#i love TOTK's story

[villanelleskiss]

you know what, literally fuck off 

zelda turned herself into a dragon, for link, to restore his sword. when she says “link, i will restore the master sword for you”. heavy emphasis on you. she knows that link is the only one who can defeat ganondorf. her trust and absolute faith in him is so strong, she chose to lose her entire self just so link could have a hint of a chance of killing ganondorf in this time. but it’s the way that we find the sword on the light dragon and we go to pull it, that she instantly tries to throw him off, bc she doesn’t know it’s link at first. until he’s able to hold on does she finally realize that it’s him, it’s her hero, retrieving his sword that she has been repairing and knows that she is finally back in her era and he found her and lets him take his sword back. the sword that feels like it was made for him, that skyward sword link made it just so this link would one day wield it. with other link’s it feels like we were just borrowing it, here, it feels like it absolutely belongs to link, it’s his sword and nobody elses. but we know that one day it will return to its pedastal until our next hero pulls it, in the face of evil and that zelda recognizes this even as she returns to traverse the endless skies, waiting for the moment link goes to meet with ganondorf, unknowing of what the demon king would eventually do, prepared for a turn of events to be the last stand against ganondorf in any means possible so link will not fall, her protectiveness over him even as a dragon, her strength and pure light saved hyrule. 

[selenityshiroi]

Zelda travelling around Hyrule after the Calamity and people are tripping over themselves to tell her stories about the Hero because they love that feral cryptid mad man and are so proud of him

'I met him when I was about to get eaten by a Hinox...he jumped off a horse, fired 12 arrows in the blink of an eye and then got smacked in the face with a tree...but then he came back and hacked away at it's legs with this stupidly big sword until it finally died'

'He was wearing this weird patched together mask that looked like a monster but he made enough curry for everyone so we didn't like to ask'

'But...the hero was a girl? She wore these lovely green silks and every time she came out of the Gerudo Canyon she had a bag full of electric safflina to sell to Beedle over there. The Gerudo think she's an amazing fighter, which says a lot, and she always thanked me for looking after her horses when she went into the desert'

'I swear to Hylia that he ran through here wearing nothing but his underwear and a mask shaped like a leaf...claimed he was looking for the Children of the Forest. Sorry, Princess, but I'm not sure he was quite right in the head at the time'

'He used to creep in here silently wearing this grey mask and with enough lizards and beetles that we could make enough elixirs to last for a month. Not sure I ever saw his face without it'

And the entire time Link is stood neatly dressed, three steps away, listening to every word and no one pays him the slightest bit of attention. Because none of them cotton on that 'prim and proper Royal Knight' Link and 'I will defeat this Lynel with a stick, a pot lid and a bucket load of adrenaline' Wild Child Hero is the same man. Especially with how many masks he owned.

When they walk away and are out of sight and earshot Zelda just raises her eyebrow with a smile and he is like '...I can explain...it made sense at the time'

[b0tster]

Who is your favorite Zelda character?

who do u think lmao

[pocketseizure]

Sealing War bas-relief early concept art

[sheikfangirl]

Post-TotK fluff ❤️

No more nightmares. Zelda is really back.

Link can sleep peacefully ❤️

Cheers!

[thenmichael]

“Father always says ‘quit wasting your time pretending to be a scholar’ … curse you.”

[blueskittlesart]

*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?

tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.

[lulu2992]

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released one year ago today!

Even though I’ve dedicated at least 235 hours of my life to playing it, I’ve never shared the screenshots I took, so here are 30 pictures from my Sheikah Slate’s album (in chronological order):

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

[lemonspades]

Goemon's traded one child hungry for knowledge for another.

< part 18 - part 20 >

Masterlist

Also Timelapse under the cut!

[acinomthecat]

BOTW/TOTK Zelink is quite literally OdyPen:

Been separated longer than they were together

Link/Odysseus remained completely loyal to Zelda/Penelope throughout their whole journey encountering their admirers

Link/Odysseus would travel the world to find Zelda/Penelope

Zelda/Penelope has absolute faith they will see Link/Odysseus again, and held off Link’s/Odysseus’s rival/enemies for decades completely alone

They are each other’s quest

[puppyeared]

The garment, worn by those in good standing with Hyrule royalty, has been reworked with the latest improvements, such as a new shoulder guard.

[hollypies]

I legit forgot to post this ???? Lol anyway I drew this with my thumb so it prolly looks weird ! I was downstairs watching our doggy and was to lazy to go get my stylus 👍

Anyway MORE ZONAI LINK MY BABBBBYYYYYYY!!!

[awberryy]

Link: If I think nobody remembers me, I know the 46 yiga clan members in my area do.

[ask-lu-wild]

[uwudonoodle]