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sanarkeo · 8 months ago

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don't stop, play your video game

mina finds it hard to focus when she’s getting eaten out.

alternatively: spying on your gf gives you some really great ideas! gamer!mina x f!reader smut - kinda fluffy kinda vanilla - established wholesome relationship - idk if it counts as voyeurism...

having a girlfriend who’s never had to want for anything, who’s always been more of a giver than a taker, has made special occasions slightly difficult. your anniversary’s coming around again and you’re stuck on what gift you can get her next. another lego set you both can spend a night putting together? artisan yarn to add to her growing knitting pile?

you know that whatever you do give her, she’d love it regardless. last year’s was a home cooked meal with her favorite dishes followed by a movie marathon on that new monitor you got her (and of course she insisted on stepping in and helping you with the chopping, and was the one who did all the tech set up). you still remember how content she looked, her head resting on your shoulder as you snuggled under the blankets. this year though, you want to get her something extra special, and you’re willing to use any means necessary to find out what exactly it is that myoui mina wants.

standing outside the door to her study, you feel the lightest pang of guilt hit your stomach for observing her like this. mina’s always treasured her alone time and you surmise she’s probably just playing that one video game she, chaeyoung and tzuyu have been hooked on recently. you press your ear to the wooden door and hear a muffled buzzing noise. it’s oddly familiar.

curiosity got the better of you and so you turn the handle and open the door ever so slightly, as quietly as possible. peering in, you see mina slumped in her chair in nothing but her baby blue tie-dye hoodie pressing a vibrator to her pussy. you’re honestly glad she has those noise canceling headphones on because she’s making the softest, sweetest grunts and hums as she massages it onto her clit. it’s taking everything in you to not rush in and please her.

when you tear your gaze away from her trembling form and take a look at her monitor, it takes a while to register what’s on her screen, but your jaw drops. mina’s watching porn. of someone getting sucked off while they’re playing zelda on the switch. it makes you giggle a little - obviously, the nerdiest girl you’ve ever known would get off to something like this.

looking back at mina, you can tell she’s getting close by how tightly she’s screwing her eyes shut. yet, with one quivering hand keeping the vibrator steady, she reaches out and clicks on another video (this time with someone getting fucked with a controller in hand). as distracting as it is hearing the monotonous drone replaced by wet squelches when she abandons the vibrator and starts rubbing her clit, you think you might know what could be a good little surprise.

“a-ah- fuck…y/n...”

you twiddle your toes on the lacquered hardwood and scrunch the hem of the hoodie you borrowed off of your girlfriend. the scent of her’s fading away, but still present on the plush cotton. you’ve seen mina naked a hundred times before (and you can’t help but stop and stare every single time). and yet, the image of her nipples, erect and rubbing against the inside of this same hoodie, of her touching herself, the cuffs of the sleeves gliding over smooth thighs - it makes you giddy.

“you can come in!” you hear her call out.

there’s this inexplicable psychic ability mina possesses that you haven’t yet gotten used to. but, the shock soothes the rising tension in your shoulders and you quickly let yourself in. it’s a quick clearing of your throat and a rubbing of your flushed cheeks before you allow yourself to meet your girlfriend’s gaze. she always regards you with a tender, sincere hue to her eyes, and it’s no different right now. she looks like she would give you the world, and in a way she has.

“i’m sorry angel, i’m in the middle of a game,” she apologizes with a pout, pulling a stool out from under her desk and patting the seat lightly. “but you can come and watch ‘til i’m done?”

if she hadn’t sneaked a look over to her screen and double clicked on something, you might’ve felt a tad bit sorry for what you’re going to do to her. you know mina as the kind of girlfriend who’s attentive to a fault; normally she’ll abandon everything to see that you’re well cared for. so it humbles and amuses you to watch her balance her attention between gawking at you and focusing on that convoluted game. tiptoeing her way, you quirk an eyebrow up as she examines what you’re wearing with darting eyes.

you throw out a rhetorical question: “playing league again?”

she’s played league everyday for over a week.

she sends you a nod and her signature gummy smile, then immediately snaps her head back to the monitor, her fingers fluttering over her keyboard as vivid circles form on the screen with a flurry of clicks. the sunshine rushes through her window to illuminate her silhouette. those bulky headphones look silly framed against her delicate features, but the way she clenches her jaw, the slope of it shifting up, makes you feel some type of way.

when her sight lands on you again, her mouth is set somewhat agape and she’s leering at your legs. “are you not cold, love?” after a couple more clacks of the keys, mina reaches out and strokes your bare skin with her knuckles. “you’re not wearing an awful lot,” she probes, and squeezes your thighs. she’s taking her time to skim the back of her hand over your knee, then to just under your hip. you shudder and the wool of her sweatshirt tickles you. you wonder for a second if she’s already clued into what you’re up to, or if maybe just this is enough to make her want to pin you down.

“you can warm me up then?”

she presses her tongue against her teeth while you pull her chair back. and for once, as you swing your leg to the other side and climb up on her lap, she looks at you for longer than a few beats. you slide your hands under her sweatshirt and wrap your arms around her waist, gripping onto the small of her back. at the expense of blocking her view for the slightest bit, you give her the lightest kiss on the lips, then sneak another on her nose, near her mole.

“love, it’s ranked…” she trails off, drawing a staggered breath. mina’s trying to ignore the heat that’s emanating from between your upper thighs, the wetness that spread since she layed her palm on you. she’s trying to pretend she doesn’t want to take your lip between her teeth and suck ‘til it swells, but she’s bad at acting and you love how visible restraint shows on her face.

“luckily, i don’t know what that means,” you joke and draw heart shapes into her skin like some lovesick fool. her eyes fall to somewhere between your thighs and her lap and the tip of her tongue peeks out of her mouth. your hearts become spirals thinking about how it’d feel on your heat. you clear your throat.

“focus on your game baby. don’t want you to lose, do i?”

you push her chin away and pause until you’re sure she’s got some of her attention back on her match. when you hear the clicking of her mouse and the striking of keys, you decide it’s a worthy distraction to begin bunching up the fabric of the hoodie and adjust yourself on her lap. mina stops muttering about minions in the game (when did she start, again?) as soon as she feels the warm, damp lace of your underwear pressed onto her thigh. you love how the curve of it arches perfectly to kiss your covered clit.

your girlfriend tries to gulp down her arousal: “honey…”

“yes?”

“i can’t… i can’t focus when you’re like this.”

mina has such telltale signs for when she’s turned on and you’ve memorized every single one of them. the way she starts breathing so hard with the erratic rising and falling of her chest, it nearly looks like she’s panting. the way she purses her lips, forming a little line. the way you can feel her contain and control her lust for you with how she doesn’t know what to do with her hands.

they’re trembling in mid-air.

you can feel the thumping of her heartbeat on your chest when you give her cheek a peck. “yes you can, baby. concentrate on it,” you’re trying to be encouraging, yet you grind down onto her thigh, feeling the muscles in her leg tense up.

“do it for me, babe?”

she gulps, feeling you stain her sweatpants. mina peers over your shoulder to wince at how badly she’s doing. she gives it another try, clicking and launching an attack furiously but is washed by defeat when she sees you strip the hoodie off, revealing a set of matching lilac lingerie.

“my mina’s said she’s been liking this color a lot lately, right?”

“princess, please…” with closed eyes, mina lifts her head, withdrawing her hands and gingerly placing them on your hips. her palms feel slightly cold, but it just sends jolts up your ribs. “i can’t- i really, i don’t know.”

abruptly, you get off mina’s lap, and her eyes pop open in surprise. “i think you know, you know what i wanna do.” you crawl on all fours to get under her desk, and situate yourself on your knees, right in front of her. you have the perfect view of her thighs, now squeezed closed. your eyes trail the veins along her arms till they stop at the smallest hint of her tummy peeking through.

“didn’t you hear me?”

she cocks her head.

“d’you rather me do this while you’re playing zelda?”

she blinks slowly then looks down but away from you. a hand moves up to cover her mouth.

“how many times have you seen me?” she asks, and her words are muffled.

“what? you’ve watched that kinda porn more th-”

mina whimpers and her fingers slide down her chin, and she strokes at her neck. you wet your lips as you notice her fingertips trembling, hovering over her throat.

“don’t, please,” she mutters.

you push up her sweatshirt and take in the glossy sheen of sweat over her abs, rising and falling, tensing up every time the pads of your fingers graze over her skin. you spread your hand over her abdomen, toned and smooth, and glide it up her sternum to prod at her bare tits. her breath hitches when you cup her breast with the palm of your hand and brush your thumb over her hard nipple.

"my prettiest baby."

you spare the torture and hook your fingers into the band of her sweatpants and tug. she arches her back, allowing you to tear her sweats and underwear down to her ankles. she’s looking down so intently at you, her knitted brows shading a firey gaze, eyelids fluttering. the sight of her, so very eager for you to be buried in her pussy, choked whimpers amid the slight soundscape of the game coming through her headphones - it makes your mouth water. you lean closer to her and give her a smirk.

her scent is unmistakable and intoxicating. it strains at your chest. her legs are milky but defined, and you slide your impatient hands between them to push them apart. mina’s inner thighs glisten with her arousal, and dew pools at her entrance, needy, ready. you wonder if making love with mina will always make you feel like this - like you’d do absolutely anything to hear her make those little sounds of satisfaction. and you look up at her again as if you’d even need her assurance to go on.

mina looks like she’s writhing in pain.

“love…”

she reaches a hand down to stroke your cheek. it’s gentle and saccharine and her gaze is burning you with want. the idea of the game dissipates somewhere in the middle when you stick your tongue out and sink its breadth onto her aching, soaking pussy. the taste of it is sharp and it’s sickly sweet as your mouth is swathed by her delicate folds. you try to keep eye contact but she screws her eyes shut as soon as your tongue reaches her clit.

“hnn- ah… ah-fuck!” she cheeps.

when your tongue dips into her hole, you feel the pressure of her thighs dig into your temples. you lap up her warmth, tease at her sensitive bud with the faintest licks, and ghost your lips over hers. her moans are music but frustratingly subdued, and you swallow her juices. nails scrape against your scalp and you feel your girlfriend’s fingers catch locks of your hair. mina twitches, drops her hips and tugs your head up slightly, shoving your mouth against her clit.

“please, honey-” mina throws her head back. “please.”

you leave kisses on her thighs to test her a little, but give into the force of her grip that makes your core throb with eagerness.

“only because you asked nicely.”

you suck her nub into your mouth and flick at it, the edge of your bottom lip beginning to feel her hole clench around nothing. her moans settle into whines, each one growing longer, higher in pitch with every stroke of your tongue coming quicker than the one before. your chin is coated in her wetness and your fingers are itching to slip into her. mina near crushes you between her thighs now, your mouth so unbearably hot and good on her cunt, she can barely think.

“i’m so close- so close, ah!-”

her hand in your hair moves to join the other with urgency to paw and claw into the armrests. you paint spirals over her clit, and the anticipation flowers in you when her whines turn to desperate groans. mina sees white first before the mounting pleasure bursts into ecstasy. when she cums, she grabs your head again and suffocates you in her pussy.

“oh my god… oh my f-”

without letting another word slip past her lips, you stand up and yank the collar of her sweatshirt up to tug it off her. then, kneeling once more, your hands find her lower back again, and you pull her chest closer to roll her nipples between your teeth, to give them as much attention as you did her clit for at least one moment. mina stares at you, bewildered, drool beading at the tip of her tongue. pulling away from her breasts, you crawl to your right and swivel the chair to have her face you again.

“you lost, didn’t you?”

immediately, mina whips her head to examine the text on the screen and her lips form into a pout. “and i got reported,” she mewls with a sluggish nod.

“and you got reported,” you repeat at her and she huffs at you. patting the floor beside you, you tell her: “come down here, babe.”

“why?”

“c’mon, minari,” you coo, and the corners of your mouth droop down as you furrow your eyebrows to get her to fold.

and mina crumples, her gaze softening while she slides down her chair to move to the ground. she doesn’t expect it when the caress of your hand massaging her shoulder changes to a grip, and she’s shoved down with a yelp, back to the rug. she blinks in disbelief. but your girlfriend, attentive and hungry for you, soon devours your lips, chest, waist, hips with her eyes. you straddle her. you trace her clenched jaw, the sweep of her collarbone, the wave of her overworked ribs, the slope of her abs.

you wonder if fucking mina will ever stop being this fun.

“what else do you imagine when you’re watching that kinda stuff?”

it's finally up, no edits no proofreading just prayers!! 1000% done w this but mina today was sooooo 🤕 i just needed to do something about it. i think it says a lot about me that i take way longer to write about cute sweet loving than my usual pervy shit. had to cut it shorter than i wanted. well!!!

#wlw #sapphic #lesbian #twice smut #mina smut #myoui mina smut #mina x reader #mina x reader smut #twice x reader smut #twice imagines #mina imagines #myoui mina imagines #twice mina imagines #mina #myoui mina #twice mina

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andreabandrea · 1 year ago

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I absolutely don't mean this in a bad way, but I think a lot about how Pokemon is a power fantasy for kids. And I know this is obvious because it's a game for children, but let me ramble.

Think about it: you can go wherever you want, knowing you're safe because your Pokemon will protect you. In the later games, you can dress however you want and express yourself freely. You can connect with nature and communities of friendly kids and adults around you. You can make a meaningful, positive impact on the world. You can stand toe-to-toe with adults who, in real life, would ignore or even belittle you because you're just a kid. (And, of course, you have superpowered pets that love you.)

I think about how in the original games, Brock and Misty are presented as kids/young teens and become friends with Ash. But, Lt. Surge presents a difficulty spike-- if you chose Bulbasaur, you can easily sweep the first two gyms with it, but now you don't have a supereffective match up unless you plan more. I think it's meaningful, then, that Lt. Surge is portrayed a big, scary adult man and military to boot. In the anime, he's presented as being condescending and intimidating toward Ash. But, you as the player are able to overcome this intimidating man through the power of your Pokemon. The same can be said for people like Team Rocket and Giovanni-- Giovanni's original sprite in Red & Blue makes it look like he's looming over you, sneering at you.

It can easily be forgotten by adult fans, but you're seeing this world through the perspective of a child. Giovanni looming over you represents how it feels to be a child, powerless, and face an adult who's cruel to you. But you defeat him at every match up.

Satoshi Tajiri would go on to say that Pokemon was inspired by his childhood, in which he'd go out and collect bugs. Miyamoto would say that the first Zelda game was inspired by his childhood in which he'd explore the local area and caves and so on.

It makes me sad to think that, as the world becomes more modern, more urbanized, and (as parents tend to see it, at least) more unsafe, this childhood that inspired these classic games become further out of reach for kids. When I was growing up, I lived in a suburb full of concrete. I couldn't walk anywhere, and even if I could, my mother was too anxious to let me just go around unsupervised.

This is why getting the bike is such a big moment in Pokemon-- you can go so much farther as a kid on a bike! But, I also could only ride my bike up and down my boring street before running into a major street full of cars going 50 MPH that would have murdered me instantly.

This isn't a doom post. I still believe that we can repair the damage that capitalism and cars have done to the world. But, I think that in times like this, it's more important than ever for kids to have access to these power fantasies, these escapes from a world that they have no ability to fix, but still suffer from regardless.

Ironically, I think that when I play Pokemon now, I play it to feel smaller rather than to feel bigger, the opposite of how I played it as a kid. Now, it's comforting to escape from work and stress into a world in which your only concerns are walking to the next town, catching a new Pokemon, and maybe fighting a gym leader. The same can be said of any piece of media that someone is nostalgic for, but I think Pokemon feeds into it well because its design is so baked in the experience of being a child.

When I'm playing Pokemon, especially when replaying an old game, I still remember things like only saving in Pokemon centers so that my character could sleep there in a nice building, or imagining them setting up camp if I had to save and quit on a route. If I had time, I would feed my Pokemon some Pokeblocks or etc. at my little 'camp' so they wouldn't be hungry (which is why I felt like the cooking and camping systems from SwSh were so real for me, haha).

I don't think that there's a 'wrong' way to play Pokemon-- I know people enjoy competitive Pokemon, and strict challenge runs, and stuff. And I can enjoy that, too! But, for me, Pokemon is about childhood, you know?

#bandrea blabbers

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a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan · 11 months ago

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I really like the decision to set TotK a few years after BotW, as opposed to the few months we’re used to in direct Zelda sequels. It gave the world a substantial amount of time to change. Hyrule is livelier. In the years of relative peace since Calamity Ganon was vanquished, it’s been allowed to grow and thrive. Hateno Village, the largest Hylian settlement, is becoming economically significant as a tourist destination and food supplier. It’s especially cool to see Riju, Tulin, and Kass’s kids mature into their adult/teenage years, respectively.

Building on that, I think it’s neat that Link is in his early twenties now. This is the oldest Link we’ve ever played as (Skyward Sword held the previous record at 17.5 y/o). He’s had time to adjust to life post-calamity. His traumatic mutism seems to be all but gone. You ever notice just how much he talks in this game? Dialogue options galore, he’s constantly explaining things to other characters, all that. And he’s more expressive, too. He outright laughs when he fuses weapons.

Link’s relationship with Zelda has also had time to grow. Guys. Fellas. Broskis. They live in the same house. In which there is only one bed. They are together. The implication here is that they share most of their meals together, and remember, it’s key to his characterization that he opens up emotionally when he’s cooking or eating. That means there has been a lot of quality bonding time between them.

Before and during the Calamity, Link served as Zelda’s royal bodyguard because the king demanded it of him. Given how he went mostly mute from the pressure of being entrusted with the princess’s safety and being chosen as the Hylian Champion (at age 17, mind you), I’d wager he didn’t particularly like the assignment until he started bonding with her. He looks downright sad when she snaps at him in that one memory at the shrine. Hell, he doesn’t smile once in the memories.

But you know what? I get the feeling that Link protects her now not out of duty like he used to, but out of love. That’s powerful because “love conquers all” and all that, but also, there’s no external pressure to be her bodyguard. Until the Upheaval, he was done being a special little hero. He was just a swordsman, but he still went where Zelda went to protect her. So instead of being crushed by that pressure, protecting her is an expression of his love for her. It’s a choice and he’s doing it because he wants to, not because it was forced on him.

That’s a lot of growth to go through, and it was paced over several years. He doesn’t appear to have aged much, but enough time has passed that Hudson has a daughter who can hold a mature conversation. That’s what, 5 years old? Yeah, Link is in his early twenties. Fucking finally, the task of saving the world falls on the shoulders of an adult (although speaking as someone entering his mid-twenties, that honestly isn’t much better).

I’m starting to ramble here so I’ll leave a parting observation of Link and Zelda’s house in Hateno. Zelda has redecorated a fair bit since moving in with Link, replacing his weapon racks with photos of her horse and various Hyruleans (her subjects who she cares deeply for), but the photo of her, Link, and the Champions is still up. And that’s really cute.

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #TotK spoilers #Zelda spoilers #tears of the kingdom #my own #Zelda analysis #definitely going to find some way to write this into a fanfic

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rawliverandgoronspice · 2 years ago

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THE GERUDO POST

(aka an attempt at a critique of how gerudos were handled in BotW and before)

Oh no. TOTK being right around the corner, it might finally be time for the Gerudo Post.

(aka half of the reason why I made a Zelda sideblog in the first place)

So I want to preface all of this by saying that, as you could probably tell already, I’ve always adored the gerudos. They have fascinated my small child brain when I was 7; then the obsession made its comeback when I was 14, and now, here we are, almost 28, and I’m still thinking about the gerudos. I think they might be among my favorite fictional cultures for their potential and their understated storyline. I guess growing up in a very Arabic neighborhood, coupled with being bi-culturally latinx (?? does Brazil count?? you tell me), also always made them feel like home to me –especially when I was very young and there was not a lot of cool female representation flying around that managed to involve fiercely independent PoC women, flaws and teeth included.

This whole weird-essay-thing tries to do two things. First: analyze the place gerudos have occupied in the series, their initial problematisms and their subtextual narrative arc during the Myth Era coupled with their relationship to Ganondorf. Second: tiptoe to Breath of the Wild and poke it with a stick to see what happens –and in doing that, explain why I believe a lot of their characterization was defanged in service of smoothing their past with the hylians instead of deepening the culture on its own terms, and why I’m a little apprehensive about what that might mean for TotK even though I adore seeing the best girls at it again.

Those are the uhh terms of service??

And now, we must go back to 1998.

OCARINA OF TIME ERA

There’s so many things about the gerudos that are noteworthy and rich, and they’ve made for a complex piece of Zelda lore ever since their introduction –and when I say complex, I don’t 100% mean it as praise. The very racially charged decisions made about their inclusion have been discussed at length by the fandom, especially when it comes to orientalist and Islamophobic tropes being deployed pretty thoughtlessly in Ocarina of Time (their sigil being literally a crescent moon and star originally, the parallels are pretty obviously there).

We’re talking about a band of amazon-like, big-nosed brown women from the desert ruled by a single Scary Evil Man born once every hundred years hellbent on conquering Hyrule who they apparently worship like a god, characterized primarily as thieves, decked in jewelry and orientalist-inspired harem/belly-dancing clothing, hostile to the white good guys of Hyrule (especially men), unblessed by the Goddesses and so deprived of elongated ears (this is true for OoT –we’ll come back to that), also known as a demon tribe with their deity straight-out described as evil-looking by Navi (on my way to cancel you on twitter Navi you watch out), and secretly led by evil twin witches who can turn into a single seductress and, as two mothers, raised their Scary Evil Guy king who happens to basically be the devil.

In so few words, gerudos are the future that liberals want.

It’s worth notice, also, that Ganondorf’s characterization in this game is… kind of relentlessly uncomfortable to play through, especially before the 7 year skip. The utter assumption of depraved and evil intents from every character surrounded by dialogue that does little to hide its biases in spite of having generally very little proof to back them up –even though, in the game’s context, every character is correct to call his eyes evil and the darkness of his skin a moral judgment in on itself. The scene where Zelda demands that we believe her conclusion that the sole and only brown guy in the entire kingdom is evil and will do harm, and the game straight out refuses to progress until we concede that her dreams are prophetic and that this man must be stopped at any cost even though she has no more proof than her discomfort… hits different on replay.

I’m restating all of this not to pretend I’m making a novel and thought-provoking point, but to bounce back on a tumblr post I saw a while back (that I can’t find anymore!! I’ll link it if I find it again) –and so express what it is that gripped me with the gerudos in spite of their pretty damning depiction… and actually maybe thanks to it.

There’s a surprising amount of texture to Ocarina of Time’s worldbuilding that exists folded within the things introduced and left hanging, or in its subtext –and whether on purpose or not, I believe it is why people keep coming back to this iteration of Hyrule.

What was that about the king of Hyrule unifying a war-torn country? Why did the gerudos break the bridge connecting them to the rest of the kingdom during the 7 year timeskip while still worshiping Ganondorf, and why are the carpenters trying to rebuild it against their apparent wishes? What was that about gerudos imprisoning hylian men trying to force entry into their lands? What was that about the secret death torture chambers right next to the Royal Family’s tomb and connected to the race of people who were, apparently, born to serve them?

Nothing? Oh okay… okay… okay….

The same can be said about this strange depiction of this hostile tribe, consistently described as wicked yet suddenly friendly once you prove you deserve their respect once you... defeat them, so you now have joined them? Ocarina of Time isn’t very consistent when it comes to characterizing them as their occupation (thieves) or as a proper culture, with a king and a strange system of rulership that seem to involve at least 5 people: Ganondorf, the Twinrova, Nabooru and the unnamed random woman who decides you’re now part of the gerudos because you slashed enough of them with your sword and hookshot, which, uhh ok.

They’re but a ragtag and negligible group when discussed next to gorons and zoras and hylians, but they also clearly have their own religion and at least a 400-hundred years old history (probably far longer than this) and hints of a written language of their own. I’m not sure the game itself knows what it wants them to be, beyond: intimidating and hot and cool, but also wicked and, because of Ganondorf and the way you barge in their forbidden fortress (heh) with the explicit intent to dismantle their king, in apparent need to be saved from themselves.

Speaking of rulership and the Spirit Temple, let’s have a quick tangent about Nabooru: I always found her characterization when meeting with Child Link pretty strange. I refuse to mention the promised reward, which feeds into everything orientalist mentioned above, but I always found her moral compass so extremely convoluted for someone coming from gerudo culture. Nabooru says that, despite being a cool thief herself, she resents Ganondorf for killing people as well as stealing from women and children. Stealing... from women. Nabooru. Why are you this pressed that he steals from women!!! This feels so out of place, that the only girl of that hostile culture that betrays her king and befriends you, is the one that upholds moral values that only a hylian could possibly hold.

Either way: the strange unquestioned contempt of the game for them as a culture, mixed with the occasional bouts of heart, friendliness and badassery, makes it hard not to consider their depiction as pretty biased in favor of the hylians finding them at once exotic, scary and exciting, and could hide a more complex reality you might only get one side of –especially when you know there were originally plans for Ganondorf’s character to be more gray and motivated than what the campy final version ended up being. To be blunt: even in the context of a game for children, and maybe because of that fact, it all reads like a reductionist and imperialist/colonialist reading of a more complex situation.

This might seem like A Lot coming from a game where the actual game writing can be this overall flimsy and simplistic due to the standards of the time (it’s rough, it's so rough). But I would have never dwelt on that thought about a little children’s game if not for the mainline entries that came soon after, because... ooo boy.

The sense you’re not getting the whole story was certainly not helped by the introduction of Wind Waker Ganondorf, and the chilling emptiness of Gerudo Desert in Twilight Princess.

AFTER THE TIMELINE SPLIT

(I’m skipping Majora’s Mask, not because I dislike them in the game or think they’re not worth talking about, but because it’s a parallel universe and they’re never even called gerudos and their reality seems extremely different from their sisters in Hyrule so I think it’s okay to call them tangential and not dive too deep in this particular depiction)

Here’s something I want to highlight about gerudos and how they were characterized before BotW came along: their absence. Not only their physical absence, the lack of any gerudo character that calls themselves gerudo, but their absence from the text itself.

It’s not that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess retroactively scratch them off existence: we can clearly see Nabooru’s stained glass art in WW as well as recognize them being mentioned in Ganondorf’s final boss soliloquy, and WELL there’s quite a lot to say about their imprint over the world of TP. They are there –or at least they... were there. But nobody ever talks about what happened.

In Wind Waker, there was the deluge. It’s assumed lots of people died then, and those who survived scattered across the Great Sea. Are they sealed under the waves? Have they drowned? Is Jolene, Linebeck’s ex-girlfriend in Phantom Hourglass, a distant relative of one of the rare survivors? It’s unclear, beyond the fact that Ganondorf is the only living gerudo we see in this entire branch of the Timeline split.

In Twilight Princess, the desert which bares their name is empty. The hylians never mention that it used to be the name of a tribe: they’re not even named when Ganondorf is introduced for the first time, reduced once again to a mere band of thieves. We learn his plans to steal the Triforce in OoT were foiled, and that he may have turned to war. Then he lost the war, and was executed in Arbiter’s Ground: a strange structure in the desert, a mixture between a temple, a prison and a coliseum. What looks like gerudo writing coexists with hylian symbols, which often look much fresher. This dungeon is the Shadow Temple of TP: a prison hosting the worst criminals the kingdom has ever known, now haunted and cursed. Besides the locations, the only character that vaguely look gerudo in the entire game besides Ganondorf is Telma, a character with pointed ears that never seems to identify as anything but a hylian. What happened? Who’s to say. Nobody ever says anything. Not even Ganondorf bothers to mention them the way he did in WW –and though the game’s story is quite focused on another exiled tribe seeking revenge and dominion over Hyrule as retribution, the parallel is never explicitly drawn. So who’s to say what happened there. Who’s to say.

And in A Link to the Past and the games forward? The only mention of other gerudo characters are Koume and Kotake, resurrecting their son in the Oracles games through their own sacrifice and failing to bring anything back but a monstrosity incapable of making conscious decisions. Granted, most games in that extremely weird Fallen Timeline predate OoT and therefore had yet to make gerudos up at all. Still: canonically, between the gap of OoT and ALLTP, whatever it may be, gerudos disappeared here as well.

I think there’s something subtle and a little heartbreaking about the fact that no matter what Ganondorf does, the gerudos always end up dying out. His yearning for Hyrule, its gentler wind and the Triforce blessing its lands always costs him the kingdom that he does have already.

Now, does he care? A lot of people would argue that he doesn’t, that he used them like pawns for his own ambition and saw them as servants more-so than sisters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Nintendo’s official opinion, but… One very powerful thing about most of Ganondorf’s incarnations (focusing on the human ones) is that he never seems to reject his cultural heritage. They could have gone for him wearing more kingly hylian stuff given the whole underlying theme of envy and pride surrounding his character, but never once does he try to look more hylian, beyond the ear situation that seems to be tied to the Triforce of Power? Either way: he is gerudo. Several of his outfits reference his mothers, as well as general gerudo patterning and jewelry. His heritage is something he proudly displays, even hundred of years in the future when there is no one left to remember what it means but him. I think it’s a very potent piece of characterization, an arc that crosses over multiple game and says something pretty intense about this character’s fate and his inherent destructiveness over the things he touches –starting with the Triforce, all the way up to his very own body and mind. His mental breakdown by the end of Wind Waker, when the king of Hyrule himself forces him to give up on the thing he sacrificed everything for, takes a new kind of weight with the whole picture taken into account.

(not to excuse genocide or general egomania-fueled madness and violence, but one thing doesn’t mean the other isn’t also relevant)

Regardless of whether this is a tragedy for Ganondorf as their uhh complete failure of a king, honestly, it is undeniably a tragedy for the gerudos themselves: a once-in-a-lifetime joyful event turned into a never-ending nightmare from which there seems to be no escape, their legacy now condemned to fade to black, leaving nothing behind but a demon boar forever laying ruin upon the world.

One may say I’m taking on the bleakest explication for the gerudos’ absence when there could be others. It’s true! Perhaps the gerudos are just chilling off-screen, completely fine, not interested in whatever is happening in the kingdom nearby and their disaster child having yet another temper tantrum about not being the Goddesses’ favorite boy. It’s possible! But regardless, what little elements we do possess as players doesn’t seem to support this, even if it remains possible –and regardless of actual gerudo lives, gerudo culture is definitively a goner in every single timeline.

Even if they did survive... Hyrule still won its unification war.

(I won’t mention Skyward Sword as they are not really a thing there, except for a butterfly that seems to suggest the Gerudo Province was a thing before the gerudo people –I don’t know what to do with this honestly– and the whole Groose situation, which, I’m not sure what to make of either beyond the fact that he may have gotten cursed by opposing Demise? And then went on to start the gerudo tribe, which ended up being an all-women group for some reason? Maybe? It’s not confirmed? I feel like it’s more of a fun tidbit than a central piece of the gerudo puzzle, so I’ll leave it there like I would a cool rock I brought back from a walk and that I don’t know where to put in my house)

Then, Breath of the Wild happened and changed things.

BREATH OF THE WILD

(Additional short note, but: while I won’t mention Four Swords Adventure, since it’s a weird one that almost nobody has played and severely messes with the Timeline, we kind of see the beginnings of what is about to happen in Breath of the Wild in this game –gerudos coming back without much explanation, then distancing themselves from Ganondorf to become friends with hylians because he was too hungry for power and now they are nice and have good reputation because they are our friendsss)

I was actually so happy to learn gerudos were making a comeback in a mainline Zelda game, and this got me more excited about Breath of the Wild than basically anything else the game involved. And getting to explore the Desert once again, meeting this new batch of impossibly tall buff girls, getting more about their language and their culture, Riju and the rest of the little girls are adorable, the grandmas are so cool, the sand seals??? sign me the fuck up??? And above it all, hanging around Gerudo Town at night and feeling as warm and cozy as little me liked to imagine how freeing it would feel, to stay there and watch the desert behind the safety of their walls in OoT… This was great. I loved it.

It was a huge compensation for the criticism I’m about to make, but did leave me with… questions regarding how their culture was going to be handled moving forward.

I’ll start with something small yet deeply revelatory, then work my way from there.

So... gerudos’ ears are pointy now.

This is pretty significant. Lore-wise, it’s been said that the elongated ears of hylians are there so they can better hear the voices of the gods. It’s considered a sign of holiness in-universe. There's a bunch of really thoughtful analysis on tumblr over that whole Ganondorf ear situation, which is a mess but also very interesting, but the short answer is: I think the absence of pointy ears was a clear design choice to originally signify them as Less Good. Even when Ganondorf gets pointier ears, they never get as long as hylians’. Worth noting: not every non-gerudo character has pointy ears: gorons, zoras and ritos (among others) do not possess this trait, and there are even some humans that have regular rounded ears in the series –though they always seem to be of lesser relevance, if not downright peasants in Twilight Princess. Pointy ears always tended to implied a strict hierarchy in the series: basically, the more pointy, the more Protagonist you become.

(also their eyes becoming green instead of the traditional yellow/golden, which looks more wicked and demonic --and cooler also tbh)

The pointy ears imply two things. From within the game, this could be interpreted in two ways: either that gerudos… converted, for a lack of a better term, and are now considered holy through their worship of the Golden Goddesses and/or Hylia, or that their mingling with hylians through tens of thousands of years had them acquiring this trait out of sheer genetic override (though they have kept their mostly-women birth rates, their big nose, darker skin –for the most part– and red hair). Probably a healthy mixture of both. Design-wise, it signifies something quite simple to the player: they are on hylians’ side now. They are good guys. We can trust them, even if they still have a little spice in them. They aligned themselves with us and against Ganon in all of its manifestations (even if he’s but an angry ghastly pig being parasitic to everything it touches in this iteration). They are on the side of Good, definitively, and will fight evil by our side.

On that note, I think it’s worth bringing out another major change from their initial iteration, which is their overt friendship with Hyrule as a whole, and with the Royal Family in particular. Despite not allowing any voe inside their walls (we’ll come back to this), their relationship with hylians is pretty neat. They have booming trade roads, travel and meet with the rest of the cultures, and are fierce enemies with the Yiga clan, who are renowned for being huge Calamity Ganon supporters. The tables certainly have turned. I want to bring out, in particular, Urbosa’s friendship with the queen and her role as the cool aunt taking care of Zelda and protecting her from evil (to be noted: I am not familiar with Age of Calamity so if I’m mischaracterizing her in any way, please let me know). The gerudo sense of sisterhood has been extended to the royals they used to fight against. I would go on and say the cultures peacefully coexist, but I think that what we’re looking at here is a case of vassal behavior, just like we used to have from zoras (in the non-Fallen Timelines) and gorons. This is a huge departure from gerudos being openly rejecting of Hylian culture in their initial iteration, and something that is worth returning to later.

Okay. Now it’s time to mention the weird obsession BotW gerudos have with romance. I didn’t take notice of my issues with their writing until I realized how prevalent of a theme that was. Now, the reason given for gerudos to refuse entry to males (of every race) has much more to do with preventing young gerudos to make mistakes than anything else, and is actively being put into question by the younger generations –which would make sense. But the amount of NPCs that either lament their lack of match, talk about their husbands (because they marry now apparently) or are invested in romance, and a very limited understanding of romance at that (heterosexual, closed, etc), makes for much more of the population that I initially expected. There’s no mention of what’s going on with their males, if there are new males being born and either exiled or abandoned, or if Ganondorf being technically still alive have have cut them off male heirs. Either way: no more kings, only girlbosses chiefs.

To have the gerudos so interconnected with Hyrule, not only through trade but through extremely coded romance where they have to make themselves palatable to a future male partner and enforce fidelity, was… a choice. The extremely brief and skippable mention of gerudos sometimes going to Castle Town in search for boyfriends in OoT became half of their personality traits in this game. We went from a race that was fiercely independent and mocking of the unworthy men who tried to mingle with them, to… this. Now I’m not saying some of the sidequests aren’t cute, or that I didn’t like the wedding, or that the grandma near the abandoned statue of Hylia (so she was worshipped at some point) clocking us and talking about her love life wasn’t one of my favorite gerudo conversations. I’m saying that the vibes have definitively changed. For the better? I’m not sure.

I once stumbled upon an article that said that Breath of the Wild gerudos were a huge improvement compared to their original introduction, because they were no longer presented as evil and hostile thieves groveling at the boot of a single man, but as a full culture allied with the protagonist and actively involved in the story, while still getting their Cool Girl Badass moment (again can’t find it anymore, I’ll link it if I stumble upon it again). I see where this comes from, but I honestly can’t help but consider it a reading that assumes something pretty major (though through no fault of their own, as the games tend to hammer this down as hard as they can), and that being hylians as the unquestioned anchor of Good.

Which, in spite of what the games want me to believe, I… feel uncomfortable taking at face value.

To me, regarding how gerudos are being incorporated in that goodie narrative, this is kind of a case of surface-level feminism trumping over colonialist/imperialist concerns. It becomes more important to perform the aesthetics of being cool and friendly and independent than scratching at any deeper problem that would risk making people uncomfortable. This is kind of Green Skin Ganon all over again: oh wait, isn’t it a little icky to have the evil bad guy being brown while faced by the most aryan-looking ass heroes of all time? Okay, then let’s take the brown guy and make his skin green so we don’t have to feel bad anymore that the conflict has racial undertones!! Solved!! There’s nothing questionable about changing a PoC's features to make it more monstrous and less human, right?

To me, it’s kind of the coward option: instead of accepting the messy reality those initial choices created (and their interesting nuances if taken at face value), let’s just… rewrite the PoC culture’s history to make it feel less uncomfortable for the white heroes. In many ways, it is an extension of what hylians have always done: scrubbing the weird and messy things about the past and shoving them deep down into the spooky well and far into the desert prison and away in alternate hellish dimensions, and then make up a very simple story where they get to feel good about themselves –except this time, it’s the fabric of the games, the literal reality, bending backward to make it happen. Which, in my opinion, makes it much worse than before. Now, there’s no conversation. The fabric of reality is changing their own history so that there is nothing to discuss anymore. Ganondorf was always evil incarnate. He never had any point. It was always 100% his own fault, his own hubris, his own fated wickedness. He was always demonic (and green, very important –having a flashback to people on twitter accusing artists restoring the TotK green skin to the original brown of wanting to make Ganondorf black, and like….. how do I put it gently…..)

And, above all else: gerudo are to distance themselves from his legacy so they can stay in the club of the Good and Just and Holy.

Because here’s the messy thing: as much as I love seeing the gerudos again in Breath of the Wild and as much I love for them to have survived the Era of Myth (??? somehow ???), this… kind of changes Ganondorf��s character arc. No longer do we have the story of a king who wanted more, either for his people, for himself or both, and led his culture to its destruction in his search for absolute Power, while remaining ironically incapable of maintaining what little he already had. This starts from him kneeling to the king of Hyrule in OoT and leads to the deluge, Arbiter’s Ground, his own mothers dying for the sake of his failed resurrection. Breath of the Wild changes this: now, the gerudo were apparently fine without him? They apparently did their own thing and became suddenly and inexplicably disconnected from his actions? I know it’s kind of implied they side with hylians at the end of OoT, but it’s honestly never really explored why they would cheer for the death of their king while never seeming to resent him before except for Nabooru –there are mentions of brainwashing for those who resist him (as well as “other groups in the desert”, tho they are never mentioned again), but it’s hardly a proper plot point for the majority of the tribe, aaaand they still die by Wind Waker in the Adult Timeline, in spite of their potential alliegance…

(again, this shift towards submitting to Hyrule actually started with Four Swords Adventure, getting crisper with each iteration)

There used to be this polite blur regarding Ganondorf’s relationship to them, how much he used them and how much he acted in their name (with arguments for both sides), and I think this messy and debatable question mark was one of the most compelling aspects of his character. Gerudos rejecting their relationship at a near-cosmic, reality-bending level, removes a huge layer of complexity to both parties… all for the benefit of making hylians come out cleaner out of this whole exchange, their moral grayness barely a whisper in the distance.

I’ll kind of go on the record and say that I suspect the addition of Demise to the canon to serve a similar purpose (at least in part): if Ganondorf becomes but the manifestation of a demonic curse, and is no longer an extremely messy character brimming with agency and drive, forcing the heavens to reckon with said agency in a way he was never meant to access, born from a complex set of circumstances from which we clearly get only a limited and biased perspective, then it becomes extremely clear that he’s a Bad in a way that isn’t worth exploring further. Even if he does have some points, he is a Bad. It’s what matters most. Not to say I even hate what this angle can bring to the table or that I want him to become Good (I don’t –I’ll talk more about why I dislike most takes on him being a helpless victim to the curse), but once again, who benefits from adding another Unquestionned Baddie to the equation to rest upon? Not him, and not the gerudos, that’s for sure.

So. Why did I, me, personally, like the gerudos in the first place?

Beyond the inherent coolness factor of their culture and the fascinating mysteries of what is merely suggested, I think… I think I loved gerudos because we were obvious outsiders. Because their rejection of Hylian culture was so sharp and extreme, their value system so different, and their writing, their religion, their relationship to power and hierarchy and worth wanted nothing to do with hylians. They didn’t need hylians, beyond them having potential resources to steal. In fact, the threat of hylians influencing their culture was such that the entry to the Fortress was forbidden to everyone (I don’t think men were ever singled out, by the way, even though they are mocked relentlessly). I think there was something inherently hopeful about this semi-matriarchy resisting the outside world, and especially its notions of what girls were meant to be –it was 1998, and every other girl character in OoT, besides Impa and Sheik that?? is another can of worms entirely, is either helpless or someone to save. For them to reject this narrow vision of femininity was, in my opinion, much more radical than what we got in BotW. Less nuanced, more problematic perhaps? But also much more powerful. Gerudo Valley is home, not to a town, but a Fortress.

Hylians were worth being resisted.

In Breath of the Wild, their refusal to let men enter their town is kind of boiled down to a fading tradition over-focused on romance, a meek little game of chase. Their entire goal seems to be finding a hylian to settle down with. Say what you will about the single man and the many girls (never explored and completely open-ended in its implications, btw), but at least it wasn’t… that. At least it opened the way for different ways for people to exist and imagine culture and civilization, outside of the heterosexual couple, the christian-infused patriarchy and its trickling down implications. What I want to say is: let my girls tell hylians they ain’t shit!! That they aren’t the end all be all of reality! This is what made gerudos so compelling in the first place! Where is that bite now? Where is that self-definition?

It’s gone, because hylians need to be Good. So we tee-hee at the creep running laps around the town, we disguise ourselves to breach their trust and infiltrate their town (though there is nuance to be had there, gender be complicated etc), we watch them pine after shitty dudes and take classes to become the perfect approachable woman and make love soups with ?? strange ingredients honestly, and we witness them get very friendly with the Royal Family they used to conspire against, dying to protect the princess against the manifestation of their ancient king reduced to a raving puddle of Bad Boar.

Hyrule, unified against him.

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

For posterity’s sake: this post was made before the game was released. I’ll probably update my thoughts on a separate thing later on.

I don’t think gerudos allying with the hylians and burying their own legends about Ganondorf as deeply underground as they can until it blows up in their face is a bad setup at all. It’s actually pretty juicy, and there’s a ton of fascinating stuff that could happen here –even some involving gerudos taking a firm stand against him while still reconnecting with their past and the choices they made once. This is my hope with the title of the game: Tears of the Kingdoms. Let’s examine them all, account for the damage, and decide how we move forward from there with the full knowledge of where we come from.

What I am afraid of (and I already made posts about that) is the scenario where gerudos rallying against Ganondorf, which I expect will forcefully try to take back his place as their king, is used for cheap feminist points that completely fail to examine, well. Everything mentioned above. Where reality bends itself out of the way of the Goddesses, and hylians’ responsibility in any of this mess, so that everything bad is 100% Ganon’s fault and so he must be cast aside and torn away from the Cool Gerudo Girls and this is 100% justified and deserved because we are Independent Women Who Take No Shit from No Men (unless they are the king of Hyrule or any random hylian they wish to marry apparently).

I’ll say this here because it’s been burning my mouth every time I see discourse about Ganondorf and the gerudo: gerudos declared him as their king. To make a really bad comparison that I dislike: he didn’t run around to assemble girls and make a cult around himself, he was born with the cult already formed around him (and it’s not a cult, it’s just a different mode of governance –hylians also revere the Royal Family like gods, don’t they?). This heavily changes the dynamics at play. Not to remove any agency from him to do a little invasion about it, but chances are the ancestors to BotW’s gerudos fully expected him to behave in this way, at least to a degree –in OoT you see very plainly that they value physical prowess, feats of thievery, witchcraft and general violence. It’s more complicated than him being a Bad and making the poor helpless women go along with the plan uwu –even taking the brainwashing into account, AND Koume and Kotake counting as gerudos too, even if they might not be not fully innocent in shaping the culture and the man himself. If manipulation and forced servitude is the explanation given, I’ll be genuinely mad –because, once more, all the nuance and messiness would be flattened for the sake of making Ganondorf Bad and the gerudo Good (= on hylians’ side).

It bears to be said: I think feminism stances that require, not to criticize (which is fair), but to fully dehumanize and bestialize men of color to make any sense are uhhh bad, and it's worth questionning who they end up serving in the end.

The flip side of this would be to make Ganondorf a poor little meow meow that was secretly controlled by the evil Demise all along, and... I’ll be real. I really don’t think it solves our problem at all. It might even make it worse.

My problem with how gerudos have been handled thus far, being mostly connected to how they behave in relation to hylians Good, is that they’ve been systematically defanged not to threaten the status quo as much as they used to. I think it’s pretty clear why I’m not a fan of Ganondorf being a mere victim of cosmic circumstances; I have a post that goes more in depth about this, but to simplify: my man has legitimate grievances. To make him a mere puppet to Evil Incarnate would, to me, be just another attempt to erase the despotism of the Goddesses, the unjust hierarchy of the world, what hylians have historically done to the races they were in conflict with (looking at the Yiga for the most recent example…)

I’m not saying his fight is clean or even legitimate, that he isn't driven by his own sense of self-importance above anything else, or that he should win (he has no plan beyond domination and victory, that's not a future). But I think there’s something really important about having someone being willing to fully consume himself and everything around him for the simple fact that someone should resist the order of the world. Even if that makes him a heartless, cruel, and egomaniac demon-pig. Even if there’s no Hyrule left to rule. Even if his own people despise him, or are long gone and forgotten.

Is it a little heart-wrenching? Uhh yes to me yes most definitively. This is why Wind Waker Ganondorf hits so hard, and remains (I think) his favorite entry in the series so far. But… I still find this fate of eternal resistance more resonant and empowered, and far less grim, than if Hyrule’s lore absorbs his hatred and rage, gives it to another entity that would be Badder (= more opposed to hylians and the goddesses), and scrubs it off anything icky and uncomfortable, rendering it completely domesticated and non-threatening to hylian domination; rubbed of his skin color, of his complexity, of his own emotions, even made... kind of sexy now, in the same way his sisters have been made before him? I am very, very afraid of him being turned from furious and an unapologetic subject in his own legend to a "redeemed" (according to whom??) and palatable object in somebody else’s, that you now end up having to… save from himself.

Again, I want to trust that Tears of the Kingdom can walk that line and preserve everything sharp and contrasting and profound and thrilling about this fascinating setup. I don’t expect a philosophy course, this is a game for children –but it doesn’t mean Nintendo didn’t do an astounding job with similar setups in the past. Again, I’ll invoke the Wind Waker conflict, but Twilight Princess did a lot of great things as well (Zant’s speech, if you can get past the weird stretches and stumping and NNHYAAAs, is pretty fantastic) –and the subtle writing of Majora’s Mask is also proof enough this series can be complex without being impermeable.

So this is where my hope lies. Not really with BotW’s writing, which, I’m sorry to say, but I found to be below what the series has done in the past (I have no problem with the setup and how the story is explored, I think it was a great idea, but wasn’t ever sold on the actual writing the way I may have been with previous titles –it felt… very tropey to me overall, with a couple of highlights). But Nintendo has shown to know how to write compelling stories for children that know where to sprinkle its darkness and how to preserve its hope, and this is this side I’m relying on for this delicate storyline moving forward.

And now? Now… I suppose we wait and see.

(thank you for reading my impossibly long essay what the actual hell, at least I got it all out of my system, see you in part 2 for when TotK comes out I suppose aaa)

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ezlo-x · 7 months ago

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“Wow I hope BotW gets a sequel someday…” - my TotK summary <3

It’s been a year, and honestly. I did not complete that game at all. I watched lets plays and cutscenes in youtube and a few playthroughs of my friends. And every time, my regret of buying this game grows ever so slightly. I know I sound mean and harsh but I prommy I got nothing against ppl who actually enjoyed TotK. This is more of my personal experience of how my excitement playing this game completely burned me out less than halfway through the game.

Gameplay

I’ll start with gameplay first, as I have issues with it. Let’s start with the physics of the game itself. Ngl, there was a small worry in the back of my mind when I realized there would be in-game physics and that you have to rely on those said physics. I personally don’t have a good experience with game physics and they usually tend to frustrate me. Which somewhat happened when playing the game. It didn’t happen too often, thankfully, maybe because the zonai parts didn’t tend to last long. Speaking of Zonai parts and builds

I wish building Zonai stuff was a bit more fun. Or at least give us more time to experience our builds. We already have a disadvantage by having a limited amount of batteries that you have to slowly upgrade throughout the game. So, seeing that one of your Zonai pieces starts to flash and disappear is annoying. I understand we can obtain more zonai parts throughout Hyrule, but I wish it lasted long enough. Also, the fact that you can’t really travel a lot in many of the builds, oh how disappointing it was to build a cool Zonai truck with big ass wheels but get frustrated that it couldn’t pass through a few bumps on the road. I feel like the Hoverbike is the best Zonai build of the game.

The Ultrahand is fun when trying to solve puzzles or merge random items. Fusing weapons, on the other hand, is my favorite thing in the game. There’s something really satisfying about fusing a really powerful weapon together. I really don’t mind that the weapons are breakable if that means I have a spot to make a strong weapon. Weapon durability never really bothered me. Both games push you to explore around to look for weapons. I think it would be boring if they weren’t breakable.

The shrines are a big improvement from BotW's shrines. I wished there were more challenging Shrines over the many King Rauru blessings. I can't really say much about the dungeons as I only completed two out of the five. But I think there was a bit to be desired; it's almost a Zelda dungeon.

Sage abilities. I want to speak to the game designer who thought it was a great idea to activate the sage abilities with the same button you click to pick up items on the floor. A total downgrade to the way you’d activate the Champion abilities in BotW.

Rupees. I would like to speak to the game designer who thought it was a great idea that you now have to manually press A to pick up rupees from the floor rather than casually walking in front of it to automatically pick it up. From my previous point, do you know how many times I’ve tried to pick up rupees only for Tulin’s ability to fly them away from me?

The sky islands, ohh boyyy, finding out that they had to reduce the amount of sky islands is disappointing, but I understand in a game design aspect. BUT it is disappointing that the game was advertising itself for the sky islands, only for there to be very few in the final. Like remember back in 2021 when they were advertising SkSw HD, and then i think a year later a totk teaser dropped and Link was falling from the skies? Good times ❤️

The Depths: I enjoyed the Depths a bit more than the Sky Islands. But it does get boring after a while if you’re not there to fight monsters or look for treasure, which is also disappointing. I love the OST descending down a chasm and entering the depths. Also, don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to use Zonai builds there compared to the surface or sky islands.

I think those are all my thoughts on the gameplay. I still have a few more issues with it but I feel like it mixes with the story so lets get that over with

Limitation vs Freedom

My biggest issue with this game is that it gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. However, there is still a story attached, and the story still wants to play out linearly. So, we have a game that grants you total freedom on how you want to play this game, but the story is still linear. But even if you decide to experience the story while doing dungeons and shrines. The game doesn't update with the piece of information that you discover.

The Dragon Tears are a really flawed way to experience the story. Zelda's memories are scattered across Hyrule; the number of times I've seen ppl say they accidentally got the tears out of order cause they thought it was similar to BotW's way of getting the memories. Basically, if you happen to be near one memory, you might as well get it cause it'll get annoying to go back and forth. Only to the person's shock, they got a cutscene meeting the Queen and King and then going up the Hebra region as that's the closest memory from the previous one. Just to see Queen Sonia dead on the floor.

What also bothers me is that the game doesn't update when you make a discovery in these memories. For example, I found out that Phantom Ganon can transform into Zelda in the memories and walk up to the NPCs in hopes of a change of dialogue. But getting nothing, walking up to Purah, Tulin, then Yunobo, and seeing no change of dialogue got really tiresome. It's as if the game doesn't believe you're smart enough to connect the dots.

Also, for people who decided to explore and get the Dragon Tear memories before entering any dungeon. There is very little change of dialogue, suddenly the game strangely punishes you by not letting the npcs acknowledge what you just discovered. While it's not an actual in-game punishment, you're stuck with characters asking a million questions that you already know of. Suddenly, the game's freedom to do whatever you want gets put to a halt because you decide to have the freedom to experience the story however you'd like.

NOW I get to move the part that I’ve been waiting (dreading) for!!

Lore

Sheikah Tech…I don’t care how simple the explanation is on why they are gone. It is probably the dumbest explanation I’ve seen. The fact that it wasn’t even questioned in-game and by the developers baffles my mind. How does it vanish in thin air? Their explanation is that the Calamity no longer exists doesn’t make sense to me either. The Sheikah tech has been there for more than 10k years but only in a dormant state. I don’t want to ask any more questions, or I’ll be here all day, but it drives me up a wall how the lore of the Sheikah got shafted to the side for the new stone technology aesthetic. Speaking of which-

Zonai in general. The fact that WE DONT EVEN GET LORE from the Zonais aside from being viewed as gods is sooooo ughhhhh I wish there was more. Why are there two remaining Zonais? (This probably got answered tbh but idc to look) Who’s the ancient hero and how come he looks like a Zonai or just in fact a different race we’ve never seen before?

Draconification…god. I have many thoughts and also many thoughts about the secret stones. It is an idea that I find interesting and could’ve worked for me. If it didn’t contradict itself in many aspects, as in how becoming a dragon, you will lose your sense of self. I think it would be a nice foreshadowing of the fate Zelda could’ve had. I think making the other dragons take a role in that and expand on it would’ve worked. Idk I think instead of implying it, it could’ve been expanded and shown a lot more severity of the situation.

Apparently I don’t got much on lore, but you know what I got much of????

STORY

This one is going to be a FAT one so bear with me. God where do I even begin here, I'm going completely omit the part where the game feels like it’s gaslighting you through the npcs cause I feel like everyone knows that.

My biggest frustration with this game is that it has such interesting story concepts and cinematic moments. But I can’t but feel like these moments were there first, and everything else was built around it. However, whatever suspicion I feel about how they created this story, only to my shock and horror that there isn’t a credited group of people in the credits, only an outside team (company?). Before I continue, I think it’s dumb when people say TLoZ didn’t have much of a story when previous Zelda games had a storyline to follow (OoT, MM, WW, TP, fucking…even Link’s Awakening, and more). So yes, TLoZ does have stories. It’s not just about the dungeons if I'm being honest.

What I find so odd is that Monolith Soft has games such as the Xenoblade games, where the latest game of that series does have a credited team of writers. Hell, BotW had two credited writers. But I won't go far speculating why they decided to hire a company outside the team to write TotK; it is only interesting to me why they did that. Since there really isn't a solid team of writers, I will focus my issues on Fujibayashi as a story writer; after all, he is the director of this game. And I've seen multiple interviews after the game's release where he explains a lot of the game's "lore" and story that should've been easily explained in the game in the first place. I think this will be me sharing my opinions rather than critiques... boy where do I even begin...

Sages—the ancient sages, not counting Mineru, are pointless. I felt no connection seeing the Ancient Sages meet their predecessors. Can't believe Age of Calamity made me feel more strongly about the Champions meeting their predecessors than the ancient sages did. - I also think they really don't share anything important. Maybe the first time, yes, but you could easily remove their cutscenes and just have Mineru explain how everything went down, and nothing will change. - Now, to the present Sages, I can't really say much, sadly. Tulin and Yunobo were the only characters for whom I completed their quests, and I enjoyed their character arcs, especially Yunobo's. If I could pick up TotK again, I would try to do Riju's arc, as it seemed really fun to play from the playthroughs I've seen my friends do. I don't really care for Sidon. Before I dropped the game, I was going through his quest and got really irritated fast for many reasons that I have mentioned here previously.

King Rauru and Queen Sonia – There has never been a character that I've enjoyed where I think they deserved much better than what they were there for. I get it; Sonia was only there as the character to be killed off to move the plot forward, but oh my god...I could've saved her. I wished we could've seen her more involved in the story than just standing by Raruru's side. - King Rauru, my brain turns foggy when I think of this man, and sometimes there are too many words to explain my issues. But to water it down, I feel we centered ourselves too much on these characters who don't even affect the main protagonist to some degree. Sure, King Rauru first appears at the beginning to show you his magic hand abilities. But I guess I was hoping something like how the previous TLoZ games had your companion help you throughout your journey and are the key fact of many things in the story (Midna and KotRL appear in my head when I mention this).

Zelda—sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I think this game would've been 10x better if she had been the protagonist. I know it probably wouldn't make sense because she turns into a dragon by the end but Idc. What frustrates me about Zelda is that she's given very few options. It's a war or nothing. It's becoming a dragon or being stuck in the past forever. I guess that's the tragedy of her story, but instead of me feeling sad, it frustrates me.

Link—Oh god, here we go. Link has a very small role in this, and you can disagree with me. But how is it possible that this is one of the few Links that has little involvement in the story? Link just happened to stumble into a bigger mystery than it already was. Link didn't even prove himself to Ganondorf why he's a threat to him aside from the first cutscene and Rauru.

Ganondorf - .........I hope this is the last time we see Ganondorf in the series. I know that sounds shocking, but if Fujibayashi is going to take the lead in storytelling for future games, I don't want him to make another iteration of Ganondorf. To me, Fujibayashi works better by making completely new Zelda villains. Ghirahim and Kohga are perfect examples. Ganondorf in this game was so underwhelming and disappointing. He never directly confronted himself with either Link or Zelda. Gameplay wise, he's great, but the story? What is he doing here? Literally, it feels like they only brought Ganondorf back because people questioned about Ganondorf back in BotW.

Conclusion

There are many aspects of the game that I enjoy; however, in my case, the bad outweighs the good. That's why this game frustrates me: There was a lot of potential to be seen. There is probably more for me to say that I'm either intentionally leaving out or just forgetting cause there are many things. Happy one year TotK 🎉🎉🎉

#txt #i am a little anxious sharing this so no hard feelings if i lock the post

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twiixr4kidz · 9 months ago

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PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE ANYTHHING FOR YOUNG NEIL!!🙈🙈🙈😁😁😁 maybe like boyfriend headcanons :3!!

YESYESYES i love young neil he's so severely underrated

young neil bf headcanons!!

he's the silliest goose you ever will meet

most of your date nights will consist of either playing video games or watching movies

he doesn't mind if you wanna do something else though!! if you wanna go out for like, pizza or something, he's totally onboard

he infodumps to you about the legend of zelda and there is nothing you can do to get out of it

he gets a little nervous in public sometimes (he's kind of a hermit) so he clings to your side like a little kid

he's either holding your hand so tight his knuckles turn white or he's fidgeting with the bottom of your shirts

neil isn't necessarily shy though

if a creep is trying to get in your pants, he will literally start a fight wherever you are

he also talks a lot since he feels so comfortable around you so he'll probably just ramble about silly things that pop into his head

i hc him as a total stoner (sorry not sorry xD) and i can imagine he'd always invite you to shmoke with him if you were feeling up for it

and if you're not, he won't force you at all

one thing about neil is that he is very easily entertained

if you want to get him into your favorite show, just put it on and he'll eat it up

he LOVES. LOVES LOVES LOVESSSSSSS when you borrow his close

you're sleeping over at his place and you forget to bring pajamas?? whatever, he has an extra hoodie for you to wear

his eyes won't leave you for the rest of the night

he's not the biggest cuddler at first but when he realizes you like it, it begins to grow on him

sometimes neil will sneak up behind you and he'll stick his freezing cold hands up your shirt just to scare the shit out of you

he thinks it's hilarious

he loves you so much, but he also loves getting on your nerves

#young neil #young neil x reader #scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #scott pilgrim takes off #spvtw #spto

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aheathen-conceivably · 10 months ago

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🎶'Cause he held in his arms, and he taught me to be strong 🎶

Although Zelda and Giorgio’s efforts on the farm were growing less dire, there were still days when some of them had to go without meals. Rather than leave Violette there with empty cupboards and exhausted adults on days when she wasn’t at the schoolhouse, Antoine would bring her to Abraham’s ranch with him.

It comforted him having her so near, seeing her run unencumbered on the sand without any of the worries that plagued his or Zelda’s mind. She seemed happy and comfortable there, but sometimes it terrified him that she was growing older and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It seemed like only months ago that she’d been born, not over seven years before. Soon enough she’d be a young woman, and the thought alone was enough to make him panic. He wanted nothing more than to freeze time at exactly this moment, before anything could hurt her or take her away.

He was happy that she had William, who was such a kind and soft spoken boy that was always happy to play whatever games Violette suggested. But even his presence reminded Antoine that one day there would be a boy he couldn’t protect his baby girl from, one who would break her heart and make her cry, just the way he had done when he was young.

He only hoped that he would be there when it happened, to help her pick up the pieces and stay as strong as he knew she was now. Every day he could see his mother and sister not only in the color of her eyes, but in her temperament too. She was strong willed and stubborn, but she allowed herself moments of such fancy and wonder, that he couldn’t help but see Zelda in her too. Each and every one of them triggered a fire in his soul, a pure rush to safeguard them against the rest of the world, that all of them combined in his only child was enough to make his heart burst.

He told himself at least he had her there with him now, that if he could focus on exactly the girl she was now and give her everything she could possibly want, he would show her the type of man and life she deserved; because above anything, he knew that she deserved the world.

He wanted to give her the best sides of himself, the moments in his day that made him feel happiest and uplifted him from the drudgery of the world. So of course, he took her to meet Silver. He had been worried that the horse would respond to Violette the way she did with everyone else, but she seemed to immediately sense that the child was Antoine’s, and thus an extension of the trust she already had for him. With amazing softness, she lowered her head toward Violette, and the child’s usual harsh bravado softened in turn, transforming into a gentle, hushed amazement as she looked into the horse’s eyes. “Poppa, I love her!”

He could feel the pride welling in his chest, threatening to burst into tears, when she looked back at him with excited eyes, “Can we take her home, Poppa? Please? Please!”

“I’m afraid she lives here, Princess. But I’ll get you your very own pony one day. I promise.” Her face transformed even more, brightening with excitement as she continued to pet Silver. The horse seemed so content, that Violette brought her face against her nose. Antoine panicked, bringing his hand forward to stop her, but the horse stayed calm, looking back at Antoine as though to tell him to calm down for once.

With her face still close to Silver’s Violette turned her eyes up at her father, “Can we at least ride her then? Pretty please?”

Antoine had asked himself that very question every day since Abraham had offered. But he didn’t want to tell his baby girl he was afraid, or that the stories of the men she had kicked into the sand were more gruesome than any Western he had ever read. So instead he simply said, “Maybe one day….”

Even a child could hear the wistfulness in his voice, but then Abraham’s curses from outside punctuated the moment. Antoine knew that meant one of the horses was refusing his commands, so he gently moved Violette’s hand away from the horse and opened the stall gate. “You go and play with Will now, alright? We’ll visit her again tomorrow.”

She looked up at him with her big olive eyes, trying to stop him as his boots headed for the door of the barn. She needn’t say a word to besiege him to stay; but he mustered even more strength than needed against the most stubborn of horses to drop down on one knee and kiss her goodbye, promising that he would come and find her at the end of the day just as he always did.

#1932 #sims 4 historical #ts4 decades challenge #ts4 historical #sims 4 decades challenge #the darlingtons #sims 4 legacy #ts4 legacy #sims 4 story #ts4 story #1930s #Antoine Duplanchier #Violette darlington #William Hines #Abraham Hines

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tw1l1te · 8 months ago

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I didn't know you took asks! If it doesn't go against your rules, could you write a yandere reader trying to hide their more possesive/obsession side from the chain (Wind being seen as a younger brother, ofc), only to figure out they are all equally as obsessed with them? There's not enough yandere reader in the world 😔

Take care of yourself, and drink some water if you haven't in a long while ♥

Why have I never considered this. Like-

⊹ ࣪ ˖

Ok so like I envision this working well with a modern!reader/guide, since well, y'know, Zelda's a pretty large franchise in the gaming industry and in general

Reader has been a fan since they were young, maybe starting at the ages of 6-8 and have played through most, if not all of, the Zelda games. They become obsessed with the lore, characters, possible theories, the timeline, Link.

So if they land in Hyrule of all places one night? They are searching.

It doesn't take long though, its almost fate considering how fast the Chain find the reader.

Obviously the reader tries not to seem overly jumpy/fan-like, so they shut away their thoughts for now, trying to gain their trust

They are honest about how they're not from any of their Hyrule's, and eventually tell them about the franchise but don't tell them about the fact you've spent so much time, money and energy on them.

It takes another while for them to get used to that idea, but Reader was honest, so why wouldn't they trust them?

The growing bond, of course, causes... feelings, or rather more extreme feelings, to bubble up.

Longing smiles turn to sitting next to each other turn to holding hands turn to cuddles-

Reader's so jittery. Like, they've been waiting months for this to happen since they first met the Chain. And now that they are getting into romantic territory? There's no going back.

Once the Chain collectively admit their feelings to yandere!Reader, Reader is locked in. They get so overprotective, Wind in particular, as they view him as their little brother. Nothing can ever hurt him again.

Constantly cuddling or touching someone.

A reckless accident happens, mostly by your instigation, as something was going to harm Time and you had tunnel vision. This life was the one thing you wanted, and you wouldn't let a measly Lynel take away a part of it.

The battle was bloody, some of the Chain looking at Reader in shock in love after the battle, blood caked onto their chin, hands, anywhere that wasn't covered in clothing. They burst out crying, admiting to how attached and bonded they felt to each one of them and that they wren't going to let any more harm come to any of them.

They all had a bit of whiplash to how genuine and terrifying you sounded, but... they couldn't say they felt any different.

After all, they watched you when you slept, softly cooing at you when you were in the process of waking up or if you were having a nightmare

Wolfie was always with you, watching looking over you.

Wild almost always made your favorites, occasionaly adding some sleeping elixir to your portion so you could catch up on lost sleep so he could brush through your locks.

Time never allowed you to go anywhere alone, most times accompanying you to protect you, to be there with you.

Wind clung onto you, viewing you as his older sister/brother/sibling. He needed you there when the memories or nightmares came back in the night, petting his hair and singing a lullaby from his home.

The mutual attraction made it so much easier, for both you and the boys! No one had to worry about running away or leaving because they were never going to.

You were bonded forever.

⊹ ࣪ ˖

#twilite answers #linked universe au #yandere linked universe #yandere linked universe x reader #linked universe headcanons #linked universe x reader

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negax79 · 6 months ago

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Thinking about the fact that it is entirely possible that there have been Links and Zeldas who have just...never experienced the events of a Zelda game.

Like, some random village people just name their kid Link after the many heroes with that name and the most adventure he ever gets is maybe camping out in the forest for a while or hiking up a mountain or something. Just has a totally ordinary life. And there's quite possibly a few Zeldas that never get threatened by any dark forces or whatever, they grow up living average Hyrulean royal lives and don't play a role in any prophecy.

Heck there may have even been Ganondorfs that grow up normal. They probably get a lot of bad reactions because of the dude they share their names with, but otherwise they might be chill. They might not even be aware of the guy because they don't live anywhere near Hyrule.

A Zelda game or whatever about just some dude called Link who happens to share the name of the hero, but is actually just some dude who runs your local item shop; a Zelda whose greatest threat is just some prince/princess/some other noble who's kind of a jerk but otherwise isn't as threatening to the kingdom itself; or a Gerudo called Ganondorf who isn't even AWARE of the dude with the same name causing trouble over in Hyrule (which is a continent over) but gets a ton of grief anyway... I feel like there's a lot of funny stuff you could do there.

#the legend of zelda #zelda #link #princess zelda #ganondorf

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theresattrpgforthat · 6 months ago

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Hey mint. For a long time now I've been looking for games that emulate Zelda. Now I know you've gotten a request like this before, so I'll add an extra challenge to help me find what I'm looking for - I'm looking for something that can handle the fantasy of playing as Zelda, or Link, or Ganondorf. Think wielding the master sword, sealing away monsters with holy magic, or playing projectile tennis with the baddies.

For bonus points: got anything with majora's-mask-style transformation masks?

THEME: Legend of Zelda; Powerful Characters.

My dear, dear friend, I don’t know if you realized this when you posted this question, but I think I’m working on a game that fits exactly what you’re looking for. (But never fear, that’s not the only thing I’m recommending.)

A Terrible Fate, by Mint-Rabbit.

The world is ending. A comet is falling; the moon is fading; the sun is growing dark. In three days, we will succumb to the heavens abandoning us to the cold and dark, or burning us up in a whirlwind of fire and ash. That is, unless the four Great Spirits can awaken.

You are heroes, called upon by the people to dive deep into the dungeons in which the Spirits slumber. Discover what has put them to sleep, and free them from whatever traps them deep within their winding halls. Keep your promise to the people, and the land will be free.

A Terrible Fate is a lightweight Forged-in-the-Dark game about cursed heroes using a time loop to free the land from impending doom. These heroes will use magic masks that they have been granted in order to open up cursed dungeons and free the Spirits that can save the land from this tragedy.

A Terrible Fate takes a lot of inspiration from the Masks of Brinkwood, and I was inspired to create it back when I received an ask about games inspired by Majora’s Mask. You are doomed adventurers granted supernatural powers through a series of magical masks, which will consume you should you fail. Venture through four dungeons to free the Spirits that can stop the sky from falling, and do your best to help people who will never remember your names. If you want a game about grief, anonymity, and time loops, then this is the game for you.

I’ll hopefully have the full game up by the time this post is live, but if not, the goal is to have this game released by June 8, because that’s when the Majora’s Mask Game Jam finishes up!

Echoes of the Broken, by Scribbles and Dice.

Welcome to Echoes of the Broken — a tabletop roleplaying game of elemental mayhem in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world.

It’s been 100 years since the Breaking of the Gods, when the world of Ranaskar was devastated by an apocalyptic war between the gods. Falling from the heavens, the broken corpses of the gods became the Remnants — colossal, monolithic structures of arcane power. From the Remnants emanates the Echo, the will of the Broken Gods, twisted by their violent end. The Echo warps the land, and corrupts the people, leaving Ranaskar a volatile hellscape.

Now, 100 years later, the Sanctums grow weak, ever besieged by the Echoes of the Broken Gods. In desperation, the Remnants of Oros have called upon champions — the Wardens.

Characters have fairly powerful abilities granted to them by a dead god, as well as Burdens; weaknesses or curses that provide them specific disadvantages. Character creation feels fairly descriptive, building a layered history that culminates in a character with plenty of connections, gifts and responsibilities. Your characters also have attributes and skills that use a point-buy system to determine where you’ll pull your dice from.

When you want to do something, the GM will tell you what threshold is required for success. Players will create a pool of d6’s based on their attributes and skills, and attempt to meet or beat the threshold. What is really interesting about this game is that the group can choose to tackle an obstacle together, and contribute all of their successes towards the same goal. At the same time, the GM can set a higher threshold difficulty if a challenge is meant to be a group challenge, so the difficulty can scale. If you want a game with powerful characters who have a substantial amount of backstory, you might want to check out Echoes of the Broken.

Keepers of the Six Worlds, by carnel.

You are the Keepers of Harmony, beings of spirit created to guide and protect the six worlds by the All-Mother. The six worlds were created by the trickster Yorgi when he shattered the world gem in the serpent's forehead. Each of the six was a reflection of the true world but brought into equal and parallel creation.

The worlds were sealed away in a fold of the blanket of night where they would be hidden and protected from the manipulations of the gods and the temptations of the true world.

Take on the role of divine beings given authority over a pocket universe. Will you resist the temptation to become as gods? Will you preserve the status quo as you were tasked or will you help those in your care to find their own path?

This is a deck-based game that uses playing cards to generate the worlds that your characters will attempt to protect. Your actions will change the trajectory of each of these worlds, but at the same time you may also find yourself changed in the process. I think this carries the theme of transformation that you might be looking for, even if the transformation that came about is not through masks.

At World’s Edge, by Workpire.

Welcome to the edge of the world. At the final days of the final age, the fires of life have nearly been extinguished. The Sun is bleeding. The Kings are dead.Only a handful of beings are left alive - Immortals. Gods. Whatever's left, make your way to the Temple of Fire, defeat the guardians within, complete their trials, and feed the Fire to restart life… or stop the cycle forever.

At World's Edge is a short, simple combat-based tabletop RPG with a new, unique combat system that relies on area of attacks and a dodge mechanic that makes for dynamic combat. You are Gods, and you fight as Gods.

This is primarily a fighting game, complete with a grid to move your characters around on and attack modifiers that relate to numbers on your character sheet. Your characters are also not just hyper-competent people; they are Gods, with specific Aspects that will improve your rolls whenever they are relevant. Unfortunately, you cannot be the God of Courage or the God of Wisdom; the game works better if you have a domain over Lightning or Fire or something more tangible.

Firmament, by Veil’s Edge Games.

FIRMAMENT is a rules-lite action fantasy RPG about the conflict between the Champion of an ancient order and the various factions that wield the corrupt magic of Affliction. Players embody the powerful Champions of the Order of the Firmament as they join the fight against Affliction.

The Champions are opposed by the factions that use Affliction as a weapon. From the industrial Braxon Alchemical to the implacable Hexhunters, these enemies are the most dangerous foes the order will face. Combat is fast and deadly in FIRMAMENT—for the order's foes at least. In combat, Champions wield weapons of sunlight and moonlight in battle, and spend a resource called Celest to use powers unique to their Discipline.

If you want highly-competent characters, LUMEN is probably a good system to consider, as I’ve mentioned before. Characters are rather sleek, with three Attributes, a health and “magic” bar, and a few abilities that make your character special. The core part of this game is fast, high-action combat, and the fight against Affliction kind of reminds me of Link’s attempt to cleanse parts of Hyrule in games such as Twilight Princess or Breath of the Wild.

POWER | WISDOM | COURAGE, by UnabashedlyRose.

Whenever the Shadows rise there will always be three points of Light that oppose them. They will fight, sacrifice, and overcome the Shadows at a great cost to themselves. But that is what makes them heroes. It is up to you now and we know you will not let us down.

POWER|WISDOM|COURAGE is a GMless game for three players about being chosen by the Light to face off against the Shadows and save your home from destruction.

There’s an obvious reference going on with this game, although all of your characters are considered heroes, including the Ganondorf analogue. I’m not entirely sure how much setting is packaged into this game; you can probably draw the connections between the three parts of the Triforce if you want to, but I have a feeling that they’re not necessary. The other limiting factor is that this game is exactly for three players, so if you have more or less, it’s not really an option.