#they feature several times in totk :)

[ok-pop-1]

a collage zelda piece, feat. the wonderful @igirisu's zelda cosplay!

[ixtaek]

This is one of the few games that COULD predate Skyward Sword, as the Master Sword isn’t an element at all. However, my theory is it’s between Four Swords and OoT.

They didn’t use the term “Triforce” in Minish Cap or FS, so them still calling it the wrong thing makes sense, with the added idea that they would start calling it a Triforce in honor of Tri, setting up the usage in OoT. Given the design of OoT Zora being more like simplified Sea Zora, but living in freshwater, implies the two Zora villages intermarried and produced hybrid offspring that could survive fresh water, cleaning up that plot point in time for Ruto and her dad to happen. OoT/MM also prominently features Deku Scrubs, which are reduced or non-existent in many other timelines and 100% gone in the BotW timeline (replaced by garden-variety Octoroks) (yes that was a pun). Rock Roast existed in this time, or at least did in Termina, so could have also existed in OoT.

Ganon and The Gerudo being friendly to Hyrule is the hardest one to explain. However, if you look at Moblins in this game, the larger they get the more they resemble Ganon. Lvl. 3 Sword Moblin (whom I affectionately referred to as ‘Big Guy’ when I summoned him) is close in color and only a little smaller. So theoretically, Ganon could be an extra-large, extra-Demise-blessed, demon Moblin. He has Null’s memories when he faces Link at the beginning and says “Oh it’s you again”—Link had been in the Rifts before and had been thwarting them left and right, so it’s reasonable Ganon/Null would know him. As for the Gerudo, a few generations could pass, and a severe drought and the rise of Koume and Kotake as leaders to steer the Gerudo into thievery to survive is still possible. Ganon possesses the Gerudo prince to form Ganondorf and starts looking for the Triforce, and the rest is history.

We have a decently established kingdom (not post TotK), and no massive ocean or trains (not post WW/ST). I’ve seen some valid ones saying it could be post ALttP based on buildings/ruins/the map, but seems weird they’d briefly stop using the term “Triforce” in that era given it’s called the Triforce again in ALbW/LoZ 1/AoL. It could also be after TP/FSA, since those games also don’t use the word Triforce, but there’s no Deku Tree in those timelines iirc.

There’s no real clear answer, and I’m sure Nintendo won’t give us one since their policy now seems to be “lol what timeline”, but this is the closest I can get. Lemme know your theories!

[comicaurora]

Slowly making my way through the TOTK B roll stream, had a few thoughts on the emptiness of the sky islands. In a way, would it not be more surprising if there were more remains to be seen? Ignoring the whole 'it's a game, decisions were made by the developers' bit, nature can take over surprisingly quickly in the right circumstances. In a way, it's more surprising so much survived in BOTW (like the bomb hut ruins. Fire damaged wood? Should be gone in a decade or two anyway). (contd)

So the thing about the Sky Islands in Tears of the Kingdom is that, not only are the ruins fairly well-preserved - presumably due to having been in the Sacred Realm for the last 10,000+ years - but even with them damaged and tumbledown, it's fairly clear from the layout of the islands and their structures that they were not residences. That's not something that would've been lost to erosion and time, that's something foundational to the architecture of the place.

When the game designers want to show a place people live on the surface of Hyrule, they hit a few key points: distinct-looking homes with beds, places that make food, and an inn for travelers. The buildings are different sizes, decorated or personalized by the residents. They're laid out relative to one another in a way that allows for easy, convenient traversal. It's intentional design that makes the villages feel lived-in, cozy, and worth protecting.

Inside the buildings, little details show the presence of living people, even if the building is empty at the time. Table settings, notebooks, pictures on the walls. They feel like they've been shaped by the influence of people, living and working and customizing their environment.

These are all, to be fair, things that we wouldn't expect to last very long if the town fell to ruin. When we explore the sky islands, we aren't expecting to find well-preserved paper maps or notebooks or anything. But if they were lived-in - if they were Zonai population centers rather than temples, ritual centers and factories - that would still be reflected in the basic layout of the structure itself. A residence is designed to accommodate for every basic need, meaning we'd expect the buildings to have places for them to sleep, to eat, and to relax. On the Sky Islands, we find none of these things.

The most common buildings on the sky islands are these isolated stone one-room ruins. They look and feel like storehouses - a few pots, some crumbled masonry. No doors or interior rooms for privacy, no comforts, no sign of a place to sleep, no adjoining buildings. These things were never homes.

The Great Sky Island is the only really plausible candidate for a place the Zonai might've actually lived, being about town-sized with several buildings, but it's not laid out like one. The buildings are either small one-room storage sheds or the massive Temple of Time, and there's no sign of other specialized buildings that could have been used for things like food, rest or other necessities. The Great Sky Island feels like a large, beautiful public park built grafted onto the Temple of Time.

The larger dungeons are more internally complicated, but not in the way that residences are complicated. The water dungeon looks like some kind of huge open park - wide avenues, plazas, devices built for mobility. It feels like a place meant to be traversed and admired, not stayed in.

The wind dungeon is more clearly built as a weapon platform, nowhere we expect people to live. It makes sense that it feels sterile and lifeless.

The larger, more complicated sky islands are also designed for clear utility. The spheres are some sort of celestial observatories, featuring a control system, a treasure chest, and nothing else.

Wildcards like Lightcast Island were clearly built to serve a single purpose - in this case, a lighthouse and attached microdungeon - but contain no signs of life. Zonai came here for a reason, but they didn't stay.

The glide challenge islands are visually impressive, but ultimately the rings are empty - they don't even have structures on them. They exist for the dive challenge and nothing else.

Same deal with the labyrinths, which exist explicitly as puzzles and challenges.

The mines in the depths are also clearly structured for utility - storerooms, construct part repositories and a lot of conveyer belts for moving zoanite. The purpose of the building is very clear just from the layout, and these are not places where anyone was supposed to be staying outside of work hours.

This, along with the layout of towns on the surface, shows that the designers are very good at constructing architecture that reflects the in-story utility of a place, which means the lack of signs of life in the sky islands is not a limitation of the console or the imagination of the artists - it's an intentional design choice.

The end result of all of this? The Sky Islands feel like somewhere that the Zonai built and visited, but not where they lived. They feel cold and unwelcoming and liminal. There's no sense of loss or tragedy, just a feeling of emptiness - people used to come here, but they don't anymore. There's none of the poignancy of an empty dining table's unused place settings or an abandoned child's toy. None of the Sky Islands that descended during the Upheaval were places where the Zonai lived. At the peak of their power they were mistaken for gods, a massively thriving technologically advanced civilization - I'd expect their homes to be cities, towers of jade and marble bustling with the activity of a post-scarcity utopia. None of the Sky Islands show us anything like that, and given how well the designers can portray a lived-in place even without any people in it, this is assuredly intentional. The Zonai built and visited and used the Sky Islands we can explore, but as a whole they lived somewhere else.

But throughout it all, there's this pervading unease - the fact that there's no obvious tragedy makes the sky islands feel more unnerving. We know just enough of the story to infer that something happened to the Zonai - something bad, if we read into Rauru and Mineru's reaction - but whatever it was left no scars. The Zonai constructs don't even realize anything's amiss. The buildings have been damaged only by time and gravity; the forges and mines and observatories and temples are silent and abandoned, like the Zonai all went home one night for dinner and just never came back.

The Sky Islands don't feel dead, they feel lifeless. A place people passed through but didn't leave their mark on. When Link traverses the islands, he isn't just alone - he doesn't even have the comfort of signs of life. The only evidence he has that anyone ever came to these islands are the fact that somebody built them in the first place. They left no marks, no art, no notes, no diaries, no toys, no graffiti. They're just gone.

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Guys. Why is there even a debate here. Some of the games were explicitly written to be connected, some of them weren't. Not everything has to fit into one cohesive timeline. As a matter of fact, they can't. Now, there is some more nuance to it. Read below for my explanation (infodump) plus a more nuanced chart.

Red and blue lines are canon within the games' text. Ambiguities are filled in with green. I'll get more into that later. Let's first explain the two completely separate mini timelines.

The Four Swords miniseries stands mostly alone. The Master Sword and the Triforce are present in every other game or (mostly--looking at you, Master Sword in LoZ and AoL) have a good reason not to be, but they are not present at all in these three games. Instead, we have the Four Sword and Light Force. The only wrinkle is that Ganondorf shows up in FSA... so I don't know about that one. I don't think anyone does.

As for BotW and TotK. Oh brother. What do we do with these. Skyward Sword is intended to take place seemingly millennia, or at least several centuries before Ocarina. We see the founding of Hyrule with the first monarch and her chosen knight, the cycle of recurring evil and heroism being established, and the forging of the Master Sword

Wait. What about Rauru and Sonia? I thought they were the first rulers of Hyrule. And if the Zonai were around long before Hyrule, where is any of their presence in Skyward Sword? Huh. Alright. We don't know how much time passed between the first Calamity and the second, but from the past era of TotK to its present, we can account for at least 10,105 years of history. We don't even need to get into how Zora and Rito coexist or anything smaller like that. There's just no fucking way these two games fit with any of the others. Fine, that's fine. Moving on.

There's also a little hiccup around the Oracles. Nintendo seems to go back and force on whether the Oracles feature the same Link as in ALttP and LA, but if they do, it probably makes more sense that Oracles happen before LA (the linked Oracle game ends with Link boarding sailing off on a small ship and LA starts with him on one). So like... I guess they fit there?

Either way, let's take a second to look back at where this idea of a timeline split happened. Remember that WW and TP both clearly take place after OoT. That isn't theorizing, that's in the actual text of each game. The thing is, they're mutually exclusive. TP has Ganondorf being executed, as he would have been after the Hero of Time goes back to his original era and warns Zelda that her plan to get to the Triforce first isn't going to work (which is implied to be what happens at the "The End" screen of OoT). WW has Ganondorf coming back by breaking the seal put on him, and the Hero of Time didn't appear to stop him again (as would happen if Link was sent back in time). Fans started theorizing way back in 2006 that OoT created separate timelines, with WW and TP being mutually exclusive sequels to it as the evidence.

Some fans have asserted that Nintendo just "took" the fan theory. But come on, put everything together here. The texts of OoT, WW, and TP HEAVILY imply the timeline split. The only reason we called it a theory is because the writers didn't literally say "And then the timeline split in two". The texts are pretty clear though. It's the only thing that makes sense. That isn't to say that there needs to be a cohesive timeline, and that the split is the only way to fit it together. No, OoT is connected to both WW and TP no matter what. That was the intent. It's just that the explanation for OoT to have mutually exclusive sequels actually fits neatly into the texts of the games.

And now we come to the tricky part. Put yourself back into the 90s real quick. ALttP seems to have been written as a prequel to Zelda 1, showing Hyrule before its period of decline. Alright, let's just accept that because it may as well be true. The lore at that point was so thin that it made enough sense. I kinda slapped Zelda 1 and 2 at the end there to show it, because we do have a cohesive timeline from ALttP to TFH. That's fine, all well and good.

Likewise, OoT seems to be written as a prequel to ALttP. We see conflict over the Triforce, the origin of Ganon, the seven sages, and an earlier iteration of the Master Sword. Back in 1998, we had no reason to not believe it. These are tenuous connections that are not explicit in the games' text, so I've paired them with green lines to show it.

But wait. ALttP is ALSO mutually exclusive to TP and WW. Oh brother. What do we do about this? Even after figuring out the timeline split in 2006, fans didn't know what the fuck to do with the first four games of this franchise. They could go after TP, but that's even messier than putting them right after OoT. Yuck. This doesn't feel good at all. Oh yeah, and then there's the Four Swords games that don't fit anywhere.

Now you can imagine the position the writers of Hyrule Historia found themselves in when they were tasked with creating an official timeline. Some of the games have certain explicit connections, as detailed in my first chart. But they had to cram everything into one timeline. Well. They knew they had a timeline split in OoT, because that's what the texts of OoT, WW, and TP collectively say. The lore of ALttP also mentions seven sages (or wise men, but let's call them sages), but not a legendary hero. So... if you really stretch your brain out here... it kinda makes sense that there's a timeline where the Hero of Time died fighting Ganon. Maybe. Kinda. Not really, but kinda. And then there's the Four Swords miniseries. Fuck it, throw them in randomly.

The two-way split doesn't disagree with OoT's text at all, which said that Link won. The three-way split does disagree with it by asserting that Link lost. But if we're really trying to fit everything into one timeline, that is the cleanest place to put them. Some people really hate this, but it does seem that those are the same people that demanded that there be an official timeline in the first place. ie the same people who were gonna be pissed off with anything Nintendo gave them that wasn't exactly their own theory being confirmed.

Alright, real talk. The producers of the Zelda series have said time and time again that they think of what would make a fun game then write a story that fits around it. The Wind Waker devs wanted you to sail around the ocean. Then the writers decided "oh, we could put this after Ocarina! After all, weren't they left without a hero? What if Ganon came back with no one to stop him? How would that problem resolve itself? What if the gods just flooded the world?" Then the Twilight Princess devs wanted a spiritual successor to Ocarina, with an epic adventure on horseback across the traditional Zelda kingdom setting. So the writers went "hey, in Ocarina, Link warned Zelda about Ganon, right? What if he was executed then, and then the world was never flooded?"

We have to realize that trying to put games with this design philosophy into a neat little timeline is a futile effort. It's never gonna work because it wasn't designed to. More so than any other storytelling medium, video games take so many approaches to continuity. The Halo games were all meant to be sequential and fit neatly into a strict timeline. Pokemon is all canon within itself but the ties between games are less important than the stories of each game. Mario essentially has no canon except for recurring characters and settings. Zelda is gameplay first, canon second. That's why the two most recent mainline games don't even try to fit in the canon of the previous eighteen. That's just how it works and we're gonna have to accept that.

[crowroboros]

With the consistent link between "large pointed ears" and "relation to the Gods" in the Zelda series, I do think that the Zonai are probably the closest thing we have to the true form of The Golden Goddesses and Hylia.

Ganondorf in OoT and TP starts out with small rounded ears and gains large pointed ones when obtaining the Triforce of Power (the manifestation of the Goddess of Power's essence). Ganondorf in WW starts the game with the Triforce of Power and thus has pointed ears throughout the game.

The Hylians are said specifically said to use their pointed ears to hear the voices of the Gods (though by time of most games in the series), the Goddesses have taken a more hands-off role. They're also most connected to the Goddess Hylia herself.

The Minish Realm said to be located just beyond the Heavens between it and the Light World (Hyrule's realm). The Minish feature a very high ear:body size ratio. Plus their ears are pointed.

In Skyward Sword, Demise looks at Zelda (mortal reincarnation of Hylia) and says that Hylia really "downgraded and sacrificed her divine form for one that pales in comparison" (paraphrasing here) implying that Zelda doesn't have a 1:1 resemblance to Hylia like some believe.

The Zonai themselves are said to be direct descendants of the Gods. The validity of this statement can be up for debate as it comes from Hylian records of the Zonai, however there isn't really anything saying otherwise and the Zonai were given the Secret Stones (creations by the Golden Goddesses) by Hylia herself as revealed in TotK's Master Works.

The Zonai have some massive pointed ears and were said to have came down from the Skies/The Heavens (both are sited in the game several times. It could be referring to the same place OR it could mean that the Zonai came down from the Heavens to the Light Realm's Sky, and then to the Surface and Depths. Ultimately which it is isn't really too important as the Sky of the Light Realm has always had a lot of divine connections and the Zonai people are undeniably connected directly to the Gods)

I think that the more humanoid form reminiscent of SS Zelda and the Goddess statues are less of a 1:1 depiction of the Goddesses, but rather the closest thing to their true form that the Hylians and other surface dwellers were able to comprehend, and in modern times are just the Hylians using their history to assume that the Gods probably looked similar to them.

At least, I'm sure this is the case for the Golden Goddesses. Hylia there is evidence supporting the more humanoid form (like the fact that the Zonai themselves too have Goddess Statues that are in line with the Hylian depiction of Hylia). If anything, the link between large pointed ears and divine connections certainly exist. So at least we have that tidbit and can probably assume that they have a very large ear:body ratio.

I do like the less-humanoid concept for what the Goddesses could look like over the "humans but with massive ears" thing that most modern Hylian architecture and sculptures depict them as. To me, that's just the Hylians seeing themselves in the Gods rather than it being based in 100% reality.

[linksthoughtbrambles]

The First Step in All Cases

A little totk fic for Linktober 2023 Day 8 Prompt: Constructs. 1200 words.

AaaaaAAAAND face-plant.  Of course.

Somewhere along the line, he really thought he’d gotten better at this.  All that Calamity-smiting might’ve gone to his head.

(Definitely, it definitely had, because he let Zelda he let Zelda fall)-

“No,” he said with a sputter of grass, grit, and adorable little purple petals (What were those?  They didn’t taste half-bad) from his mouth, the sting of a long scratch the full length of his face an annoying reminder of his utter lack of elixirs and determination to find out where the frick they went whenever he got home.

He ignored the downed wing behind him and jogged toward the nearest ruined foundation.  The conditions here had preserved materials so well.  Maybe he’d find something to patch himself up-

-like a cookpot!  Link smiled, huffing at the similarity between those strewn about Hyrule and this ancient example, sitting near the center of a home from far longer ago than the previous Calamity.

“Okay, except I don’t have any monster parts.  Could make myself some dinner, though-“

“BrbrEEEEEbr.”

Link’s feet returned to the stone, his first coherent thought being gratitude at not face-planting for the second time in two minutes.

“Allow me to offer unsolicited advice,” the sneaky steward construct said.  It meandered toward Link, though it didn’t enter the ancient footprint of the house.

“…Uh,” Link said.

“Are you going this direction?”

Link glanced at the hands it held loosely, the fingers dangling and not at all pointing any particular way.  “…Uhh-“

“This mountain path is especially rugged.”

Link looked around.  “What mountain pa-“

“You must take your environment into account when traveling.”

“…Right.  Hey, I don’t know how much Rauru clued you in, here, but I kept my memory this time.  Totally got this.“

“I have developed guidelines for traveling this mountain path.”

“Guidelines, really?  That’s great- I think I’m all set, though-”

“Shall I tell you them?”

“Uh.  I think I got it.  Stay warm, right?  Yep.  All set.”

The construct cocked its head at him.

Its strangely adorable head.

“…Don’t give me those dangly robot earrings.”

“Allow me to offer unsolicited advice.”

‘Please?’ its sideways face said in a way only mysteriously non-metallic rigid features can.

Link loosed a sharp sigh, nodding to himself.  He could spend a few minutes listening to a robot who’d been lonely for tens of thousands of years, couldn’t he?  Zelda was safe and here, right?  Of course, she was.  He saw the glow lift her up.  She’s up here in the temple, and he just has to get in.

“Let’s hear it!” Link said.

Something vaguely stern seemed to enter the construct’s inanimate stance.  “Very well.”

Link swallowed, hands on his hips to ride this out.

“Fire is a crucial tool when traveling the mountain path.”

Oh dear Hylia.  “Damn right!”

“A fire can be used either to cook or to warm yourself.”

“Yep.”

“I recommend using flint as a Fire starter.”

“Fantastic recommendation.”

“Place flint next to a bundle of wood. Then strike it with a metallic or stony weapon.”

Dear Goddess, it really does think I have no idea.

“This is my recipe for fire.”

Link blinked.  “That’s- amazing.  It’s mine, too!”

“There are several other methods.  But it is best to internalize the basics first.”

“Makes sense.  You know, you can also use red chu chu jelly-“

“Would you like to hear about cooking?”

That sounded more interesting.  Ancient cooking?  “Yes, please!  Teach me about cooking!”

“You can cook anytime and anywhere.”

Wow.  Optimistic robot.

“All you need is a pot with a lit fire.”

“Oh.  I- know about pots-“

“One method of cooking-“

“-I use them all the time.”

“-is simply to throw random ingredients into the pot.”

“I’m a pretty good cooOOH RANDOM?”

“Others are more careful.”

“I’m sorry, did you just start a newbie’s cooking lesson with ‘put RANDOM things in a pot?’”

“This is the best way to make meals that can warm you up.”

“Wait wait wait, careful how?  You have to be specific!  A newbie needs clear instructions!”

“Other effects are also possible.”

“Yeah, true, but let’s start with the basics-”

“Insects and monster parts are not edible.”

“No no no no, you don’t start with stuff you don’t put in the pot-“

“Do not cook horns or guts with food.”

“I don’t tell people ‘by the way, don’t put a bunch of soap in a cookpot’ and then send them off to cook their first meal!”

“Save these parts as materials for elixirs.”

“Elixirs?!  You haven’t talked about cooking normal food yet!”

“Elixirs are also helpful in the mountains.”

“So are pants!  That doesn’t make them part of a good first cooking lesson!”

 “They are an alternate way to warm your body or recover stamina.”

“Noted, but-“

“The first step in all cases is to start a fire.”

Oh- okay, maybe this is where the cooking lesson starts.

“This is all I can tell you.  Take care.”

Link’s palm struck his forehead with a loud smack.  “You’re- kidding me!”

“Do not worry if you forget any of this.”

“I wish I could, but I think my forgetting days are over-“

“I am not going anywhere.”

Link stared at the construct.

10,000-plus years… for this?  This poor thing knew literally nothing about cooking, yet was doomed to wander the sky island for all eternity to expel its meager wisdom to random passersby?

“No.  No, this is not cool,” Link said.

“BrbrEEEEEBrrr,” cooed the construct.  It turned as if to attend its other duties.

“Eh- Allow me to offer unsolicited advice!” Link said.

“BrbrEEEErrEebr?” Its head cocked at Link.

“I happen to actually be a good cook,” Link said.

It stared at him.

“I- gh- hmm.”  Link grimaced.  “I… have developed guidelines for cooking simple, nourishing meals!” he said with a smile.  “Shall I tell you them?”

The construct’s head shifted back, the earring-like structures jangling in a way reminiscent of a Hylian retriever’s ears.  “I will listen.”

Link approached the construct with a grin and took its hand.  “Follow me to the cookpot, please.”

“Brr-brr-eEEe.”  It didn’t budge.

“What is it?”

“I have not been invited into my masters’ home.”

A small, half-smile touched Link’s face.  “I… live here, now.  I’m inviting you in.”

“BrbrEEee.”

The construct crossed the threshold without resistance.

“Okay,” Link said with a clap of his hands and a delve into his Korok pouch.  “There are three ways to cook in a cookpot.  You can cook in water, cook in fat, or you can dry-roast.  Um.” Link pulled out a raw pigeon carcass he’d already cleaned—he’d had half a mind to cook it before the construct spoke to him anyway.  “Perfect.  This is raw bird—pigeon!—it has some of its own fat, so we’ll just go ahead and roast it.”  Link smirked and eyed his artificial friend.  “…What do you think the first step is?”

“The first step in all cases is to start a fire.”

Link nodded.  “You got it.”

-----

Epilogue:

“And if you collect enough of these and grind them down really fine, you make flour, and if you cook that in fat you make a roux, and there are all sorts of things you can do with that!”

“Brbrrreeee!” the construct chimed.

[mathmusiczelda]

Legend of Zelda Fic and Comic Recs

Guess I've read enough fics and comics to do one of these now

(General warning for strong language and canon-typical violence)

Comics

- @linkeduniverse (LU), a fandom classic, excellent art, intriguing story

- @ovegakart's stuff is awesome--there are several ongoing series and lots of LU references

- @bonus-links, a Links meet AU, lovely art, I'm interested to see where it goes

- TOTK "Eternal" by @/blueskittlesart, two-shot, very pretty and poetic

- Time Twilight Tears by @/jhoca-art, non-LU comic where Time and Twilight follow Wild/Tears around during TOTK, also featuring all their Zeldas. Very fun, very pretty art

Fics

Uncategorized fics:

- Dimensional Links by ChangelingRin. A Links meet AU that isn't Linked Universe. Very fun and chaotic

Twilight Princess fics:

- Dear Hero by @/thecagedsong. A post-canon Twilight Princess rom-com that's not only hilarious but insightful, packed with lore, and has excellent characterizations. I'm not usually into rom coms but this one was fantastic

- Wolf Boy by Bookwrm389. A pre-canon Twilight Princess fic where an orphaned Link comes to find and trust Rusl and Uli, told feom Uli's perspective. Very well written, lovely and soft

- A Tale Past Twilight: Forked Tongues by GrayGuard06. A post-canon Twilight Princess fic where Link goes to help a village with a monster problem and walks into a whole can of worms. Note the violence tag, but it's got plot and a good ending

Breath of the Wild fics:

- The Girl at the Museum by wavebreeze. Modern AU, sort of a meet-cute, short and sweet. I don't usually go for these but it was surprisingly fun

- Feast by webcomix. Tw grief but super cute/heartwarming way for Link and Zelda to meet as kids

- Hold Your Destiny by webcomix. Long fic, basically a novelization of pre-calamity BOTW, loved the characterization (sequel is LU-related)

- A Hero's Spirit by SilvermistAnimeLover. Long fic, Link basically dies defeating Calamity but his spirit gets stuck in a limbo state so he's still able to help Hyrule start recovering from 100 years of destruction (sequel is LU-related)

Linked Universe (LU) Related fics:

- all of @/zolanort/Cullhach's fics are delightful

- Willow Bark and Chamomile by schrodingers__cat. The Chain gets separated and confused. Legend has never been more prepared for anything in his life

- Rain and Mountain Climbing Don't Mix by Isti-Tanu. A fun little one-shot of Wild being wild and everyone reacting as expected

- Whistling on Deaf Ears by CrimsonRavioli. A hurt/comfort fic (heavier on hurt but has a happy ending) where Twilight's sensitive hearing works against him

- Running with the Wolves by alternatemind. The Chain wonders if Wolfie is lonely and decide to do something about it. Light angst, mostly fluff

- Dog Days AU series by alternatemind. Twilight-centric AU where Twilight gets stuck as a wolf just before he meets the Chain. Hilarity ensues

- The More Things Change series by Iffondrel. The Chain compares and contrasts references to their own worlds while they explore Wild's Hyrule, includes TOTK content

- Language Barriers by Kastaborous. The Chain meets Wild fic where the 10,000 year gap between other heroes is acknowledged through language drift. Interesting and entertaining read

- A Home for Flowers by faufaren. The Chain meets Elderitch!Wild. Charming characterization and storytelling

- What Hero? by AimeeLouWrites. (tw gaslighting) The Chain meets Wild fic where Wild thinks they're Yiga and pretends that there is no hero, and then never quite really decides to tell them when the game is over. Borderline crackfic, very fun read

- Child's Play by AimeeLouWrites. The Chain meets Wild fic, de-aged Wild and Flora meet the Chain and decide to be as confusing as possible

- Level One by LightBlueScrubs. Linked Universe Hospital AU where everyone (except Wild) is a doctor working in a trauma unit (where Wild is the patient). First couple chapters are a bit squeamish due to being very medically realistic, but a great fic overall

[rocklover719]

History Lessons (Jiahto x Reader) (botw/totk)

Don’t fucking look at me. I don’t know what I’m doing.

My pal @thezoraprince and I had a conversation about if we HAD to fuck an elderly Zora…who would we take? They decided on Jiahto while I picked Seggin (because let’s be honest, Dorephan is too damn big to survive)

Here’s Jiahto, and your last warning to keep your sanity- I mean unless you LIKE expired sushi?

No specific age range or gender for the reader!

———————————————————————————————————

The rain pelted the stained glass window of the office as a soft light emitted from the luminous stone and candlelight. You let out a deep sigh, comfortable, with the smell of old books, leather, and ink hanging in the air. In the hearth a cozy fire thrives, heating the quaint but cozy space. Jiahto’s office provides a calm and comfortable ambience for research. The old historian mumbles to himself, flicking through a few folders. You two had been working on piecing together more of the story of the ancient Zora and their connections to the other races throughout Hyrule, hoping to collaborate it all into a single book. As Hyrule grew, so did travel and trade. All the races felt it was important to reach out to others and spread their culture and knowledge. Jiahto took this as an opportunity to condense and spread the joys of Zora history.

Several trips to various stone monuments and days spent digging through the library archives left the two of you tired but determined to sew together any missing pieces in the known records. You had just finished your section on the Royal Zora line, which was difficult considering that the passing of the throne was not based on bloodline alone, as Sidon had informed you during your process of interviewing him. Put simply, you couldn’t just trace up one family tree. Rather, you had to search for specific documentation in the instances where a king or queen had no heir, or did not have a worthy heir. You sighed again, this time more so about the work you two still had left.

“Aha, here we are..” Jiahto nodded as he placed a new scroll on the table, this one very dusty and tattered- indicative of its age. You perked up, excited for something new.

“This appears to be from the time of Queen Rutela. This should be interesting..” Jiahto explained as he carefully opened the scroll. You stood up, standing beside him as he laid out the canvas.

You had to admit, all this time spent with the senior historian had brought the two of you closer together quite drastically. Originally your relation was cordial, polite, and distanced appropriately. But as time passed, you began to take comfort in his presence, as the two of you slowly became research companions. He is one of the most intelligent people you know and takes great care in his research. His strive for preserving and encouraging education in Zora’s domain was admirable. He was so thoughtful about it, too. He would constantly repeat phrases such as, “We must learn our history or else we are doomed to repeat it,” and “Knowledge is the power which guides the flowing stream of the mind”.

“Look here, Y/N…” He points to a string of text, his finger moving along it as he speaks, “This text here describes the prosperity of the kingdom, and how the economy was booming. And over here, the trade system between ancient Zora and Hylians.” You took diligent notes, leaning in at some points to get a better look. Jiahto kept speaking, excitement growing in his voice as he lamented from the old text.

The firewood popped, making you glance up. Jiahto didn’t stop speaking. You pull your eyes away from the fire, and take a moment to observe your friend. There was this…spark in Jiahto’s eyes- and not one from the reflection of the hearth. His cat-like eyes were softened, pupils dilated ever so slightly. A small smile had etched his way into his features, aged smile lines showing his true joy as he continued to read. It was…sweet. He was sweet. Many know the Zora for being a kind but incredibly strong race. With tall statures, strong muscles, and sharp teeth, the Zora are careful to be mild-mannered and friendly- lest their appearance alone scare off potential friends. Even the elders, while decrepit more often than not, are surprisingly strong. Zora elders are known for their bitterness and crotchety attitudes, mostly those who lived during the time before and during the Calamity. And while Jiahto was definitely stern and often chose to remain alone as he studied, he certainly has a soft side. You had grown close to him, and it seemed that he enjoyed your company as much as you did his. Often times he would carry your books for you, or hold your bag while you took down notes at a monument.

As you observed your friend, a warmth bloomed in your chest. He was caring and soft as well as determined and educated. You found that attractive. His wisdom was gathered not just from his long lifetime but also gathered from his ambition and desire to seek knowledge and grow his mind. You were so lost in the thought of your admirations of the Zora that you didn’t even realize he was looking right at you.

“…Y/N? Is something the matter?” He questioned, a bit worried by your glazed over eyes.

“Hm? What? Sorry.. I did not mean to space out!” You quickly waved your hands, attempting to hide your embarrassment. “I think it’s just been a long day, is all!”

Jiahto stared at you for a moment, for the slight blush across your cheeks did not go unnoticed by him. He was old and wise enough to understand without question, but chose to hide this. He nodded.

“It has been. Though I suppose I must have gotten carried away with my excitement. Allow me to repeat myself.” Jiahto cleared his throat, and began to restate the tale of Queen Rutela’s demise and the life of her son Prince Ralis. You listened this time and focused your attention on the scroll spread out in front of you. As Jiahto’s hand moved across the page, you found yourself leaning towards him as you followed the words on the page. You place your hand on the table for stability, accidentally brushing against his still hand in the process. With a sharp inhale, you retract your hand closer to you, putting another few inches between your hand and his on the table.

Jiahto notices, taking just a second to glance in the corner of his eye towards you, but resumes his talking. You do your best to swallow your nerves and snuff out the flames of your anxiety as you try to keep your focus. But, all of your hard effort was instantly shattered the moment you felt his hand shift to graze against yours. You froze, holding your breath, and glanced at him from under your lashes. He kept his gaze forward on the documents, and you felt his pinky slowly move over yours, intertwining slightly.

Your heart nearly leapt out of your chest! He looked down at you for a moment and a small smile made its way across his lips. Your mouth hung open like a trout, and he found some humor in that. He returned to his reading, leaving you stunned. But you weren’t one to be dragged along, so you closed your jaw and took a breath before stepping closer to him, your sides just barely brushing. He reciprocated by lighting pressing into you, clearly receptive to the advance.

But after a moment or two passed he pulled away, walking to a cabinet against the wall. Your heart dropped, but only for a moment. Jiahto opened a liquor cabinet and you watched as he poured two glasses of a fine wine. He returned to the desk, holding out a glass for you with a warm expression.

“I believe we have worked hard, Y/N. We deserve a treat, won’t you say?”

You accepted the glass and smiled in return, lightly clinking it against his own before taking a sip. He did the same, though he did not take his eyes off of yours. After his sip, he took the journal he has been noting his historical findings in and motioned for his to join him on the small sofa in front of the hearth. You did not hesitate to join him. You sank comfortably into the plush material and sighed at the warmth from the blaze.

“Comfortable?” Jiahto smiled, sitting close to you, knee grazing against yours. He opened the journal and scribbled down his notes from the scroll he just read, and made his plan on where to incorporate it in the historical text you two have been planning. Then he set the journal aside and turned his full attention to you.

“Tell me, my dear, what’s gotten you in a tizzy this evening?” He remarked, a glint of mirth in his eyes. You try to avoid his gaze as your embarrassment begins to show. Suddenly the luminous stone flooring is very interesting. Just as your eyes begin to trace some of the natural inclusions, you feel a gentle finger curl under your chin. Jiahto raises your chin so that you face him properly as he gazes at you with kind eyes.

“My dear Y/N… why don’t we enjoy this evening expressing how we truly feel..?”

Historical findings be damned, this was the most important discovery of your evening.

—————————————————————————

There it is, and yes I will work on a Seggin one when my college schedule allows.

Sadly for me, physics and geology is more important than fish people.

[toushindai]

same anon as before. This time, I'm curious about your thoughts on Rauru having descendants in order to Zelda having his and Sonia's powers. Do you think Rauru's a good father? How do you think his child/children would look like? ☕

Hello again anon! I’ve made very few decisions about this matter given the absolute dearth of information we’re given (does Nintendo realize that to have descendants, you need to have children before you die of backstory?). There must be at least one child, unmentioned anywhere in the memories; given what other games say about how we get Zeldas, probably a daughter. Because there is absolutely no mention made of any children, I tend to assume there’s just the one. And I’ve decided that she’s pretty much infant age. I make a brief mention of her in “A Certain Nobility of Character,” but I’ll be honest, that mention was really an obligatory “I know that Rauru has a child who should factor into his life somehow, even if Nintendo doesn’t.”

Rauru strikes me as the type to be a very doting father. From the stone tablets we know that he occasionally snuck away from official business to hunt; I think he would also be the type to sneak away from official business to go play with his daughter, if he were to be around when she made it to toddlerhood. He is a good father, I think, but also he is a king and has a king’s responsibilities, so he’s probably not able to spend as much time with her as he’d like. Even so, I think he generally makes time to spend with her each day. He’s a bit awed by her and her very existence, like wow!! That’s a whole new little person!! I have a responsibility to build a happy world for her!!

As for what she looks like—I have this headcanon that when a Zonai has a child with a non-Zonai, that child will typically be born without their first eye (how the Zonai refer to what we would call their third eye). This first eye is so crucial to their cultural identity that Zonai tend to think of those children as belonging more to the other parent’s species than their own, even if that child’s appearance otherwise leans heavily towards Zonai features. This is the case with Rauru and Sonia’s daughter: no first eye, but darker, grayer skin than Sonia’s; very fine fur especially on her ears, jawline, and torso; ears longer than Sonia’s (whose ears already already a great deal longer than Zelda’s) and very, very expressive. She read as so Zonai to Sonia’s Hylian eyes that she was confused by Rauru’s initial habit (and Mineru’s as well) of referring to her as Hylian instead of half-Hylian, half-Zonai. Rauru and Mineru have since come around to Sonia’s way of thought, but it was initially a point of strange, uncomfortable tension.

(I feel like I should say something about the Ancient Hero’s Aspect here. Well, “Something.” You cannot get me on the record saying that I am absolutely certain that the Ancient Hero is a Zonai-Hylian (or Zonai-Gerudo????) hybrid. Why do they have a tail. The Zonai we see do not have tails. For completing all the BOTW shrines you receive your Green Clothes; for completing all the TOTK shrines you receive One Billion Questions Which The Devs Will Not Be Answering. Thanks. I feel more equipped to say for sure that “it’s interesting that Zonai culture (reflected in the AH wearing what is essentially the Zonaite Set) is preserved, or at least kept familiar enough to be alluded to, until the time of ten thousand years before BOTW, through presumably several rounds of Calamity Ganon” than to say anything definitive about what species or mix of species the Ancient Hero is. Why the tail. Why…)

By the way, the first chapter of skittykitty’s AU The Price of Peace goes into Rauru’s thoughts on his daughter and how thoughts of her inform his actions in a way I really enjoyed. You should check it out!

[cinderspots]

Okay, okay, I have another question, what is your take on the rito/zora evolution?

Okay, so this depends on the game, actually. Throw out BOTW and TOTK for now because they reversed the extinction of Zora and made it really confusing.

So, in Wind Waker, we're introduced to Rito for the first time, right? They're living a silly little life in a time of great crisis. Their island is revealed to be Hyrule mountains, and when the Great Flood happened the surviving Zora were forced to evolve because the water has to be just right for them to actually survive in it, and you see the Zora struggling with murky water in MM showing their basically goldfish and they'll die if they don't have the right kind of water. In OOA, they live in an area that can be controlled easily, and if memory serves right, that is Labrynna? Back to MM they talk about how they're struggling to survive in murky waters because it's not optimal for them so it stands to reason that when it flooded they struggled even more and eventually had to evolve into Rito which is hinted at repeatedly in WW and eventually is indirectly proven by Medli who's related to the Zora sage (..earth? I think it's earth) And you see Rito wearing things that are hinted to Zora culture and the sapphires and conspicuously placed on the island. So yes, in this timeline, I completely agree that the Rito evolved from the Zora. Do I have to like it? No. But it's completely logical.

Now, let's go back to BOTW and TOTK. The fact that the Zora are back despite extinct means that entire spiel? Null and void. It stands to reason that these two games (along with AOC) are completely separate. Brand new timeline. Awesome, like we didn't have enough of those. Since the Zora and Rito exist side by side, it could be argued that some Zora split off from the Domain and became Rito. We don't exactly have enough evidence of this since the other timelines have several games to back up things. So in regards to this I would say that this time they are completely separate. Because in BOTW, AOC, TOTK Rito are completely anthromorphic birds and exist side by side with anthromorphic fish people. Since the Rito originally came from the extinct Zora, this makes everything complicated, and because of the lack of humanoid features in both, it only furthers my thought process that they simply evolved from something else. The Zora evolved from actual fish, and the Rito evolved from actual birds.

We love Zelda continuously retconning themselves 👍

[runecatwrites]

My Fic Library

All of my fics are non-explicit so it's safe to enjoy them at work!

Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda)

Hyrule Fields Assisted Living Home: Hilarious, non-serious fic written after a late night convo on the LU discord server: what if the Chain were a bunch of old farts living in an old folks’ home together?

To Lean On (3+1): Fluffy 3+1 oneshot of Wind doing some brotherly bonding with Four, Legend, Sky, and then Time.

A Bit Off the Top: Super cute oneshot of Good Older Sibling Warriors giving the rest of the Chain haircuts, feat. some feels with Wind

A Fistful of Sugar: Fluffy oneshot of Legend being a good friend to Hyrule when Rulie suffers the consequences of drinking potions on an empty stomach

The Spirits of the Hero and Safe Harbor (see below) also feature LU!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Give That Boy a Nap: soft little oneshot of Zelda giving Link some TLC after rescuing him from Null’s clutches. Based on this art!

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Link’s Awakening

Safe Harbor: “Link and Zelda are twins” AU! Link has lost the will to live after the events of Link’s Awakening, and Zelda resolves to convince him that he is truly loved and has a place to call home. Featuring a Linked Universe epilogue!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom

The Spirits of the Hero (current WIP!): Multi-chapter fic in which past incarnations of Link begin to surface within him after a peculiar attack by the Yiga. Featuring the Linked Universe Links | The Chain!

One Step at a Time (current WIP!): A multi-chapter fic delving into both the physical and emotional struggles Link goes through when he becomes severely weakened by the attack he suffers at the beginning of TotK.

What's Said Between Us (my most popular fic to date!): A 5+1 Link/Zelda fic focusing on their telepathic connection.

The Family I Had: A Link/Zelda oneshot in which Link recovers his first memory of his family.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Endurance Training: A longfic following the progression of tests upon a strange Crest phenomenon that mysteriously injures Crest bearers. Seeds of doubt are sown as to the history of Crests which the Church of Seiros teaches.

Faith and Trust: A 5+1 Claude/F!Byleth fic in which Claude is selectively mute as a result of his childhood trauma.

Through the Storm: A Felix/Sylvain oneshot. When things go sideways on a class trip, both boys' lives end up in danger.

Just A Nap: A fluffy Caspar/Linhardt oneshot in which the boys find themselves in an "only one bed" situation.

A Bit of an Oversight: A post-canon oneshot highlighting the deep fraternal bond between Felix and Dimitri. Felix/Annette is also present as a background ship.

The Echo Inside: A Felix/Sylvain oneshot exploring the idea of Major Crest bearers inheriting scattered memories of the Nabatean from which their Crest originated.

From the Depths: A oneshot featuring the Faerghus 4 as young children involved in a terrifying ice skating accident.

Fire and Flame: A oneshot from Lorenz's POV in which he and a couple other Deer rescue Claude from kidnappers during the timeskip.

[karzahnii]

at 105 hours and 52.08% completion I finished TOTK??

I found it a step up to BOTW in every way and a very solid open world game. Fuse + Ascend make all of the game's systems so much more fun to navigate, there were more concentrated big moments throughout the game... it's hard to complain, but I'll list out my personal dislikes ANYWAY 👇

I was severely misled to believe the game's soundtrack would prominently feature saxophone

I didn't build very much. Individual Zonai devices proved VERY fun (fan, rocket, stabilizer, to name a few) but I generally didn't look forward to combining things to solve problems. Even though there were plenty of mini-moments you could build stuff for fun, and Auto-Build, it mostly felt tedious

The Sky wasn't all that... it obviously can't be as dense as the land map but so many areas felt perfectly cookie cutter (big plus sign land island featuring a shrine, launcher, dispenser, chest, and construct boss). The Depths ended up being a very cool and packed surprise feature, I just wish the Sky had a bit more variety

ENG voices - I had JP voices enabled the entire time, occasionally switching to english out of curiosity but immediately regretting it. This is also partly because the game's writing is generally not amazing, outside of a few moments

why the fuck did Ganondorf make that one face

I really enjoyed every sage quest, they felt distinct and cool and give the sages good moments... I just wish more story happened outside these. Yiga Clan got SO much attention (seriously, multiple MAIN quests focused on them) which felt like a waste bc they're played off like joke villains

Assuming this is the final game of this Zelda iteration (it really should be), the ending felt kinda lackluster? Purah should at least have taken a photo of everyone before Mineru fucked off 😭😭 I also genuinely believed Zelda would remain a dragon, it's disappointing she reverted and makes her sacrifice feel insignificant

[tough-tootin-baby]

Tears of the kingdom I was very sad to realise is the most disappointing and unoriginal game of the year. Like picking it up people expect and are excited to see several amazingly designed dungeons, a story that brings something new and engaging and most of all songs that mean things and feel special. Unfortunately we see barely any of that (SPOILERS) there are only 5 proper temples 4 of which are in pretty much the exact locations which is so goddamn stupid that it pains me. There is such a large map and with the underground and the sky you’d think they could’ve got creative but they didn’t. All of the characters have been copied and pasted from botw making them all boring except for like tulin since he wasn’t really featured that much in botw. You get all the abilities right of the bat which sucks cause it would benefit so much if you collected them in temples allowing you to unlock more things in the world so you feel like you’ve actully done some progress. The fact that the only thing the main quest does is make you feel like your progressing in the story instead of progressing your character is really disappointing. The game also feels massively unfinished with the underground as I noticed the underground is a reversed version of the surface (hills are now wholes and wholes are now mountains). Even every tree is placed in the same spot!!!!!!! Like bro!!! I think the trailer really showed what the game was capable off if Nintendo wasn’t lazy but obviously they were. The only time they do play the trailer song is at the end and it doesn’t really fit. I was so dissapointed by the game and it makes me sad. Botw was a cool game I liked what they did and although it was different from the originals (I love the originals) it worked. It really seemed like totk was gonna blend the botw with the originals but it didn’t and created an unsatisfieng adventure where a chest found in the middle of nowhere will give better rewards that a full on side quest that takes half an hour to complete.

[fullhalalalchemist]

in the totk trailer, we see the strange robot-like enemy chopping a tree

i firmly believe that these are the same ancient robots that were featured in skyward sword, or at the very least based off them. we know they're zonai in build, since they drop zonai pieces. i have a few working theories

theyre the same ancient robots from skyward sword, but because their technology is so old they were rebuilt by the zonai using zonai tech. the zonai, although being described as "barbarians", managed to build some of the craziest ruins in the game. they were definitely more than barbarians

sort of like 1, but the zonai being linked to pre-skyward sword civilization on the surface. hylians have existed for tens of thousands of years, as have other species. why not the zonai? perhaps the ancient tech of the robots is more familiar to the zonai than it is to hylians. by the time link in SS found the robots, they were already rusted and pretty much gone. he had to use a timestone to bring the area back who knows how many years just so that they could keep working. SOMEONE had to have built them, some civilization with enough working knowledge that could build complicated robotic beings had to have existed for several hundred if not thousands of years already.

they're not the same as the SS robots, but instead are rebuilt in their image. perhaps the legend of them was passed down orally, and whatever societies of zonai existed pre-BOTW built them based off old legends using their own technology.

[afniel]

Tears of the Kingdom and early Metroid games share SO much design DNA. Especially in the Depths, but just in general.

Mild spoilers re: the Depths atmospheric design basically and the intro sequence of the game, nothing plotty, but I'll put it under a cut in case you've been avoiding everything about it until you can play it yourself. Which I recommend, it's SO good blind.

You're exploring a vast, oppressively dark, alien space, cavernous and claustrophobic in equal measure. There are signs of past civilization in the existence of cyclopean stone and metal megastructures, the exact function of which is hard to imagine from where you are now, and they bring you no comfort. There's very little music, but a lot of strange, echoing, disconcerting sounds. Are they a threat? Are they just background noise? Who knows. The landscape doesn't care about you. It is essentially inimical to your existence. You are small, alone, and uninvited, and anything could be lurking in the echoing blackness. Over time, you find hidden items, overcome bizarre creatures, grow in strength, and your forays become a little less sweaty-palmed...but not completely.

Okay, am I describing Metroid 1 and 2, or the Depths? Both? Both. Both is good.

For as much as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom riff off the first few Zelda games, with their sense of open-ended adventure and ability to do things in whatever order you can physically manage, TotK in particular draws a huge chunk of its design from the first several Metroid games; mostly 1 and 2, somewhat Super Metroid (which is in fact subtitled as Metroid 3, though nobody really calls it that, because it was in the era of titling everything Super because, you know, Super Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System).

The design cues they use to create a feeling of dread and fear in the Depths are basically one-to-one the same, just expanded on since the Switch has more capability to do so. Black is used heavily as a background color. On the NES, this was a limitation turned into a design feature; on the Switch, this is a very intentional decision. It's not just dark, it's pitch-black, and the drifting patches of fog and particles add to that feeling by showing you the vaguest dimensions of the open space yawning before you, but nothing else. The feeling of the darkness pressing in on you in a very visceral way is increased even further by the use of an extremely clever low-light shader that actually replicates how humans see in low light: we have far more rods, which detect contrast, than cones, which detect color, and our very low light vision is almost colorless as a result. Find a dark corner of the Depths and wander into it, and you'll see the saturation of your surroundings do the same. It's not even a simple desaturation filter, either! The contrast of the textures around you will actually increase as the overall light level drops. Certain colors will persist a little longer than others, which is true in human vision too. It's IMPRESSIVE. They very much did their homework to make the darkness feel like a physical presence.

The music is in the same vein as well. It's discordant, unsettling, and sparse enough that you can't readily pin down any sort of beat, with non-tonal flourishes like a jagged-sounding burst of bass. And it echoes forever. It feels like the Depths look: not necessarily malicious, but inhospitable, and incompatible with surface life. In the areas that do have recognizable music, it's somber and distant, and still very much discomforting.

Much like any of the early Metroid games (and many of the following ones), the scenery is largely organic, punctuated by constructions of mostly unknown function. You do of course have the benefit of some place names; this is a mine, that's a processing center of some kind, et cetera. But they still don't look like any kind of facility we might recognize without that prompt. Despite being mainly natural, though, it's designed after no nature we know, and once you shed some light on things, it's no less alien. Plants are blue and pink and gray, stone is yellow and white. The quality of the light is bioluminescent except for directly under activated lightroots. It could just as easily be an entire other planet down there. There's even a superheated area that you need specific armor to navigate, not unlike Norfair...and just like Norfair, if you're feeling adventurous and know what you're doing, you can entirely skip that armor and navigate without it.

This is all without getting into the obvious part where Link is alive because of an alien graft, from a dead race, which interfaces with their lost technology and gives him extraordinary abilities and upgrades. Samus has this same plot beat exactly, only hers is some kind of Chozo modification in her backstory rather than a limb replacement, and later in Metroid Fusion, a literal dose of metroid DNA that transfers some of their absorption abilities and cold weakness to her. Link and Samus could form the most strangely specific support group ever.

Also, the music that plays when you're being spoken to by a shrine is very, very much like any of the Metroid riffs (especially in Super Metroid) that play when you pick up items or load a save file. There's not as much to say there, because my ear is not good enough to try and compare the chord structure, but it's audible even without that so it's whatever.

Anyway yeah I've spent way too much time thinking about this, which is probably obvious lol. But I was REALLY excited when it suddenly clicked for me what the Depths reminded me of, and the more I compared TotK and the Metroid series, the more I realized they shared in design, and I'm a design nerd so now I'm making it everyone's problem. Hopefully it's interesting to others! And also if I missed anything you caught, or you've got a different take on it, don't be shy about adding to reblogs, I love discussing this stuff and I will absolutely not be upset if you saw something else instead. I think that's cool and I want to hear about it! There's so much going on with this game that there's no one right interpretation, especially for something like world design elements, and I love it to death for that.

[connectwired]

Since I have no other place to go for this, I want to start out by saying that Nintendo needs a refresh. By doing a refresh with games and hardware, expectations can be thrown in a new direction, and speculation can be all the more fun. That said, what we want and need differs from how Nintendo views, so what I say should be taken lightly unless stated otherwise. I'm VERY open-minded, so I may go on and on, and I'm also open to criticism on the things I think about.

First off, the next console. I believe it'll stay relatively the same as the Switch but with the best internals they can get their hands on. They'll probably update the Joycons a bit and reintroduce the standard D-pad, or they may take the Steam Deck approach and glue them on. The standard will have a higher quality OLED screen to compete with others and possibly better sound. Not much more I could think of but it's enough to compete for next gen and try to bleed into the future gen. It opens up the possibility for more open first party games as well as more intricacy and design, increasing the odds for success (most of the time). Third party games will run better too.

Next, let's talk games. 2D Mario has been refreshed with Wonder, Zelda with TotK and BotW, Pikmin is still going, and Metroid... we don't know what's happening there, but it did have Dread. Mario Kart is still going strong, but there's only so much left they could do until they run out of options for one game. Smash is dead for now, but that's a topic for later with Mario Kart. Animal Crossing is iffy, as the player base has likely been halved since release; I know I don't play it anymore, and I've heard that it's got several issues that I agree with.

I want to go in depth about the state of Mario. Mario fans will be feasting soon with Wonder and RPG, and I'm one of them. Super Mario RPG is, if you couldn't tell, my favorite RPG, and I'm incredibly ecstatic for the remake. I have faith it'll sell well and be given the recognition it deserves. The music and graphics seem phenomenal in the remake, and everything seems like how we viewed it in the original; our minds were brought to life with this game.

Next is Wonder, which is an interesting beast I would love to tackle. The art style is amazing and a big step from New, just as much as the soundtrack is. It's all soft and colorful while remaining fast and enjoyable; such an appealing game hasn't happened for 2D Mario in over a decade. I love the new voice lines - despite Martinet possibly being replaced - and the new sound effects are great too. It's so experimental yet seems to be promising.

3D Mario games are pretty much due for a new game at this point. We haven't seen one since Bowser's Fury, which was only about half a game, if that. The last full game was Odyssey all the way back in 2017. It's understandable why it would take so long, but at least throw us a hint once the new system is revealed. It would be cool for it to be inspired by Wonder, but I could see it branching off of Odyssey or Galaxy too.

Super Smash Bros. should be getting a new game within the next 5 years. Whether it be a reboot, Ultimate Deluxe, or a continuation, I'm certain it'll be good. If they reboot the series, I imagine they'll keep a handful of characters and add a lot of new ones while also making completely new movesets for most fighters. Ones without new movesets would obviously have some changes though. The stages have a chance to be completely new. A continuation would likely cut some of the roster while adding new ones and do the same with stages. A continuation could be Deluxe but with different features and a new story. There are lots of debates about what characters would get in no matter what way they take, but I think the few that are locked in are Geno, Shantae, Sans, and possibly Cuphead. Personally, I wish Springtrap and Reimu would be in too, but sadly I don't believe they would. Same for Goku who will never be in.

Mario Kart is the only thing left on my mind, as it hasn't had a new game in about 10 years, less if you count Tour (but who would; it's a live service mobile game based on Mario Kart 7). It needs a new game very soon after the DLC is done, but there's one question that everyone has: where do they go next? I think they could take the Sonic R route and have it be more open world. Mix that up with all of the items in Tour and maybe some new stuff inspired by 2D and 3D Mario, and you've got something magical. Doing something like Double Dash and having two drivers per kart would be cool too. The roster needs an update as well, but Tour has added plenty of characters over time. They could bring back all characters, and if possible, add a separate menu for costumes and alternate colors. Tracks could be more based on games and even the recent movie. I would love to race around in something like Beach Bowl Galaxy or a fire flower field.