#just think its interesting we see two arts of ganondorf

[ruairy]

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[ladyjenise]

So here’s some thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom based on the stuff revealed in the last trailer plus analysis of the art of that one character…

Spoilers behind the cut…

First of, credit to the Ganondorf costume analysis already done by pocketseizure here on Tumblr. That analysis can be found here. They brought up a number of very interesting aspects of his clothing, specifically his design closely corresponding to the Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo.

Visual comparison, in case you need it lol

My theory on why Ganondorf is dressed this way follows the relationship to the Zonai, an ancient tribe who we may learn more about in the course of TOTK, it looks like. If it is true that they were warlike, I’m thinking they may have come across the legend of Ganondorf and sought to resurrect him at some point in the belief that he would be more like our friend Fudo Myoo. As in, a fierce protector of them. I mean, look at the guy and his history. Powerful magic user, built like a brick shithouse. On the surface he sounds very fun and this would not be the first time some idiot decided it was a good idea to help resurrect him (Zant, Agahnim, the Yiga clan, etc).

And maybe that’s why Ganondorf is dressed this way: its part of his plan to present himself as the deity the Zonai wanted and hoped for. Like, sure, I’ll play your god. So long as Ganondorf gets what he wants in the end.

Unlike our previous parade of idiots that Ganondorf used for his own ends, I think the Zonai learned fairly quickly that “Resurrect Ganondorf” plan was going to shit. Ultimately, Ganondorf looks after one dude: Ganondorf. And instead of protecting the Zonai he probably tried to control them.

In some kind of emergency, the Zonai probably tried to seal him (see the parts in previous trailers where it looks like a hand is trying to hold him in place etc).

I think Ganondorf’s character is one where he routinely hides his true nature and perhaps his two sided robes are part of that. On the exterior, its plain, with the interior hiding his true and elaborate plans.

I don’t know, really, in the end what it all means. I’m just throwing this out there. I just remind myself that Ganondorf is, above all, a very elaborate planner who is able to fool people into believing what he wants them to believe. And if pretending to be a benevolent god is what gets him there then he’s happy to do it.

[chappybird]

How to Get Roleplay on F-List: A Guide

Hey all. So I’ve had a few people ask me how on earth to get RP over F-List, or for those that have tried, say its too confusing. While F-List is a much different format than I think a lot of people are used to, it’s a pretty reliable source of RP once you get used to it. So I’m going to walk you through, step by step, how to start from nothing and get a profile set up to start RPing. F-List is 18+ Only and is a Restricted To Adults® Verified website. You can learn more about it by clicking the RTA logo at the bottom of f-list’s main page.

F-list’s main landing page can be located at https://www.f-list.net/.

Note that my f-list may look different from yours because I’m using dark mode (which can be set in the account tab) and I’m a subscriber, so I don’t see ads.

Step One: Make a Profile

Making a profile, or as they’re known on F-List, a character, is your jumping off point for getting started. There are three main factions on F-List: Anthro Characters, Canon Characters, and Original Characters, with subcategories of each. You also have hub profiles. There is a right way to make a hub profile, but that’s not something I’ll be talking about on this post. Hub profiles are pretty universally disliked on F-List and are often seen as a mark of laziness, and I do not recommend making one to look for RP on. You should make a separate Profile for each character you want to play as. If you have a normal account, you can make up to 150 different characters. If you’re a subscriber, you can make significantly more than that depending on your tier. 

Choosing a name for your character is very important! You want something attention grabbing, but since each character has to have a unique name, this can get a little tricky. Today I’m choosing to create a Link from the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. As this is a popular character, it can be difficult to track down a good name. You can be clever with naming conventions, while making it obvious who you’re playing, or you can add in underscores, hyphens, numbers, etc. It’s really up to personal preference. I advise not getting too abstract with your character name. Just pick something easy to read and to the point. Once you’ve decided on a name, click the create character button to open up the character editor.

Step Two: Holy Fuck Dude That’s a Lot of Shit To Fill Out

Take a deep breath. The character editor is very intimidating to those that haven’t used F-List before. Perhaps you have used F-List for it’s old intended purpose, just to list your kinks to link people to when RPing on other sites. Your first instinct might be to scroll down there and start picking kinks willy-nilly. Stop. In the grand scheme of things, this is not as important for getting Roleplay and if you do it incorrectly you might actually hurt your chances.

Now that we’ve calmed down you’ll notice two things at the top of the page. A big white text field, and this guy:

This, more than anything on your profile, is the most important thing. If you have this on profile, you will almost never get any roleplay. This is your character icon, and it’s the first step on your journey to doing this whole thing correctly. All you need to do is find an image that’s 300x300 pixels or smaller and upload it with the Choose File button. Then scroll down to the very bottom of the page and hit save. Search on google, and if you have a hard time finding something of that size, A great site to use is https://lunapic.com/ to edit pics if you don’t have Photoshop or Gimp. Choosing or creating an image with some sort of transparency layer is recommended because it makes your icon look more polished, but you don’t really need to do that. This isn’t an image software guide so I’ll leave that to you to figure out. If all you can do is crop an image into a square, that will do perfectly. But you need to have something here. Besides your character name, it’s the first impression you’re going to give to people when using the site. I have honest to god had people message me on empty profiles that having nothing but a character name and an icon. 

Sourcing your images is a bit of a grey area on f-list. It’s not really an art sharing site, but if you choose fanart that someone doesn’t want to be reposted, it can be removed by the mods if you’re reported for it. So we’ll just use some official art that already has a transparency channel and crop it using Lunapic.

Step Three: How To Set the Profile Up

If you’re following along, you should have something like this by now. This already gives us an idea of who you’re playing, and what they look like, and while you might get a couple of weirdos messaging you already, there’s still a lot to do. So let’s go over what to do next.

Now that you’ve already created a character, it will be listed under the character tab. Further characters will be listed in alphabetical order. Navigate to your character and click the “Edit” button underneath their icon.

We’re back to the big scary page. Remember that big text field? We’re going to ignore everything else and focus on this first.

F-List uses standard BBC code tags with [square brackets.] You can find some buttons that will give you tools like bold, italics, color, hyperlinks, and quote blocks. There are many different ways to create eye-catching descriptions. I would say the three basic ways are minimalist, inline based, and heavy BBC code. We’ll go through the first option in detail but if you’re interested in the the latter, there is actually a few F-List profiles that teach coding and even have a few templates to use. User beware, though. Many F-List users use these templates and they can sometimes look a bit generic as they are overused.

Templates: https://www.f-list.net/c/profile%20templates

Coding Help: https://www.f-list.net/c/profile%20references

If you want to make an inline based profile, having access to software like Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, and similar content is good to have as well. You can also make a blend of the three styles of profiles. I’ll link some examples of my own profiles for reference. Some of these have text included in the inline. Some of them just have an image with the text written out underneath. Again, it’s really up to your personal preference.

https://www.f-list.net/c/Rival%20II/

https://www.f-list.net/c/Lion%20Heart/

https://www.f-list.net/c/The%20Fire%20of%20Tamaran/

Now would also be a great time to familiarize yourself with the rules. Keep an eye on these, especially if you play contentious content.

https://wiki.f-list.net/Code_of_Conduct

Some big things to look out for and not to do: Photographs and realistic images of animals are not allowed. Even Nonsexual ones. Photographs and 3D renders of minors (even nonsexual images or nonsexual profiles) are not allowed. If there is even a hint of the character being a minor, do not use photographic or 3D renders. (For example: Tom Holland’s depiction of Spiderman. Even though Tom Holland was an adult when he played the role, the character is a minor.) Sometimes these can run into a lot of grey areas, but it’s better safe than sorry!

Step Four: Creating A Minimalist Profile

We’ll start with a short description. It’s really important to make sure your character’s name is present in your descriptio, especially if it’s not the profile name. If you’re feeling particularly lazy, you can copypaste something from a wiki or official description. Let’s start with something like this.

Link had humble beginnings as a boy that lived in the forest with the Kokiri. Known as the boy without a fairy, Link led a simple life until one day, the dying Guardian of the forest, the Deku Tree, set him upon a Quest to save the Kingdom of Hyrule from darkness. Arming himself with the elemental powers of Hyrule and the legendary Master Sword, Link journeyed through time to the Dark Era of Hyrule to challenge the evil Ganondorf and save his Kingdom from evil.

Shoving this into the Description box and hitting save will generate something like this.

You might notice that this looks like crap. And it does! however, we can very easily fix that with the power of just three simple BBC tags. Those being [center], [color], and [sub]. plus a little something extra I’ll explain in a moment. Let’s add those in like so.

[center][color=green][sub]Link had humble beginnings as a boy that lived in the forest with the Kokiri. Known as the boy without a fairy, Link led a simple life until one day, the dying Guardian of the forest, the Deku Tree, set him upon a Quest to save the Kingdom of Hyrule from darkness. Arming himself with the elemental powers of Hyrule and the legendary Master Sword, Link journeyed through time to the Dark Era of Hyrule to challenge the evil Ganondorf and save his Kingdom from evil.[/sub][/color][/center]

Instead of hitting save at the bottom of the profile this time, we’re going to click “Preview BBC Code” to get a look at what our coding has done.

Fancy.

But it could use a little work. When I’m making minimalist profiles, I like to make the lines of text a little shorter so it’s a little easier to read and looks nicer. Make sure each line of text is about the same length as the previous (minus any BBC tags)

[eicon]blank[/eicon] [center][color=green][sub]Link had humble beginnings as a boy that lived in the forest with the Kokiri. Known as the boy without a fairy, Link led a simple life until one day, the dying Guardian of the forest, the Deku Tree, set him upon a Quest to save the Kingdom of Hyrule from darkness. Arming himself with the elemental powers of Hyrule and the legendary Master Sword, Link journeyed through time to the Dark Era of Hyrule to challenge the evil Ganondorf and save his Kingdom from evil.[/sub][/color][/center] [eicon]blank[/eicon]

You’ll also notice that I placed an eicon tag with a “blank” body. Eicons are essentially image macros that can be used all over the site. Using the blank one here is a good way to put a block of empty space on the top and bottom so the text isn’t too crowded by the frame of the description box. Another couple to keep in mind are [eicon]under construction[/eicon] or [eicon]WIP[/eicon] if you want to save your work now and get right to chatting and exploring the site. This signifies that you’re still working on your profile and more will be added later. You can create your own eicons by going to Account > Icon gallery. Keep in mind each eicon must have a unique name across all users. Inputting this into the description and checking how it looks in the preview, we end up getting something that looks like this:

Looks like we got a bookmark while we were setting the profile up. That means someone saw us while browsing new characters and decided they want to keep an eye on our profile and are likely interested in RPing! If you like, you can disable bookmarks per character in the character editor under settings. Generally speaking though, bookmarks are your friend and it’s how people will find you to RP later.

Optionally if you want to add an inline, just upload an image of your choice in Account > Inline Images. You can then add it in the character editor using this button.

This isn’t a tutorial for creating inlines, but a general rule is to make sure it’s sized well, and transparent images tend to look better than non-transparent images.

Step Five: Character Details

Opening the Character Editor once more, a couple basic things should be filled out. We will take this section by section.

Settings: Some general tweaks to change and edit. Personally, I like to turn my timezone off, and besides that, I like to have my Guestbook and Bookmarks turned on as well, but all of these settings are up to you. A big one a I suggest turning on is “Custom Kinks Sort First.” This will come up later but it’s good to turn it on.

Character List: For now, you can ignore this part. You can use this to have certain characters grouped together and will show up in the sidebars of these characters. I haven’t run into any limits for how many character lists you can have, but keep in mind a character can only belong to one list at a time.

Images: If you have any images you want to upload, this is the place to do it. Headcanons of body types, additional art you’ve drawn or found, can be added here. You can add descriptions to each image that will appear when a user hovers over the image. Keep in mind, again, that usage of fan art is a grey area on F-List. It’s not an image posting site, but some artists do not want their art reposted at all.

Profile Info: You don’t need to fill out every single detail here. Bits that aren’t filled in will just not appear on your profile. It’s a good idea to fill out your gender, and in many cases, your orientation. Both are under General Details. Filling out RPing preferences is also a good idea. It’ll keep people from approaching you IC using first person posts if that’s not your thing.

Step Six: Kinks and Custom Kinks

This is probably one of the most overwhelming parts of the process. My first tip: Ignore the Kink section for now. Instead, skip ahead to the Custom Kink section.

Custom Kinks are a good way to tell people what you really want. Click the Add +1 Custom Kink button to make a new custom kink. You can fill out the basic title of the kink, and a description. Or if you prefer to leave the description blank, just press the spacebar. Select what category you want the kink to appear in (Fave, Yes, Maybe, No.) Try to avoid using inflammatory language against different races, genders, identities, and don’t kinkshame. This is a site based primarily around finding rpers that have the same interests and kinks that you do. Save the profile when you’re done and we’ve got something like this.

And really, you can probably start roleplaying like this. Maybe add a couple of images, and tweak a few things. So if you like, skip to the next step. But for now, I’ll go over the kink list.

The most important think to remember is you don’t have to add every single kink to your profile. Try to select the most relevant things, and avoid redundancies. 

For example, I’m not interested in Vore of any kind. So I can put the kinks Vore (Being Predator) and Vore (Being Prey) Into my No category. Or, if I want to make it even more simplified, I can add a custom Vore kink and put that in my No category. Likewise, if I don’t want to do any sex driven play, I can probably go ahead and just put sex driven there and ignore most of the kink list. Kinks that are not relevant such as Vaginal Sex (Receiving) on a cis male can also be ignored. Kinks are broken up into sections, and while it is a lot, just take your time, go through it sensibly, and take a break if you want to. Remember you don’t have to add every single one to your profile. This will ultimately be easier on you and make your profile easier to read. 

After a bit of editing, this is what my kink list ends up looking like:

You can try exploring the Subfetish editor but it’s a little confusing to navigate and isn’t very necessary. And now, your profile is done!

Step Six: Using F-Chat

 So now that we have a profile set up, it’s time to find some partners. Regardless of what way you want to connect, if you prefer script or para, the main place you’re going to find RP is through F-Chat. There is currently both a desktop and mobile client. if you select Chat you’ll see the option for both, and clicking on them will take you to instructions on how to set those up. We will however be using the Browser client in this example. Go ahead and select F-Chat 3.0.

You will be taken to a landing page with a drop down of your characters, with the first character you created selected as the default. (You can change your default character in your account settings.) You can have up to three characters online at once. Keep in mind this goes by IP address, so if you have a roommate that also uses F-List, those will count towards your total number of online characters. If this becomes a problem for you, just use a virtual machine or connect to the internet via a different method, such as with data. (F-List is not that much of a data drain.)

Here is what you’ll see when you open F-Chat. You’ll see I already have people in my friends list and my bookmarks (that I’ve blurred out for courtesy.) These will appear the same on all the characters you sign in as. I will be notified whenever one of my friends signs in or sets a status. You can set these notifications to show only on the console if you’d like to in the settings. Let’s set a status first.

Here, you have the options of selecting from the default Online status to Looking, Away, Busy, and Do Not Disturb. These all do what you’d expect, with Do Not Disturb turning off the sound that would play when you get notifications from personal messages or pings.

The Status Message is an optional addition, and it’s great for if you’re looking for specific things or want your friends and bookmarks to know what you’re doing. Be careful not to post anything that breaks F-Lists code of conduct. F-List does have an aggregate of every status you ever posted logged on their server, so throwing a temper tantrum and posting something inappropriate and then taking it back later might still get you in trouble.

While the Character Search Option is available to you, I’ve personally never found it very effective. You can search users by kinks, but keep in mind it doesn’t search by gender or orientation, or what species or even if they’re canon or original. Instead, we’ll go right to the settings tab.

General: Just your general settings. You have a few options here to tweak and while most of it is personal preference, I’ll highlight a few to keep in mind.

Disallowed BBC Code Tag: good for if you find a particular colour particularly garish as a text colour, or if you find an eicon that you no longer want to see anymore. Enter Sends Messages: I have this set to off so I can avoid accidentally sending a message for when I post. When this is enabled, just press the send button on screen to send messages. Otherwise, if you want to linebreak in one post, just press Shift + Enter. Animate eicons: If you’re running a slow computer, or have a slow connection, turn this to off. Eicons are used as memes a lot in F-Chat, and some of them can get a little ridiculous. (Someone has compressed the entire Shrek movie into an eicon and uploaded to the site in very poor quality for example.) There can also be bright flashing colours or even nsfw images. In general these eicons are all 100x100 pixels in size, but some users like to tile them together to create bigger images so it can sometimes get out of hand. This is something up to personal preference, and while I have Animate eicons turned on, I can see why some people wouldn’t like it. Idle Timer: If you are the kind of person that walks away from your computer without changing your status, or you have fallen asleep with F-Chat open, it’s good to set this to a reasonable time. If you’re in Online or Looking, after you’ve been inactive for the depicted number of seconds, your status will be set to Idle. This is so other users know that you’re not ignoring them if you don’t respond to their messages. A downside to this is if you’re tabbed out or multitasking, it’ll set you to idle when you may not intend it to and going back to the window switches you to Online again. It can be a little spammy if you’re constantly switching between Online and Idle. Font Size: If you find F-Chat’s font too big or too small, you can edit that here.

Notifications: While this section is pretty self explanatory, I’d like to specifically go over the Custom Highlight Notify Words.

Now, because each profile has to have a unique name, you might want to select additional pings. For example I might want to add Link,Zelda,Hyrule,Hero,Hero of Time to my list. Everything is comma seperated and not case sensitive. There are a few things to keep in mind.

Common word pings: If I add Link to my list of pings, I might get pinged whenever someone talks about a url link, or a chain link, or any other common use of the word link. It therefore might be better to not use the word. If you have a profile name that is a common word, it might be better to also uncheck the option for Notify Messages Containing your name.

Similar Profiles: If there’s another Link in chat, then I will be notified everytime someone refers to him by name as well. This is less of a problem on more niche characters, but it’s something to keep in mind! You can set pings by room, so perhaps a solution to this is using Link as a highlight word in the Canon Characters room, but not using it as a highlight word in the Nintendo room. More about how to do that later.

Hidden Users: Pretty self explanatory once click over. If you keep seeing an ad you dislike, you can hide all advertisements from said user (re: character) going forward. Keep in mind this is not your block list.

Import: If you make two profiles and want to have these settings copied from one to the other, just log into the profile you want to import to, and select the profile you want to import from. Make sure to go back to change your pings if needed.

Lastly, we’ll be looking at the channel section. 

You might be starting to be overwhelmed again, and that’s okay. There are a lot of options, but most of the time, you’ll only want to select the options that are relevant to us. Check off the list of rooms you want to open a tab for. These will begin to be added to your sidebar. the number in brackets signifies the number of users thats joined that room. By default, this list is most popular to least popular, but I personally prefer alphabetical. There may be some channels that you find inappropriate, offensive, or contentious, but your best bet is to ignore those parts of the site. It’s an Adult site that is heavily moderated by a mixture of paid and volunteer staff. Every effort is made to ensure that no real people get hurt, but it is understood that as an adult, you are responsible for curating the content that you consume. This is one of the fundamental principals that F-List is built upon.

For now, I’m going to go with Canon Characters and Canon Characters OOC from this list.

You will also notice an Open Room tab. Unlike the Official Channels which are moderated by F-List staff, Open Rooms are chat rooms created by the userbase, and moderated by the userbase. While the standard F-List code of content is applicable to all areas of the site, special rules may apply in these rooms, and you’ll find things like rooms dedicated to certain kinks, species, and fandoms. I can try searching for a few things I think might be applicable to me, such as Hyrule, Zelda, Nintendo, and Elf. Some of those get hits, and some of those don’t. I can also check them off to add them to my list. (Note that search terms have to be entered one at a time. I cannot search for multiple things at once.)

Once you’ve selected the channels and rooms you want to join, you can click and drag on the tabs to reorder them on the sidebar. If you’d like to pin a chat, You can just press the little push pin symbol, which will then turn green. (You can do this for User Messages as well.) This means when you sign out, these chats will still be there when you sign back in. Note that settings and pinned chats are device by device only, and furthermore, channels and logs will not carry over between characters.

Make sure to read the description of each room you join. There are often specific rules (such as no ooc talk in the canon characters room, and no male characters in the lesbians room.) Clicking the gear will allow you to change settings on a per-room basis.

Step Seven: Actually Finding some RP

Now, after all that effort, we’re finally ready to find some RP. You have a few options on how to do this.

You could just join a few rooms and set your status to looking with a status message on what you want, but this is considered very passive. You may get some people that reach out (As you saw, someone had bookmarked my Link less than an hour after I made the profile before logging into f-chat.) But your best bet is one of three options.

Look at the Ads: Whenever you’re in a room that allows ads, you will sometimes notice a differently coloured message fly by looking for roleplay. This is an ad. If you see one that seems to fit what you have to offer, you can right-click on their username and select “Open Conversation.” A chat window will be open under the PMs section on your sidebar. You can view this conversation like you would a channel. Keep in mind that users are not notified if you open a conversation with them, only if you send them a message.

Create an Ad: Make sure you are in a room or channel that allows ads by checking the description, you can select the ad tab in the lower right hand corner above the text input box to write an ad instead of a chat message.

Making a normal chat post saying “hey does anyone want to roleplay with me” is considered spam and could result in the mods having a word with you.

You have similar tools to what you do in the character descriptions, and clicking each one will automatically place the tags in the text box, with the eyeball being a preview and the question mark being a how to. You want your ads to stand out, but you don’t want them to be too obnoxious. Take a look at what kind of ads other people are posting to get an idea of what’s expected.

Talk to Others: And lastly, you can just play in public rooms or chat with people in ooc channels. This is a great way for others to sample what you’re like to play with and vice versa, or even just to get to know potential partners. In my general experience, you’ll have more luck finding people to play with long term in the user created Open Rooms than in the Official Channels, but ever case is different. There are a vast number of styles, methods of RP, and types of partners you can find.

That’s basically the ins and outs of F-List! The more you’ll use it, the more you’ll understand how it works and the social etiquette on the platform. Like many sites, it certainly has it’s share of dark corners and flaws, but all in all it’s a pretty good website to find people to play with! Have fun!

[botwstoriesandsuch]

An anon asked my about the Tabantha ruins and while I was researching that I instead got caught up with the Zonai ruins and THAT spiraled down into a botw 2 trailer analysis so here’s that. (Don’t worry anon I’ll get to you eventually)

Ok let’s start off with what the Zonai ruins actually are. You know those stone pillars you see scattered around that sometimes have stone chests at the top? Or those structures in the center of the Thundra Plateau? Or those dragon, owl, and boar statues in the Faron region? Or the Thyphlo Ruins? And all three of the mazes? Yeah, those were all constructed by an ancient civilization that we simply call the Zonai. They are separate from the ancient Sheikah, as they existed for much longer than 10,000 years. And of course, as of the current game their people are now extinct, or have merged with other Hylian/Sheikah races, it’s unknown. 

Anyhow, as you can see, their designs are very similar to that of the structures found in the botw 2 trailer. From the stone carved walls, to the sunken pillars, to the bridge that seems to have carved owls. The Zonai associated owls with wisdom (dragons with courage, and boars with power, triforce, blah blah) But anyhow, this suggests that the place that Zelda and Link are in might be associated with the triforce.

Now let’s get to the Ganondorf stuff.

Ok so firstly, notice how the structure that he’s standing on is actual man made steps, with even the decorated stalagmites pointed directly at him like weapons. In addition, the malice that pours out of him (he’s creating it, not absorbing it) not only pours out across the floor, but also upwards towards that large central stalactite forms. The carvings surrround are actually more Sheikah than Zonai, with the circular designs similar to that of Shrines and Divine Beasts. But, the central one on top is very Zonai, as you can see from this later shot, which I uped the brightness for. 

Anyhow, safe to say this room/place was made with the specific purpose of housing ganondorf, the designs and architecture is too intentional. And given the Zonai existed 10,000 years ago, when the Calamity was first mentioned, might not be a stretch to say they were involved. However, it’s also the clear the Sheikah were also involved. Notice the gradient on the spiraling runes goes from green, to a turquoise that is the exact same color used when the Sheikah monks evaporate.

Fairly certain the hand seen in the trailer is of a Sheikah monk, given the long bony fingers and nails. The carvings on their gold bracelet is also very techy? Like of a circuit almost? But that might be a stretch, because the gold bracelt could ALSO be Gerudo.

I pretty sure that we see at least two seperate locations in the trailer. While they are clearly underground, the structure both include this temple looking place, and the bottom of Hyrule Castle (probably). It’s a trailer, so it’s most likely a mash-up of different cut scenes. You can see when they appear in different shots based on the surroundings. The rat, for example is on more brick like steps, the walls with uniform, rectangular stones like that of the the Hylian structures at the castle or the great plateau. Areas with the temple looking area are more Zonai, with stone carved impressions and more intricate and jagged designs. This means that the location of Ganondorf might nor necessarily be within the Castle, but in a separate location entirely.

This is kinda self explanatory. The eyes are exactly the same as the stuff that reanimates monster gunk  that you see across Hyrule, so reincarnation and yadayada. 

The wall art is of the same style as the tapestry depicting the Calamity and the battle 10,000 years ago that Impa shows you. 

Ganondorf is wielding a spear and riding a horse. I tried to up the brightness to you could see, but there are figure behind him that look like Gerudo warriors. So maybe Ganondorf was trying conquer Hyrule again back when he was hydrated and stuff :P 

Finally, this shot. Sure, it seems normal, its just the view of Hyrule as seen from the Great Plateau, but I think it’s interesting that we see absolutely no Sheikah technology. No shrines, towers, Divine Beasts, and even the pillars surrounding the Castle are gone. Perhaps they’ve all sunken back into the ground since their purpose of defeating the Calamity is supposedly fulfilled? In addition the Sheikah Slate was seen no where in the trailer, so maybe it’s useless now? We’ll have to see

In conclusion, Zonai ruins from 10,000 years ago, at least two separate locations underground, Sheikah probably had something to do with it, and something bad is probably gonna happen to Link, considering the music is just a slowed down version of the original game over music as seen here.

Oh, and while we’re talking about audio, I see stuff floating around that the voices reversed say stuff like “Poor Link has found the body” or “Poor Link is gone” and thats cool and sort of adds up! However, have we considered that the trailer for both the US and Japan appears to be the same? There’s no different Japanese version that I can find online. So why would the Japanese developers go out of their way to make the reversed audio in English? Might just be us trying to assign meaning to a simple chorus singing notes... but hey, we’ll have to see. 

End of rant :P

[mrneighbourlove]

A Study of Abuse and Forgiveness: The Skull Kid

Let’s talk about the Skull Kid.  I was eight when I first played Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I was lucky enough to have open parents who exposed me to different aspects of life through film, theatre, video games and life events. Violence was something I quickly learned through ‘Alien’ and other forms of art. However, for me, this moment was different from other forms of violence when I experienced it. It made me uncomfortable. Not from the violence itself though, but what the violence represented, and what I took away from it. Friends shouldn’t hurt friends.

The Skull Kid is my favourite Legend of Zelda character, and one of my favourite characters in fiction when you pair him up with Majora. This is a character who is a child of mind and soul. And what makes him realistic to me, is that he’s a kid. And most kids are the paragon of mischief and misbehaviour. They have fun, whether or not they do so at the expense of others’ comfort at times, mostly adults. This does not necessarily make kids inherently bad too.

We learn more about the Skull Kid before he had the mask through the word of Tatl. According to Tatl, people didn’t associate or play with Skull Kid because he was always up to tricks. This may be why, when they find Skull Kid, he is all alone and hiding under a log, shivering from the rain, even though he’s not too far away from Clock Town. People don’t like to be tricked after all, but we don’t know how far Skull Kid went with his pranks. Did he hurt the feelings of people around him greatly, or did he simply annoy them to the point of indifference?

Kids are usually loud or are big and noticeable with their actions when they want attention. For someone as lonely and different as the Skull Kid, it was friendship he sought. So, when he befriends Tatl and Tael he seems pretty content. The most trickery we see is him sneaking up on Tael and giving him a spook, or drawing Grafitti on a tree. Other than that, the Skull Kid is simply playing in the fields of Termina, playing music for his new friends, and having a good time. He acts like an average kid.

Then Majora’s Mask enters the picture. This is the first chronological case of abusive behaviour from Skull Kid. One might be able to argue that the mask somehow reached out to Skull Kid’s weak mind and influenced the Imp’s actions subtlety but, at the end of the day, the Skull Kid used violence to knock the Happy Mask Salesman out cold, rummage through his sack, and take Majora’s Mask for himself.

Now, it’s an interesting case to judge the actions of Skull Kid from this point on. There seems to be acts of evil that are clearly the Entity of Mask’s influence, such as the destruction of the world, as it would not have benefited the Skull Kid of before; however, we also see that the Skull Kid appears to be able to control his actions, at least in the opening act. He slips off the mask to congratulate his fairy friends, so the mask has not fully possessed him at that point or, at the very least, it does not seem to worry about Skull Kid abandoning it.

These are the crimes that were carried out by the Skull Kid throughout the game, but there is no way to know who was in control. 

- Turning Kafei into a child, resulting in a near broken relationship.

- Transforming the Deku Butler’s Son in a rooted husk, permanently killing him.

- Sealing the Giants Guardian Gods away.

- Physically assaulting Koume the witch, leaving her in a paralyzed state.

- Cursing Woodfall, creating a monster that kidnapped the Deku Princess, leaving an innocent monkey to be unjustly punished.

- Cursing Snowhead, leaving the mountains in an never ending winter, freezing Gorons, sending the Goron Hero Darmani to his death, and leaving him a ghost full of regrets.

- Cursing Great Bay. Following this by telling a group of Gerudo Pirates to steal Lulu’s Zora Eggs, which short term gets Mikau killed, and long term tricks the pirates into traveling into a typhoon.

- Cursing Stone Tower, unleashing spirits of the dead and damned, which are unable to return to rest, and cursing Pamela’s father into becoming a Gibdo.

- Knocking Link out, mugging him, stealing his horse and Ocarina, ditching the horse right after because he can’t ride it, cursing Link into becoming a Deku Scrub, and laughing as he leaves his friend Tatl behind.

- Cursing the moon to fall and crash onto Termina, bringing the end to all life.

- Striking his friend Tael for pleading for help to the giants.

It may have been Skull Kid himself, the Skull Kid under the influence of the mask, or Majora with Skull Kid unaware at all of his actions and possibly being under control of Majora, with the demon speaking through Skull Kid, possessed ala Regan from the Exorcist. 

Some of these seem childish and in line with Skull Kid, such as the opening act with Link or cursing Kafei, but I choose, in my opinion, to believe Majora at least influences most of these evil actions. That said, a lot of pain has been inflicted on others leading up to the the end of the three day cycle. Does the Skull Kid deserve forgiveness for his actions?

The biggest contender for forgiveness is the giants. They are the guardians of Termina. It is their job to ensure the inhabitants are safe. Yet, after all the giants are freed from the imprisonment by the power of the mask, they say this to Link and Tatl.

“Forgive your friend.”

They see the grasp of evil the mask has enveloped around the Skull Kid. This is a kid who has become entangled with something absolutely insidious, and they recognize that. That said, I also wish to examine a more grounded viewpoint of the argument of the abuse Skull Kid was a part of and whether or not he deserves forgiveness by looking into the debate between Tatl and Tael.

Tatl, rightfully so, is concerned for her brother. Skull Kid’s hitting of his friend and her brother is NOT acceptable behaviour. It is not something that is ok. And, like any child, he should know better. Now, this can be interpreted as the Skull Kid having hit Tael more than once off screen, but is more likely evidence of Tatl’s immunity to the effect of time reset, and her losing her patience for seeing Skull Kid hit her brother over and over and over again in the time loop.

This is a line to convey pity and, perhaps, remorse for the Skull Kid. The little imp seems to have always been alone. In the Lost Woods he was separate from other Skull Children; he didn’t seem to be included with the people of Clock Town and his antics made him isolated. Should we forgive Skull Kid just because of his life? Because he is a child in mind and soul, can we hope that he will become a better person if shown compassion and friendship?

Even if we are hurt and lonely, we make the choices that define us. To Tatl, Skull Kid chose to cause destruction and pain by lashing out with the power of the mask. Regardless of whether or not Majora made that final choice, the message is strong. We can’t defend bad behaviour just because of circumstance.

Absolutely. With great power, comes great responsibility. Give power to a child and bad things will happen, but the Skull Kid was doomed to failure due to the evil that possessed him, not him possessing it.

Which leads to the ultimate reveal. In the end, Majora manipulated Skull Kid’s weak will to its own end. It worked through Skull Kid to bring about pain, suffering, and death to the world. Skull Kid’s body is cast aside as Majora reveals itself at the final hour.

A big part of Majora’s Mask, is that you save a lot of people from the pain the mask is inflicting on the world. All of the masks you collect are symbols of every person you have helped to live a happier life. And Skull Kid is the last person you save from Majora. He was manipulated by a darkness far beyond his comprehension. And despite hurting Tael, the fairy forgives his friend.

However, what matters to me the most about the Skull Kid is an act that comes after you slay Majora. The Skull Kid displays shame at his actions.

He lowers his head and shakes. To me, this can be taken two ways. He could be addressing the giants, shocked at how they forgave him. Or, alternatively, I think it could be subtly showing Skull Kid is ashamed of hurting Tatl and Tael, that he feels guilt at his actions. He feels guilt that he was shown compassion. And the fairies fly over to comfort him in an act of forgiveness. Despite any abuse the Skull Kid committed under Majora, they forgive him. To me, it’s huge that Skull Kid shows any regret at all. It’s a sign of self-reflection, which he can use to become a better person.

Vaati is an evil wizard who kidnaps women. Zant is a crazy creep who usurped his kingdom. Ganondorf is an evil king who tries to control the world. Skull Kid is a child. You want to save him, with everyone else in Termina, because he has an innocence the other antagonists of Zelda just don’t share. He is someone you can be friends with at the end, once all of the evil has been exorcised out of the land and its people. In my own conclusion, I believe we can forgive Skull Kid, just as the Giants, Tael, Tatl, and Link have done.

Skull Kid isn’t completely evil. But, he also isn’t completely pure. He’s a kid. Kids screw up - sometimes they hurt their friends with the choices they make. But they can also learn from their mistakes. And they learn better if given a chance to be forgiven.  I believe Skull Kid just needs a friend to help guide him, and he can grow through the ages to be a good person, and an even better friend back. 

[pessimisticshape]

Analyzing Ganondorf's warbrobe : Oot

After studying Concept art for Oot Ganondorf I've noticed some interesting things about his choice of clothing and what they say about him.

Thanks to BoTW we know that some of the jewelry worn by people have magical properties that can offer protection from the elements and increase physical defense.

Since that's the newest addition to I'll start there:

From the Hyrule Historia

"Likes topaz jewelry. Has several pieces arranged all over his body." page 148

From Botw we know that Topaz is used to increase electric resistance and also that the Gerudo desert is lousy with electric type monsters. It's strange, in Oot there are no electric creatures to fight as the desert in this game was little more than a guided tour. It makes you think, was the use of jewelry for buffs and resistances always a plan but there was just never a right time for them in previous Zelda games? It might also explain where the Gerudo electricity motif came from as BoTW was the first to really explore the Gerudo culture and living conditions. The blistering day and frigid nights and infestation of electric based monsters.

In the real world, it was believed by ancient Romans that topaz protected it's owner from danger while traveling and wearing it on the left arm would protect from curses, cure lunacy, and ward of the 'evil eye'. (This is ironic since Ganondorf would very likely be the evil eye...)It was also once believed to increase body heat. Maybe in the world of zelda, topaz has many of these properties and that's why GD wears. If not then, atleast GD believes they do, which shows that he is somewhat superstitious. Being a magic user he could also unlock these abilities within gemstone using magic. It's also kinda cute that he expressively likes topaz...

I've already established that most most Ganondorf incarnations are wearing Amber jewelry save for TP, who might be wearing Topas exclusively but I'll get to him later. Historical was used for religious objects and talismans. It was believed to bring mental and emotional strength. Many ancient burials grounds contained amber jewelry and objects with their dead as to protect them in the afterlife. The only people we see wearing amber jewelry in Oot is Nabooru and Ganondorf, two high ranking Gerudo. We can assume that amber is reserved for important Gerudo.

Interestingly in some places unfossilized amber, resin, was burned as an incense. When heated and mixed with nitric acid it produced a musky pinewood smell. Egyptians used to put cones of scented wax on their heads to melt throughout the day and perfume themselves, maybe that's what the Gerudo are using them for.

Next is what he's wearing:

"Wears a leather leotard over a black bodysuit. Wrapped in fabric featuring Gerudo designs. A leather guard covers his shoulders and neck. He's also wearing jewelry." Hyrule Historia, pg. 149

I did some reading and came to the conclusion that it would be counter productive for living to wear leather anything in a desert. During the day atleast.

Leather does not offer much ventilation and the sand and heat can prematurely age it. The same goes for the extreme cold nights. It can cause leather to dry and lose it durability, or so I've read, that topic is a bit of a debate in the leather enthusiast community. It can act as an insulator when properly layered.

He's also wearing a leather guard on his neck and shoulders and what looks like leather knee pads so all that leather might just be protective gear for riding. Notice how this leather is darker than the other pieces he is wearing, this might be boiled leather. In-game the Gerudo don't wear any leather that we can see but we know they have metal armor as seen with the IronKnuckles. Maybe this armor is specifically just for Ganondorf. A sign of office. Maybe metal armor is just not practical in the desert heat.

GD is also wearing a thin black bodysuit. Bodysuits are usually made from stretchy, expandable materials but can be made from cotton. Cotton is praised for its breathable and moisture wicking properties. Its difficult to tell but in the concept art you can see that the material making up his bodysuit has a shiny texture to it. In his Super Smash Bros Ult. appearance it's more noticeable that his bodysuit is not skin tight like the concept art.

While it's hard to know for sure, we can assume the body suit it made of some sort of cotton, one that when processes has a silky sheen to it. Maybe Supima or Sea island.

In most fantasy tropes magic users forgo heavy metal armor as it affect the ability to do magicks. Given that we see a few other GD incarnations wearing Robes it can be assumed that LOZ follows this tropes. For all we know GD has other clothing that he wears and this just so happened to the most practical for him to be wear at the time. He is a bandit thief king so it would make sense for him to wear armor that's flexible and makes little noise. Although I can't imagine a man that size being stealthy.

If you go by the imagine we can see that originally Ganondorf was show to lean more toward Gerudo scimitars when acting as a brigand /highwayman. Given the gerudo's occupation in Oot, that could be where all their jewelry comes from. The Gerudo only stole from those that had excess but it's stated that whatever Ganondorf's methods are for thieving put him at odds with his people. Maybe he attacked the poor and weak? Or he was more of a cutthroat?

Interestingly when he takes over Hyrule he doesn't change his clothing, he only adds more jewelry and that carpet-cape. He surely has the means to and there is no other concept art of him in any other attire for Oot so its safe to say that these clothing have more meaning to him than not. Although i completely understand that the limitations of the Nintendo64 and gamecube played a big part in the designs of the characters

Also fun fact, in Creating a Champion, page 191, it refers to the DLC Phantom Ganon Set refers to his Oot pants as "long underwear". Make of that what you will...

https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-artists-on-coming-up-with-the-design-for-ganondorf-in-zelda-ocarina-of-time/

https://twitter.com/nintendoeurope/status/883276598249758720

[suzubelle-chan]

Someday Someplace Chapter 2 Evening Encounters

A Casnor Childhood Romance AU

Just some reminders like 90% of the cast belongs to @s-kinnaly, @ridersoftheapocalypse, and @mrneighbourlove. Also, this an AU of rider’s fanfiction, where Cass and Ralnor meet and fall in love as kids rather than adults. This is fanfiction of fanfiction-seperate timeline going on here. Just to clear up any confusion. One more thing, I edited the bit in the previous chapter about Ralnor’s skin tone since s-kinnaly is designing him with brown skin and I want to keep my works close to what you see in her art. Okay, enjoy the fic!

As Orana sat on her father’s shoulders, she scanned the crowd, hand over her eyes. “No sign of him here,” she called out.

The king shrugged, "Well it was worth a shot. Keep looking, dear."

"Okay, papa!" Orana replied and looked out again into the crowd.

Right next to them, Zelda held Tebanam, Covarog, and Kanisa next to her skirt. “Mama, how come we aren’t yelling Ralnor’s name?” the princess asked. “Isn’t that what we are supposed to do when we lose someone?”

“I can do that!” Orana declared. She took in a deep breath. However, her father clasped her mouth with his hand, silencing her yell.

“It is true. But we are royalty. That adds on other problems in finding.  People could panic if they found out that Ralnor is missing, running around and in searching they might not pay attention and accidentally hurt him. Or people might try to find him, but then hold him for ransom. We are trying to stay as quiet for as long as we can.”

“But I miss him, mama.” Kanisa sighed.

“Me too! We’ve got to get Ralnor back!” Covarog agreed.

“Ral!” Tebanam declared.

“I know darlings. I miss him too.”

“Is he going to be okay, Papa?” Orana asked.

“He will be,” Ganondorf stated, patting her. He then growled, “He will be.”

Zelda walked on over, patting her husband’s side. “Of course he will. We’ll make sure of it. I just can’t imagine what Ralnor is doing right now.

Indeed, with all the Wisdom she held, Zelda would have never imagined her son pulling on a piece of leather with all his might with a Gerudo girl pulling on the other end. All while, her mother narrated the events to a small crowd watching beyond the stall.

“See folks? Resists wear and tear!” Ukuri declared. There were some oohs and awes in the crowd. "You won't find high-quality leather anywhere else!" Then she smirked a bit. "Alright kids, now push!"

Ralnor took a step before straightening up. He looked up at the woman and asked her “What?” However, he failed to look back in time to see Cass ram into him, sending them both into the ground. Ukuri and crowd burst into laughter.

"Well, that's something you don't see every day!” The Gerudo woman chuckled. “So anyone interested in some leathers?”

As the merchant took in some orders, Ralnor watched the little triforce pieces swirling around his head.

“I’m sorry,” the girl lamented, still on the ground and eyes on the ground.

Ralnor shook his head, scattering the pieces away. He smiled, “It’s okay. I’m used to it. Sometimes my siblings and I get excited when it comes to group hugs.”

“What’s a sibling?” Cass asked.

“You know, it’s a brother or a sister.”

“Oh, you sure do know some fancy words Ralnor.”

“Just from books that I read.” The boy blushed, rubbing the back of his head. That is when his stomach gurgled, his cheeks pink. “Sorry.”

“Hey, when your tummy’s hungry its hungry.” Cass shrugged. “No need to blush.”

That is when Cass’s stomach roared, her own cheeks turning pink.

“Whoa is there a monster in your belly?" Ralnor asked.

“Shut up.” Cass mumbled.

“Well looks like I’ve got some hungry little kiddos on my hands.” Ukuri beamed, turning to the kids while filling her bag. She picked up a silver rupee and handed it to Cass. “How about you get us some grub?”

"Okay, mommy."

“Grub? Like bugs?” the boy flinched and twisted

“No, she means food." Cass giggled. "You may know the fancy words, but I guess I know some fun ones. She patted him on shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you everything I know." She fidgeted with her belt, revealing a small pouch and slipped the rupee inside. "Any requests?"

“I’ll take some cuckoo. You kids get whatever you want.”

“Yeah!” The girl cheered and took the boy’s hand.

“At least something that resembles real food. Not too many sweets or candy. I will be checking all pockets when you too get back.”

“Ugh! Fine!” the girl groaned.

“Ralnor I think you need to keep an eye on her for me,” the mother commented with a smile.

“Don’t worry ma’am I will.” The boy replied.

Just as the two children slipped out the back, a knight appeared at the stall. Ukuri jumped a bit, then took a deep breath and straightened out her skirt.

“Good day my lord. How may I help you today?”

"Pardon me, ma'am. There is a slight emergency I must announce. There is a missing noble boy and his family is dreadfully worried about him. He has blonde hair and blue eyes and is wearing green clothes. Has anyone seen a child like that?"

The group of customers shook there or murmured no.

Ukuri huffed, “A boy with blonde hair? In this country? Sorry, I think you are looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Well, keep your eyes open. Any and all information would be appreciated.” The man gave a slight bow and left.

When the crowd left, Ukuri grabbed a rag and rubbed the shelf a little too hard. “Typical. Some rich bastard’s brat goes missing and they’ll send out the guard. Meanwhile, a Gerudo girl goes missing and no one gives a damn.” She then glanced at the door. “Nah, couldn’t be.” She murmured, still scrubbing.

The kids glanced all around at the stalls. Food descriptions.

“See anything you like?” Cass asked.

“I’m not sure…” Ralnor admitted.

“Well, I think I found a stall with cuckoo for Mommy. Maybe there’s something for you here.”

The two children stood in line, glancing at the large black sign with all the foods and prices in white. “Aw sweet! They’ve got onion rings!” the girl declared. “Those are my favorites.”

“Okay…” the boy stared at the sign. His eyes scanning around, not settling on any of those words.

“Anything wrong?” Cass asked.

“Well…I don’t know what any of these things are,” Ralnor admitted.

Cass blinked at the boy and started to laugh her head off. “Aw man Ralnor. You are a riot!" She continued to laugh until she looked at the blank face of the boy. "You are actually serious, aren't you?"

“Yes.”

"Oh, Ralnor. I’m sorry. I mean, I thought you were a rich kid, but wow,” Cass pondered, hand now on her cheek.

“Mama usually only lets us have sweets at fairs or after dinner.” He admitted. “We sometimes can get Papa to give us snacks though when we are working on homework.

“Don’t you worry.” Cass pulled him in, arm around his shoulders. She patted her chest. “I am what you call a cuss-ne-sir of outdoor foods. Just ask me.”

“I think the word is connoisseur.”

Cass smirked, “ Okay smarty pants. Just read off some foods and tell you what they are. I’m sure there’s something you’ll like.”

“Okay…what is…a cheese frit-ter?”

“Oh, that's cheese covered in a batter and all fried up."

“Fried?”

“They take something like grease or fat or butter and boil it, and then they put food into it until gets all nice and crispy. Anything else?”

“What’s a Stuffed Spud?”

“That’s a potato that’s been baked and then put all kinds of good stuff in it. Sour cream, chives, cheese, bacon bits, butter-it’s really good.”

“Uh…I don’t eat bacon…”

“Me neither. Mom says it’s a Gerudo thing. You order your own fixings so it’s fine.”

“Maybe…what are fries?”

“Okay, now I’m starting to get worried about your lifestyle. Fries are potatoes cut up into strips and fried up. They make a great snack and usually come with a lot of meals.”

“So then what’s a grilled cheese?”

Cass sighed, “Let me ask you a question, you do know what a cheese sandwich is right?”

“Of course I do!”

"Just checking.” The girl stepped back, palms shielding her. “I was starting to think you came from like a different world or something. Well, grilled cheese is basically a cooked cheese sandwich. You just put in a pan until you burn the bread a bit and melted the cheese.”

“Well, I think I’ll take a grilled cheese then. With some fries too.”

“Excellent choice! Trust me, you’ll love it!”

The children ordered their food and weaved their way through the crowd. When the two children returned to the stall, Ukuri sighed. “Thank the goddesses! For a while there I thought I had two lost children on my hands.”

“Here you go Mommy, fried cuckoo wings!” the girl offered up the paper box overflowing with wings and fries.

"Thanks, kiddo. I'll go shut the stall and we’ll dine in the back.”

Right after the woman lowered the blind, closing them off to the word, a large stomping rattled the stall. “Yeesh, some customers," Ukuri grumbled. She then turned to see her daughter starting to take one of the hangings off the wall, food on one of the higher boxes, and Ralnor glancing around, checking the boxes.

“What are you looking for kiddo?” Ukuri asked.

“A napkin,” the boy responded.

“What for? We haven’t even started eating.” Cass stated giving the fabric one last tug before it fell on top of her.

“You can’t eat a meal without a napkin. Maybe a snack, but a not a meal.” Ralnor countered.

“Let me guess one of your mother’s rules?” Ukuri asked.

“Yes, ma'am. Plus I don’t want to get crumbs or stains on the hanging.”

“Kid let me tell you something, I learned when I lived with my mama.” The merchant knelt down, large arm wrapping the child close. “As long as your mama is not around, she won’t mind if you get a little messy. I’ll make sure you’re clean enough for her. Plus, Cass and I eat and sleep on these things all the time. I know how to get any stains out.”

Cass popped her head, hanging wrapped around her . “It’s true,” she declared.

“Are you sure? I really don’t want to make a mess.” He gazed up with wide, nervous eyes.

Ukuri sighed and smiled, “Well, I've got some rags upstairs that will do the job just fine if you want one.

"Yes, please. Thank you.”

“No worries hun. You are so sweet.”

As Ukuri left, Cass commented as she laid down the hanging, "Wow you got one of those strict fancy moms.” She then grabbed the boxes off the boxes and sat down.

The boy sat down next to her, he admitted.“She does kind of get mad when my siblings and I pull pranks or bring mud in the house or when we stay up late. But she always makes us feel better when we get bullied and really loves to help us with our homework.”

“She sounds nice, but I think I’ll take my mom any day of the week,” the girl said and then offered the boy his box.

The boy sat the box on his lap, cautiously took the sandwich with both hands. “I’ve never had anything so…wet and sticky…” He mentioned.

Cass chomped down on an onion ring as she spoke, “That’s called grease. It’s what the cook the food in. Just take a bite, it’s gonna not kill ya. Trust me. I’ve eaten this stuff plenty of times.” She then swallowed, a series of coughs following.  Cass pounded on her chest until she started breathing again.

“Okay…” Ralnor glanced at his friend nervously before looking at the dark sandwich in front of him, cheese slightly oozing out of the crust and took a small bite. The gooeyness of the warm cheese and the crunchiness of the bread filled his mouth. After swallowing, the boy said in awe, “This is good.”

"See, nothing to worry about," Cass stated. "Welcome to unhealthy-ish foods.”

“Ish?” Ralnor repeated.

“Because well cheese and bread are good for you, right? But, some people say all the healthy stuff gets lost when you fry foods like this. But I think still think there’s some left. Maybe not that much, but still some.”

Ralnor laughed. “I really like the way you think Cass.”

“Thanks.” The girl admitted, beaming.

As Ralnor continued to eat, he heard something hitting the ground repeatedly. That’s when he noticed the two dogs in the corner of the stall. The large white dog with almost green was wagging his tail, panting at the two of them. The black dog stared silently at them.

“Uh..what’s up with your dogs?”

“Oh, they always do that when it's meal time,” Cass shrugged. “Daddy used to let them have leftovers of their meals, just try looking away and you should be okay."

“Alright,” the prince stated as he turned around and tried to concentrate on his food. However, the sound of panting only got louder. He turned around slightly to see the larger dog right up in his face. "Hi, doggie," Ralnor greeted. Then the tog bit the crust out of his hand, tugging it away. He then sat down and started to chew on the leftover sandwich. “Hey!” the boy cried out.

“You gotta be careful around Noishe,” Cass commented. “He’ll take what he wants without warning. Gotta stay sharp.”

“What about that dog?” Ralnor pointed to the thin, black dog still in the corner.

“That’s Repede. He’s the quiet one. He doesn’t cause trouble much unless you have something you want.”

“Like what?”

Before Cass could reply, the dog slipped over, his head on the girl’s lap. Cass managed to grab her box of food before he could grab a piece.

“Fries for one thing.” The girl muttered as she patted his head. “Come one bro. Mommy doesn’t want you to have too much human food. You are not as young as you used to be.”

The dog growled a bit and started nuzzling her stomach.

The girl started to laugh, “Okay, just one more piece.” And she plucked off a fry and put it right in front of the dog’s mouth. The canine eagerly took the piece and started to eat.

Ukuri walked into the stall, some rags draped over her arm. “Cass, you better not be feeding the dogs cooked food again. You know its not good for them.”

“I’m just showing Ralnor what not to do around the dogs when they want food.”

“Really?” Ralnor asked.

Cass shushed him, “Come on Ralnor, just go along with it.”

“Sure you are, and that is not the sound of the dogs’ chewing.” Ukuri lamented as she sat down handing a rag to her guest. She then reached for her food still on the counter and joined the two children on the mat.

"Well, it's a lesson by trial and error." The girl shrugged.

The woman chuckled shaking her head. “You know Ralnor, I think I might have to save you from my girl. Who knows what kinds of things she’ll teach you if I left you two alone?”

“Like adult words?” Cass suggested.

“What are adult words?” Ralnor asked.

“You know the words that grownups say when they bang their heads on doorways or stub their toes on furniture.” The girl started to beam, “For example…”

Ukuri then picked up her daughter, spilling out onion ring and fry bits and crumbs everywhere, rubbing her hair with her knuckles. “That’s enough out of you!”

"Ack! Aw, come on Mommy! You said it's better to learn now than later! Besides I promised I’d teach him everything I know!"

“I’ll have to put an end to that lesson. For all I know, Ralnor’s mommy might pick me up, put me over her knee, and spank me for letting you teach Ralnor those words. And who knows what she’ll do to you.”

The two dogs eagerly attacked the pieces the food, licking up and chewing on everything they could find.

Ralnor couldn't help but laugh at the scene. He couldn’t help but think, "I still miss Mama, Papa, Covarog, Orana, Kanisa and Tebanam...but Cass and Ukuri they make me feel right at home. I'm really happy I met them. I can’t wait for my family to meet them."

With the sky starting to change into its usual evening red, orange, and yellow, the royal family still didn’t find their missing member. Tebanam napped inside his father’s arms, while the other children clung onto their parents' legs to support them, rubbing their eyes.

“Still no sign of him…” Zelda sighed, patting Kanisa’s bobbing head.

“We will find Ralnor, we can’t lose hope.” Ganondorf countered.

“But we’ve search all over,” the queen retorted. “The only thing left to do is go inside each stall and search.”

“If that’s we have to do, then so be it,” the king commented. “But first, we must take the children home.”

At the mention of them, Covarog, Kanisa, and Orana snapped up. “What?” They all screamed. Tebanam now wide awake by the noise, starting to whimper.

“But we can’t go home yet!” Orana declared. “We haven’t found Ralnor yet!”

“We can’t leave him behind! We just can’t!” Covarog declared.

“We can still help!” Kanisa interjected before a yawn cut her off.

The king smiled, sparing one hand to pat Kanisa’s head. Zelda stroked Orana's and Covarog’s heads. “Yes, but you are also very much exhausted. You need to go to sleep.”

“No, we don't!" Covarog objected with the stomp of his foot.

“Yes, you do." The king then lifted the boy's chin with his fingers. "Don't worry, your mother and I will not stop searching for your brother. We will bring him home. But we also care about you, and you need to get to bed."

“I don’t think that I can sleep…with Ralnor out there….somewhere without us…” Orana sighed, staving off a yawn.

“Well at least, we’ll get you ready and you can try for us? Okay?” Zelda asked.

The three older children glanced at each other frowning. Tebanam grumbled a bit as his father swayed him, calming him down. Covarog sighed, “Okay let’s go home.”

The queen smiled, “I know this is hard. But we will find him soon.”

Covarog took his father’s free hand and the girls took their mother’s. However, just as they started the walk, Kanisa cried out, “That’s it!” digging her heels in the ground.

“Kanisa what’s it?” Zelda asked.

“That’s the stall! The one that Ralnor left for! It’s that one!” She pointed her free hand, bouncing up and down.

“Are you sure Kani? Looks like all the other plant stalls. What makes this one so special?” Orana asked.

“It’s got the most plants! The others didn’t have that many! If Ralnor didn’t go to this stall, then I don’t know about Ralnor at all!” Kanisa beamed.

The parents looked at each other, “Well it is worth a look,” Zelda admitted and the group headed to the stall. A young man stood in the back, pulling down on the tarp while the old lady still sat in her chair dozing off.

Covarog, Orana, and Kanisa immediately dashed into the stall, calling out “Ralnor!" while going around every pot and ducking under every table.

“Children stop!” Zelda called out.

The young man stopped his motion, staring blankly at the commotion. “Something tells me that you are not here for a houseplant.” He chuckled. Then he saw who he was talking to and gave a small bow, “Uh sorry your majesties. What can I help you with?”

“We are searching for our son Ralnor, brown skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, green clothes. He wandered off earlier today and we haven’t seen him since. We think he might have been here for a while. Have you seen him?” Ganondorf replied.

“Ooh sorry to hear that. Hope you find him. What time of day do you think he left?” The man asked.

“This morning. Before noon,” Zelda answered.

“Shoot. I didn’t see him. Most people don’t want to carry a heavy plant all day, so we don’t do much busy in the morning. I left Ma with the stall while I looked around. She might have seen something. Just hope her working ear is working again.” The man walked toward the old lady and started to yell “HEY MA!”

The woman snapped open, drool slipping out. She glanced around, adjusting her glasses “Who said that?”

“HEY MA! DID YOU SEE A BLOND BOY TODAY?” the man asked.

“Oi tone it down, I’m deaf but I’m not dead. You might raise your father back being that loud,” the old lady gristled.

“Ma, these parents lost their boy. He might have been here. Seen him?” her son asked.

“Boy…boy…boy,” the woman wondered.

The adults continued to stare, leaning closer waiting for her next words. But then the woman's head slipped back and started to snore.

“Ma!” the man called out. However, his mother continued to slumber.  He sighed, “Sorry about this your majesties. I wish we could help out more.”

Just there was a loud clatter. The royal couple and merchant turned to see Orana, leaning forward with her hand's out wide inches away from a broken pot, laying on its side.  Clay pieces and soil scattered on the ground, while a scrub bush lay helplessly on its side, roots exposed. "Whoopsie…" The princess stated.

“Orana!” Zelda called out.

“I’m sorry! I swear I just bumped it!” Orana stated.

“It’s okay, I needed to replant that one anyway,” the man replied.

“We’ll pay for the damages.” The king declared.

“No your majesty, it’s fine,” the merchant insisted.

As the three adults haggled over the pot, the princess made her way over to the little old lady, staring into space. The girl placed her hand on her lap. “I’m sorry I broke your pot. I’ll pay for it with my allowance.” She then dug into a small bag at her side.

The woman turned towards the child and smiled. "Ah what a sweet child. How can I ask money from such a kind soul? After the way you help that little girl earlier too. Don't worry. My son broke many a pot when he was your age."

“Little girl?” Orana asked.

“You know that cute little blonde you ran into. She came in here and you two ran around chasing each other. Then when she was crying you comforted her and took her away. I bet you have been friends for a long time.”

“You don’t think…” Orana glanced at her siblings.

“Can you tell us about this blonde girl?” Kanisa asked.

“Of course! One of the cutest children I’ve seen. Silky blonde hair, gorgeous blue eyes, green clothes, and the loveliest brown skin. Really put my kid to shame.”

"Thanks, mom I feel loved,” the man sighed.

“Where did I…and the blonde girl go?” Orana asked.

“Not sure…just saw you going to the left.” The old woman shrugged.

“Mama, Papa do you think that if we find the other girl we might find Ralnor?” Covarog asked.

"Well, it's the best lead we've had all day," Ganondorf admitted.

“Hope you find your kid soon.” The merchant stated.

“Thank you. Come on kids, let’s find your brother!” Zelda declared.

As the royal family left, the woman adjusted her glasses, sighing “What a lovely family. Mother’s a bit hairy though…”

The merchant laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Ma don’t ever change.”

Ralnor and Cass watched out of the stall window, using their crossed arms as cushions as they rest their hands.

“Still nothing?” Cass asked.

“Yes,” Ralnor sighed.

“Sorry. I really thought we had a good spot and you’d find your family like that,” Cass stated with a snap.

“Well, I’m glad I’m here. If you hadn’t been at the stall, I probably just sat at the stall with that old lady, crying how my family left me. I’ve had a lot of fun today. Thanks for taking me in,” the boy leaned in.

“No problem, what are friends for?” Cass wrapped her arm around him, pulling him closer.

Ukuri stepped in, patting Ralnor on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll find your folks. I’ve just a couple of things to pack away and the dogs to put upstairs, then we can look around. You two kids head outside.”

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Okay, mommy."

Just as the kid’s reached the outside of the stall, Cass stopped, “Huh…I just realized I never asked what your parents look like.”

"My parents tend to stand out in a crowd, especially my papa. You'd know them the moment you see them."

“Probably, but not all Gerudos look alike. Some are tall, some are really tall, some are thin or fat, but we are all Gerudo. So what do your daddy and mommy look like?"

"My papa…"

“Ralnor!”

The children turned to see Orana and Kanisa running at them, arms open wide.

“Orana! Kanisa!” the boy cheered, opening his arms wide as well.

The two princesses tackled their brother, almost hitting him to the ground, knocking off his hat.

“Oh Ral, we're sorry we left you behind. We thought Mama and Papa knew you were at that plant stall!" Orana explained.

“We’ve missed you so much!” Kanisa sniffled, clutching her brother tightly.

“I’ve missed you too!” the boy eagerly returned their embrace, a few sniffles coming out.

"Sweet! That's one part of your family down!"

The reunited trio turned to the Gerudo girl smiling at them, hands on her hips.

There was a moment of silence before Orana yelled, “It’s a Gerudo girl!”

"Yes." The boy stood up and displayed his hand out.  "This is my friend Cass. We met at the plant stall and she and her mama took me in so I can look for you.” He used his other hand to display his family. Cass these are my sisters, Orana and Kanisa.”

“Nice to meet ya.” Cass offered a hand.

Kanisa gaped for a bit, before hiding behing her brother. She still stared in awe of the girl as she sqeauked out a hello.

Orana beamed and grabbing Cass’s hand with both of her own, shaking it violently . "Hi, there! Thanks for taking care of our big bro!"

Cass, still shaking from the girl’s grasp, tilted her head,“ Bro?”

“Ralnor!”

Just then the group of children turned to see Zelda dashing towards them.

“Mama!” he yelled and ran towards her and jumped right into her arms. Now sobbing, he nuzzled his head against her chest. “I’ve missed you so much.”

The force from her son caused Zelda to sit down, cradling her boy, “I’ve missed you too! I’m sorry we left you behind.”

“It’s okay. Next time I’ll double check with Papa.” He raised his head, smiling.

She beamed and kissed his forehead, “You smart thing you.”

The queen set her son on the ground and stood up. He took her hand and led her to Cass. “Mama, this is my new friend Cass. She found me at the stall and let me stay with her mama until I can find you.”

"I am so happy that my son is making such wonderful friends. Thank you so much for helping him." She knelt down, looking the girl in the eyes, smiling.

The Gerudo girl’s jaw dropped. She tugged her hand out of Orana’s and pointed at Ralnor.  She yelled, “YOU LIED TO ME!”

Ralnor blinked and squeaked out, “What?”

“You said you were a Gerudo. But you are not!" Cass pointed at Zelda. "You can only be a Gerudo if your mama! And she’s not! She’s the exact opposite!”

“Yes, we are! We are just as Gerudo as you!” Orana declared.

“No, you are not! Besides he’s  a boy!” Cass pointed to Ralnor. “There’s no such thing as a boy Gerudo!”

“Nuh-huh there’s Ganondorf!” Kanisa stated.

“Children please calm down.” Zelda ushered.

“Ganondorf’s not a Gerudo! He’s just a monster!” Cass roared, stomping her foot.

“Ralnor!”

The arguing group stopped to see Ganondorf stomping towards them, Tebanam still on his chest and Covarog trailing behind. The king scooped up his son and started to kiss his face.

“Papa!” The boy eagerly wrapped his arms around his neck.

“Cass this is our Papa, Ganondorf.” Orana declared. “So we are just as Gerudo as you!” Orana folded her arms on her chest.

“Yeah!” Kanisa agreed with her hands on her hips.

At the mention of his name, he looked down and saw the Gerudo girl. His jaw dropped slightly and eye widened with joy.

The same couldn't be said for Cass. She started to turn as pale as a sheet. Then let out a blood-curdling scream. Once the royal family could hear again, she slumped over on the ground.

“Cass!” Ralnor cried out. He climbed down his father’s front and knelt next to the girl. He flipped her over and patted her cheek, but she still didn’t wake up.

“What’s wrong with her?” Orana asked.

“Cass!”

The group now saw Ukuri, standing a few feet away from them, holding her head in her hands. She dashed over and picked up her daughter. “Cass, monkey, sweetie. Please wake up!” She shook the girl slightly, but still no response.  The mother twisted towards Ralnor. “What happened to her?”

“I don’t know!” He replied anxiously.  “She just looked at my Papa and screamed and fell over!”

“Papa?” That’s when the Gerudo woman noticed the king standing before her. She, too, turned and slumped over, still holding her child.

“Mrs. Ukuri!” Ralnor cried out. He then looked up at his father, tears clouding his eyes. "Papa…did you kill them?

"What no!" The king declared but it was too late. Ralnor now bawled his head off.

"We can't leave them like this," Zelda commented. "We'll take them back to the castle."

Ganondorf picked up both Gerudo women in his arms. All along the way back to the carriage and in the carriage ride to the castle, Ralnor kept glancing at his new friends. Hoping they would be alright.

Here’s a link to the previous chapter: Chapter 1 Marketplace

[attract-mode-collective]

Of Course Dr. Mario Has A Storyline, What Kind Of A Dumb Question Is That?

Yes, it’s true. It’s even in the instruction manual! Though the latest video from Gaijillionaire details the storyline in the manga adaptation of Dr Mario, is something that was dreamt up by the comickers at Bonbon.

I’m not sure what I like more: how it somewhat connects to Super Mario Land (well its manga adaptation at least) or the explanation as to why the pills fall so slowly in-game. That and all the bits & pieces that would appear in Mario titles many years down the road; I do believe it is plausible that Miyamoto may have gotten some ideas from the manga.

On a semi-related note, a couple of mini storybooks based upon early Famicom titles popped up on Yahoo Auctions. They’re no longer active, but thankfully uwagoto was able to save the pics (here and here)…

I really hope, as one of the cover implies, Donkey Kong Jr and one of the fish from Balloon Fight actually teams up against the Balloon Fighter and Bubbles from Clu Clu Land.

And why the hell not; here we have another Mario related vid this early into the proceedings, but one on the opposite end of the spectrum. There’s a brand new series that I dig, called Low Poly, which tracks the evolution of a character model from game to game. And the first installment, based upon Mario (obviously), is perhaps my favorite thus far. Cuz I had long assumed that Mario hasn’t changed all that much, past his GameCube. Well, I was wrong…

insertdisc5 states: “i started thinking about a zelda game where link and ganondorf are childhood friends and gave myself Intense Feels”…

Here we have my first fave piece of Persona fan art (the first of many to come, no doubt), by averykua…

Also via Avery Kua, from her homepage, is this very nice looking arcade stick…

Here’s the artwork in full, btw…

Back to my mai latest P5 waifu; the very first Futaba figure has been revealed!

The best part about is how she comes with interchangeable parts, which means she you can take her jacket off and even have her pose with Morgana…

It also hasn’t taken long for someone to produce a pair based upon the protagonist’s glasses. Which I thought about getting, but as my buddy @ducktastic pointed out, they’re not the most flattering looking frames IRL, at least not as nice as ones based upon P4. Though for anyone else interested, you can pre-order a pair via National Console Support…

My pal @vitaminsteve passed along this tweet, by someone that’s “really close to starting an IG dedicated to the living situations of wrestling fans. it's fucking fascinating.” Included is this image of a guy with a ton of replica wrestling belts (you non-wrestling fans have NO IDEA how much each only one can sometimes cost), and also a Sega Saturn Bomberman multitap…

Oh, and here’s what the multitap looks like when its full potential has been reached (via @Cure_makopi)…

Back to wrestling; was just listening to Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, aka my current fave podcast, and a recent episode mentioned the indoor Sega Saturn blimp, a staple of mid 90s WWF PPVs. And which coincidentally just appeared in my feed (was originally posted by laser-lobotomy)…

BTW, the game Battle Monsters was also brought up in that same episode, multiple times.

Kotaku recently passed along some tweets from folks in Japan that noticed that the windows at a shopping mall there looks like DS game cards…

Another neat thing that Kotaku picked up from Twitter users in Japan that you might have missed is this story about a kid who wanted a Switch so bad that he made a one out of cardboard…

And while his son was taking a bath, dad places the real thing inside…

As always, the @CoolBoxArt Twitter feed continues to deliver…

BTW, am assuming the reason why Kyle passed along to me the intro to the PSone version of UNO is cuz the Saturn version’s cover was shared earlier today...

Whereas @GoodBoyGraphics recently shared a flyer for Attack Animal Gakuen…

The actual art on the cart is quite different, yet also quite the same, and overall quite nice…

FYI, the lead from the game is the school from the bazooka you previous saw here.

Speaking of girls with guns, and also food, cuz I’m hungry as I’m writing this; byronb states: “BurgR. Va inspired by the D.Va references coming from Wendy’s and Arby’s”…

Please enjoy this scene from the arcade by crisalys…

Which do you prefer; this woman whose arms is wrapped around a MSX (via potetoboy)…

Or this snake wrapped around a GBC (via scale-punk)…

While on the subject of the Game Boy Color, here we This Does Not Compute, which addressing one of classic gaming’s great white whales yet again: a GBC with a backlit screen. Unlike with other models of the Game Boy, you can’t mod the factory-installed screen for such a thing, for reasons that has been explained already. Hence why the appearance of the dream mod that appeared on a Chinese shopping site was such a big deal to those in the know. Colin tried to get ahold of one and… thus we have this 20-minute long video!

Which animated gif from a not so popular third installment of fighting franchise do you dig the most? This one from Virtua Fighter 3 (via lvrllnd)…

Or this one, from Street Fighter EX3 (via vgjunk)…

And which animated gif from a game that I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard of appeals to you the most? This moment captured from Akatsuki Denko Senki/Akatsuki Blitzkampf (via kazucrash)…

Or this equally frantic and perplexing moment from Hard Head 2 (via obscurevideogames)…

One more question, for now at least: which part of part of Sega 3D Classics’ ending do you prefer? The part in which Ecco the Dolphin steals the car from OutRun…

Or when the pterodactyl from Ecco steals it (both via grooveonfight)…

Hey look, Asteroid cookies (via it8bit)…

Speaking of arcade classics, perhaps everyone’s aware of my affinity for TNT Amusements’s informercials? The first one I ever covered was for GameSetWatch over a ten years ago(!!!), then a bit more recently, I passed along an earlier example when the Attract Mode blog was still powered by WordPress. Well, turns out, there’s yet another infomercial, one that predates even those two efforts! Which was recently uploaded to the TNT YouTube channel, with the bonus commentary. Alas, much like how the second one isn’t quite as strong as the third and final masterpiece, the first attempt is rough around the edges; Todd hadn’t developed his comedic chops, but hey, we all have to start somewhere and it all starts here…

According to actionfigureinsider.com…

“BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., the creator and publisher of the ubiquitous PAC-MAN, is bringing back the nostalgic, iconic art of PAC-MAN in the form of a new Style Guide called “PAC-MAN Retro”. BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment worked with a team of in-house designers to expertly create the new style guide, which is comprised of a series of evocative artwork styles from the 80s that catapulted the game into one of the highest grossing licensing brands in history.”

Here’s apparently an excerpt from the style guide. Basically, for those of us who have been patiently waiting for a toy based upon Pac-Man, back when he had red eyes, our day might finally be here…

Meanwhile, miki800.com tells us that the Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins figure I first showed off nearly a year ago is finally almost here (there’s even an additional face, with the Pac-Man-looking eyes)…

Though is Ghosts ‘n Goblins too mainstream for you? I get it; I too prefer something more off the beat path as well. Hence why I too am interested in these Wings of Wor figures also (via mendelpalace)…

Check out these absolute stunning models by Kow Yokoyama, for the original Super Famicom release of Front Mission, that Video Game Densetsu gathered up (you can see everything here and here)…

Oh, and to prove that I’m not only about toys and models based upon old Japanese games, here’s a wonderful assortment of Killer Queen figures that was spotted over at the Killer Queen NYC FB page…

Am pretty sure this rather curious ad that has oldgamemags perplexed is for Ubisoft’s very early Mario Kart clone, Street Racer. It’s also reason #175,932 why the recently leaked Mario + Rabbids is hardly a shock to my system at least…

And here’s reason #275,853 why I love Mortal Kombat so much (via angyspaulding)…

Plus reason #275,854, and yet another long ass video; courtesy of mysterious0bob comes an hour long vid of glitched finishing moves from a MK rom hack that’s bucking at every single seem. It’s… truly something else. It’s also hard to say what my absolute favorite part is, though the 39:30 mark is just one of many in which things become legitimately high art…

These GameCenter CX screencaps are pretty relevant to me, especially since I recently turned 40 and am officially middle aged, though I’m not too out-of-shape I’d like to think (via starbornkit)…

And finally, here we have some images by Filip Hodas (via retrogamerblog)…

… Which remind me of the cover to that zine I’M STILL WORKING ON I SWEAR TO GOD…

… Though here we have an interesting opinion from SlimeGirls…

Don’t forget: Attract Mode is now on Medium! There you can subscribe to keep up to date, as well as enjoy some “best of” content you might have missed the first time around, plus be spared of the technical issues that’s starting to overtake Tumblr.

[gman-003]

Legends - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Analyzed, Part Two

Levias is an even worse fit. He's supposedly a guardian spirit for Skyloft, but he's never mentioned until the part of the game where you have to go get a MacGuffin from him. After that, he never appears in the story again. I think he gets more total screentime in Hyrule Warriors than in Skyward Sword. He feels like a Link's Awakening reference that was tossed in at the last minute, when it was decided that Skyward Sword was to be the origin myth for the Legend of Zelda series. Games have become a very narrative-focused experience. When the Legend of Zelda series began, all you had was "you're the hero, go rescue the princess from the monster by getting all the magic things". You're still the hero, there's still a princess and there's still monsters and magic things, but the series has gotten a lot more story-focused as time has passed.

That's not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Early games skimped on the story because they didn't have the technical capability to tell it well. The NES basically didn't have the memory capacity for books' worth of text or minutes-long animations. And a story done well is always worthwhile.

But it has to be done well. Is the story of Skyward Sword good? Well... kind of. It has great bits, it has okay bits, and it has some bad bits.

Good: Zelda has agency, Groose has arc

Certain tropes have gotten a lot of flak for their prevalence. The "damsel in distress" trope, the helpless female character who you must rescue, gets some deserved criticism, and the Zelda series has used that trope pretty extensively in past games.

Not here.

Skyward Sword gives us a Zelda who takes action. She does things. In the earliest parts of the game, she sticks up to a bully to protect you. When she gets thrown to the surface world by a tornado, you go to rescue her, only to discover a) she's taking care of herself, b) she's on her own quest, and c) she's actually kind of busy right now, let's try to meet up later, k?

Even when she becomes trapped in a crystal thing... she was the one who put herself there. She had to do some weird magic stuff to keep The Imprisoned... imprisoned, and until you kill the thing for good, she's too busy to come have sloppy makeouts so get off your ass and finish the quest already, Link. Get it together, because she's got hers.

The complaint about the trope is often misused. Tropes are tools, and tools exist to be used (although yes, the extent to which that particular one is used is indicative of problems with our culture's gender roles). Using the damsel-in-distress trope to, say, give the broad strokes of a story because you're on the NES and putting a more detailed story in the game would require cutting out half your gameplay, is perfectly valid. Nintendo could have told a good story even while using that trope... but instead, they gave us a Zelda who felt like a real character, who did real-character things and had a real story of her own.

In Skyward Sword, Zelda has an arc. She has character development. She has growth. She feels like a real person, with internal conflict and personal change. She's an actual good character.

She's not the only one. Groose - who I had pegged at first as the annoying comic-relief character - has an arc. He starts off as a bully - childishly cruel to those weaker, but a coward to those who he can not or will not harm. He sobs inconsolably when Zelda goes missing... until, eventually, his grief is overwhelmed by his envy at Link's exploits, and he tries to usurp him as protagonist, trying to be the one to save Zelda and, he hopes, win her favor. But visiting the strange surface world changes him. He learns to respect others. He finds his courage, helping Link fight a demon. He uses his brain, and not just his brawn. And, eventually, he realizes that Zelda is her own person, that he's doing both of them a disservice by trying to win her.

That's a story right there. That's an arc. It's not one that's well-suited to game form, honestly, but it's great character development. The low-level writing, the words and sentences of dialogue, is never particularly great in Skyward Sword, but the mid-level character crafting is on point.

For everyone except Link.

Okay: Proving your worth to be a hero, not being a hero

Link as a character has one big problem in *Skyward Sword*. He doesn't have agency. He never does things without another character, or several characters, pushing and prodding and guiding and dragging him through the story. His supporting cast is so supportive that he loses his protagonist status - because he gets told to do everything that he does, he becomes merely the pawn for other character's successes, rather than a hero in his own right. He's a bullet fired at Demise by Zelda. He's the dumb meat swinging Fi and the Goddess Sword around. He's the errand-boy of Impa, in two ways.

Link's character arc is barely an arc at all. It's all buildup for almost no payoff. Link spends the first three dungeons trying to prove to Impa that he's good enough to keep up, to not be a liability to her and Zelda. Then he spends three dungeons proving himself worthy of the sacred fires needed to forge the Master Sword. Then he has to go prove himself a hero to the three dragons. Link only "becomes a hero" at the very, very end, when he defeats Ghirahim and Demise - specifically, he becomes a hero when Demise gives him a chance to run away, and Link chases after him instead. So, about fifteen minutes before the credits roll, depending on how much trouble the final battle gave you. (It gave me a lot of trouble, by the way). Other games in the Legend of Zelda series did not make you wait nearly so long. In *Ocarina of Time*, Link gets his first hero moment when he first faces Ganondorf, and draws his sword against the king of evil. In *Wind Waker*, Link shows signs of heroism from the beginning, when he ventures into the forest to rescue a fallen stranger. Perhaps the writers of *Skyward Sword* intended that early moment where Link ventures to the surface in search of Zelda to be that moment where he shows even a sign of heroism... but they sapped it of any meaning by having him be so forcefully prodded into it, by not one but two characters. I was yelling at the screen for them to shut up and let me go on an adventure already, but the cutscene dragged on of Fi and Gaepora telling me how important it is to go on an adventure. (There may be a blog entry entirely about this scene, as well as the role of certain steps of the Monomyth in interactive media, if I feel like it's worthwhile). Link isn't really changed by his adventures. He's learned skills and acquired powers he didn't have before, but he's fundamentally the same character, as far as I can tell. Maybe it's just hard to show a player character developing self-reliance and confidence, because their actions are controlled by the player? But plenty of other games have pulled this off - the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot springs to mind.

That brings up an interesting aside: does the protagonist of the story necessarily have to be the player character of the game? I would argue that Zelda is the protagonist of Skyward Sword's story, even though she's never controlled by the player. Link doesn't take initiative. He starts the game doing things because Zelda told him. When Zelda's gone, he does things because Fi told him, or because a dragon told him, or because someone just asked nicely. Zelda has far more agency than Link, and honestly has a better character arc.

In the end, it was Zelda that defeated Demise, not Link. Link might have been the one swinging the sword, but the victory was arranged by Zelda. She (as Hylia) placed all the tools Link needed in the places he would get them, and kept The Imprisoned from escaping until Link had assembled all the pieces necessary to kill it.

And even though I'm not sure the Legend of Zelda gameplay formula would be the best fit for such a story... I kind of wish I had been playing as Zelda instead. Or maybe playing as Impa, since she had lots of action going on, but was more closely involved with the story's protagonist. Either one seems like it could have been a good game.

Bad: Elements out of place

While Link is a bad fit for the protagonist role, he's at least a good fit for the player character role, and his story isn't jarringly bad. But there are elements that seem much more out of place.

The story of Skyward Sword has an unfortunate tendency to bring new characters in without foreshadowing or justification - characters that, logically, ought to have been known to the player earlier, but were not.

Demise, the game's final boss, sort of comes out of nowhere. You never see him except in the bestial, non-sapient form of The Imprisoned. You never see art depicting him as a humanoid or writings referencing him as such. This isn't completely without foreshadowing, as you do know that The Imprisoned is not in its original form, and it was once a fearsome demon king, but it's still quite abrupt to see him standing before you, wielding a sword. It was clearly intended to be a surprise, but it comes off more as a "we made the final boss fight without telling the writers" than a "clever twist ending".

Levias is an even worse fit. He's supposedly a guardian spirit for Skyloft, but he's never mentioned until the part of the game where you have to go get a MacGuffin from him. After that, he never appears in the story again. I think he gets more total screentime in Hyrule Warriors than in Skyward Sword. He feels like a Link's Awakening reference that was tossed in at the last minute, when it was decided that Skyward Sword was to be the origin myth for the Legend of Zelda series.

And the game's very status as an origin seems to contradict its internal story. Skyward Sword has an obsession with the past. You're fighting an ancient evil that was sealed away in an ancient battle by ancient peoples under the guidance of an ancient goddess. Time travel is a theme of one of the dungeons and is a major component of the story - and you always go backward to the past, never forward to the future.

The game does not feel primitive. You have plenty of advanced technology - rotorcraft and electricity are in active use on Skyloft, and the are friggen robots on the surface. That doesn't jive at all with the supposed placement at the head of the timeline. The technology of the series jumps all over the place - Skyward Sword has all this advanced, modern tech, but the next few games per the official timeline, Minish Cap, Four Swords and Ocarina of Time feature very little tech beyond that of medieval Europe. You can't even argue that all the technology we see in Skyward Sword is ancient, pre-apocalyptic tech, which will break down and be lost over the next century or so. Some of it was indigenous! Beedle had electrical generators and human-propelled aircraft, stuff we emphatically do not see in our visits to the past. He didn't salvage that from an ancient ruin, he invented it. So why isn't that seen in every other game, since they all take place after Skyward Sword?

I suspect, contrary to the claims of Aonuma, that Skyward Sword was not intended to be placed at the head of the series from the start of development. It feels like it was created either to be at a vague future point in the timeline, or with no concept of being a sequel or prequel at all. Before the three-branched timeline was made official, it was commonly argued that the series had no strict chronology, that it was literally a legend, in the sense of being the same story told over and over by different storytellers.

Under that paradigm, Skyward Sword fits well. It has the magic sword of power, it has the princess and her protector, it has the mentor, it has the companion, it has the demon king, it has the whale, it has all the stock locations. It has all the recurring nouns of the Zelda franchise, it just puts them together differently, as every game did.

With its focus on the past, I could even buy it being a distant sequel to another game, perhaps on the Wind Waker branch of the timeline. I have not yet played the games billed as direct or indirect sequels to Wind Waker, though, so that may have its own contradictions. It could even fit around the rest of the timeline - have the "past" of Skyward Sword come before every other game, and the "present" come after. There's tons of theories that could be made to fit - and all of them fit better than the actual way they chose to present it.

Overall, I just don't feel like Skyward Sword is a perfect, natural starting place for the Zelda series. I have a theory as to why it was made the Official First Zelda Story, but that will have to wait for another time.