#this is kinda based off botw link but. you can interpret them as any link or a new one if u wish

[spaceistheplaceart]

what if Modern AU but they still gotta complete all the fantasy-ass quests

[blueskittlesart]

any thoughts on how once again zelda was robbed of her agency because her "father figure" didn't listen to her? even if rauru was kinder to her than her father. and that she had sonia who was patient and loving for a little while before she died (just like her mother). i know rauru apologizes for his hubris but still, i wish we saw zelda be upset about it. and even if zelda was such a big part of the quest she still literally sacrificed her humanity once again because of someone else's mistake- because rauru literally didn't listen to the girl from the future that warned you that shit was going to go down. o know nintendo just loves putting zelda inside crystals and stones but i wish we got something better. even if it was her decision to become a dragon... did she have any other choice? it really just feels like they robbed her of agency again just like botw and the games before

i've been trying to figure out how to answer this one. because there are two ways i could analyze this plot point, either from a writer's perspective or an in-story perspective, but neither of those lead to me fully agreeing with your interpretation? I think there's definitely something to be said about zelda consistently being pushed aside in these games, but. well. ok let's get into it ig

from a writer's perspective, I do honestly have quite a bit of sympathy for the zelda devs as they attempt to navigate the modern political landscape with these games. The cyclical lore, though canonized relatively recently, holds them to a standard of consistency in their games in terms of certain key elements. one of those key elements is that there has to be a princess, and that princess must somehow be the main macguffin of the game. The player must chase her, and the end goal of the game must be to reunite the player and the princess. In 1986 this was an incredibly easy sell. women didn't need to be characters. players were content with saving a 2-dimensional princess whose only purpose was to tell them "good job!" at the end. but as society advances, that princess becomes a much more difficult character to write while adhering to the established overarching canon. (as a side note: i don't necessarily believe that the writers SHOULD be held to the standards of that canon. I think deviating from it in certain areas would be a good change of pace. but i also recognize that deviations from the formula are widely hated by the loz playerbase and that they're trying to make money off these games, so we're working under the established rule that the formula must be at least loosely adhered to.) Modern fans want a princess who is a person, who has agency and makes decisions and struggles in the same way the hero does. but modern fans ALSO want a game that follows the established rules of the canon. so we need a princess who is a real character but who can ALSO serve as a macguffin within the narrative, something that is inherently somewhat objectifying.

the two games that i think do the best job writing a princess with agency are skyward sword and botw (based on your ask, our opinions differ there lol. hear me out) in both games, we have a framing event which seperates zelda and link, but in both games, that separation was ZELDA'S CHOICE. skyward sword zelda runs away from link out of fear of hurting him. botw zelda chooses to return to the castle alone to allow link the time he needs to heal. sksw kinda fumbled later on by having ghirahim kidnap her anyway, but. i said BEST not PERFECT. botw zelda I think is the better example because, with the context of the memories, she's arguably MORE of a character than link is. we see her struggles, her breakdowns, her imperfection, specifically we see her struggle with her lack of agency within the context of the game itself. when she steps in front of link in the final memory, and when she chooses to return to the castle, those are some of the first choices we see her make almost completely free of outside influence; a RECLAMATION of her agency (within the narrative) after years of having it stripped from her. from an objective viewer's standpoint, this writing decision still means she is absent from 90% of the game and that she has little control over her actions for the duration of the player's journey. however I think this is just about the best they could have done to create a princess with agency and a real character arc while still keeping the macguffin formula intact--you're not really SAVING zelda in botw. SHE is the one that is saving YOU; when you wake up on the plateau with no memories, too weak to fight bokoblins, let alone calamity ganon. the reason you are allowed to train and heal in early-game botw is because SHE is in the castle holding ganon back, protecting YOU. When you enter the final fight, you're not rescuing zelda, you're relieving her of her duty. taking over the work she's been doing for the past hundred years. in the final hour, you both work in tandem to defeat ganon. while this isn't a PERFECT example of a female character with agency and narrative weight, i think it's a pretty good one, especially in the context of save-the-princess games like loz.

as for totk, you put a lot of emphasis on rauru not believing zelda and taking action immediately, which, again, from an objective standpoint, i understand. but even when we're writing characters with social implications in mind, those character's actions still need to... make sense. Rauru was a king ruling over what he believed to be a perfectly peaceful kingdom. zelda literally fell out of the sky, landed in front of him, claimed to be his long-lost granddaughter, and then told him that some random ruler of a fringe faction in the desert was going to murder him and he had to get the jump on it by killing him first. the ruler which this girl is trying to convince rauru to wage an unprompted war on has the power to disguise himself as other people. no one in their right mind would immediately take the girl at her word. war is not something any leader should jump into without proper research and consideration, and to rauru's credit, he DIDN'T ever outright dismiss zelda. he believed her when she said she was from the future, he allowed her to work with him and he took her warnings as seriously as he could without any further proof. but he could not wage an unprompted war on ganondorf. that's just genuinely not practical, especially for a king who values peace among his people as much as rauru seems to. as soon as ganondorf DID attack, giving rauru confirmation that zelda's accounts of the future were real, he began making preparations to confront him. remember that zelda didn't KNOW that rauru and sonia were going to be casualties of the war--she didn't make the connection between rauru's arm in the future and rauru the king until AFTER sonia's death, when rauru made the decision to attack ganondorf directly. I think the imprisoning war and the casualties of it were less an issue of zelda being denied agency and more an issue of no one, including zelda, having full context for the events as they were unfolding. if zelda had KNOWN that sonia and rauru were going to die from the beginning and was still unable to prevent it that would be a different issue, but she didn't. none of them did.

I think another thing worth pointing out with rauru and his death irt zelda is that rauru is clearly written specifically as a foil to rhoam. this is evident in how he treats both zelda and link, with a constant kindness and understanding which is clearly opposite to rhoam's dismissiveness and disappointment. consider rhoam's death and the circumstances surrounding it. He died because, in zelda's eyes, she was unable to do her duty; the one thing he constantly berated her for. Rhoam's death solidified zelda's belief that she was a failure, a belief which she KNEW rhoam held as well. his death was doubly traumatic to her because she knew he died believing it was her fault. Now contrast that to the circumstances surrounding rauru's death. Rauru CHOSE to die despite zelda's warnings, because he wanted zelda and his kingdom to live. rauru's death was not agency-stripping for zelda; in fact, it functioned almost as an admission that he believed her capable of continuing to live in his place. With him gone, the fate of the kingdom fell to her and the sages. he KNEW that he would die and still went into that battle confidently, trusting zelda to make the right decisions once he was gone. where rhoam believed zelda incapable of doing ANYTHING without link, rauru trusted zelda COMPLETELY with the fate of his kingdom. several details in totk confirm that when rauru died there was no plan for zelda to draconify, that all happened after rauru was gone. it was HER plan, the plan which rauru trusted her to come up with once he was gone. and I think it's also worth noting that zelda's sacrifice with the draconification parallels rauru's!! Rauru gives up his life trusting the sages and his people to be able to continue his work in his place. Zelda gives up her physical form trusting link and the sages in the future to be able to figure out what to do and find her. these games in general have this recurring theme but totk specifically is all about love and trust and reliance on others. zelda relies on link, link relies on zelda, they both rely on the champions and the sages and rauru and sonia and they all rely each other. reliance on others isn't lack of agency, it's a constant choice they make, and that choice is the thing which allows them to triumph.

The draconification itself is something i view similarly to zelda's sacrifice in botw--a choice she makes which, symbolically & within the confines of the narrative, is a demonstration of her reclaimed agency and places her at the center of the narrative, but which ALSO removes her from much of the player's experience and robs her of any overt presence or decisionmaking within the gameplay. again, I think this is a solution to the macguffin-with-agency dilemma, and it's probably one of the better solutions they could have come up with. Would I have liked to see a game where zelda is more present within the actual gameplay? yes, but I also understand that at this point the writers aren't quite willing to deviate that much from their formula. the alternative within the confines of this story would be to let zelda DIE in the past, removing her from gameplay ENTIRELY, which is an infinitely worse option in my opinion. draconification allowed her to be present, centered the narrative around her, and allowed the writers to reiterate the game's theme of trust and teamwork when she assists the player in the final battle, which i think was a REALLY great choice, narratively speaking.

In any case, I don't think it's right to say that zelda was completely robbed of her agency in botw and totk. Agency doesn't always mean that she's unburdened and constantly present, it means she's given the freedom to make her own choices and that her choices are realistically written with HER in mind, not just the male characters around her, and I think botw/totk do a pretty good job of writing her and her choices realistically and with nuance.

[dylawa]

Having Lived and Loved: The Playlist (Part 3)

Here is Part 3 to my HLAL Playlist description series! The purpose of this post is to put all the important songs in one place, as well as add descriptions for where they fit in, and my reasoning as such. I’ll put it all under a Read More of course.

The series is split up since I can only share five videos per post, so expect more to come, and know you’re entering in media-res if you haven’t read the first post! I will also mention, there will be more songs in the playlist than there are directly mentioned in this series of posts. That is because the playlist will include all songs related to the chapters’ titles, not just the ones that have significance character/story-line wise. Links to all parts and the full playlist are at the bottom of the post!

For this part, we’ll be focusing on character-specific pieces (for members of Comet’s agency, in particular), not just story songs! For obvious reasons, All Might will not be included, but if you really want me to assign a song to him, let me know! In the meantime, strap in!

Comet: “Four” -- Sleeping At Last

Now, as a disclaimer: there are dozens of songs I wish I could assign Comet all in this one post, and maybe I’ll make a separate playlist for that! But for now, we have this one selected piece, and this is for my personal interpretation of Comet-- feel free to assign her whatever song you think fits best for your own version (Psst, in fact, I encourage you to send them to me)!

Bodies fashioned out of dirt and dust For a moment we get to be glorious Ice sculptures adorned in light Sand castles built tall in between the tides Maybe I'm hiding behind metaphor Maybe my heart needs to break to be sure One day I'll wear it all on my sleeve The insignificant with the sacred unique

Now, Ryan O’Neal’s “Atlas: Year Two” project encompasses all personality types on the Enneagram type test (which is more like an astrology type thing than anything actually based in science, similar to the Myers-Briggs test), and this is what a four is described as:

“Fours are self-aware, sensitive, and reserved. They are emotionally honest, creative, and personal, but can also be moody and self-conscious. Withholding themselves from others due to feeling vulnerable and defective, they can also feel disdainful and exempt from ordinary ways of living. They typically have problems with melancholy, self-indulgence, and self-pity.

At their Best: inspired and highly creative, they are able to renew themselves and transform their experiences.

Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance

Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity).”

Seems Comet-esque to me!

Next, I’ll pick a song for our resident mechanic and armor-tech, Ayane!

Ayane: “Akkala Ancient Laboratory” -- Breath of the Wild

Now, I would like everyone to know, I DID NOT base Ayane’s design off of Purah from Breath of the Wild! That being said, they share... a lot of undeniable similarities. Fan art of all HLAL characters will becoming eventually, but for reference, Ayane is also short (think Gran-Torino height), has white hair, side shaved and tied into a ponytail, and her goggles most definitely give her the same big-eyed look as Purah. Unlike Purah, however, she actually looks her age, crows feet and all. The woman is not young, my friends.

I would be remiss to gloss over the fact that Ayane and Purah also share a similar bubbly and scientific personality, and are constantly working on a new project of some kind (either to the joy or dismay of their acquaintances). It’s for this reason that, instead of seeking out some other technologically-sounding song, I decided one of the laboratory themes from BotW would fit best.

I’m kinda flipping Purah the bird by using the Akkala lab theme instead of Hateno, but it just fits better overall.

Modi-Mutation (Mod): “Natural” -- Imagine Dragons

Not so fun fact about Mod; I... don’t have a name for him yet. So I’m going to fix that right now! Let’s see... Rin Masashi. Rin meaning cold and disciplined, and Masashi meaning, basically (and I mean basically), “leader’s will”. Cool! Moving on.

Mod doesn’t necessarily want to be the Number One Hero, but he’s still clearly passionate about his work, and desires to work alongside only the best of the best. Anything less would slow him down, and prevent him from doing his job properly, in his eyes. Therefore, it’s absolutely necessary to surround himself with competent heroes. Being hired on by Shimuzu, aka The Boss, was equally a dream come true and a skeptical circumstance, given her questionable past, but her power was something Mod could not ignore.

All that being said, he doesn’t have an issue with inexperienced or low power heroes being in the industry itself... he just doesn’t want anything to do with them for himself. Which is almost just as bad as the alternative.

Ichiro: “Intriguing Possibilities” -- The Social Network

First, I’m going to get just a little vulgar here: fuck Mark Zuckerberg. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, this soundtrack slaps, and has the overall aura of “progress at a price,” as well as sounding both technological and other-worldly. The morality and ethical nature of Ichiro’s use of his Quirk is... foggy, at best, depending on your interpretation of what the concept of a human soul-- or, really, any soul-- encompasses. I don’t feel like I did the concept enough justice in WWICB, but I did what I could with what I had, and I hope I explained my thoughts on it well enough to make sense and to make a good, if not valid, point.

Funnily enough, if you think about it, Ichiro’s Quirk is closer to something of a poltergeist than it is to anything technological in nature, but as a result of his upbringing, he was inspired to use his Quirk towards electronics instead of, say, plants, or furniture. The possibility is absolutely there, the only issue is, if the item in question doesn’t have its own form of locomotion or communication... well, that would be a pretty crappy fate, and even a mindless, heartless soul doesn’t deserve that kind of life.

The boy may now be a man of science, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand morality. It may just take him a nudge here or there to remember his own humanity.

And, finally, we move on to the leader of the agency’s operations.

The Boss: “Thirty Three” -- Smashing Pumpkins

Speak to me in a language I can hear Humor me before I have to go Deep in thought I forgive everyone As the cluttered streets greet me once again

I know I can't be late, supper's waiting on the table Tomorrow's just an excuse away So I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own

Manami Shimizu has lead a tumultuous life. I’ve hinted at it here and there throughout the series, but now I’m going to be spelling it out, mostly because I haven’t seen anyone else comment on it. Practically nothing is known about her childhood, as it’s something she never speaks about, and only marginally more is known about her time as a criminal. The main factor everyone knows, is she became very influential in her sphere of activity, rising the ranks of her own criminal organization to become its leader in short time. This was only stopped when a very young All Might stepped in to handle the reality-ripper/borrower himself.

When Shimizu was offered a second chance, no one expected it, least of all Shimizu herself. After all, second chances were non-existent throughout the course of her life thus far. However, All Might knew her power was valuable, almost as much as her will and her heart, powerful and brave. What was even more surprising than that act of mercy, was the fact that Shimizu took it. So, almost overnight, Shimizu changed from being one of the fastest rising villains Japan had seen, to becoming a hero who knew villains from the inside out almost better than any other, and she dived into the role willingly. She was given her agency after the previous owner retired, and from there, she has created one of the most efficient hero agencies in Japan.

Despite all of this improvement, of course, it makes sense that one cannot always fully leave behind the life they once knew. Even if her actions today translate into nothing that could be related to her old gang, the memories are still there, in the corners of her mind; the things she fought for then, and how they have changed her now.

Ultimately, all she wants, all she has ever wanted, is for life to be better. Even back in the day, that was her ultimate goal; a better life, a happier life. It’s impossible to strive for perfection, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try, even if she has to do so on her own.

And that concludes this third post regarding members of the hero agency we’ve come to know and love! Next post, we’ll go over non-agency characters, some beloved, and some a little less known!

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Full Playlist]