#let hyrule be evil

[gintrinsic-writing]

Trust, and Its Destruction

CW: violence

--

Lightning streaked across the sky amid black, cascading clouds. Where it struck, no living thing remained. 

“Fall back!” Warriors roared over the clamor—over hungry gibdos’ screeching, thunderous booms, and ringing steel. Burn marks covered nearly half of his torso. They promised to be lethal if not treated soon. “Four! Fall back!”

But how could he? How could Four simply run when it was a friend—a brother—whose blood fed the darkness they faced? Never again, came the thought, and it echoed in his mind four separate times. 

Eyes flashing violet, Four slashed through the belly of the nearest monster, then raced toward the center of the courtyard. Fire singed his hair as dodged magical attacks, and he struggled to breathe through all the smoke. Not thirty feet to his left, Wind tried to drag Legend’s unconscious body away from the mayhem. Time covered them, dimly lit by Nayru’s Love. Even from a distance, Four thought he could make out Legend’s left lung in the crater of his chest. 

“Four, you can’t save him!” It was Sky, this time, who called for a retreat. Sky, who fought swiftly and brutally, but who couldn’t last against the sheer numbers sent their way. Defending Sky’s back, drenched in the blood of monsters, Twilight snarled like the wolf he was as he decapitated a bokoblin. Wild was nowhere to be seen.

Can’t save him, can’t save him, can’t save him! It lingered like a curse, a seed sprouting past and present failures, dooming Four to grief before he even had a chance to make a difference. Still, he didn’t let it stop him. He slashed his way to the courtyard, using the Roc’s Feather to leap past debris in the way. Forks of lightning struck at his heels, near-deafening in their proximity.  Four ran, and he stabbed, and he hoped, and then he came face-to-face with the person at the center of it all. 

Sparks ignited above each of Hyrule's fingers as he prepared another devastating attack. His sword still dripped with Legend’s blood. 

“Snap out of it!” Four pleaded. “I know you’re still in there, Hyrule!”

Hyrule paused, tilting his head to one side. His dispassionate eyes stared from within a haze of dark power. “It makes no difference,” he said simply. Uhurried, unbothered.

“It makes all the difference!” Four argued, unable to keep from flinching when he heard Warriors cry out in pain from somewhere behind him. “You aren’t Ganon’s puppet. Fight him! I know you can.”

Hyrule smiled, and somehow that was worse than the emptiness he’d shown before. “I’d always thought that my blood could revive the King of Evil…” Suddenly, the sparks above his fingers erupted into white-hot flames. “But as it turns out, power like that can attach to any soul.”

Dread pooled in Four’s gut. “No. No, this isn’t you! I refuse to believe it.”

“Believe it or not,” Hyrule purred, and the darkness around him surged. “I’ll destroy you all the same.”

[ganondoodle]

i was so happy that ganondorf was a character in totk when it was announced but now i am just sad about it honestly, i get that the older games had the trio as a good kids VS evil old guy thing, but i sincerely hoped that how much botw revolutionized(?) about the zelda principle in terms of gameplay they would now have the chance to do so, at least a little bit, in totk with the story

and then, as much as i like his design, hes again just an already very old evil guy that appeared out of nowhere for all we know that needs to be stopped by some kids/really young people and all the crumbs of personality or well ... not even crumbs but pure idea of a backstory we have to interpret into it all from things like manner of speech, animation and design elements bc all he does is some evil monologing that doesnt even serve well for interpretation

like, he was already so old when we first see him, what did he do all his life?? like even if he only turned aggressive once rauru founded this version of hyrule he had to have lived idk 50 years before that, was he just a regular leader of his people before that?? was he just .. some dude?? all we actually know is ... old evil guy shows up and attacks the perfect and good kingdom (tm) dont we? maybe some vague, arbitrary you denied me *generic villain thing like power, rule etc* line but thats it?

(i dont mind having to read between the lines, it can be very fun, but it also depends on if you are reading between lines and theres something intentionally left there or if you are trying really hard to see something but theres nothing actually there for you to find; to be clear, i also like creating your own ideas around stuff, but when you get to know some people from basically birth to their prime time and then theres a guy thats just there to be an endboss and even now in modern games doesnt get anything beyond a neat design and fun bossfight its just ... so flat?sad? i love interpeting but i also wouldnt mind to see something more for once ..)

[zeldadiscussions]

“The way all of the other races follow the Hylians/the Hyrule royal family unquestioningly makes these games monarchist/imperialist propaganda.”

The other races don’t do that, though?

In BotW the older Zora were straight up like “we hate Hylians!” at first because they resented Hyrule for failing to prevent the Calamity and therefore Mipha’s death. Races that are generally loyal to Hyrule can clearly lose that loyalty given a motivation to do so. In TotK King Zora lost his trust in Zelda and by extension Link when he thought she attacked him.

The Yiga exist because there was at least one Hyrule king who was a bad dude. He persecuted the Shiekah to keep them from being a possible threat to his power, and the repercussions of that betrayal still exist to the modern day. The Yiga sure as heck don’t blindly follow Zelda.

Many people follow the Hyrule family yes but unquestioningly? Blindly? It really doesn’t seem like that’s the case.

[autumnoakes]

age of calamity isn't comparable to the og hyrule warriors due to the fact that it isnt nearly as unhinged as the og hyrule warriors

[margindoodles2407]

did me the cursed link generator and got this

so uh i guess this link is just me :)

[wingedd20]

They should flip the scrip, have Zelda rescue Link with the power of the triforce, and destroy Hyrule in the process or something.

[luna-loveboop]

Wind is not ok

Idk how to pinpoint it. It's something about how since Dawn part four, almost 45 percent of the sentences he's said have ended in questions marks or been directly theorising. How the Link who figured out the most about the timeline with ease hasn't spoken much outside of theorising about the monsters, the postman, the shadow. How he whipped his blade out the fastest and went for the fairy.

It's something to do with how the most expressive Link had tears standing in his eyes when Twilight was ill but never once let them fall. It's something to do with how the most energetic hasn't been the center of attention but has been on the sidelines for quite a few updates. How he told Hyrule it's about being ready for the variety and has seemingly been ready ever since.

It's something with how for the past ten updates (we're at entrance pt 3 now), he has only smiled on ten out of ninety pages. How an extremely reliable Kid appears the most ready outside of Sky to rip the shadows throat out, after being pushed by him in battle like he was nothing. How angry he looks when talking about the shadow.

It's something about how he yelled in Legend's face that they had to help, questioning if Twilight was corrupted or possessed. Something about how this kid sincerely asked his brother if he was feeling evil and hasn't stop asking questions since.

[weepingtalecowboy]

Four has game lol

Fanfic prompt: I just realized that from all of four's ships

His lover is usually

As dark and bitter as a black coffee laced in poison with psychological damage

So obviously he has a Type

Like shadow and Vaati

But it gets more hilarious if you remember that almost all the villains of Hyrule warriors meet the standards

Ghirahim

Volga

Cia

Dark link

Like all the hyrule warriors had to do was drop the hero of the four swords on them and get rid off the biggest problems of the war

And watch him slay (without the s) all the villains

And four's harem of evil demon sorcerers would even get along with eachother

Like getting used by an evil overlord that never was satisfied by anything you do (Vaati and shadow would let Ghirahim and Dark join the club)

Shadow likes dragons

Cia and Vaati can speak about sorcery

And Cia and shadow can speak about how little they respect boundaries

Dark and shadow are both the “evil” side of a hero

Like it is a match made in hell

The fanfic potential and just how weirdly okay four is with this situation

Would make warriors look like a saint

Tune is cringing at this devastating development

Queen Zelda is both weirdly fine and very unsettled by four and his harem

[ultimateinferno]

So an Illumination Zelda movie was announced to possibly be in the works and...

There's been a lot of back and forth on the Mario movie. Mario, at least has a default amount of whimsy that you must by into, which Illumination has a degree on, even if their specific style misses the mark.

Zelda, meanwhile, holds 0 irony. However, it's also fucking weird, and if I were to guess, an Illumination style movie will have a compulsive need to comment on how weird it is. Yet what makes Zelda's weirdness work is it takes itself completely seriously. Rock people eats rocks. There's clowns that will shoot Link out of a cannon. Beedle peddles a flying store. The Legend of Zelda has zero hint of irony in its heart—Mario often doesn't either but some of the RPGs have shown the cheekier side.

If Zelda does need to comment, it does it in two ways:

Link is the only one disarmed by it and the joke is often at his expense. The people around him are insane. Tetra is shooting him out of Canon in a barrel towards a prison. BUT he doesn't complain. He doesn't get angry. He simply rolls with the punches to get the job done and if he needs to be dragged by a great fairy into a flower to improve his armor than so be it, as long as it saves Hyrule.

Link is the only one who thinks it's normal. He's fucking insane. Yeah, he'll strike full conversation in nothing but his undies in a blizzard, that's on you for making things weird. Once again, it's all about rolling with the punches. He does what needs to be done, and if people need him to save they day, let the professional do the work.

At the end of the day, the Legend of Zelda as a world and narrative is unbelievably earnest with itself. It's a story about a knight rescuing a princess from an evil sorcerer. It's story has been told to death for over 35 years now, and it still believes whole heartedly in it. I think corporate animation struggles with something like that.

But maybe I'm being a bit of a contrarian here

[yandereunsolved]

Imagine the reader being Yan! Poly Chains deity. You were only a demi-god(dess), the child of the golden goddess Farore. You were hid away within space and time in a temple of your own so that no evil would touch the offspring of one of the golden three. Only—Ganondorf's forces invaded a place hidden by all, and you were forced to flee. You ended up finding The Chain, and they were all absolutely enamored.

Sky surely isn't that obsessed. He only pledges his undying loyalty to you. He has already killed a god once. He will kill another if it will keep you safe. He'd kill the golden goddesses if they tried to take you from the safety of his arms.

Time isn't absolutely possessive of you or anything. He just doesn't want you to leave them. Ever. If your mother or her sisters wanted you somewhere else, then wouldn't they have led you somewhere else? They are all the heroes chosen by the goddesses! That is practically a seal of approval on their part. You are basically already married to him. He already controls everything you do and everyone you talk to. Oh? A ring on your finger. It's just something for protection. It's a mortal custom from his world. You wouldn't dare refuse it, would you?

Legend isn't enamored by your very presence. No, not at all. Can't you see how snarky and rude he acts around you? He always pushes you away and doesn't allow you to touch anything. He's the Link who is most likely to lead you to Hyrule first if even so much as a scratch shows up on you. It's not like Hyrule and Legend have teamed up against the other Links to win your hand. No, not at all. He just wants to pawn you off on someone else. He's got more important things to do. Like enchanting more things to give to you so he can show the others that you are claimed by him.

Hyrule is just curious about you. It's not like he spends every waking moment watching over your figure and fantasizing about you. It's not like he makes sure that you are always healed first. It's not like he reluctantly teamed up with Legend or anything. You find him bathing in the same river as you. Coincidence. Sorry. He just couldn't stay away for too long.

Twilight isn't your personal guard dog at all. He just likes being near you. That isn't a crime! Perhaps he manipulates you a little into always letting him cuddle up to you as Wolfie. Perhaps he is always willing to glare at every other member of The Chain so they stay away from you. He's just a touchy guy, okay? He always has his hands on you. He's always carrying you. It's just a quirk of his. It totally isn't a deeply ingrained obsession he has about you being his mate. The only one he'll back down to is Time, reluctantly.

The Colors just like you—Four does as well. He isn't going to do the 'he totally doesn't like you thing'. His strategy is to be honest with you. He isn't manipulating you! He's just showing you how much better he is than anybody else in The Chain. He splits constantly just because the others are so eager to see you and be with you. He just wants to make you armor and weapons and always keep you in his arms. Is that too much to ask?

Wind just wants you to take him seriously. He's surprised when you do. You're a fan of him? You watched his journey? Wait, you have the ability to do that with your super cool and awesome powers!? Is aged up here and most definitely kind of dorky when it comes to you. He's the most relaxed and socially inept when it comes to the others. Most of his gaslighting, manipulation, and other yandere tendencies are subconscious. He doesn't even realize he is doing anything wrong until one of the others confronts him. It isn't like they are any better about it.

Wars doesn't just flirt with anyone, only with you. He always hopes that The Chain won't end up starting an inter-dimensional war over you. He understands what it's like to have someone madly in love with you that you don't have feelings for. He's the most self-aware of The Chain, hands down. He takes a more traditionally romantic approach. While he may be hesitant to manipulate you because he wants your feelings to be genuine, he has no problem manipulating the other Links. He has no problem with threatening to not help them during battle just so he can get some more time with you.

Wild is the most self-sacrificing. He is also the most self-depreciating. If you have read my headcanons yk yk. He is almost entirely non-verbal. He's only spoken once since you met him. He takes the 'actions speak louder than words' approach. He is willing to fall at your feet and make you depend on his attention. That's one of his dreams, making you just as obsessed with him as he is with you. Another is teaching you Hylian sign.

Bonus: Ravio, Cal, & Sage

Ravio is the most intrigued and illusive. All of the Links can agree that they will try to scare him away from you. That's why he'll randomly pop in and out of your daily life. The two seconds of peace you get a day are interrupted by him. You are prone to being overstimulated since you went from zero contact to an entire group of yanderes. Ravio offers you relaxation, and he even speaks in a quiet voice with you. He gifts you relaxation and sleeping potions. He gives you a bunch of jewels and things he has found. He sees you as a treasure that needs to be protected by him. You are priceless, truly one of kind. Is it so bad that he wants you for himself?

Cal is completely non-verbal. You haven't ever heard him speak. He sees Twilight, Wild, and Sage as his main competitors. Twilight, because he is also your silent protector. Cal is always near you in a protective manner, and he is unable to verbalize his feelings for you. It always allows Twilight to sweep you up off of your feet. Both Wild and Sage are more experienced versions of him. Wild clings to your attention, and at least he was spoken once. Sage is verbal and is able to loudly berate Cal without anyone stepping in. Cal just takes it. It's what he's been taught. At least one good thing comes of this—you, sweet heavenly you. He may be your physical protector, but you are his spiritual protector. You always make sure the others stay off him. Wild is always extremely jealous of this and acts like a wounded animal to get your attention back on him.

Sage is the most apprehensive and combative toward you. The goddesses failed him. Why should he fall madly in love with you like the others? It isn't like he is secretly yearning for you or something. Whatever. He is always willing to try and 'put you in your place'. Yet, you always understand him. You are always there to heal his wounds and give him a shoulder to cry on. You become the one deity that he can believe in. He's willing to maybe absolutely and unabashedly be head over heels in love with you. You like his arm? It's now his favorite part of his body. The rest of The Chain is already plotting how to remove his arm, so you will no longer praise it. Four's hands are already itching towards his tools, and The Colors are screaming to murder him at the top of their lungs.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Let me just preface this by saying everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, TOTK is a really fun game, and I'm glad that other people have been able to enjoy the story as well.

...But I'm being dead serious with my complaints about the narrative being 100% imperialist propaganda. And I'm getting really tired of people replying to those posts by saying it can't be imperialist propaganda, because imperialism is bad and the game says that Hyrule is the good guys.

Like, guys. That's not the argument you think it is. Yes, I am aware that the game tells us Ganondorf is a flat, one dimensional character with no ambitions, interests or motivations beyond destroying the entire world for the hell of it, and also it's totally not racist because he's green, not brown like literally every other member of his race. Unfortunately literally all of these things are kind of the entire goddamn problem.

See, the thing is, everyone trying to make these arguments is accepting the game at face value. Hyrule is the perfect and almighty nation chosen by the demigod Zonai, and whose royal family has the right to rule due to their divine heritage. The other races exist to serve the glory of Hyrule, and they're happy to do it. Ganondorf is pure evil and must be stopped at any costs.

But that's not how anything works. The story informing me that Hyrule is the ultimate good that has done nothing wrong is the whole goddamn reason why I don't trust Hyrule at all. There's always more of a reason than that. And the game fucking suggests there was more going on! Ganondorf mentions Rauru has repeatedly 'invited' the Gerudo to become Rauru's subjects, and let's be clear here, it doesn't matter how peaceful those 'invitations' were, when the guy who owns every single magical nuclear missile in the world repeatedly demands you surrender to him, there's always going to be an implied threat of 'do it or get magically nuked'. Just that power difference alone shows us exactly why Ganon would feel threatened enough to invade. It's because Rauru was holding a gun to his head, and Ganon was expected to just trust that he'd never pull the trigger.

And yes, even if it wasn't intentional Hyrule was always threatening to wipe out the other nations, considering the entire royal family walked around openly wearing their magical nukes as cute accessories. If they couldn't be safely hidden away, there wouldn't be four other secret stones sitting untouched in a vault until the last second.

But that's never acknowledged. Of course Hyrule is the only nation with the right to the secret stones; even if other races get to touch them, they can only have them if they swear eternal blind loyalty and servitude to the glory of King Rauru and Princess Zelda. Ganon wanting to have one magical nuclear bomb out of a stockpile of eight of them is proof that he's dangerous and evil. I mean my god, what if he just walked around all day wearing a magical nuke and using its power for his own benefit, that would be terrifying. It's only okay when Hylian royalty does it.

And you can't argue that Ganon betrayed his own people, considering we don't get to know fucking anything about his relationship with his people. He's shows as the leader of the Gerudo, we're told he's a hero to his people, he has soldiers that loyally follow him into battle... and then oh nevermind, they all hate him and will spend eternity trying to atone for sharing a race with him. How did the entire race do a complete 180 in the span of at most a few months? Who cares, what's important is that now they accept they exist to serve Hyrule so they get to be the good guys now and we don't need to know why they were following Ganondorf, or why they stopped following him.

Basically my point is that yeah, I fucking know how the game insists everything went down. That's the entire reason I think it's imperialist propaganda, because the entire story feels like Hylian propaganda to conceal and justify some horrific atrocities that caused all of this. I literally do not believe that I'm getting the story through reliable narrators, especially considering that the only people allowed to actually tell me the story are all the characters that have the most reasons to be heavily biased in favour of Hyrule.

When the game shows me protagonists that have a massive amount of power and control over the entire world, then says the bad guy doesn't like that system just because he's evil, and literally nothing and nobody in the game says anything to oppose that take, I have some questions about what the fuck the story isn't telling me. And I'd really appreciate it if people would stop trying to argue with me just by telling me to stop asking those questions.

[lostintranslaation]

Can’t shake the thought of Zelda slipping into a depressive episode after the Calamity… she never thought she’d live past the Calamity to begin with and yet, here she is, in a Hyrule she doesn’t recognize, and everyone she knew and loved from before is either dead or Changed. She Knows she should be happy but she just. Isn’t. She’s aimless, trying to fall into step with Link who’s trying his best to fall into step with her and it just. Doesn’t work.

And then Link, after the events of totk is just a reeling mess. He’s just defeated the incarnation of evil for the second time in his life and he’s so tired. He’s been running on adrenaline and anxiety for the past year, after waking up in a strange place after being in a coma for six plus months. He’s doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t comb his hair or shave and the villagers in his hometown don’t even recognize him, or maybe it’s that they don’t recognize him alone, without his second half. He sets out to slaughter the demon king or die trying because he can’t stand the thought of Zelda’s sacrifice being for nothing. When he survives the battle he’s surprised, but not nearly as surprised as he is when Zelda rematerializes in front of him and then they’re falling again. He dives for her and clutches onto her, curls himself around her as they hurtle to the ground and if they die like this at least he got to hold her one more time. But they don’t die, and he didn’t die, and she’s not dead. They’re alive, they’re alive, and what are they supposed to do now?

And now Zelda has a new lease on life, her researcher’s brain fueled by all the new experiences she’s just had and people she’s just met and the fact that she’s back, she’s back in a time she knows and she’s back with Link who won’t let go of her hand anymore. He tries to sleep but he just sees her fingers slip out of his grasp over and over and over again. She wants to adventure and see and do and experience and live, but all Link can imagine doing is hiding the two of them away in their Hateno house and barricading the doors before the next great evil comes to steal their peace again.

[the-moon-files]

Aaaaa yay, you updated for Linked Universe again! 🙏 And right when the hyperfixation was coming back for me, too 👀 

I was looking over your posts for LU, and if you don’t mind, I’d love to share some of my own random thoughts with you! I hope that’s okay 👉👈

After I read your “Humans aren't just round-eared Hylians?” post I have had,, many thoughts 👀 One random difference between humans and Hylians I thought about was the possibilities of varying strength,,, You briefly mentioned how Hylians seemed lighter than they seemed to Guide!Reader, and let me tell you, it was such a small detail, but I was transFIXED. I have this image of humans/Guide!Reader just being naturally stronger than the average Hylians - and it made me think of scenarios of the Reader just effortlessly hauling around two Links on their shoulders like sacks of potatoes- And them also picking up things that are supposed to be really heavy with ease! Like, Four would make a longsword, and Reader picks it up out of curiosity, expecting it to be really heavy, but it’s actually not that bad?? (Four in the background: 🧍)

If the Reader is already pretty strong (and maybe even has a profession in fighting, like a boxer or something,, [I might be projecting slightly—]), then ooo 👀 I can see there being this one time where a bunch of monsters ambush the Chain, and as everyone is fighting with the Reader giving them advice and whatnot, a Lizalfos managed to slip past everyone and sprint towards the Reader to attack them. The others are panicking because they won’t be able to reach the monster in time, but just as the Lizalfos raised its sword, one single punch from the Reader sent it flying back into the fray, knocking it into a Moblin. Reader is just standing there with their fist still in the air like “👁️👄👁️ h u h … whY ARE YOU GUYS STARING, YOU’RE STILL FIGHTING—”

In your newest post about the Guide!Reader’s voice, you mentioned how some entities could hear them, and I don’t know if he would, but I think it’d be kinda funny if Ganon and all of his other reincarnations could hear the Reader talking to Link- I’m not sure if he remembers his past lives, but if he does and hears/recognises Reader’s voice, I love the image of him thinking “Oh god, THIS guy again??” Because Reader WILL clown on him-

Dehydrated Ganondorf: *insert evil monologue here*

Guide!Reader: Uh-huh, sure, bold words for someone whose skin looks like a prehistoric riverbed. :|

Sage: *w he eze*

As I was writing all this, I had to think to myself, “Huh,, Guide!Reader doesn’t die when they fall into lava, aren’t really affected by harsher temperatures and winds, and also can swim against strong currents. They’re environment-resistant basically. But there’s bound to be at least one weakness to it all, right?” I did come up with said weakness, and I think it’s kinda basic, BUT one idea I had was that because Guide!Reader is so resistant to the natural elements of Hyrule, they are conversely quite weak to unnatural causes in turn. If they get injured, say they get cut with a knife by a Bokoblin, then that wound would take much longer to heal than it should. Any injuries that the Reader sustains in Hyrule are harder to heal (which I feel like could make some interesting angst,, 👀); their injuries would take more magic to completely heal them, or have more healing potions to drink. I also thought of the Reader being very vulnerable to any sort of poison- Like, if they get a pinch or two (or three) of strong poison in their system, they get knocked out for like two days 💀 

So basically, Guide!Reader is very resistant to the environment, possibly quite strong, but does not have any good constitution,,

[On another note, maybe it’s just a me thing, but I personally love the thought of Wind looking up to the Reader as like a big brother figure,,]

And also!! Happy birthday!! 🥳🥳🎉 As a way of procrastination, I’ve been compiling memes with Guide!Reader and the Chain because the brain rot is hitting HARD,, I can share it with you in the future if you like! /gen /pos And sorry if this is such a long post dkjfgndf-

NOT SOMEONE BEING HAPPY I UPDATED UwU

ur ideas, ur compliments, ur bday wishes, etc. hitting me like^^

Sun: Masc!Reader (he/him) this will be default unless ppl specify otherwise! , Guide!Reader, Boxer/Martial Artist!Reader

Orbit: Headcanons-ish

Stars: Most Links of the Chain mentioned + Sage (Totk Link)! No focus/centric Link

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: light cussing, & Trigger Warnings: none known.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

In reference to This Post! Wait, Humans Aren’t just Round-Eared Hylians??

YOUR BRAIN>>>????!!!

This was such a yummy treat tysm for this, sharing is caring 🫶

I absolutely think Humans could be 10x stronger than Hylians, I mean if we base everything abt their universe off of Link weighing ~8 apples lmao

that means swords, armor, broadswords/claymores, battle axes, huge shields, if those weigh abt like fake swords/wooden ones back on earth to us, then i cant even imagine what canons/horses/tree trunks/boulders weigh 💀

like props on a stage weight rather than the real thing lmao

No but how many Links can you fit in one carry??

ok u got a heavier Link on your back, like Time, Twi or Wars, then Four/Wind/Hyrule/Legend (yes he’s light/smaller side, tho he may deny) in ur arms like one Link per arm, maybe 3 Links if you can like wrap ur arms around them

so like 4 Links total? well, Wind or Four r so light/small one could possibly ride on ur shoulders, so 5 LMAO??? that's like half the Chain already AHALJFAfJLL-

on another note,

I LOVEEE ganon being able to hear Guide Reader bc spent too long around them, also i originally based that off of characters who’ve shown they're meta/highly magical kinda (esp the meta part where they may have directly addressed players/broke 4th wall)

No bc Ganon would just be SO fed up by like, Wild’s time, it would literally be EXACTLY like what u said I’d imagine:

(u just playing the game and not realizing until later they can hear you)

Ganon: “ugh that blonde twink again, god when will this plan actually work-?!”

You: “eyyy, Ganon! omg, why’s he?? Hot??? damn, botw best ganon version fr”

Ganon: “you know what maybe you should just kill me right now, hero Link.”

(the thought of Ganon never being able to escape ur voice whenever Link was near him bc u didnt have a body to fight/kill, and instead he just had to deal with ur comments is SENDING ME)

changing subjects again sorry

YES!! that's the weakness/drawback I was thinking abt for Humans in Hyrule, while yes their environment isn't that effective on us, (i like to use “inside a video game” as the reason bc i think its neat)

humans are notoriously fragile in our own world already - we get sick, we get acid-reflux/throw up from bad food/food poisoning, etc.

so it makes sense we’d be more sensitive to this new environment, but even if we got adjusted,

we’re more external-proof, not internal-proof

(u know that's another reason why it works for Hylians and not Humans, we aren’t automatically healed by food, but their world does, and even in botw/totk when u have “dubious” food, its never inedible, its just useless to eat, so technically Hylians can kind of eat most anything off of that logic, like there is no such thing as “bad food” for them)

and u could take this either way tbh,

like we’re either entirely resistant to magic/dont take to it well bc our world didnt have it so potions/fairies don't work and we have to heal naturally

or just yeah, its like ur in a new country tbh, new germs/nature/food/etc. and u def cant guarantee u wont get a little sick from that

this would definitely include genuine poison!

bro the amount of WORRY the Links would feel after realizing the human guide guy who’s physically here now can barely handle their food??

Wild’s making a thorough list of what foods work for you and what don't, like safe foods to go back on, including recipes,

the way Time/Wars would absolutely be willing to take little detours/stop by towns more to make sure you have the right food you can eat,

and even tho Wild’s cooking, Sage is constantly testing for poison, like the dish itself, the herbs/plants, every ingredient needs to be extra safe even by Hylian standards (like not eating adventurous stuff like pufferfish or smth that could possibly have poison if cooked wrong/not enough etc)

that is to say, even if Wild makes a new recipe/other meal, he always has a backup safe meal to give you instead on those nights, and just way too many in general (yes he knows it doesn't buff ur health but he cant help his Hylians instincts to stuff the hurt person’s face with food ok??)

Hyrule! Is!! Losing!!! It!!!!

he has all the healing magic in the world and the one man he wants to help the most, for keeping him from being lonely on his adventure/looking out for him/being on his side no matter what, now he finds out he can’t even help them??

mans would literally keep trying to heal u til he’s drained it all out to just try and get the wound to close, if u didnt stop him

U get injured for the first time, and while a bruise/cut taking weeks to heal (depending on how bad) is normal to you, Hyrule + lowkey everyone is Freaking Out

Wounds DO NOT take weeks to heal?? They take hours at most??? Dude, are you dying-

(Wind got elbowed for that one, purely bc he voiced Sky/Hyrule/Wild/Twi paranoia out loud lol)

that is going with the version ur mostly unaffected by magic, but u could also do the human thing where we get adjusted to things over time (at least more than nothing), including food/sickness

The way All the Links just surround you or outright don’t let you come into crowded parts of town so ur poor immune system wont make u sick again 😭

on the bright side they'd all get rlly good at preventative measures like this, and taking care of sick you lol

(yes, u bribed Wind to get little bro cuddles when ur sick, it wasn't hard, he sees u as the most genuine bigger bro probably bc ur likely hte most affectionate out of all the Links)

(should I get into cultural differences between humans/hylians like humans being more openly cuddly/affectionate? like how in humans are space orcs fandom they acknowledge its unusual for us to “packbond” so easily to so many different species? and how this could possibly apply to not only Hylians but any Friend-shaped creatures across the Hyrules?? ..nah. I’ll save that for another post)

AND YES!! feel free to shoot rambles/thoughts/not even requests my way! Id love to talk abt it or just post it for the world to marvel at too lol

ohh mY God;; YOU HAVE MEMES FOR THIS?? PLEASEEEE SHOW ME????

thank you for this, srsly /pos

Peace out,

🌙

[wirewitchviolet]

I miss games conveying a sense of Bigness

As you know if you watch my twitch streams, I play a lot of games, and games from a lot of eras, and there's a whole bunch of industry trends you pick up on from certain time periods. The one I really feel like talking about was a definite thing from oh... 1998 through... 2010 or thereabouts? Basically the aughts, give or take a couple years. Or if you prefer, the first two Playstations' run and a bit of the third. It was a period where games in general were really committed to feeling Big.

It feels a little weird to say that when major releases are priding themselves on stuff like measuring how much disk space they need in terrabytes and maps that sprawl out everywhere, but that's not what I'm talking about here. Games trying to feel Big is more of an attitude thing, and ironically enough I'd say it fell out of fashion almost immediately when Open Worlds became the new big thing. We hit a point where people actually made the maps for their games super big (even if most of that space was just kinda vast stretches of unremarkable rocks) so there's no more need to fake it, right? But faking it was kinda great.

I was thinking about this a lot playing the Resident Evil 2 remake, and comparing it to the original PSX game. See the original Resident Evil was set in a spooky mansion out in the middle of nowhere, but RE2 was the Bigger Better Sequel. So now we have a zombie outbreak happening in a whole major city, not just this single mansion. And how do we accomplish that? Do we actually model hundreds of buildings and have a big meandering adventure through all of them, or even a good swath? No not at all. Let's compare the actual maps side by side...

[There WAS a full map of RE2 here it was causing the post button to bug out. Look it up on your own?]

It's a little bigger. There's maybe a dozen more total rooms? But mostly, it's a smoke and mirrors thing. We've still got one big primary location, an animal-filled hike to a side location and back, and an underground science facility, but it feels like we've increased the scope to an entire city. The first playable moments have us out on the streets of the city, objectively in a few quick hallways, but presented as streets packed with dozens of crashed cars, raging fires everywhere, dead bodies littering the streets, and what again feels like innumerable zombies feasting in scattered packs. Once inside, arms of several zombies outside will reach in clawing at you, or later in the game finally breaching through. The remake completely loses that feeling. It feels like there's maybe a dozen zombies out on the streets.

Not to focus on just the one game though. How about GTA3? Remember how even when you're just on the first island, it feels like you're exploring this vast sprawling city?

Here's a more elevated angle from about the same point. I'm looking at this with noclip.website by the way, it's a really cool little toy.

The actual map is LAUGHABLY small. But it FEELS huge. They were really careful to avoid straight roads, and place a couple big vision blocking buildings, even if they're basically just a cube or two so that when you're actually on the ground, it always feels like there's so much more around you. Have another side by side, and a rough estimate of what's visible on the ground in the bird's eye.

RPGs around this time were also having a lot of fun playing with scale comparisons. FF7 is the obvious go-to. The world map is on par with any other in the series, but Big Cities are presented as such, making it very clear that you're just seeing parts of a single district in Midgar, really just the main street in Junon. Dragon Quest 8 had this very bold idea to keep the same visual scale on the world map as in the streets of the towns, with forests made of actual individual trees.

And I'm not even getting into the biggest elephants in the room. Are you old enough to remember how mind-bogglingly sprawling Hyrule Field felt? Maybe a bad example when sequels have kept that focus on selling their worlds as staggeringly Big. Shenmue? Objectively, looking at this map, there's not much there, but damn if I don't feel like this was a real town I lived in for a while 20 years ago. It's the way the detailing gets finer and finer the closer you get to Ryo's bedroom, where you can open every drawer, turn on every light, turn that orange in your hand, you know? I believe that bus you take to the docks has to stop in several other neighborhoods like this one.

And of course, then there's the one other series, maybe worth mentioning, perhaps.

Years later I'm still just speechless.

Again though, I don't actually WANT games with worlds as big as some of these feel. There just isn't the time and the money and the ability for a creative team not to burn out to fully realize that in a handcrafted caring way. I want some kind of inverted Plato's Cave, where it feels like there's a vast breathing world out there, but I'm really in a small cozy space watching masters of the craft put on a shadow puppet show.

[bbinkus11]

Was playing Totk today, noticed this

(Lomei Labyrinth)

Ok so what’s interesting about this is that the people of Hyrule actually really respect Link and Zelda. Even though their world was put to serious danger, Link and Zelda fixed that.

They are determined to rebuild Hyrule, Zelda has been dedicated to letting the children get an education, Link has been helping with the monster population, and the both of them literally saved thier kingdom from a prophesied evil.

According to the person that wrote these notes in the Labyrinth, they’re clearly concerned for their safety. They are scared of what the gloom is capable of and how it could affect the people they respect. Aware of what could be down underneath Hyrule Castle, they are willing to pray for the safety of the people that have lead their kingdom to *temporary* peace.

What’s also funny about this is that despite to amount of respect the people of Hyrule (npcs) have for Link, they don’t recognize him for almost all of the game of Totk lmao. Bro has the Tony Hawk popularity.

[powdermelonkeg]

Theory that solves(?) "founding of Hyrule" timeline inconsistencies:

Origin of Hyrule no. 1: Skyward Sword. Zelda, Link, and the Skylians settle the surface world at the game's conclusion. Notably, their dress looks nothing like the Zonai era.

Origin of Hyrule no. 2: Tears of the Kingdom. Rauru and Sonia are the king and queen who founded Hyrule. Notably, Zonai mechanisms and architecture greatly resemble the pre-Skyward-Sword-era Lanayru mining tech and symbolism, though Skyward Sword's art direction is more cartoony than TotK, so that has to be taken into account.

That's where it gets cyclical. If TotK's forgotten era came first, then:

Zonai influence should be ALL OVER Skyloft

The Gerudo should not exist, because they're (implied to be) descended from Groose, a Skylian; at the very least, there should have been a whole Gerudo culture in the Sky

Where did the Secret Stones go?

We should have seen Zeldra flying around in the sky, let alone Dinraal, Farosh, and Naydra

But if Skyward Sword came before all things Zonai, then:

The Lanayru Mining Facility (assuming it to be Zonai in origin) should not exist

Hyrule should have already been founded by Rauru's time

Of the two, Skyward Sword being first on the wild surface makes more sense. But if that's the case, there are even more questions:

Where did the Secret Stones come from? Are we to believe that Hylia gave them to the Zonai, since the Golden Trio have already left the Triforce and departed?

What about the Zonai themselves? They supposedly descended from the heavens. Were they just up so high that the Skylians couldn't find them? Did Hylia cleave the ground twice? Did they spontaneously appear up there like mice in grain bins?

Why is there a whole Temple of Time with bells that Rauru, one of two of the LAST of his species, woke up and went to sleep to? In fact, why is there an entire kingdom's worth of structures already built before the Sky Reckoning?

My solution:

The Zonai did exist pre-Skyward Sword, and did descend down from the sky ages ago. They built the Lanayru Mining Facility, utilizing the power of Timeshift Stones in their work. This is not Rauru and Mineru's era.

The Zonai are among the people that stay behind to fight Demise alongside Hylia, while the Skylians were sent up to Skyloft. The people of the Surface are entrusted with the Secret Stones as weapons against Demise, with the caveat that they keep them hidden. That's why they're called Secret Stones despite being well-known to Ganondorf in TotK, it was PARAMOUNT that Demise not know he could get any stronger.

The war ends. Just about every civilization is obliterated by it. The Zonai retreat as far from Demise's seal as they can to lick their wounds. They take the sages' Secret Stones with them, so as to not be caught unawares and lose them to Demise when he eventually reemerges.

Skyward Sword.

The evil is defeated, the Skylians come down to the Surface. That's the signal that it's safe to return now. Shortly after the Skylians officially start to settle, the Zonai, who know how things work, help them build a proper civilization.

Time passes. The Surface is officially a bunch of scattered clans with varying degrees of territory. People are content, though nothing is particularly efficient. The Skylians take on Zonai fashion and building styles as generations pass. The Zonai themselves dwindle.

Rauru, married to the leader of the Hylians, looks to unite the scattered clans under one banner in the name of prosperity and shared resources, idolizing the pre-Skyward era where the gods walked the land. He and Sonia officially name the place Hyrule, and any clan that signs treaty with them is considered within its borders. Mineru, meanwhile, has made her first construct models based on the Lanayru Mine Robots of old, which add to the appeal of joining Hyrule as its subkingdom territories.

Tears of the Kingdom, Zelda's first 12 memories.

Between the Master Sword going back in time and Zeldra's ascent, Zelda and Mineru get to work with as many constructs as possible to protect the Sky Isles they plan to send upwards. They need a TON of Zonaite, and recycling is a priority, leading to the gachapon machines.

Zelda knows enough about her kingdom that she knows where the land is particularly rich is where the people of her time settled, and Zonaite is shown to enrich soil greatly. This is why all the old Zonaite mines are underneath the towns in modern Hyrule, despite changing geography through other eras, and Tarrey Town's new-ness.

Zelda ascends.

The secretive Sheikah clan, having seen the Blood Moon's rise when the Demon King took power, realize that Demise isn't, in fact, all gone. They decide this means that their job serving Hylia isn't truly done, and return to help the fledgling kingdom as best they can. They bring the knowledge of the Master Sword of Skyward Sword days with them.

Ganondorf first shakes the seal he's under without form, leading to the first Calamity and the initial rise of Calamity Ganon. This is 10k years before BotW. This is also the first documented use of the Master Sword to seal the Demon King away, recorded in the tapestry.

The Sheikah are forced to abandon their technology. The Yiga/Sheikah split happens.

Literally all the rest of Hyrulean History happens after this.

Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom.