#torniotalk

[tornioduva]

Dungeon meshi and body proportions

Ok, i'm feeling the rush i got from binging the manga this last week is starting to fade away, i'll be back to being a normal person soon i think. at least, that is before i find a new something for me to dive into uhuh.

Before that happens, i want to praise Ryoko Kui for one last think. The design of the characters!

For years i've expressed (maybe not so much online) my hate towards the "anime style", this homogenization of traits and beauty standards to an artificial degree, and the mass spread and consumption of it. yes, trends exist for a reason, this is not the first nor the last art current to be popular and i'm not the first detractor of one in history. I do think there is something uniquely harmful in this one though, and that is why i'm able to find the energy to be such a pretentious dipshit about it. That is a discussion for another day though.

All this to say that going through Dungeon Meshi and seiing these characters, plus (and in a way because of it) all the additional sketches of the daydream hour bonus sections, was such a breath of fresh air! (at least for what concerns japanese exported stories)

All i could say and praise in regard to character designs in general is perfectly expressed in this video, which i recommend you to watch if you want to hear my opinions (and the video author's too, uhuh):

I want to leave you though with at least one specific praise for me: Falin.

i've seen countless time people (online) just not understanding how people's body work, how much differences there can be and how proportions do distribute and affect the body. in anime I see a lot of short and tall people (mostly women girls) that share the same proportions despite their actual height, and that often leads to think "yeah, she is short" and than she's tall when around someone, or (most often) the contrary. same lenght of limbs, same head to body proportions, and little details like this.

Falin you can tell at a glance she is a tall woman before she's around anyone, even when she is standing near her brother who is taller than her.

Kui did her homework in studying bodies and variations, and, whether consciously or not, she differentiated her in body in subtle but fundamental ways: her head being slightly smaller than her body, the neck being fairly long, and her having somewhat broader shoulders.

I accept that there might be an element of suggestion at play here, considering also how she is dressed most of the time, but I really do think there is a direct effort at differentiation here.

This is the first time in a long time (in a series like this at least) where i've seen a woman carrying herself around others and the space around here kind of like a person like me, tall, would; at first i didn't think much of it, but then i saw her near other characters and....i don't know, i felt a warm, joyful feeling, seeing that i was right in recognizing that trait and being right.

I was especially happy in seeing her next to marcille. not so much for the height difference, but for how different they were in proportions and mannerism. A lesser manga i fear would have used marcille's body type and way of moving and interacting as the default for most other girls, but here she was uniquely herself!

Now, i could've used more extreme exemples to show how this author rocks in body types representations (while aknowledging there could've been even more diversification still), given there are far larger, taller and stranger women, but to me, nailing the little, most subtle details in such a chirurgical manner shows a greater level of mastery and comprehension. As such, Falin left me with a deeper fascination than most other characters.

Sorry for this wall of text, but i needed to let my happy thoughts go, so that i could be free again uhuh.

Feel free to tell me that i'm wrong, or that i should just accept anime media as is. i'm just really happy Dungeon meshi exists as is and i want Ryoko Kui to keep refining her craft, and drawing beautiful women and dwarves.

Plus, this was very much a stream of consciousness, i didn't go into technical details about what i think conveyed what i described, but if someone is interested, or does not get what i'm saying (while expressing it in a curious and gentle way, i won't respond to spiteful assholes), i'll be happy to make a follow up post in which i try to dissect this! For example, i didn't reread the whole manga to find examples of her, i just went to the wiki uhuh. in a follow up post maybe i'll try to go through chapters and pick more specific examples of her.

Anyway, have a good day!

[tornioduva]

Nitpicky rant about Dungeon meshi e Frieren elves

lately i've been reading Dungeon meshi e Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, and i've noticed a recurring detail, that will now bother me till the end of my existance:

Elf ears. Ears in general to be honest, but in elves is particularly visible.

They all share the mickey mouse ears syndrome, where they can only be seen by profile, only facing their insides, no matter the head's rotation aside from when you're behind them.

It's like these authors can't decide whether the ears are protruding or attached to the sides of the head. it's driving me crazy, because it keeps shifting the design i form in my head of the characters.

Like, i'm no expert in anatomy, let alone ears (they are the bane of my existance when drawing them) but i'm pretty sure Frieren ears should look something like this when you look at her by profile:

As i said, i'm no expert, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, i'll accept the L.

Now, i've seen that, at least in Dungeon meshi, they are able to freely move their ears, so the quick explanation could be "ears too hard to draw in that view, elves just move them and sometimes protrude, sometimes they do not" and i can kind of live with that, but it's too consistent as a thing to believe uhuh.

Anyway, this does not influence my experience with these stories, my opinions on them lie elsewhere; just an odd detail i noticed (that carried in their animated adaptations strangely enough) that now you too can't unsee! you're welcome.

[tornioduva]

A thought on Botw's items

So, first of all, if you were left dissatisfied and somewhat angry by Totk, go watch this wonderful video and enjoy your catharsis:

So, after watching this my mind started to fix upon this godforsaken series again and, a thought about how the wild saga handles things and why.

Now, i'm not a seasoned game designer, i don't know shit on how to deliver these massive projects, and i'll admit i haven't done proper research like in interviews, manuals, artbook, ecc., this is all very much a stream of consciousness.

What i reflected on is how many of us struggled to really bite deep with criticism into the structural exploration systems of this games, because it apparently "works", and in a somewhat elegant and cohesive way. It's much more difficult to critique the decision of adding shrines, of the dungeons, of the pad tools, of the rewards, because it easily justifies itself with the various "time limits, sacrifices needed to be made, streamlined exploration" and so on; it's much easier instead to go to the throat of the story, or characters, or the durability, because it's a much more direct frustration i think.

But then again, thinking about Botw: was giving the player all of their tools right away really the only right decision?

I honestly think that having the player roam around hyrule, letting them explore and find obstacles for which the tools are required, and then giving them said tools, would've been much better. You would accumulate small frustrations here and there, places to return to, for which you would use those pins in the map, and then you'd have the satisfaction of having finally found the solution to your troubles and a unique reward from wherever you might've taken them.

"Sure", you might say, "but then all the major dungeon and "story areas" should take into accoutn wether you have them or not". ....Yes. what's the problem in that? maybe a character, like one of the descendant could say something along the lines of "if only we had a way to freeze the water to resolve this issue that i feel might be present in the divina beast" or similar, that way the beasts would be centered around fleshing out one mechanic. i guess that might make them a bit more monotonous, but i think not; they are already kind short and boring, they might as well be a a dungeon designed around fleshing out just one of your tools in a satisfying way.

That to me would've resolved a good amount of issues i have with it with the game already, because part of the joy of exploring, at least in the first like 10 to 20 hours, would've been the anticipation of finding a tool and to finally use it! and i'd have something more memorable to remember while roaming around than just pretty sunsets.

Also, this would resolve the B I G issue i have with the intro of both of this game, of it being an unskippable slog. If you remove all of the tutorial aspect out of it, and outsource it to a later, further away area of the game, you can reduce all the time the plateau takes out of you to like, an introduction to combat, crafting, effects and that's it, you're free after that.

plus i always found stupid that the game won't let you have the paraglider before finishing it. like, just leave the tutorial there if someone wants it, but le me find the paraglider as an object and then let me go down, it's not an essential item, just a convenient one; plus, if players went around hyrule without the paraglider, you could just remind them in other ways later on that they might find one on the plateau, or let them find another one in other areas of the game. that could've been fun: "where did you find the glider? here? really? wow, these devs really thought of everything, i found it there instead, and mike down south".

i dunno, i just don't want to think about botw as the only correct way of doing this kind of game.

[tornioduva]

Avatar the last airbender - a small thought on Aang design

....Ok, so, all the talking about avatar these past days made extremely inclined to rewatch clips and episode from theoriginal. and with that, i developed a particular opinion o a specific things: Aang's tatoos.

Now, we all like the lore and worldbuilding of this world; it has its issues, but it functions really smoothly (not considering Korra). I do think one thing we can all agree too: Aang's tatoos are how they are because they look cool by themselves more than for cultural reasons, but they do even more in his avatar state:

Aang is visually really cool and iconic in both forms, and that is in gran part thanks to the tatoos.

What i want to say with this is: why only Aang has them? or to be precise, why the avatar state interacts with a visual component of the body other than the eyes only with the Air nomads tatoos? other air avatars have them, so it seems to be a peculiarity exclusive to his people. why is that?

And why is that a "problem" with me.

I'll be short with this: i just think all the other avatars should have visually highlighted elements other than just the eyes like aang does.

I just see it as a wasted opportunity, both to add cool properties to the avatar state and to add cultural details to the avatars and their people.

Like, i don't know if it's explained somewhere, i don't remember all of the show by memory, but it don't remember to any explanations as to why. One could sayis because the air temple are the most spiritual one. are you sure? that in the whole world only them have figured out tatoos that connect to the spirit? come on.

it's shown multiple times that spirituality is something possesed by all nations, and each with their own interpretation and local declination, this is just the one of the air nomads. Yeah, maybe adding to the others would leessen the specialness of the air nomads, but i think we would only gain by more visually diverse avatar states.

Like, tell me to my face that it wouldn't be cool to have fire avatar with glowing flames pattern on their fists and feet (maybe face even), water avatars with flowing waves all over their body, and maybe earth avatars with patterns all over their chest and back.

also, one, could say that the tatoos are important to aang, and so maybe this is a uniquely his thing for some reason. well, this opens even more possibilities!

if the avatar state does make things on the avatar's body glow based on their history and feelings, we could have things like hair, fingernails, only hands or feet, the mouth, and stuff like that. something like Anne from amphibia.

Listen, i just want something as badass as this for tthe other avatars too.

This all train of thought started mainly after i rewatched some TloK clips, where i realized how plain she looks if compared to Aang.

Like, she does go hard visually many times (especially here), but Aang just sticks to you.

i'm not sure what i could give to korra that does not clash too much with her design; again, maybe some arm tatoos would do the trick, but, given how her story goes, i think it would be cool if she had something like glowing cracks in her skin, giving a hint on her depowered/unstable character state, overflowing from her.

or maybe even just a glowing shade on the end of her hair.

don't know, i just think this was kind of a waste of good design, there to look cool but to not expand this privilege to others as well.

[tornioduva]

Just finished Dungeon meshi (no spoilers, just thoughts)

i'm happy. sooo happy.

it's been a while since a story satisfied me so much. you can say it was like a really good and balanced meal, uhuh.

I don't even know if there were things i didnt't like, i don't think so honestly. maybe just things that didn't interest as much as others, but everything was pretty well written and composed. and the art is consistently good.

The characters felt like real people from beginning to end and never anime tropes (something that even frieren didn't manage to escape in my opinion) and they were all incredibly morally complex. aside from Senshi, he's just a nice guy.

The author even managed to avoid doing one of the things i hate the most in these kind of stories, which is escalating the confilct to a point where the only resolution is to kill/destroy the source of what makes this world interesting, leaving it dull and boring after everything ends. This world, in its "semplicity", managed to stay interesting after the end, i kept wanting more from this world and characters, while being satisfied.

The ending. is good. ntohing more to say, is good, i'm happy it went as it did, aside maybe for a tiny little detail.

Nothing more to say, if you haven't, go read it/watch it, it's really good.

[tornioduva]

A rant about spaces in games

As a person who's not in the industry and has never been yet in a development environment, and so has mainly just seen things from a player perspective:

Many, MANY, years ago was understood that if you wanted to give the idea of a big place, a big city, a big valley, a big landscape in general, OF COURSE you wouldn't just make it 1:1 in size and just put it there, it would be a waste of resources, time, effort, all for something that's needed only to convey a sense of scale and nothing else. Instead you would put some 2d images in the distance, an elaborate skybox, maybe some 3d more detailed object and bam, you had a big scenery, though fake. if it was a city, you would just put a wagon with fruit and vegetables, or a car, in front of a road that extends and bam, you have the image of a city that extends beyond the corners of the playable map.

Now more than ever instead there is this toxic obsession with "if the player sees it, then it must be explored, or have an active gameplay purpose", and a general perceived distaste for the concept of creating illusion, while going full simulation.

Now, to clarify: this is not a condemnation of all modern games, this is mainly a thing in AAA and AA games, also i'm not blaming any developers (i don't know how a game is made, how much pressure from above you have, how this might be the only way to keep the boat afloat in terms of sales and marketing), and also i can clearly see that this is not a dead concept; the contrary even! There are a lot of modern (though indie) games that take advantage of limited visibility to convey scale, or complexity, guiding the player imagination but leaving it work by itself. The success of games like Iron lung i think speaks volume about it.

The fact is, even among AAA games i liked and had high hopes for, i can't avoid to be a little sad about how bloated they are with this mentality. The two games that sparked these thoughts are mainly elden ring and tears of the kingdom.

In TotK case, i was sad to see how little they learned from BotW, at least in this regard; instead of closing in on the freedom of the predecessor to give a different, more intense and story driven experience, they doubled down on the original formula and expanded even more. Instead of removing, or readapting, the useless empty space in hyrule, the created even more empty space somehow, and filled it with junk that bloats everything even more. I like this formula, don't get me wrong, just...more often than what i wanted to in both games i found myself on the edge of a cliff, on the backside of a mountain, in a small hole, with nothing there and nothing particularly interesting to see or get, and i thought "why am i here, why am i allowed to be here, why isn't this just background seen from a distance"

In elden ring though i think there is the perfect, more poignant example: Leyndell. The first time i was inside the walls and saw the city, i was awestruck. it was beutiful, intricate, interesting, full of peculiar places. i couldn't wait to explore it all and for once in that game i wasn't overwhelmed with "toomanythingstodotoomanyplacestogo"itis, because i wanted to see it all. i love cities, especially old and ancient ones, love exploring them, lose myself in small streets and alleys. i was genuinelly amazed by the fact that it was completely explorable, and absolutely happy for it. After i've seen it all though, it hit me: ...it's a really small city. like, it's big from a player perspective, there is a lot to do and explore. but it's a pretty small city. I live near Lucca, in Tuscany, so i have a pretty good reference to judge it on, and i think (roughly and without measures, have mercy uhuh) Leyndell and Lucca are nearly the same size, Lucca might be bigger infact uhuh. And even if it's not and Lyndell is bigger, still, after seeing it all it FEELS small. because you've seen it all. Compare Leyndell to Anor Londo instead, and tell me which one of the two FEELS like a gigantic, enormous capital, full of streets, palaces and places for people; and of Anor Londo you only explore like a handful of rooftops uhuh. This might be just a sensation of mine, but the fact the capital of the biggest game Fromsoft has made to date feels smaller than in DS1 where you were dramatically more limited in where you could go....well, that to me is a failure of environment design, at least on an artistic side, in regar to setting up the atmosphere, not in regard to gameplay.

Do i mean with this that open world are always bad, that you should always be limited in where you can go? absolutely not! i love having freedom of exploration, and i like the idea that i can go where i can see! i just wish going forward that developers with the resources to do big projects like these are given the freedom, and the guidance, to guide the players more, to build rails on which our explosive passion of playing can be directed on without letting die out on a rock in the middle of nowhere that you're standing on for no reason. A good example for this i feel is outer wilds! you're free to go where you want, but you are limited by what there actually is to explore, plus the central gimmick. also, all there is to explore is interesting and meaningful, without collectables!

Also, i'm not criticizing empty space at all even. I recently played BABDI, and that is a masterful example of empty, "meaningless" space that is there for a reason, which is the atmosphere of the game. the fact you can explore almost all of the city while there is almost nothing interesting to discover aside from few things, contributes a ton the overall atmosphere.

So, what i'm saying is: developers, go to more theatre plays; not the big budget ones, that can afford all they want, i mean the small local ones, that are able to make you fell like you are in a ballroom with a fancy chair, a stool and a lamp.

[tornioduva]

A little reflection on the Hazbin Hotel "situation"

First of all, i'm not really a fan of any of Vivziepop work, mainly i followed helluva boss out of curiosity and because sometimes they had really neat ideas.

that said, i ended up seeing all ofher stuff anyway, uhuh. i discovered her at the times of her sheika music videos, and, while not my cup of tea, i remained interested in her style of doing things, because of how unique it was. When the pilot for HH came out i saw it, and, as i said, HB too, plus all the covers and fan content.

So, this is my situation. i'm not really interested in her work and in her as a person, but i know her, her creations and all the stuff people made about them and talked about her, even if i didn't want to uhuh. You could say "just avoid everything Vivziepop related if you're not interested in her, her works and any discourse regarding all of it". i'm lazy, ok? the internet recommends it to me, i oblige. this is my curse.

Now, where i want to go with this.

Last week i rediscovered a video essayst i really liked, Neverknowsbest, and i put his latest two videos on while working and doing house chores. both are pretty relevant to this discussion, but i want to redirect you to one in particular:

Even if you don't want to see it, the gist of it, and what of it i want to use in this post is:

We are obsessed with overwhelming failures and explosive successes, there's no room for just experiencing something, thinking of it as mediocre, or even bad, but then just moving on, while still enjoying, or loving even, the couple of good ideas it in it.

I don't like most of her work, i have heavy criticism of helluva boss, i agree on aaaaall the discussions about character design, and if half of the things people are saying about her as a creator, project director and person are true...then there is a very good chance i don't like her either uhuh.

that said, i think HH and HB should be treated as what they are: simple slef-indulgent shows about stupid/shitty people. this premise alone does not hold promise of quality, or good ideas; what it does hold is the desire of the creator to explore what it is fun and interesting for and not much else, and that i think is ok.

The fact that every HH episode so far has been met either with heavy criticism as if it promised to be the best adaption of the bible, or as the pinnacle of representation of traumetic events, to me is kinda stupid. not counting the prerelease discussion. You want to hurt the show? ignore it, stop talking about it, do what everyone did to that Lotr amazon show, make it lose money.

As i said, i do not particularly like HB and don't tink i would recommend it to anyone, but it is on the same level as a lot of shows i watched growing up, just with more swearing and trauma sprinkled in. And while saying this, i can recognize some parts of it that are really good, like some of the jokes, line delivery, sometimes animations and often the songs (i listened to a lot of covers of that one stolas song, uhuh).

All this to say, please, do not let the internet consume you uhuh. use all this energy for things that are truly bad, not things that are mediocre at best. That is unless you were one of those who funded the show, then you have every right to complain if your money is in it.

Plus, i wrote "situation" because, as usual, i'm sure all the fuss i've seen is mostly a minority on twitter or somwhere else, since already a friend of mine not correlated with this stuff at all out of nowhere told me he watched it and liked it, so.

P.S: i decided to use a banner for these rant posts so to make them more interesting, i hope you like it uhuh. also, anyone who tells you drawing chibis is simple is lying to you.

[tornioduva]

Random mini rant about Sans and interpretations

I was rewatching some playthrough of genocide undertale these week, and i've seen repeated again the argument that "Sans is the player in this fight, you are the boss, megalovania is your boss music, not sans's", and i honestly completely disagree with this sentiment.

i mean, i get it, it's interesting in a meta game to think about this fight as another ulterior meta subversion in the role reversal aspect of it, but....like...nothing in the game suggest that, it's pure headcanon.

Megalovania absolutely fits sans as a character; it's whimsy, it makes fun of you, it's angry and badass but also has an extensive part where it sounds laid off and playful, and it ends as dramatic and serious. it basically mirrors sans's state of mind. i don't know what's interesting in associating it to the human, it does communicate nothing about your curiosity and will to completion/murder.

And no, i fully disagree with the image that in this encounter you are the boss actually. Sans is the boss, he knows it and fully embraces his role as one, using it to mock you and mess with you. the whole interaction is you trying to advance while he reacts standing there, as bosses usually do.

Mind you, i'd super curious to live in a game a situation like this of role reversal, i think it could be super interesting, i just think the sans fight is not that.

That's it, just that.

[tornioduva]

me browsing through job offers.

....that's not focus, that's everything.

[tornioduva]

I love that i'm seeing more and more people drawing the zonai with animal feet. the first period had fans making accurate fanarts, but then more started to cave in on the fact that human feet were a stupid and ugly idea and i agree with them.

i will not elaborate, i'm not here to convince anyone, it's an objective fact because i said so.

[tornioduva]

Quick thoughts on Atla's bending

Been rewatching Avatar tla lately, and after book 1 had some thoughts. not so flashed out as to have a discussion about it, for that i'll wait till i finished it again.

In my opinion, Whenever the avatar series tries to explain the nature and origin of bending, and of things in general, is where it fumbles the most. Like, while watching, it all flows so elegantly most of the time and you don't really need to know why it works this way; sure, mostly it's because is almost never the focus of the story, but there's also this implicit "it is what it is" sensation that to me makes it work.

then they try to explain it with ancient animals, cosmic entities, spirit, kites, and so on, and it all...clashes badly. like, i always get the feeling that each bending domain is its own world with its own origin, properties and rules.

This alone should not be bad, it's good that each bendins is its own thing, but...i think they all lack a common ground on which you can judge them, everytime we analyze a bending domain we kinda have to reinvent the wheel.

Things like the moon being the perpetual source of the water bending and the sun of the fire's (let's not think about how that's in contradiction with korra's lore), while earth and air are just there chilling, never sat rigt with me despite being good a moving the plot forward.

In general, i think bending, the forces of nature and of the spirit world, should have remained a partially unexplained mystery. Some people in this world are able to extert control onto elements. why? for the same reason there are wolf bats, because yes. the mastery of this powers then comes from watching and learning from animals that use it, like bisons, dragon, moles and a better one for water that isn't the moon.

If you don't feel reason to explain why badgermoles and bison are able to bend their elements, why are you compelled to do it for humans?

The avatar is just someone who for some reason is able to master all of them, and over time has gained a legendary status. is the avatar an arbiter of balance appointed by the forces of nature and the spirits in the world? maybe, who knows, they could also just be a genetic/spiritual mutation or exception; all we know is true is that they have this power.

Would this kill part of the original series plot? yea, it would and would need to be heavily rewritten, which i'd be not opposed to.

Then again, it's not like there could not be cool stories around the origin of things, but these writers have proven many times already to not be really able to come up with really interesting ideas and to weave them into the world seamlessly, at least to me.

[tornioduva]

really did not like the boy and the heron

just saw the boy and the heron. really did not like it character and story wise.

something was off in the way the character talked, aside from a few, mahito barely emotes in the movie and seems like he just accepts what happens, and overall i really felt like the story wanted to tackle a lot of heavy themes but committed on none of them.

The animation is superb, but i mean, do i need to say it? in particular, i fell deeply in love with a lot of the background art for this movie. it hit a really precise sweet spot of mine, where i love to wonder between strange and aesthetically peculiar worlds with strange rules, and i honetly would have preferred if this movie centered itself only on the travel and discovery of this worlds. i guess that would kind of go against what i think is the main takeway of the movie, do not imprison yourself in your fantasies to escape reality, so...maybe i shouldn't ask for that uhuh.

overall a movie i really did not like nor did i connected with, but of which i'd love to have multiple paintings of the background hung in my house.

ah, and fuck birds i guess.

[tornioduva]

You know what? fuck. radical opinion on Zelda TotK. i'm probably never gonna make a video about it so might as well write it.

Link should not even have had the master sword in this game. this duology already has given it all to devalue, depower and demistisy the iconic sword, she might as well been removed.

Shoving aside the idea of a reimagined saga, starting from BotW; it was ok in BotW, good, cool, i have my infinite mining stick that sometimes can kill evil. awesome. but.

If they wanted to do something cool with the sword in TotK and to try to recapture some of the magic in having her in the story, they should have made the radical choice of not giving it to link, but to zelda instead. let me explain:

first, we have to aknowledge that no power up coul dsave the sword in this gameplay loop; while watching the trailer and that green decoration on her i imagined we would get a transformed sword, maybe like a laser/magic one with new powers and stuff. what a naive idiot. still, even with new powers, that wouldn't have changed the fact that this system is designed without the master sword in mind, and so, either you ignore it and continue farming weapons and ingredients, or you just use her as a jolly, but like, is not particularly satisfying or efficent; it's just a somewhat aesthetic option.

so.

instead of trying to shove her where she is not wanted, since we already tried it in the first game, this time around zelda should've been the wielder of the master sword. Like, we can keep all the time shenanigans with her sealing herself away to restore her power, but.

What if all of this came with the change that she gets the broken blade at the start, and most of the flashbacks are her trying to restore her, care for her, half repairing it, training to use her, earning her trust as a chisen wielder and then using it again as a last resorts against ganondorf before getting sealed (so this way he would have seen the sword and the emotions of a new confrontation with it could have beenmore personal and less abstract) AND THEN she decides to seal herself with it. Plus, in all of this we can keep all the time power stuff, sure, maybe as a power up to the sword so that it make sense why she can repair it and reuse it so quickly against him the second time.

Then, after all of this, when link learns of truth, there' still the quest to find her and the sword, but at the last moment there is a fake out and zelda throws link away and disappears for the rest of the game (i'm not thinking of what it maight be good gameplay wise, i guess this would be pretty unsatisfying, i'm just thinking of cool scenarios); this way it makes more sense why you can't help her after learning the truth she isn't there anymore.

as you can imagine, she then only reappears at the end in the final battle, maybe after phase 2 and before ganondorf going bananas. at that point she has being able to gain control on her powers and can transform at will for a brief period (maybe because link "awaken" her while trying to take the sword, something like that, no less worse than the canon solution) and in this you fight briefly side by side with her while she's wielding the sword. after this, either it's just the sky fight as it is, but with her at the end trasforming and stabbing ganondorf with link's help, or maybe she remains human and both link and her need to fight on the body of the dragon in a race against reaching the head for the final blow (i honestly would kinda prefere that, maybe sometimes you would fall over, she transforms and captures you and then back again racing to the head)

This is a furious and anxious rambling came from lack of sugars, i don't know, it probably would suck gameplay wise BUT, i do firmyl believe the master sword is useless in this game and it would have benefitted to remove it from link's hand in order to strenghten zelda's character and the sword power.

[tornioduva]

A Ganon-hot-dorf take, i guess

Everyone is free to do what they want, that much is true and it's the source of life of all fandoms.

however

i'd suggest to all those who draw/write headcanons of this version of ganondorf with link/zelda or all three together....to think about it.

nothing wrong if it's an AU Ganondorf with a more sympathethic backstory, motivation or if in general he's a decent but fallen person in your hyrule.

The last canon iteration of Ganondorf, though flawed and lacking in many ways, clearly depicts him, quite in line with he's past iterations on certain things, as a pathetic power hungry loser who cares about no one but himself. in my opinion he probably was even a piss-poor king to the gerudo, given how quickly he abandoned them and how much resources he probably wasted after trying to conquer hyrule.

all this plus the age gap between him and zelda/link.

again, everyone is free to make them a polycule if they like it, buuut...everytime i see a fanwork like this with all of them, i can't not think about who they actually are as characters.

my two cents, hope to not upset anyone.