#hero legend etc

[bisclavret]

like many who have suffered at the hands of bbc merlin before me, i recently indulged in a thought experiment in which i outlined my own version of seasons 3-5 that stay thematically and tonally in line with the show (except they're less fucking stupid). but then i quickly realized that focusing on details is pointless: all you need is to solve the one Big Problem the show has, and the rest will follow. the problem in question? ✨morgana✨

i like the first two seasons. s1 achieves what it sets out to do and has fun while doing it, and s2, while flawed, sets up a ton of potential that the following seasons unfortunately squander, beginning with the insidious season 3. you can only distract me with cute knights and goblins and fart jokes for so long before i start seeing through you, evil, evil season of television.

my hypothesis is that if the writers had crafted s3 morgana into anything more sympathetic than a violent half-alive poltergeist that can never be reasoned with because she's suddenly terminally off her rocker, everything would've fallen into place. a sympathetic morgana would've made real, valid arguments against uther (and arthur) that wouldn't just be the ramblings of a woman possessed. her betrayal of arthur would have stemmed from her feeling increasingly morally superior to him because of his complacency in the face of their father's tyranny. under morgause's guidance she would stop believing that arthur is capable of change, and the whole point would be that she might actually be right. arthur would have to actively try and prove her wrong, instead of getting praised for doing the bare minimum because the bar is on the floor.

furthermore, morgana's prophetic dream about arthur and gwen becoming king and queen and her decision to prevent this however she can is a direct parallel to merlin learning about that same prophecy and making it happen by any means necessary. merlin's desires about his and arthur's futures are subtextually fueled by gay love and devotion, so why couldn't morgana's be? why couldn't she properly express her bitterness that arthur gets to be with gwen in a way she can't "took gwen away" from her, instead of suddenly declaring that gwen is nothing more than a servant, after two seasons of demonstrating again and again that she loves, values, and respects gwen more than anyone else in that godforsaken castle?

following this, an angry and emotionally volatile but still sensible morgana asking gwen to stay by her side during the coup of the castle in the s3 finale and gwen going behind her back to help arthur and the knights would've hurt like a bitch. double-sided betrayal! gwen having a real plot! the proper beginnings of a toxic yuri that would shape a generation!

then there's the utter hubris of having morgana shoot arrows at the same civilians she worried herself sick over for 2 seasons — even morgan, her medieval counterpart that was rooted in every sexist trope in existence, doesn't just go around killing senselessly but instead has (often petty!) personal vendettas against gwen, arthur, and the knights. morgana had every right to be sick of the pretensions around chivalry in camelot (she was always quick to mock it, even in s1), and to lash out at the knights and soldiers after years of feeling powerless in a castle full of armed men that blindly followed her oppressor. the show conveniently forgets that morgana was victimized as a woman as well as a sorcerer those first 2 seasons.

but like i said, this is not just about morgana. allowing her to remain a real and multifaceted character even as she betrays everyone in pursuit of her ambitions would've given the rest of the core four more interesting conflict to work with: merlin because he would have to experience real consequences to his actions, arthur because he would watch his sister go against his father (and his knights, and his birthright) and experience some actual internal dilemmas about it, and gwen because she would be forced to choose between morgana and arthur without the pretense that it's an obvious or easy choice for her to make.

even morgause and gaius would come off more interesting as mentors: neither one inherently evil or inherently good, both jaded by events that happened before our protagonists were even born, both heavily influencing morgana and merlin into fulfilling roles that they think are appropriate, but that morgana and merlin may not have chosen for themselves had they not been under their care.

you get the gist. if the show followed its own setup, morgana's mistakes wouldn't lie in cheap and senseless acts of violence but in alienating the people she loves because she is too hurt and jaded to trust them. meanwhile, everybody else would feel guilt over "failing" her and yet they would be too caught up in their own (sometimes flawed!) beliefs of right and wrong to truly see her point of view.

arthur would convince himself it was sorcery that corrupted her. merlin would know that isn't true but he wouldn't be able to argue without confessing everything, which is the defining conflict between him and morgana and it's cheapened when she's just an evil witch caricature and merlin is framed as inherently virtuous in contrast. gwen, too, would become a more active participant in her own life by choosing arthur over morgana and choosing to rule camelot with him instead of just waiting politely to see where things go.

and, of course, uther's downfall and death would be quick, final, and completely earned — when and why did the show even decide he of all people was the sympathetic villain, anyway?

lastly, and perhaps controversially, i think morgana should've learned merlin's true identity by season 4. her being the first of the main characters to find out makes perfect sense considering their shared history and their interconnected and mirrored arcs. even the show seems to agree, considering she does find out a little before arthur. but the narrative itself tried pointing flashing neon arrows towards this way earlier — there is a whole entire episode in s4 where merlin being emrys is repeatedly spelled out for morgana and she still isn't allowed to see it. that episode makes her look like the stupidest person to ever live, which is pretty funny im not gonna lie, but also another frustrating thing in the endless string of frustrating things that make up this show.

morgana learning that merlin has magic would've transformed the source of merlin's anxiety from a crippling fear of being outed someday to the crippling fear of knowing she could out him at any moment. this would make him want to beat her to the punch (perhaps he'd consider killing her for a minute and decide against it because she isn't a cartoonishly insane evil person in my version of events) and maybe he would even feel some tentative excitement at the idea of coming clean, now that it seems inevitable. after all, he always intended to tell arthur eventually! and i think gaius would have to admit outright that he does not want merlin to tell arthur he has magic because he, gaius, simply cannot risk such a gamble. it would be so interesting to see gaius and merlin clash and disagree once it becomes obvious that it's not merlin that isn't ready for the reveal, it's gaius. delicious!

with morgana's knowledge looming, things would inevitably spiral into a magic reveal by the end of season 4. i picture this season as an absolute mess of miscommunication between everyone at camelot, which is, y'know, canon. growing increasingly cunning and vengeful, morgana would use this tension to her advantage, destabilizing the court from the outside while she creates alliances with other sorcerers outside of camelot (instead of living alone in a hovel for no reason — morgana le fay i'm sorry i'm so sorry they gave you agravaine instead of your all-female entourage oh my god).

and here's where the events would change beyond recognition (aka here's where the meta becomes the fanfic i refuse to write). picture it with me: a militia of sorcerers infiltrates camelot and arthur and gwen have to set aside their differences (assuming gwen kissing lancelot and arthur overreacting happens, which it should) for the good of the kingdom as well as for love. picture high priestess morgana in her element, side by side with a bunch of misfit sorcerers that aren't so easily vilified, chopping down camelot's soldiers and knights and assuredly making their way to the newly-minted king.

then, just as it starts to seem that all hope is lost, in swoops merlin (the actual merlin, not his old fart disguise) on dragonback (kilgharrah hates morgana so much i know his sexist ass would stoop to anything to stop her)!!! imagine merlin showing off the extent of his powers in front of everyone and preventing the sorcerers from getting any further, declaring loud and clear that camelot is protected by him, by emrys. imagine that display of power alone being enough to send everyone home.

imagine the loyalties clearly drawn: merlin on arthur's side, morgana on the sorcerers'. imagine arthur, feeling confused and betrayed by everyone at this point, banishing merlin despite everything he's done for him in the angstiest, most emotionally dysregulated scene the show had ever put to screen. imagine merlin starting season 5 free at last but very lonesome, an embittered dragonlord like his father. imagine the absolute mess camelot would become without him, even with gwen — now queen guinevere — there to pick up the slack. imagine arthur actually earning merlin back, finally growing into his role as king as he does so. imagine the reunion.

all this and more could've been not just possible but inevitable if morgana was allowed to remain a complex character that is neither inherently good nor inherently evil: it was undeniably the biased and one-note treatment of morgana's downfall by the writers that set the precedent for literally everything else that happened after merlin chose to poison her. the show wouldn't have even had to jeopardize its tone or the monster-of-the-week vibe, all it would've had to do is admit that even the "good guys" are capable of mistakes and what makes them good is the ability to feel remorse and change for the better. (as opposed to uther, who was miles beyond redemption since way before the pilot and deserved to lose everything and die alone. OBVIOUSLY???)

in a world where morgana remains multifaceted and sympathetic, mordred would get a better arc as well, so if we really wanted to, we could still end on the same tragic note that the show ended on. with so much harm inflicted onto so many innocent people by the pendragons for so long (including mordred and the many druids and sorcerers that raised him), it could realistically end up being a little too late for anything more than one shining glimpse of king arthur and the sorcerer merlin's short-lived golden age before fate catches up to them. glimpsing that reality just to immediately lose it would've been far more satisfying and far more tragic than whatever the writers thought they were doing with all that pointless carrot-dangling.

and finally, an ending in line with morgana's new and improved arc. in this version, rather than bleeding out on the forest floor alone, she would channel the morgan le fay we know from the legends: sobered up by the reality of her brother dying, she would use her high priestess status (and perhaps also her pendragon status) to be granted passage over to avalon alongside arthur on the boat — a one-way ride — just to make sure he gets there safely. this is her penance for the harm she has caused, the same way arthur's penance is to die and leave the true ruler of camelot (gwen) behind to achieve everything he was too slow and indecisive to build while he still had time.

merlin's penance, then, would be to stay behind and watch them cross over without him, waiting and waiting and waiting until they come back or until he can finally join them. which is a bit fucking harsh if i'm honest, so i'd at least make it slightly more faithful to the legends by having him return as an old man and letting him take a long nap under a tree by the shore, his body slowly enveloped by vines like the cobwebbed fisher king in 3x08, never fully sure if he's dreaming or if there really are strange shapes fading in and out of the fog over the lake. still tragic, but nevertheless a little more open-ended and whimsical than [TRUCK NOISES] THE END!

[valgeristik]

Переплелись мои корни в тесной братской могиле Скажу им: "Закончились войны", Cкажу им: "Вы победили"

I've found a new song (шиповник - 'dog rose') and, naturally, it made me think. a lot.

The whole song is something that fits botw Link specifically so well, but this piece in particular was inspired by the following bit of lyrics:

My roots are intertwined in a cramped mass grave 

I will tell them: "The wars are over", 

I will tell them: "You have won" 

(in the original text, 'mass grave' is more accurately translated as 'brotherly grave')

When it's all over, what does it mean to be part of a legend? What did it mean for those who came before you?

Link barely knows them, his time is so far removed from theirs, but his roots are intertwined in that brotherly grave regardless.

They are the closest of strangers, and no one's brought flowers to their graves for a while. Might as well.

(additional bits + closeup + song link under the cut)

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i have a book i got ages ago about flower meanings. I know it's all relative n they change from culture to culture etc but. One of the meanings for a dog rose is "prematurity"...as in, something happening too early. before its time

There is also a custom here that if you bring flowers to a grave, it has to be an even number, because an uneven number is for the living.

there are four in the bouquet, and three in Link's hair. I did put four flowers in that bouquet on purpose, but the uneven number in his hair was a beautiful beautiful accident

partial translation of the song (if u want a full one feel free to send an ask or something):

[...]

In underground bunkers 

Among the wreckage of weapons 

Soldiers of perished armies 

Wander with a bullet through the chest 

My roots are intertwined in a cramped mass grave 

I will tell them: "The wars are over", 

I will tell them: "You have won" 

My prickly skin is a sad memory 

I know more about death than you can imagine 

In reinforced concrete crypts, slugs live on mossy walls 

But I want to see the sky, I wake up to life

and also this. i massively ran out of steam so obvs its not the whole chain but yeah 👍

[reblip-reblog]

Where to find Link:

(+characters dressed like him/referencing his appearance)

‎

Will reblog with images

‎

Standard "Legend of Zelda" Games -

Skyward Sword

The Minish Cap

Four Swords

Ocarina of Time

Majora's Mask

Twilight Princess

Four Swords Adventures

Breath of the Wild

Tears of the Kingdom

A Link to the Past

Oracle of Seasons/Ages

Link's Awakening

A Link Between Worlds

Tri Force Heroes

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

The Wind Waker

Phantom Hourglass

Spirit Tracks

‎

Outside Standard "Legend of Zelda" Games -

Pre-Minish Cap

Pre-Four Swords

Pre-Breath of the Wild

Hyrule Warriors

Age of Calamity

Cadence of Hyrule

BS The Legend of Zelda

BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets

Link's Crossbow Training

The Legend of Zelda Game Watch

Zelda (Game & Watch)

Link: The Faces of Evil

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Zelda's Adventure

My Nintendo Picross: Twilight Princess

Other Nintendo Picross Games

Pre-Skyward Sword Manga (Akira Himekawa)

Valiant Comics (George Caragonne)

Other LoZ Mangas/Comics/Books

DIC Legend of Zelda Cartoon

Captain N: The Game Master

Super Smash Brothers series

Mario Kart 8

F1 Race

Uniracers (Unused)

Super Mario Maker

Animal Crossing Series

Soul Calibur II

Donkey Kong Country 2

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

NES Tetris

Tetris DS

NES Remix

Death Road to Canada

Sky: Children of the Light

Monster Hunter

Dynasty Warriors VS/Samurai Warriors Chronicles3

Kirby Series (Sword Ability)

Yoshi's Woolly World

WarioWare Series

nintendogs + cats

AR Games

Miitomo

Miitopia

StreetPass Mii Plaza

Find Mii

Nintendo Land (LoZ: Battle Quest)

Nintendo Badge Arcade

NES Remix 2

Nintendo Cereal System

World of Warcraft

Yoshi's Island 4

Asterix & Obelix XXL 2

Terraria

Transformice

Scribblenauts Unlimited

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Sonic Lost World

Dino Run

Starbound

A Hat in Time

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Jump Rope Challenge

Bayonetta

Phantasy Star

Final Fantasy (sort of)

Google Maps

Ittle Dew

Mable & the Wood

Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up

The Cat Mario Show

My Little Pony

Powerpuff Girls

Nintendo E3 x Robot Chicken

Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Unused; source code)

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Unused)

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Unused)

‎

((There may be more than one "Link"-type character in a single entry -- Hero's Shade, Fierce Deity, Linkle, Ravio, Animal Crossing player in Hero's Outfit + W. Link, Mario Kart Links + Outfit for Miis, the pre-characters listed above, etc.))

((I am counting characters who can dress up as Link, such as in BS Zelda, Sky: Children of the Light, Animal Crossing, the Badge Arcade rabbit, etc.))

((The same Link can appear in multiple entries.))

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Got a lot of information from these sites:

‎Let me know if I missed or skipped over any that I should add to the list!

I might reblog this with images.

[thescreaminghat]

anton fellner is such a weird little freak (affectionate). he's conventionally attractive and a platinum blonde so he could probably get away with anything if he really tried. he could probably have just worked a regular post in reinhard's new regime after making any excuse to transfer out from being obie's assistant. but the moment he gets in proximity to the aforementioned Older Man with Problems he's suddenly like "wow my new boss is such a gremlin. he's got the most flexible moral fibre this side of the universe---besides myself--- and he's probably also fucking insane. i want to observe him like i'm an entomologist tenderly dissecting a new species of bug. maybe i'll even kill him" (he doesn't). and then he just spends the next several years being emotionally invested in the drama caused by obie's various hypocrisies. he's so special to me

[inkedmyths]

Day No. 689 of "Trails Merch That I Need Immediately"

[marinehero]

Stares off into the distance. Garp believes in Luffy so much. Believe isn't even the right word, he knows. He knew Roger. He knows if there's anyone who's going to do it, it's Luffy. He knew it early on and it terrified him. Just as he knew Roger's sotry, he knows how this story ends. He's terrified. He loves his grandson. He knows who he works for. He knows the powers in charge. But Luffy kept proving the world wrong again and again and again and even he couldn't deny anymore that if there's anyone who can make it and survive, it's Luffy. He's so damn proud, he always has been. Luffy's going to be the one and he knows it to be a fact as given as the sea.

[teafiend]

*sobs* in happy, poignant tears 🥰🥹🥰

This latest adaptation of 「射鵰英雄傳」is really quite superb, and am enjoying it a lot ✨

Watching this OTP of all time brought back so many feels 🥰🥹 They are truly the template for so many of my favourite dynamics/tropes, and my ideal m/f relationship ⭐️ PERFECTION✨❤️‍🔥

[tavina-writes]

Favorite aspects of this LOCH adaptation compared to others? Least favorite? Sideways moves?(I am just giving you a platform to yell about LOCH if you want to)

Honestly, Nonny, I love everything I've seen of this LOCH so far. I think the casting is on point, and gosh it's just SO PRETTY.

My faves thus far are: Qigong, JingRong, and whatever the hell they're doing with Yang Kang bc my trash son (affectionate) is getting some kind of demonic force ghost in his brain and I'm sitting here like *eats popcorn* about it.

Bit sad that Qigong and OYF's boat fight wasn't shown to us in more depth, but alas, such is the nature of things. They saved that time so we could see OYK get waterboarded really hard and I appreciate that for him.

I also kind of wish they'd shown us the prequels and then Iron Hearted Loyalists because everything I've seen so far of this LOCH remake is that it is BURDENED by the weight of history, and the plot adaptations they've made in the episodes I've seen are so thoughtful that I feel like you really have to see the prequels to fully understand how hard some of these episodes slap and I'm just waaaaagh I understand why you aired it in this order but it's not designed to air in this order and I just want to claw my way into Tencent's fault so I can stuff myself on the prequels GIMME GIMME GIVE EM TO ME.

Overall very pleased with this adaptation nonny! thanks for the ask!

[warlordfelwinter]

also i will always be thinking about this day from g'raha's perspective, like his excited little sprint down to the gate to meet fiver only to find a fiver that has changed dramatically from last time he saw him and is currently looking at him like he's got two seconds to explain himself Or Else

[x-i-l-verify]

I, I did it all I owned every second that this world could give I saw so many places The things that I did Yeah with every broken bone I swear I lived

just a thought

[wayward-sherlock]

san francisco vs st louis at rickwood field, a historical negro league park, the week that willie mays dies. maybe there is hope for the world.

[overthinkinglotr]

I think the reason so many LOTR ripoffs fail is because they make their Aragorn analogue the main character, when the entire point of Aragorn is that he’s “the person the villains think is the main character, but is Not.”

Aragorn seems like a traditional King Arthur style hero— he has huge Main Character Energy because he’s supported by destiny, by bloodline, by all these magic artifacts and prophecies, and etc etc. Frodo and Sam are Just Some Guys. Aragorn recognizes that Sauron understandably thinks he’s the main hero of this story ….and he pretends to believe it too, spending the entire series using himself as a diversion to prevent Sauron from seeing Frodo and Sam.

Aragorn’s whole thing is that knows he seems like the Main Hero of this legend to people who don’t know better —- but he also knows that he isn’t, and that his role is just to keep Sauron’s eye on him in order to protect the people around him.

And it works! Sauron is so fixated on defeating his Legendary Destined Archenemy with Extreme Main Character Energy that he completely overlooks the two ordinary little guys who were the real threat to him all along.

[erinwantstowrite]

while im here im going to try and convince you guys to write more "Tim Drake joining the Batfam late" aus because it's underrepresented

like, i love the fics where he joins early. that's cute! but a fic where he joins late for whatever reason??? i eat it up like a cat starved for attention. i want Tim Drake being the "perfect" heir to Drake Industries and being known as the polite, well adjusted young man that everyone knows. and then turn around and find out that Tim has not only been stalking the Bats under their radar since he was, what, 9 years old? but on top of that, he's started solving cases that they can't get to. Tim who stalked so hard he learned where they learned their martial arts and went "backpacking across europe" only to have actually been learning from Shiva. Tim who has become an urban legend to the Batfam because they can't tell if this vigilante exists or not, since they never catch him, they don't have footage on him, etc. Or if they DO know him, they don't even think to put Tim Drake in the suspect pool because Tim Drake whined for an hour when he broke a nail at a charity event once. the kid is smart, sure, but he's not going out at night fighting crime and solving cases that Batman didn't know about yet.

even better if Tim named his vigilante persona an adjacent name to the Robin mantle. him knowing he can't BE Robin (perhaps Jason hadn't died in this au) but he could be a hero that helps them from the shadows

and obviously he makes a mistake of some kind... maybe he saves someone at an event as Tim Drake and Bruce sees how little hesitation he had. or maybe he gets injured and can't get up himself, and that's when a Bat or a Robin or someone finds this vigilante they almost thought was a myth: bloody, broken, and needing help. pick him up and take him home and then there are endless possibilities to what happens next but the ending BETTER be Tim finding his home with his people

[prokopetz]

2D Legend of Zelda style game where the Princess gets sealed inside a giant crystal and the Hero has to save her, as one does, except the Hero manages to obtain the crystal at the end of the tutorial dungeon.

The bad news: nobody knows how to break the giant crystal without killing the Princess in the process.

The good news: the Princess is fully aware inside the giant crystal and can still use all of her Magic Princess Powers within a limited range.

(The Big Bad knows this, and tried to work around it by keeping her in a large empty room with nothing nearby for her to target. That didn't work out so well!)

The whole rest of the game is basically the Hero lugging this big stupid crystal around in order to bring the Princess within range so she can use her magic to actually solve the problem at hand.

The Hero plays basically like Link from a typical Zelda game, except all of the Hero's upgrades relate to making them a better crystal-carrier: throwing the crystal, teleporting to the crystal, doing an AoE attack that affects a line between them and the crystal, etc.

When you switch to playing as the Princess, you're both invulnerable and physically immobile, and the joystick moves your targeting reticle for your spells instead. Those spells are mostly puzzly environment-manipulation stuff with an elemental theme, plus some basic damaging blasts to discourage monsters who get too close. There are recurring sequences where the Hero is indisposed for some reason and you need to figure out how to use the Princess' spells to move her into position to solve the current puzzle and un-trap the hero by using environmental effects and contraptions to fling the crystal around.

(In the final battle, the Big Bad proves to be completely immune to both the Hero's weapons and the Princess' spells, and winning involves setting up some sort of Rube Goldberg sequence of events which causes the Princess to fall on the Big Bad's head from a great height, killing him instantly.)

[inkedmyths]

What if Awakening a Divine Knight makes you a little fucked up. What if piloting a portion of the divine changes you just a little bit. What if every moment spent inside a vessel of legend pushes you another millimeter off of Human.

[linderosse]

Guys.

Super long post; read at your own peril (tl;dr at the end).

But I just had a brilliant possible idea about where Echo (the new Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom) fits in the Wisdomverse, so I’m documenting it in case I decide to use it.

See, merging Echo into Fable would be cool. They seem very similar already (relevant post), and it’s a good option.

Yet there are a few small problems with this. I can get around them, but they’re still something to consider.

Fable’s already in four separate games (Most Zeldas get one game or less). Adding EoW makes a fifth.

Fable is already quite powerful amongst the Zeldas. Adding EoW makes her a bit OP. I’ll have to balance that carefully.

Fable has a planned story arc in the Wisdomverse. This might conflict with EoW (for example, this is why LU decided against adding TotK to Wild)

So while I still think it could be cool to merge Fable and Echo, I’m also looking for other possibilities. I don’t want to introduce a new Zelda between Fable and Dawn unless I have to.

And then I realized:

There is already a canon Zelda between Fable and Dawn.

I’ve literally already introduced her.

I have plans for her that could totally work with what we see in Echoes of Wisdom.

She’s vastly underpowered and could use the abilities from EoW very well

I could totally see myself writing her personality into EoW Zelda— it’s a different take than how I’ve depicted Echo before, but it would work equally well imo

And she’s also the Zelda with the least canon information; the one we know the least about overall— especially since we never meet her in her own time.

Guys, if Fable doesn’t work out, I think it might be awesome to merge Echo with Aurora— Hyrule’s second Zelda.

Imagine this:

Aurora woke up centuries in the future, after the Great Decline. She’s trapped in a vastly different world with Dawn and Hyrule as her only solace. She loves them, but she’s not from here; and she can’t shake the dread that she’s left everything behind: her friends, her realm, her brother, who she still cares about despite everything he did to her— and also, of course, her Link, who she loves, and went on an entire adventure to save.

When she was Echo, she was a hero. But as Aurora, she’s an echo of the past; a mournful ghost of a bygone age

Tl;dr: What if Echoes of Wisdom is the era Aurora came from— and where she desperately longs to return?

Masterpost

(More thoughts on the timeline under the cut.)

So— Echoes of Wisdom seems (so far) to take place around the time of Legend’s era, with enough ambiguity that it could be either before or after Legend’s era of ALttP/Oracles/ALBW/TH.

Currently leaning towards “EoW before Legend” considering the similarities to OoT, but I could very well go with “EoW after Legend,” which would be necessary for the Aurora merge. The Oracle games, after all, have a lot of similarities with OoT in terms of races and characters present (Zoras, the Deku Tree, Zelda’s design, etc), and they come after ALttP, which doesn’t have quite as many. Same thing with FSA, which is canonically after Twilight Princess but obviously resembles Four Swords more, and both Wisdomverse and LU have shifted the timeline to match. So there is precedent for similarities to skip a generation or two, even in canon.

I also doubt EoW is going to include a Prince of Hyrule (the one character we know of from Aurora’s backstory). This is fine, because I’m confident I can come up with a reason the Prince was away during the events of EoW. Perhaps during the events of EoW, the Prince left on a journey of his own and first encountered the Wizard that leads to Aurora’s downfall.

Anyways, these are just tentative plans. We’ll see what happens when the game comes out!