#old zelda fans when the zelda series is like the first game

[swallowerofdharma]

Re: Ocarina of time!

You know it’s on my long list of things to analyze. You can blame a couple of Italian schoolboys in the early 1990s who were gifted with a Game Boy and it was a huge wonder until they started bullying another boy whose parents had bought him another brand console. The bullying included some homophobic slurs that drove me away from them, their games and untimely were such a negative publicity for Nintendo that I never got close to The Legend of Zelda series. It was evident even back then where my alliances were for all that I just had not figured out exactly why. Not the cool kids with the right fashionable stuff, but the ones who were othered. For this very reason, I would like to ask you if you have any idea where the use of the phrasing “degenerative values” comes from? Because that sent chills down my spine.

Something of what you wrote I agree with in principle. After all, contextual criticism is exactly my own personal preference. You recommended me a YouTube video, and I can’t say anything about this one creator since I don’t want to judge a video essay about a game I don’t know enough about and haven’t experienced myself first. But usually almost every time I watched a YouTube video about anime or games from an American fan, I have encountered some kind of weird feeling of racist undertones. Again, not talking here about the specific video you linked! Maybe that’s why I am a little skeptical about othering Japan so much or having Japan positioned against a general “western world”. And I used that same expression when I very superficially want to indicate a geographical position, but I don’t take it very far, we know it’s a gross generalization.

I think I talked about this before with another person, but I personally feel that a large part of the so generally called American culture (Hollywood, Disney, McDonalds, Starbucks, Prozac) or even British bigger exports (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, monarchy themed things) are more alien to me than the so generally called Japanese one (Candy Candy, Lady Oscar, Captain Tsubasa, Studio Ghibli, Sony, Yahama motorcycles, Muji stores) despite knowing English and therefore maybe having more direct experience. But even if we are talking subcultures like comics books or movies, you have to admit that there is quite a variety in output from within the US or Europe as well. So again generalizations. I have been exposed to American and Japanese media for a long time and starting at the same time, from a third perspective. So YouTube videos in English about Japanese media are confusing at best? Strictly talking for me here. I closed more than one because of the subtle racism I mentioned. It’s the whole point of having a blog where I can write down my own thoughts and try to articulate and learn and I am glad to have occasion for different conversations. I hope you don’t mind the long response as well!

Let’s just make the following distinction: we could analyze (in the sense of observe and understand) the interior lives of the characters on one side and we could pathologize them and therefore treat them as psychologically abnormal. I have seen the last tendency a lot and I sincerely hope that it is clear it’s not something I personally like or what I do in my own writing here. As for use of terms that originated from psychology as a field of research, unfortunately as an English learner I struggle to find many alternatives as easily understandable. I am generally careful with the language, and I have the huge advantage of having some knowledge of Latin and old, ancient Greek, languages English has borrowed from a lot, especially for its more technical lexicon. It’s an insight that also reveals how much words usage can change over time.

But regarding your perspective of psychology entering Japan. I must say I have discarded a couple of manga before because they used popularized psychology terms and concepts a little too much and too literally instead of creatively, and I don’t like to read characters that are written in this way. I understand what you mean by context and I understand what you mean by different social habits to push conformity, but I also see that in every context there is a level of flexibility and anticonformity. For example I am Italian and I am also not Catholic, and you know, they really tried to make me one of them. The push for conformity or the strict patriarchal rules are just such a common trait in societies. What does differ are the ways of showing our relationship within the social system, the bureaucracy and the hierarchies within. But nevertheless there is also the possibility of recognizing our inner lives as individuals and shared problems as experiences as human beings.

From a personal perspective, and through talking about these feelings with other people, for example, I recognize in many moments in Saezuru (not only dialogue, but images as well: for example the juxtapositions between Yashiro and women, or naked female bodies, from Yashiro’s own perspective and even imagination and from the perspective of others) that Yashiro has experiences recognizable under the concept of gender dysphoria, and in addition to that has been othered and treated “differently” and often is the object of transmisogyny in addition to homophobia.

I am well aware of the terminology I am using here. But I am also aware of writing in English, what terminology do I use to indicate those exact concepts? And human experiences themselves are not limited to knowing or not knowing the exact or culturally appropriate terminology. Take the slurs Yashiro has been called with in the manga.

Japan, or every other country, isn’t an untouchable, fixed or slower to change place where we can call upon “western values” having a corrupting or polluting effect, or a salvific one, in my opinion. Which here differ from yours entirely and I hope we can disagree amiably.

There is a painting in a church near me commissioned for and owned by the Catholic Church (the building and the painting).

This is a painting, oil on canvas, dated 1635 and signed by Guido Cagnacci who was a local artist who was especially interested in the style utilized by his contemporary Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, although this isn’t the only inspiration. The name the painting is cataloged with is “Three Jesuit martyrs of Japan”. According to the records, they were sent there to evangelize but they were killed for violating Sakoku. They are represented chained to crosses, with halos and their names and memory preserved for their heroic sacrifice. Not much else is shown in the background, mostly sky, because of the lowered point of view. This resolved easily a problem for the artist who was unfamiliar with the foreign landscapes of Japan. The painting conveys a strong message: pierced throughout their bodies by spears, violently killed while unarmed and in the eyes of the Christian community innocent of any wrongdoing! Surely trespassing shouldn’t require such a violent response! It’s like if you saw some foreigner lurking in your backyard, your private property and you just shoot them no questions asked.

For the longest time, there was this depiction and perceived image of Japan as a hostile, extremely violent and savage country. They would not listen to “reason”, which was the same thing as Christian belief or later foreign military or economic hegemony. Economic necessity and transportation means becoming more efficient forced Japan to reconsider their choice of isolationist policies. Since even before the official end of Sakoku in 1868, Japanese people travelled largely, it was not exclusively foreigners entering Japan. The conversations and mutual exchanges I had access to are mainly those of artistic consequences. Japanese aesthetics, the poetics around the cycling of four seasons and the agricultural and sea environment were unsurprisingly well received in my country for example. We might have cultivated more grain than rice but the seasonal farming and the climate, the relationship and connection to nature were a lot similar. But a lot of other artists, actors, dancers and various entrepreneurs from different countries were attentive as well. Just to give you an example easy to verify, British illustrator Arthur Rackham’s huge career: facilitated by his access to 19th century Japanese woodblock tradition. And what he produced was also a source of inspiration for Japanese artists after, and one of the reasons why Northern European Nordic style can be found in manga. You can see it was a mutual artistic exchange with Japan exporting technology already.

I’m giving you several examples to hopefully show you very clearly where I come from when I approach Saezuru. It’s a place of curiosity, and I try to pay attention to the weight of cultural differences in their historical context, but it’s not a place of condescension, hopefully, from a westerner who wants to force or impose things that don’t belong in Saezuru specifically.

Last example, just because I talked in general or given examples that were setting the background first. But here is a panel from ch 44.

This is the chronological order I have read this dialogue: first the scanlation in English (grateful for that as I am incapable of waiting if I know there is a new chapter!), then the official Italian translation and just very recently I had an epiphany and asked a friend about the original Japanese.

I would not have discovered this if the Italian translation had not been literal here. I understand that the English translator felt the need to reword the sentence here as well, but I do prefer literal translations for this exact reason: I found what I think this is likely to refer to in context. I could make the connection because the Italian translator chose to just transliterate the English expression from Japanese to Italian.

Genderless" (ジェンダーレス, Jendāresu) is a fashion subculture that emerged in Japan in the mid-2010s. Aiming to break societal gender norms in fashion, the genderless subculture is centered on gender non-conforming androgynous fashion. (…) The genderless subculture is seen as a rejection of traditional gender roles.[3] Unlike in the West, the subculture is more associated with fashion than sexuality or gender identity, and is not considered to be a person attempting to "pass" as the opposite gender,[1] or declaring themselves gay or transgender.[2][3] Masafumi Monden, a researcher from the University of Technology Sydney, as well as several genderless men, have reasoned that this is because Japanese society puts a clear separation between appearance and sexuality.[2][3] However, some men have stated that being part of the genderless subculture has made them more accepting of other sexualities.[3]

You could argue that this being from a Wikipedia page in English means that it could present for me the same problem I mentioned I have with watching YouTube video essays. But here, and in some cases with some YouTuber as well, I am offered links to sources for the statements that are being summarized. I could check them. So I am more confident in my assessment that this is very likely what Kamiya was talking about. See, I think it was something I had on my mind: how is Kamiya talking about gender things with Yashiro, we know he likes gossip and that his preferred sources are the women at the clubs (as opposed to Nanahara who discovered about Doumeki visiting Izumi through gossip with the guys in the group). It makes sense to me that Kamiya would have paid attention to fashion trends more than queer culture. Kamiya’s goal is to score and he knows he doesn’t look like Doumeki. It’s just such an interesting conversation with these two characters: think about how little would Kamiya and Yashiro even have in common. But they are clever, observant and can take an outsider look at these things and at yakuza things as well (see Kamiya basically hating his job when he has to threaten a guy with a gun).

Maybe because I don’t usually focus much on shipping, I don’t have a great investment in painting the characters in a better or worse light, I just enjoy them. So this is pretty much my personal stance and attitude. I agree on checking our biases and internalized prejudices, and we are not perfect, it’s inevitable. But it’s possible to analyze the characters Yoneda writes, because of how she wrote them, as individuals in a specific environment, with rich inner lives and thoughts and emotions. We won’t reach all the same conclusions, that is to be expected. But we aren’t using the same methodologies as well. This blog is sometimes a mixed bag: some of my Saezuru posts are from a more personal perspective. For example about Yashiro’s relationship to gender. I didn’t apply so much external filters rather than I recognized something from an internal perspective. And I don’t presume that people (in this case Yashiro as a character) who can’t conform to Japanese current gender norms and rigid standards and rules are exclusively experiencing that struggle because they have been exposed to foreign cultures. I find this very hard to believe. That Yoneda won’t probably write overtly about this goes also hand in hand with the fact that Yashiro can’t likely verbalize all that he (?) feels because 1) Yashiro is 40 years old canonically 2) Yashiro’s life has been shaped by violent patriarchal figures. So this is where I am at. You can think about this as an example of overanalysis or external bias, it’s your own personal opinion and I can only offer you this long answer as a counter point.

I’m giving you a lot to read, sorry for that. But I believe in backing up my arguments with verifiable information, sources, and most importantly, openly showing how detailed Saezuru is in its depictions, how many things presented there can be verified as well. Each of us can do the double thing of processing the manga internally, through our subjective experiences as human beings regarding pain, rejection, love and so on. And processing the manga again externally, with the help of the information available about yakuza habits, criminal justice and other systems Yoneda writes about. Hope this is helpful!

Feb 5, 2024 I don’t remember if there was something that inspired this one tweet. But it was also uploaded on the Saezuru discord server and of course it was something that would have caught my attention regardless. Since I shared my immediate thoughts on discord I didn’t bring it up on tumblr as well, but I think it’s good that I save it here as well.

Yoneda Kou Sensei expressing individuality, awareness and understanding of her artistic voice in context is something I like to pay attention to.

Oct 8, 2024 Yoneda Kou Sensei has been uploading chapters from Saezuru vol. 1 on her twitter account. This is what she also wrote the day she uploaded chapter 2 and the image is what she is referring to specifically as her favorite scene. Notice how she knows very well that her own preferences and the things that intrigue and interest her are probably different from those of her editor on one hand and those of her readers on the other. Self awareness doesn’t mean that she does everything she can to conform to those expectations because she understands that her vision and authorial voice matter as well and are maybe what makes Saezuru the successful manga it is. She asked for the readers to share their preferences and opinions as well. That is expected. It’s a conversation and it’s encouraging. And also a bit of clever marketing.

“The second heartwarming chapter. When I said that, my editor burst out laughing. It's heartwarming, right? I like the scene where he gives her a condom. But I can't put that on page 0. I know that the parts I like aren't so much liked by the readers, so I asked them to let me know and put them here. What do you think? I'll upload the third chapter sometime soon”.

Automatic translation from twitter got some of that wrong. The part I underlined in yellow is okay though.

I’m not the most methodical person and I didn’t collect all of what Yoneda shared on SM and all her interviews. I also don’t think that they are necessary to form the opinion one can have about the manga. But for me personally these types of insights give me the reassurance that yes I prefer Saezuru’s way of telling a story about a survivor of CSA for specific reasons and one is that the author lets what goes on around her in the real world be a source that informs her writing too. And she demonstrated to be a keen observer.

Also friendly reminder that Japanese people had and still have discussions about consent in the same way as many other countries in the “Western” world. The insularity of Japan ended like two centuries ago? And A LOT happened since Saezuru started publication. And it might be subtle but Saezuru’s way of showing things demonstrates that changes since Shiori Ito’s case broke public censorship have not gone unnoticed. You can also look up the Flower Demo movement and the different hashtags used in Japan in addition or in alternative to #MeToo. And to me it’s really hard to overlook that gender had a complex significance in all this and that male sexual assault victims being recognized for the first time since the constitution of modern Japan contributed to defy other rape myths as well. And because Yoneda has a habit to observe reality, even maintaining firm boundaries between fiction/manga and reality, I believe she is still aware that the themes of Saezuru might resonate differently within that knowledge. And considering that distinction: I hope it’s clear that another manga like Haikyuu was largely successful because of its realism. Yes, the characters are fictional, but a lot of what was shown regarding volleyball followed closely the rules, strategies and experiences of real life. Realism applied to manga doesn’t mean that you see a strict copy of reality or that the author isn’t creating a story that is entirely fictional and focuses heavily in aspects that can solicit a positive response from its readers.

But can you really look at Doumeki’s father, at Inami, at every action the police take in Saezuru and think that this manga shows us policemen in such an idealized way or as a source of inspiration? Can you look at Doumeki being successfully integrated into both the police force and the yakuza and not see the implications? Yashiro’s position of wakagashira was shown as a fluke by Yoneda who took great care to describe all the ways Misumi had a role in it and all the discontent that provoked, in addition to the rumors and threats and the fact that Yashiro is alive because Ryuuzaki defied Hirata’s orders. And I can go on but the point is.

In writing and sharing my analyses, I hope to pay tribute to the particular attention, awareness and sensibility that Yoneda Kou Sensei demonstrates. Telling a story as fictional as it can be but without denying reality altogether.

[jadedaegis]

How the hell can someone actually call TotK objectively bad?

Actually trash opinion. Fucking what is objective about the idea it’s a bad game when, you know. Millions of people love it. That GENUINELY means that it is only “bad” subjectively, since many, many people would disagree.

Fuckin grow up? Nothing about the word objective is literally universally ordained to be true. Time to forget about this person and move on with my love for TotK & BotW <3

EVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVE.

and I will! Yell! about it.

[marinecorvid]

I should replay botw

[scopophobia-polaris]

I'm locking the fuck in on this one

Raising my hand to say I like all 4 of them but I fucking hate that hylia has been made as a one and true God to every people group in hyrule, it's not great world building and based on how hylia has been talked about in SkSw it makes no since why anyone BUT the Hylians and Sheikah would worship her, Hylia is a Goddess for the Hylians only because that's the only group she cares about.

I know from a stance on creator gods throughout culture and history they don't get as much attention as compared to broader more mass appeal gods ( as an example can you name one Greek primordial deity) I mean this is diffeent when it comes to Abrahamic religions of course because of monotheism but okay I'm getting off track. Basically the world building for Hyrule going from polytheism to monotheism can work but I don't think it would be HYLIA...... she's as states A. Specified to a single people group B. Is more absent than the Trio after sksw since we learn in totk that OTHER DEITIES CAN POSSESS HER STATUES AND TALK THROUGH THEM.

Hylia is really good flavor through a lens of like fictional anthropology, she's like cilantro, you don't want a pile of it!!!!!!!!! And the only reason I can assume nintendo went down the route of making her as the one God is because how much more focus recently they have been focusing on like, the royal family and zelda herself recently and I assume trying to make a backstory for why the royal family has powerful holy magic.

Okay now to really go down that Doylist shit

It has been stated that Hylia is a mixture of Amateratsu and well Christianity (despite what SOME people try to say about the Christians angle, she's specifically catholic and Japan's history with absolutely LOVING the catholic aesthetic when it comes to media ) like Hylia as a Goddess is clearly a parallel to.....oh God japanese imperialism and how it wasn't THAT BAD or some shit and I think it's funny that nintendo has doubled down on this basically by trying more and more to make the royal family in the game justified in any and all actions they take.

And given that Ninetndo has a bunch of aging men who are probably becoming more and more conservative as time goes on the more conservative angle of the recent games starts to make more since (this isn't to say the Zelda series HASNT been conservative in the past it very much is, but more blatantly recently, a lot of recent world building decisions may also be influenced by Nintendo's obvious stalking of Youtubers given how TotK turned out.)

Basically, I am sorry op but this was gonna be a comment and it was too big, the Trio is super cool and the fact Nintendo hasn't really brought them up or used them recently is really uncreative and the fact they kinda dropped hylia for an idea of her in the games points to some shit going on in the writing room, and it's probably because they wanted to make more safe even more broad appeal games than they have done in the past given the apprent financial failure of Wind Waker and that SkSw was so....linear.

Okay, another poll bc I have some beef with 'recent' zelda developments

<not actually recent

I feel very very strongly about the Hylian major religion being polytheistic and think making it monotheistic is boring and a coward move, BUT I am looking for diehards to chat with about it.

TO BE CLEAR i am looking for doylist conversations, not 'canon supported' stuff. I just want opinions.

[livmightlive]

Dawn Headcanon

Probably my biggest headcanon for LU, and honestly the Zelda games in general, is that Dawn was quite a bit older than Hyrule when he rescued her in Zelda 1.

I think while he was, I’m pretty sure canonically(?), around 10 or 11 she was more so like 17 or 18. I have no canon backing for this or any context at all besides that fact I like it for the following:

It’s no secret that fans of Hyrule and the first two Zelda games in the series have to do a lot of their own world building based off the lack of actual details the games give us. This paints a very lonely picture of Hyrule (in my modest opinion). He has no family members and not really any established friends in the series. Of course it’s implied that the Zelda’s probably think highly of him and he does have a few character interactions but the rest is purely left the speculation.

I like the idea of Dawn being quite a bit older than Hyrule because I like thinking that she brought him up as an elder sister to him, leaving him with a family member to return to. I also like the drama that would occur from her being older.

imagine: You are 18 and have been kidnapped by an ancient evil that not even you, the princess bestowed with power from the goddess herself can defeat. (I like to think that Dawn is brawny and tough. She is a princess yes, but she is the princess of a wasteland. She is a survivor with the rest of them.) You’re furious that this creature is razing your land to even more pieces and you are also disappointed in yourself. You have high expectations for yourself being one of the only figures of authority left in this place. You don’t expect to be rescued, it’s a dog eat dog world out here, but you are. And your brave rescuer is 10 years old 😭

I like to think that she’d be horrified that the only person in this world to try and save their princess is a literal child. So she takes him under her wing and finds that he is quite literally half feral. Like he growls at strangers and doesn’t know basic hygiene. So she takes it upon herself to teach this kid how to live as a proper person 😭

she feels kind of awful, like she’s stripping away his core as she civilizes this child, but she firmly believes it’s for his own good. If he doesn’t know how to clean himself he will fall to infection, even as he bites and screeches as Dawn painstakingly brushes and cuts the mats out of his hair. He hates learning math and reading, it caused him a frustration that not even fighting darknuts had caused him, but without it he can’t read road signs or spell books. Through blood, sweat, and tears Dawn manages to mold Hyrule into a person.

it’s not all bad though, she teaches him to forage for medicinal herbs and he takes to it like breathing. He starts smiling at her and rarely, in a hushed croaky voice, he shares conversations with her.

Dawn is the first to fight her own council when they want to cast out her little hero as his blood begins to drawn in beasts. She’s the first to cry when they don’t give her a choice and her little brother is cast from underneath her arms back into the wastes. he visits occasionally and sometimes she receives a letter, but there isn’t a day that passes that Dawn doesn’t miss those days he spent under her care.

I just really see Hyrule as the type of boy to have a big sister. She forcefully loved him and he learned to be loved.

(I think later on Aurora would be like a little sister to Hyrule giving him a little taste of what Dawn had to put up with him but that’s a different conversation)

I find Dawn really interesting and I feel like I don’t see much of her at all in the fandom. I think there’s a lot of potential in the princess of a wasteland kingdom (as so many people chose to see Rulie’s era). In general, I wish I could see more of the Zeldas.

if you have thoughts on any of the Zeldas pls lmk!! I love nothing more than hashing out different thoughts and headcanons

[artsy-moonwalker]

A new fairy among the fountain.

Let me get a little personal.

My first introduction to the legend of zelda came to me when I was around eight years old. I was at my grandmother’s house, and noticed she had Mario 64 in her basket of n64 games. I was already a big Mario fan and wanted to play it, but my grandma insisted that I try out something different. So she put me on Ocarina of Time.

Ever since then, to be fully dramatic, it changed my life. That moment is so very special to me. Zelda has become my most favorite piece of media and was rooted that way since I was a little kid. My childhood would be completely different if I was never introduced to it, and I can’t imagine who I would be today without that spark of adventure motivating my life for all those years. It brought me comfort, creativity, warmth, inspiration, etc. etc. etc… I could go on all day. I would never change a single things if it meant not having the cherished memories I have with each Zelda game I’ve played.

But very recently, the person who introduced me to the series as a kid left us.

And when I returned home that day, the world spinning, my head numb, the only thing I could think of doing was playing Ocarina of Time. She loved this series. She loved the fantasy and the magic and the characters. She loved every aspect of it, especially the fairies. She even called herself one. I think I played oot that day because I wanted nothing more than to feel her presence once again. To bring out the thing her and I bonded over the most. Our strongest shared interest. I can’t begin to thank her enough for everything she gave me. The butterfly effect is SO real. And her gift of a childhood full of adventure is one I’ll never take for granted.

And now that enough time has passed, I like to think she flies among all of the fairy fountains in every version of Hyrule.

[sisteranonymous]

"What's Your Favorite Zelda Game?" Riddler Edition

BTAS Riddler:

Don't ask this man to pick a favorite, it's like trying to choose a favorite child! Each one has its own eccentricities and strengths, and he loves every single one!

This Riddler's special interest is videogames, so he's especially invested.

Loves to examine the games from both a front- and backdoor perspective. As a programmer, he can give you very nuanced critiques and breakdowns of each entry in the series.

That being said, he's going to give you a different answer every day of the week because he adores this series and each game is special for a variety of reasons.

However, I feel like he'd have a special place in his heart for Ocarina of Time. It was the first Zelda Game in 3D, and it made the dimensional transition so beautifully.

Gotham Riddler:

Oh! You're playing a Zelda game. Did you know that in the original Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Triforce was originally meant to be electronic chips? The game was supposed to be set in the past and the future, but they abandoned that premise to make a heroic fantasy. Also, the Triforce was originally just two pieces! Not three like the later games. The tri- prefix was meant to describe the shape of the artifacts instead of-

He will happily ramble about this for ages. He'll be touched if you let him, and even more delighted if you contribute some trivia of your own!

Not everyone liked the more 'cartoony' style of Windwaker, but he was fond of it. His favorite game is The Minish Cap. Some people think it's too hard, but really, all the puzzles are obvious if you take the time to figure them out. Who needs a walkthrough, right? It's not that hard at all!

Telltale Riddler:

Only played the first Zelda game and hasn't revisited the series in ages. Occasionally he'll pick it up again for nostalgia's sake and 100% it all over again.

He did not need a guide the first time, and he still doesn't.

Will absolutely scoff at you if you get lost or don't know what to do while you play it. Are you stupid? This isn't rocket science.

If you tell him about how hand-holdy the later games get, he will absolutely be a cantankerous old grump about it. Gamers these days have no skill whatsoever. Pathetic.

...he will listen to his S/O talk about the series, if that's what they're passionate about.

2022 Riddler:

Normally he's not a fan of the idealistic fantasy setting the Zelda games portray. But Twilight Princess really resonated with him.

He loves the dark themes and how it's not as clear-cut black and white as the other games in the franchise.

He adores Zant. Zant is his favorite character, Zant has never done anything wrong, Zant is the best!!

Really, really likes going through the temples and steadily solving each puzzle to reach a bigger goal. The sense of progression is nice.

Capullo Riddler:

Far more invested in the story and timeline side of things than gameplay. These games were heavily inspired by Arthurian myth! Link is the archetypal hero, going on a quest! He can appreciate that.

He loathes the mandatory motion controls on principle, but Skyward Sword and its strong ties to real world mythology speak to him on a soul level.

He reached the Ancient Cistern and had a field day--especially when he reached the 'Buddha sends a spiderweb down to Hell' analogue.

Has a very comprehensive breakdown of the Zelda timeline and will poke fun at you if you don't get it.

"Of course Link has so many women falling for him. He's wearing green. ;)"

BTAA Riddler:

Played one of the earlier Zelda games as a kid and kind of forgot about it. He had bigger things on his mind, after all. Then Miss Tuesday brought up this latest one--Tears of the Kingdom?--and the building aspect of it all intrigued him.

He will spend hours gleefully building terrifying and complicated constructs, all just to accomplish one simple sidequest. Yes, he does film these and post them on YouTube. What's the point of being a genius where no one can see it?

Those poor Koroks are in for a rough time, that much can be said.

He can forgive the utterly abysmal storyline because the mechanics are so enjoyable.

Arkham Riddler:

Like BTAA Riddler, he played an earlier game as a kid and moved on. Like BTAA Riddler, he discovered Tears of the Kingdom years later. And like BTAA Riddler, he loves the building aspect.

However, whereas BTAA Riddler is an overcomplicating wizard with the engineering aspect, Arkham Riddler prefers to build something simple and functional to get the job done--why bother putting so much effort in when the game is going to despawn your hard work when you enter a loading zone?

Has gotten back into the Zelda gaming scene on his down-time.

Driven to 100% every game he plays.

Yes, he will absolutely cheat to do this. Important to note, he doesn't use cheating software, he only exploits what was already there. Glitches, glitches, glitches.

Built his own game randomizing software to give himself a challenge. He likes to take a random seed and see how far he can get. Most of the time, he does in fact win.

[lightningbreath]

I want to make it clear from the outset that having headcanons or theories is not a problem. Getting frustrated when they don't come true is not a problem either. But it is when people treat these headcanons as if Nintendo had an obligation to fulfill them.

I find it genuinely funny how some fans got so deep into their headcanons to the point of getting angry at the existence of Yona (poor girl) and the fact that Sidon is in a straight relationship, but that doesn't surprise me coming from people who claim to fight against stereotypes but are the ones who live and propagate stereotypes the most (the amount that most of the queer people I've met have been bugging me about being bisexual and aromantic is unbelievable).

I mean, as if canon would stop fujoshis from turning all the men in a series gay, no matter their sexuality, way of behaving or if they're in a relationship or not, so I don't understand why they say that Nintendo "removed the queer coding" when this was just a hc, Nintendo never implied that Sidon was queer, if they had said something like "a Zelda character will be queer" I could even understand, but that wasn't the case.

Now, in my opinion, the way Sidon talks and treats Link reminds me a lot of how my sister acts with the BTS boys, I think Sidon has a very idealized vision of Link, he talks about Link as if he were his favorite Marvel superhero and if we take into account that Link doesn't even seem to have frequented the Zora Region much during the time between Botw and Totk and that his ring doesn't even go on his ring finger.... anyway, it was cool to see Sidon's maturity, although his behavior is adorable, he's not a baby anymore.

I admit that Yona's introduction came out of nowhere, but honestly, TOTK introduces and disappears characters out of nowhere, Kass simply disappeared from the map, NPCs forgot about Link and the whole story of Sonia and Rauru also came out of absolutely nowhere. If Yona was the only one in this situation I would give her the benefit of the doubt, but that's not the case.

Not to mention that for a game ""with a hetero code"" I wonder why Nintendo didn't confirm right away that Link and Zelda are a couple instead of just saying this, I swear, how hard is it to formalize them? People will complain about anything, but no, Nintendo is afraid of I don't know what.

I will never forgive Nintendo for taking away the possibility of Zelda being a companion in the adventure or at least having a more constant presence. Thanks to that, I am living off of fanfics and fanarts.

P. S.: I wonder, if we ever get a remake of OoT, if Nintendo gives Malon a husband or canonizes OoT Zelink, how the fandom will react to that?

P. S. S.: Also, since people still complain to this day that TotK didn't turn Ganondorf into a "uwu boy who's just a poor victim of circumstances", a theory fueled by the appearance that the 10,000-year-old Hero had on the tapestry is because Ganondorf is a sexy man.

Although, on this last point I have to be honest, I was disappointed with the fact that Nintendo basically threw away the cinematics from the first TotK trailer and basically ignored the Sheikah technology, everything that Botw had hinted about the Zonai and the whole story of the Calamity from 10,000 years before Botw.

Anyway, it's just a question of how this fandom takes headcanons as if they were an absolute truth, and this ends up causing unnecessary fights because no one wants to admit that their hc may be unlikely to happen.

But that's just my opinion. Thank you for reading.

[emblemxeno]

I really love how positive you are about Fates whilst also being positive about older FE Games, its really made me appreciate Fates, after dealing with annoying fans whom had the stance of "I like Fates, Fuck You", even when no one was criticizing the game.

Also I'm learning so much about Fates, like the Peri localization stuff is fascinating!

Thank you for the kind words!

Oh boy, don't I know it when it comes to annoying Fates fans. They're small in number, but incredibly bitter and not constructive with that bitterness. That's why I always like to try and improve my attitude day by day, because I have similar negative emotions, but I've been in the process of learning how to express them without being.... virulently angry? If that makes sense? Thank you therapy lol

If I still had access to my old blog, it'd be a marvel to see how I've grown lol (I started my first one when I was 16, then started this one when I was 18 I think?)

And I always make it a point to show how I'm a Fire Emblem fan rather than a fan of a specific entry. Fates is my favorite of course, but my first game was Shadow Dragon (which I played like it was the only thing that mattered haha) then later I got Awakening. Even though I only still got half the games under my belt, the series is just so fucking wonderful to think about. How each game plays, what characters are introduced, how each game looks and sounds, etc.

Whenever there's a new trailer, new images from pre-release columns, even new units in FEH, I start smiling because that's how much the franchise means to me. The only other game series' to get that same reaction out of me are Xenoblade, Sonic, Smash Bros, and currently Castlevania. Pokemon used to do that for me too, but I fell off of it after the releases became too constant, and Zelda is starting to take its place a bit lol.

Long story short, Fire Emblem is peak and based and I hope the series keeps going for as long as possible.

[cat-mermaid]

So this post awakened an old memory of mine, from back in the days when everything and anything had a Serebii type dedicated website all of its own

i remember waaaay back in like the year 2000, there was this Zelda fansite that i swear was called "The kingdom of Hyrule" and it was crazy unique because it had these big complex interactive flash animated banners at the top of every page. I'm talking hand drawn, then had a little series of animations that played if you clicked or moused over them

Somthing this advanced on a fan website from back then? A website put together by probably one guy? This was big, this was not the norm! I used to go to school every day and it would be one of the first websites i would log onto once i got computer access, because they were vigilant about updating with even the tiniest scrap of zelda news. And of course it had just about all the documentation about every zelda game at the time, each game got its own page

I remember the last time it updated was right after Wind Waker was announced at the 2001 Space World event, but before it was released in 2003. There were a few updates, mostly about the negative response to the cel shaded toon look (you have no fucking idea how angry people were back then, people thought this was going to be a game for preschoolers) and then.....

nada

years went by and then around 2004 the animated flash images became replaced with those old school red x icons that indicate the image is broken or whatever

i remember being really bummed out because that website was still one of the most amazing labors of love i'd ever seen and probably haven't seen anything by one fan that came close since

i mean it even had an animated intro you could watch every time you first entered the website that had zelda link and ganon having a showdown! That shit was hard to do back then, combined with coding it to a website?

anyways i've tried to find it again since, but nothing. Do any older zelda nerds remember this site?

[arkus-rhapsode]

So I just Played Star Fox Assault For the First time in Years and I have some thoughts...

So Star Fox, a franchise that needs no introduction when it comes to weird directions for a franchise to take. What started out as another classic Miyamoto title that fit perfectly alongside the likes of Mario and Zelda. Star Fox kinda fell into the unenvieable position of Mid tier Nintendo franchise: Iconic enough to have a bunch of devoted fans and not be lumped in with the weirder more niche releases like Geist, Chibi Robo, and Pushmo, but not quite enough a sales juggernaut to become a core pillar of Nintendo that will almost always get an new game with each console like Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and of course, Mario. With the GameCube being a particularly tumultuous time for the furry space mercenaries.

I'll admit though, GameCube is where I come into the Star Fox story. As I was actually not really a fan of the original SNES game or Star Fox 64. This was because as flight based rail shooters where the cool animals were bound to their ships for most the game, I just didn't really get the appeal. But around the sixth generation with the advent of... Star Fox Adventures I was willing to give the franchise another chance. And while Star Fox Adventure is literally not a Star Fox game, I still enjoyed it as it focused a bit more on something I wanted-actual control of Fox McCloud the character (Of course then I played Smash Melee and basically got the same experience). But ultimately after the GameCube generation Star Fox never really stuck with me the way it had with its fanbase. But there was one more game on the GameCube that I hadn't played for a while. Like... almost 20 years ago. Star Fox Assault.

Star Fox Assault feels like a weird middle child of the franchise no one really wants to talk about even though before the disaster that was Star Fox Zero on the Wii U, this was basically the last home console Star Fox game. And it looked to appease long-time fans of the franchise that wanted an in-depth 3D rail shooter and newer fans like me that wanted more direct character involvement gameplay. Assault originally started as an expansion of the Star Fox 64 multiplayer on-foot death match with the single-player story mode eventually being added later after poor reception to an E3 2003 showcase focusing on just the multiplayer aspect according to Electronic Gaming Monthly. This would also be a Star Fox that would be handled by Namco instead of Nintendo in-house. So did they manage to make that perfect Star Fox that would appease old and new fans and provide a fun multiplayer experience?

Well... its complicated.

Star Fox Assault, even now with my 20 extra years of developing my video game tastes still hits me oddly. The flight sections feel really slick and operatic, honestly Assault really made get the space opera vibes that fans often praised 64 for. The Arwing sections running on a much smoother frame rate than 64 also helps. Add on the damn great score after Adventures pretty generic one, and you might just have one of the best openings of the series. Seriously, even as someone who doesn't really like the flight combat sections, the presentation is strong.

But that's just the flight sections, what about the ground sections? While these section have been controversial, I actually like them. Fox being able to just get out of the vehicle and interact with these planets on a smaller scale is something that kept me from really enjoying the 64 game, but the problem with Adventures is that when they did this, their style of gameplay was closer to Ocarina of Time, with melee based combat and emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. But Assault giving Fox a gun and making the levels being more open with little platforming honestly feels way more true to the series. Fox run and gunning through Aparoids feels like something out of Starship Troopers, and that's the kind of gameplay I think Fox and co should have and not a magic staff.

However, these on foot missions sadly are hampered by the controls. The tank-ish controls are just not conducive for me, and I would've preferred a more Star Wars Battlefront 2 style of third-person shooting. Also the GameCube controller is just annoying to play a shooter on. It always feels like when I need to get that one precise shot, I'm fighting with the control stick. Still though after all these years, this is still the part of the game I remember the most, and had hoped to see more of with some level of tune ups in future installments, but that ended up being a different story.

Speaking of the story, how is it? Honestly, the story is fun, introducing this new race of cyber insects that assimilate machines and people becoming such a threat the Fox and Wolf need to team up to beat them. Its simple, but lends itself to a lot of epic moments. Aparoids going for a more existential horror than Andros changes up the vibe of what we're fighting being a "Bug Hunt" (yes, I did just go there) and allowed us to put all of our characters under intense pressure. As well as have our banter with Wolf and his crew.

However, one thing it lacks from Star Fox 64 is branching paths, rather they opt for one much longer singular narrative which isn't a bad thing, but that leads into I think the biggest problem with this game, its single player mode is really short. All told-with cutscenes-I spent somewhere between 4 to 5 hours playing the main campaign. This is a shame because the branching pathways of 64 allowed for more replayability and unique play experiences. Now knowing that this game's single player mode came later while the emphasis on was making a great multiplayer experience first and that Assault would see multiple delays across its development cycle, its safe to assume the story treatment of the campaign didn't have enough time.

This is especially bad when we were in the sixth generation of console gaming. See, small tangent, I think one of Star Fox's problems is at its core its a very arcade-y style game, and by the time of the PS1, lots of arcade style games were getting left behind by console gamers. Stuff like Daytona USA, Pac-Man, and Virtua Fighter were more made to be quick quarter munching experiences that got pretty note-for-note home ports just weren't really justifying a purchase with what the amount of content they were offering. By now, gamers were looking for longer games, that were more ambitious in scope and story, and more complex in level design. They didn't have to be played over and over again, they were just a completely filling experience for gamers. This only got more prevalent going into the PS2.

Take for example, Panzer Dragoon by Sega, which started as a Rail Shooter like Star Fox in 1995, but by 1998 would convert in to a more traditional RPG to compete with the likes of Final Fantasy 7 on the Playstation.

But Nintendo being their usual unusual selves didn't really commit hard either way. You got arcade style games like F-Zero GX and WarioWare Micro Mini Games, but then you have games like Metroid Prime and Super Mario Sunshine that open the player up to these diverse 3D worlds and environments that you could sink hours into. Star Fox Assault sadly felt like it was stuck in the middle. You get some space sections that feel right at home with Star Fox 64, but clearly they wanted you to have something more than just being in the Arwing. But the story around those outside the Arwing or Land Master is so minimal it leaves a lot of Star Fox Assault feeling like potential was left on the table.

I know Assault isn't pure Star Fox like a lot of fans want. The on-foot sections were going to be divisive no matter what. There are fans who just want to continue the story of the Lylat Warriors but through the mechanics of 64. However, as a non purist and more casual enjoyer of the Star Fox franchise, I can say having a more intimate character levels can go a long way for people wanting to engage with the game and its world. Instead of just seeing Fox as a little talking head in the corner of the screen, being on the ground as fox fights for life is attractive. But its clear that these sections had a lot of potential just left on the table. Instead of taking the formula of Assault that mixed flying rail shooting sections with ground combat peppered with story and character moments and improving upon it and drawing out new stories or game ideas for it, Nintendo opted to basically just remake 64 again and again.

I guess we'll never know what it look like if Nintendo invested in a game that mixed the air and ground combat in a fun and slick fashion that offered a lot of content. Wait... they did do that it was called Kid Icarus Uprising!

Yeah, its kinda crazy going back to Star Fox Assault as someone who really enjoyed Kid Icarus Uprising and seeing what almost felt like prototype DNA for gameplay. Made even more surreal when researching that Masahiro Sakurai was originally considering making a Star Fox game for 3DS that would utilize the third person shooter style game play to highlight the handheld's 3D technological capability. However, Sakurai would apparently find the "Star Fox style" to be too restrictive for the gameplay he wanted to implement. So he went with Kid Icarus a franchise that had been much longer dormant.

Now look, I know this was supposed to be about Star Fox Assault, but believe when I say Kid Icarus Uprising is a fantastic game. Levels were split up into three parts: a flight rail shooter that would put your trigger finger to the test, an on-foot combat section that utilized stylus based movement, and a huge boss battle. Intersperced throughout a level is main character Pit bantering with his Goddess Palutena and villains that flesh out the characters and serve as a does of comedy.

It's crazy to say, and I'm sure it was unintentional, but I feel like I can see this game being built on the skeleton of Star Fox Assault's core mechanics. Making a character driven story of large scale proportions in the sky that would then become more intimate detailed levels on the ground that has a major focus on character interaction. Except, it manages to improve in the sections of Assault that needed more polish like its story length, its controls, and replayability.

I'm really glad we got a modern Kid Icarus game that fleshed out these characters that I guarantee most had only heard about for the first time through Smash Bros Brawl, and even though it aesthetically and gameplay wise was a soft reboot, still acknowledges the Kid Icarus games before it and the events that would appease older fans and intrigue newer ones to look into. All done in a very presentable and fun package. But it's a shame knowing that this could've been an opportunity for another franchise. A franchise that would've honestly slotted in perfectly with this style of gameplay and who have been having an identity crisis for years and seems to be now on Nintendo's self.

Going back to Star Fox Assault, while I don't think it would've converted me into the type of fan of Star Fox that waits with baited breath of hoping to see it mentioned once in a Nintendo Direct, I do see a lot of potential for it to become a thing I like. The world of the Lylat System and the anthropomorphic space-farers that inhabit it has definite appeal to reach a wide audience. The epic space battles of a Mass Effect, but with the soapy furry drama of Sonic. But it seems like the barrier of entry for Star Fox is finding that fresh idea that gets both fresh and iterative, but also attractive to new players that will grow the brand and please the existing players. And when I see how that it can be done for Kid Icarus and how close it is to Star Fox Assault, it makes me lament that we may have found that direction for franchise and let it slip away.

Sooooo yeah. Replaying Star Fox Assault after so long. I'd say the game is mostly fine to good. With the key decider, I think, for players is going to be if you got enough fun out of 5 hours worth of gameplay. Since Assault is a GameCube game, that means that its only available through second hand like eBay. And because the price for GameCube games is really jacked up, I do think its hard for me to fully recommend this game when I don't think it has one hundred dollars worth fun.

It also is just not "pure" Star Fox. Its not 64 2. Bt it isn't as radical a departure as Adventures. So I know that there's just going to be a bunch of people who don't like the new sections period, I do think it fits enough in the series that it makes its inclusion justifiable as opposed to Adventures. At the very least, I can say this is a game with a lot of potential. And we may probably never see that potential implemented in the Star Fox universe.

[princess-of-the-corner]

BOTW+TOTK could potentially be used as a soft reboot of the Zelda series. There's scant mention of the Triforce and Golden Goddesses; Hylia is apparently back to goddess state and Link can phone her through her statues; the time span between BOTW and the first Calamity/Rauru's era is so great that relation to other eras loses significance; it doesn't seem like this is even the same iteration of the Kingdom of Hyrule as in all other games. Heck, the Ruto mentioned in history murals you can find in TOTK and the Nabooru mentioned by Urbosa in BOTW might not be the same characters from OOT, but similarly-named individuals from the 10k+year period.

I wouldn't be surprised tbh.

Like as much as I like fucking around with the interconnectedness of the Timeline, it is starting to get a little hectic.

Not to mention fans going apeshit when things go against the Timeline, like botw itself havign both the Zora and the Rito.

A soft reboot allows them to kinda do whatever the hell they want without having to worry about trying to make it all one solid thing.

Now I don't think it'll be a full scrap. I think they'll still reference the old games and yes the references to Nabooru and Ruto and the others are supposed to be referencing those particular ones. But it's not going to be as strict of lore.

[6ad6ro]

speaking of zelda... i gotta admit it's been pretty mediocre since skyward sword came out. that game was obv the worst zelda has ever been, and it broke aonuma's brain to the point that he just turned zelda into an entirely different game (botw). which was completely unnecissary. the traditional zelda formula wasn't the issue with ss, those parts were great. the problem was it's dependancy on broken motion controls and horrendous mechanics. it was a bad game because it was BAD, not because people were sick of zelda.

we got lbw between ss and botw, and sure it was fine and all? but let's be honest. it was sidegame quality, and didn't hold a candle to lttp which it was supposed to be a sequel to. i also don't think the "pay rupees to get all gear instantly" was good at all, imo it kinda ruined it. i prob shouldn't complain tho, bc it was worlds better than what came after. botw is zelda in name only. and i'm sick of hearing dumbasses say "it's just like zelda 1!" no it's fucking nottt. z1 was fairly linear, you COULD do dungeons in "any order" but nobody actually would. progression was dependant on gear and stats. and all the later zeldas were a slow evolution of that same formula, eventually putting a big focus on story and characters and aesthetics. oot had infinitely more in common with z1 than goddamn botw ever did. botw was just a shameless combination of the most successful games of the time: skyrim, minecraft, gta, dark souls. don't get me wrong, it's not an objectively terrible game. but it IS objectively unlike what zelda had been for 30 years. THAT'S why i dislike it. i love zelda because it's zelda. i don't love botw because it's not really zelda, it's an impostor that takes up the slot where a more traditional zelda could be. because botw exists, we don't get real mainline zelda games anymore. then came the la remake. which... fuck i love orig la so much. and the remake's aesthetics SUCKED. it was a shallow remake of a masterpiece. i can't begin to understand why people look at toddler toy lookin lar and say "yeah that's the same". orig la, even ladx, had aesthetics that worked well when it was both light and dark. lar looked and sounded kiddy no matter what. it was everything people hated with that first e3 look at windwaker, but with none of the redeeming intention that ww had in execution. and it was yet another slap in the face of pixel art, a 2d game made 3d for no reason besides companies don't think 2d games can sell. and then of course then we got ANOTHER botw, totk. which as i said was much better than botw (and had much more traditional zelda elements). but that's purely when compared to botw. totk is still barely a zelda game. i am well aware the only reason i kinda like it is my expectations are already in the gutter. finally, we got eow. which i played for like an hour before realizing I'M SICK OF MINECRAFT ZELDAS. aonuma clearly doesn't want to make zelda games anymore. take him off the series. yeah sure i loved mm for bein so experimental, but right after we got a ton more traditional shit. and mm was a hell of a lot closer to traditional zelda than any of these newer zeldas. i saw interviews where "aonuma doesn't know why people want to go back to traditional zelda". well tough shit aonuma. they do. because people loved zelda. you should know that because you made like half of them. and i think it's perfectly reasonable that you're sick of making similar games over and over. but that means you SHOULD MAKE OTHER GAMES! or nintendo should allow you to move on to other projects. at the end of the day, if these new aonuma games weren't called "zelda". if they were their own things, and real zeldas were still being made by other people who actually loved zelda for what it is? i'd be fine with them. i may not like "aonumas wacky open world adventure game" as much as the new zelda games, but it'd be a cool new series i could appreciate. i wish all these new zelda fans who didn't really like old zelda and only jumped in because everything had changed could see things from the other side. and understand that things don't have to be this way. could understand that the reason a lot of us "purists" dislike botw and eow isn't at all because we hate the games themselves, but more because those games came with a big middle finger to what we love about zelda. i don't think it's too much to ask for zelda fans to want zelda games, do you?

[multbasa]

IDK if this is controversial, but apparently TotK won't get DLC:

Good.

Honestly I can't think of a good way for them to add DLC. I would like a second quest playing Zelda like what was thought of for Skyward Sword but we already see her main story beats and there's not a lot to even make a good playable experience with her in TotK.

Do we really need more shrines or another temple like what was added in BotW? Not really.

There's a lot to do in TotK and I really enjoyed it. I still enjoy it. I have my own issues with the game but they wouldn't be fixed with DLC: personally I don't think the random order of the memories works in this game and I think it should have been only available in a set order. I did watch all the geoglyph memories in order but I watched them all before finishing the temples. I wish I had not seen them first since I liked how the story played out with a mystery involving this Zelda in Hyrule yet I already knew exactly what happened to Zelda. When I play the game again from the beginning eventually I will probably play everything in a set order to keep the story in line. That being said, I absolutely love the ending and the final boss and everything leading up to that. This is seriously my favourite ending to a Zelda game to date; it was beautiful, challenging, cinematic, everything I wanted it to be.

BotW's DLC involved the late champions and I adored the final photograph together, but TotK doesn't have that. The champions have moved on and I don't think the old sages need to be fleshed out because they were quite one dimensional��if that. If they were fleshed out, I don't even know what that would be about since they basically just get involved to fight Ganondorf.

Anyway, I don't think TotK needs DLC, and as a long time fan of the series, I can't wait to see what the next game will be about, who it will be about and where it will take place. I want something fresh and new. I loved BotW Link and Zelda and the other characters but it's time to move on. TotK finished off their story.

If there's no DLC, Nintendo probably has already begun development on the next title which is super exciting. Can't wait to see it in...6 years...oof, I'm going to be 30 years old by then.

[drsteggy]

Can I get some DVD commentary on Uneasy Lies the Chosen of Farore? I know you have been in the process of rewriting the core fic and there are so many parts of it I love, so if you're able to talk about the rewriting aspect, that's a bonus!

I don't really have a specific section, more of a general point for discussion. Maybe less DVD commentary and more Farore interview exclusive!

One of the things I suspected on my first read through was that Twilight Princess really played a big part in furnishing the world. I went in to your fic having only played OOT and BOTW and there were some commonalities (though I think with OOT it might have been more of a general LOZ vibe because I'm not sure if you had played it at that point). Now that I've played TP and think back to Farore, I really feel its influence in the 'dungeon' design and some of the geography.

What parts do you think the games played in terms of influencing your worldbuilding on Farore?

Thanks so much for the ask, my god I love going on about this fic so much.

The rewrite has mostly been trying to bring it up to the level of how I write now vs how I did then. I lean into perfectionism (though I swear I’m much better than I was) and I will tweak things endlessly. There were a few things I felt were a little rough and never got smoothed the way I liked. The entire back half of the fic got pretty much written and published as I went week to week because I hit a spot where I just had to finish it- I knew how it would end, and I wanted to make sure it hit its marks. I wasn’t comfortable without having the safety net I had at the start, but the people who offered to beta at the start slowly shifted priorities and drifted…and man, if I could not keep a beta readers attention, how well I was doing here?

I mean, part of the fic is about imposter syndrome and learning who you are and all that and. Yeah. I half joke that Link is a self insert. I’m not the train wreck he is at the start of the fic by miles- but there are places where he is very much some hard projection. But by the second half of the fic he was getting his shit together, so I figured maybe I should try and follow that example.

So when I was first trying to deal with my Zelda brain rot, which was mostly Breath of the Wild brain rot, I ended up in a community of people who were very much Gamers who liked Zelda games. When I started Farore in its original six chapter form, I’d only played BOTW and the geography/map is 100% the BOTW map. The Zora’s Domain is differently laid out, but I think that’s it. I can show you where I decided specific things were otherwise.

What I learned from this was people who identify as gamers first don’t really gel well with people who identify as Zelda fans first. Like these guys liked to shit all over BOTW Zelda (a 16 year old girl in the game) and go on about how a non male hero should never be a thing and turned me into a defender of the princess (who I’d only experienced as her yelling at me to that point, and I wasn’t really a fan) Eventually I left because they decided to make fun of cosplay photos I shared.

But these guys were obsessed with Twilight Princess. Obsessed!!! In particular, they talked about the Arbiters Grounds constantly. They claimed, more than once, that it was the best dungeon in the series!! And this influenced me as I continued the fic.

I’m a Switch girl, though my Nintendo introduction involved a Wii in 2009- I was recently married and unable to work as I was trying to deal with state level bullshit about a professional license that ultimately kept me sidelined for 3 months. I was going stir crazy and spouse decided I should learn to play MarioKart. I still had this Wii and started to track down older games to play them.

I scored a copy of TP and had already decided the Arbiters Grounds was going to be the desert dungeon in the fic, but I wanted to play through it first. As it turned out, playing TP with a Wiimote was a bad combination for me and I kept slopping into lava before I even properly entered the Goron temple. I ended up watching someone do a let’s play of that dungeon before I wrote it.

Much, much later I learned my Wii could play GameCube games and I did eventually play TP via a GC disk. I remember getting a chill when I finally rocked up on the Arbiters Grounds, and I do not feel that I made that dungeon as scary as maybe I could have- I don’t think I changed a lot in the rewrite because there’s a lot in that chapter that I really love and thought came out well.

I had also played part of Skyward Sword as I was writing (and I feel that after BOTW, this game has the most influence on the fic, particularly over the Link/Zelda relationship) and I knew spiders were sort of a thing in Zelda games and that’s why I made the first dungeon boss sort of a spider (it only has six legs, so it isn’t a spider) I was unaware that there was a classic dungeon boss that had a spider form, so when people were going on about Lady Ghoma in my comments I was very what about that. I was super shocked when I hit that dungeon in TP lol.

I will say TP has some of my favorite dungeons and the most fun bosses. I kind of wish that I knew about Snowpeak Mansion and the City in the Sky as I was writing, but I think my Link would have had a mental breakdown at the very thought of that much hookshot. He probably would have been into making soup, though.

I tried to Easter egg as many games as I could as I wrote- except I decided this was before BOTW- so that game is not mentioned at all aside from the map. I think I did a pretty good job of it, considering I hadn’t played (and had not completed any) many as I was going. I definitely hit Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Links Awakening, Wind Waker and the manga from Hyrule Historia. One comment I got on the fic - one that really touched me, too - referenced the Picori and the reader assured my Link that he wasn’t really alone. And like, I literally teared up reading that, because it was something my Link needed to hear but he also probably wasn’t open to hearing it at that moment. And I had no idea what Picori were…and now I’m sort of sad I didn’t think to go back and try and weave them in, but maybe I’ll do so as the edit goes on.

[mudora]

unnnghhh, I just need to get this out of my system before it gets stupid.  I promise, it is a -very- silly and light criticism of current totk discourse revolving around the three Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore. Honestly I shouldn’t even be negatively affected by just some fun theories being thrown around, but clearly I’m bothered by it for some reason. And I can likely explain why. (This isn’t to stop fun fan theories from being made or me being an old codger and saying NO to fans, because that’s completely rude. If those developments are genuinely exciting to you, I getchya.) 

Current talk is that at least in BoTW and ToTK, the dragons that are roughly named after the three goddesses (not my assumption) (and are referred to as she) by the Goddess statues, are Zonai who consumed their stones. So at least in this universe that BoTW and ToTK decides to be in, these goddesses were mortal in some way or somehow turned their secret stones into the triforce or... something along those lines. I don’t inherently like this line of thinking, for a few reasons. Sort of the same reasons I don’t inherently like the idea of Zelda basically being the Virgin Mary figure in skyward sword and onward. It’s just opinion, and shouldn’t affect your fun times. And for some dumb reason it bothers me and I just want to explain why. The Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, were not sideliners when it comes to the entirety of Zelda lore. They made the world, full stop, and possibly other worlds that also appear in the Zelda series. They -made- the kingdom of Hyrule, and left the Triforce behind after their creation was complete. They have no official appearance in any game (these are not the oracles), but their hand is -felt- in certain ways. Even if their presence is subdued, they still call the shots on their creation. Just like them, their respective Triforce Pieces represent their philosophy. Din is most comfortable in their Power. Nayru has ageless Wisdom, and Farore gives courage to all she holds dear. Together, they represent The Legend of Zelda’s whole philosophy: As one, they are perfect, working in tandem. Apart, they are still powerful, but become imbalanced and that imbalance throws the world into chaos, as it has time and time again since the Triforce’s original separation in Ocarina of Time. The Goddesses Themselves continue to have namesakes within the series, which is where the Dragon’s names in BoTW and ToTK will become more familiar. At least since Twilight Princess, the Light Spirits that protect the world of reality from shadow, are named subtly after their creators. Faron (Not Farore), Lanayru, (Not Nayru), and Eldin (not Din). They bear the responsibility of protecting creation and the Sacred Realm from the shadow the Twili created, and naturally were eventually banished to the Twilight Realm due to their sacrosanct acts. This is, as far as I remember, the first time we hear of these names. They were created by Din, Nayru, and Farore, but they themselves are not the gods incarnate, and never were. They simply had a purpose, and carried their namesake due to who mothered them into existence.  Now, again, I don’t really subscribe that much to a timeline, and never really have regardless of the “Official” timeline existing. BotW and TotK feel wildly different in terms of what is included in them. We at least know there are *stories* of the Hero of Time, the Hero of Winds, the Hero of Twilight, etc, etc. or they are at least vaguely mentioned in ancient rites and likely moldy tomes that haven’t seen the light of day in thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Most of this ancient era has come and gone, to the point where the Sheikah tribe of old developed frickin computers with magic powers, and by the time THAT was featured in BoTW, it was already ANCIENT Sheikah tech. But with the events of ToTK, I’m completely complacent in thinking this could be a completely different -universe- then the actual “Official” timeline.  Much like how Termina exists, It’s not really difficult to imagine several different Hyrules existing in many alternate realities, dimensions, planes, what have you. And just because the Zonai exist does not inherently mean the Triforce and the Goddesses don’t also somehow exist in this set universe. I don’t believe the Goddesses would suddenly decide to become Zonai, when perhaps they are the ones who created them anyway, much like the Hylians, the Gorons, the Zora, etc. And even if there are multiple Hyrules, The Goddesses literally made it. I doubt, in any timeline, plane, reality, dimension, that fact would somehow be different, as they are literally the ones responsible for its actual existence. The Zonai, after all are said to be -descended- from Gods, and are only seen as gods themselves due to how these Gods GIFTED these guys with Secret Stones.  This of course, brings us to the dragons in question: I do understand where people believe these three dragons could be the Goddesses. Though the Zonai consider the process of Draconfication forbidden, I don’t really think it’s as forbidden as we think it is. Where I differ from the current discourse, however, is that I don’t remotely think Din, Nayru, and Farore were somehow Zonai, and partook of their sacred stones and it became the triforce. This just doesn’t make sense with the very little we have to go on, for a lot of  reasons. 1, we have to presume Din, Nayru, and Farore already exist, and have existed for Milennia. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Hyrule -would not exist-. Neither would the Hero, Neither would Princess Zelda, Ganondorf, etc.  However. I have a theory that the Dragons are the God forms of the Zonai. Though they are a bit goat like, they also share... quite a few draconic traits on their own, no?Sharp teeth, hair that more serpentine dragons have from Japan and China. They came from the literal sky and wished to bring their bounty to the races of the land. The Zonai -revere- dragons and dragon kind. The Secret Stones themselves obviously don’t just turn Zonai into dragons, as we can see from Zelda consuming hers. I presume, that these gifted Secret Stones likely come from the God-like dragons that the Zonai likely descended from. When swallowing a stone, you are inheriting the power of presumed God-hood as defined by the Zonai. You become immortal. You lose yourself. Because mortals and Gods are profoundly different. Now, whether or not Dragons are capable of becoming mortal on their own is a good question I can’t answer, but I suspect the Zonai have -way- more relation to the concept of the dragons then they do Din, Nayru, and Farore. The same goes for the Dragons that are already within Hyrule: Dinraal, Naydraa (Wtf that isn’t even close to Nayru), and Farosh.. These guys have way more in common with their other namesakes, the light spirits of twilight princess, then they do with the actual Golden Goddesses. And they presumably also share something with their Light Spirit Namesakes. They are guardians of the springs of Power, Wisdom, and Courage respectively. However I picture this relation to be more of these dragon gods wishing to protect creation from ages long past. Perhaps these Dragons never became Zonai. Perhaps these dragons are Zonai who wished to fulfill a purpose in protecting these springs. But being the Golden Goddesses themselves? I highly doubt it. There is plenty of room within the Zelda universe to have the Golden Goddesses remain as such, and to have other gods and spirits fulfill myriad roles deemed important to the Cycles.  If anything, I would say the Zonai are an interesting addition to the many races of Hyrule, and their story is a more compelling one, when viewed in a lense that encompasses their relationship to dragonkind. Not God-kind. Or... at least DragonGod Kind. I also feel like viewing it this way is -way- easier to swallow then somehow relating the Secret Stones to the Triforce. These are their own unique goodie. ToTK, more or less, is a lesson that the Triforce has already taught many times, but through a different lens. Might and Power can obviously come from many different things in Hyrule, and a DragonGod’s essence? Well.  How could Ganondorf, one who seeks power with relentless force, resist?  In her Wisdom, Zelda chose to seek this power to protect her Kingdom from the plague she so feared.  And Link, once again, is the edge of the sword, stuck within the power struggle. Yet his courage and valor lead to the destruction of the Demon Dragon.  I don’t know about you, but the Goddesses are definitely watching. And not as dragons.