#i need to set up my wii so i can play ww and tp again i think there's a classic tloz shaped hole in my heart that totk cant fill

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

OK. Fuck it. More complaining about Tears of the Kingdom. Massive spoilers this time.

TL;DR: Zelda's dragon plan was bad, placing all their eggs in one basket when preparing for Link to fight Ganondorf shouldn't have worked from a Watsonian standpoint and is annoying as hell from a Doylist one, and while not necessarily undoing her development from BotW, Zelda's sacrifice here sets her up for this circumstantial sisyphean cycle of constantly giving up her own agency and personhood for Link.

The dragon plan itself--turning into an immortal being to guard the master sword until her own time--isn't the part of the plan that wouldn't have worked. It's everything else, not just from a story standpoint but from an in-universe, logistical standpoint. Thousands and thousands of years are a long fucking time, even in a fantasy world where the political and cultural landscape seems to be in a bit more stasis. Despite the fact that Hyrule literally has manifest destiny (which is a lot of, uh, thematic implication that's never really been addressed and that I'm not really gonna go into here), to anticipate that the specific set of events leading to the Sages' assistance of Link would transpire exactly the way they needed to is fucking preposterous. Yeah, you could say that it's a bit of a paradox--all of the pieces were already in place for Link and the Sages to fight ol' Ganny, and Zelda was simply retroactively setting them in motion for the future--but that's also stupid, because it would require the Light Dragon and sky islands to have always been there! And they appeared after the initial encounter with Ganondorf, which not only doesn't make sense as a time travel narrative at all, but also implies that before the Upheaval the sequence of events was still wibbly wobbly enough that shit could have gone down very, very differently! It's like the conundrum of how to indicate to future civilizations that certain areas contain radioactive waste--the this place is not a place of honor shpiel, et cetera. How do you leave the ancient all-powerful artifacts that your sages need in order to enact a plan thousands of years in the making, in places that no one will mess with over the millennia between you and them?

Conveniently drop those structures into place--ancient texts describing them and all--right before the second part of the plan goes off, I guess.

And from a narrative standpoint, I think "Thousands of years of meticulous preparation have gone into this One Fucking Super Special Uberguy of Prophecy Foretold getting to defeat the Big Bad. It is foretold that this Super Special Swordsman will be the Only One who can defeat the Big Bad, so we're all going to put our eggs in the Main Character basket in the hopes he actually will" is just. Dumb. it's just dumb. I was going to add the caveat that 'oh well previous zelda games had the reincarnation cycle' but that was a new edition with Skyward Sword. The reincarnation plotline wasn't a thing until the year of our lord 2011, the game that directly preceded Botw/Totk and was by the same director hmmmmm. Before that we had games like Wind Waker, where Link is just Some Kid who gets wrapped up in Hyrule's ancient dusty business while trying to save his sister. Or Twilight Princess, where Link is just Some Guy who gets wrapped up in Hyrule's current dusty business while trying to save the people from his town. Hell, even Ocarina of Time, where Link is the most predestined to be part of Hyrule's dusty business out of all the 3d Zeldas pre-SkSw, is immediately followed by Majora's Mask, where Link only gets wrapped up in Termina's dusty business because he's trying to find his friend. In all of those, Link feels like a generally normal guy who's blessed with strength because of his courage. Even in BotW, Link is just a guy who was Zelda's chosen knight. He nearly died for her, and when he awoke again 100 years later with no memory of who he was, he still rose to the occasion to stop the calamity he had failed to defeat.

In TotK? Link's the Kirito of Hyrule. He's the Special Guy everyone needs to swear fealty to. He's the Special Destined Chosen One. Their last line of defense will be Link.

As for Zelda's narrative sisyphean torture, it just puts a bitter taste in my mouth that after spending so much time giving herself in her entirety to protecting Hyrule, she has to turn around and do it again in a way that she believes is eternal and irreversible.

In BotW, Zelda activates her sealing magic as a personal last-ditch effort to save Link's life. She loves him (I will go to bat for Botw/TotK Zelink still) and she doesn't want to see him die for her and that's enough to finally activate her power. It's a good narrative beat, I liked it--despite my desire for Zelda to have some agency in the narrative that isn't just in direct support of Link, I'm a sucker for some good ol' "powers emerging in defense of a loved one" trope. It's good shit.

But in TotK, Zelda's only purpose is twofold: 1. To be Link's hype man. To set up the aforementioned Dumbshit Kirito Main Character Plan. To set the idiot ball rolling and hope it makes it to the right spot at the end of this cosmic plinko game. 2. To give herself--her mind, her body, her spirit, herself in her entirety--in order to repair the Master Sword and get it back to Link. "Link! Protect them all!" and "Link! You must find me!" are some of what she thinks are her final words. As far as she's come to know and expect by this point, the only purpose she serves now and forever is to pave the way for Link to do his part.

In the moment, meeting TotK where it is as far as her character goes, this development isn't necessarily bad. It's tragic, yes, but from a purely Watsonian perspective it's not the worst solution to her problem, and is the only one presented to her. But from a Doylist perspective it sucks ass. It's the wet fart of storytelling. So many of us have been begging Nintendo for years and years to give us more of Zelda as a character, give us more of her as someone with her own agency and drive within the plot (no, Sheik doesn't count, Sheik is awesome but still narratively only exists in service to Link), but TotK slid so far backward in that regard. Puts a bitter taste in my mouth. (Spirit Tracks had a better Zelda, and she spends most of that game trying to get her own corporeal form back from the BBEGs.)

[raycatz]

Specific places the chain could spend the night (that aren't in the middle of the woods somewhere!)

I've seen a few people ask for something like this, so I've complied what I know from playing the games as well as a few headcanons thrown in. Hopefully this post is somewhat comprehensive and helpful. Feel free to add on if you want!

Below you’ll find a list of places in Hyrule that the chain could crash. I’ve included wiki links, a few art and fic recs, screenshots, and brief descriptions. Be warned if you open the read more because this post is kinda long.

Let’s get into it!

---

The noclip.website is an amazing resource. It’s a gallery of extracted map data from various games and allows you to explore with a free camera. Currently the gallery includes OoT (N64), OoT (3D), MM (3D), WW (gamecube), TP (gamecube), and SkSw (wii). Need visual references for a drawing or fic? This website is going to be your best friend.

Similarities across the eras

Hyrule Castle and Castle Town. I'm not going to go over them all individually, but if there's a Castle, the chain can probably get permission from Zelda to stay. Similarly, for fics, a generic inn can be put in Castle Town. (Here’s a fun sickfic by Seeking7 which takes place in an inn set in Twi’s Castle Town!)

Cleared temples and dungeons can be camped in to escape the elements.

Time, Wind, Twilight, and Four’s eras all contain some form of secret grottoes or underground caves.

Most everyone has fairy fountains, while Twilight and Sky have sacred springs (wiki ref 1, wiki ref 2/3 (Wild's Spring of Power resembles the Skyview Spring from Sky's era. theelvishfiddler made a great comic about this!))

Four

- The Happy Hearth Inn (Minish Cap) is located in Hyrule Town. It's a two story stone building with reception and rooms on the first floor and a lobby upstairs. Each patron gets a complimentary kin stone!

- Four's House (Minish Cap). Four and his grandfather live together just outside Castle Town. Canonically, their house has a front living space and kitchen with an attached forge to the right. There's an upstairs room with two beds. For my own headcanons I like to expand the house. The front room serves as the store with the same attached (or outside) forge to the right. The living space is pushed back, with a separate kitchen and living room, and again there's an upstairs with an extra bedroom or bedrooms for the colors. There's enough space to comfortably fit the chain. Four’s house, like the rest of Minish Cap, is quaint and warm. (I like how Four's house/forge is described in Blueskullcandy(Train)'s fic Alone Together and sister_dear's fic Handle with Care. Train also named the shop the Four Element Forge which I find very fitting.)

- With the Picori (Minish Cap). There's an item in Four Swords called the gnat hat which allows the colors to shrink. If Four and the chain get ahold of these they could stay with the Forest Picori in Minish Village, with the Town Picori in Hyrule Town, or with the Mountain Picori on Mount Crenel.

- Kakariko Village (FSA) in Four's era suffered during Gaon’s rise to power. The darkness which shrouded northwestern Hyrule changed the hearts of many living there and the village was overrun by a band of thieves. In addition, Shadow set the town ablaze shortly before the colors arrived. The colors rounded up the thieves and put out the fires but many of the townsfolk still distrust Four due to his likeness to Shadow. For fics, this would be a good place for an inn. However, fire damage can still be found in some parts of the village and Four may not be entirely welcome.

- The Village of the Blue Maiden (FSA). Another good place for an inn. The colors were made honorary members of the Seeker's Guild after rescuing lost townsfolk and children from the Dark World. Push comes to shove, there's probably a staff room that the chain can crash in.

- Lon Lon Ranch (Minish Cap and FSA). Four has a Lon Lon Ranch in his era! And Malon and Talon are there too and almost no one's talked about this!!! The FSA ranch is a single room house with a basement outside. In Minish Cap, the ranch gained the addition of an attached barn on the right-hand side and a wide pasture outside. They raise horses and cows. Headcanons: Let’s expand the ranch so it’s more comfortable. Though smaller than the ranch in Time's era, I like to think there’s enough room for everyone. The barn has a very climbable hay loft and lots of minish in the rafters.

- Underground (FSA). Four's era is riddled with underground chambers and passageways. Choose any location, there's probably a basement, cave, or some kind of underground area that can be easily guarded as a place to spend the night.

Wild (botw)

- Kakariko, Hateno, Tarrey Town, Lurelin, Rito Village, Zora’s Domain, Goron City, and the stables. Any of the towns or stables in Wild's Hyrule have the accommodations necessary for a group like the chain. Perhaps they don't expect such a large group but it's never an issue.

- Wild's house in Hateno. A few extra bedrolls can be fit in the loft. There's a hallway below the loft, space under the stairs, and any furniture can easily be pushed aside to make enough room for everyone. It's a little tight but it's home. Wild's house shares the same model as other houses in Hateno. Interestingly, there’s a walled off room under the loft in Wild’s house that's open in other houses. You could add a door or knock out the wall if you wanted to. There’s also an inaccessible little shed attached to the house around the back. I adore the headcanon that this is a sauna (good art!) or personal bath. (here's a youtube video where someone clips into it to give you an idea of scale) (RokettoMusashi uses this space wonderfully in their fic Down. "A multichapter sickfic featuring Sky being the chain's primary caretaker as they're sick and laid up one by one." It’s an 8+1 sickfic and Wars gets the bath all to himself for a chapter and maybe Sky pampers him a little and it’s really sweet.) totk: The shed is opened up and we can see that it’s used for storage!

- Korok Forest. A Korok named Pepp has a bed set up in the Deku Tree’s Navel just for Wild!!! There aren't any for the chain but I'm sure something could be arranged.

- Calip's House at Fort Hateno, Selmie's Spot, the Hebra Trailhead Lodge, the Woodcutter's House on the Great Plateau, and various ruins. I may be missing a few but there are plenty of spots in Wild's Hyrule to camp that aren't out in the open. The first two I've given are inhabited but the others are open to travelers. The Hebra Trailhead Lodge is specifically for travelers and has food stored there on an honor system of, if you take anything, leave something in its place or restock it later. In addition, there are flagpoles set up at intervals guiding up the mountain from the lodge to Selmie’s Spot. At each flagpole is a crate of supplies following the same honor system. I know it’s fun to strand members of the chain on Hebra. What if they spot a flag fluttering in the distance? What if they get to the crate and pry it open with numb fingers only to find it empty? Or not? Congrats, our hero has acquired 50ft of hempen rope. This is D&D now. Link takes one point of exhaustion.

Wind (The Wind Waker)

- Outset Island. I don’t know if Wind's house isn't big enough for everyone but that's alright. It can get windy but the weather's often pleasant enough to camp on the beach. Grandma and Aryll share the wide bed on the lower floor and there’s an attached upper bunk to the side that’s Wind’s. For LU, I like to imagine he’s moved to sleeping in the loft instead. The loft could probably fit three more people max but they'd have to be careful not to roll off the edge. If it's raining, Orca's Dojo is available.

- Windfall island. It doesn't canonically have an inn but for fic purposes it wouldn't be unbelievable to fit one in, perhaps near the Cafe Bar. However, I like to imagine that the chain would stay in Lenzo's Gallery. The gallery has a lot of open space and I think Lenzo would be more than happy to welcome Wind's friends (*cough* his adopted grandson's friends) into his home.

- Tetra's Pirate Ship. How many hammocks can you shove into one space?

- The SS Linbeck. It'd be cramped. It would be sooooo cramped! The deck isn't large enough for all of them to be up there at once. There is an engine room / hull below deck some can squeeze into. Linebeck isn't happy about it, but hey, the chain's not drowning.

- Private Oasis / Link’s Oasis. If you give 20 joy pendants to Mrs. Marie, the school teacher on Windfall Island, she’ll give Link the Cabana Deed to the private oasis and it becomes Link’s. Wind owns an island! You can totally fit nine people in the cabana. Anyone put off by the magic butler can sleep in the dungeon in the basement outside.

- Dragon Roost Island.

- Forest Haven.

Time (OoT)

- Death Mountain, Zora's Domain, and Kokiri Forest. Time is in good standing with the Gorons and Zora. He was made a Goron brother after defeating King Dodongo and I like to think he remained friends with Ruto. Finding lodging with the Gorons or Zora wouldn’t be an issue. (I’m not sure when exactly Link gets set back to in the Child Timeline? We know the Gorons and Zora are already suffering from Ganon’s curses when Link leaves the forest, and from Majora’s Mask that he’s sent to a time before Zelda knows him. I imagine he’d help them again if he was sent to a time before he had.) As for Kokiri Forest, I don't think Time is able to find his way back. Perhaps some of the younger boys would be able to get there, though. Time had a small treehouse they could visit. (fun fact: in the adult timeline, if Link successfully beats Malon’s time on an obstacle course, she gifts him a cow. A COW. Which he or Malon bring BACK TO THE FOREST and somehow get UP THE LADDER into his little treehouse. He’s even got hay for it and a pitchfork and a couple of buckets and everything. Like, I don’t think a treehouse is a good place for a cow but it’s there!)

- Kakariko Village. It doesn't have an inn in-game but for fics there is an empty house next to the Death Mountain Trailhead that could be turned into one. Maybe it would be something like the Stockpot Inn from Majora's Mask? (Anju's lookalike is in this town! She'd totally work there!) Impa's house and the House of Skulltula are also in Kakariko.

- Lon Lon Ranch. The LU Ranch is larger than what's in game. It’s two stories (in-game) and we know there’s at least one guest bedroom (Talon might have his own room as well). Obviously, not everyone's sleeping on a bed but I like to imagine there's a cozy living room with a nice couch and carpets and enough pillows and blankets to go around. It's not a bad place to have to sleep on the floor, either. The spot in front of the fireplace with a heavy quilt and a mountain of pillows is the best.

Legend (alttp/albw)

- Kakariko Village. There's probably an inn here but Legend may or may not be a wanted criminal after “kidnapping the princess.” This would be a fun place for Legend to pull out the First Gen ring and pose as Hyrule's twin.

- Legend's house. I like to think it has a floor plan similar to Four's. However, Legend's house was never meant to be a store. Where the front room in Four's house has been remodeled, the front room in Legend's house has been rearranged into some kind of organized chaos of tables and display cases with a bed shoved into the corner. The fireplace and kitchen are in there somewhere. In the back is a proper bedroom, bath, and a workshop/storage. Ravio's "shop" as Legend has begrudgingly accepted it's going to be for the foreseeable future can be broken down, freeing the space up for bedrolls. A couch can also be carried out of the bedroom and into the main area. Bonus points if Legend's storage room that we saw in the LU pages is a basement. (Do you think Ravio's boobytrapped the house?)

- Witch's House. The sage Irene and her grandmother live here. They don't have any spare room (except possibly for someone who's injured and then the chain has to pay for any red potion used of course!), but camping around the hut is safer than in the woods and they're allowed to use the cauldron that's outside.

- The northern sanctuary. One of the Seven Sages, Ceres, and her father oversee the sanctuary. The chain would likely be able to rest here.

Sky (SkSw)

Mostly headcanons.

- The surface. A small settlement has sprung up in the Faron Woods around the Sealed Temple and Goddess Statue. Many of the structures aren't finished yet, but there are colorful tents and stone walls with tarps set over them similar to how the bazaar is set up. I'm sure there's some kind of set up within the Sealed Temple itself as well.

- Skyloft. People travel between the surface and Skyloft regularly so a few houses may be empty for the time that it would be alright for the chain to stay in. As for the Knight Academy, there might be a few spare rooms the chain could use if they share the space. And again, the sparring hall is available. (There's a recurring theme of sleeping on the gym floor.) (Let the chain use the bath in the Knight Academy! There's a heated bath!!! Can you imagine how nice that would be??! For the chain? For Legend??? Can we have a My Neighbor Totoro scene where some of them bathe together and make a racket and an absolute mess? I bet they'd make some Knight Academy residents so mad! It'd be so funny!)

Hyrule

I haven't played The Adventure of Link so I've no idea how Hyrule's towns are set up but uhmm it sounds like he has a lot of them that the chain could stay at. How Hyrule’s blood curse effects how the townsfolk perceive him is up to you.

- Caves. They're staying in caves.

- Dungeon and temple ruins. Also an option.

- Fairy Fountains (Zelda I). Okay so fairy fountains might be “out in the middle of the woods somewhere" but they always have their own designated screens. It's a safe, distinguishable location, that comes with potential interactions between the chain and fairies.

Twilight (Twilight Princess)

Unfortunately I’m not too familiar with Twilight’s game. I know the gist of it but I haven’t played past the forest temple. I also played this game on the wii and I can’t orient myself in any of the pictures I’m looking at,, everything’s flipped help-

- Twilight's Treehouse. At first I was going to say there’s no way to fit nine people in there, but after seeing how small Twi is for comparison, sure, it’s doable. Twi’s treehouse has a base floor, double loft, and basement. For whatever reason he doesn’t have a bed? I’m going to put it in the second loft. The first loft is a reading nook with a bean bag or folded up bedroll/sleeping bag set in the corner. Someone could curl up here. Between the lofts and base level, there’s enough room for everyone’s sleeping bags.

- Ordon. I think Twilight wouldn't want to impose on the villagers and would always try to get the chain to stay at his place. However, if the villagers insist they spend the night on "real beds" then the group might split up and stay a few people each hosted in separate houses for the night.

- Kakariko Village. Elde Inn and the Kakariko Sanctuary. There’s a hot spring above the inn.

- Telma's Bar in Hyrule Castle Town. Not a place for the chain to sleep over at, but it’s a good rest stop that I think Twi would much prefer over the bustle of the city. I think he’d want to introduce everyone to Telma and the resistance given the chance. (he’s very proud of all of his families aaaa I think if you got the chain, ordon, and the resistance all together in the same space Twilight might combust from just how proud he is of everyone and how much he loves them.)

Warriors (Hyrule Warriors)

I've played the initial release version of Hyrule Warriors but it's been a while so I don't remember which stages take place in Wars' era vs others and therefore which areas can be found in Wars' era for certain. Overall, the world beyond the battlegrounds isn't really covered. It's daunting, but this opens up huge opportunities for worldbuilding.

I do have one idea for a location beyond Hyrule Castle and Castle Town.

- Kakariko Village. Impa and the Sheikah are in Hyrule Warriors and therefore a version of Kakariko probably exists in Wars' era. Has it been destroyed? Is it safe? How has the war affected it? What is the setting like? Personally I like to imagine it's aesthetically similar to Kakariko from botw but set in a bamboo forest. All the light green with splashes of bright red and deep blue of the Sheikah seems like such a fun palette to draw or imagine for fic. It's up to you! Go crazy!

---

That's all I've got!

Please add to this if there are locations I missed. Also, if there are any art or fics that you think detail specific locations really well please share them!!! I'd love to learn about the worldbuilding that's been done!