#vio has the stealth set

[brendathedoodler]

From @wilds-ponytail ‘s tags on this post

He deserved it

[zartophski]

I know nothing so tell me about your Four Swords Link if you got him and/or Shadow please and thank you

Oh boy do I have some guys for you! >:) the Four Swords Links account for 8/33 of the Links in my au, so here's an info dump of what I have for them so far:

Four Swords:

So, the Four Swords game is going to be one set of FS wielders. These Links were actually quadruplets and so, when one of them pulled the sword, it was just the sword that split into four, because it recognized four heroes already existing. In this au, their nicknames are One, Two, Three, and Four, which sounds kinda strange but I have a Reason for it.

I'm taking these four guys and giving them the upper class background. They're from a noble family, been childhood friends with Zelda but in a semi-diplomatic way, etc etc. But they're all named Link. So they got numbered, I guess, when they were born because blah blah father worried about inheritance claims so Link the First, Link the Second, etc etc so they have known birth order and known placement in the political family hierarchy. Now, this used to go to One's head as the "I'm the first born so I'm the most important" and the whole group squabbled all the time about it because that's just how they were treated growing up. But they had some rough times during their quest and definitely said some things in the heat of the moment that had to be talked over at some point so now they're mostly chill. And they're now very attached to each other, because they went through hell and back and figured out they were all miserable because of the family issues and they're making amends now and looking out for each other.

Four Swords Adventures:

These guys. These are the Colors that might be more familiar to most people. I'm not basing their entire vibes on the Manga, but if I do pull ideas from the Manga it'd be for this quad. They're Green, Blue, Red, Vio, and they did know a Shadow Link, but I'm still on the fence on what Shadow's role will be here.

Their story follows the plot line of the game: rescue the six maidens, find the four stones, save the brainwashed knights, climb the Tower of the Winds and save Zelda. And then they fight Ganon. I'm thinking their backstory would be, again, kind of like the Manga. He was one Link, the son of a knight who was one of Zelda's personal guards. The sword splits him into the four, and doesn't revert him back to one ever. So now his dad is kinda like "damn okay ive got four sons now" and Zelda's like "sick more friends" and the four are generally unbothered. It was a shaky start, but they're generally a lot more in sync than the Numbers are.

And for funsies, here's some more tidbits about the individual fighting styles of the Numbers and the Colors

One: ranged support, big fan of bombs

Two: Uses the bow mostly, also the one with the Gnat Hat, so pretty good with stealth too

Three: Puzzle solver, sword wielder, really good with the boomerang

Four: the best in the group with hand to hand and general melee combat. prefers the sword for sure

Green: Fire rod fire rod fire rod fire-- It's the only magic item they have that he's not terrible at. But recognizes that not every solution is fire, so mostly uses the sword

Red: Mostly sword-based combat, really good eye for details and clues and puzzles

Blue: Magic! Holding on to both the bombos medallion and the quake medallion. Very big and powerful magic, definitely prefers that over the sword

Vio: ranged support with the bow, but he also has a hammer that he is not afraid to use

I still have more to figure out about them, but this is the basic rundown of what I have so far <3

[4dorks-1windmage-1shadow]

The Links as D&D Characters, Part 4: Violet (Vio) Link

Inspired by a question I saw on @hauntinghyrule ‘s blog. My character analysis and thoughts on what character class the boys would be if they were D&D characters, and why.

Green / Red / Blue / Shadow / Vaati / FS Zelda

As a preface, there won’t be any doubles on classes except in the case of dual-classing, and in those cases the first class I talk about my justifications for will be the primary class (i.e. the class they would have chosen at level one). My choices will be based on the character theming and personalities, even though at a base level it would be easy to say “they’re all paladins, duh” because of the implied “holy knight chosen by the gods to eradicate evil” concept. Vio is a high Intelligence, high Dexterity, high Charisma character- or at least he is based on his depiction in the manga. You may be thinking: Athena, what do you mean Vio has high charisma? Isn’t he more known for his intelligence and strategic abilities? You’re right, and also, you misunderstand. He’s not using that high charisma for Persuasion or Performance or even Intimidation. Remember how Vio spends an entire story arc fooling Shadow into thinking they were friends and Vio was evil, and how he also fooled Green, Red, and Blue (up until giving Green the hint that he was a double agent)? That’s all going into Deception baby! There’s only two classes that I can think of where Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma (1 out of the two for CHA actually) are major players: Wizards and Rogues. My actual pick is Rogue, but we’ll go through Wizard just to see why I didn’t go with Wizard.  Vio’s demeanor lends itself well to the vision of a wizard- wizards are spellcasters that gain magic through intense study, and Vio is seen carrying a book around during the manga. This book somehow magically has the answers to whatever he needs (or it was just specifically written about Force Gems and I’m being dramatic), and Wizards have spellbooks that have their spells in it. Vio could be a really great wizard, but there’s three issues I personally found with that.  1. Wizards have low HP. Their hit dice is a d6 (a trait they share with Sorcerers), and Vio could go head to head with Green in melee combat. Of course, low health doesn’t usually matter if you don’t get hit, but the whole point of a wizard is to hide behind the beefier tanks and blast the big bad monster with meteor strikes and giant explosions and like a whole lot of psychic damage and pray to whatever gods might take pity on a poor arcane magic user that the big bad doesn’t just like. . .step on them. Vio may not be as much of a front line fighter as say, Green and Blue are, but he’s not squishy. 2. Wizard subclasses give tons of variety in terms of how you can play them, but I don’t see any of the wizard Arcane Traditions being worth the low health, complete lack of armor and complete lack of ranged weapons (meaning Vio wouldn’t have access to his signature bow). School of Abjuration isn’t a good fit, because Vio’s idea of protecting is to actually throw himself head first into danger (like when he dived in front of Stone Arrghus to save Red, or like the entire double-agent arc). School of Conjuration doesn’t have anything that really relates to Vio symbolically or in regards to his story arc. School of Divination could be a good fit for him, since he’s all about knowledge and anticipating what the enemy is going to do next, but then. . .Blue’s weird spidey-sense in the Erune & Rosie story could make him a contender for that if his intelligence stat were high enough. School of Enchantment is a no, because even though Vio has high enough charisma to deceive pretty much everybody in the double-agent arc, he’s not. . .ever really shown doing anything else charismatic, and it just doesn’t seem fitting for the type of character he is. School of Evocation is the magic of big explosions and elemental magic, which is great, but showing off is rarely Vio’s style. School of Illusion is really the only one that might fit, and only because of Vio’s deceptive and manipulative nature, but again he doesn’t get to have archery and if he doesn’t get to have archery what’s the fucking point. School of Necromancy is stereotyped as the “evil” option (which personally I don’t agree with but I didn’t write the rules) or at the very least taboo magic, which I don’t see Vio being in pursuit of knowledge enough to dip into that well. Finally, School of Transmutation symbolically works for his character arc: he transforms by learning that the world isn’t quite as black and white as he thought it was, and Shadow was not as evil as he seemed; however, that’s a bit of a stretch.

3. All of this was a very long-winded way of saying that I didn’t make him a wizard even though it would be a decent fit because I’m saving wizard for a different character and thank you for reading that long ass paragraph. So why does rogue fit better? Rogues are OP as fuck, that’s why. They get access to ranged weapons, and at first level you get to choose four skills. Four whole skills out of Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. Vio then gets to take up to a max of 4 of those skills (or any of the skills he has proficiency with) and double how good he is at those things. Vio has the most potential to be a fairly stealthy, strike from the shadows type of fighter. Or rather, according to the rules of Sneak Attack (which does 10d6, or an average of 35 extra damage on a hit), strike from within 5 feet of Blue, Green or Red who are also fighting the same enemy. Rogue Vio gets to learn secret codes and how to pick locks, he can Dodge, Dash, or Hide without taking up his attacking action. He can reduce the amount of damage he takes as a reaction, he gets proficiency in Wisdom saving throws (thank god because he actually needs it), ignore enemy advantage and turn missed attacks into hits. He’s just so tactical! So strategic! And rogue’s Blindsense also means that he has fucking echolocation up to 10 feet. So we’re really hitting all of the marks on what makes Vio a better Rogue than he is a Wizard, and we still haven’t talked about Roguish Archetypes. In Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, there is a Roguish Archetype called Mastermind. It’s description reads “A master tactician, manipulates others”. That’s Vio. He’s in the book. Admittedly, Vio isn’t just manipulative, smart, a tactician, deceptive, etc.- there are times in the manga where he’s sensitive, foolhardy, bull-headed and just not the brightest. Like saying that all Blue is is an angry hot-head, saying Vio is just a non-emotional strategist is a disservice to his character. Vio has lots of book smarts, but he is not wise. Key example of this: the entire Shadow Link and “Evil” Vio arc. We see his perspective actually get challenged by the way Shadow acts and treats him. Prior to that story line he probably saw Shadow as a one-dimensional villain, but after. . .well, he learned not to judge a book by its cover. Mastermind Rogue is actually well-suited to this lesson- it focuses on learning the secrets underneath the exterior of a person. Granted that does come back around to manipulating and strategizing again, but the point is that he would learn to be more mindful of what a person could actually be like instead of what they portray on the surface. It gives him proficiency with the disguise kit, forgery kit, and a gaming set, as well as two extra language. Further adding to my personal headcanon: Vio is talented as shit. Jack of all trades, master of none. The Help action gets added to the Dodge, Dash and Hide list as tactics he can use without having to take up his attacking action, and the range of that Help action extends up to 30 feet. Insightful Manipulation grants him the ability to learn the INT, WIS, and CHA stats of a target that he interacts with or observes for a set amount of time, and as a reaction he can have an attack target someone else instead of him. At the highest level of Mastermind, his mind can literally not be read by telepathy or any other means, and in a Zone of Truth area of effect he can lie his ass off even if he failed the saving throw and no matter what he says he’s telling the truth according to the spell. He can bullshit a lie detector test and get away with it. Mastermind Rogue Vio. He’s like that one vine that goes “you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out-”. 

[brendathedoodler]

I want to know more about AS!Four! How did they react when they woke up? What did he think when meeting the other heroes? What are some notable differences for AS!Four compared to LU!Four?

Four woke up in the shrine of resurrection confused, uncertain, and feeling shaky. As soon as his head cleared enough to think properly, Four realized that everything felt wrong.

His body was weak and didn’t seem to respond properly to his commands. His head was overrun with thoughts that he didn’t fully understand. He felt broken and wrong, uncertain of what was happening or even if he was alive. He remembered dying, though the shrine had blurred the memories to little more than scattered images of searing blue light and agonizing pain.

(Continued under the cut)

Then Dot called out to him. She told him to get up and pick up the slate. With a clear goal, Four felt his head clear enough to get his uncooperative body to move. It was jerky, uncoordinated, and felt wrong in ways he can’t explain, but he managed to make his way to it.

Without Dot telling him where to go from here, he felt lost once again. His brain seemed to be too crowded with conflicting thoughts that he didn’t fully understand, until eventually he noticed the doorway. A new goal in mind allowed him to continue on, though climbing that wall out of the shrine of resurrection took almost a full 20 minutes. It would’ve been humiliating if he wasn’t distracted with everything else going on in the moment.

Outside, now, he didn’t know what to do. It was entirely by accident that he fiddled with his slate and pressed a button that split his body into four separate individuals.

It sure explained why he’d felt so fractured and out of sync with himself.

Early on the colors didn’t have any proper identifier, so they made stuff up. Vio kept suggesting eye color for their names, but went ignored since it wasn’t something they could see from a distance. They were all identical! Eventually when they broke a bow, they used the string to tie up Red’s hair, and he got the name ponytail. The other three got jealous and also wanted names, so they had to make stuff up fast. Another bow was broken (deliberately this time), and Green was named Braid. Vio was nicknamed Archer, since he’d been using a bow mostly, and Blue was Fighter since he needed a name and they didn’t know what else to call him. Getting names for themselves was a huge step in beginning to cooperate with one another.

Over time they shifted their names based on different things. Red was renamed Arson after he set a bunch of things on fire, Vio was named Stealth after he bought a piece of an armor set with the same name, and Green tried to name himself “the Talus Slayer” after he single-handedly killed one but everyone else ignored him and kept calling him Braid. When they found the dye shop in Hateno, they all agreed to go by colors (and proceeded to spend an absurd amount of money buying four of every armor set to dye).

That’s just the beginning, though. One key difference between LU Four and AS Four is how coordinated the colors are. LU Four has had several years to work together, figure himself out, and find unity. AS Four hasn’t had that much time yet, and by the time his adventure with the chain starts, he’s managed to be functional as a single person. It’s not perfect, though, and while he’s a menace in battle, he struggles socially.

He thought it would be great practice to stay as a single, combined person for this adventure, and being forced to stay together has allowed him to make leaps and bounds of progress on coordination and unity, but sometimes he struggles.

If the colors are too talkative in his head, he sometimes says stuff out loud, or he misses when someone outside is talking to him. He has trouble making small decisions sometimes, so when he makes meals for the group, he often has someone else decide for him (he and Wild are the cooks of the group, with Wild having more practice and Four having more ingredients). He’s also prone to mood swings, but everyone chalks that up to him being a teenager.

Another big difference is that Four breaks his weapons. It’s extremely funny to me to imagine Four, a blacksmith, breaking his weapons when normally it makes him die inside. It still hurts, he’s just become desensitized to it. He’s pretty sure it has something to do with the shrine of resurrection because he’s certain that his weapons didn’t break like this before!

He also tends to hoard weapons, since the colors all tend to go through weapons really fast. There’s 3 extra people to provide for!

Compared to LU Four, AS Four is also much more of a wanderer. He, Wild, and Hyrule are the most likely to wander off, and often do so together. Usually they’re sent off with Warriors, who also likes to wander but he’s strategic about it and can keep the others on track and ensure they won’t get lost. Needless to say, the other three are constantly trying to find ways to sneak off without him.

Oh, also, instead of hating peppers, Four hates bananas. It’s not even all of them, it’s just Vio specifically. He spent a week and a half infiltrating the Yiga clan with Shadow and he ate almost nothing but bananas during that time and he refuses to ever eat another one again.

As for what he thought upon meeting the others… His first impression was that they were all way more put together than he is. He’s got a bit of imposter syndrome, stemming both from his failure (one he remembers intimately) and from the fact that he feels like 4 idiots in a trench coat half the time. This lessens over time, as he sees the others acting weird or unhinged and as he fights alongside them.

As for first impressions…

Four immediately saw a lot of himself in Legend’s initial demeanor, particularly seeing his defense mechanisms as similar to Blue’s.

He had a bit of relief when he noticed Twilight “talking to himself” (he was talking to Midna, but Four can’t see her, so that’s just how it seemed). He hasn’t yet gotten out of that habit yet, and found it comforting to know that he wouldn’t be the only weird one if he slips up in front of the others.