way. you have things like "The Master Sword, a mighty blade forged against those with evil hearts [...]"/"Link, it is extraordinary that you won the Master Sword that makes evil retreat... With this shining sword..." in a link to the past and "The Master Sword is a sacred blade which evil ones may never touch...." in ocarina of time and "The legendary blade with the power to repel evil...once wielded by the legendary hero himself!" in the wind waker and "The Master Sword is a sacred blade that evil can never touch." in twilight princess and the whole plot of skyward sword. and the list goes on!

but with the four sword you get lines of dialogue like "Be careful. It is said that the body of one who touches this blade will be shattered to pieces. It has mysterious powers..." in the original four swords and that one line from four swords adventures that reads "So you accept the fate of the one who draws this sword?" before link even draws it for SOME fucking reason. and it's SOOOOOOO interesting to me, especially considering the lore provided in the manual that when the hero of the four sword first sealed vaati and left the sword behind, the people who built the shrine around the sword didn't even believe that the sword could split somebody into four!!!! and yet. rumors spread anyway. they built the shrine and left the seal alone anyway. generations later, directly following the hero of the four sword in the timeline, you had zelda telling link to "be careful" around it anyway. it's like the only game in which the four sword is viewed as wholly positive is the minish cap, which makes sense because, y'know, we as players and the characters in the game know that it used to be the picori blade, a blade of light, the "sacred sword", that came as a gift from the minish and was once used by the hero of men. and it was reforged into the four sword by a child wanting to save his friend! it's also a good sword! and the characters in the game ALSO KNEW THAT because link was running around using it to change people back after they were turned to stone!

so like. did the hero of the four sword just have really freaky vibes or something. because HE'S the apparent turning point when it comes to how the sword was viewed by the general populace. he's the guy who literally made the surrounding townsfolk be like "well we don't BELIEVE this story about that kid who wandered in out of nowhere magically splitting into four people............but yeah no we're not going to chance it. let's build a shrine. let's carve vaati being defeated by the four swords into stone as a message to future generations." man they've got the hero of light all the way down in the child timeline during four swords adventures freaking out about "accepting the fate of the one who draws this sword" what HAPPENEDDDDDD