#malladus was kind of there

[casa-delle-galline]

Does anyone think that Spirit Tracks’ kingdom of New Hyrule should be changed to something different? I personally do because by calling the kingdom “New Hyrule”, it is, one; uncreative and redundant, and two; completely disregarding the ending of The Wind Waker in saying that they should let go of the past and Hyrule is gone, that the land Tetra and Link would establish their new home would not be an old kingdom long gone, but it would be their land.

So I’ve decided to give it my own name; The Kingdom of Ferrovia (it means ‘railroad/railway’ in Italian, and it sounds and looks pretty).

[linderosse]

Wielders of Wisdom: Introductions Part 4

Phantom (Guardian) [ST]

Driven and determined; orderly; kind of a diva

Surprisingly strong after Malladus fortified her body for his own use

She started dating Spirit after he renounced his hero status to go back to being a humble train engineer. Orders him around all the time (they genuinely love each other).

Her singing voice is enchanting :)

Story: [Locked until further notice]

Echo/Aurora (Dreamer) [EoW, CoH, AoL]

Once, she was a hero. Now she’s Depressed^TM.

Doesn’t sleep much anymore. Barely holding it together for Dawn’s sake

Desperately misses her home, her family, and Silent. Very fond of Hyrule and Dawn. A small part of her is bitterly jealous that Dawn gets to be summoned away into other eras, while Aurora seems to be trapped after the Great Decline— but she loves Dawn and would never begrudge her that opportunity.

Her first and second adventures have made her an excellent dancer

Story: Since her awakening, Aurora has done her best to be the older sister Dawn never had. But the world is still devastated by the Great Decline, mistrust runs rampant, and it’s hard adapting to life centuries in the future. Dawn keeps telling her about the other Zeldas, but neither Dawn nor Aurora have been able to summon the others to their era, and Aurora hasn’t been able to leave. Aurora will do what it takes to support Dawn’s goal to help their people prosper— but who knows? She might be keeping secrets of her own…

< Part 3

Masterpost

[batrogers]

Civilized Or Not

So there’s some common Zelda fanon I wanna talk about, relating to civilization tropes I think some of y’all haven’t really thought about in detail before, and that’s Hyrule (Zelda 1 &2 Link), Wild (BOTW mostly), and Ravio (LbW).

I’m using the Linked Universe names, because that’s where most of it comes up, because these things happen most often where you can contrast the boys with each other. This is often done, quick and dirty, by people assigning “roles” to each without much thought. Ravio’s unfortunately tends to be extremely pervasive outside LU spaces, too.

But, in brief, there is a trend for people to craft these characters in a framework of innocent vs savagery vs trickery that can have some really unfortunate implications I’m not sure many are even aware of. Hopefully I can explain better where these ideas come from, why they’re so easy and appealing, and why we should try to avoid repeating them for more than just the sake of “easy” but also to stop repeating some really nasty historical tropes.

I would start from what’s probably the simplest one to address: the tendency towards a “feral” personification of Wild. This tends to come from two places: Wild’s amnesia, and the collapse of society around him and his lost place in it.

Now, brain damage is complicated. You can lose a range of things to any given injury because of the way information is encoded differently and in different places. You can lose memory and/or skills and/or coordination and/or balance, etc, because it all depends on what got damaged. But in-game a lot of stuff suggests that Link retains things like speech, reading/writing, coordination, and martial skills. None of the people who knew Link prior to his injury suggest he seems changed in any way not attributed to stress and anxiety...

And, more importantly, real people suffer memory loss just like that in the real world. Treating him like he’s become “feral” due to memory loss is cruel to actual people living with brain damage today, and if you go there you should have a good reason for it.

Social collapse is a wide-spread theme in basically every Zelda game. The threat that the Big Bad poses is almost always the destruction of society as it exists: Malladus literally vanishes the infrastructure of New Hyrule in Spirit Tracks; the Twilight turns people into spirits living lives they don’t realize are questionably real in Twilight Princess; Veran freezes the passage of time to force people to work forever in Oracle of Ages. King Daphnes and Ganondorf under the sea vie over the fate of the world above in Wind Waker: keep what’s been made, or start all over again?

In modern culture, people tell a lot of stories about the fragility of civilization and what happens in its absence. You get the range from Lord of the Flies, in which children wrecked on an island attempt (and fail) to recreate civilization on their own, Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” in which Mowgli is treated as reckless and innocent, and a much more obscure piece from the 18th century “Paul et Virginie” (and likely many more I don’t know offhand.) Essentially all of them play with the question of how do people become civilized, and what happens when they do? In Lord of the Flies, the children were civilized and failed to maintain it; in the Jungle Book, the boy wasn’t civilized and innocently interacts with it. In Paul et Virginie, the children were (relatively) uncivilized on the (French colonized) Mauritius, raised by their mothers but when the girl was sent away, she becomes civilized and dies tragically to preserve it.

The two Links most removed from civilization are Hyrule and Wild. Wild “lost” civilization, losing both his memories of it and the structure of it. Making him feral, without manners, and without a place to belong is that kind of Lord of the Flies savagery mixed with Mowgli’s innocent playfulness: there isn’t a structure to adhere to, so he’s a savage. Whereas Hyrule is more like the Paul eg Virginie side: innocent of civilization, he remains pure and sweet and kind, unable to conceive of big concepts like evil or money or so on. Neither position permits them to interact with the civilization that is right there in front of them! Wild can buy a house; he has people who know and care for him. He has social connections and social rights. The world exists, but the fandom does not seem to want him to interact with it in favour of remaining “wild.” In Zelda 2 – a game explicitly set within a decade of Zelda 1 – there are whole towns with trade and a castle and massive structures with on-going life in them... but very few fans seem to ever reach into that story or relate it back to the first. Hyrule, the character, does not exist within Hyrule, the country.

Strangely, Wind Waker does not fall prey to this, I think because the structures are presented as fait accompli: Link wakes up with his grandmother and his sister, he has a defined home, and a society in which you spend the entire game forced to engage with. Zelda 1 & 2 were not sophisticated enough to waste resources on going as in depth in social terms (although such interactions absolutely exist in Zelda 2!) and BOTW leaves such interactions as optional: you can survive the game with minimal social contact... but it’s a choice to play with it that way, not the default. The ways in which this edges onto the noble savage trope, in which “uncivilized” tribes are either innocent or brutish (rather than complex social systems in their own right) is fairly obvious.

There is one other character in Zelda who gets treated to the question of whether he is an innocent, free of civilization and all its rigour... or something else. Ravio, coming from the devastated world of Lorule, can often wind up slotted into the scared, innocent child trope and unfortunately that’s the better position people frequently take. The worse one evokes the Merchant of Venice: the deceitful, Jewish merchant who values money over people’s lives.

Lorule (and Nintedo’s approach towards their humanoid Zelda villains in general) is near-eastern-coded in many ways, down to the fact that Yuga’s outfit is the spitting image of Ottoman dress. Yuga being a depraved bisexual (a common historical trope about Muslim men towards Christian men and boys), and Hilda being deceitful and conspiring against everyone she was once allied to are a backdrop to the ways in which Ravio is a greedy coward. He’s not an evil character in the game; the mechanic of penalizing death without being too severe is interesting and works well! But that doesn’t take away the stereotype, just like it’s not okay Nabooru is pretty explicitly predatory towards child Link in Ocarina of Time, too.

Arab and Jewish stereotypes often converge, because both people's originate from the same region, and both are hostile "Others" to Christian Europe and Nintendo doesn’t have a great track record of their near-Eastern coding in Zelda. It crosses the whole gamut from harem and amazon tropes with the Gerudo to breath-takingly anti-semitic or anti-black (Ganondorf being green, eg. non-human, in various incarnations), all packaged neatly in the ideal of medieval fantasy Europe. The scale would be impressive if it wasn’t so damn awful, but we can at least stop repeating it in our fanworks.

Wild doesn’t have to be feral to be a playful little shit; Hyrule doesn’t have to be pure and innocent to be kind. Ravio doesn’t need to be innocent or scheming, and he shouldn’t place money over Link’s well-being (If you chose to respawn at home, he is consistently only ever concerned for Link! Once you buy the items outright, he promises he'll still be there to take care of you.)

Do better. It’s more interesting that way, and I want to see that variety grow!

[If any of y'all would like me to dig up better sources on any point, I can do so but I didn't want to bog this post down further. I have largely left the anti-arab stuff alone because it's not the biggest issue with Ravio's fanon presence, which is the focus here.]

[tokiro07]

Still thinking about past Zeldas getting their own games

Obviously not all of them have enough going on to really warrant their own games, though that shouldn't stop anyone from giving them something to do, but which ones lend themselves to getting new stories the best?

Ocarina of Time is a pretty easy one with a seven-year gap for her to train herself up as Sheik. Sheik is extremely popular and has a lot of demand for her own game, even getting optioned for one by Retro once, so it's both the easiest to pitch and seems like the most likely to happen

Wind Waker's Tetra is similar, being super popular and having a large gap in her history that could easily house any number of adventures. Tetra spent who knows how many years at sea, and could easily have fought all kinds of monsters or discovered all kinds of treasures. We could even get her and Link finding the land that will become New Hyrule, defeating some kind of evil before its founding, like Malladus perhaps

Skyward Sword also provides ample opportunity with Zelda going on her own adventure one step ahead of Link at pretty much all times, though literally "Skyward Sword's levels but playing as Zelda" doesn't sound like a very worthwhile story. If they can find a way to keep it fresh, I'm all for it, but it may be better to have her exploring the Surface after the people of Skyloft begin migrating down to it

Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom has a gap between games, while also having the events of the Imprisoning War, though neither seems much like something they're interested in continuing to explore since we got to see so much of it already. It might be easier to just continue exploring the Depths or the lands surrounding Hyrule to get a deeper understanding of the Zonai's culture and historical impact

Pretty much all of the other Zeldas weren't very active in their own stories and don't leave a lot to the imagination, so any stories involving them would definitively have to be post-game rather than mid- or pre-game. Of these, the most interesting candidates would likely be:

Twilight Princess's Zelda investigating the Twilight Realm and looking for a way to reunite Link and Midna to repay them for their help in saving Hyrule. This could give us an opportunity to see more of the Twilight Realm and understand its ecology and culture while also giving us more insight into Midna herself. Personally I'd rather have a Midna game than a Twilight Zelda game, but I have a harder time seeing that pitch going through

Link Between Worlds, same thing, but Hilda and Lorule; Zelda may go back to check on how reviving their Triforce worked out and may end up facing some new villain who's trying to steal it. Again, I'd like to play a Hilda (or Ravio) game, but I'll accept any excuse to spend more time in Lorule and expand on its history and it's version of the Triforce; does it symbolize different traits, does it have its own goddesses, what?

Adventure of Link's Zelda I is definitely not a well-remembered or beloved character, but I think that the story angle of a princess waking up after countless years to find her descendant has taken the throne provides an excellent opportunity for characterization. Perhaps she feels out of touch with her kingdom having been away for so long, or maybe she feels unneeded since there's already a reigning princess? A search to find herself and possibly a confrontation with the spirit of the wizard who cursed her would make for a great plot, especially if they can find a way to incorporate the other Zelda like having the player control both with different abilities to help differentiate them. Unlikely, but certainly the most novel and the one I personally want to see most

Spirit Tracks's Zelda returned to her body in the end, presumably removing her ability to control Phantoms, so it's harder to see how she'd get to go on further adventures. However, it was stated that Byrne would reincarnate sooner or later, so that would at least provide a story opportunity even if new mechanics would be necessary

Minish Cap, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures don't really give Zelda much reason to go on an adventure post-game, but again, neither did Link to the Past, and if I'm right Echoes of Wisdom is branching off of a hypothetical ending where Ganon took Link with him as he was defeated, so I'm sure any number of excuses could be given for them

Minish Cap's Zelda had the most personality, but FSA's story is a little easier to see continuing, since Vaati or Ganon could well be revived again afterwards. Still, they're both pretty weak as inspirations for new stories, even if more Vaati content would be wholeheartedly appreciated

It's not very surprising that the biggest name Zelda games have the clearest routes for expanding on their stories, but since the opportunities still exist in all of the others, I would hope that Nintendo would try to do more than just the most obvious options

Or they might just make up new Zeldas and eras entirely without any regard for the timeline or previously undeveloped story segments, that seems like something they'd do

[zarvasace]

Hello! If I’m not too late for your ask prompts game, your thoughts on the Hero of Spirits?

Hmmm I don't have a lot of thoughts about this character if I'm being honest!! I haven't played Spirit Tracks and he doesn't exist in LU (yet?) so I haven't really seen any consistent characterizations. The idea of trains is very cool though! It'd be very cool to see that happen in LU proper :)

This is kind of a little random thing referencing my own Zeldaverse timeline!

---

Deep beneath Hyrule, sealed off for centuries, is a cavernous expanse lit only by the festering, glowing remains of a demon known as Malladus, carried across the sea and sealed. The network of tracks and their bright lights that once crossed and dotted the prosperous landscape have long since fallen into disrepair and decay. 

It would be folly to say that the technological advances buried here were buried forever. Where wheels and steam ruled the caverns, now blue light and stalkers guard the land above. Every discovery builds on the last, but perhaps something was lost in the shift from deep earth to sky. 

[ihaveatheoryonthat]

A small handful of songs I associate with A Glint, a Spark. (Spoilers for both that fic and Memory, Heavy in My Heart.)

Arms Outstretched - Griffin McElroy

As I alluded to in the MHIMH playlist, Arms Outstretched was the song I had all but set AGAS to, for the animatic in my head. The progression of it from being kind of downtrodden, to this moment of hope, and then a happy epilogue was pretty perfect, both for the idea I actually went with, and the one I may still write.

Chapters 1 & 2

Place to Start - Mike Shinoda

Do I even have a decision? Feeling like I'm living in a story already written. Am I part of a vision made by somebody else? / Am I out of conviction with no wind in the sail, too focused on the end and simply ready to fail?

Cause I'm tired of feeling like I can't control this; tired of feeling like every next step's hopeless. Tired of feeling like what I build might break apart, I don't want to know the end, all I want is a place to start.

I don't have a ton to elaborate on with the lyrics. The first part just meshes really nicely with the theme of being unable to influence events that have already happened, and having to take them as they come. The second part resonates particularly well with the first chapter, in my opinion. I also like having a song from the same artist in both halves of the main story, and the contrasting tones.

Chapters 3-9:

The Heart of a Graveyard - Demon Hunter

Tell me that your final home is not a shot in the dark; tell me that your hopes and dreams don't end in the heart of a graveyard.

Tonally, it doesn't fit perfectly with the rest of this list, but the subject matter is pretty on the mark. There's a sense of preparing for the worst while still hoping for the best that I like, particularly in this context.

Chapter 10:

Final Battle: Malladus (From "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks") - The Noble Demon

(The portion up to 0:46 is an intro, and not the most relevant to this list; the actual battle theme starts warming up after that.) A friend unintentionally reminded me that I love this track, and since that conversation happened smack at the climax of MHIMH, I naturally connected the dots. This would correspond to the recorded battle with Arceus, because the track for it in canon PLA just does not fit this version. I chose this remix in particular because it really emphasized the woodwind notes in parts-- which made sense re: the Azure Flute-- and because it has that underlying, train-chugging percussion. It's always struck me as a very triumphant battle theme, which fit beautifully.

Chapter 11:

Welcome to the World of Pokemon - Super Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

It's wondrous and mysterious, but gentle and a bit low-key at the same time, which I think makes it work very well for the build up this chapter, and most of the time spent in the Hall of Origin.

Mysterious Rainbow Girl - Wandersong

The same goes for this track; I was pretty torn as to which one I liked better, so I ended up keeping both for a little bit of variation.

Chapter 12:

On the Beach at Dusk - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness & Sky

I had this one set aside specifically for the scene at the top of Dragonspiral Tower, where the reality of the situation is beginning to sink in. If you're familiar with Explorers, there... might be something of a parallel to be read into the situations they 'play' over.

Misc:

The yet untitled song from The Dreadful Demise of the Dinosaurs - Puppet History

A lonely life among the stars, my destination veiled and far away, but I knew one day we'd find each other. Then in the dark, a glint, a spark, the greens and blues, be still my heart-- and once I hit, that's it, I'm here forever.

While I'm here, I should probably include the fic's namesake. It's really only the one verse (~0:25-0:47), because this song has a very specific subject matter and thesis, but that one passage really stuck with me in this context. The first half definitely resonates most strongly with chapter 11, but I was also aiming to match the second to 12-- specifically "the greens and blues, be still my heart" to the scene on Dragonspiral, and to end with the promise of "I'm here forever"

[deusvervewrites]

Hero of Legend AU: If it helps, one doesn't necessarily have to be a reincarnation of Ganon/Ganondorf to be considered an incarnation of Demise's Hatred; just look at antagonists such as Vaati from Minish Cap/Four Swords, Bellum from Phantom Hourglass, or Malladus from Spirit Tracks. They're considered to be incarnations of Demise, but lack the Triforce of Power wielded by Ganondorf.

It would be kind of hilarious if Ghirahim initially mistook Bakugou for the reincarnation of his master because he possesses the Triforce of Power like Ganondorf did, but when he realizes he possesses none of the Malice that would mark him as a true Incarnation of Demise, then he'd treat him just as callously as he would anyone else who isn't his master.

Heck, he'd probably try and steal the Triforce of Power from Bakugou just so he could offer it to his TRUE Master.

That would be something

[changeling-rin]

Hello! I would like to personally thank you for existing. Are there any details you wrote that you wanted people to notice but no one ever did?

I don't think anyone ever caught that Airplane! reference I made that one time

...Aside from that, I don't think anyone's noticed that the only two villains to understand Bellum are also the only two villains who share a timeline with him, these being Ocean Ganondorf and Malladus specifically

Nobody ever corrected me or reassured me about my choices for the stones that make up Realm's earrings, so I can only assume that either we're all clueless about the supposed spiritual qualities of rocks, or that I somehow nailed it perfectly on my first try

During the bit with Wind's Grandmother's soup I attempted to make a reference to the BotW cooking function with the comment the kinds of carrots, which was meant to be a reference to an Endura Carrot versus a Swift Carrot. Unfortunately I think I was too vague for anyone but me to get the correlation

I had attempted to hint that Gen's Loftwing is going to reincarnate as Epona in her later lives, but I was subsequently thwarted by the Loftwing's canon gender (male) so I don't think that particular tidbit went anywhere

And I'm sure there's more that I didn't think of, but for now these are plenty interesting!

[tinyetoile]

Bitchy ranting about botw/totk link n zelda below

In relation to the last post. I know I'm kind of mean to botw/totk link and zelda's relationship but man when I beat TotK I could not stop thinking about the contrast between the scene where Zelda is freed from the crystal in SS vs how Link treats Zelda post-fall in TotK. Like in SS when Zelda collapses, Link runs forward to catch her, how he escorts her out there holding her hand, how they both keep looking at eachother and laughing whenever Groose gets emotional.

And then in TotK after they fall from the sky and Link carries Zelda out of the pond he just... kneels, and doesn't make a single other motion to help her afterwards. Like, Zelda just transformed back into a person after spending a bajillion years as a mindless dragon and then fell from the statosphere into a shallow pond and you're not even going to her help sit up? You're just going to kneel there??? Not going to offer her any sort of comfort?????

I think... this post has helped me find words for one of my major problems with botw/totk Link and Zelda: they have all these moments that are supposed to be big grand setpiece moments (him rescuing her from Yiga assassins, the last catch) but they feel hollow because outside of those moments there are so few of the little moments that show subtle care, particularly from Link to Zelda. I'm not saying they don't exist (Link taking the torch from Zelda is one example) but I wish there were more of them. Because it feels like whenever Zelda needs some sort of emotional support Link leaves her high and dry. You don't even have to make him less of a stoic, stalwart knight to do it! I was rewatching the botw memory where Rhoam is a terrible father to her and all I could think about was how much better the scene would be if it had gone on for a few more seconds and shown Link rising from his kneeling position after the king leaves and putting his hand on Zelda's shoulder. That could've done so much!!! But instead he's always kneeling, barely looking at her, refusing to touch her unless absolutely necessary. It's borderline uncomfortable to watch.

Meanwhile in SS Link and Zelda DO have those moments of casual closeness, showing they care for eachother, enforcing they're important to eachother in subtle ways, and the relationship between them feels so much more lively and substantial because of it. And outside of skyward sword, I keep thinking to that scene in Spirit Tracks where after Malladus is defeated and the Lokomo leave, Link and Zelda just quietly hold hands in mutual reassurance that, it's over. We're okay. Everything's going to be alright now. Hell, these scenes even work- work even better IMO- outside of a romantic context, because it doesn't need to be A Romance for it to be obvious they have a close bond.

In conclusion Skyward Sword and Spirit Tracks are still the games with the best Link-Zelda relationship of all time

[telemna-hyelle]

I don’t think that the cycle of the Hero is gonna be broken in Tears of the Kingdom. Firstly, I can’t imagine that Nintendo would want to end the Zelda franchise while it’s still so incredibly lucrative. I mean, just look at BOTW.

Secondly, remember, the in-canon acknowledgement of an actual cycle really only happened relatively recently, in Skyward Sword. And if you take a look at Demise’s words, it explicitly states:  Though this is not the end. My hate... never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again. Those like you... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!

Which sounds like an in-canon excuse for Nintendo to make a whole ton more Zelda games, and since it’s a relatively recent addition, it seems odd that they would recant that so soon?

Also, in-game, it kinda feels like if Demise couldn’t be ultimately defeated by the First Hero, the literal incarnation of Hylia herself, and the Master Sword at the height of her strength and power, I just... idk. I find it hard to believe this time could be any different, y’know?

Thirdly, while there may be a time loop with the first Calamity 10,000 years ago, that Calamity was still long after Skyward Sword. 

And lastly, on a personal note, I really hope they don’t break the Cycle? Which I know isn’t a very popular standpoint (I’ve seen a lot of ‘breaking the Cycle’ fics out there), but...

There will always be evil threatening Hyrule. We’ve seen the evidence in canon. The enemy isn’t always Ganondorf. It could be Ghirahim or Zant, who admittedly did serve Demise or his incarnations. But it could be like Vaati, who was evil in his own right. Or it could be like Bellum and Malladus, evil that pursued Hyrule even after the original Hyrule itself was long gone. But there will always be evil trying to destroy all that is good.

But the cycle promises there will always be a Hero who rises to defeat the evil. 

And I love that promise, and I don’t want to see it go.

[bobthebobking]

do you think link would have tried retelling niko’s stories to zelda while they were travelling around new hyrule

like after anjean mentions tetra, zelda can’t stop thinking about her. her ancestor knowing anjean? the first queen of new hyrule? what kind of person must she have been, if zelda was apparently so much like her?

so link tells her what he knows. he tells her about tetra’s fearsome crew, her journey with the hero of winds, her struggles on the ghost ship. he tells her the silly stories niko didn’t turn into paper cutouts, the ones about pranks and jokes and laughing and family.

and of course they aren’t told as well as niko, link makes sure she knows this, but she can’t get enough. she’s hooked on anything link tells her about the pirate queen. she needs to hear everything, needs to pick out any similarities she can find between such an amazing woman and herself. because if zelda’s really anything like her, maybe she can be strong too. maybe she can be good enough to help defeat malladus. maybe she can save herself.

[wutheringmights]

I just read the newest chapter and I loved it! ♥ ♥ ♥ I was wondering if you had some hcs about the engineer that you could share?

Awww I'm glad you like it! I just spent 5 minutes trying to figure out what "HCS" meant before realizing I'm a tired idiot who can't read lol

But yeah! I got some headcanons for the engineer/Spirits I can share!

These headcanons are a mix of things I generally believe for any iteration of the Hero of Spirits and a few things exclusive to CTB. It's pretty obvious which are which.

Technically this is slight spoilers since most of this is not mentioned in-story, but Warriors is a such a self-centered asshole that I'm not sure when I can get him to explicitly ask about Spirit's backstory lol

This got super long and kind of just became me talking about Spirits's entire backstory, so enjoy:

Spirits is sixteen during the course of Spirit Tracks, mostly because that was the vibe I got from him when I first played the game (I made him younger for CTB)

He's not descendant from Wind (who I maintain disappeared instead of settling in New Hyrule); instead, he's Aryll's great grandson

His family name used to be Outset, but when everyone who originally immigrated from Outset island took on that last name, they changed it to Aryll to reflect the family matriarch

So Spirit's full name is Link Aryll, though there is a branch of his family that uses Macaryll instead

The Aryll/Macaryll family is huge; everyone has at least six aunts and uncles on all sides of the family and they can trace back how they are related to Aryll

"I'm Grandma Aryl's third son's second daughter's fifth child." -someone Spirits is related to, probably

He actually never met his great grandmother; she died before he was born.

Spirit's dad was full-blooded Lokomo while his mother was Hylian; his mother passed a few months after he was born after never truly recovering from childbirth while his father died in a fishing accident when he was eight

He went to live with an aunt and uncle who owned a general store; their relationship was polite at best. The aunt and uncle told Spirits upfront that they intended to give the store over to his cousin when he was older so Spirits needed to come up with his own life plan

Spirits didn't necessarily mind since he never wanted to work in a store for the rest of his life, but the ultimatum made it clear that they didn't care for him like a son

To this day, their relationship isn't strained and he doesn't hate them. But whenever they meet, he's overly polite; they're more acquaintances than family

He's cool with his cousin though. They have different interests so they aren't best friends, but they're okay.

Spirits also always had his spirit-sensing abilities. It's really like a sixth sense to him, as normal and automatic as seeing and hearing; he actually didn't realize this wasn't normal until he was a little older

His abilities at this point are limited to sensing vague ideas of a person's spirit (if they're light or dark, etc.), and seeing ghosts (which are really rare. You have to have a lot of power yourself to become one)

(Note: I'm not the only one who headcanons Spirits as having spirit sensing abilities; if you know who can up with the idea, please let me know so that I can tag/credit them!)

The elder of his village told him that select Lokomo had minor spirit sensing abilities, and those who did were traditionally made elders of their villages; being more of a follower than a leader, Spirits adamantly dismissed that idea and refused to be trained on how to hone his spirit senses. He also never learned any of the religion behind it

Which was a little worrisome since his abilities are way stronger than most

Besides, he's always liked trains and it's been his dream to travel around the kingdom as an engineer; being some town's elder would get in the way of that

Anyway, Spirits had to pass a written exam before being accepted as an apprentice engineer, so he's very studious and has a lot of drive (pun unintended?)

He went to live with his Uncle Niko during his apprenticeship in another town; Niko isn't related to him, but he's been a friend of the family for so long that everyone secretly thinks he's actually related to someone and they just forgot who

Niko is his real family, hands down. Those two are as thick as thieves and bring out the wild side in each other

A preteen Spirits used to think Niko was a little lame and kind of embarrassing, but now that he's older, he's all for Niko's weird old man-ness and has even picked up on some of his weird old man-ness himself

That being said, they're both disasters. Neither can clean or cook or do any kind of housekeeping and their shared house is cluttered with Niko's art projects and Spirit's half-finished tinkering

Growing up, Spirits had no idea he was related to the legendary Hero of Wind; Aryll died before he was born, but even in life she was filled with too much grief over her missing brother to discuss it often. Within the family, being related to the Hero of Wind is a rumor at best.

Of course, Niko knows but keeps it a secret from Spirits; once he got back from his LU-adventure, Wind told Niko about the curse of the Hero's Spirit. Then he went missing post-New Hyrule's founding, which really drove the terror of the curse home. Niko thought he could keep Wind's family from falling victim to it by not inadvertently encouraging them to follow in Wind's footsteps

So Niko kept it a secret

And obviously, that didn't work

Spirits' quest to save New Hyrule resulted in him realizing that he needed to embrace his Lokomo heritage and get a handle on his spirit powers; Anjean gave him a little training during his quest but afterwards he traveled around the kingdom to find as many people as he could with abilities like his

They were all really excited to teach him what they knew, especially the religious aspects of the abilities; Spirits is still not the most religious person, but he at least understands and embraces the cultural significance of what he is able to do

This is where he learned how to read a person's Spirit to get an idea of their life experiences and the kind of person they're like; he can also detect where a person is without having to put much effort into it

At Zelda's encouragement, he also got more sword training from the Castle Guard. She offered him a place among them, but he turned it down in favor of remaining an engineer. He still helps around as a swordsman when he can and will act as Zelda's body guard

Speaking of which, he and Zelda are 100% in love. Their relationship started out as puppy love but over the years as matured into a deep connection built on mutual respect

When he's working on designing new engines or parts for his trains, he occasionally brings his drafting materials to the castle gardens so that he can work alongside Zelda; sometimes she falls asleep leaning against his arm and he has to be careful not to shake her awake as he works

Whenever she need to go anywhere in the kingdom, she rides in his train and teasingly criticizes his conducting; he takes a lot of pride in his conducting, but he lets her get away with it since her critiques are objectively hilarious

He keeps a tiny pictograph of her taped to his dashboard

But there's a bit of a problem with their relationship, and it's that he doesn't know if he wants to be the prince consort or not. He does love her, but that would mean giving up being an engineer in favor of being stuck at the castle all of the time

Plus, he's doing great as an engineer; he's saving up to open his own garage that produces his own train designs

Eventually, he leaves for the War of Eras

His experiences with Warriors leaves him more sure than ever that he doesn't want to be the prince consort, resulting in him ending his relationship with Zelda shortly after he returns home

It hurts for a long time to be around her since all of his old feelings keep coming back, so he keeps his distance for a long time; it takes a few years for him to go back to hanging out with Zelda as friends

But now she's approaching marriage age, and he spends a lot of time when he's on body guard duty super jealous of these princes and ambassadors from foreign kingdoms who try to court her

But again, he knows he can't be in a relationship with her so he respectfully and silently pines over her (I'm just a sucker for pining, okay?)

Okay, more random headcanons that are a little less sad

Spirits likes super spicy food, but since he can't cook to save his own life, he just eats whatever he can get his hands on

He's super dirty all of the time, just the epitome of scrappy; there's always a smear of oil somewhere on his person

He actually really hates bathing and only keeps his curly hair in check to comply with train safety regulations

He's really polite and a little shy, but once he loosens up, he gets talkative and personable

He's also very contemplative; he likes conducting so much because he gets to spend long stretches of time alone with nothing but his thoughts

His trauma/stress response is to shut down; he goes quiet, loses energy, and sleeps for longer periods of time

He tends to gravitate towards socializing with people who are older than him, which gets him labeled as being no fun by his peers (despite having someone as cooky as Niko for a uncle)

Post-adventure, his best friend is Linebeck III. They're drinking buddies. Neither can really explain why they even like hanging out as much as they do

(I just like the idea of Linebeck accidentally getting attached to one kid and his whole bloodline getting forever tangled with Wind's; they're bros for multiple lifetimes)

Not only is Spirits good at designing and building new machinery, but he's great at tinkering; he can fix almost anything and will buy broken things on purpose just to have something to fix

No one really knows he's a hero; he doesn't like the attention and, at his request, Zelda did her best to keep his involvement with Malladus a secret

Because not many common people know about his adventure and records of New Hyrule are very rare, he's considered in Warrior's time to be a forgotten hero; some scholars believe that a Hero of Spirits may have once existed, but if he did, no one really knows who he was or what he did to serve the bloodline of Hylia

[balladoftime]

Okay, I get what you’re saying, but hear me out-

Demise didn’t want to rule Hyrule as Hyrule didn’t yet exist. His sole goal was to obtain the Triforce so he could prove his power and defeat the goddesses. As he was dying and slowly being sealed away in the Master Sword, his dying words were this:

My hate...never perishes. It is born anew in a cycle with no end! I will rise again! Those like you... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!

Demise didn’t tie his curse to the land - again, Hyrule didn’t yet exist! He specifically cursed Zelda’s descendants and those who would share Link’s heroic spirit. Therefore, in Wind Waker, even though the old Hyrule was buried underwater by the King’s wish, Demise’s curse still remains because Tetra and Link survived. Tetra is a descendant of the first Zelda, the reincarnation of Hylia, and Link shares the spirit of the original Hero. They are still bound by Demise’s curse.

Additionally, Ganondorf is not necessarily the only embodiment of Demise’s curse. While he is a frequent enemy, he is not the only Big Bad. Demise didn’t say that “a guy named Ganondorf will plague you”, he said “an incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind”. Fi says that Demise is “the source of all monsters”, which implies that his hatred reincarnation could be of a more monstrous nature. Arguably, then, the “hatred reincarnations” includes Vaati, Veran, Onox, Malladus, Bellum, and Majora, not just Ganondorf.

As for why the topology and geography of any existing Zelda game doesn’t match with what is seen in BOTW — there’s more than 10,000 years between any other game and the events of BOTW. We don’t have a game that depicts the initial fight against Calamity Ganon; we don’t have a game that shows the creation of the Divine Beasts or the Sheikah Slate or the Shrines or the Towers. There could very well be tens of thousands of years between any existing Zelda game and the events of BOTW. And geography can change significantly in that amount of time. Irl, massive lakes, almost oceans, have drained more than ten thousand years ago, uncovering land where we currently live. Even though the Hyrule of Wind Waker did flood, there’s nothing to say that it didn’t also drain over time. Maybe even the Great Sea drained some over time, and the New Hyrule of Spirit Tracks and the Old Hyrule of Wind Waker are connected by dry ground. Maybe in the downfall timeline, the lands of Labrynnia or Holodrum are found where New Hyrule exists in the adult timeline. Lots can change over a period of tens of thousands of years. One kingdom being lost underneath the sea doesn’t mean that it will never again exist above the waves.

It’s not impossible or even improbable for BOTW to exist in all three timelines, or to even act as a unification of the three timelines. It doesn’t betray or undermine the story of any previous game to suggest that BOTW is a reuniting of the three timelines formed by the Hero of Time.

Why Breath of the Wild cannot happen on every timeline

Alright, look. We all know the question, and the answer that we got.

“On which timeline in Zelda does BOTW happen?”

The answer? “All of them/It doesn’t matter.”

yes, it does matter.

At the end of Wind Waker, taking place in the submerged Hyrule, Zelda and the Hero of Winds go to fight Ganondorf, but accidentally assemble the triforce. Ganondorf is very happy about this, and goes to use it, but the King of Hyrule reaches it first, making a wish.

He wants to wipe the slate clean.

With that, the barrier protecting hyrule breaks. Water floods down to wash the sacred land away. Ganondorf is defeated, and Link and Zelda manage to escape, but the King remains as his kingdom is destroyed forever. From this point, Wind Waker’s Link and Zelda guide the people of the Great Sea to a new kingdom, in new lands. Ganondorf never returns. Why? Because Wind Waker does the impossible: it breaks the cycle.

We all know how it goes. Demise, at the start in Skyward Sword, longed to rule Hyrule with the Triforce. When he lost, he cast an eternal curse that is reincarnation would keep returning, forever. but by washing away Hyrule forever, completely erasing the kingdom and its history, the curse is forcibly ended. There is no hyrule for ganon to come back to. Its done. Its over.

If Breath of the Wild can happen in this timeline, something is deeply wrong. Breath of the Wild takes place in Hyrule, one where the perpetual return of Ganon has become so commonplace that they expect it every hundred years or so. In BOTW, the cycle doesn’t just exist, it DOMINATES. It dictates the very law of the land. It is perhaps the largest victim to Demise’s curse that we have ever seen.

Wind Waker’s world cannot house such a story. Doing so would completely erase and undermine the actions of The Hero of Winds, and the entire themes of Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks. This is a world that has broken free from its chains, and I wouldn’t dare suggest that we put them back on for the sake of an easy answer.

[legend-of-zelda-rangers-au]

Malladus has tried to attack practically everyone who's here. At first, he was nervous around everyone besides me and Byrne but attacked Byrne once, and a few hours later, yours truly. That's why he isn't allowed out with the others or really near anyone. He's just that hostile... none of us are quite sure what he went through, but a dangerous animal is a dangerous animal. None of us want to euthanize him, but if we have to, well, then we'll have to.

On a happier note, Phytops is doing better, so that's a plus, and everyone has fully recovered from Malladus' violence!

Blaine/Mr. Blaaz's kids, Wren and Lumi, stay pretty often usually hanging out around Phytops, Stagnox, Cragma, and Skeldritch.

I forgot to tell you about the others! Gosh, how silly of me to forget... Anyways, I'll tell you about them in the order they showed up or were brought to us.

First, we have Stagnox, a surprisingly large beetle. Seriously though, he could easily pick you up and fly off with you. That is, if his wings weren't so damaged. We don't know exactly what happened to him, but he seems to get nervous around folks with scissors or stones or sticks in hand. He was most likely attacked by kids and adults who were afraid of him...

Then Phytops arrived. She had thorns sticking out of her arms and tentacles when she was brought to us. We didn't really have much time to prep, just a few hours, but we managed. She was very shy when she first arrived, usually pressing herself into a corner. Luckily, we got a pond soon after she showed up. She's quite the sweetheart, but she doesn't speak often. Honestly, she's like a daughter to all of us.

Cragma was kind of a surprise. Wren had found him on the side of the road the night before when they were heading home, and he brought him to us. We weren't entirely sure what to do, seeing as none of us, other than Blaine, had any experience working with fire elementals. But luck was on our side, seeing as we learned more about how to take care of them. Really though, if Blaine wasn't there, we'd be up to our throats in research. He's quite nice to hang out around and somehow seems fine with snow and water. Lumi and Phytops tend to hang out around him even on hot days.

Skeldritch showed up in the middle of summer. He was frightened and unfortunately missing his arms. All we know so far is that he's a desert lamia- specifically a stalfos variant. He's almost always found wearing this Viking helmet he had when he came here. He rarely speaks, but somehow he's sometimes heard singing a soft tune. It's quite nice to see him happy. Usually, he stays near Wren, sometimes learning new songs to sing, other times telling stories. He's quite the interesting fellow if you ask me.

Then we have Malladus. Gosh, I don't even know when he arrived. All I know is he's our most hostile resident here. He can't be kept with the others, and he attacks almost anyone and anything. If it moves, we can only hope that it can escape. I'm not going back there. Not after what he did to my eye. Not after what he did to Byrne.

Maybe we'll be able to tame Malladus, but that won't be for a long time...

Feel free to ask us anything about the crew, residents, and anything else you wish to know!

[changeling-rin]

@gizmocreates has done it again you guys

So remember when I decided to give Malladus a body and did a crap-ton of research and then threw all the research away because it told me nothing and wholesale invented his body instead? WELL GUESS WHO DREW IT.

This is literally almost exactly how I pictured him in my head and I just. They nailed it, you guys, gizmo nailed it.

"About the only similarity he had to his spectral floating-head form was his hair, which was vibrantly blue and pluming like smog from his head.  Joining this trend were his eyebrows, and a truly magnificent moustache. His skin was dark, but not the normal kind of dark - it was more like a very dark green, and it was translucent.  Beneath his skin were his bones, and those glowed an unsettling yellow, an effect which was matched by his eerie pupiless eyes, and when he grinned, he had fangs.  Set between the unsettling eyes was a large red gem. He also didn’t seem to be wearing any clothes, but then again he also didn’t seem to...er, have anything that would require clothes.

And of course, he was about eight feet tall.  It just wouldn’t be right if the Links got a fair battle in terms of physical prowess."

[kaialone]

Spirit Tracks Translation Comparison: Final Battle and Ending

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover the final battle and the ending cutscene of the game.

You can also watch these scenes for yourself in English and Japanese. If you want, you can check out the EU English version, too.

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

--

Characters in this part who had their names changed between versions:

Mallador = Malladus, Dego = Byrne, Sharin = Anjean

--

Start of the Battle:

Zelda:

リンク！ わたしは この身体に 聖なる力を 満たします

Link! I will saturate my body with sacred energy.

Link! I'm going to concentrate on channeling my power.

Zelda:

その間 マラドーから わたしを 守ってください！

Please protect me from Mallador while I do so!

While I do that, please protect me from Malladus!

-

Zelda:

リンク！ 守ってくれて ありがとう！ もう 大丈夫よ！

Link! Thank you for protecting me! I'm ready now!

Thank you for protecting me! I'm ready now, Link!

Zelda:

この聖なる力と 大地の笛の力を合わせて マラドーを！

Let's combine my sacred power with that of the Flute of the Land, and use them on Mallador!

Let's combine my sacred power with the power of the Spirit Flute!

I think we can use them to weaken Malladus!

-

Zelda:

さあ リンク！ はじめます！ わたしの歌声に ついてきください！

Alright, Link! We will begin! Please follow alongside my voice!

This is it. Just follow along with me, Link!

-

After the Duet:

Zelda:

リンクは マラドーを引きつけてください

Link, would you please divert Mallador's attention.

You distract Malladus, Link.

Zelda:

わたしは その隙に この光の弓矢で マラドーの背中の紋章を狙います

I will use that opportunity to shoot the crest on Mallador's back with the Bow of Light!

When I see an opportunity, I'll shoot him in the back with the Bow of Light.

Zelda:

さあ リンク！ これが 最後の戦いです！

Come, Link! This will be the final battle!

This is the last battle, so let's make it count!

-

During the Final Attack:

Zelda:

いま行きますよ！ 持ちこたえてください！

I will be right there! Please, hold on!

I'll be right there. Hold on!

-

Zelda, if you do badly:

リンク！ このままでは 負けてしまいます！

Link! At this rate, we will lose!

We won't make it if we continue like this!

-

Zelda:

リンク！ もう少しです！

Link! Just a bit more!

It's almost over now, Link!

-

Zelda:

もう一押しです！

Just one more push!

Just one last push!

-

After the Battle:

Zelda:

…全て終わったのですね…

...So it is all over now...

So it's all over now.

Zelda:

…でも…

...But...

But...

Anjean:

間に合わなんだか…

I didn’t make it in time, huh...?

We were too late.

Zelda:

…シャリン様…

...Lady Sharin...

Oh, Anjean...

Zelda:

…ごめんなさい わたしを かばってディーゴさんが…

...I am so sorry. Mr. Dego protected me, and then he...

I'm so sorry. Byrne was trying to protect me...

Anjean:

そうか… しかし あの子も 後悔は しておらんじゃろうて

I see... However, I'm sure that child had no regrets, either.  (1)

Yes, but there should be no regrets.

He wouldn't have had it any other way.

Anjean:

それに我らは 神に つかわされし種族…

Besides, we are a godsent race...

Besides, our kind are the servants of the spirits.

Anjean:

そう簡単に消えて なくなりはせんよ

We don't disappear that easily, you know.

We don't disappear that easily.

Zelda:

…シャリン様 それは…？

...Lady Sharin, what is that...?

What do you mean?

Anjean:

ディーゴの魂じゃ… もっとも もう今までの記憶はないが…

いつか…何百年か後に 新たな命として また…

It's Dego's soul... He may not have his previous memories anymore, but...

One day... maybe in hundreds of years, he will be reborn as a new life...  (2)

The spirit is persistent, my dear.

Byrne may not have any memory of these events,

but years from now, he'll return in a new form.

Anjean:

ゼルダ そして リンクよ…

ワシらは神に この地に つかわされた…それは

結界を守るためだけではなく 人の営みを見守るためでもあった

Zelda. And you too, Link...

We were sent to this land by God... The reason for that

was not just to protect the barrier. It was also to watch over the actions of people.  (3)

You see, as Lokomos...

We weren't only meant to protect the Spirit Tracks.

We were also meant to watch over mankind.

Anjean:

しかし もうその必要などない…

However, there is no longer any need for that...

But our protection is no longer needed.

Anjean:

お前たちは神の守りなぞなくとも 立派にやってゆける…

You will do just fine, even without such divine protection...

Even without the spirits' guidance, you will do well.

Anjean:

ワシは この子と共に 天上に帰るとするよ…

I will return to the heavens, together with this child...

So I think I will return to the heavens...

In the company of my old friend Byrne.

Zelda:

シャリン様!

Lady Sharin!

Anjean, wait!

Anjean:

ゼルダよ この地を頼む

Zelda, take care of this land.

Please watch over this land, my dear.

Anjean:

リンク ゼルダを 助けてやっておくれ…

Link, please help her...

And, Link...

You must help her.

Anjean:

さらばじゃ… 二人とも ありがとう

Farewell... Thank you both.

Good-bye... And thank you. Thank you both.

Translation Notes:

In this scene Anjean refers to Byrne with terms like あの子/ano ko, which does literally mean “that child”, like I adapted it. But this is a common phrase you’d typically use to refer to children, among other things, so you often adapt them with simple third-person pronouns. Still, I decided to keep it literal here, to highlight how it’s different from how she referred to him before.

In Japanese, this line doesn’t literally contain a verb that means “reborn”, but it’s strongly implied from the context, so I adapted it the way I did for easier reading.

The word I translated as “people” is 人/hito in Japanese, which in this context does mean something along the lines of “mankind”, like the English version used. The only reason I went for “people” is because technically, not all people in this land are human, so I wasn’t sure if “mankind” could be applied to them.

--

Comparisons & Thoughts:

I thought it only made sense to include the dialogue regarding the duet of Zelda and Link in this part, even if it’s brief.

I also added the dialogue during the final attack on Malladus, although there aren’t any notable changes there. Those lines of text can just be a bit hard to find, since they don’t always appear, depending on how well the player does during the QTE.

Aside from those, the final cutscene of this game is short, and I have already gone over some of my thoughts that are relevant to it, but there are still several points I want to address here.

-

When Zelda tells Link to use the combined power of herself and the flute on Malladus, the English version adds her saying: “I think we can use them to weaken Malladus!“

This was probably done to make it more clear why they are doing this. Though, it technically doesn’t seem to weaken him directly, it just reveals that spot for attacking him.

-

Almost like a reversal of the last point, the English version is less specific than the Japanese one when Zelda talks about shooting Malladus in the back, since it leaves out the part about specifically aiming for the “crest” on it.

In this case, this might have just been to save on some space?

-

When Anjean arrives, I adapted her line as “I didn’t make it in time, huh…?“, while the English version went for “We were too late“ instead.

This is a case where the intended meaning can be a bit unclear without additional context.

In the original Japanese line, no subject is defined, so both “I” and “We” are possible options here.

But given the context, I think the idea of “I didn’t make it in time” makes more sense than “We didn’t make it in time”.

Anjean arrives all by herself, after the battle is already over, so I’m fairly sure her line is supposed to be her talking about how she herself didn’t make it in time to help out during battle.

So, I went with “I didn’t make it in time, huh…?“

By comparison, I’m not sure what the English version’s “We were too late“ would be referring to exactly.

Applying it to herself and Byrne doesn’t really work, since nothing Byrne did would have been more effective if he showed up slightly sooner, and Anjean wasn’t with him to begin with.

And applying it to all the good guys collectively wouldn’t work either, because they ultimately did stop Malladus, even if they lost Byrne in the process.

So, I really don’t know what the English version was trying to say here, and I’m guessing this might be another oddity due to lack of context for the translators?

But I can’t be certain.

-

I brought it up in the translation notes already, but in the Japanese version of the final cutscene, there is a notable difference in how Anjean refers to Byrne, compared to the rest of the game.

She uses あの子/ano ko and この子/kono ko, which you’d generally use when referring to children, so it comes across as more gentle and caring than she had previously been.

During the earlier cutscene in which Anjean tells Zelda and Link about the Bow of Light, she instead used こやつ/koyatsu when referring to Byrne, which can come across as much more dismissive and hostile, likely reflecting her disappointment in him.

In turn, Anjean changing the way she refers to Byrne in this cutscene right here shows how her attitude towards him has changed, too.

It seems evident that her thoughts about him have softened at this point, maybe she’s even forgiven him, and so her softer tone reflects that.

The English version seems to lack a true equivalent to this change in tone, though it’s not something you can adapt literally in the first place.

I’m guessing her calling Byrne ”my old friend” is supposed to get a similar idea across, and it’s a nice touch. It doesn’t have quite the same vibe, but it works well enough as a means to show Anjean's kinder attitude towards Byrne here.

Maybe as an addition to that, I think what could have worked would be to rephrase her line “He wouldn’t have had it any other way” to something more like: “Knowing that boy, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

I don’t know how well that would’ve fit with the text limitations, but maybe it would have been possible to find some phrasing that would reflect the Japanese version’s tone even more?

Something that gets across Anjean talking about Byrne like a young child, in a caring way.

-

Next is a rather minor thing, but I find it interesting.

In the Japanese version Anjean points out again how the Lokomo were sent by this land’s god, but the English version instead has her mention how they are “servants of the spirits.”

I think this was most likely a small translation error, since there are verbs relating to serving someone and being sent by someone that can sound pretty much identical, being 使う/tsukau and 遣う/tsukau respectively.

Doesn’t help that both of these have been used when referring to the Lokomo before, too.

I’m fairly certain “sent” is the correct meaning in this line, since the wording used is 神につかわされし/kami ni tsukawasareshi, which I’ve only ever seen used when referring to things or people considered godsent.

In any case, the Lokomo being godsent and being divine servants are both true, so the only real difference between versions here is which of these qualities Anjean points out as being a factor regarding them not disappearing easily.

-

There are multiple things I want to say about the following exchange between Zelda and Anjean, so have another look at it.

Zelda:

…Lady Sharin, what is that…?

What do you mean?

Anjean:

It’s Dego’s soul… He may not have his previous memories anymore, but…

One day… maybe in hundreds of years, he will be reborn as a new life…

The spirit is persistent, my dear.

Byrne may not have any memory of these events,

but years from now, he’ll return in a new form.

Years ago, I assumed that the English version not directly stating something like “this is Byrne’s soul” was a slight bit of censorship.

But now I think there was probably a different reason for it?

The way Zeda’s line was adapted as “What do you mean?” in English makes me believe that this is another result from lack of context.

If the English translators didn’t get to see the actual footage of this cutscene, they wouldn’t know that Anjean was literally showing Byrne’s soul to the children during that moment.

And without knowing that context, their exchange was probably interpreted as something along the lines of:

Z: “What do you mean by that?”

A: “I’m talking about Byrne’s soul.”

At least, that’s a feeling I’m getting? As always, I can’t say for certain.

If this was the case though, I would assume that rephrasing Anjean’s line as “The spirit is persistent” was probably meant to have her be more specific about what they thought she meant.

Moving on to the rest of this dialogue section, the Japanese version has Anjean estimate that Byrne might return in “in hundreds of years” or so, whereas in the English version she only says “years from now”, which is a bit more vague.

I’m guessing this could have been done to lessen the sadness here, since the English version leaves more room for the possibility that Zelda and Link could meet a reborn Byrne during their own lifetimes?

But it could’ve just as easily been to save a little bit of space.

The Japanese version also specifically uses the phrasing of “new life”, while the English version uses “new form”.

Not sure why they would change this, so it could have been something unintentional that just happened to end up like this during the writing process.

Since this is a Zelda game, I find it hard to imagine they would have wanted to avoid an implied mention of reincarnation. But then again, who can say?

Now, looking at the differences with this exchange as a whole, there is one more thing I want to mention.

In the English version, there is this more unambiguous implication that only souls like those of Lokomo are able to persist and be reborn eventually?

In the Japanese version, that is a possible interpretation one could draw from this text, but it’s not clear. Going by the Japanese text alone, one could also assume that when Anjean said that Lokomo don’t disappear easily, she was simply referring to the fact that Byrne’s soul is actually still with them at this moment, rather than being obliterated or lost in some other form.

Again, it’s not entirely clear from her phrasing, but it would be strange for Anjean to suggest that only Lokomo are ever reincarnated, since the huge number of recurring characters in the Zelda franchise implies reincarnation is possible for just about anyone.

This would also line up with the most basic idea of reincarnation that most people in Japan would be familiar with.

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Overall, it’s a bit unfortunate that the localization of the final cutscene starts out in a slightly clunky manner, seemingly misunderstanding some of the context.

It’s less than ideal to have the final cutscene of your game begin with lines of dialogue that don’t fully make sense when you try to think about them more.

Thankfully, it does come through in the end, with its crucial aspects being adapted quite well, especially the actual ending.

Anjean’s final words to Zelda and Link act as a conclusion to one of the game’s most prominent themes, it begins with the story of how the land was entrusted to the people, and it ends with the people having proven that they are capable of carrying that responsibility.

Naturally, this was an important part to keep in the localization, too. And so, going just by the final cutscene itself, it holds up pretty well in English, because it kept that aspect intact.

But, the scene still ends up suffering a bit from the same continuity problems that have been frequent in these last few parts.

In this case, it’s the fact that the English version started to gloss over the theme of humans outgrowing divine protection towards the end.

Specifically because of little alterations in earlier scenes, like Anjean saying “May the spirits be with you”, and more importantly, Byrne saying “Your body has the sacred power of the spirits!”

I already talked about those moments in their respective parts, but it’s worth mentioning again, because they do kind of hurt the ending of this cutscene right here. Especially since the English version started being more loose like that right towards the end, where it actually becomes relevant. It’s kinda bad timing in that sense.

With the English version, players who have been invested in the story and thus try to pay close attention to the dialogue could potentially be confused by Anjean saying that the people don’t need the spirits’ protection anymore.

After all, as far as they know, the game had just earlier established that the spirits gave Zelda power, and that they’re currently watching and protecting her and Link.

It’s not something that would be a huge deal to most players, of course. But it’s still something that can make people more likely to dismiss Spirit Tracks as inconsistently written, with some careless plot holes.

With all that said, that’s still not a problem with this particular scene itself, it’s a problem with how past details affect it.

And I know I’ve been going over something like this in almost all of the latter parts, but that’s kind of the point.

I said it a few times during the earlier parts - there are many changes in the English localization that appear small and irrelevant on their own, but they do add up when you look at the bigger picture.

So of course these points come up more during the last hours of the game, where their effects get the most noticeable.

Still, in the end I am just glad that the final lines of this game did get adapted well in English, because in the moment, they are still powerful on their own.

I’d say the emotional impact of the ending still manages to come across well enough as is, and that’s something I can appreciate.

With that, this concludes the look at these final scenes, and since they’re the final ones, this concludes the final part as well.

Feel free to check out the previous parts if you haven’t already, and thank you very much for reading!

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