#I also might want to try the gerudo set

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

which link outfit would you wear

Tingle outfit, next question

#in all reality #that cloak looks really nice #I also might want to try the gerudo set #but I'm not sure that I could pull that off #Also the snowquill looks so comfy #especially on a cold snowy day like today I think I would love it #cheetoanswers #cheetotalks #smarmy somer

[gay-jesus-probably]

Seeing as the Gerudo turned on Ganon, he might not have been that much better of a ruler.

First of all, we literally have no idea, because the only ancient Gerudo that we actually get to interact with is Ganondorf himself, and he has nothing to say about his own people. The ancient Gerudo sage doesn't count btw, she doesn't have a name, we never even see her face, and she has literally nothing to say except repeating the exact same dialogue as the sages for the other races. The narrative does not treat the ancient sages as people; they are four completely interchangable weapons that are owned by the royal family.

And secondly, I don't care how Ganon ruled them; the Gerudo only get one man every century, if their king sucks, they've obviously got their own system of government to fall back on. I have no idea what kind of authority the sages had among their own people, but honestly I'd say if the four of them were in charge of their respective people, then they were just puppet rulers appointed by Rauru, given that all four of them happily agreed that to sell their entire race into servitude the second Zelda asked them. Say what you will about Ganondorf, but I fucking know that if he was told the Gerudo people existed for the sole purpose of serving the glory of Hyrule, he'd drop kick Zelda into the fucking sun.

And don't get me started on the implications of the cultural differences we see between the independent Gerudo and the annexed Gerudo. The background Gerudo characters all have their own models, and we can clearly see that the ones siding with Ganon have their own unique looks - for example, the amazing lady with the mohawk that summons the molduga swarm in that one flashback. And men are never mentioned in these flashbacks at all, which implies that the Gerudo genuinely didn't care about settling down. Ganon even speaks derisively about marriage, implying that it's very rare for Gerudo women to make serious romantic commitments with men. It implies that their culture is more along the same line as their portrayal in OOT - they are a closed culture. Men trying to force their way into their areas are arrested, and mocked for being entitled dumbasses. Outsiders are only welcome if they can prove that they respect the Gerudo as people, and aren't just there to try and pick up chicks. It's never outright said, but OOT also makes it pretty clear that the Gerudo women just aren't interested in marrying outsiders - close relationships occur with other Gerudo, Hylian men are only considered useful for making babies.

Meanwhile the Gerudo we see serving Hyrule are all trying to measure up to Hylian beauty standards, and appeal to their men. Their one goal in life is to meet a man and get married. Men are welcome in their lands, and only kept out of the town itself... and even then, there's a small army of guys trying to force their way into the town anyways, which is brushed off as just haha, boys will be boys. No men allowed isn't even about independence, it's just a silly romantic tradition.

Of course this is just a fictional culture in a game world, but it's still really fucking uncomfortable that the 'evil' Gerudo are the ones that have independence, both politically and socially, and display a unique culture that refuses to tolerate disrespect from outsiders. Meanwhile the 'good' Gerudo are the ones that canonically exist to serve a kingdom where 95% of the population is light skinned (even setting aside the unfortunate implications, just saying one race exists to serve a different one is super fucked up), they have classes on how to be more appealing to Hylian's, and their entire social structure is built around finding a Hylian man to marry, making them all inherently dependent on the goodwill of outsiders. Even their biggest value of 'women only' is treated as a joke; men trying to trespass in BOTW are just shoved back out the door, letting them keep trying all day if they want. The crowds of men plotting to force their way in are laughed off as a joke. Nobody cares that there's a guy running laps around their city walls and trying to trick women into being alone with him. I mean for fucks sake, in TOTK we find that the creepy guy trying to lure women away has taken advantage of a massive disaster to get into the town, and he's still there once things return to normal. You can't kick him out, or alert anyone to his presence. And the Gerudo just tolerate Hylians blatantly ignoring their boundaries. For fucks sake, TOTK even reveals that the seven legendary heroines they've been revering the whole time were actually completely useless and unable to achieve anything... because they needed the eighth hero, a Hylian man to teach them basic tactics and do all the heavy lifting.

TOTK does not respect the Gerudo people in the slightest. It doesn't respect anyone who isn't Hylian or Zonai.

...This got a little off track, but the point I'm trying to make is, no, I don't consider the Gerudo turning on Ganon to mean anything. The entire game does not feel like the real story of what happened, it feels like the propaganda version of history meant to make Hyrule look as good as possible. I genuinely cannot believe that we're being told the real story about the Imprisoning War, because none of it feels real, and we don't get to know any details that might have made Hyrule look even slightly imperfect. We're told that Ganondorf is evil because he hates Hyrule, and he hates Hyrule because he's evil. The Gerudo people followed Ganondorf and saw him as a hero of their people, then suddenly he was their worst enemy. Hyrule is a perfect kingdom that has strong, equal alliances with the other races, but also all of the non-Hylian races exist for the sole purpose of serving Hyrule, and their leaders are expected to swear eternal loyalty and submission to the Hylian royal family. King Rauru and Queen Sonia united all of the races in peace and equality, which is why they're sitting on the world's supply of magical nuclear missiles, and every member of the Hylian royal family is allowed to walk around wearing them as cute accessories, but everyone else only gets them at the last second, and they all need to outright swear to only use that power to benefit Rauru and his descendants.

There's just so many fucked up contradictions, and so many hints of something more nuanced going on... but the story refuses to acknowledge any of it, and just keeps aggressively pushing the narrative that Hyrule is the ultimate good and couldn't possibly do anything wrong. I don't even believe that Ganon was a bad king honestly; we never hear why his people stopped following him. We also never even see if the Gerudo people turned on him at all; all we know is the ancient Gerudo sage wanted him dead, and given that she also happily sold her people into slavery, she's not exactly the most trustworthy source of information. All we know is that Ganondorf was a hero to his people, only one of his citizens is ever shown having an issue with him (and her motives are never explained), and then he lost the war and was sealed away, leaving his people open to be conquered by Zelda and annexed into Hyrule. By the time we see any Gerudo actually opposing Ganon (apart from the ancient sage), it's been ten thousand years since the war, and all anyone knows is the Hylian version of the story.

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #tears of the kingdom #ganondorf #the secret bonus reason for me arguing about this so much is that it's interesting #on a surface reading TOTK is a really boring story. nothing changes nobody learns anything there's no nuance #the game explains the entire story to us in the opening cutscene. idk why they bothered with the rest of the game #you could walk down those stairs in the intro and kill ganon immediately and it'd be pretty much the exact same story #if i take the game at face value then there's literally nothing to talk about. i just straight up do not care. #but analyzing all the fucked up implications nintendo accidentally included? now thats a story to talk about #i dont think ganondorf is secretly a really nice guy. i think he's more interesting if he's actually a complete bastard #but he's a complete bastard that has a point and if the game wont acknowledge that then i will #sure the people he's fighting against seem nice. but they're not actually good people #i mean ffs zelda certainly doesnt seem concerned that she last saw link taking a fatal blow for her then jumping into a bottomless pit #she doesn't even consider that he might be dead. or just unable/unwilling to fight after being horrifically wounded #at least BOTW had the decency to ask Link if he was willing to risk his life to fight ganon

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Anybody want more Good Ganondorf content?

(@silvercaptain24 more of that plot bunny you had :) also @luckybyrdrobyn @artisticgamer @wildsage00 I remembered to tag y'all this time lol)

Link wasn't entirely sure how long he had been stuck in this bedroom after the Gerudo women had left, but he knew it had been too blasted long. By his third attempt to get out of bed, he had at least finally managed to sit up without immediately wanting to pass out. If he could just manage to get up, it would be a start.

The room was small, and the only supplies were medicinal, with the exception of some food and water. No weapons in sight, naturally, but he wouldn't expect any from...

Well. He couldn't exactly call this place a cell, but he was a prisoner nonetheless.

Why had they captured him? Why hadn't they just killed him? Did they need him to use the Triforce? They'd already seized the Triforce of Courage from him in the last battle (and goddesses he tried so very hard to not think about the last battle, about their catastrophic failure, about the bodies littering the field, the queen's desperation and anger and panic and--). He couldn't imagine why they possibly needed him. Cia had been obsessed with him but had still tried to kill him; Ganondorf didn't even care about his existence, so why was he still alive?

He wasn't finding out. He was getting out of here.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the door swung open, making the captain jump. He tried to stand and face whoever was entering, but all he succeeded in doing was nearly face planting on the floor until strong, steady hands caught him.

"Nabooru figured you might try to get up," a deep voice rumbled.

Link's blood ran cold. He knew that voice. He'd heard it on the battlefield. He'd heard it when the Triforce of Courage was ripped out of him.

Ganondorf.

The captain tried to struggle against the monster's grip, but he was still too frustratingly weak. Before he knew it he was scooped up into massive arms, and a mild panic squeezed his chest so tightly he couldn't breathe. He couldn't stand to be so close to the man, so completely and utterly helpless and vulnerable in the arms of someone who could crush him in a heartbeat.

When he was gently lowered into the bed, he stared at Ganondorf in a mixture of bewilderment and wariness. "What do you want from me?"

Ganondorf raised an eyebrow at the question. "Currently, I want you to stop trying to get out of bed. You're going to worsen your condition."

Link narrowed his eyes. "And then?"

"And then?" Ganondorf repeated. "And then you'll get sicker, foolish child."

"What difference does it make to you?"

Ganondorf sighed. "Despite whatever idea of me you might have, I'm not interested in you getting yourself killed."

Link inhaled sharply to throw out a retort and found he had none, his mind too weary for whatever biting remark it usually would conjure. Then images of the battle came to mind, and he suddenly found he had far more words than he could say all at once. He settled for, "Killing people hasn't seemed to bother you that much."

Ganondorf watched him a moment, his expression unreadable. It made Link squirm. Finally, the man looked away. "I understand your impression of me is based on the war. That's... understandable. You'll be surprised to know my intentions with the Triforce are not to destroy Hyrule, and I don't kill outside the battlefield. I prefer not to kill at all if I don't have to... but war is war."

The words tore through Link's uneasiness, setting his heart and mind on fire. He jerked upright in the bed, ignoring the dizzy spell that accompanied it. "War is war?! That's your excuse for causing Hyrule to be torn apart at the seams?! Is that what you said before they sealed you away as well?!"

"And what words does your queen use?" Ganondorf fired back, his voice lowering dangerously.

"Queen Zelda is trying to protect Hyrule!" Link argued, his vision blurring as he turned to face his enemy more fully. "This entire war started because of you!"

"I had my soul split into pieces and was sealed away," Ganondorf said, his voice growing quiet, and the air in the room grew impossibly heavy. "Would you not do anything to escape such a torturous fate? I used what abilities I had to manipulate someone powerful enough to do the deed. The destruction she wrought as a result is not my doing."

"Nice way of saying you started this mess but don't want to take responsibility for it," Link snapped.

Surprisingly, that gave the king pause, and he sighed, looking away. "I cannot claim responsibility for what I have not done. I won't. Everything that has occurred since my return is my doing. Not before."

Link was growing too worn out for this argument, but he still had too many things to say. When he opened his mouth to do so, however, he coughed instead, collapsing onto the pillows. Ganondorf's gaze returned to him, softer and mildly worried, and it baffled Link beyond comprehension.

His enemy shook his head subtly with another sigh and tucked the hero in a little better. "I figured this conversation would be too much for you in this state. Get some rest, child."

The captain wanted to scream at him, to find the Master Sword and gut him, but between the man's strange look and the teenager's own exhaustion, all he could do was comply, closing his eyes.

#writing #good ganondorf #this is uh... mildly invading my brain #so have this #good ganondorf is complicated #because he's still done horrible things #he ain't perfect #but that's what makes it fun! #hyrule warriors link #ganondorf #hw link #hyrule warriors #legend of zelda

[luimagines]

It is Wednesday, my dudes-

It was dark inside the sand filled temple, the walls old with age and worn down by time. Any carved glyphs or texts barely ledgeable by now. Colors that were no doubt once vibrant, now dull and chipping away, turning to dust and sand. Time held a flaming torch in his hand, the burning item held up high so light could illuminate the room properly, Twilight and Warriors by his side, prepared for any attack. Within the middle of the group stood Wild, Four, and Legend, all more focused on looking at any potential hints of an exit than any potential monsters, Legend holding up their mini teams torch while looking mighty displeased at this fact. BUt when he turned, his annoyed tone rung out in the hall, catching the leading three's attention. "Hey!" he exclaimed, Glaring at the rear team's distance away from them, and Warriors groaned seeing the reason why the last team was held up. Sky, Wind, and Hyrule were watching their fourth party member intently, as they sketched out runes on the wall, the happiest look on their face as they did so, rambling about whatever history fact they might have known. Legend spoke up again, this time, throwing a pebble at the group. "Hey! Don't hold us up! We have to keep moving!" Time let out a sigh. He should have known better than to let the mysterious grey historian join the last group, as they were easily distracted by them (but at least they werent with Wild, it was like trying to keep an eye on toddlers in a bakery). They were an enigma to the group, knowing so much about specific periods of time and eras of hyrule yet they knew so little about them. "Legend is right. We must keep moving, Goddess know what is down here..." "Yea, I'd rather not be down here much longer." Warriors stated. "I feel like I'm being watched and not in a good way." Twilight looked around. The air was. . . familiar. Like he had been there before. . . Reader put their sketch pad away and let Wind grab their hand and catch them up to the rest of the group, Hyrule holding the torch walking along side sky. Reader spoke "I'm trying to figure out where we are!" they exclaimed "More specifically, what landmark we are at. Seeing that there are deep red coloring in the walls with golden accent- albeit they are basically sand now- I believe that this is perhaps a Gerudo building? Maybe a colosseum of types? But it wouldn't make sense as-" Legend slapped a hand over their mouth. "Shut up! We don't need one of your freakish history lessons right now- EW!" he took his hand back as Reader grinned. "IT licked my hand! Disgusting!" "I'm not an 'it'" They huffed. "As I was saying- The reason I'm looking is because I have a sneaking suspicion that this is also a prison hold. So I apologize for the delay, but I just wanted to see how I could help." Time hummed and turned "Well, if it is a mix of a battle ground and prison, there may be powerful skeleton monsters ahead. Thank you for the heads up. Let move forward." The silence stretched on forever and a half, only the sounds of boots stepping on sand and worn tile heard in the echoing halls for quite some time when finally, they hit a large room. It was large and spacious, filled with sand and old texts and glyphs unreadable and forgotten. A row of statues of women lined a path to a set of steps with unlit And burnt out stands ment for light and above that what looked like old platforms. Reader jogged to one of the statues to take a better look, Wild following them and Hyrule close behind. Legend watched and scoffed as the group made a small place to rest. "I know what you're thinking." Time said, eyes closed as Legend turned to him "The answer is still no." "It would be better to leave them at a village." he stated, Four looking worried at Legend. "They can't fight and constantly hold us up! And they just keep harming themselves and get in the way."

Four sent Legend a look "They do us a lot of good other than fighting. The ability to know where we are geographicly and timewise is very crucial for us at this moment. The shadow is trying to confuse us- for what reasons I do not know- so having Reader with us give us a heafty advantage." Warriors added in his thoughts following Four's "Plus, Our times all have monsters that have changed or new ones that have appeared entirely. If we have a way to determine what monsters we would be facing would help us to prepare for battles we may have to fight." "And we cannot just leave them here." Time spoke up "It is clear for things they've have said and done that we have nor encountered their Era yet, so it isn't safe for them to be left somewhere so unknown to them. Besides, there must be a good reason they were brought here." "I think that Reader is hiding something." Legend spoke up "They aren't telling us something. And If it's something related to the shadow, then they are our enemy." "I have to agree with Legend on this one." Twilight spoke up suddenly, making Sky turned to him, taken aback by this statement. "They have been acting weird from the start, saying things that they shouldn't know then claiming to be 'a historian' and how it's in books? Too much of a coincidence to me." It was Sky's turn to speak. "I think if They are hiding somthing, it must be for a good reason, right? I don't think they'd keep something hidden from us out of malicious intent, right?" None of them got to answer, as Reader's voice called to them "Arbiter's Grounds!" Twilight stiffened at the words. They ran to the group "We're in the Arbiter's Grounds! This place was built to house evil criminals, as a prison. Until the worse one came and slaughtered a sage that protected and guarded this place, before executing him! This man's name was Ganondorf!" Most of the men reacted to this news. Reader continued "From what I know, we maybe be in some time between Twilight's Era and Wild's Era. By the time the calamity happens, the Grounds are covered and buried in thousands of pounds of sand!" "So are you saying we can still find an exit?" Sky asked hopefully, and Reader nodded. But Twilight stood up. "Great job, Historian." he said, voice suddenly cold, along with his gaze. "Great deduction, only here's one issue. The Arbiter's Grounds were never written about In history books or even royal records. So how would you know that this was significant in MY time?!" All eyes fell on Reader, who had turned visibly pale, and Twilight put a hand on his bland hilt. 'Oh no.' they thought, wide eyes glued to his sword.

Reader's in for it now. XD

I think that if they really wanted to, they could try to wiggle their way out of a confrontation since there's so much time and space between Wild and Twilight as a whole, but that would depend on if Reader is able to word it fast enough and clever enough to not get cornered.

#pinky replies #anon stories #except not really #it *is* in fact anon story wednesday XD #i just don't get a lot of stories anymore lol

[marimbles]

A gift for @gathos! This is my first Zelda fic so I hope it's OK 👉👈 Thanks for the inspo<3 I had fun writing this!

Word count: 2.9k

Summary: Riju and Zelda drink Noble Pursuits and talk about a certain noble someone.

A Noble Pursuit

The desert shimmers in the setting sun.

It’s a beauty she can never quite get used to, despite countless hours spent on the back of Vah Naboris with Urbosa, watching the sand shift like water far below them. The desert’s gold seems boundless, stretched out like an open palm to call to the horizon. She used to dream of answering that call—of sailing on the sand-sea to the edge of the world, to discover just what secrets lay beyond it. (Link says he’s been there, and there isn’t much to tell. But still, she wants to see it for herself.)

“Zelda!” Riju joins her at the window, taking her elbow. “Come. Sit. Our drinks have arrived.”

She steers Zelda to the cushioned seats at the end of her bed, where a giant plush sand seal takes up most of the space.

“We have a guest, Nabooru,” Riju informs the seal. “I’m afraid you’ll have to surrender your seat.” She tosses it unceremoniously onto the bed.

“Er, sorry, Nabooru,” Zelda says.

“Oh, she’s honored to make room for the princess of Hyrule.” Riju gently pushes Zelda onto the cushions and presses a cold glass into her hands. “Try it. It’s a crowd favorite. We’ve just got ice again, and the whole town is vying for a taste before we run out.”

Zelda raises the glass to her lips. The drink is fresh and fruity—sweet, but well balanced. “Mmm. What’s it called?”

“The Noble Pursuit. Palm fruit, hydromelon, voltfruit, and a touch of something apparently even the chief of the Gerudo isn’t allowed to know, unless she takes a part-time job at the canteen.” Riju grins. “Refreshing, right?”

“Absolutely.” Zelda takes another sip.

“Oh, don’t be so princess-y about it. There’s plenty. Go on, drink up.” Riju drains her own glass and reaches for the pitcher on the table.

“Do you think we could deliver one outside the gate to Link?” Zelda asks. “I hate to think of him pacing around the city walls in this heat.”

Riju waves a dismissive hand as she tops off both their glasses. “I convinced him to rest at Kara Kara. I’m sure he can find his own refreshment there.” She sets the pitcher down again. “Don’t worry. He’ll be back to collect you in the morning. But until then, it’s just us.”

Riju raises her glass, eyes bright, and Zelda taps her own against it with a giggle and a clink.

“Ah.” Riju sighs, settling back on her cushion. “Speaking of noble pursuits, I think it’s time for you to spill about yours.”

“Oh, you mean the schoolhouse?” Zelda sits up, eager. “It’s coming along splendidly! Bolson says it should be ready by the end of the month. All the children are so excited. And I think I might be able to persuade Link to help me teach there sometimes. He knows every corner of Hyrule, after all. And while he’s rather modest about it, he is a key point of our history.”

“Undoubtedly,” Riju says. “And that sounds wonderful. But it’s also not what I meant.”

“Oh, then are you talking about the Sheikah technology project? We have almost all of it dismantled and repurposed. Link has been working at it tirelessly. He has just a few more shrines to deactivate, over in Faron.”

“Oh?” Riju fishes a piece of fruit from her glass and pops it into her mouth.

“Yes. We’re going there next week so he can take care of it while I do some research on some local fauna that may have an interesting connection to luminous stones. Anyway, I know it might seem like a waste—the Sheikah tech, I mean, not the luminous stones—although, they do, potentially … well, they produce the waste, supposedly—quite a remarkable kind of waste, in fact. But—but as for the Sheikah parts, we’re trying to be as resourceful as possible. Reuse what we can and safely dispose of what we can’t. We just can’t risk another Calamity, you see. There’s no telling when Ganon might return, and the abundance of ancient machinery leaves us vulnerable. It just seemed like it was tempting fate again. Don’t you think?”

“I think that sounds both wise and noble.” Riju tips her head back to finish off her second glass. “Although I don’t know if I can say the same of luminous droppings.”

“It’s—the droppings aren’t luminous,” Zelda replies with a blush. “Just the stones that produce them. The droppings are gem deposits. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

“Interesting. Are you planning on making any jewelry with them, then? We have a fine jeweler here in Gerudo Town.”

Zelda blinks. “Well, no. I wasn’t planning on taking the research materials. And to be honest, I’m not very interested in jewelry.”

“But isn’t it Hylian custom to offer your betrothed a piece of jewelry?” Riju asks, filling her glass yet again. “A ring, I thought.”

“Well … yes, that is the custom,” Zelda says hesitantly. “But I don’t see quite see how that relates to what you’re asking.”

“No?” Riju peers at Zelda over the top of her glass, a smile half hidden behind it. “You don’t see any connection?”

The room suddenly feels rather stuffy, despite Zelda’s heat-resistant outfit and the fact that it is nearly nightfall. The breeze drifting through the windows is pleasantly cool, but not enough to soothe her burning cheeks. She buries her face in her glass and doesn’t resurface until the drink is gone.

“Another?” Riju offers politely.

She really shouldn’t have more. She rarely drinks, on principle—partly because she prefers to be in full possession of her faculties, and partly because she is an embarrassing lightweight.

But Riju has already filled her glass again, and the Noble Pursuit is delicious. So she gulps the whole thing down, trying not to worry about how it will affect her half an hour from now.

“Ha! Now we’re getting somewhere.” Riju seems far too delighted—suspiciously delighted, honestly—and she is quick to pour yet another drink.

“I’m glad you are properly enjoying the tastes of our fine town,” Riju declares. “Although, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were avoiding my question.”

That sly smile is driving Zelda mad. She sucks in a breath, fighting back another blush. “I can’t avoid the question if I don’t know what it is, can I?”

“Oh, come on,” Riju teases. “The princess of Hyrule is famously wise. Legendary in her wisdom, one could say. Surely she can figure out this simple riddle.”

“I’m not in the mood for riddles,” she replies, a bit sourly.

But Riju just laughs. “You, objecting to a riddle? There’s one I’ve never heard before. I’ve never known another person to be so fond of puzzles. Except maybe … Link.”

She’s got Zelda now, and she knows it. Riju’s smile grows practically devilish while Zelda takes another humiliating drink, her cheeks no doubt rivaling than the sinking sun outside the window.

“Let’s seeeee …” Riju props her elbow on the sofa, threading her fingers through the fresh crop of her scarlet hair. “A noble pursuit, hmm? What could that refer to? Is there anything in Hyrule that we might consider noble? Or perhaps … anyone?”

Zelda pointedly looks away from Riju’s grin. “There—there are many noble citizens of Hyrule. Of every race, in every region.”

“To be sure,” Riju agreed. “But wouldn’t you say there is someone who is the most noble? Someone with a very noble heart, and a noble mind, and noble sword upon his noble, and strong, and sculpted back?”

Zelda chokes on a bit of hydromelon, falling into a coughing fit. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh yes, you do. You were ogling him in that voe outfit all afternoon when we went sand surfing.”

“I was not ogling!” Zelda insists. “I was just admiring his form! He’s a very skilled surfer.”

“You were admiring his physical form,” Riju says. “Personally, I don’t see what’s so impressive. For how strong he is, you’d think he’d have more muscle. And height. Goddesses, he’s short.”

“He’s—he’s not that short. You’re just used to all these great, big Gerudo women. We can’t all be nine feet tall.”

“Please. Even for a Hylian, he’s tiny.”

Zelda sits back with a huff. “Did you really invite me here just to make fun of my knight?”

“Oh, calm down. You know I think very highly of Link. I meant it when I said that he was noble.” Riju pauses. “I admit I haven’t had the chance to meet many voe, but I’m positive that he’s the most noble one there is.”

The spirits are already making Zelda feel slightly fuzzy at the edges. “You … you think he’s that noble? The most … worthy voe?”

“I do.”

“So then …” Her head is swimming, and something twists deep in her stomach. “Does that mean you want him as your husband? To rule by your side?”

Riju breaks into a laugh. “Truly, all your royal wisdom is no match for Gerudo liquor, is it?”

“Huh?”

“Zelda, I’m not the one in love with Link. You are.”

Something jolts through her, and Zelda thinks, suddenly, of Urbosa, summoning lightning with just a snap of her fingers. She’s frozen in place, heart pounding in her chest, and the breath feels trapped in her lungs.

“Aren’t you?” Riju asks, softly this time.

Zelda’s eyes fall closed, and in the black he’s there, like always. On the backs of her eyelids, in the cage of her ribs, in the very map of her flowing veins. In every heartbeat, every breath, every silent thought—it’s him, him, him.

For a moment, there’s silence. The last rays of the dying sun slip out the open window. Then Riju sets her glass down with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry. You don’t have to talk about this.”

“No, I want to,” Zelda whispers. “Because you’re right. I do love him. I …” She swallows. “I have loved him for a hundred years.”

She looks up, and every trace of mirth is gone from Riju’s face. She’s solemn. Gentle. Waiting. Zelda lets her eyes fall to the floor.

“While he slept,” she says quietly, “it was the memory of his face that gave me the strength to keep on fighting. Time passed so strangely in that place … sometimes, it felt like only minutes ago that I had held him in my arms and watched him die. But at the same time, I felt the ache of every hour we were apart. I was determined to be by his side again. And I believed, more than anything, that he would come for me. He always did. He always would.”

There’s a smile in Riju’s voice. “You have so much faith in him.”

“It’s easy to have faith in Link. He has never let me down.” She bows her head, staring into the contents of her half-empty cup. “Though I have failed him every moment since.”

“What do you mean?”

Zelda releases a breath, deep and slow. “I made a promise, before I sealed myself away. I promised that when I saw Link again, I would tell him.”

“Tell him what?”

She traces a finger around the rim of the glass. “That I love him.”

“Why don’t you?”

Zelda smiles weakly. “Courage is Link’s virtue, not mine.”

“But what exactly are you afraid of?” Riju leans forward, gaze earnest. “Do you really think he doesn’t love you back?”

Zelda’s cheeks warm. “Link is … reserved. Of course, he speaks more freely now than he did before he lost his memories, but even still, he doesn’t easily express the way he feels.”

“He does to you,” Riju points out.

“Some feelings, yes.” Her blush deepens. “But not … other feelings.”

Riju rolls her eyes. “He doesn’t have to say it. Anyone with eyes can tell.”

“He’s just—he’s noble, like you said. His heart is good, and his loyalty runs deep. But to an outside eye, the line between duty and affection may seem blurred.”

“Are you kidding me?” Riju shakes her head. “He would follow you to the ends of the earth. He is always at your side. In fact, it’s so impossible to separate you that I had to lure you out here to the desert, to the single place in Hyrule where he can’t follow, just to have a private conversation.”

Zelda sighs impatiently. “He follows me because he is my knight. A duty which I have attempted, more than once, to relieve him of—but he refuses every time.”

“Because he loves you!”

Zelda hesitates. “If he loves me, why hasn’t he said it?”

“Why haven’t you?”

She buries her face in her hands. The effects of the alcohol are beginning to come back again, pressure mounting at her temples. (The familiar ache in her chest, she’s sure, has an entirely separate origin.)

“Zelda,” Riju says gently. “You said yourself that Link has never let you down. Why would you lose your faith in him now?”

“This—this is different.” She roughly wipes away a tear. “This isn’t something I can—can ask of him. I can’t expect him to love me. Because—because it’s not a duty to fulfill. Or a service to be rendered. It’s not a feat of heroism. Or an act of courage.”

Riju is quiet for a moment, considering. “Isn’t it, though?”

“What?”

“It is an act of courage, isn’t it? To love someone? And tell them so?” Riju tilts her head. “Maybe this time, you need to be the brave one.”

Zelda’s voice breaks around a sob. “I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. Listen.” Riju straightens in her seat. “Link follows you. Always. But he can only follow where you lead. I think the reason he hasn’t said it is that he’s waiting for you.”

Zelda lets out a sad, desperate sort of laugh. “He can lead the way this once, can’t he?”

“Well, he’s never been a voe of many words.” Riju shrugs. “I think he’s already said it in every way he can. Apart from, well, saying it.”

Zelda bites her lip. “Are you sure?”

Riju snorts. “I’m sure. Honestly, we should bring you both into a ‘Voe and You’ class. So all the vai can see how a voe’s face looks when he’s in love.”

Zelda looks down at her lap, tugging at the end of her long hair. A bubble of warmth swells inside her chest, and she can’t fight back a smile.

“Trust me,” Riju says firmly. “When he comes tomorrow, watch his face. It’ll be there, as soon as he sees you.”

Zelda lifts her head. “And then?”

“And then you’ll know. And you can tell him.”

“What if …” Zelda takes a shaking breath. “What if I’m still not ready?”

A smile tugs at Riju’s lips. “Then I guess a noble pursuit that has waited for a hundred years can wait a little longer.”

————

The desert shimmers in the morning sun.

Link waits by the entrance to Gerudo Town in his blue tunic, quiet and gentle and patient—a golden boy more gilded by the dawn.

(It’s a beauty she can never quite get used to, no matter how many times she sees him.)

His face is smooth and calm, like usual. But when he spots them, it breaks into a smile—something rare and radiant, like a desert bloom, or a diamond geode, or a shining, pearl-sheen shell.

“Sav’otta!” Riju greets him. “How was the trip from the bazaar?”

“Fine,” he says. “It’s still early. Not too hot.”

His gaze shifts to Zelda, and his eyes are bright and soft—smooth-edged sea glass catching sunlight in its hands.

“Right,” Riju says. “Well, thanks for letting me steal Zelda for the night. It was nice to catch up. Good luck with the school and the shrines and the poop.”

Link’s eyebrows rise. “The poop?”

“Never mind about that!” Zelda says quickly, neck burning under her collar. “Um, thank you, Riju. You’re always a lovely host.”

“Any time.” Riju slips a bottle into Zelda’s hand with a wink. “For the road. Safe travels to you both!”

They wave goodbye, and then together, Zelda and Link turn to face the golden stretch of desert sea.

(If he would follow her to the ends of the earth, where else would he follow?)

She swallows, squinting against the glint of the shining sand. Her heart feels caught in her throat.

“Did you sleep well?” she ventures.

Link shrugs.

“No?”

He wets his lips, gaze darting downward for a moment before meeting hers again. “I just rest better when I know you’re near.”

She searches his face. It’s earnest and open—strong beneath its softness, soft beneath its strength. He looks sun-gold and moon-silver and every beautiful thing in between. (And with the way his features soften when they’re turned toward her, she must look much the same.)

How a voe’s face looks when he’s in love.

“Me too,” she says.

He nods toward the bottle in her hand. “What’s that?”

“Oh.” She lifts it to read the label. “It’s the drink Riju and I had last night. I think you’d like it.”

“What’s in it?”

“Fruit. And other things we’re probably better off not knowing.”

A laugh slips free from his lips, and her heart soars. She has loved him for a hundred years, and she would love him for a hundred more. As long as she has heartbeats left, he will live between each one.

“Um …” Zelda keeps her eyes on the bottle, tracing the label with a finger. “I know it’s too early now, but maybe later …” She takes a steadying breath and looks up with a smile. “Link, would you share a Noble Pursuit with me?”

He smiles back, sun-golden. “I’d love to.”

#legend of zelda #loz #totk #botw #zelink #riju #zelda #link loz #mine #my fics

[sammie-scribbles]

LoZ Gender Ideas

Note: These are my headcanons! I just like to take details from the canon and run with them as far as they will take me. Feel free to use these ideas if you want! Also only the OoT Link and Saria one has images because I’m tired. Put some Subway Surfers on if you get bored of all of the text /lh /j

Zelda/Sheik (OoT) - he/him

In Ocarina of Time, Zelda disguises himself as Sheik for seven years. That is a very long time to purposefully disguise yourself as a different gender. I don’t believe he even knew how long it would be until Link woke up. For all he knew, Link might never have come back.

He could’ve disguised himself as a Sheikah woman, but seems to have chosen to be a man.

The manga version is a little iffy, but Zelda seems to agree to Impa’s plan of having his conscience rest to “become that of a Sheikah boy”.

“Now, what about when he reveals himself as Princess Zelda and stays that way for the rest of the game?” You might ask.

I think it might’ve been to quickly relay information to Link.

He revealed himself as Zelda in the Temple of Time right before Link was to go defeat Ganondorf. It would’ve wasted valuable time to explain that he had transitioned from Zelda to Sheik. (Also, he was immediately kidnapped by Ganondorf)

He is also the one who sends Link back to the Child Timeline, so he probably knew that  they wouldn’t stay to get to know this particular version of himself.

Zelda/Sheik (HW) - they/them

In Hyrule Warriors, Zelda seems to disguise themself as Sheik for no apparent reason.

They are constantly referred to as the “Sheikah youth”, no gender being assigned to them.

My headcanon is that Zelda saw a chance to temporarily escape the shackles and expectations of “Princess Zelda”, and that they could truly explore themself for a little while.

Sheik has many lines talking about how they will be playing some sort of music, or even historical uses of music. Zelda’s lines mainly focus on the others around them. So, maybe their dream was to be a historian or bard?

Link (BotW/TotK) - he/they

In Breath of the Wild, Link is very androgynous.

However, I noticed that he doesn’t seem to identify as a woman in any way.

They seem to like traditionally “girly” things (ie. nail polish, being called “pretty”). But, when someone asks him if he’s a woman (Riju wonders about the Hylian Champion being a vai), he seems to become possibly uncomfortable and corrects them. They also seem shocked and scared when someone realizes they are not a vai (the one Hylian in Gerudo Town, the shopkeeper in the secret shop).

He doesn’t even keep the Gerudo Vai set in Tears of the Kingdom.

Fado (OoT/WW) - he/him

In Ocarina of Time, Fado is a Kokiri that seems fairly cryptic during the medicine quest.

In Wind Waker, Fado is the Wind Sage.

Interestingly, even though they share the same name (and in my opinion, look similar) they use different pronouns.

Lots of people (myself included) see this and head canon that they are indeed the same person, but he transitioned to a boy between the events of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker.

Bonuses!

Or, more accurately, fun things I noticed that I have no clue how to interpret, lol

Link (FSA) - idk I avoided assigning pronouns cause I can’t decide

In Four Swords Adventures, Link is able to go into Gerudo Town without any problems whatsoever.

Granted, this seems to be a point in time where the Gerudo are trying to forge relations with the rest of Hyrule, and they could’ve gotten rid of that law. But, that law is in effect in BotW, and I doubt that the Gerudo would get rid of the law only to bring it back later. So, it would make sense that the law is still in effect during Four Swords Adventures.

So, either, the Gerudo assumed that Link was not a boy (possible) OR that Link is not a boy in this incarnation (also possible). I don’t know which of these options I will be using, but feel free to use this as you want to!

Link and Saria (OoT) - they/them?

In Ocarina of Time, the Kokiri all wear very similar clothing.

The girls wear a tunic with a brown belt, brown boots, and a headband. The boys wear a v-neck shirt with shorts, green boots, and a cap.

Interestingly, Saria and Link both don’t follow these rules.

Saria wears shorts, green boots, and a headband. Link wears tunic with a brown belt, browns boots, and a cap.

This seems to suggest that Link and Saria don’t fall into the gender binary. What gender does this make them? IDK, this is just something interesting I noticed.

Link (AoL) - he/she?

In the Adventure of Link, Link is able to transform into a fairy. This fairy form looks identical to any other fairy, including the feminine body figure.

This seems to suggest she’s genderfluid to an extent? Since it’s only when she is a fairy?

He also seems (relatively) fine with becoming the king of Hyrule? (though, I guess that Elizabeth Swann from PotC was a king as well, lol)

IDK. Just an interesting thing I noticed.

#loz #loz headcanons #loz sheik #oot link #oot sheik #sheik #oot saria #saria #aol link #adventure of link #fairy link #hw sheik #hw Zelda #Hyrule warriors #ocarina of time #wind Waker #ww fado #OoT fado #botw link #totk link #tears of the kingdom #breath of the Wild #four swords adventures #fsa link #loz fsa #Gerudo #chain of fate #sammie’s bullshit #sammie theorizes #theories

[ghost-bard]

The Revali Rant

Fun fact I’ve actually gone on this rant before but it was... 7 months ago and I was half asleep and on the bus when I wrote it so actually I’m gonna do it again cuz i can :) 

also @flustered-flux @initforthecache @godmodebeginswithlesbians @bonethievery @https://www.tumblr.com/brennaauragoldwing @caligulousaquarium @barnabyboppins @rudecanadian (idk if you wanted to be tagged rudecanadian but you did ask why he lost so)

Disclaimer I do not care if anyone dislikes Revali, like I truly do not care lmao. However I do get annoyed when the fandom dissolves the champions to like. One core trait. And especially when Revali is just. Mean/weak bird. It’s annoying lmao

That said, lemme get into it. 

As a whole Revali is pompous, he’s mean, he’s full of himself, he knows how good he is. But none of those negate the fact that yeah, he lost to Windblight Ganon. However, there are two things that a lot of people tend to look over when talking about this. Each champion is caught off guard, and in one of the memories you actually see this happen. Zelda and Link come back from a shrine with Zelda once again unsuccessfully gaining her power, and as this happens, the “final battle” starts. None of the champions were actually able to prepare for their fight, and further more I don’t think any of them were ready to fight a version of Ganon? Like do people forget that the other champions died to, or is it fine that Revali died because he talks himself up? The second thing is that each Blight was tailored specifically for each of the champions. Again, Revali was not the only so called great warrior to die, they each were up against an unfair fight. Further more, before I get into the true disadvantage that Revali had, I would like to mention that (and correct me if I’m wrong) in a dlc you can go back and fight each Divine Beast and you get something similar to what each champion fought with, you can truly see, that once again each champion was not prepared to fight. But even then, you may be wondering, why was Revali at more of a disadvantage than the others? They were also caught unawares, so why was Revali different?

Well, let me answer that.

Revali was fighting Windblight in the dark, and the Rito see much worse in the dark, and I know it sounds like I’m stating the obvious, but as a whole birds just can’t see at night, and the Rito have awful night vision. He could not see anything while fighting Windblight. He only got glimpses of Windblight whilst fighting him, pair that with him being unprepared, and it’s already a bad situation, but then we have to get to Windblights skill set. 

He is able to send out tornados which would be able to knock Revali out of the air if he were flying, which is very likely, and once again, he could not see them. Revali is a very skilled warrior, obviously, but I don’t it’d be all that possible to try and hit a moving target while also trying to dodge multiple tornados, while also not being able to see. It seems very unlikely actually. Then there’s also his projectiles, if you are unable to see properly, probably will be unable to know where the fuck a projectile is hitting you from. There’s his lasers, which shoot out very quickly, and guess what? If you don’t see it quick enough you’re probably going to get hit. Regardless of the fact that each champion was fighting something tailored to beat them specifically, Revali also had to do it in the dark.

Despite all of this though, I feel as though it’s unfair to always talk about how easy Windblight is when Waterblight is also incredibly easy. In fact so is Fireblight! The reason why Thunderblight is so difficult for most people is because of similar the Gerudo and Hylians are. They are the most similar in build, so of course a ganonblight that was tailored to Urbosa’s weaknesses is going to be the most difficult for a Hylian. And of course, each person is different, so to some Thunderblight might not actually be that hard, and that’s fine! But it is important to note that all the champions were up against something tailored to their weaknesses.

And the most tragic part? Revali was the last to send out his distress signal, which was basically the signifier that the champion was about to die. In each of the divine beasts songs when you get close to them you can hear morse code intertwined with the music that spells out s o s. And Revali’s comes out panicked. Everyone knows just how proud of a person Revali is, and for his signal to come out like that is just plain sad. 

And even then, you don’t really hear that much about Revali in the base game. He is not as remembered as the other champions, he just simply isn’t. When you go to each area, you can very easily tell the mark that the champions left on history. The Zora live for a long time, so a lot of the people you meet at the Zora domain have some sort of image of Mipha, she is so clearly remembered it hurts, in a bittersweet way. In Goron city they literally have Daruk’s face etched into the mountain. In Gerudo town Urbosa was literally their leader, so it would be difficult to forget her. In fact in each area except Rito village Link is accompanied by a direct relative of each Champian. Sidon in Zora’s Domain, Riju in Gerudo Town, and Yunobo in Goron City. Revali does not have a single direct descendent. Revali is not truly remembered by anyone. Teba is simply the one who takes Revali’s place as protector of Rito village. Revali did not have anyone. He was young. He lived and died as a warrior. All Revali had was a ledge. Nothing else.

Which brings me to why I think Revali acts the way he does. Now of course, I will be the first person to admit that yeah Revali is mean. But does anyone who makes this very obvious criticism of him know why he is so apparently mean, self-centered, ect, ect? 

Because I truly believe that that Revali and Link are foils of each other in some form. Link and Revali are very similar in theory, both notable warriors who train day-in day-out. They both aren’t in any form of leadership when brought in to help with the calamity. Revali was an extremely trained person, and in the dlc cutscene when Zelda goes to recruit him you can see that Revali had not actually perfected his gale. His ability was not something handed to him through being royalty, or simply because he was born. He MADE his gale. He literally practiced everyday, more likely than not injuring himself in the process. Revali is a perfectionist, plain and simple. So, in a way he sees himself in Link. Link is a warrior. Link was not someone who was all that special. Except then he, a nobody warrior suddenly became special, simply because he pulled out a sword from the ground. Revali acts so pompous because he knows how much he had to work himself to the bone to actually be someone. If he can’t at least put on an act of confidence than who is he in comparison? Yes, Revali was likely the most powerful warrior in Rito village, but how much of his status do we actually know? Do we know how revered he was? With each champion we clearly know why Zelda picked them, Mipha had an amazing healing ability, was also a princess, Urbosa was known to be an excellent fighter, like people compared her fighting to dancing, she could quite literally summon lightning, and she was also leader of the Gerudo, Daruk also a known fighter and has his magical(? you get what I mean) protection. Revali was in all honesty just a warrior. He wasn’t known for his ability because he had not actually perfected it in yet Zelda went to see him. In the dlc you can read his diary and it reveals that Revali was insecure, painfully so, and the anger directed at Link in game is in part because of Link’s silence. He writes in his diary that the fact that Link simply wouldn’t react to anything he would show him just fed into his insecurity, which caused him to lash out. We see that to most of the champions he is just confident, plain and simple, but when it comes to Link he’s more than just confident, he’s demeaning, but Link never reacts. 

Was Revali in the right for how he acted to Link? Obviously not, but at least there’s a reason for it. In each memory we can clearly see that throughout the time that the champions spent time together no one ever really asked why he acted the way he did. None of them attempted to get close to him (except maybe Daruk but that might've been his personality), they all pretty much tolerated him. Despite this he was still able to work with them. It is apparent that beneath all his snark, Revali did care, at least a little bit. 

Revali died without anyone truly caring about him or knowing who he was, and that’s just the truth of the matter. 

Again I do not care if someone dislikes Revali, but sometimes it gets annoying that so many people in the fandom seem to hate him for no reason other than being mean. Then again I’m the one getting pressed about a fictional character so who am I to talk lol. This did go from talking about revali v windblight to talking more about his character but its fine, i still p much got what I was trying to say across so like yknow.

I feel like I could say so much more about him but at some point it goes from a bit of an analysis to headcanon so I won’t lmao. If you read this far, maybe check out my revalink fanfic “When the snow melts, will you still be with me?” on ao3. Also, if anyone would like to know my headcanons for Revali (and all the other champions of course) uhh let me know lmao

the dlc i mention a few times is the Champions Ballad dlc, in case anyone wants to look it up

Also, links to 2 vids I reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti3qY2AeFo0&t=278s this talks about Revali v. Windblight Hyrule gamer also made a vid about how Revali acts but I have yet to watch it 

https://youtu.be/B1FJp9WISGQ this is so you can hear the sos signal I referenced at some point 

#botw #loz botw #legend of zelda #legend of Zelda botw #breath of the wild #botw link #botw revali #botw mipha #botw urbosa #botw daruk #botw rito #botw zora #botw goron #botw gerudo #revali #breath of the wild link #breath of the wild revali #breath of the wild mipha #breath of the wild urbosa #breath of the wild daruk #botw sidon #prince sidon #botw teba #botw yunobo #botw riju #legend of zelda tears of the kingdom #god ive gone on this exact rant so many times revali simply doesn't leave my head #like he refuses to leave #can you tell that revali is my favorite champion lmao #like sometimes its annoying to look through fandom stuff and its just.

[wanderlustmagician]

hi friend I am respectfully making demands at risk of siege that you talk about something in your modern au that might never come up in text but is a piece of it nonetheless

you have 72 hours otw canadas next

Somer. You nearly made the temptation to wait on this too much. Luckily I’m a Grade A rambler being asked to ramble and there is a good bit that either won’t or might not ever be in this. Buckle up buttercup. 🤪

So I have included, in some of my ramblings, references that the First Hero (ie the one mentioned in Skyward Sword as being Sky’s predecessor) and that trains will be in this AU. Currently the plan is to make this very slice of life, one-two shot set up for the Before the Adventure stuff and then have a “introduction of plot” fic that’s chaptered… before the rest is back to the one-three shot slice of life stuff. So my opportunity to have many things be brought outa the vault is pretty high. So that said…. This will be pretty much bits and pieces of ideas I had and scrapped but still like or things I’m holding onto but likely won’t write;

That said… Mister First will likely stay as just referenced as the Queen’s companion, until or unless he appears in LU canon and I feel it necessary to include him more. Mostly cause nine is the biggest cast I’ve written for… ever. Which isn’t even the full number for LU but it’s the most consistent one. Also because i don’t know enough to feel like I’ve got a good grasp. Plus it’s fun to make him kind of cryptid like in this quasi-political court field I’ve created.

Then the trains! Spirit Tracks is really cute and very much set far after Wind’s time. So I thought it could be fun to have that as a little teaser to maybe having the train boy come in. We’ll see. I want to go through a little more and see how some others shake out with the plot I currently have.

The Champions were actual people in this! Not just constellations. They did pass in The Calamity and I will likely only ever reference them briefly for feels. Urbosa was the soccer coach at Wild and Flora’s school. Revali was Link’s rival in archery. Mipha was Swim Captain and in a flirtationship with Wild. Daruk was the wrestling coach. Both Urbosa and Daruk taught actual classes. Daruk did Math, don’t ask me which.. pls I don’t like math. Urbosa did the Gerudo language class.

Urbosa was Riju’s cousin, it was distanced though. Daruk was Yunobo’s grandfather still. Mipha and Sidon still siblings, can’t change that. Revali was Saki’s nephew.

None of this will ever really come up because Wild’s past amnesia will only come up occasionally. It’s said that in BOTW that he has regained his memory by the end, so im going to run with a version of Wild who remembers, is grieving, and is trying to move on. So at most there will be a reference to them as his still healing grief comes and goes.

A lot of my world building are things that likely will not be big big in the story, just things I’ve made note of so I remember that they’re important references.

Like Sky and Twi’s nicknames for each other! They defend them ruthlessly, even if they’re a little embarrassed by them. They were penpals as kids, a program ran by their schools to encourage the grade schoolers to practice writing, and got made fun of by their classmates because their names are the same! So the usual school yard taunts of their penpal being themself and things a long those lines. Little kid logic of let’s give each other nicknames and that’ll solve the problem! It didn’t but it made them feel better and special, so they stuck. The nicknames come from their middle names and I haven’t decided if those get revealed in story or not, so no sharing here yet.

There is some funky magic stuff that happened, happens, and will happen. Time and Lullaby do have the whole time magic stuff. So while Time remembers meeting Warriors… Warriors remembers meeting someone much younger and thinks Time is his own younger brother (this may come up, it may not). Warriors did deal with some funky portal magic stuff like from his game, yes Cia was in the middle of it, and The Calamity was a magically driven disaster.

I played around with the idea of the depths also being a part of the Hyrule map and having it be the home of the Twili people… except that was going to be a little much to handle as far as keeping track and mentioning. So I scrapped it.

The Twili people do have a land of their own, it is outside of Hyrule, but it is not a part of Hyrule. Midna lived with Dusk when she was an exchange student. Her phone number was turned off because Hylian phone carriers don’t work in the Twili lands. The Twili people are more nomadic despite being modern times, they still move from place to place. They have ‘Village Sites’ where there are some buildings that they move into when they move. Their clothing reflects that more nomadic lifestyle and they tend to not keep anything that can’t be carried easily.

There will be more probably… once I start actually hammering out full pieces, there will be for sure.

#wandering thoughts #somer writes #asks #Lu modern au #this is really all over the place #but I haven’t scrapped a lot yet #I’m still deciding on some things #like who will be with who when what happens #and what concepts will and won’t stay #I have a mini blurp written of Sky losing his shit in the intro for the adventure that I don’t know if I’m keeping #things like that #it’s really close to me starting to actually post though #I’ve got some things I’m putting together #i just keep struggling with warriors

[undercityrezident]

My Thoughts on TotK's Lack of DLC

So, according to a dev interview, there’s no DLC coming out for TotK.

I do have some mixed feelings about that. Spoilers below the cut:

To be honest, I’m a little surprised at this decision, considering the precedent set by both Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity (though the latter isn’t a formal Zelda game, so I suppose it shouldn’t be used to try and establish a trend).

On the other hand, I don’t think this decision is too surprising either since TotK began its life as additional DLC for Breath of the Wild before the dev team decided to expand it to a full-fledged game of its own. In a sense, this is a project that likely began as a final hurrah for this era of Hyrule and its characters, but grew out of control as creativity flourished with devs. Tears of the Kingdom might be the last the devs wanted or needed to say for this iteration of the titular kingdom.

That said, there are numerous information gaps and questions left by Tears of the Kingdom that I had dearly hoped would be answered by a batch of prospective DLC.

My biggest hope was to have questions answered about the ancient sages. Mineru, Zelda, and Rauru aside, we know so little about them, and I would’ve loved to have learned more about them and the people they represented in that era.

Moreover, I think diving into the sage's history could’ve also illuminated the history of their respective temples, adding more life to these locations that would’ve added to their presence in the main game. Imagine being able to explore these dungeons as they were in their prime or fight along the sages to defend these places against Ganondorf if we were somehow taken back or projected our spirit back in time.

Defend them, you say? In the past? Yes, and while general gameplay tends to focus on Link, and while we could use further time travel or spiritual projection shenanigans to allow for him to make an appearance in that time period, I think this would be the perfect way to include gameplay as Zelda herself. This is something I was yearning for before the launch of TotK, and this would’ve been the perfect excuse to get to play as her in a main-line Zelda game. While I could argue that she was incredibly central to this game’s plot, nothing can really substitute for gameplay interaction with or as her.

What’s more, the Imprisoning War, for all the influence it had in the game, is largely unknown to us as the player outside of its beginning and end. There were mentions of engagements in locations outside of what we saw in the memories, specifically the fall of Gerudo settlements, as mentioned by the Gerudo sage. DLC focusing on Zelda and her role in the past would’ve given us the triad benefits of exploring the sages further, getting to play as Zelda and further emphasizing her importance in the plot, and expanding on these events.

Alternatively, I would’ve loved DLC that expanded on the dragons of Hyrule, namely Farosh, Naydra, and Dinraal (and I will admit to a faint hope that my headcanons about the connections between Zonai and the three dragons would be affirmed in canon). If draconification had anything to do with how they came to be, I would've loved to hear those stories.

But, if we’re looking to use DLC to fill in on something truly underutilized in the game, I would say that additional content in The Depths would’ve been one of the best choices. The Depths, while compelling through their intimidating and disorienting nature in the early game, lose a lot of wonder, mystique, and even interest later in the game once you’ve illuminated it all and completed the Mineru and Yiga questlines.

Overall, while dangerous, The Depths feel very empty and don’t live up to the potential I see in it. The Depths could’ve been host to additional dungeons and challenges, and there are even hints of previous civilization down there that could’ve been expanded on. The dark skeletons are yet another mystery that we don’t have answers to, and evidence of the other surface races having had presences down here (I’m looking at you Gorondia and the Gerudo Underground Cemetery) are pieces of content worth further consideration.

And, of course, there’s the mystery of the final reward for completing all the game’s shrines: the Ancient Hero’s Aspect. In-game dialogue speaks to this being a reference to the hero that stood against the calamity 10,000 years ago, yet no race in-game or referenced in its lore seems to match this humanoid that Link embodies when he equips the Ancient Hero’s Aspect. This ancient hero undoubtedly has some connection to the Zonai, given that the design of the aspect armour and how its three facial designs reflect the boar, the owl, and the dragon: three important figures in Zonai culture and the three beasts that are emulated or revered by those who designed the three labyrinths.

Sadly, these questions, alongside many other smaller mysteries, will go unanswered unless Nintendo decides to put out alternative materials (such as books, videos, or third-party titles). From the consumer side of things and from someone who genuinely enjoys ingesting and speculating on Zelda lore, I’m a bit disappointed. But, at the same time, I can see why the devs might want to move on from this particular iteration of the Zelda franchise to focus on their next work. Something new and fresh for them is as good for them as it may eventually be for us when we get to see what direction they take the Zelda series next.

And at any rate, all of my above hopes and speculation on what the DLC could’ve been is quite expansive and, given Nintendo’s history, probably unrealistic. While I enjoyed the Champion’s Ballad DLC, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking that shook our views on how we perceived Breath of the Wild.

I can’t imagine DLC for Tears of the Kingdom would’ve been much different. But that won’t stop me from looking back at Tears of the Kingdom and asking asking: "what if it did answer those questions?" However, I'll have to rely on myself and the creativity of others to fill in those gaps.

I suppose there’s a certain appeal in that, too.

#The Legend of Zelda #Tears of the Kingdom #TotK #TotK DLC #Tears of the Kingdom DLC #Rez Rambles #TotK Spoilers

[toushindai]

just a general question about your headcanon's on the ship. Do you think that maybe, in another life or universe Ganondorf and Rauru could love each other? Like maybe the goddesses don't want them together because they would be too powerful. ☕ I'm really looking forward to read your new fic. You're really talented!

That’s a really interesting question! I’m going to have a hard time answering it because once I’ve got one set of headcanons set up, I have a really hard time looking at alternatives to it because I’ve spent so much time getting all the pieces to fit together (this is why I read very little fic that’s not my own), but let’s give it a try

I think, first of all, that Ganondorf would have to be allowed to be a person in a way that TOTK, frustratingly, avoids. There’s a universe out there somewhere, I want to believe, where Ganondorf and Rauru bond over the solitude inherent in their positions: Ganondorf’s lone male of his culture to Rauru’s one of the last few members of his species. But to get to that, you need a Ganondorf willing to identify and feel his own loneliness, which I don’t think the guy we have in canon is inclined towards.

I wonder if this also requires Rauru to have allied himself not with the Hylians but with the Gerudo. That would be an interesting choice—in canon, allying with the Hylians makes sense because of their shared reverence for Hylia (seen in the existence of our familiar goddess statue not only in the GSI Temple of Time but also on Dragonhead Island). The Gerudo, for contrast, revere the Seven(-to-Eight) Heroines, to the near exclusion of goddess worship at all; in Creating a Champion, it notes that Gerudo Town’s goddess statue is out of the way and nearly forgotten for this reason. So a Zonai is going to be received differently among the Gerudo than they are among the other people of the land.

Rauru is a curious guy, though! Maybe it could happen like this: intrigued most of all by the people with whom the Zonai have historically had little in common—I have additional things to say about that but let’s wait until I have things finalized in my fic before I get into it—he made his descent to the land in the desert rather than in Hylian territory. Of course he was not permitted into town, but what if the Gerudo allowed him to stay in one of their other settlements? Let’s say the Northern Temple (what are now the Northern Ruins) just ’cause. But the prince of the Gerudo—who knows his place in his society, theoretically—by definition, by the uniqueness of his birth he can have only one place in his society—is equally intrigued by this foreign voe. Could he be the first other voe Ganondorf has met? Wait, was he actually, I should keep that in mind for my fic too They get to talking, they grow to know each other on an honest level. I think they could grow to love each other in a story like this. I do think the sex is a little less flavorful in this case tho so what good does it do me? Well, anyway.

And what then? If we trust the Sage of Lightning’s perspective—and we might as well, lacking any other insight on Ganondorf prior to the Gerudo Assault cutscene—it was not until after Ganondorf became chief that his hunger for power really began to develop. So what do we believe caused this? Is this just an inherent flaw in his personality? The curse of Demise rearing its head inevitably? (I should disclaim that I’ve never finished Skyward Sword and am only trying to use these words the way I’ve seen others use them.) In that case, both options—Rauru reviling his lover’s thirst for power and betraying him, or Rauru and the power of the Zonai turned in service to Gerudo conquest—are fascinating.

But if we are looking at Ganondorf as a person who gets to make person choices, then when he ascends to his position as Chief of the Gerudo and there is no neighboring nation consolidating an unearned power over the rest of the continent, what then? Might he be less driven towards conquest?

#I am leaning perilously close to forgetting that it’s not remotely canon #that Ganondorf’s desire for power is at least in part a response to Rauru’s rise #but to this headcanon I am devoted #ganondorf (totk) #rauru (totk) #ganauru #thank you for letting me ramble anon #every day I sigh 'if only Ganondorf could be a person rather than a Ganondorf' #Nintendo wants to keep that from me #but I take it anyway #or try to at least #and we were both kings 😳 #totk spoilers #thanks for the ask!

[doomed-era]

crashes through your window!! points at you like an anime supervillain HELLO!! how does gaffen view the champions and/or how does alt zelda view everyone we’ve met so far (unless thats spoilers?). or how would revali and zelda interact do you think

screams and hides under the table there is glass all over the floor my chickens are running everywhere (joking I am fine and completely immune to glass)

oh thats a fffffun question.....!!!! I have thought a great deal about this. I will start with pre-calamity because honestly it is simpler

revali is just...weird. gaffen doesnt get what the guy's deal is (mostly) so about half the time he just. tunes out everything revali says. honestly he does that with a lot of people including zelda. he works 15-hour shifts and just dissociates when he isnt on lunch break. he did pay attention once. and that was when revali said horses were smelly dumb animals and gaffen pushed him off a cliff (they were both fine revali's reaction was more or less just surprise and gaffen cooled off almost immediately cause he's Like That at this point.) he thinks revali's archery skills are really impressive but he'd never actually say that to him because Why.

urbosa is incredibly intimidating and he's pretty sure she doesn't like him. however he thinks she is cool. her loyalty is fascinating to him as he doesn't remember any other gerudo chieftains being...like that? in a good way. like he considers it a triumph for Hyrule At Large that the gerudo and Hyrule at on such good terms and he's deeply inspired by Urbosa's own loyalty not really understanding that it is in some ways a facade. he doesn't avoid her though, I think he'd just. stand there with the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. maybe at some point he would try to use the gerudo words he knows to try and impress her. or maybe he could give her a nice bottle of wine or something she would like as a Present

mipha is. complicated ? hes gotten vague vibes that she might have feelings for him past a certain point. however he doesnt really want to think about the implications of that or what that might cause. he'd rather just stand there and force himself to not think about it.there is a good chance if he was asked about it he would play dumb. mipha is also actively trying to figure out what his Deal is and generally tries to present herself as someone he can talk to so he's spoken to her briefly a few times. i couldnt even really tell you if he reciprocated its like that one post where a character is too tormented by the narrative to exhibit sexuality or attraction. he likes her, he trusts her more than a lot of people but yea.

im trying my best to not sully this with his rp interactions with them because those were done under Specific Circumstances(tm) (and i dont even think he knows the whole mipha has a crush thing for a bit) but when he actually opens up and turns his brain on there he starts making little jabs at revali for fun. he also gets like. mmildly scared of talking to revali before that bc again he turned his brain on and hasnt ever actively tried talking to him. so yea. he also ends up trying to force mipha to reveal more about herself bc mipha never really reveals anything which he thinks is hypocritical. this ends with him getting...mildly pissed/confused. him and revali also set up a time where they could practice archery together teehee

OK DARUK. I havent thought too much about them admittedly. but im tempted to say that their relationship is the friendliest and the most uncomplicated. im a "link ate the rock sirloin to be polite and not just because hes ok with eating rocks" truther so. yea. they're not super close by any means but they're just bros. guys hangin out. daruk would toss him into the air for fun and he'd like it. when hes off work gaffen would probably talk to daruk but when he is at work he'd probably just turn into gromit from wallace and gromit half the time. gaffen realizes he should probably respect the guy more but half the time he just kinda perceives him as like. the team dad and not a respected member of the gorons

that was longer than I thought. oops

post calamity is weird and I have thought about it a little more I think its not something I've roleplayed much so it just kinda sits there in my head and Rots.

but basically i'd describe gaffen's relationship with the champions at first to be highly parasocial. the memory you get from mipha's statue is his first acquired memory and it is.jarring? to say the least. gaffen understood that he was missing large chunks of his memory after rhoam told him that but he didn't really process it fully and he certainly didnt think he had a personal relationship with the people rhoam was talking about. plus when he does get those back he in a sense re-experienced them it was Very Strong Very Overwhelming and it kind of freaked him out. but the zora all seemed to paint a specific picture of who he was and mipha's relationship with him so it really hammered in the importance of his past self and those memories. the problem is because of how important he thinks they are he. pictures himself having a closer relationship with the champions and zelda than he actually did. like they were besties. totally. he loved mipha and they were gonna get married probably maybe and revali could be mean sometimes but it was okay they eventually got along fine and had some respect for each other daruk was the best friend anyone could ever ask for and urbosa was like his mentor who helped him out and was cool. did he have any evidence for this absolutely not he just kinda made up what the champions were like based on the snippets he got and since. well. everyone who knew most of the champions personally is dead. and the zora really dont have a good image of what mipha was like because she didnt really reveal much about herself. these go unchallenged and spiral out of control. the champion abilities do not help. they are not actually the champions in my au they are abilities that look like them. but gaffen thinks they are the champions. he spent a lot of his time wandering around alone and they brought him a lot of comfort and. yeah they were basically his best friends except they were fake

then he almost gets beaten to death and mipha's grace heals his leg wrong and he feels betrayed by them personally so he gets mad. thinks they hate him. refuses to talk about them. stops using the champion abilities because he blocked them on socialmedia. eventually he gains some perspective on it and calms down. realizes he just made everything up. but it still hurts like hell and he refuses to use the abilities anymore. however he still will get incredibly pissed if you insult them. maybe they arent his friends anymore but you will respect them dammit they died for your COUNTRY!!!

OH...hehe I cant reveal everything about alt zelda's impressions of ppl but some things I certainly can!! it is very colored by a few things that have happened to her. that are spoilers. but.

ok so link first cause hes easy. she thinks hes dumb. but she also feels sorry for him because she knows that a lot of the people around her and just the government/military in hyrule are. manipulative and exploitative. so. she really wants him to stay out of this honestly but in some ways she's happy to see him

Lance? she does not know who he is. blasse is complicated and spoilery but basically when she was younger she saw him one time and called him the "lazy old soldier guy" and everyone was confused

ciless (true mage of spirit) is incredibly complicated but basically ciless used to be zelda's mother figure. they hate each other currently and often try to sabotage each other

pike she just sees as ciless's crony and mostly dismisses him

fen she would actually have an. interesting? reaction towards. she'd act like she recognizes him somewhat. she would refer to him as link's father even if link didn't like it. she might ask him if he feels like he's missing something

lepy she would just think is a crony again im sorry lepy you deserve better

and packard she would also basically ignore

MAN. you got me thinking about a tangent about alt zelda and revali oops i am not sure if thats what you meant. but its a funny hypothetical to me. honestly zelda would be fascinated by revali. like at first shed think he was some sort of monster thing but then she would be like. wait you can talk. and revali would be like scoff yes of course. what does it look like.

"you look like a large bird or a monster"

"let me make it known that I am not a bird, and I refuse to be called a bird. I am revali of the rito tribe. it's--" and he looks VERY annoyed -- "not exactly a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but I seem to have lost my way."

"...that is very strange." and she just looks amused

i imagined this weird au where shes like "ok i really like you youre my friend now" and she tries to get him to help her with Stuff I think it would be funny

#asks #glider rambles #golden blood on his hands #alternate triforce #sorry for answering. all of them. oops

[pansy-chic27213]

A Zelda Wedding 🛡️⚔️🌱🏺

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Setting: The wonderful thing about Zelda is that you could have this wedding literally anywhere and it would work. Cathedral with stained glass windows? Temple of Time. Overgrown green forest? Lost Woods/Kokiri Forest. Grand Canyon? Gerudo Desert. Beach? Outset Island. Literally any location works for this. You could get married in a volcano! Pick somewhere that matches the feel you want for your wedding.

Decorations: Again, there are many aesthetics that fit with the Zelda series, though you’ll probably lean medieval Europe. And if you weren’t able to have you wedding at a certain location, you can still incorporate those elements, like standalone faux stained glass windows or potted pine trees. I recommend leaning into royal purple and forest green, to represent Zelda and Link and make your theming more obvious to your guests. But you could easily lean into the crystal and water aesthetic for the Zora, the snowy-feathery vibes of the Rito, the gold and jewels of the Gerudo, or the rocky-earthy decor of the Gorons. Or you could have designated sections for each aesthetic! As long as you pick a color palette and stick with it, you can get a lot of Zelda theming just out of mixing different textures and materials. Add in a Master Sword and a Hylian shield, and you can have a classy wedding that could lean more subtle or more nerdy.

Entertainment: Zelda is well known for the series’ incredible music. Don’t be afraid to not only have your guests dance the night away, but also to do “who can guess the song” trivia. If you have friends or family members who play musical instruments, you might even challenge them to play songs from the series (though you also need to think about the guests’ comfort transporting instruments). You could have a slingshot challenge, a LARP sparring area, a Korok scavenger hunt/puzzle game, and so much more! You could also do a blind raffle based on one of the series’ chest lottery games, where you put prizes in three different closed boxes and guests use tickets to vote for one they want the chance to bring home.

Food: Zelda, as far as I’m aware, is one of the easiest fandoms to find real-life versions of in-game food. There are several cookbooks dedicated to the various in-game recipes, not to mention to numerous blogs and YouTube videos where people try to create their own versions. Pick a season and try to build a themed meal around those flavors. I would like to throw in a quick promo for Aimee Wood’s Unofficial Legend of Zelda Cookbook, which I backed on Kickstarter a couple years ago. It’s an incredibly well designed cookbook, with most recipes having some kind of vegan or gluten-free options, and there’s a sections for themed cocktails, which can be made either alcoholic or non-alcoholic. I still make milk tea from Aimee’s recipe every-time I have friends over.

Overall, Zelda is a series about being silly and having a classic adventure. Think about what makes you happy, and incorporate the elements that are important to you and your spouse.

#pinterest #pinterest board #pinterest wedding #wedding ideas #wedding aesthetic #legend of zelda #zelda #zelda wedding #zelda party #zelda decor #botw #totk #loz #wedding inspo

[gust-jar-simulator]

I keep dissociating and forgetting the names of my Tool Gods Links, so that obviously means I need to do a lot of silly OC question things.

So.

What are the TG Links doing at a fancy castle ball?

Bloodfeather- There aren't enough people in his Hyrule for a ball. If there are he doesn't want to be there. He's sticking close to any windows and staring at the sky with increasing desperation as the event goes on.

Hope- Honestly I think he's really clumsy. Tiny child tries to attend a ball, gets tripped over and knocks himself out on a nearby potted plant.

Smithy- He can put up with the fanfare for a bit but he'll either end up trapping a bunch of nobles in his Infodump Event Horizon or critiquing the quality of the nearest metalwork. A safe place to put him is near the guards, he'll wear them down into talking shop and maybe small town smalltalk.

Four- Get him out of there. He's too anxious to last long. He dances a lot (and very well) but he's nobody's favorite dance partner, because he dances to ward off The Anxiety. A ball feels too much like a dungeon crawl with no clear win condition. When it's bad he starts reflexively pickpocketing.

Lost- He's great at balls. He doesn't talk, which occasionally gets him in trouble, but he's very charming and nobody can tell he's bored out of his gourd. Politics are So Stupid and he hopes Zelda socially destroys someone. Or asks him to. Please. He wants to be in the garden with the fairies.

Found- He's also great at balls. He's got slightly more patience and a willingness to pay attention to the conversation around him. He dances very well, but the only thing he really enjoys about balls is traumatizing a random noble in a way they can't prove or tag-team snarking quietly on the sidelines. Also he enjoys the chance to be handsome.

Hibiscus- A ball is an escape room and the way to win is not enter in the first place. She'd rather die than attend. She'd rather split into the doppels and start destroying property. You'd have to blackmail her. Or worse, she might attend if someone she cares about says it's important to them. Then she'll be late because she's trying to dress up and nothing is good enough. Wallflower time, possibly lurking by the drinks like a prey animal.

Sage- He's got no idea what he's doing but he's polite enough to make it work. He tries to wear his armor and just buff the dragon scales a bit. It technically works. He's horrible at conversation because the nobles are using doublespeak and he's unintentionally threatening everyone while talking about a day in the life. Nobody knows if he's stupid or ridiculously bold. In truth, he's just friendly. And absolutely cannot dance. (Fairy dances aren't safe or appropriate for the setting)

Wyr- Help him. He can do street festivals and harvest dances and even howl at the moon. Balls? Gods. Zelda just asks him to stand there and look pretty and he's fine with that. Two minutes into noble jockeying he starts blushing violently and stuttering and yearning for a straightforward spar. Balls also tend to have bigots, and they're incapable of taking it outside like normal people. He wishes the concept of balls was a bitable problem.

Light- Spends the entire time repressing his instinct to prank. He's got terrible impulse control, so he may or may not succeed. Balls are both overstimulating and understimulating and make him feel vaguely like he's under attack, so he's low level anxious. The jokes about setting something on fire to liven things up are only half jokes. A disaster at balls.

Wars- He does exactly what he's been programmed to do, whether he knows it or not.

Damaz- It really, really wants to be one of the guards. Furniture. An accessory. It's a weapon and it's good at being a weapon. It likes Gerudo festivals, especially the sword dances, but fancy Hyrulean royal balls? Please just put it on security detail. Watching it attempt to emote in a neurotypical way is genuinely painful sometimes. Extremely likely to hide with Hibiscus near the punch bowl, or Bloodfeather near a window.

Wake- An absolute WINNER at balls. He's charismatic, socially fluent, takes no shit and no prisoners but manages to spin any problems into a good joke. He's got stories for days, and the rakish mystique of a pirate. Girls and guys alike are all aflutter.

#tool gods au

[gloriousmonsters]

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

I'm actually pretty pleased with what I've been doing in allow the ground to find its brutal way to me; I might have lamented this in public before, but it started out conceptually as like a... 2, maybe 3 chapter fic that was mostly porn; now it's still like 70% porn, but the plotty-political elements and worldbuilding are a pretty solid 30%, lol.

Specifically I've always been dissatisfied with the Good v. Evil, 1 v. 1 (and the way they kinda displaced the golden goddesses) nature of Hylia and Demise in the games, and found Demise... loaded with LoZ's usual unfortunate implications, but something about them also fascinates me; so I've really enjoyed trying to weave them (or rather, Hylia and the god/spirit who was pulled from Gerudo tradition to give an update of Hylian mythos a convenient Devil figure) into OoT canon in a way that feels like it fits the setting and era. And so far I think I've pulled it off exactly as I want to, and people seem to enjoy it, so! ^ ^

#fic writer meme #stuckinahouse #also in a fic focused on the zelgan dynamic it's so fun to play even more into their very different vibes #of divine royalty status with associations w/these mythological figures #...i mean like. real entities but there's very little 'real' divine intrusion on this fic #OoT to me always felt like a Hyrule that had fallen mostly out of touch with its gods and I wanted to keep that vibe #even as Zelda occupies a religious role as well as a practical one

[gerudospiriit]

[Alright. I finished the game a good bit ago, and I’ve been sitting on this thought for a really long time (i.e. almost when I started the game when it came out). So. If you want to read my brain go brrrrrrr about Nabooru and the Zelda series in general, keep going. Otherwise, scroll on. Nothing to see here.]

[I don't know if it's been apparent, but, outside of really enjoying Tears of the Kingdom on the surface and being super glad they improved by leaps and bounds from Breath of the Wild...it also made me super uncomfortable. I've made mentions of my hang ups with how inconsistent the story is when it insists on seemingly making historical references to past games while also erasing said games a few times. But that's...not really where the discomfort comes in. Like sure. I want consistency. I want the threads of history they sprinkle in to connect at least in some viable and valuable way. I'm an English major for fuck's sake. But, the deep down crux of it is more specific.

I've feared this since the first cutscene, and more prominently when I learned more about the new sages that fought with Rauru, and it only felt more and more true as I played through the game: Tears of the Kingdom has either replaced/deleted Nabooru or changed her. Ocarina of Time and basically every other game and that history became obsolete because...they can't happen. If the Imprisoning War is set at Hyrule's founding, and Ganondorf was sealed away all the way until Zelda and Link release him in TotK, we can't have OoT. We can't have TP. We can't have WW. And, if we don't have OoT, we don't have Nabooru.

Unless, with all the similarities to scenes and whatnot from OoT, this whole Imprisoning War is meant to replace the events of Ocarina of Time (and therefore every other game, essentially), which brings me to the second option: the Sage of Lightning from the Imprisoning Era IS Nabooru. Which is very possible because, judging by the cutscenes, AT LEAST this sage, if not all of the Gerudo, turned on Ganondorf for some reason (which may be him attacking their settlements for some reason??? That's an issue for another post re: The problems I have with Ganondorf in TotK, re:re: the mountain of reasons I hate Demise and his silly little curse). Just like Nabooru did in OoT.

Even going by the second less drastic read of what's going on there, it's still...uncomfortable. It means I have to pretty drastically change Nabooru's story to line up with this new telling of OoT (if that's what this is and I really see no way around it outside of what I'll mention later). And I'll be frank: it hurts. It hurts as a long time Zelda fan who ADORED the story it was trying to tell and who has adored this character for so long only to be left with these feelings about it all. It's frustrating to see the devs do so well and so poorly with the last like...three games when it comes to consistency of even the remotest kind when it comes to lore and story. Instead, like plenty of other games, movies, etc., Nintendo seems more concerned with the shiniest new gimmick within a game and cashing in on nostalgia than actually respecting Zelda's story. AGAIN. Tears of the Kingdom was a lot of fun and a top notch game. A HUGE improvement on Breath of the Wild. And if they had just...given the attention to the details of the story and lore to make it more cohesive and not like a big "we're literally retconning everything" which arguable kinda started with SS lbr), this game would have been perfect to me.

But to get off my bitterness a little and discuss moving forward with Nabooru and some just random thoughts about like...what to do? If anything? I might be jumping the gun, and I may not even make anything set in any kind of stone YET in case DLC gives us more to work with BUT. Here are my thoughts.

As much as it irks me because the devs are wishy washy and won't come out and just admit that, since SS, they've basically wanted to obliterate everything established and start anew with new lore, legends, histories of Hyrule, etc. and therefore keep making some serious links back to the old games they've imploded with their new lore without any real connection or explanation, the first option is to treat SS, BotW, and TotK as basically their own separate entity/AU. With so much changing from the lore and motivations to the religion and removal of the Triforce and other pieces of the story, essentially, it is just next to impossible to REALLY fit these together with OoT and pretty much the rest of the series in a cohesive, workable way.

Which means I would probably have to play two versions of Nabooru: one who follows the events from OoT onward, and another that follows the events of the Imprisoning War as the Sage of Lightning (and I still don't even know if it's HER aklsjdflkjaf) and everything else that entails.

The other option is to figure out a way to just...piece this monstrosity together like some poor, Frankensteinian beast and/or just ignore every ounce of logic and just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, go with the flow, and wing the fuck out of interactions to bs something together for her. Whether that's playing the timeline card because fuck how many more did Zelda create anyway with her time traveling or something else? I'm not sure yet.

And I may be jumping the gun. Maybe we'll get so very lucky and DLC will explain everything for us and we can understand wtf is going on here. But for now, I guess stay tuned for more existential crises ft. Nabooru? Ahahha...]

#[ ☀ ˢᵖⁱʳⁱᵗˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵇᵉʸᵒ��ᵈ ;; ᵒᵒᶜ ] #tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #im just in my feels frankly #but maybe this will shed some light on why I've been so...finicky about certain things lmao

[longroadstonowhere]

okay on the one hand i definitely played too long today, like i was telling myself to stop for several hours at the end there

but on the other hand i wanted to finish one particular quest and, well, it took a while to do

so, uh, i’ve finished nearly all the main quests i think? so spoilers below

yeah, today i finished up the gerudo quest, as well as saving and rebuilding lurelin, lots of exploration trying to get into the kokiri forest before realizing you have to go down to go up (or at least that’s what i ended up doing and it seemed intentional), saving the deku tree (in what felt like an absolutely dogshit fight), finally went to hateno village and tarrey town (didn’t actually do much there but i visited them), finished all the geoglyphs, got the final memory, tried like five times to pull the master sword cuz i had to go get stamina vessels in between each try, which meant i had to do random shrines for a while, and finally did manage to pull it out

....

so like

zelda’s actually a dragon

like they really fucking did that

no last minute switcheroo of ‘oh mineru is the dragon and zelda’s actually totally fine’, which is what i was expecting - on screen she eats the stone and becomes a dragon

so uh botw/totk zelda wins the ‘most tragic zelda’ competition i think - oot zelda and... i think aol zelda were top competitors, but you just can’t compete with ‘struggle for years with the very concept of using the light force, then finally figure it out only to spend a hundred years doing nothing but holding back the calamity, and then on a fun archaeology trip you accidentally wake up the demon king and get sent ten thousand years into the past where you eventually choose to give up your entire sense of self and wait ten thousand years to give link a fighting chance’

geez, i’m really comparing this in my head to ruby’s half-suicide in rwby this past volume... like, i can’t even articulate much right now except that i’m sad for her

so i guess evil zelda is probably mineru? because like she hasn’t factored into most of the story at all, except for the bit where she mentions her power is to separate her soul from her body - only i guess she might also be in the purah pad? or in that construct that was holding the purah pad? zelda said something to her when she gave the purah pad up so like, who even knows anymore

well, anyway, that’s a whole thing i get to wrestle with, and we’ll see how the story plays out with the final battle

everything else i did today was unequivocally a good time - loved that they brought the gibdos back, but like they’re some kind of weird insect? great choice, totally bizarre in the best way possible, and i had a funny moment in the lightning temple where i was trying to figure out how to get to one of the batteries with rizu, and i kept popping up to the seventh floor cuz i knew i had to get her there somehow but i thought i had to get her there to open the door for the boss room, and then literally just before i got the last battery i realized ‘oh the entire point of the temple is to get rizu into that room’

i was also pretty proud of figuring out that you had to get to the deku tree by going into the depths, that was pretty cool (mildly terrifying cuz of enemies on the way but cool nonetheless)

however, the fight to save the deku tree? that was the first time i looked anything up, because i was getting mauled by the floormasters (or gloommasters or gloomhands or whatever their name is, like hell i’m stopping in the middle of a fight to take a picture of them), and i figured i was missing some essential point to the fight, like there was some easy way to counteract gloom that i just didn’t know about, but no, turns out the way to fight them is to know they’re coming, set yourself up in a bit of the room without gloom, and just shoot like eight bomb arrows into the center of their formation

the phantom ganon fight was also difficult, but that at least felt more reasonable to be as hard as it was, and i eventually made it through by upgrading some of my armor and eating a really good defense up food item - the items he dropped are sweet, too, although i’ll probably never use the sword unless i absolutely have to cuz uh slowly dying does not sound fun

so right now i have a full extra ring of stamina (thanks zelda) and i believe fifteen hearts, though it’s honestly hard to count, which feels like a decent amount to try fighting the final boss with, although i might wanna make another good armor up thing if possible, and also who knows what’s in store once i finally go into hyrule castle

but that’s for tomorrow, because i do need to sleep now and we’ll see when i wake up what i’m feeling like doing