#like. think about the message the game sends if zelda stays a dragon. we are saying that link CAN'T come back from this mistake.

[blueskittlesart]

do you have any thoughts on zelda not staying as a dragon? me personally I like it and am very cool with it mostly because I think zelda should get to be happy forever (and because I'm smart enough to know she changed back because of recall and not some ambiguous power of love lmao) but a lot of people seem to dislike that it made the draconification inconsequential?

i think there's like. some valid concerns surrounding inconsequentiality/"curing" the physical problems characters have as a way of giving them a "happy ending" but I think those concerns don't necessarily apply to totk in the way people seem to be applying them, especially irt zelda's draconification and link's arm.

most of the time when the criticism of this "magic cure" trope is applied to media, it's because the trope is used as a cure-all to erase a character's suffering or trauma and make them "normal" again, and often ignores the character development or themes of the story in favor of giving the character a happy ending. I don't think that applies to totk, though, because the "curing" link and zelda experience is both within the realm of possibility given the worldbuilding present in the game (recall could easily have done it, as you mentioned) AND thematically consistent with the rest of the game. One of if not the most important central themes of totk is the idea of failure and second chances. we see a hyrule that has been given a second chance after link's initial failure with the calamity brought it to the brink of destruction. we see characters who were deeply unhappy and entrenched in the shame of their precalamity mistakes like purah and zelda become active, beloved members of their communities. we see the people of lurelin village take back and rebuild their destroyed home. we watch this kingdom and its people make an unprecedented comeback after a century of struggle and ruin.

Similarly, totk's gameplay is LINK's second chance, his comeback from the initial mistake of losing zelda, of specifically being unable to reach her with his injured hand when they fell. The consequences of that--the master sword's corruption, the loss of his arm, and zelda's draconification, are all supposed to SEEM irreversible, because that's how LINK initially sees them. he believes that he doomed both himself and zelda all because of that SINGLE moment in which he wasn't enough, a viewpoint which is obviously left over from the pressure he experienced to perform to an impossible standard of perfection pre-calamity. The story of totk is about deconstructing that belief and proving it wrong. the mistake he made caused harm, but it's never too late to repair things. he can fix the regional phenomena ganondorf causes and rebuild those communities. he can revitalize the master sword. he can GET ZELDA BACK, with his own arm, uninjured and able to reach her this time. no matter how impossible those things may initially seem, no matter the perceived finality of his mistakes and their consequences, there is always hope. there is always a second chance. no one person's single mistake can doom an entire kingdom for eternity. the fate of hyrule was NEVER resting on link's shoulders alone. he was never their final hope. there was always going to be an after. the whole POINT of the draconification and the loss of link's arm is that they AREN'T final. they ARE inconsequential, because they were born of one mistake and ONE MISTAKE IS NOT THE END ALL.

[narsh-poptarts]

I came here to tell you that your art is amazing and AAAAA I love it so much!! Your Angry Sky honestly made my day

Also, I don’t know if you’re still doing the “ask me about Sky” thing but if you are...what are your thoughts on the silent realms? I don’t see enough Sky content related to them but to me they have so much angst potential??? And also are a proof that Sky didn’t have it easy at all during his adventure?? Idk I find them very interesting

aaaaaaa thank you so much!!!!! honestly every tag and every message yall send me just makes me so happy, i’m so glad y’all are enjoying it!!!! :DDDD

OH BOY THE SILENT REALMS!!!!!!!!!

YEAH you’re right!!! there’s not a lot of content there!! lucky for you, this is also another topic from Skyward Sword that I have thought extensively about, I have many many headcanons for what the Silent Realms are like.

okay first of all, the Silent Realms are a very unique kind of think in the LoZ series. The concept itself is repeated a couple times but the reasoning WHY is different. Usually link has to go through trials in multiple different games to prove himself and his courage or whatever in order to get the master sword or other such very important item. and then in Twilight Princess (it did come first but whatever) you have those light trial things? i don’t remember what they’re called but you collect the tears of the Light Spirits and they’re all trapped in bugs or whatever. So the basis for the trials or their main mechanic is not a new concept.

But! what is very interesting and unique is, like I said, the reasoning WHY Link has to go through these trials. in botw (this may be wrong, i haven’t played it), you have the trial of the sword, basically a big gauntlet to improve the sword and prove your worth, in addition to the “you must be this tall to ride” thing with your health. but that’s about the sword. in TP, the light trials are about restoring light to the land. they’re not even really trials, and iirc, there’s not,,, really trials for TP. i may be wrong.

anyways, what makes SS different is that it’s specifically about upgrading your spirit. the Hero’s Spirit. Link never has to prove himself to the sword because,, well, the damn thing is his companion. in the zelda timeline, he’s one of the first heroes ever so there’s not even a Hero’s Spirit to have because he hasn’t made it yet. same with the Master Sword. 

so therefore, no other Link has had to create or upgrade their Hero’s Spirit. It’s simply not a thing they’ve had to do because Sky did it all those millennia ago. One and done, cool and awesome. He has a uniquely different and alienated experience because he set the foundation. Probably feels alienated from the others because he never had to prove himself to the sword, and then because of the prominent upgraded spirit, got them easily and recognizably cursed (thanks Demise).

SORRY i realize i just went on a related-but-not-your-question tangent, but now to the actual Silent Realms themselves :D

so, in terms of what I think Silent Realms are like.... first of all: terrifying!!!! If my own playthroughs of them are anything to go by, Link is terrified out of his mind!!!! no weapons, no items, no Fi, you’re completely on your own, you have a time limit, and you’re being LITERALLY HUNTED. and god, that music when the Guardians wake up is actually a heart attack, botw guardians have NOTHING on these bad boys.

From the inside perspective, I imagine the Silent Realms are just that: silent. not dead quiet, not still, silent. There are no sounds in the Silent Realm, not even a ringing in Link’s ear. and also these trials are a test of the Spirit. the body stays behind. This is a plane somewhere within the overworld, a layer formed from many. There’s no air there. They’re spirits, and entities, they don’t need it.

And having no air is a little disorienting at first, hell being a spirit is a little disorienting at first, but Link finds it a little cool, not feeling the need to breathe and not being able to feel air move in his lungs when he does.

And when Link is safe, whether by standing in that first safety circle or by virtue of collecting a tear, it doesn’t feel calm. Calm is exactly the wrong word because calm is flying out on the open air with your loftwing. Calm is sitting, for just a moment, on a stool to regain some health (and maybe take a nap). Calm is not whatever this is. This is like sneaking through the sleeping dragon’s nest, or feeling the chill of a graveyard, or walking down a dark alley at night. Every inch of link is telling him something is very very wrong and he is in danger. and, to be fair, he is.

Now for when the guardians are awake, it’s like a bomb of adrenaline and panic goes off. He doesn’t hear anything but he can feel them coming, feel their presence just behind him, ready to take him down, ready to make him fail and start over. He is a trespasser, taking pieces of an ancient spirit and make it his own, and he is hunted for sport. every inch of him, every screaming inch of him is crying desperately for him to move, run, flee, desperately grab at the next tear, we don’t have time, we’re going to die. screaming screaming over and over, a pounding in his brain like war drums, a sharp, painful insistence out of desperation to survive.

He can’t hear them coming so every other sense goes into overdrive, and he can feel where they’re coming from. The screen in the game actually has pulsing rings at the edge of your screen to indicate that there’s a guardian off screen right over there (which is a very cool indication imo!) and their intensity indicates how close they are. it’s like this sense of dread goes into overdrive in a desperate attempt to keep him alive and he just knows by feeling it that “don’t go that way, you’ll die”

And dude, do you know what the official explanation is for when you fail? the wording they use is “your spirit will shatter”. Shatter!!! that’s gotta hurt!! what do you think it feels like to have your spirit shattered?? Luckily i think both for gameplay and the story itself, if you’re determined enough, you can retry as many times as you like.

but i imagine, for the sake of drama, getting your spirit shattered has Link shunted back into the real world, clutching at his chest in pain, heaving and crying as his spirit stitches itself back together piece by piece until he’s ready to try again. It’s not a pleasant experience.

and speaking of coming back, i imagine actually succeeding isn’t all that great either. the silent realms are silent. there’s no sound at all. coming back to the real world and suddenly getting hit with the sound of the wind and the birds and the ambiance and the sounds of your clothes and the sword and your heavy breathing and too much too much too much!! I imagine it’s very overwhelming. the silence is not a pleasant experience so Link is very glad to have sound again but it’s just too much at once.

you’re very correct anon, there is a lot of angst potential here. i’ve really wanted a Skyward Sword manga or something like that for so long because I really wanna know how the Silent Realms would be interpreted. 

also i’ve kinda got a fic idea were basically Sky has to end up doing the Silent Realms again while on the LU adventure because something something Hero’s Spirit is messing up and he has to reupgrade it. and it’s bad and traumatic and the other boys have to watch as each instance (there’s four of them by god) just leaves Sky an utter mess and they don’t know how to help and he won’t tell them what’s wrong either or what exactly happens in the trials to get him to react so badly when he gets back. i don’t have anything written down but basically “Sky doesn’t know his own limits and won’t ask for help” the fic.

also oh boy this is long, sorry

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll All-Stars: Larry Ogunjobi on Going to Conventions from Anime Expo to Japan

  Anime fans come from all walks of life and in all shapes and sizes. Some are students, some are scientists, some are doctors, some are artists, and some are even well-known athletes! Crunchyroll All-Stars is a series of interviews highlighting elite professionals who harbor a passion both for their art and for anime. 

  Today’s profile is on Larry Ogunjobi, a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals. Growing up during the Toonami era, Ogunjobi would go on to take his passion for anime all the way from Anime Expo in Los Angeles to even conventions in Japan. We spoke with Ogunjobi about how Naruto’s lessons have helped him his entire life, why so many athletes relate to anime characters, and more!

    When did you become an anime fan?  Was there a specific moment that affected you or changed the way you felt about something?

  It started when I was younger when I was in 5th grade or so in elementary school. I used to always play video games and the first game I ever got was Zelda. After gaming a little bit I’d go to school and talk about the games.  Then I remember on Cartoon Network there was Toonami at 9 pm, and then on Saturdays, you’d get all the good anime — Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, Wolf’s Rain, Case Closed, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho — those were my introductions to anime. I always enjoyed it.


  Then came Naruto...I feel like I grew up with Naruto! Watching him as a kid and growing up to get married in the last episode of the last season of Shippuden.


  I also remember getting a Dragon Ball Z  video game for Playstation. I saved up to buy a PS2 and got really into that game.


  Anime always told a story. You got your main character and sometimes he’s maybe a knucklehead kid or has some problems. There’s always that origin story that grabs you and you figure out more of what the show’s going to be about. For me, it was always about the character development -- you have a character and things don’t go their way...do they quit or do they push through it? I always took those kinds of life lessons and nuggets that anime have in them, and my appreciation just grew and grew into a real love for anime. Now it’s just a part of what I do.


    Are there any ways you engage with your favorite anime series or characters aside from watching them?

  I ended up visiting Japan.  It was really cool going to see a convention out there. The excitement the people there had for anime was amazing. It was like their Super Bowl! 


  When I was young, people would knock anime sometimes so it was awesome to see people enjoying themselves, being happy, getting all dressed up. I remember seeing this reenactment of the Naruto fight with Pain.  These were just people walking by each other and they really did it!  It was just very cool to experience.


  Have you ever bonded with someone else over anime?

  One of my mentors in the NFL is Geno Atkins (Defensive Tackle on the Bengals), and I was with him in LA and there was an Anime Expo out there at that time. So I was talking to Geno about anime and he started rattling off a list and I could tell he was for real so I told him about the Anime Expo and we decided to head over to the convention.


  Overall, I’m slowly starting to see more people, more pro athletes show their fandom. We’re able to put ourselves in the same shoes as some of these characters. There have been times in a game where I have put myself in the mindset of a main character from one of my favorite anime. When you find someone who watches anime too, who does that same kind of thing, who’s balling, it creates that bond.


    What’s your favorite anime series of all time?

  Naruto.  I know it’s a mainstream anime and an introductory anime for a lot of people but I REALLY watched it, with subtitles, and I’d wait week after week to watch it. From elementary school into middle school and then going all the way through it to college till it finished. And I felt like “Damn, this is really over?...” I had really invested in it and it really followed the development of my life. I was an overweight kid (obese), a troubled kid. I really started football because my mom took away my Xbox, and then after that, I went through my first real season of football. I remember we had an awards banquet after that year, and when the award for most improved JV player came up, they called my name. I thought my best friend at the time was going to get it but I got it...and it really got me feeling like I earned it and my hard work paid off.


  I was biking and running at the YMCA every day and went from 350 lbs. To 247 lbs., bulked back up to 267 lbs., and ended up getting five scholarship offers. Ended up going to Charlotte for college.  Now I’m in college and with Naruto, the anime is going on throughout all of this for me (probably like the Pain arc or somewhere around that).  It felt like we were going through our trials and tribulations together; it was actually really cool.  Now I’m working hard, I’m grinding in college, and the only thing I could compare my process to was these storylines in anime — I knew I was special and that I was the main character of my story — and I ended up being the first player ever drafted to the NFL out of my college.


  Then as I'm finishing college, Naruto finished...it was just so cool and such a special experience.  I have a lot of favorites but that has to be #1.


  Who’s your favorite anime character of all time?

  Have to stick with Naruto for all the reasons mentioned above. He’s so relatable to me. He was different from everybody. I remember my grandpa telling me I was special and that I was different.  At the time, I was an obese kid...I didn’t know what he was talking about.  But I just knew that me being different and working hard would pay off.  God always finds a way to make things work out for you.  Are there going to be trials? Yes. Are there going to be tragedies? Yes. But the triumphs are going to outweigh everything.


    Who would you rank as the top anime hero ever?

  One of the best characters I’ve seen develop into a hero is Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul.  I’m big on mental health, and you see all the phases he went through. He has to deal with that headache of being on two different sides of the world. He was a human just a little while ago, and now he has to survive on eating flesh...it was a crazy segue.  Being a ghoul, soft-spoken...he really develops into this boss!


  There’s so many anime though: Naruto, Goku...his demeanor is fire.  He always wants to get better.  He’s very relatable. Whenever there’s a super-strong opponent, Goku’s always ready to try them out and give it a go. Even if the person he fights is stronger than him before the fight, Goku evolves during the fight to become better than his opponent. Facing and going through obstacles you become better on the other side. Like the Goku who fought Nappa and Raditz isn’t the same Goku who fought Jiren. He always elevated his game to meet who he was fighting.


  Who would you rank as the top anime villain ever?

  Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.  MAN!..I’ve never seen a villain so dedicated to messing with a family! He REALLY had it out for the Joestars. It was a generational show: you had the first Joseph and Jotaro, and Dio still found a way to be that ultra villain who stays in the mix. There’s not a lot of villains who have been able to stay so relevant. Dio was kicking ass for a minute before he got beat up. I enjoyed him as a villain for sure.


    Have you ever taken any elements or learnings from anime and implemented them into your daily life?

  Yes, with Naruto his motto was never going back on his word and never giving up. In life, you’re always going to go through ups and downs but Naruto always found a way. He also had a great support system, which is really important. You need to have the right people around you. And with rivalries, I’d apply the ways Naruto and Sasuke or Goku and Vegeta approached rivalries. Having someone next to you that you look to as a brother, but who pushes you to new heights and great places.


  It feels like more and more athletes are showcasing their love for anime — what’s anime fandom like in NFL culture? And what do you think it is about anime that attracts athletes?

  Anime is definitely becoming more and more prevalent. A lot of guys will gravitate towards each other with gaming and things like Call of Duty and Fortnite. I’m a D-Lineman and I feel like there’s so many D-Linemen around the league who are fans of anime. You see anime characters go through intense training and we do everything we can to be great at what we do, to improve our technique, and it’s very relatable for guys.


  It also helps us decompress. We have a hard job. We’re in the offseason right now. You get up, you grind, and you work. Sometimes it's just fun to watch someone else's story.


  Like I said, I’ve always felt like I’m the main character of my story, and when you believe that you start to move in a different way and start to workout that way. The concept is so relatable to real life. And in general, guys just like it too.


  Social media has also made anime way more known. Before people didn’t talk about it much and now guys in the league are posting about it and you learn all these guys like it. Then you start talking about anime with them, now we’re sending each other anime to watch, like “Yo this one is about to come on, you got to check it out”. A whole bunch of guys on my team like it, and you start giving people anime to watch and they come back to you like, “This is fire!”


  Also, I’m big into anime but I didn’t realize how big anime was till I saw my baby sister and how into it she is. She draws the characters. Man, she’s caught up on One Piece!

    What would your message be to someone who recently discovered anime and was thinking about getting into it?

  My message would be to figure out what you personally like. Anime has a little of everything: sci-fi, action, sports anime.  Find one that’s similar to something you already enjoy watching and then go from there.


  If you’re new I’d also watch an anime that doesn’t have a whole bunch of episodes in each season so you can fully get into it, like a Mob Psycho 100 or Attack on Titan.


  I remember watching the first half of the first episode of Attack on Titan and I wasn’t feeling it right away, and I remember being in college and working out and visiting the Student Union and I remember falling asleep after working out, and right next to me was where people were hanging out and watching anime. Then I woke up to hearing people cheering. I had seen some of the first episode but they were watching the 2nd episode and Eren had just gotten eaten by the Titan, and I was talking junk like, “How can the main character get killed like that?!”...Then the next scene he turned into a Titan and I was like, “Oh man this is HARD!”


  You have to give each anime a chance.  Most anime develop really well throughout.  I remember with God of High School I started it and was like “ehh, it’s alright”, but I ended up watching the rest of the season and was like “Wow, this is really nicely done!”


  Also, be open to watching subbed and dubbed anime. Give yourself an opportunity to like it.

By: Guest Author

[toradh]

What is it you find so interesting about me :,D This time, @mrs-cheese tagged me. Anyway I love you so let’s see

1. What is the favourite dish you like to cook for yourself?

Have I mentioned I don’t cook Except if you count things like bring pasta water to the boil and stir the pan with the frozen food

2. What cellphone do you use?

iPhone whatever

3. What is the best fandom you ever participated in?

So far everyone has always been pretty sweet to me and my fanart, I think Remind me that I need to do new Ayreon fanart some day because Arjen Lucassen actually replies to emails if you show it to him he’s the sweetest human being alive

4. What is the dumbest thing you ever did while being drunk/on drugs? (Alternatively, if you never got drunk or high, what is the dumbest thing you ever witnessed someone else doing?)

I rarely drink alcohol and thus am drunk even more rarely, and I’m afraid I’ve been perfectly sober for all the dumbest things I’ve ever done Oh wait but I was drunk like mad during a karaoke night once and figured it was a good idea to sing Nothing Else Matters and afterwards bury my face in best friend’s shoulder crying “Kiraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, I’m drunk”. For some reason one of the best singers I know gave me a thumbs up afterwards and I have no idea why she did that I don’t do drugs except chocolate.

5. If you could send your childhood self a message in ten words or less, what would it be?

Oh boy. There’s four, but at least they’re all less than ten words long each: 1) apologize to your dad, 2) study concept art and 3) stay in music school and learn singing and maybe the piano, and 4) stay a virgin.

6. Name something you dislike about your absolute favourite videogame. (Answers like “too short” or “needs a (better) sequel” do not count.)

But too short is always true! Except Final Fantasy IX, that’s actually a fine length. Its biggest flaw is that stupid ATB combat system. I mean it’s preferable to straight-forward turn-based combat systems, but I JUST WANT TO SMASH THINGS. Oh and it’s stupid that you can’t go back to every single city on CD 4, like why. At least it’s better than FFVIII? Oh and why did the writers forget that half of the characters are still there after they’ve been introduced, like I’ll forever cry about Freya. Anyway, most JRPGs share the stupid feature that it’s impossible for a normal human being to find out on your own how to find everything in it, like, who travels back across half a continent just to get a sachet of coffee or whatever it was AND IT’S ONLY POSSIBLE AT THAT POINT IN TIME IN THE GAME AND THEN NEVER AGAIN like honestly?? Also random encounters. They’re one of many things that are typical for old school RPGs and I do not miss the in the slightest. Please be gone from my sight forever, random encounters. Why does this game have random encounters

Kingdom Hearts lets me smash things, that’s fine. It’s biggest flaws are the infamous battle camera, too many characters with silly names, and the fact that you wait decades for sequels. Oh wait the last point didn’t count, did it

Tales of Zestiria also lets me smash things, and smash things with very flashy effects. Fittingly, the camera is so much even worse that it’s famous for it. I also would have appreciated an expansion on a couple of plot elements, but I’m afraid that would count as “too short”. Also whose stupid idea was it to put in missable inn skits, like, why do I have to stay in the inn three times in a row just to see the skits, that’s just so silly, gosh. Oh and lastly please do something about Rose’s AI like please my girl can you not die on me all the time isn’t it enough that I can’t properly dodge, don’t follow my bad example. Also this game owns my entire ass and I cry about it too much. I’m done now

I love all Zelda games I ever touched but they always have some kind of flaw, like water temples, not-functional controls (I’m looking at you, Skyward Sword), impossible difficulty (have I mentioned I had to watch the ending of Minish Cap on Youtube because I’m too dumb to beat Vaati), you name it.

Assassin’s Creed was a wonderful series until someone decided that silent assassination, stealth, and a continuous plot were somehow overrated and we could do without.

Do you want me to go on, because I find things to nitpick no matter how much I love something. Or sometimes I think then I find even more uhm.

Oh yes and in case you couldn’t tell, I don’t ever have one favourite anything.

7. What is your favourite piece of clothing?

EVERYTHING MY WONDERFUL MOM HAS EVER SEWN FOR ME

Here’s an example of one of my favourite pieces

Anyway I prefer dresses and skirts over trousers, but leggins are okay.

8. How many plushies do you own?

There are 11 in my flat (plus a keychain and a few other tidbits) plus several others back at my parent’s place. Plushies were my favourite toys when I was little, so I used to stuff my bed with them.

9. If you could have any car/bike you want, no matter how expensive or impractical for your current situation, which would it be?

So do I get a dragon or what

(spoilers: I hate all cars and bikes equally)

10. Everyone has at least one super weird/out of the ordinary family member (like a crazy aunt or something). Describe yours.

We’re not funny weird. We’re sad weird. Like my mum’s cousin was schizophrenic before she died (no not multiple personalities, for some reason that’s often mixed up although it’s something completely different), one of my sisters has had depressions for at least a decade and there’s no end in sight, and one of our grandmothers is a sad, sad old woman who can’t stand other people doing things differently than her and even being happy with it. Haven’t seen her in years and it’s a good thing. Sorry to disappoint you here.

11. What is your favourite quote?

I have too many. “Music was my first love and it will be my last” might be a strong contender, though, whoever said that first, because it’s true. Other than that, I used to collect song lyric and literary quotes I like.

Still not tagging for the same reason as the last two times AKA because I’m a lazy butt.