#it wasn't a ganondorf boss fight

[vigilantdesert]

anD STAY OUT

[wanderingwoodpecker]

So I FINALLY just got around to beating Tears Of The Kingdom, and I didn't even realize until just now that it's the 1 year anniversary of the game's release

[harp-bo-barp]

I DID ITTTTTT LETS FUCKINGG GOOOOOOOOOO

[rabbitprincessthief]

gog i still can't get over minish cap vaati's Everything. He is So Fucking Stupid (affectionate)

Like. This guy's establishing character moment is, in order:

he's introduced as having won an entire tournament to get to touch a magic chest and get a cool sword, which was the prize for said tournament

turns around and does a goddamn evil soliloquy TEN FEET AWAY FROM THE GUARDS who were about to hand him his macguffin on a platter

(like this man fucks up his own horribly planned daylight heist because he cannot keep a lid on the dramatics for FIVE FUCKING MINUTES, IN PUBLIC)

(THE BAR WAS ON THE FLOOR VAATI, FUCKING GANONDORF PLAYS THE PIPE ORGAN FOR HIS OWN BOSS INTRO AND HE STILL KNOWS BETTER THAN THIS SHIT)

proceeds to fight the guards (it is, admittedly, a curbstomp for him, but it still clearly wasn't his plan, because otherwise why bother with the tournament)

gloats evilly

opens chest, unleashing a whole bunch of monsters

exposits out loud about Zelda's powers like a nerd while she is actively charging up her magic powers to kick his ass

RECOGNIZES and IDENTIFIES said magic as the special power carried by the female royal line

completely fails to recognize it as the light force he is currently trying to get his hands on (he spends like 99% of the game not figuring this out.)

petrifies her

(i have no idea if link could have deflected this spell if he had managed to get the right angle with his shield but i like to think somewhere there is a very short and very funny alternate timeline where it happens)

(more importantly: no part of vaati's original presumed plan would have involved doing this. he 100% created this situation for himself by being an dramatic idiot and picking a fight for no good reason.)

looks in the chest

there's no light force

considering his stated goals he might be as confused as you are about the monsters tbh

uhhh

evil laugh

teleports the fuck out

He then proceeds to spend the rest of the game trying to figure out where the light force is and ends up having to wait for Ezlo and Link to figure it out first because he was, as far as I can tell, GENUINELY stuck on this part. He fucking kidnaps and impersonates the King, not for access to Zelda, but to… send guards to go look for the Light Force, presumably because he was either running out of ideas or genuinely thought that would work.

None of the guards even had any idea what he was talking about. He's not even good at impersonating the King. He's already sent like twenty people to the dungeon by the time you get there and it hasn't even been a week. Somehow the game spins this as a cunning plan and clever manipulation or something.

(Meanwhile the guards are just. Poking around in random bushes and shit hoping to find the light force. One of them asks you what you think it might look like.)

Zelda is literally right next to the throne and Vaati does not figure it out until you find an actual honest-to-goodness LORE TABLET spelling out that the Light Force is Stored in the Zelda, at which point he's like "ahahaha you've done my work for me this was definitely my plan all along" and takes over the castle and throws a bunch of monsters at you to stall for time while he figures out how to extract the force from her. Somehow he still doesn't think to actually lock the fucking door.

[izunias-meme-hole]

Unpopular Opinion: Calamity Ganon Was A Pretty Great Villain

Ah yes... I am bound to be slandered for this opinion.

To keep it short and simple, Calamity Ganon wasn't really a bad villain. Sure he had that shit flaming boar form for the final phase of his boss fight, but aside from that this is honestly the best take on Ganon The Beast we've ever had and for a couple of reasons.

First off, his presence is honestly on par with the presence of OoT Ganondorf and Majora. He has a small amount of screen time, yet he has a firm grasp of the narrative because he's the reason why the game even exists. He revives his monsters using the Blood Moon, he has deformed extensions of himself in control of the Divine Beasts that were made to kill him, he is in control of the Guardians, his Malice surrounds parts of the land in the form of molten power, AND he's at the center of the destroyed Hyrule Castle. Despite being restrained by Princess Zelda, Ganon is consistently active and lets you know it.

Second off, the lore. Even before the release of ToTK, it was clear that this monstrosity was a Ganondorf who had his mind separated from him, a Ganondorf who is now pure power that refuses to die. He was defeated by the Guardians and the Divine Beasts when he first appeared, but when he returned, he learned from his defeat and corrupted all of the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, wiping out a good portion of Hyrule in the process before Zelda began to try and restrain him. The lore isn't really that interesting, but it does benefit Calamity Ganon by cementing him right away as something akin to a tornado or a flood, a force of nature.

And the finally, his lack of a personality makes sense. If you don't like Calamity Ganon because he lack a personality... I feel like you kinda missed what this creature is. It's Ganondorf's power without his mind, a literal force of nature born from the corpse of a dead man, and it certainly feels like it. From his ghastly mist boar design, to his spider-robot-demon form, it feels like Ganondorf almost died and became this this way before we figured out that was indeed the case! Like he doesn't feel like some generic doomsday villain similar to what the NES Ganon was, he legitimately feels like an incomplete and fractured Ganondorf who is desperately clinging onto the mortal plain.

I would like to list some more of my thoughts on Calamity Ganon, but I feel like I already have said enough so far. The point is that I feel like he isn't a bad villain, he just had a disappointing final phase.

[doomed-jester]

TOTK Ganondorf is really cool and all but after everything I still think my favorite incarnation of the character is the one we see in Wind Waker.

I don't like Wind Waker very much. I think the later dungeons (the escort missions) get tedious and the ocean exploring (especially in the original or without the swift sail in the HD version) is very slow and repetitive. But Ganondorf? Oh he's great.

The Ganondorf of Wind Waker is the Ganondorf who was defeated at the end of Ocarina of Time. The one who reigned over Hyrule as the Demon King, who became a monster in pursuit of power, and who ultimately failed. The Ganondorf of Wind Waker is one who held power and lost it, and it shows. He's not as smug and power hungry as the Ganondorf of Twilight Princess, who never saw his plan fail, or as outright monstrous as the Ganon of the downfall timeline who lost every shred of his humanity.

Wind Waker had a Ganondorf who had been humbled, brought back down to humanity after standing as a god. He was still evil but he was introspective, he was measured, he was patient. He even explains his motivations! He wasn't just evil for Evil's sake, he wanted a better life, for himself and his people. His monologue at the end of the game is such incredible writing and it's honestly seared into my brain. He got corrupted by his desire for more and more power, but he genuinely did have the best interests of the Gerudo at heart at some stage.

This line is tattooed into my cerebrum I stg.

Meanwhile, the Ganondorf of Tears of the Kingdom is, without spoiling anything, just kind of a massive cunt who's evil from day one and his goals amount to plunging the world into darkness because he's evil. Seriously, I collected the dragon tears, I saw the memory cut scenes, I spent days in that game and I feel like I must've missed something because Ganondorf's motives felt absolutely paper fucking thin.

That's not to say it's a bad game! I loved Tears of the Kingdom, more than Breath of the Wild even. The champions get more to do, the side quests are numerous and very fun, the visuals and gameplay are amazing, and it has what every Zelda game deserves: really good, unique boss fights. But... Well I just find its villain lacking. He gets a lot of screen time, apparently more dialogue than any past incarnation of Ganon has had, but even with all that it just feels like he didn't have reasons to do what he did.

[sablegear0]

Finished TotK Finally

As in, finished the story. End numbers after buying the last boss pictures and completing the Compendium were 87.72% complete. I may go back and do koroks and minigames sporadically when I want to wander around in the world again.

So I suppose people might expect my thoughts or a review. Idk if I have anything unique to say but I may as well so: Plot and BIG ending spoilers under the cut. Also extremely long detailed opinions. Like this one got REALLY long. TL;DR at the very bottom.

The End Bits The Light Dragon In a previous blog I applauded Nintendo for letting their women characters turn into incomprehensible beasties lately (TotK, Dread). For the record, I posted that shortly before being spoiled on the fact that Zelda changes back at the end. Needless to say I was re-disappointed. I get WHY they did it. Permanently removing the title character from the game via 10,000 years of ego death doesn't really seem like a great reward for the player seeking out the plot; BotW/TotK Link and Zelda have gone through more than most of their incarnations to get where they are, so it's nice to give them a happy ending, etc. It just... kinda sucks because that was a really cool move otherwise. But Nintendo will not tell us an intentionally tragic (or even bittersweet) story so we got our girl back.

Also she was fine, by the way. She just woke up fully able to move and speak like she'd just had a bit of a rough nap. She also canonically does not remember her millennia spent as a dragon in any fashion. I know the fan writers are probably having a field day with injury/trauma recovery fics for her and I don't blame them. 10k years of ego death and a monstrous transformation should come with some consequences, shouldn't it?

To be honest the nature of the deus ex machina in question bugs me more than the fact that it happened. "Idk Sonia and Rauru did something" is the actual explanation we get (thanks Mineru, you're a real one tho) and it feels... hollow. Like, if the two dragons had clashed and injured one another, and "dying" knocked Zelda out of the transformation the same way destroying the Secret Stone that Ganondorf had taken destroyed his dragon form, that would make more sense, right? You still get your dramatic ending that's a cinematic reflection of Skyward Sword and a symbolic close (presumably) to Ganon's cycle of reincarnation. The arbitrary "power of love" (and not even the Hero's love, come on) ending just doesn't sit right.

Ganondorf Neither did the actual fight with Ganondorf, to be honest. I prepped some pretty high-value weapons, assuming that like BotW I'd have to break a few swords on him before the fight was over. But they just, again, deus ex machina'd that the Master Sword was indestructible for that fight and at no other time. My big scary weapons did see some good use in the wave fight beforehand, which was kind of neat but also kind of underwhelming. I guess that's the point where the game checks if you can handle that many enemies (ie. did you bring enough friends), similar to how doing the Divine Beasts halves Calamity Ganon's HP in BotW.

The duel-style fight for the first two phases was kind of cool. Made a bit annoying by TotK's tighter timing on parries and dodges. And the fact that the legitimate pressure of having your HP outright destroyed (cool, stressful) was removed by the third phase (annoying, no consequences for doing poorly in that part of the fight).

Third phase was neat. It was cinematic, but with no actual danger. I don't think I took any damage that wasn't just gloom-ticks from standing on the demon dragon to attack it. Didn't even get to use my cool bows in the aerial battle. Additionally I didn't have any need for the cool armour I had worked so hard to upgrade. I spent quite a lot of time and effort upgrading the Ancient Hero's Aspect and a second high-defense set (Champion's Leathers, Soldier's Greaves, Amber Earrings). The latter I did use in the demon dragon phase because it looked cool. The former I completely forgot that I had (despite having had to kill an ungodly amount of King Gleeoks to complete it). I used the Depths set for the first two-thirds of the fight because of the Gloom resistance it offered.

The Mechanics Devices All that said, what TotK set out to do it did decently well. It expanded on the physics-heavy improvisational gameplay of BotW with the addition of the Ultrahand fusion mechanic and Zonai Devices, improving on their base engine to create a system that I have heard other devs consider basically magic. Devices and weapon fusion, however, were clearly balanced with the early-to-mid-game in mind. The devices were tools, not weapons, even the ones that were nominally weapons. They simply did not put out enough raw damage to be used offensively, and were better as deterrents or distractions for enemies.

Weapon Fusion I know people weren't crazy about weapon degradation in BotW and I think TotK managed to make it slightly worse. In BotW, all you had to do was find where a desirable weapon spawned and make note of it so you could come back to pick it up after the Bloodmoon respawned everything. In TotK, you have to do that AND fight a monster with a good fuseable part to improve it. You have to do twice as much farming for about the same amount of gain. And that's not even accounting for the weapons you'd break fighting something big like a Lynel - sure they drop good parts, but you might break 2 or 3 weapons taking one down, even with help from your sages. You're operating at a net loss.

Granted the fused part of a weapon does the bulk of the work, but TotK did the interesting thing of making each flavour of weapon ("Soldier's", "Zonaite", "Gerudo", etc) have its own unique properties. This is very cool, until you find a type you like and struggle to find enough of them. Again, you have to trek around to find them and also hope you have the materials for a good fusion. It has its moments, like sticking a Silver Lynel horn on a Gerudo weapon to get a damage value over 100 (which is absurd, most "good" weapons cap out around 50 on average, barring any extra effects), but again, you're usually operating at a slight loss with respect to weapons.

Armour Upgrades To be frank: It's bad. It's bloated and way too resource-intensive. In BotW there were a limited number of sets you'd actually want to upgrade, as each had its own unique thing and that's it, there's one of each. Even doing all of them for completion's sake was achievable. In TotK they have those basic sets, plus a few more unique sets, plus a few redundant sets, and a frankly absurd number of generic aesthetic sets (which flavour of Link would you like? Ocarina of Time? Twilight Princess? Link's Awakenng Remake?) And in all of this they never thought to rebalance the amount of materials required for upgrading.

And on top of THAT, I think they messed with the item drop-rates too! Most enemies can drop 2 kinds of resources, some potentially have more, some only drop 1. in BotW I don't think (thought I may have to check) each type was a guaranteed drop, but you saw every type fairly frequently. In TotK each enemy now has distinct rare drops. And they can be RARE. And the worst part is you need a LOT of them for some armour upgrades. For example; Lizalfos tails are the Lizalfos rare drop, and the armour sets that need them can need up to 15 of the stupid things from a particular species of Lizalfos. Have fun grinding, because now you're playing Monster Hunter instead of Zelda.

Vehicles and Horses The vehicles both did and didn't trivialize crossing the map; a significant amount of grinding is needed before you have enough batteries to cover any distance, Wings (the bird-shaped gliders) have a limited lifespan to keep you from just flying everywhere, and the overworld is generally complicated enough that any fast wheeled vehicle will not be useful for long, and any all-terrain vehicle moves only at a modest speed. Ironically, just use horses where available. They're faster, more versatile, and can be called to you if they're within earshot. Also horses can spawn with overall higher stats than in BotW, and can be upgraded, though with significant resource investment. (It is worth noting that the "best" horse in base BotW, the royal white horse, is only middling to above-average stat-wise when compared to a good wild-caught horse in TotK. They power-crept the horses!)

The most interesting vehicles/movement devices, to me, were the rockets and hot-air balloons. Both add a lot instant verticality in a game that is all about traversal. Fusing a rocket to a shield gets you a huge boost for little resource expenditure (rockets are a bit rare until you can purchase devices). And once you find the Autobuild schematic for a hot air balloon base, all you need to add is a flame-emitter and you can ascend as far as your batteries allow.

Shrines In my humble opinion, TotK knocked it out of the park with its shrines. The ones that have actual puzzles, anyway. There is an unfortunately large proportion of "blessing" shrines that have no puzzle in them, and not all of them even need to be worked for that hard. The ones that do have puzzles are excellent. There are quite a few that highlight different uses for devices, and a good handful that take the Eventide Island/Master Trials-style challenge of stripping you of all your gear and put some twist on it. (Notably these are most interesting in the mid-game, when you have enough hearts to survive but not to trivialize the no-armour combat difficulty.)

They also did the very classy thing of not locking outfit parts behind hidden chests in Shrines. All the hidden chests were perfectly optional bonus chests that required no frustrating re-visits after finding out where that last piece of armour was hiding. Also the slight variations on the music theme was a nice touch that kept the shrines feeling fresh. No shade to the Sheikah Shrine theme, but the strong synths could get a bit grating at times. TotK's gentle, plinky shrine theme variations were an improvement.

The Map The Overworld Probably(?) the most common complaint about TotK and one I share. It's too damn big. In addition to mostly recycling the map from BotW (which bothered some people more than it bothered me, I think), they added an equivalent-sized map for the Depths. Now, BotW's overworld already felt a bit sparse, but it fit the tone of a literal post-apocalyptic world and encouraged you to poke around looking for koroks and investigating enemy camps. TotK's surface overworld is dotted with far more enemy camps and significantly fewer koroks, so it is about as dense but more dangerous/annoying (depending on your hp and gear) to traverse.

There are some major changes to the surface, beyond adding ruins to some spots; most of Death mountain is now safe to travel on foot (probably to encourage use of vehicles) and is no longer superheated, and there are a few spots where the road network is broken, dividing the map into 2 halves that cannot be crossed between on horseback. (In BotW, by comparison, all the roads were connected and you could auto-pilot a horse from one end of the map to the other, provided you took roads marked on the map.)

The Sky The Sky islands were relatively few, for all the hype they got in the promotional material. However I think their self-contained structure and handful of unique features (the "death star" islands, the dive challenges) helped them not overstay their welcome. Besides, the islands themselves are technically also ruins, 10,000 years old and finally visible to the naked eye from the surface, It's a wonder there's as much left and it's as functional as it is. They are beautiful, though. I did enjoy just loitering around in the sky to take in the view and the relaxed atmosphere, as there are fewer enemies up there.

The Depths The Depths... I think I share the majority gripe with the Depths. They're too big. The Depths are another whole open world that is more hostile with even less in it. It exists to grind for resources and pad the playtime. The challenge of the depths is in initially traversing it, having to light your way through impenetrable darkness and navigate dense enemy encampments and find Light Roots to fill out the map. After that, provided you have enough battery power, it can generally be ignored by flying over it. Which is unfortunate. If I were to fix the Depths, I would make it more akin to the Sky Islands; more self-contained, make it a series of winding, interconnected discrete caves, like one big dungeon crawl, rather than a second open world to ignore. Still have the Light Roots be important to vision and mapping, but have the general landscape be more contained. Maybe even have a few more areas that are inaccessible at first except by dropping into the correct chasms, like they did with the Eventide Island and Tingle Island Chain areas of the Depths.

Everything Else Side Quests and Koroks Honestly I enjoyed the variety of sidequests in TotK, and also enjoyed that some of them were quite involved. TotK had two "Tarrey Town"-equivalent long-form side-quest lines; one being visiting all the stables with Penn (I am counting this as one quest because you get drip-fed armour pieces from a unique set throughout it), and the other being the Mayoral Election / Local Cuisine questline in Hateno Village. There were also side-quests to optionally construct the Champions' weapons, which was neat, and to build a house with crazy Ultrahand powers, which was totally frivolous but fun to do. The one thing that bugged me a bit about the side-quests was running into NPCs that reasonably should have remembered Link but didn't. It felt odd, especially poking around Tarrey Town initially.

The Korok puzzles had some new variety to them, which was nice. The block puzzles were given the extra interest of being able to rotate things with Ultrahand, and the vehicle/towing mechanics were given a chance to shine with the "help me reach my friend" puzzles. Having Hestu appear in some less-than-ideal places to begin with (and the whole Lost Woods thing omg what a pain) kind of sucked, but getting those sweet sweet inventory upgrades is always worth it.

The Characters I love all the Sages, I'm going to say it right now. It was really cool to see some familiar faces from BotW (that actually recognized me) and learn what they'd been up to in the ambiguous time-gap. Teba being the slight exception but honestly - meeting Tulin and realizing this sweet bean bird boy looks just like both his parents hit me right in the heart. Mineru was also very cool and I'm glad we got to hang out with her (and bid her a tearful goodbye... my lovely lanky lady...). I also appreciated that doing the Ancient Writings quest teases Mineru's introduction. That was a nice touch.

Penn and Purah are fun, and the Lucky Clover Gazette and Monster Control Crew quests add some depth and background progression to BotW's Hyrule. You get to see how ordinary people are faring and how things are advancing post-Calamity. Seeing the various peoples of Hyrule gather at Lookout Landing after clearing a regional temple was neat, even if it was really only for show.

I know some people have beef with Rauru and that's maybe a blog for another time, but I don't think I have a strong enough opinion to bother. I didn't mind him, I think his arc was clear enough, I think I would have liked to see more of him and Sonia interacting with Zelda in a more everyday fashion - it seemed like she had a lot of fun in the distant past and something more than just a text log of that and a couple cutscenes might have been nice. Honestly I think I would have liked to see more of Sonia especially, she seems like an interesting lady (again, something more than Chaucerian text as proof would have been nice).

I'm honestly kind of mid on Matt Mercer's Ganondorf? I get that he's a big name and people were excited to hear him in the role but idk if the voice was entirely a good fit. They rocked the hell out of his visual design, though. Very good updated look, borrowing elements from some of his previous incarnations. Again I would have liked to see more elaboration on him though; what was the Gerudo tribe like under his rule? Were there dissenters? Give me more worldbuilding or I'll be forced to do it myself.

Music Mostly the same, actually. Overworld themes were recycled. Shrine themes were different and an upgrade imo. Combat themes were slightly different but I probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart at a listen. The Temple music though, oh boy. I loved these themes; they took the ramping instruments from the Divine Beasts control panel gimmick and mixed the Divine Beast Approach themes with each Sage's unique motif to create some really cool but pleasantly unobtrusive tracks. The Depths ambience was appropriately spooky, and the dynamic theme that kicks in when you high-dive was a nice touch, especially since there are distinct versions for diving to the surface and diving to the Depths.

But the standout tracks for me? First, the intro sequence where you descend with Zelda into the foundations of Hyrule Castle and hear the ever-layering Zonai chanting with the spooky reversed voice clips? MMM. 👌 So spooky, so tasty. Genuinely had me on edge even though I knew nothing would happen because it was the intro. The return sequence by the endgame has it build even more intensely as you descend even further and it's fantastic. Second is the Gloom's Approach / Gloom's Source battle theme. The distinctly electronic drone and beat associated with the Depths/gloom-related stuff gets room to shine when this tense bass-heavy track kicks in.

The Little Things I am actually going to stop this one here because I think this part deserves its own blog. There are a ton of little details in TotK that I absolutely adored and I want to gush about them with proper space allotted.

TL;DR TotK is alright. I know I'll catch flak for saying it's "good", so I won't. Settle down. It's alright. Some things it does extremely well, some things could have been edited for time, and some things remained just kinda mid from the original.

If I have to give it a number, it's a solid 6.5-7/10 . Competently constructed, technically impressive, mostly cut-and-pasted, mildly bloated, narratively kind of boring with no sense of stakes and an ending that undoes some otherwise interesting choices.

[mylonelydreaming]

It is kind of a curse having played video games for so long (my entire life from around age 4) that I'm simply not bad enough to have many funny experiences to talk about. I rarely struggle due to two decades of ingrained instincts of game design tropes. "I beat this without struggling at all" just doesn't lead to many interesting moments, so I only talk about story and characters and ships that I'm interested in.

The main reason I basically only talk about Link and Zelda isn't because it is my *sole* enjoyment of the game (far from it, actually. I enjoy every aspect of the gameplay), but because (at risk of offending people) ...I just don't find the other characters very interesting? It's ironic to say that, because Link doesn't have that much explicit characterization himself, but I find his backstory and what we do know about him and what he goes through to be compelling and relatable. The main story of botw & totk (while yes, it is also about their connections to Hyrule and their friends), is mostly Link and Zelda's story, anyway.

I did like the champions, especially Urbosa and Revali (yes, I am a Revali sympathizer), but they're all dead now and barely mentioned in totk, so I don't have much to say there.

I liked Mineru, Rauru and Sonia, but we barely got to know them. I did like the implication that Mineru let Zelda ride around her construct in the past, and did experiments together (though, I kind of wish that had been a cutscene).

Ganondorf is cool looking and all, but he wasn't a super compelling villain or anything. Not that he really he needed to be for me. He's the big bad boss you fight and that's fine by me.

I like Purah, but she is more of a supporting cast member (and comedic relief in AoC and botw). She was also a lot more interesting in AoC, tbh.

Paya... did absolutely nothing and had very little actual growth. It honestly really disappointed me that her character seems to exist just to stand around and look pretty. Tauro exists, I guess?

Sidon was honestly very flat to me compared to how he was in AoC, and I'm just not interested in him at all in the way other people are (I lean towards women and don't find anthropomorphic animal characters attractive. I honestly feel nothing at all when I look at Sidon. I'm sorry if that upsets somebody). I liked Yona's design the most out of any of the Zora designs so far, but I don't really feel any type of way about her. I did like that she encouraged Sidon.

I like Riju, but I really don't like her being sexualized, which is what a lot of people seem to do when she is brought up.... so I'm a little scared to talk about her character lol.

Yunobo is Yunobo. I don't hate him but there's not much to say about him (except for when he became a drug overlord for a moment lol). He fulfills the same role as Daruk as the goofy goron bro and that's fine.

Teba unfortunately didn't really do much this time, but It was nice seeing Tulin grow up and come into his own in totk.

...and that's about it. Again, the main story mainly focuses on Zelda (Which I don't mind, she's my favourite. I'm shamelessly Princess Zelda biased), so I'm just a bit passive about everyone else.

[kitkatt0430]

Twilight Princess question - do you think Midna always intended to shatter the Mirror of Twilight or was that a decision she came to during/after the final battle?

I think it's something that she probably started considering before the final battle.

At first, she and Link are looking for the remaining three Fused Shadows and she has to see that it's not just Zant's magic that has a negative affect on Hyrule. One of the Fused Shadows mutated a dekubaba from a minor nuisance into the boss level Diababa. Another mutated Darbus from a regular Goron into a monster who threatened the welfare of his kin. And the last mutated some kind of eel-like creature into the dangerous, Morpheel.

It's likely sheer luck that they're able to save Darbus from the effects of the Fused Shadow, as certainly nothing of Diababa or Morpheel's original selves are saved. So while Midna is growing closer to Link and having to see that though the Land of Light isn't some awful place but deserving of saving too... she's having to witness the destructive power of her ancestors and what it does to those who are not of her clan.

And then the Fused Shadows are stolen from her and Zelda seemingly gives her life to save Midna's. And Midna's respect for the people of the Light world grows further.

Then they head on their quest to find the Mirror of Twilight and Midna has to see the coliseum grounds alongside Link. Seeing the worst of Hyrule's history there, leading to the portal to her home being treated as a method of execution. And that had to hurt to see.

Of course, that starts the new fetch quest and the fresh horror as the shards of the Mirror of Twilight prove to be as dangerous to the unaware as the Fused Shadows were.

Yeto and Yeta are kind and sweet yeti but the mirror shard in their home makes Yeta ill and eventually transforms her into the monstrous Blizzeta. The spiders of the Temple of Time are corrupted by the mirror's presence, creating the unnaturally large and cursed armaghoma and her children. And while Argarock's origin is unclear, he clearly only became a source of terror for the Occa recently, caused by the arrival of the mirror shard.

The Fused Shadows, the Mirror of Twilight... these are the magics of her people in the Light world and they cause horrific destruction when left to their own devices. Even when whole, the Mirror of Twilight was used to 'execute' prisoners like Ganondorf who were too powerful for normal means of death. But it didn't actually kill him. Instead it inflicted him and his own dangerous magic upon Midna's world of Shadow.

She's the princess. Future leader of her people. And she has to think of what's best for her people. And because of Zelda's sacrifice, Midna likely felt obligated to consider what was best for the people of Hyrule too.

I do think it's possible that Midna reached that decision before the final battle. I don't remember if there's foreshadowing for it or not since it's been a while since I last played the game, but it would make a lot of sense that she'd start putting her observations together before the final battle regardless of when she made the final choice. She knew their worlds were dangerous to each other and severing the link between them - by shattering the Mirror of Twilight - was the safest option out of however many she considered. Sure, it may have been the final battle that decided her, when she felt the overwhelming power of the Fused Shadows for herself. Or maybe it was decision she made beforehand that further complicated the final battle for her, as she wasn't just fighting Ganondorf, but her own grief over knowing she would lose Link and Zelda regardless of the battle's outcome.

I'm not sure which answer I like better, honestly. But both make sense given the bittersweet conclusion the game leaves us with.

[penpenpencil]

your favorite twilight head cannon and draw it? :)

I have a few related to his design so I'll explain the way I draw him and add some extra headcannons in as a bonus :) [Also read as: I can't pick a favorite HFHFHDKSKI]

The drawing I made for this but forgot about KJHHGDJHVJHG

Design HC:

His hair is a slightly darker and more red version of Time's hair :D

His eyes also glow sometimes. He thinks it's a Twili thing he got somehow.

He has a tattoo on his right arm(Left arm from our pov) that resembles the Twili markings. It took ages to get it done but he's very happy with it :]

On his left arm(right arm to us) he has a few things that not everyone might notice. On his upper arm/shoulder is a scar from where his arm was cut off [inspired by the manga] and on his wrist is a semi-bloody bandage. The bandage is from the metal cuff on Wolfie. The cuff is a little too tight on him and anytime he's tried to take it of has failed. So even while Hylian, the injury acts up and he has to wrap it to prevent infections on the regular. (This will come up later)

He actually only wears one earing(on his right ear, our left) he put the other one on his wolf pelt because he's a nerd and it makes him laugh.

His wolf pelt is made from his own fur actually! He had a few people help him actually get the fur and put it together but now he has a fluffy hoddie with ears!! It also has a tail and he loves it.

He does have the heroes tunic in his pack but he rarely wears it because he thinks he can only wear it when doing proper Hero stuff. When he met the Chain he was still wearing his usual farm outfit and it just stuck. The tunic is still there but he hasn't brought himself to wear it just yet. (He doesn't really want this journey to end and he thinks that wearing the Hero’s getup will make the journey thing official. And Hero’s Journeys always end)

Yes his gloves are two different sizes. He needs the smaller one so he can see how the bandages are easily. The dark blue fabric wasn't doing him any favors at indicating when he should change them.

Extra HC:

Twi tends to use his crossbow a lot more than he uses his sword. He still uses both a lot but he favors the crossbow anyway.

He's ambidextrous! He started learning how to use his sword with his left hand but learned with the right hand so he'd get better with his balance. After his arm was fucked up (and healed) his left arm was much weaker than before so he tended to switch what arm he was using. Left arm for easier, more predictable fights. Right arm for the more difficult, and large fights(bosses). He finished off Ganondorf with both.

He is the embodiment of a puppy. Not entirely, he is still one of the most responsible and adult of the adult Links. He's just- big on the retriever energy and tends to mimic dog/wolf noises/body language on accident.

His full name is Link Falon. A mix of my person hc for Time, who is Link Goldenfall and Molon Lon. He actually doesn’t know, actively, that Falon is his last name. He knows it subconsciously, (forest spirits are talkative like that) but he hasnt heard it since he showed up in Ordon so it hasn’t stuck with him in a while.

He actually found the Shadow Crystal after Midna shattered the mirror. It was found in the castle throne room, where she fought Ganondorf and was given to him by Zelda/Dusk since he knew how to use it safely. The first time he used it again though, he was stuck as a wolf for three days and kept the strange facial markings on his Hylian form after.

Ever since Wild showed up, he’s felt a weird connection to him. He gets a very strange set of deja vu around him and has these random memories of Wild that he knows he shouldn't remember. Wild’s strange reaction to Wolfie set it off originally; so who knows what will happen if Wild lets him reveal the truth of the matter? He isn’t sure if he wants the answer.

I love the Hylian Ambassador Twilight headcannon too so that's also a thing.

He can also kinda understand animals while Hylian. Not as clearly as while a wolf, but still noticeable. He's befriended every animal in Ordon and Castletown and can understand the cats and dogs the easiest.(mainly because goats are little shits and don't like talking to him at all)

[kenandeliza]

I recently remembered a roleswap AU involving OOT link and Ganondorf

What if child ganondorf is the reluctant hero and a sociopathic kokiri link is the villain who wants to take over hyrule into a dark forest?:

I would turn this into a fanfic if i wasnt so unqualified to be an author and had more free time but i got the main points jotted.

Ganon:

Originally wanted to form the alliance with the king of hyrule to backstab him in the future and marry his daughter to become king of hyrule after what he did in the gerudo-hylian war.

Plan to gain the trust of princess zelda by following her delusion that hyrule "will be conquered by a forest child if he doesn't"

After 3 stones were gathered, he stood in front of the gate just to see impa and zelda being chased out from the castle by the soldiers. Impa being accused of murdering the king. While this is happening, ganon noticed something strange about the soldiers but couldn't be bothered but run to the temple of time

Events of OOT happens naturally up to the moment he wakes up from 7 years

Sheik tells ganon what the world outside is like: the overworld is filled with forest with similar magic of the lost woods, anyone who get lost in there is either turned into a stalfos or a skullkid, those that met the child himself will be implanted with a mind control parasite with the shape of an eyeball. Death mountain and kakariko village worked together to become a safe haven for the people of hyrule. The gerudo has sworn allegiance towards the kokiri child after thinking their prince has left them, in exchange, the kokiri child conjured an oasis in their desert.

Ganon doesn't believe sheik that last part, and ventured to gerudo valley himself, he was then met with anger and feelings of betrayal from his people for supposedly peaving them. He was thrown in the dungeon and sheik breaks him out, ganon feels hopeless as he felt he was not worthy of being their leader after abandoning his people.

Sheik tells ganon that it wasn't his fault, [ i truly forgot how i imagine sheik convincing ganon to not lose hope ._.]

Sheik guided ganon to kakariko village and told him to get a hookshot

Events up until fighting link is relatively the same[ sheik axts as a guide for ganon in the forest overworld]

He will evolve from someone who only cares about his people into someone who cares about the people of Hyrule after seeing them suffer

Link:

A kokiri without fairy, His very presence drives fairies away from him. This unknown condition left him as an outcast

Fairies act as a kokiri conscience, telling right from wrong.

But his unknown condition also led him to be able to make monsters, boss monsters takes a lot of energy to make.

He wanted to go outside the kokiri forest but knows that he wont survive a couple days. There isn't any forest magic outside to sustain him long.

Link forcefully took the kokiri emerald (an item that could sustain him in the outside world)

Events of oot relatively stays the same

Wish i am a good writer so i can write these all coherently

[theglitchmaster]

IT IS DONE

I have FINALLY beaten Ocarina of Time (3D) and I have Thoughts.

I can honestly say that I dislike the game a lot less than I did before.

For context I've tried at least half a dozen times to beat oot throughout my childhood, but could never get farther than the Forest Temple before becoming bored out of my mind, putting the game down, and then just not picking it back up. I've never been able to get attached to any of the characters (Sheik being the exception 🏳️‍⚧️), I wasn't a fan of a lot of the background music or sound effects, the gameplay was pretty clunky, and in general just did not find the game fun (to be fair i did play it mostly on gamecube back then).

The gameplay still feels clunky but since the game is older than me I'll give it a pass there, and the 3ds controls are a hell of a lot better than the gamecube version.

Navi is as annoying as everyone makes her out to be you were right.

The first three dungeons are still a drag, and I think Jabu Jabu's dungeon is my least favorite dungeon of every zelda game I've played so far. Awful thing.

This is one of the few games that has made fishing almost fun.

The Forest Temple was fine, I liked the poe sisters and I thought Phantom Ganon's fight was fun. Stalfos personally own me money fuck those guys.

The Fire Temple was long as hell and I kept getting lost. Volvagia hits like a truck but is otherwise a fun boss.

I know the fandom has ongoing memes about how every water dungeon is confusing and a pain in the ass, especially the oot Water Temple, but it was fine? I didn't get lost and most of the puzzles were fine. I got more pissed off at the Ice Caverns than I did the Water Temple. I loved the eerie vibe of the illusion room and the Dark Link fight was easy but fun. Morpha was annoying but not too bad.

Bottom of the Well was very cool and spooky, I can see how this would have traumatized children, and probably would have traumatized me if I had ever gotten that far as a kid.

Shadow Temple was cool. Big surprise that there was two Dead Hands. Very freaky torture chamber. Bongo Bongo was a bitchass mother fucker. Yes he looks cool but was not a good fight. It was easier to kill him by chasing him down with my sword than it was to try and shoot him with the bow.

I think in general I don't like playing as kid Link in oot but I thought how they mixed both kid and adult requirements into the dungeon was clever. The darknuts/Iron Knuckles also owe me money fuck them as well but less than the stalfos. Also fuck floor/wallmasters. The Iron Knuckle Nabooru reveal was pretty cool though.

I did find how Ganon's Castle requires you to solve puzzles themed after each sage to be pretty clever and cool in theory, unfortunately I did not find it all that fun. I did have to leave at one point to get Fire Arrows because I could not continue without them. (This one is completely on me, I have a terrible ability when playing a zelda game for the first time to somehow completely miss important things and unknowingly make the game harder for myself. Examples including: first time playing tp and only learning 2 skills from the Golden wolf and no others, how I ever beat darknuts without a backslash ill never remember; somehow playing through all of albw and never once coming across any sword or armor upgrades. That yuga fight was hell. So obviously any extra difficulty i experienced in oot for not having everything is def my fault) Ganondorf's first fight was a pain in the ass, it wasn't hard I just kept falling and he wouldn't stay down long enough for me to get more than one hit in at a time. Not a fan of the no floors. Ganon's pig form is cool in this one, I like his design. This fight was actually fun, not hard by any means but cool.

Still not a fan of a lot of minor sound effects, most of the music was nice. Everyone is a lot less ugly (and triangular) in the 3ds version, can't say I'm gay for this Ganondorf though. Still didn't get attached to many characters. Sheik is still my beloved but most of his Cool Character points go into 1.Mysterious and 2.Transmasc coded as fuck. I like Impa. I would still personally throw hands with Mido. I really like the zoras' design in general but Ruto is as annoying as I remembered. Nabooru is cool. Malon and Saria are okay.

I think if I was older and this had been my first loz game I would have liked it a lot more for Nostalgia Points alone (or I never would have gotten into zelda idk), but as one i grew up with later it was okay. I don't hate it, but its definitely still one of my least favorite 3d titles, and there were times when I played it where I actually missed playing Skyward Sword and its dogshit motion controls. If I were to have tried to beat my gamecube copy I think it would have been a repeat situation of picking it up, putting it down, and then never beating it; and I don't see myself replaying it from the beginning unless I were to do it for a youtube channel or a twitch stream or something.

Ocarina of Time was aight butman do I wanna go replay Twilight Princess. Ganon sorry I killed your moms.

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

Would love a director's commentary of any/all your fics 🙏

AH! I wasn't expecting an answer so fast! And they're so massive where do I even start? Like my biggest thoughts right now are all MoaH, which I have some things queued over the next few days, but everything else I'd wanna say...it's all spoilers. I'm not trying to avoid the ask, it's just a very big question with all of them. I guess I'll throw out a bunch of factoids and feel free to ask me more specifics.

To condense the star ask as well since this is gonna be a random chapter grab, and since the first chapter of the final battle is out tomorrow for GoS, I've had this arc planned since basically 2012. There was one major change on which individual would be the target of a particular stage of the fight, but other than that, it's been this fight since 2012. And the whole thing can get played to the 25th anniversary medley. I have a note somewhere where I wrote down the chapter time stamps to it for the AMV in my head (which maybe I'll put out after GoS is all done). It was the same song that is the reason Endeavor plays violin as well.

I have never been huge about idol groups, but the Earth Sages in GoS are my absolute favorite. I knew I wanted the dungeon to be musically themed and so the boy band idea was an early decision with that. I wanted their names to be musically themed too, so all of the Earth Sages actually have names based off Japanese music scales, which fit with the Keaton. Do Re Mi names might have been too obvious. Following that, Dominus is probably my favorite Sage.

Same dungeon had a prime opportunity for a triple inspired boss name. The Earth Temple's boss, Dungeon Master, has three inspirations. One, it follows franchise convention on most powerful versions of enemies, so Wallmaster/Floormaster -> Dungeon Master. Two, it's a nod to the TTRPG role, as this boss occupies the literal fourth wall of a theater, which is fitting to compare to a DM. And three, this fight was the first time Ganondorf made an appearance in the story, and I was trying to invoke a bit of Mr. Mercer's performance for a lack of ability to convey an actual voice via some pop culture osmosis.

Princess has a Muppets reference after the dungeon once she drops the idea of marrying Link, Zeal mentions it. It may help to circle back on Princess being a pig moblin leaning Blin who is also a diva.

Admittedly a lot of GoS before that is a bit fuzzy cause of the whole nap in the Temple of Time I did on it. From starting up edits, I can say that Bruce's horse, The Wind, is a personal reference. Any time I'd convince my dad to play a Zelda game, he's always name himself A.Stud and in the case of TP, he named Epona The Wind. When I started writing, that was a recent in joke for me.

One of the reasons the Dark Portal gets mentioned so early was because Minecraft was just getting big when I started writing GoS and I had the unrealistic idea that I'd build GoS's Hyrule in it. The Dark Portal would have been a Nether portal. I never went anywhere with that idea, but it's the reason the GoS map sketch I have is divided on a grid. That was theoretically gonna be chunks (highly ambitious plan there, no what it would have fit).

I have actually no idea how much time takes place between the start and end of GoS. Loosely, it's from the beginning of summer to the end of autumn. Whatever time skips make that work are canon in my head. And it's one of the reasons I have been so serious about keeping track of time in MoaH. The rapid pace of GoS though does fit. GoS Link really did get woken up in a dream by some stranger and then harassed by a bird until he did it what they said, so. No rest.

My favorite Sage dragon design is the Forest Sage's, all though the Soul Sage's dragon is pretty good too. That's an easy second. I'm a plants person, what can I say? Though the Earth Sage and Fire Sage dragons have good chonky boi personalities that I love too.

And there's absolutely so much to say about MoaH and like. I can say basically none of it because y'all only have the current 23 chapters and I'm writing the 65th? chapter now. MoaH's first book will be written before its updates are out, that's for sure. It'll likely hit about 250k words, compared to GoS's current 410k. So. There's a lot to say about MoaH. I guess the few that I've got for MoaH, uh...

Rephi x Rudoe is my favorite couple, hands down, those two are amazing NPCs and criminally under used. I need to find an excuse to go back to Deku's Shelf to write them again. I picture Rudoe's voice now like the Luma in the Mario movie.

I know all of my Links talk in my fics, largely for the purpose of medium. Writing a mute Link I think is a lot harder in fic over comics, and it's a little outside my wheelhouse with my limited skill in sign. That said, of all my Links, MoaH Link is the one I think most fits being a talking Link. And I even have some in text response to that later on in the story.

I know a lot of people don't like Zelda presently in MoaH (kinda the point), but I absolutely adore her and Link's dynamic. It really starts coming out in the Nayru's Temple act of book 1, but this man has a massive blind spot for this woman and I love writing it even though the secondhand embarrassment causes me like actual physical pain.

In general, I adore writing MoaH Link. The balance between exceptionally competent fighter and likeable male protagonist is a difficult but very fun line to walk. I think because of the mercenary comment, a lot of people expected a Geralt or a John Wick or some other machismo personality for Link when I originally started MoaH and that has never been franchise characterization of Link and it's not true about MoaH Link. He is a lovable idiot. GoS Link has this very humble, almost bashful personality to me (mostly cause of then teen angst) while MoaH Link gets to be this absolute dork and it is a joy to write. And also seeing how different they are as incarnations of the same character is a lot of fun, particularly for spoiler reasons. But man, that contrast between awkward, fumbling, kinda impulsive guy into combat where he gets to be efficient. Mmmmm, that's some good shit.

I cannot wait for y'all to get more time with Floan. I love her and Link's relationship. It is a bit of a polished sibling relationship, I'll admit that, mostly because I don't know how to handle an age gap as big as theirs (MoaH Link being 27 at the start of the fic and Floan being 10, which not impossible for siblings, but a wide gap) as accurately as my two year age gap with my younger sister, but they are the best. I have a chapter coming up that's just them getting loads of interaction time and it's so goddamn cute.

And I'm getting into spoiler territory, not to mention an essay, so I'll cap it there for now. Please let me know if there's anything else, I have a lot of thoughts on all of this.

[millaneyy]

Why TOTK Ganondorf is the best Ganondorf in the series

This became a bit of an essay by accident hehe

Goes without saying: HUGE MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL BOSS AND ENTIRE STORY!!! All the gifs used are my own, and even though they're a bit crunchy, feel free to use them as you wish!

Anyways, starting at the start.

The Character

I'm not exactly a long time Zelda fan (botw was my first proper zelda game), and therefore didn’t know that much about Ganondorf before I saw him in the trailer and decided to research the lore like a crazy person. Based off of that, I think that Wind Waker Ganondorf is the best by far.

He had such an interesting aura to him- less like a power hungry madman and more like a wise old king who was also very evil, and his motivation made it difficult to see him as a true villain. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. His whole plan revolved around the fact that the Gerudo people, his people, were left to suffer in the desert while the rest of Hyrule prospered, and he decided to take action. At least, that's what I remember. Please correct me if I have that messed up!!

Anyways, I think that motivation is what makes WW G-man cool- he's a total asshole, yes, but he has this kind of twisted honour that almost makes you feel bad for him. And this brings me to my one little gripe about TOTK Ganondorf- he doesn’t really seem to have a motivation? At least, not that I heard of. So in that sense, he doesn’t really feel as driven as WW Ganon. We never learn WHY he wanted to rule over Hyrule, he kinda just did. He wanted power, that much was obvious, but that was it. On the other hand though, it’s always fun to have a villain who’s evil for the sake of being evil, and it didn’t detract at all from his presence in the game.

And boy, is he a PRESENCE. Some of his lines are incredibly cold- "I will rule. That is what a king must do" WITH THE ORGAN IN THE BACKGROUND AND HIS DEMON KING TITLE ON THE SCREEN, or "Do not look away, you witness a king's revival" (the line that drove the whole community insane for a little while- if you know you know) as he draws his sword with all the confidence of a centuries old evil incarnate.

Even better- "I will be taking far more than your arm this time", as if Ganondorf, through the Calamity, hasn't taken away everything Link knew and loved already. This dude is crazy.

(And a little bonus that I found out about right before posting this- apparently in the Japanese version, he does have a very clear motive? But it was lost in translation? I need to research that a bit more though. If you know anything about that, do tell!!)

Now, with that out of the way...

The Build Up

Thematically, I think that the build up to his fight is pretty awesome, even compared to the other three G's. If you did the entire story (geoglyphs included) beforehand, then you know that this dude:

a) straight up killed someone with his bare hands (he wasn't holding the knife when he killed Sonia, so I kind of just assumed he broke her spine or something)

b) is so powerful that 7 of the strongest warriors in Hyrule WITH secret stones couldn't defeat him, and was only taken down by sealing his power away- which is still only a temporary solution

c) lived on after reawakening despite being an actual emaciated corpse

d) was so busted that even in (kind of) death, the essence of his power (the malice) that leaked out of his seal was strong enough on its own to completely DECIMATE Hyrule

So yeah, I was a little scared on my way down because I knew this guy was going to kick my ass (spoiler alert: he did).

The little gauntlet of monsters to fight as you descend was pretty sick, and serves as a fairly good warmup for the army later on. The silver lynel totally caught me off guard though. As you get closer to the lowest point in Hyrule, you end up amassing some of the most powerful weapons imaginable thanks to all the silver enemies, which got me feeling so goddamn strong! That's important later.

And eventually, getting to the Forgotten Foundation and realising that I was back in the prologue area as that scary music started back up sent chills down my spine.

And the music. THE MUSIC.

Give this a listen (youtube because soundcloud links are jank, sorry)- skip to about 2:00 because that's the bit I'm talking about!

As you get deeper and deeper, the music gets more and more intense- and if there’s one thing I absolutely adore about TOTK, it’s the dynamic music throughout (see example: THE DUNGEON THEMES). The use of music that changes as you go- and this is by far the best example.

At first, you don’t really notice it while you’re preoccupied. You’re more focused on weapons and monsters and all that mess. But the first time I really noticed it was, as I said, when I realised I was in the prologue. The cut up voice clips and the drone in the background are a little creepy, and remind you of what happened the last time you tried to fight this guy,

Then, it starts to develop once you walk past the mural. There’s the choral singing, the drone in the background picks up into something with more melody, and the entire run up to the boss is completely enemy free- it gives you time to let the circumstances sink in as the music swells and you approach the heart of the depths. Also, the music builds as you get deeper and deeper, which from what I know is a subversion from the usual "music building as you climb his tower" or whatever he's in normally. Very nice.

Idk about you guys, but I slow walked down there for the DRAMATIC EFFECT.

At about 3 minutes into the video is how it sounds when you dive into the imprisoning chamber, where it all started (and I'll talk more about the parallels between this and the prologue another time... THE TORCH AUGHHSYWJHFH) and keep trucking on through the gloom, the horror movie piano kicking in as you walk through the final tunnel and stand on the precipice overlooking the dark, unknown pit below...

And jump.

Then the track finally reaches its climax as everything starts to overlap, the bells and organ (i think thats what it is?) screaming at you in the background as you fall, making the song feel like an epic of vengeance. There's so much dread, and an underlying ominous/threatening feeling that encapsulates the fact that Ganondorf is the embodiment of an ancient evil, one that has tormented Hyrule for centuries- but at the same time, there's an element of finality and inevitability, because you're going to put that evil down, and make up for all the grief and the death and loss that constantly follows in his wake.

I mean, just listen to the last 30 seconds or so of that track and tell me you don't feel excited. In awe. Because I deadass teleported back up to the mural just to hear it again.

I think I got a little carried away there, but moving on to the bit you probably came here for…

The Fight

Phase one - The Demon King's Army

Remember how I mentioned that the earlier monsters and busted weapons make you feel powerful? This is basically that x10.

The whole sequence feels very epic, ESPECIALLY after the build up, and with the appearance of the Sages mirroring the attack of the Champions from BOTW, it almost feels like victory is assured already as you cut down hordes of monsters with practically no effort, all while the strings in the background kick in and get more intense with every wave.

This serves to make you feel even more like God- taking out waves and waves of fairly tough enemies made me feel like I was on top, like nothing could stand in my way. It's pretty cool, a good way of integrating the monster army you keep seeing in the cutscenes, and manages to keep the energy from the descent going pretty well, while also being a casual reminder that this Ganondorf bloke can summon world ending horrors at will. ESPECIALLY when the dungeon bosses come back to life and force the Sages to stay behind.

Phase two - The Menace Unleashed

Once again, the music goes absolutely crazy. The first phase feels intense, but still like the fight is only just beginning. Just an ambient drone, near silent as he approaches, picking up as you start to duel. No one is here to help- no Sages, no Zelda- just Link and Ganondorf, a rematch that's been in the making since 2006.

If the army battle makes you feel powerful, then the first few seconds of this fight are what takes that power away- because this guy is a total damage sponge and moved a lot faster than I could predict. Additionally, you can't fast travel outside to heal gloom hearts if you have medallions set up (i thought i was so smart for that too), so if you used all of your sunny food during the army, you're doomed.

Most of his attacks in this phase are fairly simple, with only one or two for each weapon he can wield (and tbh the switching weapons really threw me the first time), but like I said, he goes pretty fast. Therefore, if you're like me and can't differentiate some of his tells, you're also going to lose a lot of hearts very fast. And did I mention he gives you gloom hearts instead of normal damage? Again, no sunny food = death of the instant kind.

On top of the general stress of trying to get the timing down, there were a couple of moments in this phase alone that had me yelling something along the lines of "WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT"- one of which being some of the tricks he pulls under certain conditions. For example; a standard looking sword attack where he swings once, then as you lower your shield to get a hit in, as you naturally would, he swings at you again. He also kicks you if you hang too close, and fires off some of his gloom attacks faster if you're trying to attack him as he charges. It makes him feel more like an actual person you're fighting, and stops you from hanging close and swinging wildly the whole time.

(i was going to make this a video, but tumblr only lets you add one. anyways, see what i said about him swinging again if you lower the shield?)

As well as that, he taunts and mocks you when you get hit- make any misstep or stumble into an attack, and he'll laugh and insult your skill while he casually walks up to you like the absolute gigachad he is. It's not like the Twilight Princess walk where it feels a bit slow- this walk made me feel THREATENED. Circling in the opposite direction when he circled me with the spear made me feel like a pro swordsman. On one hand, I thought the taunting was super cool as a mechanic! On the other hand it made me want to kill him even harder.

And the other moment that made my jaw drop? This guy. Can DODGE your regular attacks AND FLURRY RUSH. And by flurry rush I mean take a really tough/fast swing at you. BUT STILL.

For as long as I can remember, the perfect dodge and flurry rush have given Link an unfair edge over most enemies and bosses- it's an opening to deal mass damage with no counters. It’s made link OP against everything the game throws at him- up until right now. This highlights the fact that Ganondorf is no pushover- him and Link are evenly matched, and you’ll need some actual consistent skill to take him out. The good news is that your own flurries are still pretty powerful, and 5 or 6 are enough to start the next phase.

As the fight progresses and his health starts to go down, the music starts to build up more (at about 1:25 in the video above)- the barely present drums starting to speed up and get louder, accompanied by sporadic piano, more choral snippets, and an ominous undertone as their duel grows more intense, eventually building to a climax and slowing down a tad (2:45) as he activates his secret stone and transforms, beginning the third phase.

Phase three and four - Master of the Secret Stone

Well this one was certainly something. Once again I jumped out of my seat and YELLED when his health bar started to refill past the normal amount, all the way off of my screen. It just didn’t stop. There are no words to describe the primal fear of realising how insanely busted this dude was. I tried to get it on the gif up there, but that made the video too long to convert :(

The music here is my favourite bit of the whole phase- as you face down the powered up Ganondorf and his phantoms, you hear the familiar but melancholy motif of BOTW/Dark Beast playing around the same time the Sages show up once again to deal with said phantoms (at about 3:22). For a second it's just that- melancholy, encapsulating the same kind of hopelessness that followed Calamity Ganon 100 years ago. But at the same time, as your squad comes to assist, you're reminded of the Champions and their aid, and suddenly it feels like you could still turn the tides of this seemingly impossible battle. Just like you did with the Calamity.

Yes it was cool, and yes I nearly cried.

The phantoms were actually the worst for a minute or so- it takes a while for the all of the Sages to appear and lighten the burden, meaning that you end up needing to take on 2-5 of these guys at once as well as the real deal. This got me killed more times than I'd like to admit. Once all the Sages arrive, the arena becomes a complete warzone with everyone duking it out at once, the real Ganondorf’s attacks start to get faster and harder hitting, and he starts to dodge and rush you more often- even dodging more of your attacks and forcing you to flurry him, so if you don’t have your timing down, this is awful. Not to mention, it's very easy to lock on to the wrong Ganon, which makes it harder to block the real attacks with a shield.

And also, this is the point where he starts destroying literally all of your shields in just a few hits, meaning that if you can't dodge or parry, then it's only so long until you're left defenceless.

Aside from that, this phase plays out like the Phantom Ganon fight in the Castle until you get his health bar down about halfway, when he recalls the phantoms and biden blasts the Sages away, beckoning Link forwards and starting phase four, which is basically phase two again but insane.

This is where the fight- for me, at least- became incredibly difficult, since Ganondorf not only dodges your regular attacks, but also dodges your flurry rushes and counters with his own EVERY SINGLE TIME, forcing you to flurry rush again to hit him. Not only does this require perfect timing, but is also the only way to damage him for the remainder of this fight (unless you cheese it with arrows or sneak in some hits in while he's switching weapons- but the latter is dangerous since he still attacks faster when you're close).

A little video to emphasise the flurry rush thing; the timing for that second dodge had to be dead on. What you can't hear is me yelling something along the lines of "GOD, FINALLY" after dying to this phase many times and mashing the y button like my life depended on it. LOOK HOW FAST THAT MF IS ON THE SECOND ATTACK

The soundtrack becomes super crazy again, this time using the motif of Calamity Ganon/the Blights (starts at 5:00, and you can also hear it in the video above) and bringing back that sense of hopelessness again- but this time with with a strong side of excitement since you're now in the final stretch of the fight. Because the Blights were supposed to be the equal match for each Champion, this bit of the theme makes it feel like Ganondorf is an equal match to Link- which I know I've said already, but that's kind of the thing that's blown me away the most about the whole battle.

It's the fact that you can't just wail on him and spam flurry rushes without him countering you in some way- which in this case mostly consists of him dodging you and attacking back at an insane speed. This isn't like Calamity Ganon where you just hit and dodge for five minutes, this is an actual proper swordfight, and exactly what I'd been hoping for from the final boss!

Additionally, the Blight/Calamity motif (well, more like entire theme) represents his ties to Calamity Ganon, the force of nature that took Link 2 tries to beat (with death included), and it's use in this part of the battle tells you that right now, Ganondorf possesses the same level of destructive power as that thing- and he's sure as hell going to make sure you know that.

As well as the whole "dodging the flurry rush and forcing you to pull it off twice" thing, he also pulls out a few more projectile based attacks. These aren't too bad (WE GET THE RETURN OF ARCANE PING PONG FROM OOT), but he usually follows them up with a quick swing, making them a distraction that takes a while to get used to.

And finally, as a last little surprise, getting hit by any of his gloom projectiles in this phase takes away one of your maximum hearts. PERMANENTLY. Not like the gloom hearts, where you can get them back and then heal. Nope. That shit is gone gone.

Once you finally whittle down his ridiculous health bar, we launch into the customary "massive beast" style phase as he straight up just rips the secret stone out of his head and eats it, giving up his mind, body and soul for the sake of defeating Link, becoming a Dragon and escaping through the top of the arena.

Phase five - Draconified Demon King

So like I said above, the Demon Dragon is basically Dark Beast 2, except it's so much cooler! The cutscene does a great job of highlighting the insane size of this guy- it's like 3x the size of the already massive elemental dragons and emerges from the depths in a way that eerily resembles the Calamity, right down to the glowing yellow eyes. And yeah, that's probably the point, but it's still cool.

Luckily for Link, Zelda/the Light Dragon swoops in and rescues him from the jaws of death (literally), taking him high up into the air so he can attack from above. It's an absolute spectacle, and the epic style remix of the game's main theme that plays makes it even better, instilling the same level of awe that Dark Beast does- at least for me.

Just like DB, the fight has you up against a massive malice/gloom infused monster (the dragon, in this case), getting close and attacking it's weak points and then finishing it off by destroying the secret stone on it's head. There's a lot of downtime, which is kind of to be expected with this style of fight, but I honestly don't mind because these colossal battles are supposed to feel less like a Dark Souls boss and more like a victory lap- like a "you're Link, the legendary hero, slaying this massive beast in the name of Hyrule" kind of thing.

My personal favourite bit of this whole phase is the fact that when you dive down to the Dragon's weak points, Zelda dives down next to you to get underneath and catch you afterwards. So sick. I also really like the use of skydiving! It pairs super well with the music and made me think of that final trailer we got in April- like THIS is the epicness we were promised.

(and also dodging the fireballs was way more fun than slowly sidestepping a laser. sorry dark beast, but i gotta say it </3)

Final thoughts

I'm gonna be honest: I kind of forgot to compare his fight to the other 3 mainline ones, but doing that now would make this way too long! I just love the TOTK fight so much and needed to get it out.

While I'd still say that each Ganondorf (in the mainline games) has their own unique trait that makes them cool: OOT Ganondorf is the original, and the most cunning, WW Ganondorf has the best character and TP Ganondorf is the most evil by a mile- TOTK Ganondorf feels like a combination of those best traits (minus the characterisation) paired with the greatest final boss I've ever seen in a Zelda game, which makes him the best for me.

The first phase in particular was my favourite- wayyyyy back in April when I saw big G in the trailer, my first thought was "oh man i hope we get an actual sword fight boss instead of calamity ganon 2.0" AND MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!

Ganondorf literally just rolled up, delivered some cold lines, and then kicked my ass with his cool sword. Many times. And I think that's exactly the kind of boss fight he deserves. I'm just so happy that it feels like we're in an actual duel, mano a mano, instead of just being able to chance a win like with Calamity.

FIN

thank you for reading my zelda obsessed rambles! i just beat the boss last night and have been working on this on and off all day, so any reblogs or shares would be massively appreciated <3

GANONDORF FANS UNITE!!!!

[izunias-meme-hole]

One Villainous Scene - “I Coveted That Wind I Suppose”

“Oh boy. Izunia is making a second OVS about Ganondorf.” Yes, I am… however I am going to be looking at the man, the myth, the One Shot Wonder himself, Wind Waker Ganondorf. Now this guy is considered one of the top 5 incarnations of the King of Evil for a few reasons; the design, Takashi Nagasako returning to voice him, the boss fight, but the main reason was a little unexpected addition to his character.

To explain, Wind Waker is set in a world where Hyrule got flooded under the ocean because Ganondorf was TOO close to winning, and there was no hero to stop him, in other words divine intervention happened. So, throughout the course of the game, Ganondorf searches for the other 2 pieces of the Triforce once again, starting with a 100 year wait for Princess Zelda to reincarnate, and after 100 years have passed he kidnaps literally any blonde girl with pointy ears, checking to see if they have the Triforce of Wisdom. And one of these girls was Link's sister, Aryll, meaning that this man just put this incarnation of The Hero, one who originally wasn't mean't to be in this destined bullshit, hot on his trial.

Throughout the course of the game Link has only seen a snip of him at the beginning, the damage he caused to Greatfish Isle, Phantom Ganons, and finally he sees the man himself at the Foresaken Fortress and gets saved by Tetra, Valoo, and King Daphnes. Then Link discovers that Tetra is in fact Princess Zelda, and a good long hours later Ganondorf gets ahold of her, and now our hero has to face this monster, only for the player and Link to see another end of him.

Ganondorf explains a part of his background, talking about the cruel and harsh desert that he grew up in and how he envied the grasslands of Hyrule, but never intended on having it all be buried underwater. If anyone has played Ocarina of Time, they know that he's half-lying out of his ass because yes, he did come from a brutal and harsh desert, but he was also an infamous king there, one who had great ambitions and sat in a tower built in Central Hyrule while everyone else suffered. In other words, this man is lying out of his ass, but it isn't in an attempt to manipulate Link... it's an attempt to convince himself that all of the destruction he's caused, all of the evil he's wrought, wasn't for nothing. Even someone who's never played OoT can tell that this is a selfish old relic who's committed a lot of horrors in the past and has convinced himself that they're all just. And even then, you can tell that he never actually desired destruction for the hell of it and carries regrets.

He then knocks Link out and unifies the Triforce, chuckling out of glee at the fact that he FINALLY is going to succeed, that his efforts won't be in vain, but then it's literally robbed from him when Daphnes touches it and wishes for Hyrule to drown for the future of Link, Zelda, and everyone else. This causes Ganondorf to have a full on breakdown, cackling hysterically as he realizes that everything he has ever done has been for nothing. His efforts to acquire the Triforce, his battle against the previous hero, and his current efforts to bring back Hyrule were all for nothing. He's a destructive being who's doomed to fail and he realizes it now, but he isn't going to lie down and be forgotten by this world, so he tries to kill Link and Tetra, only to be stabbed in the skull. At this point, he can't escape the inevitable and he knows it, so there's no cursing Link and Tetra, no swearing that he'll come back. He just dies.

In short, Ganondorf here is still a bastard, but he is a walking tragedy in this game due to his pathos. He's a man who wants to convince himself that everything he's done was worth it, a man who doesn't want to be forgotten by the tides of time, a man who wants to bring back a dead land and stop being the lord of a dead empire. Yet in the end, he realizes that all of his efforts were indeed for nothing, and he ends up dying inside of a drowned Hyrule, destined to be forgotten. You can’t help but pity him this time.

[queencoldart]

I am so unbelievably hyped for TotK, you don't even know. The final trailer took a sledgehammer to an 8-month long, continuous bout of major depression which was fueled by pure hopelessness. I feel real excitement again for the first time in years. There is too much to talk about, so I'm just going to focus on the part I'm the most excited about: the Gerudo stuff.

The Gerudo are my favorite Zelda race. Out of all of the different peoples, I find them the most interesting. Two of them are going to be playing a major role in this game from the looks of it and I can't wait to see how the tension between them plays out.

Even if Ganondorf's appearance in the game wasn't officially confirmed until recently, the marketing has revolved around him since the start. Then there's the fact that the composer for the final trailer sneakily wove Urbosa's leitmotif into the music near the end, when a mural depicting Ganondorf is shown. His outfit, while obviously heavily inspired by medieval Japanese culture, also leans more into his Gerudo heritage than any of his previous fits. He isn't obviously villain coded this time around and he doesn't look smug in his character art either. If anything, he looks exhausted. He looks like he is profoundly done.

I don't know what any of this means for his role in the game. What I am confident in is that's we're going to get a good amount of story for him in this game. I kinda hope to get at least one boss fight with him. Maybe we get a stage where we have to glue him to a nearby structure so we can wail on him until he inevitably breaks free. That would be fun.