#it looks like ancient sheikah tech

[pitchblackespresso]

My entry for @bahbahhh's DTIYS!

[alphagirl404]

After the First Calamity

Ancient Zelda: Let me get this straight: You banished the Sheikah, hide away their technology, and destroyed records of it? WHY?!

Ancient King: To protect the kingdom from a Sheikah uprising. The formation of the Yiga Clan is proof of the potential treachery

Ancient Zelda: The Sheikah have served our family for THOUSANDS OF YEARS! The Yiga form because YOU betrayed them! Do you not realize the other potential consequences destroying all records of the technology?! Leaving no traces of it for people to understand the upsides and potential problems?! How this might affect Hyrule in the future!

Ancient King: Don’t be so dramatic! What’s the worst that can happen?

*10,000 years later...*

Ancient King & Ancient Zelda: *watching Hyrule get destroyed by the Second Great Calamity from the afterlife*

Ancient King: ...

Ancient Zelda: Can I be the first to say...I TOLD YOU SO!

[science-lings]

No, she can't do all of them, make a choice. She can do one mainly but have the rest be assumed as hobbies or something but I know people are gonna be like 'ALL OF THE ABOVE' that defeats the purpose of the poll.

[gliphyartfan]

Soo I looked a bit into Dr.Stone some more. Still not too into it but I do love Senku’s personality.

So I decided to update the headcanons I wrote (here) with a more appropriate set. (I mean those still work but headcanons are ever changing!

————

(Y/N) being an unstoppable force of science and curiosity. Her seeing Hyrule as a goldmine of new discoveries.

Hylians, Zoras, Gorons, Ritos, fairies, magic, it’s all up for research. She treats every moment like an opportunity to advance scientific knowledge, and she refuses to be stopped.

Magic? Not real. :) It’s just science they haven’t figured out yet. The Chain gets so frustrated trying to explain magic to her. She just points at Wild’s Sheikah Slate and goes ‘That’s just ancient technology. You can’t tell me this isn’t science.’ (Wild doesn’t even argue that point cause he’s heard all that from Purah countless times.)

Warriors is her biggest headache. (….or is she his??) Every time she tries a new experiment, he’s there, yelling about how “this is insane” and “why do you need to study our bone density!?” He acts like her research is some grand threat to Hylian dignity. (Like like Hylians ever had dignity, have you SEEN the nonsense they get up to?)

Wild? The best test subject ever. He has zero self-preservation, an insane healing factor, and thinks everything she does is hilarious. If she tells him to drink a suspicious potion to test its effects, he’ll do it without question. (He probably has some instinctive memory from when he was guarding Zelda Pre-Calamity….and Purah, don’t forget Purah.)

Twilight, Time, and Four are skeptical. Twilight doesn’t like being poked at. Time just sighs and avoids her nonsense. Four, as a blacksmith, appreciates the concept of experimentation but thinks she’s a little unhinged.

Legend and Hyrule are terrified of her. Legend has been through way too much to trust someone who wants to test how “resilient” he is. Hyrule, being part fae, fears she’s trying to extract his blood for science. (She’s NEVER use it for malicious stuff but ya know…his situation with monsters after his blood is kinda traumatic if you think about it.)

Wind is… oddly encouraging? He doesn’t want to be tested on, but he’ll help her with experiments because he thinks it’s fun. Until she suggests launching him via trebuchet. Then he immediately bails.

Now…experiment ideas she would Absolutely ttempt:

1. Testing Hylians’ magic resistance.

(She straight-up douses Wild in fairy dust to see if he heals faster. He does. But now he won’t stop glowing.)

2. Figuring out why Twilight turns into a wolf.

(She follows him around, taking notes. Eventually just tries to pet him. He lets her and then bolts when she mutters about fur samples)

3. Trying to see how much weight Gorons can carry.

(Ends up building a scale just to measure how heavy Gorons actually are. )

4. Testing if fairies have any biological components.

(She somehow catches one and Wild (and Time and Hyrule, and Warriors) has to stop her before she dissects it.)

5. “Science-ing” Divine Beasts & Sheikah Tech.

(….She almost electrocutes herself messing with an inactive Guardian….and she actually gets electrocuted by Naboris)

6. Building a modern hot air balloon.

(It works. Wild and Wind immediately steal it. Crash it, she makes better with the data collected from their little joy ride.)

7. Trying to chemically analyze elixirs & potions.

(She drinks half of them herself. She starts tasting colors and seeing sounds.)

8. Seeing if magic weapons follow the law of thermodynamics.

(Almost burns herself with a fire sword.)

9. Figuring out what happens if someone eats a Korok seed.

(Wild tried it. It’s disgusting. And he hated everything that day.)

Look The Chain are both fascinated and terrified. They love her, she’s a fun gal, but they also know she is a menace and should NOT be allowed near other equally crazy scientists. (Looking at you Purah.)

[moonteaa]

your dad teba stuff has me frothing at the mouth like a squirrel that needs to be put down. You got any head cannons to share?

AGH!! Thank you!! Hehe 🤍🏹

AND OH BOY DO I EVER!! Let’s see..

1. Teba literally sees every single member as his own, but definitely imprinted immediately when it came to Zelda and Riju. Teba now has 2 teenage daughters and he loves them. They banter and tease each other and Teba sometimes has to deal with typical teenage girl angst and it’s both hilarious and endearing 😭

2. If someone made Zelda cry, well Teba is gonna take that PERSONALLY. You’ll be dead where you stand if a single tear falls from Zelda’s eyes.

3. Teba is FULL of puns and terrible dad jokes. And he’s very nonchalant about it too 😭 the others will absolutely eat it up LMFAO but Zelda will literally look at him like “WHY” (he loves to annoy her like that.)

4. Teba has this paternal instinct to wrap his wings or place his wings over the others when there’s danger. It does not matter if they can handle themselves, he’ll just shield them instinctively.

5. That goes for weathers too, if it’s raining or the sun is too hot, he’ll place his wing over any of the others as means to shield them.

6. If Kass is performing a song and each member is joining in on a dance, Zelda will constantly want him to join in. Though he refuses at first, Sidon will push him towards the others and practically force him to join with a wide smile on his face, much to Teba’s dismay HAHA but he’ll have fun and if it makes Zelda happy then he’ll accept.

7. When they’re all done traveling and camping out, Teba will either (not sleep at all) or wake up in the middle of the night to do a run down and check on everyone as they sleep just to make sure they’re doing okay and not in danger or having any nightmares.

8. If one of them has nightmares, Teba is immediately there for them and stays up with them until they fall back asleep.

9. He’s protective. Like FEROCIOUSLY PROTECTIVE. You touch a single hair on their head? You’re dead.

10. If someone even dares to try to be mean to Zelda, or blame her for the events of the calamity or Hylia forbid, CALL HER A FAILURE? Oooof..you will be taken care of before those words can even leave your MOUTH.

11. Teba nicknames Zelda Sparrow/Linnet. The first time he did, it made Zelda cry because it reminded her of Urbosa and her mom (little bird) ☹️ Teba didn’t even realize he had nicknamed her something so close to Zelda’s moms. He felt so bad about it and thought he had done something bad by calling her that, but Zelda reassures him that it just means a lot to her. 🥹😭 🤍

12. The reason Teba calls Zelda sparrow is because she small and it literally translates to “little bird” and as to why he calls her linnet, is because Zelda has a pretty singing voice like a linnet bird. (I headcanon that Zelda has a hidden talent for singing 🤍)

13. If Riju asks Teba to look after one of her sand seal plushies, yeah he’s guarding that plush with his LIFE.

14. Teba taught Zelda archery

15. Teba and Zelda often go on little trips together and when Zelda begins to happily chat and geek out about ancient history and sheikah tech or what not, Teba happily listens and indulges with her. He even actually enjoys learning about it and discovering things with her.

16. If Teba finds some ancient looking artifact he’ll immediately tell Zelda or give it to her because he knows how much she loves to study it.

17. He constantly makes sure they’re all appropriately dressed for the colder weathers

18. Can and WILL intervene on a creep that’s trying to hit on Zelda or Riju. He will go feral and probably shoot any creeps with a bundle of bomb arrows. LOL

19. Absolutely helps Link try to get with Zelda (but he still also feels a little protective? Like?? Duh, it’s link. Ofc they’re gonna be together but he’s a dad, he can’t help feeling a little protective of Zelda at times even if it’s Link HAHA)

20. Each of them have all accidentally called him dad and he just accepts it at this point.

21. Teba wants to throw hands (wings?) with King Rhoam.

23. despite how close they are, in the beginning Zelda actually had a hard time trying to get comfortable with Teba for a short time. Because her experience with her dad wasn’t BEST, it was absolutely bewildering to see Teba be such a supportive and good father figure to everyone, she’s not used to that. She would watch them all interacting and analyze it, trying to understand but couldn’t. Teba however, was always very good to her and they quickly got really close and bonded.

24. Teba shows parental affection by placing his forehead against the others

25. Tulin now has 5 older siblings 🤍

(I HAVE SO MANY MORE ID BE HAPPY TO SHARE MORE IF THATS WHAT YOU ALL WOULD LIKE LOL)

[powdermelonkeg]

I'm certain you've talked about power sources for the Ancient Sheikah text, but what about Zonai tech? What are they powered by, if not just the same thing?

Okay, so I think that Sheikah tech is powered by grains of Timeshift stones, given how those look when powered.

Zonai devices don't have that, though. Any power they show off is green.

When they break, or when Zonai devices dissolve, it's in an explosion of blue-green light:

Which looks STARTLINGLY like the kind of power that permeates other, non-mechanical Zonai aspects, like the Shrines and Rauru's arm.

And that, we know, comes from light.

So, at its very, most rudimentary basic, I think Zonai use light as a power source.

But how does light become that green power?

So you know Lightroots?

Each of these can be found in the Depths, able to be activated with Zonai power, and connecting to a Shrine overhead. The only exceptions to this rule are the Shrines in the sky, which we can assume have been cut off from their lightroots—maybe that's why there are so many gloomroots in the Depths.

Look at that. Withered, seeping gloom everywhere, like decay.

How does this connect to Zonai machinery, though?

When you activate a lightroot, it doesn't just glow. Light cascades down THROUGH the base of the root, seeping into the ground, where it disperses and brings life to the area around you. That light all has to go somewhere, right?

And it does.

Here's how I think the whole process works (excuse the MS paint, I'm at work, it's the best I have):

Light becomes sealed in a Shrine, to "purify evil" (ie, to kill some monster that was trapped there).

The energy from that reaction travels down into a lightroot, where it builds up over time.

The light then filters upwards and infuses stone and metal, turning it into Zonaite.

Which then gets processed into Zonai machinery.

This has been going on LONG before Rauru; we know for a fact that his powers are hereditary, given how Sonia validated Zelda's existence due to sensing both their powers in her.

Monsters have existed long before the Demon King took control of them. Rauru's ancestors very likely used this as a way of dealing with them, which led to the creation of Zonaite in the first place, which they could then fully take advantage of. It's a sort of self-sustaining cycle built off the back of Hyrule's curse.

Which, in turn, gave rise to the ecosystem of the Depths.

And, depending on if you believe Luminous Stones to be connected to Zonaite, parts of the surface ecosystem, too.

[tashacee]

Do you have headcanons for the Ancient Hero?

Mine are that:

he’s Rauru and Sonia’s adopted son. He is the son of a Zonai woman and the Hylian son of a Gerudo (which are more commonly then Gerudo voes). Basically he’s half Zonai, 1/4 Hylian, and 1/4 Gerudo. He gets his red hair from his grandma.

As a kitten he accidentally tore off Ganondorf’s nipple. How? Rauru was trying to give Ancient a bath but didn’t notice that he had attached himself to Ganondorf’s nipple ring, at least not until Ganondorf was screaming in pain. Thankfully Zonai technology reattached his nipple and the ring.

Zonai have two names, one in animalistic growls and grunts and the other in Hylain when they’re older and have a grasp of the language. Ancient never got his Hylian until he was in his teens and it was Link. He hated it because of the fact it was chosen due to the Triforce marking he had.

Ancient saw Zelda (Flora) turn into the Light Dragon. He was only a kitten then but he wanted to help her one day return her to normal

During the first battle against Calamity Ganon, Ancient’s back got broken and this caused Calamity to sealed rather than destroyed. Zonai and Sheikah technology helped him walk again.

Ancient is very intelligent and helped create the Guardians and other ancient tech we see in Wild’s time. I got this headcanon from @ninma

He will steal anything shiny. He created the Sheikah Slate so he can store his shiny things after he filled all of his hiding spots.

I hope you enjoy theses. I also to see more Baby Ancient soon. Your art of him is so adorable.

THIS IS SO CUTE AND COOL! I'd love to see more of your Ancient Hero.

I'm gonna talk about Baby Aspect for this because if I talk about the one in Aspects I'll get into spoilers territory lmao

His parents are both Hylian/Zonai hybrids and in his era this is very common, so he's used to seeing a bunch of people who look like him

that said, he's seven, so he just doesn't question things like appearance. Are they friend-shaped? He will befriend them.

Yes, this includes unsuspecting monsters. He is very cute and catches them all off guard.

He speaks fluent Hylian as well as growl-purr-cat-language. Some of the older generations couldn't, but it's become the norm for everyone to be at least bi-lingual

When he meows it's the cutest damn thing you ever heard

He was born a few years after Flora became the Light Dragon, and she's already been mythologised by his time.

He doesn't have all of the tattoos/markings that he will when fully grown, but he does have them on his face. It's a painless and joyful ceremony that welcomes a child into the wider community and marks them with their family design, and it's really lovely. He's super proud of them and can't wait to get older and earn more.

His parents won't let him get his ears pierced until he's 12 and he's SO MAD

He loves fish so much. Especially cut into strips. And fried. In breadcrumbs. Fish fingers, he loves fish fingers.

Extremely susceptible to cuddles. Will fall asleep in your arms. Also purrs in his sleep. Extremely sweet. Actual bby.

Also oooooooooh you want more Baby art? Ask and thou shalt receive, watch this space!

[noirandchocolate]

my best wishes to the birthday boy. that one dlc mission says sooga usually takes over kohga's training sessions should he get stuck at the procrastination station. but what is kohga like as a teacher without these fallbacks, does he have difficulty teaching skills that come more naturally to him?

my 2nd question: he's honestly kinda chill even when committing felonies. is there something, barring the obvious like the royal family and having his plans foiled, that would *genuinely* piss him off? an action and/or a sensitive topic.

Helloooo, thank you! =D These are really good ones!

Kohga does do training, as part of his Master role, and it's mostly magic stuff. He leaves most of the weapons things to Sooga (and other high-ranking Yiga) 'cause like I said in this post, the arcane is more of his forté.

Kohga as a teacher does better when he's dealing with kids than with adults, in no small part because he's just fond of kids and finds them entertaining and so having a 'class' with a group of them feels a lot less like Work. He's got more patience for little ones not getting things immediately (again because watching them mess up in harmless ways is funny) and doesn't expect them to 'just know' basic concepts. Kohga himself learned a lot of advanced/exclusive techniques very early in life and he remembers how his Nana instructed him. Of course, Nana Kohga was much more no-nonsense. But like, the way she explained things like how to visualize your energy. How to breathe. The hand gestures. What doing a technique should feel like. In simple, child-friendly ways.

With kids, Kohga turns his lil' training classes into games that work out so that even if someone isn't getting the hang of something they could still have fun. One of his favorites is breaking in on the 6-9-year-olds' teleportation trainings, after they've been taught the basics of how to do the technique and most of them have figured out how to do it in a controlled setting (ie just standing still and 'porting from one spot to another). He'll have a room set up covered in soft things and pillows, and then. It's games time! He'll toss kids. 'Try to teleport away before you hit the pillows!' Tell them to play cucco. 'Run at the wall! Whoever teleports away the closest to it without touching, wins!' And so on. Kids love this sort of silliness. If they fall there's no harm done. If they manage to teleport they'll have learned to do it while moving!

With adults, the Master is a bit more prone to frustration if people aren't getting it, because--like you said--things came pretty naturally to him. So he'll start off a session on how to wield a Demon Carver (the one weapon he will still train people in) feeling pretty good, optimistic, explaining a grip or going over how to get your slashes angled correctly to disembowel or whatever, and all is good. But if someone isn't doing it right after a bunch of tries he can get huffy and foot-tappy and critical. He told you. Sheesh! You're gonna make him look bad, with that sloppy technique! Ultimately he'll end up slapping the person on the back and telling them to just keep trying, but still. It's harder for him to think of other ways to explain things, than the ways he learned with. He'll leave that to Sooga and Chisao and some other lead underlings to worry about.

And for the second question... Well! My headcanon universe is post-Age of Calamity, right? Where the Yiga have assisted in the defeat of Calamity Ganon? As time goes on, the Clan does have more of a Known presence in Hyrule, and one of the ways they're more visible is that there are now Yiga working as tech researchers along with the Sheikah at the Royal Lab. My Kohga himself is a big participant in that. He's tech-minded, the Yiga have tons of ancient (and copied-from-ancient) records in Karusa Valley, and Clan members are as a group vastly more in tune with the magic that makes ancient Sheikah tech run than contemporary Sheikah themselves are. The folks at the Lab have been trying to get more investment funding from sources other than the Royal Treasury, lately, by presenting their research and intended projects--stuff like magitech lighting, vehicles, etc. that will benefit everyday Hyrule.

And a thing that Pisses. Kohga. Off. Is when snotty Hylian nobles get RACIST when they hear that there's YIGA behind and working on these innovations. And refuse to back them or pull their funding. Are these bozos KIDDING? The Clan put their NECKS on the line to SAVE this stupid kingdom, and some guy with a big farm who hid in his basement the whole time is gonna act like he's BETTER than MASTER KOHGA??? Too GOOD for YIGA TECH? Screw that guy! He's banned from ever buying anything any Yiga ever worked on! If he ends up with his throat slit don't look at Sooga! Oh man Kohga was about to climb over the table at that meeting.

Yeah in general a thing that Kohga is acutely sensitive about is ignorant Hylians (and others, but it's mostly Hylians who do this) acting either like the Clan is 'still bad' and can't be trusted and are all marauding evildoers or like they're 'good now.' He hates comments like that. 'Oh they're good now.' Or worse, 'They're good citizens of Hyrule now.' Uuuuugggggghhh he gets so pissy and offended at this complete lack of nuance and understanding. Understandably, I think!

Thank you for asking these!!

[madamnerd]

I've deleted my Epilogue to my thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom post, basically because after a while, I realized that I don't quite feel that way at all, and was really only going off of what people said, so here's how I honestly feel about TotK. Spoilers ahead, so don't read if you haven't played it.

TotK is a fun game to play, and I enjoy playing it, but I have two major problems with it:

1. The game's mechanics and Zonai devices give the player unlimited freedom to the point of absolute ridiculousness. It's fun to play with, sure, but honestly I can't take it seriously as a Zelda game at all. It just looks too goofy... What I feel like they should have done is kept the concept of the Zonai as the Ancient Warrior Tribe of Faron (not bloody Ancient Aliens that practically replaced the Gods/Hylia, that was ridiculous) and made them magic users, while still keeping the Sheikah Tech from BotW... Sheikah Magitech combined with Ancient Warrior Zonai Magic... Now THAT would've been awesome!

2. The Story was shit. I'm sorry, but it just wasn't good at all... Not to mention that it makes a huge plot hole with Zelda becoming the Light Dragon for 10,000 years just so she could restore the Master Sword and return it to Link, like ??? Where was that in BotW then?

The total disregard for BotW that TotK has in general pisses me off so badly... I wanted a true sequel to Breath of the Wild, not a remake of it wiping out everything important before. Why is there still no Triforce? What the hell were these Secret Stones? Zelda doesn't need retconning like this (imo, it doesn't need it at all). Keep to the original driving force of the series, the Triforce. It's what's always been the center of the Zelda Universe.

... Maybe I'm just getting older and more set in my ways... I know that many of you out there love the game, and I'm happy for you, I am, and as I've said before, I like playing it too, it's fun to ding around with, but to me it just isn't Zelda. I know alot of older fans were really confused and let down by TotK. It was supposed to be huge, and, again imo, wound up being one of the biggest cash grabs Nintendo's put out there...

Hopefully Nintendo will learn from this mistake and combine some of the new elements with the older formula (cooking, multiple outfits, outfit dyeing, horse customization, multiple horses, ect.).

Feel free to comment and reblog. You think I'm wrong or an idiot? Go for it, tell me why. You agree with me or want to tell me something else? Go for it, tell me why. I welcome all opinions. Thank-you for your time in reading this.

[saibasimian]

Still in the midst of refining Yusaru's concept a bit with his face, mask and how I'd imagine his weapon of choice would be as a high ranking Blademaster in the Yiga Clan, but I wanted to brush up on some more headcanon stuff too.

I'd like to consider, as far as ranks go for the Yiga, Yusaru would be on par to the likes of Sooga in terms of status. I know that Sooga's existence came prior to the release of TotK with the expanding hideouts + the Depths...

(which I have plans on making something cool to add with the designs of Yiga outfits and such)

... however his role as right hand man is to act as the next in charge in case Kohga were to wander off from the main hideout and he'd stand by. In my mind this is where I'd place Yusaru and the other high ranking members of the Yiga.

I also want to add some extra fluff to the armaments of the Yiga Clan. Since their main objective is to take revenge on the Hyrule Royal Family I like to imagine as a ploy to expose weaknesses similar to how the Blights were in BotW and as bosses in AoC, the Yiga in the regions with a residing Champion would focus on the arts used by those who live there:

-Hebra's faction using ranged weapons like bows, kunai, kukri or slingshots to attack long range. Yusaru technically breaks this method by using a Polearm but as a personal choice however he is also a weponsmith and uses stolen Sheikah tech that allows him to retract his spear after he throws it long range like it was attached to a thread no matter the distance

-Eldin's faction relies on the use of clunky weapons that would break the hard defensive stance of the Gorons and stagger them. They'd focus on sledges, mallets, clubs and claymores to do so. I'd like to think the leader of the faction would use something similar to Daruk's Boulder Breaker but would have an elemental affinity that could break and melt through sturdy fireproof armor in case their foe isn't native to the Death Mountain area

-Lanayru's faction would focus primarily on polearms with combat but I'd like to think that this faction is pretty tactical when it comes to combat, exploiting their weakness to electricity to their advantage with infused weaponry, special throwing items or, to be very creative, use a crude makeshift version of a net launcher to snag Zora who dive in the water. If the Sheikah and Zonai are capable of mimicking modern technology then I'm certain the Yiga wouldn't have problems fashioning weapons themselves or through stolen schematics from either tribe

-Though not a specific region I'd like to expand on Akkala and shed more light on the fact that they flat out ransacked Robbie's lab and claimed it their own. Though not specifically focusing on a weapon type, but I'd like to think the Yiga who decided to hide out in Akkala would be full of researchers or have the smartest members out of all the factions, using the Ancient Furnace to craft ancient weapons from the scrap Robbie would've left behind. They'd also focus on the environmental advantage of the region with it being open and on a giant slope. They'd use special shields as their main form of combat and transport with the head of the faction I think exploiting this a lot and I'd like to imagine their outfit would also double as a wingsuit to glide about in the open areas like Link using the paraglider

-Lastly I want to touch base on Faron's faction. I know I said before they'd use camouflage to their advantage and focus on Guerilla Warfare but with weaponry I thought of a clever idea when I was looking for reference material and remembered playing Assassin's Creed IV growing up and remembering the blow darts that the Assassins from Tulum used to throw Edward off (and Edward later getting the chance to use one to which I exploited to hell and back) and with that I'd like to see the Yiga of the Faron region behaving similarly and if they'd need to be up close they'd most likely use daggers or smaller sickles and then sneak back into the thicket. I know that the faction leader would most definitely have a special hidden blade as their main weapon of choice and I liked to think it would be close in design to the design from 3 that Connor uses which flips into a mini dagger

Aaaaannywaayyy.... that's all I have to share about my headcanon with my take on the Yiga Clan. Been mulling this over a hot minute in between being an adult and I'm really excited to flesh out the other leaders. I excluded the Depths for a reason since I want to cook a little more with how I'd redesign the Yiga who were left to explore the vast underground

[ganondoodle]

since i cant stop thinking about things i care about and also i cant shut up ever im gonna say my bit about the "well of COURSE they destroyed everything shiekah after botw bc it nearly killed the entire country DUH do you not understand basic worldbuilding??" type of comment i had directed at me (mostly on twitter to no ones surprise and almost exactly worded like this)

--how would you even destroy it, the only thing you can actually damage with anything are guardians and nano-guardians, anything else cant even get scratched, hell you cant even climb the darn things, are you seriously trying to tell me they somehow completely pulverized not just the shrines but titans (divine beasts), the shrine of life and the pillars holding the guardians in storage around hyrule castle and the dome beneath it (whereever that went lol) when it was built to and DID last over 10 000 years ... and if you did somehow find a way to dismantle literally all of it why would you not ... use its parts for something else and also research it (lets be real here, purahs new towers are just the sheikah towers but more impractical and would by all means not need all of the material from all the missing stuff and the purahpad is just ... literally the shiekah stone but looking more like the switch and also worse bc its got almost none of the functions the shiekah stone had) they were so integrated into botws landscape removing them and their chambers would have been so much effort better spent in other places and just so unnecessary (think of the shrines at the twin mountains, removing all of that would be so dangerous and difficult to do), removing the pillars and the dome under the castle would endanger it collapsing no? there also would have needed to be a giant mechanism down there to make the pillars rise up, why would you go and try to destroy that instead of focusing on rebuilding the most important infrastrucutre

(on a sidenote, yes there are holes to the underground in the place of some shrines but its by far not all of them .. .even so there at the very least should be some rubble of them lying about at the bottom plus in most of their places its just plain earth, or sometimes even a cave locked by some puzzle which is.... so weird)

really the only explanation would be that it all just ... disappeared after zelda sealed ganon, which wouldnt only be hella unsatisfying as an answer but also again pose the problem that i would have caused the castle to collapse considering how shiekah tech was so integrated into it... unless it turned to earth somehow ... which would explain that but still be as satisfying of an explanation as 'it was all just a dream uwu' additionally, the zonau stuff under the castle wasnt even that far down so it must have intersected with the shiekah stuff, like the pillars or the dome?? but no its all just zonau ruins now wahoo

if literally all traces were gone and totk was a paralel to botw but with zonau instead of shiekah OK, they still called it a sequel tho, they still talk about the events of botw but in a way that sounds like it was just another lost legend, the tapestry exists as well, and there are a few old guardian parts on top of the hateno institute (still feels like an oversight considering how cleanly everything else was wiped off the map), plus purahs towers and the purahpad are clearly based off of it, so it cant really be some time fuckery either, some things still remain; it just doesnt add up and its frustrating as hell .. ... especially if you were like me completely thrilled and intrigued to learn more about the ancient shiekah, what WAS that dome under the castle for?? what WAS ancient energy really and why was it found in these specific places only?? did they know about ganondorf?? if they built stuff down there shouldnt they have inevitably come across the old tunnels?? the monks literally talk to link in botw why would they withhold that info, what reason could they have?

--by far my biggest annoyance with that excuse is that ... if you are so afraid of tech you dont fully understand being taken over by the bad guy again to the point you destroy not just the titans you basically worshipped as divine protectors but also immovable shrines that literally couldnt do shit to harm you even if they were pumped up to the brim with malice/miasma after they have already become non threatening/non functional anyway... HOW could you just go and fully trust and personally play around with new tech that LITERALLY rained from the sky out of nowhere, from a group of people no one knows shit about (like at least the shiekah were still existing and had a small part of recorded history) and never cared either until now that they are suddendly everywhere, even if it cant get corrupted somehow (kinda disproven by the spirit temple) how the hell would anyone know that?? if anything this would be a reason to be MORE afraid of it

even the ancient king that persecuted the shiekah bc he was afraid of their tech when they invented it didnt order them to destroy it, just bury it, despite them of all people knowing the best of how to completely destroy it??? and zelda doesnt seem like the type that would order old history and relics to be destroyed liek that??

it would have been such a golden opportunity to show that hey, the ancient shiekah based their tech on that of the zonau, they found the mines and tech and reasearched it to built their own from it, strucutres that show they were down here building the shrines from underground, titan prototypes, you cant do anything with it, its old and broken, but its there, environmental storytelling and all that

the shrine of life especially pisses me off bc thats like .. ok it was kinda not the best maybe but it still saved links goddamn life, even if it all became useless for some reason at least leave it there as a sign of respect, if there needs to be a cave have it be half collapsed after the cataclysm or something wheres the problem

(also idk if im the only one with that but in botws true ending when zelda says that vah ruta, i think, has stopped working it seemed like a good setup for more? and that she wanted to investigate that in the sense of ah shoot i want it to keep working tho and not in the sense of hell yeah lets smash it to pieces i know this is theory territory now but it seemed like it somewhat confirmed that the titans need a pilots strong spirit to work since they are not connected to the ancient energy network and the spirits of the champions passed on at the end ... the idea that ancient energy was spirit energy either gained from luminous stones or directly spirits is so neat, and i loved that idea of hey the reason why all of the energy went out all of the sudden is bc ganondorf is breaking free after having been kept in a stasis to use either his malice or his strong spirit to fuel it all has never left my mind since i first read about it bc its such a good setup for intrigue, like oh heck the ancient shiekah werent so coolio and 100% perfectly good either, maybe they knew about gans 'future' or history and hey why not trick him or sth into being sealed against his will so that problem is out the way and whoop hes pretty much an infinite source of energy nice lets use that for our research and not tell anyone oh no we created a monster (calamity gan) l guess we are gonna use the tech we fuel with his own life against him lol, OR you could have connceted it to the zonau maybe doing the sealing first and the shiekah discovering him later and being like oh neat an endlessly rich powersource we arent gonan tell anyone about weehoo

it would have tied into the ancient shiekah stuff, explained why it doesnt work well anymore, give a reason to explore the underground and discover it all, give a reason to why it was kept a secret bc no one wanted to admit yeah we made this monster ourselves whoops, give ganondorf a reason to be this angry and make it all more nuanced bc yeah ok maybe the zonau knew about gan and in their effort to prevent it caused it instead by sealing him before he became a problem and it all started a domino effect of disasters leading into all this mess that now poor zelda and link gotta solve

im not saiyng this is the better version or that i am better but again you can literally do so much with the setup for it all and what totk ended up doing with it feels so ... not even underused but straight up backwards treading you had it right on front of you INFINITE POTENTIAL AAARGH)

theres only so much fun gameplay and fantastic music can save and man can you imagine what could have been if the story got the same polish as the gameplay and music ;__;

[corvidcrowned]

HI you are the first other person ive seen that hates totk!! can i understand ur reasons please? /genq :o

I’m the first??? I thought most people were agreeing it was stupid???

anyways

the story goes against the main themes of BOTW (specifically the message of. ‘relying on tradition is not how you solve current problems’) and ruins the cool and interesting calamity Ganon w bringing human ganon back and also he’s not even interesting. Just ‘evil desert man is evil’.

The sage abilities are extremely clunky and are way worse than the champions. Like, the champion abilities you could activate at any time but with the sages… you can’t use them if the avatars aren’t right by you which sucks. Also Sidon’s ability is dumb.

also, all the sage’s individual arcs are all over before they even begin and the ancient sage cutscenes are like. Word for word copy paste. It’s soooo lazy…. The champion cutscenes after beating the divine beasts were really individual so this is a major fucking downgrade.

Telling most of the linear story through out of order cutscenes is stupid. You can tell they just wanted to do the BOTW memory system again but that only worked because link had amnesia and it wasn’t like. The entire linear storyline. Also I hate what they did with the zonai . Also where the fuck was raru’s kid??? How is zelda descended from them????

they got rid of the sheikah tech with a bullshit excuse and no in game explanation. I get not wanting the shrines to be around but the divine beasts being gone and having the spots where shrines were be totally empty is bullshit. Also the new shrines are extremely ugly on the outside. The BOTW shrines were really pretty and so once again, major downgrade

the zonai look stupid. Why are their legs so fucking short?? You can see the stylistic decision with the Zora because they’re designed for swimming using muscles in their torso but zonai are land creatures. It’s total bullshit. Also these totk zonai? NOTHING like the zonai hinted at in BOTW.

They give link his arm back at the end. Bad disability rep. Boo

zelda’s outfit in the past is ugly (nitpick and opinion based but like cmon her outfit at the beginning of the game is cute…)

they released a game with a bullshit story + recycled models and map and wanted 70 fucking dollars for it.

Also, a lot of Zelda’s story in BOTW is wanting to be out there and studying things and being active in her own life and making her a damsel in distress AGAIN is. Stupid. They just make her sit around gushing about link and then she turns into a dragon. 👎

However the one good part: you can make pizza

[purahslog]

“… Many greetings! I’m glad to see another interested in the technology of days long passed… But… I’ve seen sheikah designs left untouched for well, centuries- yet you breathe new life into what should have been long non functional? It’s beyond impressive! Oh right! I was wondering, is it compatible with that new Zonai tech- I wonder how much the ancients were inspired by it-“

( @yigabalali - Not in uniform rn lol)

Aw shucks look at you trying to butter me up!

You're right though, I'm pretty impressive. You have no IDEA how long it took me to get permission and funding from the Royal Family to do some of the research I get to do now - with all the worries and issues around the Yiga and stuff they're always on such high guard around technological advancements incase it leads to a revolt or a war or something. If my big sis wasn't such a trusted Royal advisor back in the day and hadn't vouched for me like she did; I'd have never been allowed to work on all this stuff. Crazy right?

Actually in a funny way, as devastating as the Calamity was, I think it kinda made a ton of positive changes to our views on technology. From the old King of Hyrule relenting and allowing us to study and excavate ancient buried tech out of fear the Princess wouldn't be able to unlock her powers in time, to now days the Princess even leading many studies into recovering such an important part of our history once understanding how vital our role was in keeping the lands safe. Maybe in another hundred years we'll all have little guardian pals in our homes and pocket sized Sheika slates!

Aw man don't even get me started on the Zonai technology we started uncovering during the Great Upheaval! What a revelation! Before the Demon Kings return we just thought of the Ancient Zonai as this mysterious archaic civilization nobody fully understood. Now between all the crazy devices found on the sky islands, the wild discoveries in the depths, and the ring ruins - its starting to seem like the Zonai were a huge part of Hyrule's founding and played a part in the very begining of technology here on earth! There's so much new info that it makes my head spin!

I bet for SURE there's some compatibility between ancient Sheika tech and Zonai tech! In fact, I just applied for a funding grant to perform some scans on the four Divine Beasts to check their cores for Zonai energy cells to see if the Zonai had any play in their creation - since their level of sentience is something we've never uncovered in any other Sheika tech!

[skyloftsword]

Understanding Tears of the Kingdom

I'm seeing a lot of hate being thrown at Tears of the Kingdom again that really just gets disproven by the game itself. Yes I know this is like my 400000th post defending the game but its fun. I have in game evidence so spoiler warning!

TotK is a SEQUEL! It is NOT an alternate timeline nor is it an alternate universe! People who say this stuff clearly did not pay attention to literally anything considering...

As you can see, there is a lot of evidence that this game is connected to Breath of the Wild as a SEQUEL. Here's the biggest connection.

Breath of the Wild is summarized in its entirety! Symin even acknowledges the fact that Link already knows all of this because of his experience with the Calamity.

Now onto why Zelda was transported back in time. As we know, Zelda is a descendant of Rauru and Sonia (yes they have at least one child, they just aren't mentioned or brought up at all from what I have seen so far in my time with the game, nothing disproves them having a child however) so Sonia is where she got her time powers from. Now why did Zelda get sent back to that era specifically? Well its because that era was still in her mind. Link and her were just done looking at the murals from the past, not to mention the Demon King himself from that era was right there. So of course, all Zelda was thinking about was the ancient past of THIS Hyrule.

Moving on, the Sheikah tech excuse Aonuma/Fujibayashi stated in an interview is actually brought up within Breath of the Wild itself.

This of course specifically referencing the Shrines/Towers, now what would excuse the Divine Beasts? Easy. They were breaking down at the end of Breath of the Wild, meaning they were getting ready to disappear alongside the rest of the Sheikah tech now that their roles were fulfilled as well as them being broken.

I have gone over the ending in SEVERAL posts so I'm going to keep this section brief. According to the Molduga geoglyph Tear, others can amplify a person's power by putting their hands out. Because of this, Rauru and Sonia amplified Link's Recall ability and not only brought back Zelda's mental and physical state to right before transformation, but they also brought Link's arm back from pre-Ganondorf attack and got Rauru his arm back from Link. This was only possible due to the amplified Recall.

Now, the Triforce is actually in game and the Secret Stones do NOT replace it. The Triforce is the source of Zelda's light powers just like how it was in Breath of the Wild.

Its hard to see, but you can see it on her hand on the left. The Secret Stones themselves only AMPLIFY a person's powers (it also doesn't grant them sudden mastery of their powers). This is mentioned during the Mineru's Counsel Tear. So yeah, the Triforce is still very relevant and extremely important to the game.

So yeah, that's my millionth TotK defense post. Thanks for reading.

[echoingvoids]

In For the Win (purobbie)

Title: In For The Win

Theme: Purah and Robbie meet because of Zelda through a college competition and they grow closer than expected. 

Requested By: @dragongirlie56 (asked here on Tumblr. Hi Rye!)

Word Count: 6,664

Warnings: A touch of swearing

Other Notes: I haven't written anything for these dorks in forever so I kinda got carried away writing. I also loved re-imagining Robbie and Purah's outfits for this oneshot!

Request a oneshot masterlist

<>

"Purah! Take a look at this!" Zelda excitedly shoved a large card in her friend's face. "Read this!"

"Woah! Calm down there, Zel," Purah took the card, holding it up as she read it. "Ooh, a science competition?"

Zelda nodded excitedly, golden hair bouncing. "Yes! And get this: whoever wins gets to join a nation-wide competition. And whoever wins that gets a guaranteed interview to potentially work at the Royal Tech Lab!"

The girls squealed in unison, Purah flashing her classic hand gesture. "Check it! We are so entering!" She paused as Zelda's face fell. "We are entering, right?"

"Father won't let me. But don't let that stop you! I want you to enter."

"But Zel--"

"Purah, enter for me."

Purah sighed. Hylia curse Zelda's father, never letting her do anything fun. "I won't just enter for you. I'll win for you."

This sparked a smile. "Thank you, Purah. I know you'll come up with something amazing!"

Purah smiled back before glancing at the card, expression falling. "Uhm, Zel? This says I need a partner to work with. I don't know anyone who'd be willing to do this with me...or put up with me for that matter."

At this Zelda's face lit up again. "I already thought of that and I have that covered! You know that History of War class Father forces me to take?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Well I met this brilliant guy there. He's really smart and I just know you two will get along great!" Zelda reached for her pocket, quietly cursing. "I left my phone back in my bedroom. Okay, look, I'll go find him right now and call you with all the details tonight."

Before Purah could even get a word out, Zelda was taking off down the hall. The Sheikah blinked a few times before yelling, "Okay!"

Zelda waved in acknowledgement before disappearing around a corner.

<>

Robbie sat in the weapons lab, working on a knife. Carefully grasping the handle, he flicked his wrist with breath held. When a blue blade about three inches long appeared, he let out an excited chuckle, flicking his wrist again and watching it disappear.

He was the only one out of all the weapons professor's students who had unlimited access to the lab and materials. After weeks of working after classes, he had finally finished his grand project.

An Ancient Knife. 

With a satisfied grin he flicked the blade out again and turned off the table lamp, watching the soft blue glow of the blade. He couldn't wait to show this to the professor on Monday.

The door to the lab swung open and slammed against the wall, making him startle enough to drop the knife on the desk, blade retracting. A familiar blond-haired woman stood in the doorway and he let out a stressed noise. "Good Hylia, Zelda! I could have cut my finger off!"

She flicked the overhead light on. "Sorry! Why were you sitting in the dark with a weapon anyway?"

He waved a dismissive hand, turning back to his desk. She joined him, hopping up onto the empty neighboring desk and studying the handle. "Did you finish the knife?"

In response, he carefully picked it up and flicked his wrist. The blade appeared for a moment and then sputtered out. He sighed. "Apparently not, no. I got the blade part to work but something got messed up when I dropped it."

She winced. "Sorry for scaring you like that."

"Eh, its fine. All my fingers are intact and now I know what needs tweaking," he set the handle down and leaned back in his seat, the lights glinting off his safety goggles. "What's up, Z? Why'd you barge in here like a madwoman?

Her green eyes lit up and she handed him a card. He read it and she explained, "I have a good friend who wants to enter but doesn't have a partner to enter with. I saw you eyeing the poster earlier."

"You got me there, Z," he frowned slightly, sitting up straight again. "Although this person can put up with my...quirks, right?"

"Oh, absolutely. I think you'll both get along great."

"Okay. I'll take your word for that. When can I meet them?"

"Uh...we always go for coffee at Cafe Korok around 8 AM. Would you meet us there?"

"Ugh, 8 AM? On a weekend? You're taking out of my sleeping time." He whined jokingly.

She laughed. "Well, if you didn't have this ridiculous hairstyle of yours, you'd have more time to sleep. How long does it take you to do this anyway?"

"How I gel my hair is a secret that will die with me."

She laughed, hopping of the table. "See you tomorrow, Robbie."

"Night, Z."

<>

The Cafe, as usual, was busy. Purah and Zelda stood off to the side, waiting. The clock read 8:05. Zelda kept looking for her friend. Purah just wanted her coffee. 

The door opened again, the wooden bells clacking to announce the arrival of the individual. Purah had never seen such a hairstyle, with the man's white hair sticking out as a rectangular box behind his head. There was no possible way that was practical.

Zelda nudged her friend's arm. "That's him!" 

She waved him over while Purah continued to study him. He wore a deep v-neck showing more of his chest than necessary with the words Van Halen scribbled across it in faded white paint. Ripped jeans with a small chain hanging off the belt loops, sunglasses (despite it being cloudy this morning), a necklace of the Sheikah eye, multiple ear piercing, and--was he wearing slippers?

He exchanged a cheerful hello with Zelda before turning to Purah. She could make out his eyes through the tint of his sunglasses...that's odd...were his eyes blue?

"Purah, this is Robbie Guardiana, my friend from History of War class," Zelda introduced. "Robbie, this Purah Kakariko, my longtime friend."

He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

She shook it. His hands were calloused and he had bits of what appeared to be grease clinging to his nails. "You too. So you're willing to enter the competition with me?"

He stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah. I mean, if you don't mind working with me. I've been told I'm an oddball."

For some reason this made her laugh. "I doubt you're weirder than me...although it's possible. How about we get some coffee and then we can discuss our course of action further."

They agreed and shuffled into the line. It didn't take as long as she thought it would to get them up to the front and only a few minutes later, they were sitting at a table with their respective coffee choices. The workers were on the ball today.

"So," Zelda excitedly clapped her hands on the table. "I have a super great idea for you guys. Do you mind?"

"Well, I'm literally entering in your stead, Z," Robbie leaned back comfortably in his chair. "Feel free to dictate what we're doing. If Purah here doesn't mind."

Purah waved her hand. "Of course I don't mind. What are you thinking, Zel?"

Zelda grinned excitedly, pulling out her phone. "Okay, so I--oh."

Purah didn't like the way Zelda's face fell. "What is it?"

"Father wants me to call him. I better do that," she stood, offering them an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I'm going to see what he needs really quickly and be right outside. Uhm, maybe take the opportunity to get to know each other a bit?"

The two Sheikah watched the golden-haired girl dial her father's number as she stepped outside. As soon as the door had closed behind her, Purah turned to Robbie. "You got a nickname for her too?"

"I've got a nickname for everyone," he draped his arms over the back of his chair, taking a sip of coffee. "Which means I should pick one for you."

"It isn't too early for that?"

"Nope. You get your nickname right off the bat."

She shrugged. "Alright then."

"Hm," he seemed to study her for a moment before his face split into a grin. "Cherry."

"Uhm, okay. Why?"

He gestured to her like it should be obvious. "The hair streak. That's really cool, by the way. I've never seen a Sheikah brave enough to dye their hair."

"Oh yeah. Something about breaking tradition, blah blah...I hear about it all the time," she paused. "Thank you. You're the first Sheikah I've met who's complimented me on it."

An easy grin slid onto his face. "Don't mention it."

She nodded and after a moment of silence, she asked, "Sooo...you make weapons?"

"Yeah! I like to experiment and stuff," he finally sat up straight, setting his mug on the table. "I'm trying to work on a pocket knife using Ancient tech right now. It needs some tweaking but it's almost done," a pause. "Z mentioned that you know a lot about Sheikah runes."

"You bet I do! See, what I'm trying to do is figure out a way to transcribe the runes onto objects, so they can be used outside of Sheikah Slates and--" she stopped. "Sorry, I got little carried away there."

"What? No, it's fine. That actually sounds interesting."

"You really think so?"

He flashed a grin. "Hell yeah. If you want to ramble about your ideas, I don't mind."

At this Purah laughed a bit. "You are a bit of an oddball, aren't you?"

He just shrugged and leaned back in his chair again. "Maybe. But no, seriously, tell me more about this transcribing runes thing, I wanna know more."

So she did.

When Zelda finally came back in, she found them in deep conversation about what materials might be used to engrave the Sheikah runes onto other objects and make it usable. She stood there for several minutes waiting for them to notice her and when they didn't, she spoke up, "I see you two are bonding well."

They both looked up at her, Purah startled and Robbie with his signature grin. "You were right, Z. We're getting along great."

"Well, mostly great," Purah raised an eyebrow. "I think your friend here is just a bit of a blockhead."

"Hey! Just try what I suggested. If it works, and I think it might, I'll refrain from saying 'I told you so'."

Zelda blinked before laughing. "It's like you've known each other for months. I'm glad you're getting along so well."

"We'll wait and see, Zel, we'll wait and see," Purah winked as her friend sat back down. "So, back to your idea. What do you got for us?"

The blond grinned. "You'll love it, I'm sure. Especially since you both love robotics so much," she opened the camera app on her phone, swiping through the pictures before showing them the screen. "This is Terrako."

The picture showed a little egg shape with the characteristic eye of a Guardian and three little legs flopped around it. Purah felt her eyebrow go up and was aware of Robbie leaning closer, an excited smile on his face. "You built this?"

"Yes I did," Zelda smiled, putting her phone away. "It turns on and has some functions, but it could use a lot more work. And since both of you are getting your robotics degrees, I thought it would be perfect for you two to enter in the project!"

"That's brilliant, Zel! I've got so many ideas."

Robbie had a troublemaking smile on his face. "Can I give it weapons?"

Purah snorted and Zelda laughed. "If you can safely demonstrate them, go right ahead and give it weapons."

Robbie let out a quiet woop and the two girls looked at each other, smiling and shaking their heads.

"I wanna get started right away," Purah clapped her hand onto the table. "How soon can we pick it up?"

"This afternoon."

"Oho, this is going to be fun. Hm, yes," Robbie pulled out his phone, offering it to Purah. "Hey, put your number in. I'm probably going to need it."

"Oh! Right, here." She also passed hers over and they both typed in their numbers before switching the phones back.

They didn't notice but Zelda was watching them with a smile.

<>

"What do you mean we can't use the lab?"

Purah and Robbie stood outside the robotics lab, Purah with her hands on her hips and Robbie holding the box that contained Terrako. The robotics professor sighed. "As much as I would love to give you two unrestricted access, I can't. There's too many classes and seminars that happen in here and I don't want people to work around you or you to have to work around people."

Purah frowned and Robbie shifted the box in his hands. After a long moment, she sighed. "We understand. Thank you anyway."

They turned and started making their way down the hall. As soon as they were out of earshot, Purah groaned. "Now what are we supposed to do? My dorm doesn't have enough space to work on this thing and I don't have all the right tools besides."

Robbie was silent for a long moment. "Well, I have access to the weapons lab but that won't have the right tools either. It's not exactly useful until we start adding the weapons," he came to a stop. "There is another option, however."

She turned to him. "What's that?"

"Well, uh," he grinned in an almost nervous manner. "I have a lab--well, something of a lab, in my foster dad's garage. We could go there, if we don't have any options."

Purah blinked, trying to ignore the burning desire to ask him about his foster dad. "Okay. Yeah, that will work. If you don't mind me invading your space."

"Oh! No, I don't mind at all. Uh, I can text you the address and we could meet up there after lunch?"

"Yeah, sure. Can I trust you to hold onto Terrako until then?"

"You bet. No harm will fall on this little guy, I promise you."

She nodded. "Sweet. Alright then, let's go get lunch and meet up again at your house. I'll see you in a bit."

"Yeah."

As she headed down the hall, she realized she had just agreed to go to the house of a guy she had just met yesterday. While she was sure Robbie didn't have any ill intentions (he seemed a bit too awkward for that) she knew how it would look if someone found out. Mainly if her younger sister Impa heard. 

Oh she'd never hear the end of that.

As she left the building and made her way to the parking lot, where her old red mustang sat (her pride and joy, mind you), she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Pulling it out, she found a text from Robbie with an address followed by a picture of Terrako's box held to the seat with the seat belt.

See? No harm will befall this box. I'm following all safety precautions here.

She couldn't help but snicker a bit. Very safe indeed she sent back before getting in her own car and driving off to find a sandwich place. 

<>

Robbie sat with the garage door open, leg bouncing nervously. Terrako's box sat on his desk, undamaged as he had promised, and his computer whirred softly behind him.

He practically never brought people over to his foster parents' house. Heck, most people he knew didn't even know if he had parents or not. And yet he basically flat out told this girl and invited her to work on the project in his garage lab, which his foster father had told him was his own private space.

Good Hylia, he had met the girl yesterday.

Although when he thought about it there was just something about her that made it so easy to trust her. He hadn't known her long enough to make an accurate judgement but it seemed like she was the type to never let anything hold her down for long, and Hylia she was smart as a whip. She had her own hand gesture just like he did and she wasn't afraid to strike a pose in public. He had found that out the minute they left the coffee shop.

All this made him feel just a little less alone in the world. 

Like him, she didn't dress normal either. With her red tights and strapless grey dress under some kind of trench coat. Her heels that could probably kill someone, the red glasses balanced on her head, her double earlobe piercing, and her hair piled on her head in a bun. That unique red streak of hers. 

He silently wondered just how long her hair actually was.

A car engine made his head snap up and a beautiful red 1965 mustang rolled down the street, parking at the sidewalk in front of his house. Purah stepped out a minute later and Robbie couldn't help but whistle. "That's one cool car, Cherry!"

"Thanks!" She locked the door before making her way up the driveway. "Believe it or not that thing was a pile of junk when I bought it. Everyone told me it was unsalvageable."

"Well, I never would've guessed," he grinned, gesturing vaguely to the garage. "Well, here we are. My garage lab."

She studied the equipment for a long moment, studied the shelves of materials on the wall, his computer setup, and, finally, her amber eyes landed on him again. "This is quite the setup. I'm pretty impressed."

He waved a hand. "Nah. Its not nearly as safe as the university lab," he tapped the floor with his foot. "I don't think this cement has had acid proofing."

She snorted. "I thought not. Let's not spill anything then, right?"

"I haven't yet."

She smiled and he grinned back before she marched over to the computer desk where Terrako's box sat. "Let's take a look a this little guy."

He got up and joined her as she lifted the lid off the box, carefully pulling the little machine out. He could hear the inner machinery shift a bit as she moved it, the limp legs clacking as they flopped on the table. Purah muttered something to herself, looking the machine over. "Found the on switch. And...there."

They stared at it. Nothing happened. Robbie frowned. "I thought it turned on."

"It does, Zelda warned me it can be tricky though. She hasn't exactly had enough free time to really work on it," Purah checked the little machine over and then turned to the box. "Maybe there's something in the spare parts..."

Robbie bent down, studying the machine for a moment and then tapping the glass eye.

It little up blue.

He jumped back, slightly startled. "Woah! Got it to work."

Purah was at his side in a moment, staring. "Oh, look at that! What did you do?"

"I poked it."

She gave him a look and he threw his hands up in surrender. "I'm serious! I literally just poked it!"

She sighed. "Alright, fair enough. Here," she passed him a USB cord. "Plug it into your computer. Zel mentioned we have a lot of programming to do."

He did as instructed and a moment later some files popped up, along with a bare-bones programming system Zelda had managed to put together. On investigating the document included in the files, she had intended for Terrako to be able to record the surroundings, play music, and carry certain objects.

Purah sighed. "Her father is wasting such a brilliant mind trying to force her into politics."

"Couldn't agree more, Cherry," Robbie pulled up his swivel chair, sitting down in it. "So let's do her justice and make this thing incredible."

<>

They lined up their schedules. They met up Wednesday and Friday afternoons, all of Saturday, and some of Sunday morning. They swapped between who would be working on programming while the other worked on physical extensions to the machine. Robbie suggested a way to fortify the outer structure in case it accidentally went tumbling off high places. Purah improved the original whistles Zelda had installed.

Three weeks passed in a flash, leaving them five weeks to finish. They had gotten many functions to work, such as recording the surroundings, playing songs, getting the eye to track their movements, and they had figured out how to get it to stand, although they were still stuck on how to get it to move.

But the big part that eluded them was getting the machine to operate without external instructions. Zelda's notes indicated that was her original intent, but how it was supposed to do that, they didn't know.

On the Friday of their fourth week of work, Purah decided to poke through the spare parts in the bottom of Terrako's box, which they hadn't bothered to look in since Robbie first got it turn on. Robbie was working on the movement coding when Purah's voice got his attention. "Hey, Robbie."

"Yeah?"

She pulled a screw that appeared to glowing out of the box, a frown on her face. "Does this look important to you?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of," He stood, his chair rolling back from the motion and he joined her. "Nothing like this was mentioned in Zelda's notes, but now that I think about it...here, I can see that?"

She cautiously handed it to him and he waltzed back over to where Terrako sat, grabbing one of the top ruffle-like-things and pulling up, revealing the inner workings of the machine. He looked it over for a second before finding what he was looking for, lining up the screw with the hole. It looked right to him. He carefully screwed it in, before pushing the top down and taking  a step back.

Long moment of silence. Purah put a hand on her hip. "Is something supposed to happen?"

"I thought something would."

"Maybe you should poke it again."

He shot her a dirty look, although the effect was muted by his sunglasses, earning a snicker from her. He then rolled his eyes, also hidden by his sunglasses and leaned over to check something on the computer screen.

A clawed foot suddenly swung up and hit him straight in the midsection, followed by a single sharp whistle. 

Robbie jumped back in alarm and Purah gasped. "Sweet mother of Hylia, did it--?!"

The machine whistled again, almost angrily, and they watched as all three legs moved without instruction and it stood on the desk. Its eye looked around for a moment before settling on Robbie and whistling, pointed at him.

They duo exchanged glances. "Did you mess up its programming, Robbie?"

"No. Trust me, I wouldn't program it to whack me in the stomach."

"Then...it must have been that screw!" Purah looked at Terrako excitedly. "Think about it! We've been trying to get it to function by itself this entire time and as soon as you put that screw in, it does!"

"Do you think the screw was like some kind of hard drive with the required coding in it?"

"I honestly don't know and I don't think we ever will. I wonder if Zelda knew just how much power that screw had."

At the mention of Zelda, the machine chirped cheerfully. The Sheikah glanced at each other again and Robbie chuckled. "Well, Cherry...we just made massive headway. But there's still a lot to do to get this little guy ready for the competition."

An almost curious sounding whistle drew their attention to the little machine and Purah chuckled. "I think we have some explaining to do."

<>

Their work certainly got interesting now that Terrako was very aware of what was going on.

The little machine seemed far more receptive of what was happening once they explained their plan and Zelda's part in it. Terrako seemed to have a great attachment to Zelda, and if the two Sheikah were working for her sake, it gladly went along with what they were doing.

Robbie learned very quickly that it didn't like being hooked up by the USB to the computer and it took him far to long to explain that he needed to so he could finalize the coding. Purah thought it was very amusing to watch him argue with a robot, at which he simply flipped her off.

He would have never flipped off someone he had only known for a month. But she had just laughed.

Something else he learned extremely quickly was that Terrako didn't like to be left alone at night. Oh, it could sit contentedly all day in the lab while they were at the university but as soon as it got dark, it would whistle endlessly until he let it into his room.

He got a few concerned looks from his foster parents but they said nothing.

Before any of them could really comprehend it, another two weeks flew by and the competition was right around the corner.

As in, not even a week away.

It was Wednesday night. The competition was that coming Friday, and all classes at the university were canceled for the event. Robbie sat slumped in his desk chair, flicking through his phone. Terrako sat on the desk, probably looking over his shoulder but it wasn't like there was anything very interesting. 

A notification popped up at the top of the screen. A text from Purah. Do you think Terrako will understand that we have to put it in a box to transport it to the university on Friday?

The machine whistled in what was seemed to be an annoyed manner and Robbie chuckled. I don't think its happy about the fact but it will do it.

Will it feel better if I put you in a box too and stick you in the trunk until I need you?

Haha, very funny.

Terrako let out a long, slow whistle and Robbie glanced over at it. "What?"

It nudged Robbie's arm with its claw and whistled again, pointing at the phone then at his face. It took him a minute, but realization dawned on him. "I wasn't smiling about anything."

The following chirp sounded like it was saying yes you were. Robbie scoffed and dropped his phone on the desk. "Time for bed."

Terrako seemed to protest, but it was ultimately ignored as Robbie changed and turned the light off, dropping into bed. He saw Terrako's glowing eye watching him. "Look, I don't care if you...rest or charge or whatever it is you do when I'm sleeping, but don't stare at me while you do it."

It gave two short whistles and turned towards the wall. Robbie sighed and closed his eyes.

One more day.

<>

Purah stood in front of her mirror, carefully applying her in makeup. In less than half-an-hour she would be meeting up with Robbie, and after a final check over on Terrako, they'd head to the university to set up. Despite demonstrations and judging not starting until 1 PM, all participants were supposed to arrive early so they could be checked for last minute errors and set up their devices.

Impa peered over at her sister from where she sat on the couch, laptop in hand. "Since when do you take so long to get ready?"

"I'm not taking that long."

"It's been fifteen minutes, Purah."

"Well, okay, maybe I am," she finished her eyeshadow, leaving the bathroom and walking to the living room. She had come to visit her sister for breakfast, and still wasn't used to a living space other than her shared dorm. "It's the big day. I'm a bit nervous and just want to look my best."

"You look fine," Impa resumed typing on her laptop. "So this Robbie guy you've been working with. He's a lot like you, huh?"

Purah nodded. "He is. He's really smart and he dresses kinda weird too, and he likes to make random guitar noises with his mouth. I don't know why. Also, he's got strange eyes, I just know it, but he's always wearing dark sunglasses so it's really hard to tell-tell-"

"Okay, slow down. So you finally found yourself another friend then?"

Purah paused and after a moment, nodded firmly. "Yeah. Yeah I did."

Impa smiled a bit, looking up from whatever she was working on. "I'm glad. You've never had many friends and the changes on mental development that has are-"

"Yeah, yeah, don't use your psychological training on me."

"Sorry. But seriously. You seem to really like this guy."

Purah hadn't even realized she was grinning. "Yeah. I do."

"Hm," Impa nodded towards the door. "Well you better get going if you wanna meet up with him on time."

Purah cursed, grabbing her purse (which was also loaded with spare parts for any emergency Terrako fixing) and grabbed her keys out of the dish, waving as she yanked the door open. "Bye, sis!"

"I'll see you at the demonstration this afternoon!"

The door slammed shut, Purah not having time to wince as she made her way to her car. She had just settled in when her phone rang, and not even looking to see who it was, she put it on speaker and answered, dropping it into her stand. "Yeah?"

"You sound a little rushed, Cherry. Everything good?"

The now-familiar voice of Robbie put a smile on her face as she started the engine. "Yeah, everything's fine. I'm just running a little late. I'm supposed to be halfway to your house right now."

"Actually, that's why I'm calling. I alreadydid the final check on Terrako and everything is ready to go."

She scoffed, checking the street before pulling out. "Rude. Just start without me. Should I head to the university then?"

"Well, we have a bit of time before sign-in starts. We could go grab a coffee really quick first, if you want."

"That'd be great, actually."

She could hear his smile when responded. "Sweet. I'll meet you at the Cafe in five?"

"You bet."

<>

"Alright, and this is your setup station," Mineru, who was in charge of the entire competition, led the Sheikah duo to a decently sized table. "Since there was no issues with your machine at the entry point, there's no need to alter anything. So you can setup however you like here and when it's your turn to demonstrate, you can just push the table up the ramp and start."

Robbie carefully set Terrako's box on the table while Purah asked, "It's that simple?"

"Pretty much. Be respectful in your demonstration and do the best you can. Each demonstrater has five minutes to show off their machine and what it can do. There will be a worker from the Royal Tech Lab among the judges, so I hope this is your best work. Oh, and be sure to credit your friend Zelda for the base of the project. If you don't you'll get disqualified," Mineru looked over their table, nodding. "You guys are number 27. When you hear that, you can come up."

Nods were exchanged and Mineru disappeared to check more people in. Robbie took the lid of the box, earning a chirp from Terrako as he pulled out his laptop, checking the wi-fi. "Alright, Terrako. I got permission from the sound guy to let you send live feed up to projector. You're hooked up to the wi-fi?"

Two cheerful whistles were the response and Purah reached into the box, carefully taking out the egg-shaped machine. She tried to move the box with one hand, but Robbie leaned over and pushed it aside. She smiled gratefully and see Terrako on the table. "Alrighty. We're going to blow the competition away. Let's win it for Zelda."

The machine chirped excitedly and did a little jump, causing both of the Sheikah scientists to laugh. "If somehow they aren't impressed by the tech," Robbie shut his laptop with a grin. "They'd be crazy not to admire the personality."

Purah laughed at this, still grinning as she turned to face approaching footsteps. She was expecting Mineru again or some other official, instead being met by a woman with blond hair that seemed almost a sickly green and the scariest eyebrows ever seen. This woman raised one of said-eyebrows, making her appear even scarier, before turning to Robbie. "I didn't expect to see you here."

He shifted almost nervously and despite his sunglasses and the somewhat dimmer lighting of the room, Purah could tell his gaze was jumping around a bit. "Uh, two months ago I didn't either. But here I am."

"I'm surprised. I thought you only worked solo now. Since, you know, no one can stand your weirdness, you said."

Purah did NOT like the energy this woman was giving off. "He's been working with me," she interjected, walking around the side of the table and leaning her arm off his shoulder, something she's done a few times since they met. "I'm his lab partner."

The woman raised her eyebrow again and Robbie swallowed thickly. "Yeah, uhm...Jerrin, this is my new lab partner Purah. Purah, this is, uh, my ex Jerrin."

Purah nodded slowly. "Nice to meet you."

"Mm-hm," Jerrin actively dismissed Purah, turning to Robbie again. "Anyways, good luck with your demonstration. This egg thing looks rather interesting."

At this Terrako chirped indignantly, which Jerrin also ignored. Robbie frowned. "Wait. Why are you even back here? You go to College of Kakariko, you aren't competing here."

She smiled, although it wasn't a nice smile. "That's because my partner and I already won. Our competition was two days ago. Since the nation finals are at the Royal University of Castle Town, which is four hours north of here, I thought I might as well stop here and watch what the esteemed Hyrule University was doing."

Purah glanced up at Robbie, who lips were now pressed together in a thin line. "I see. Well, enjoy the show, Jerrin. You probably should go join the spectators."

She smiled again, gave Purah a judgmental look, and walked away. 

Robbie slouched down two inches and Purah took a step back from him, watching Jerrin's retreating back. "She's a bit of a bitch, isn't she?"

He managed a weak chuckle at that. "Uhm, yeah. Yeah, she's always been...interesting. To say the least. I had a thing for her in high school and we dated until senior year. She, uh, got kind of bitter when I was accepted in HU and she wasn't it. She got even worse when I broke up with her."

"So she likes to randomly show up and torment you?"

"Sometimes."

Purah shook her head, turning to him. "What a bitch."

"Yeah. Hey, thanks for trying to help me out though."

"Hey, don't sweat it. Next time we run into her, I should get my sister on her. Impa knows karate."

Robbie chuckled, remembering the one time had met Impa. "I think you'd be hard pressed to get her to do that."

"I know. She's got too many morals for that."

He snorted and Purah grinned, glad to have improved his mood a bit. "Anyway, we're going to blow the roof off this place with how awesome we are."

"You bet we are. Right, Terrako?"

The machine chirped excitedly and the Sheikah duo exchanged grins. Purah raised her hand and they both, striking their signature poses. "Check it!"

Jerrin could see them from where she sat in the auditorium chairs. Purah was just his lab partner, that was a bunch of bull and Jerrin knew it. She wasn't stupid.

<>

They stood nervously by their table as the judges conversed and shared their grading papers with each other.

A page was passed to Mineru. She made her way onto the stage. All the students stood with their breath held. Purah subconsciously grabbed Robbie's hand. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. 

Mineru lifted her mic. "The results are in. Thank you, judges. In third place, we have..."

She listed off the two pairs that had come in third and second. Neither of them were team 27. Either that had won the whole thing or they had completely lost it.

"And in first place, going to the finals at Royal University of Castle Town to potentially win a job interview at Royal Tech Labs is..." She scanned the page. "Team 27, Purah Kakariko and Robbie Guardiana."

Purah started shaking Robbie excitedly. "We did it! We won, we won!"

He grinned at her and still gripping his arm, she dragged him up to the stage, where Mineru passed them an envalope. "Congratulations. This is proof of your win. Don't lose it, because you'll need it to enter the finals at RUCT."

They shook her hand (Robbie far more calmly than Purah did) and the whole way off the stage, Purah was buzzing with excited energy. As soon as they were out of sight of the people, she grabbed both of Robbie's hands and began jumping up and down. "We did it, we did it!"

"Yeah we did!" He grinned at her as she bounced. "Your hair is gonna fall out at this rate, Cherry!"

"I don't care! Ugh, I'm not going to make it until Sunday! Hey, we should drive to Castle Town together!"

"What, like in the same car?"

"Yeah! It'd be fun and the four hour drive is so boring alone."

He chuckled. "Alright then. What about your sister?"

"She's already got business there and leaves at like, 4 AM or something."

"That's crazy."

A shrug. "Tell her that."

They smiled at each other and after a long moment, Purah looked away almost bashfully. Before Robbie could figure out what that meant, she was off, saying something to Terrako. 

He caught sight of Jerrin shooting daggers at him but he was so happy he didn't care at all.

<>

Just like their demonstration at Hyrule University, they made waves at Royal University of Castle Town. Terrako had impressed the crowd, although they ran a little over because it decided to start bickering with Robbie at the last minute.

Now the duo sat by their table and waited anxiously. Robbie's leg was bouncing slightly from nerves and Purah had taken her glasses off her head and was now fiddling with them. Terrako was unusually quiet, sitting on the table instead of bouncing and chirping like it usually would.

The five judges were conversing quietly, and Robbie sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Hey, Cherry?"

"Yeah?"

He ran a hand down his forehead, reaching for his sunglasses and pulling them off, turning to her. She stared at him, eyes wide, as he continued, "Look, I just wanna say...if we win or not, I'm really glad I got to have this experience with you."

She smiled a bit, taking in the details of his completely uncovered face. So his eyes were blue..."I'm glad too. You're the only other person besides Zelda's who's accepted me as me, without toning me down or trying to change me."

"Why would anyone try to tone you down?" He blurted. "You're amazing."

Her eyes widened and his face flushed pink. "I-I mean-"

"Attention all students," Dorephan, leader of the Zora who had agreed to be the announcer today for some unknown reason, was once again on the stage. "Your attention please."

The murmur of voices died down and Robbie's embarrassment was temporarily sidetracked by the eagerness of knowing who the winners were."

"We had many incredible entries in this competition. Choosing a winner was not easy. But, we have come to a conclusion," Dorephan held up a sheet of paper. "Here is our list. Let's see...in third place, we have Jerrin Shrined and Symin Haten from College of Kakariko."

Applause as they mounted the stage, offering the bronze medals that marked third place. Robbie could tell a mile away that Jerrin's smile was fake, and that she was internally fuming at only getting third place. Typical behavior of hers.

"In second place...Sidon Lightscale and Yona Limelight from Silver Moon University."

More applause and the two Zora students approached the stage. Sidon was Dorephan's child and Robbie silently wondered how many people would be accusing favoritism here, despite the fact that Dorephan wasn't even a judge.

"Last to announce, but the most important of all, is our first place winners. Whoever is the lucky winners of this position get an interview at the Royal Tech Lab, to potentially work there upon graduation. Our first place winners are..."

Robbie silently reached for Purah's hand. She took it and held it tight.

"...Purah Kakariko and Robbie Guardiana-"

Robbie never heard the rest of the sentence because the second their names were out of Dorephan's mouth, Purah had her arms around Robbie's neck, squealing, "WE DID IT! WE DID IT! AHAH I could kiss you right now!"

Robbie felt his face go red and Purah suddenly pulled back, realizing what she had said. "I mean, uhm-"

Robbie put a hand on the base of her neck and pressed a rough kiss to her lips, a moment that only lasted a few seconds. They stared at each other and were vaguely aware of Dorephan announcing, "Will Purah Kakariko and Robbie Guardiana please come up to the stage?"

"We'll discuss this later, yeah?" Robbie asked breathlessly.

She nodded. "Okay."

They were up and moving a second later, mounting the stage where Dorephan stood with their letters for proof of their win. Robbie absently licked his lips and fought the urge to break into a ridiculous grin.

Of course she wore cherry chapstick.

[hollysoda]

Okay so I know that totk turned one year old a couple of days ago but I was away for the weekend and didn’t get a chance to post something about it. Now I’m home again, I think I wanna just put some thoughts down

Firstly, I still love totk. It was a really fun game and had just as much fun playing through it complete blind as I did playing botw with only a loose knowledge of the game. In fact, I enjoyed it more than botw. Maybe it was because I knew more about Zelda than what I did back in September 2022 when I first played botw, or maybe it was because I could see the improvements they made when it came to dungeons and overall exploration. For at least six months totk was my favourite zelda game. Now, a year on, it isn’t.

I think on reflection totk is a very flawed game. While it is technically genius, story-wise it’s incredibly weak, possibly the weakest in the entire franchise. Here are a few points worth mentioning:

Why bother bringing back Ganondorf if he isn’t going to have any real motive? Is there a reason why he’s fighting with Rauru and seeking his own secret stone, or is he just doing it for funsies? Part of the reason why Wind Waker Ganondorf is so good is because he has a strong and clear motive. Without any motive, totk Ganondorf just feels like an enemy rather than a main antagonist

The main thing that drives forward a story is a theme to take away from it. Breath of the Wild’s theme was exploration and lost memories, Skyward Sword’s theme was loyalty and/or devotion, but it’s hard to tell what totk’s theme is. Sacrifice could be the outstanding one, seeing as both Zelda and Rauru make crucial sacrifices for the sake of Hyrule, but where else is it seen in the story? Totk just tries too many things, and having a clear theme would just help to solidify things

For a game that was supposed to solve the mystery of who the Zonai were it sure did a poor job at doing so. I absolutely adore the Zonai and in my opinion Rauru and Mineru’s designs as some of the coolest in the entire franchise but my god. Their lore is so underdeveloped it hurts. We know the bare minimum about their civilisation and culture. We still don’t know why they died off, why they built the labyrinths (and by extension who the Lord of dragons/owls/boars are), why they have secret stones in the first place, why is the Temple of Time in the sky when it was originally on the ground and most importantly why is draconification a forbidden act. If you’re gonna imply that the three dragons introduced in botw were once people then tell us!! Totk deserved a dlc that could explain all of this and not leave us in the unknown

Saying that the Sheikah technology just “disappeared” is an absolutely awful way of saying “uh yeah we never thought about that”. That’s some god awful world-building and planning on the developers behalf. Even if they just said that after the Calamity it lost its magic and then parts of it were repurposed for new technology, like the Skyview towers, it would be so much more believable. The Divine Beasts should have at least been in the game somewhere, perhaps in the depths. The lack of Sheikah tech makes the game feel so disjointed from botw, and makes totk feel as though it’s only a sequel because it has the same characters in it

The ending of the game just doesn’t sit right with me. Why bother having Mineru beg Zelda not to swallow her secret stone if in the end she would be able to turn back into a human. I understand the developers want a happy ending but at least let there be consequences. Let Zelda’s memory be a bit hazy or give her dragon features like many artists have done and let Link permanently be an amputee

Also the Ancient Hero angers me. I’ve got no problems with him not being a hylian because honestly it makes it wayy more interesting knowing that not every hero was hylian, but just explain why. If he’s some sort of Zonai, why doesn’t he look like Rauru and Mineru? Is he some sort of hybrid or a different breed of Zonai? And why does the tapestry depict him as a hylian if he’s not? Seems like an oversight more than anything

I think I should stop there because this post is getting long but uh TL;DR totk could have been a phenomenal game if they spent more time planning out the storyline and fleshing out lore. I get it, the game was originally botw dlc, but after so many delays we at least deserved a better story.

I do still love this game though Tears of the Dragon goes HARD