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m5or · 12 days

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I have a small theory as to why the bulblins kidnaped the kids in Ordon while Link got left behind. Time states that Ganondorf has become afraid of children in Heroes legacy. Ganon became paranoid after his encounter with the Hero of Time.

SO back to the era of Twilight Princess. The Hero of Time has a descendant. The Hero of Time has a bloodline and Ganondorf is a ruthless man. In this vision/flashback, we see Ganon doing his evil deeds before he is banished to the Twilight realm. I think this is showcasing us that Gannon caused the ruins in tp looking for baby Twilight.

I think that this war was the start of the resistance group. The members of the resistance look for and take care of any survivors. This is where Rusl finds little link. Rusl takes the child to Ordon and raises the boy with his wife Uli. Ordon is an isolated village. The Twilight realm is a perpetual twilight, Ganondorf would be unable to tell how much time has passed, or at least have a difficult time doing so. Until he is in the realm of light again. I think at the beginning of his return is unaware that baby Link is now a young adult. So he sends his henchmen to find and capture children expecting to find a young link eventually. (wind waker style-ish) thus the children in Ordon are kidnapped. oh dear remember when I said this was a small theory.

NOW I am aware that I said that Ganondorf was unaware for a little bit that little link grew up. I have a reason, it's Collin. don't tell me he wouldn't get mistaken for a young link. The blond hair color, the way his hair is parted down the middle? blue eyes? why such a display unless you're going to parade the poor kid all the way to Ganondorf. As a way to say i found the kid you were lookin for. we the players know that Colin has round ears but it's also interesting that out of all the village kids, Colin's ears are obscured by his hair on both sides. (clarifying that the design choice that we easily see the round ear tops of the other village kids intrigues me)

#i have a theory #will anyone let me know if my thought holds any water or not?#soooo #linked universe #lu twilight #loz #lu time #lu chain #lu #twilight princess #ordon #ordon kids #loz theory #lu theory #ocarina of time #rusl #Rusl #uli #ganondorf

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powdermelonkeg · 8 months

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Know it’s feasibly impossible, both because of how the series jumps around the timeline and its refusal to adhere to a timeline to begin with

But imagine if each of the changes made to the Master Sword stuck.

Imagine if, post-ALTTP/ALBW era, the blade was always golden.

Imagine if Twilight Princess gave it the ability to light up darkness like a torch.

Imagine how horrifying it would be to lose all that progress in BotW. How it reverts to its weakened, purple, Wind-Waker withdrawn state, and the flashbacks show it as so much more powerful than it is.

Imagine if in TotK, the Light Dragon healed it—but to the point that it’s reformed as the Goddess Sword, with its blade the color of her horns. And your mission after retrieving it is to reforge it with the flames, to gather metals and things from past games to make it stronger, then its final touch is a Zonai aspect.

Like a secret stone.

Something that magnifies the user’s abilities to the point of godhood, embedded in THAT blade.

Then wielding THAT power against Ganondorf.

I think about things like this a lot.

#I really want to draw concept art for it #zelda #loz #botw #totk #alttp #skyward sword #albw #twilight princess #wind waker

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rawliverandgoronspice · 7 months

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Are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess a trilogy?

Hmmm I think it's one of the potential ones? I always feel strange to leave Wind Waker out of the equation since I think the game is incredibly enriched in the context of the others (and vice-versa), but I suppose the pseudo-different timeline shenanigans do separate them pretty drastically?

Either way, to me it does feel like those three tell a pretty specific story that can be followed from beginning to end. The only character that somewhat gets lost in the sauce is OoT Zelda, who disappears quietly in the MM's flashback, never to be heard from again even though her role is pretty major in the setup to Twilight Princess (and Navi too, I suppose????)

The thematic arc we go through is also extremely interesting I think, if the three games are meant to tell a complete story!

We have a little boy forced to grow up too fast, ripped from a simple wondrous world he had control over to something much darker, revealing the cracks in what used to be comforting and simple --only to end the game thrown back in that very world now unfamiliar, unrecognizable and inherently fragile. Then we have Majora's Mask, which is *about* the most violent way possible to process that whole situation laid bare at its more frightening and overwhelming expression, but at least forces Link to reckon with these feelings and his sense of lost humanity; recovering himself and handling this trauma through enacting meaningful, small and personal connections (<3 this game!!!!). And then, we have Twilight Princess, which is basically a lot about the echoes of that previous thing, the long-lasting cultural/personal damage of both envy/greed/power obsession BUT ALSO injustice; and TP is among the best attempts the series ever had at sympathizing with the monstrous, as there's a huge throughline of moral values being something everybody has to reckon with and is capable of developing for themselves.

We start very black and white, that falls apart; we have to find meaning again in each other; everyone is accountable for and capable of doing the same.

Yeah, I think there's a lot to say about considering these three games a continuation of this very potent idea.

#asks #oot #ocarina of time #mm's #majora's mask #tp #twilight princess #thoughts #zelda #link #navi #thanks for the ask!!!#yeah these are really good games #even if on the surface the series is simple and accessible #DAMN it hits hard and well if you open yourself up to the fact there might be more #(which is why I always get >:((( when people downplay the narrative/thematic angle)

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phoenixcatch7 · 6 months

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A comprehensive and detailed timeline about the ancient past of totk

Okay I was going to append this to someone else's theory post but it got out of hand size wise and that's a tad rude so I'm making my own.

(Part 1) (long post)

Totk ancient history, let's go!

So! What do we know about the botw timeline, first?

Ancient sheikah! They've existed since the beginning of hyrule, but these lot were scifi. They supposedly took inspiration partly from the zonai before they (the zonai) died out. They built all the tech to fight calamity ganon. (and presumably improve their quality of life, but we don't see much of that)

Calamity ganon. First appearance 10k years ago. Second appearance in botw (technically 100 years ago? Not important, he didn't leave and come back). Zelda (or rhoam or impa) say it gave up its mortal from to be a giant goo pig. Both attacks were foreseen by sheikah seers.

Rito and zora existing together! This is very important! Rito originally evolved from zora in wind waker, so they've never existed together.

Them existing together, along with basically everything else about botw lol, proves we're working with a merged timeline. Gang's all here!

A divine beast (probably) took that chunk out of hebra peak. Lol. Lmao, even. Most likely to be ruta or medoh.

The duelling peaks are split in their artwork (the observatory and sword trial chamber). Rumour (npc gossip) has it a dragon flew through and split them in two.

The sheikah knew about the master sword. Somehow installed... Whatever the sword trials are. Also the master cycle, which, heck yeah, wish totk had that, hand built stuff isn't a fraction as good or cheap.

The sheikah built the shrine of resurrection. Even in botw, it's said it was built over a spring of healing water.

Now, let's briefly cover what we learned in totk.

The zonai! Of course! We learn a lot from the tear flashbacks. They descended from the sky to earth to 'found hyrule' (lmao) with their secret stones that boost powers. Already a dying race at that point. Rauru and mineru are the only ones we ever see. They're guarded and served solely by hylians.

Sonia, a priestess (of at least the triforce if not hylia), blood of hylia. She was one of the people first greeting the zonai, which tells us they descended in that generation.

The rito and zora are already there! The timelines are already merged! We see the ghost of what the sheikah took inspo from with the zonai animal masks.

A gerudo sage! Despite the gerudo still being led by ganondorf... That must have been fun. Likely the ruler of the gerudo after ganon is defeated, which must have been a Trial and a Half in THAT political landscape.

The duelling peaks are... intact. This lends a lot of credence to the dragon theory!

There are no floating islands in zeldas time. This implies either the cloud barrier is intact and zonai still lived up there for a while, or the whole zonai race went to earth and brought their islands with them.

The great plateau walls are already there. Hylian design.

The hero's aspect. A half hylian, half zonai hero. This confirms that the hero can be reborn into bodies that aren't purely hylian (or, well.... We'll get back to that). It also could not be more clear that it's the hero from the calamity tapestry! Even has a pointy face where zelda has flat. Booty shorts/skirt. The red hair is important.

Ganon has been reborn, zelda arrived via time travel, but there's no hero? Rather, the only one to defeat him named link is our totk boy 10k years later.

The zonai temple of time is on the plateau. Where the landmass under it comes from I DO not know.

The zonai temple of time is currently not really very close to the plateau. This implies islands can drift. This isn't relevant but is cool.

We get no explanation for the zonai ruins in the jungle. Which is a crying shame. Rauru never ever goes to the jungle. The best we get is the dragons head quest. Or the labyrinths! Well... I'll get back to that as well.

The depths, the zonai mines, zonaite. Despite being from the clouds, the zonai get their powerful metal, the one named after them, the stuff they make everything out of, from the deepest, darkest depths of hyrule (literally lol). The only other place zonaite can be found is some caves in the sky.

The distinctive swirl of zonai magic above shrines perfectly matches rauru's final spell. The shrines were constructed by/for rauru and Sonia, said to help 'seal the darkness and prevent it encroaching on hyrule'. Underneath each one is an inactive light root, which, when activated, becomes surrounded by the only hylian flora in the depths. Hilariously, you can pick up the actual shrines in pebble form and cart them around.

Unfortunately, one can only install a single read more, so I'm going to make it a new post.

Topics I intend to cover:

How the timelines fused and the state of it currently

Possible origins of the zonai and how long they stuck around

The ancient hero and what it means for the timeline

The relation between the sheikah, the zonai, and the hylian king

The state of hyrule 10k years ago, politically

The original sages being the blood ancestors of every new sage, but using the champion voice actors. Also population statistics

Ganondorf v calamity ganon v phantom ganon v the blights v the depths (there's a lot of ganon)!

What this means for age of calamity...

My best attempt at covering everything from the fusion of the timelines to the events that start breath of the wild, sticking as close to canon and as far from headcanon as possible.

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majorasnightmare · 8 months

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Zora Cultural Differences

Yona canonically comes from a different domain than Hyrule's Zora's Domain but in true TotK-fashion does little to no elaboration on what her domain is like or her role or position within it, with us only learning that she's Sidon's childhood friend and his fiancee. With her character not existing at all whatsoever in BotW, having no mentions in memories, flashback scenes, dialogue, or diary entries, or even scenes where we get to see Sidon's childhood, that means nearly everything about her origins is left completely blank. And the one thing I hate more than a disrespected female character is a barely-written disrespected female character.

Consider this a sequel to my other zora post, link in reblog

Going under a readmore because i like the zora to be shamelessly weird

Yona's domain is further east in the Akkalan Sea, and takes about a week of travel time to get to Hyrule's Domain. Her ocean climate is tropical, and is reflected in the marine life the zora of that domain emulate and resemble

Yona and Muzu are both from the same domain, both being manta-emulating zora

When the great flood swept hyrule, most zora perished in the illusory waves. A small population survived with the help of Valoo on what would become Dragon's Roost Island, but an even smaller population managed to escape beyond the borders of the ocean. This population would slowly recover, and post Wind Waker began to thrive. This population of zora would begin to migrate outwards and diversify as they adapted to their new ecosystems, and some would eventually make their way back to Hyrule once the waters receded, establishing themselves as what would become Sidon's Domain.

The Zora are fairly consistently long lived, and new zora hatch from eggs laid in clutches. Your average individual zora will typically only have kids once or twice in their multi century lifetime

With these circumstances, you'd want to find some means of adaptation to help ensure the survival of the next generation, and each domain adapts to their ecosystems in their own unique ways

Yona's domain is built into and alongside a massive barrier reef, fed by the myriad currents flowing into their tropical ocean. Zora here tend to be brightly colored and varied in their marine animal appearances, with zora resembling nudibranches, mantas and other rays, and a plethora of fish types.

The Zora of Yona's domain have adapted to open ocean on all sides by having specially dedicated nurseries built into the coral, full of small nooks and crannies to help protect the zora eggs. They tend to be laid in small clutches of four to six, and baby zora will hide in the corals until their strong enough to swim away from danger.

Siblings will stick together as they grow, and will have food brought to them by their parents until they're capable of accompanying them. Afterwards, the siblings will school together with other clutches of siblings for safety and companionship, and will be supervised by two to three of the school's parents while the remaining family members take care of non child rearing tasks

Yona's domain, in continuing the ancient zora tradition of music (seen in the zora fingerlings (REAL TERM FOR FISH YOUNG BTW i just googled that) that resemble music notes and the tadtones in skyward sword) helps keep schools together via a distinctive series of whistled notes audible underwater

Sidon's Domain notably has a fairly large population of predator-emulating zora, Sidon himself resembling a shark. This is in part because Hyrule's rivers and lakes are home to particularly aggressive species of octoroks, who can squeeze their mollusk bodies into the small nooks and crannies zora usually use to keep predators away from their egg clutches. The Zora of Hyrule's Domain have adapted to these circumstances in a collection of ways other zora may find... off-putting.

Lacking the protective reef barriers of Yona's domain, and Hyrule's rivers being prone to flooding in times of crisis (alongside mudslides and other geography altering disasters that can strike at a moments notice), the zora of hyrule's domain have opted against hiding their young entirely

Early in the spring, the Zora celebrate the turning of the season, and the snowmelt it brings down the mountains, with a week long celebration. Emphasizing the chaotic nature of water, and the resurgence of new life, most years it is simply the domain's biggest festival. As the years pass, Zora couples interested in raising a family will inform the festival leaders of their intentions, and when a certain amount of interested families are gathered together, the zora come together to decide whether the coming year seems auspicious enough to bless with children. This is a decision that often takes weeks to months to arrive at a conclusion, taking into account both the state of the zora's population, the river and lake ecosystems and their health, and trends in fish population and other food sources

When all the conditions are right and everyone's in agreement, Zora's Domain closes off access to their waterways as best they can, and expecting couples return to the rivers that once raised them. The strategy Hyrule's Zora settled on is one common to sea life everywhere: sheer overwhelming numbers.

The Zora of Hyrule's domain have another advantage: they hatch bloodthirsty. In addition to losses from predation, newly hatched Hyrule Zora will often eat each other, similar to tiger sharks, to increase their odds of survival and having enough food. Unable to hide from octoroks (who try to prey on even adult zora), Hyrule's Zora rely on overwhelming the octorok population with potential food, ensuring that at least some of their young will survive, and that those young will be able to take care of themselves early on in life, able to hunt and feed themselves almost from birth.

For the duration of the festival's week long celebration, Hyrule's rivers are a horror show for those unacquainted with Zora ecology. Octoroks are tenacious nocturnal predators more than willing to squeeze through the metalwork of the elaborate zora architecture, and zora eggs suffer at high elevations and without flowing water, and attempts to raise zora eggs higher on mount ploymus have ended in tragedy for those reasons.

The Zora claim their children as soon as they can, which is usually around a few months after hatching when theyve grown past the fingerling stage and have defined limbs. Similar to the Blaschko Lines on humans, Zora have near invisible patternings on their scales that non zora simply don't have the eye structure to perceive, though underwater they may be faintly visible. Zora parents use these lines to identify their young, as they're incredibly distinctive. This trait is present in all Zora, though Hyrule's Domain has a stronger reliance on it

Of the multitude of eggs lain, on average one to three zora will survive to be claimed by their parents and raised in the domain proper. Most of the instinctive bloodlust has worked its way out of the younglings system by then, as they grow more curious and explorative as they age and develop, but it takes some time and careful parenting and socialization before the kids will be comfortable interacting with strangers

Notably this keen battle instinct can be honed as a Zora grows older, and the Zora of Hyrule's Domain balances their love and appreciation of art, decoration, writing, and engineering with a proud (and vicious) warrior culture (though some zora can never quite tap into the instincts of their youth again)

Having such a brutal early childhood has resulted in Hyrule's Domain having a strong appreciation for the arts of healing and medicine. To survive at all is blessing, to live is a gift, and should be nurtured whenever possible. Mipha is honored both for her skills as a warrior, and for her dedication as a healer, and many young zora, injured in the frenzy or otherwise disabled, thank her for the greater quality of life she helped to bring them. there is no wrong way to live, for to be alive at all is a joy

This cycle is seen as being spiritually emblematic of water's free flowing chaotic nature. Water brings both great life AND great death, and which one it chooses to bestow on you can be as random as luck. Subject to the full force of nature's brutal circle of life, Hyrule's Zora find spiritual meaning in their struggles and allow tragedy to enrich their joys. Mipha's death was such a cultural shock that it was enough to jar the Zora from this mindset, unable to find any comfort in her loss or any healing from the destruction the calamity inflicted upon the Domain and Hyrule at large.

Hyrule's Zora set their dead adrift on the river, as after a long life rich with experience, their body must now feed the waters that birthed them, and the guardian spirits that have protected them and aided their prosperity. In return for this feeding, the myriad spirits help guide the Zora to the horizon line where the ocean meets the sky, and cross over into the heavens where the light of Hylia can glint off their scales and provide light and guidance to their relatives down below

By contrast, Yona's Domain entrusts their dead to the wings of seagulls, who consume the body for energy and take the soul into the sky with them. They construct boats and rafts, and decorate them as befitting a proper celebration, before sending them on their way to contribute to the grand cycle of life that governs the ocean.

Mipha's manner of death was considered ESPECIALLY blasphemous, as she perished alone inside her divine beast, her body unable to be recovered, unable to be returned to the waters of her home, unable to be guided by the guardians of their people, unable to receive funeral rites from her family, trapped in a metal beast too far below to be reached by anyone

needless to say its all a bit of a culture shock to yona lmao

#loz totk #loz zora #totk headcanons #totk sidon #totk yona #loz headcanons

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kosmic-arts · 1 month

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thinking about totk and how the plot sucked.... its the same shit where i feel depressed with kh because it has so much potential but botches it entirely at every turn. totk was such a disappointment plotwise. like, i enjoyed playing it a lot, but i couldn't shake this ever present feeling of bitterness every time anything plot related happened. they completely retcon any and all worldbuilding established in the first game, and replace it all with zonai shit that we're all just supposed to buy was always there. they are so underdeveloped, its mindboggling. i really do wish it had been link going back into the past rather than zelda. as link i feel like im doing chores the whole game while zelda is out there experiencing the actual plot and getting to make difficult choices. like?? i thought i was supposed to be playing the main character... i love zelda, just not botw/totk zelda. she sucks!! sorry 😬 her arc is cool and interesting, but i ultimately don't care because its all told in disjointed flashbacks where most of the actual character development happens without us seeing. zelda goes from hating link and being a petulant child, to being cool with him and chill. we never get to spend any substantial time with her, so all we get is the characters and the rest of the narrative constantly trying to convince you that zelda is so nice and perfect and youve gotta save her right?? and link totally cares about her even though he looks bored as hell 24/7 and seems only invested in this because its his job and hes gotta be home by 5. skyward sword was smart enough to give us like, an hour with zelda to establish link's friendship with her and just that alone does wonders. who doesn't love skyward sword zelda!! i was invested from start to finish trying to reunite with her. also do not talk me about the occasional silly dialogue options link has, or him clenching his fists sometime.. thats not good enough. i honestly dont like botw/totk link either; hes barebones asf. wind waker link is 1000x more alive than botw link; ocarina of time link too and all he does is scream, and TP link!! he ACTS impulsively and with rage when the kids from his village are taken- botw link doesnt have shit on any of his predecessors sorry!! ok. i got a little off topic. basically the totk plot had the minimal possible effort put into it, and it sucks and i hate it. even though the story in botw was very lightweight and straightforward, it was infinitely more riveting than totk, and for that reason i still think about and remember botw more fondly.

#ramblings #tloz totk #tears of the kingdom #the legend of zelda

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saemi-the-dreamer · 11 months

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For the pairing ask meme: Mareach, Zelink, Powser and Ganzelda?

Oh, so I've got the Princess/Hero VS Villain/Princess? 😏 Childhood OTPs ahead, let's do this!

Mario/Peach

Yes, yes-yes-yes!! Especially in the "Paper Mario" series games and "Mario RPG"! It's the classical hero/princess done right, Mario is always so respectful and sweet towards Peach, never expecting anything from her while Peach is always so graceful and looking at him with such a loving gaze aaaaaAAAaaaWWww!! SWEETNESS OVERDOSE!! And in games where we get them to team up 👍👍👍 Love their energy and bond, it's both sweet and fun to see!

Bowser/Peach

Excellent fanfic material - depends on which games - and I love it! Beauty and the Beast vibes always work for me 😂 They could have a "opposites attract" dynamic, which is always interesting and fun to read/see. As long as Mario doesn't get heartbroken or bashed, I'm all for it!! One-sided, complicated relationship, star-crossed lovers or happy ending, I love all of them for this pairing!

Zelda/Link

Another childhood OTP, especially after "Ocarina of Time". The whole reincarnation and sort of "soul sisters" is also a good touch for me. It depends on the games though, there are some in which the two don't interact much and Link got to bond with another endearing character, but Zelink still holds a special place in my heart. So far, my favourite versions of Zelink are: Ocarina of Time (+ Majora's Mask, that flashback!!), Wind Waker, Skyward Sword and A Link to the Past BotW is good too, it's just that I didn't get to play it yet 🤣 , only watched some bits here and here and from what I saw, they are adorable there too <3

Zelda/Ganon(dorf)

I am a big fan of @figmentforms comic and I really like the potential of this pairing! Not as much as with Peach/Bowser, but I am fascinated with the concept of them being eternally (or not?) star-crossed lovers because of the cycle/spirits or Gods they are the reincarnation of getting in the way. I'd love to see Ganondorf breaking from Demise's hatred and living his own life someday, let Ganondorf be part of the team!! 😭

#asks #answers #pairing meme #mario bros #legend of zelda #mareach #powser #zelink #zelgan

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golvio · 1 year

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This video about the set design for Phantom of the Opera has me thinking about design engineering, and how it contrasts with regular engineering, and how that demonstrates the contrast in design philosophies between the Sheikah/Princess Zelda and Ganondorf himself.

The Sheikah design philosophy revolves around their spiritual idea that destiny governs everything, that everything was created with a purpose. To that end, the things they designed tended to be very pragmatic and illustrative. The Shrines themselves were designed with this ethos, each building being built for a specific purpose first and foremost. The decorations of their buildings were mostly focused on reproducing the world and cosmos in microcosm, not as something that distracts from the building’s intended purpose, but in order to explain to viewers in the know how this particular structure fits into Hylia’s Grand Design. Zelda herself is very pragmatically minded, attempting to reverse-engineer this ancient technology, or at least understand how it works well enough to reproduce it. She can be a very passionate, emotional person, but she’s not so hung up on aesthetics or trying to figure out “what it all means,” just “how does this work?” No frills, no artifice, just straightforward and to the point.

Contrast that with Ganon. After hearing a bunch of theorists describe Calamity Ganon as something akin to Puppet Ganon from Wind Waker, it clicked into place for me. Ganon is a set design engineer, rather than just a guy working in a workshop to build machines like the Royal Research Lab. His creations weren’t just built to fulfill a purpose, but to communicate something. The purpose his creations serve, while important, is secondary to that desire to communicate a concept, to produce a specific effect in his audience, even if the only thing he wanted to communicate was his contempt for Hyrule and its people.

“The Calamity” is a coup de theatre: this great big spectacle designed to produce a specific impression in the people of Hyrule. In this case, the desired impression was mass panic. Ganon purposefully obfuscated his methods in order to give the impression that “Calamity Ganon” was this vast, incomprehensible force of nature that could not be predicted or countered. Once you start seeing what he’s working with, as you start making connections between the Malice and whatever that ectoplasmic substance the Ultrahand is working with actually is, the actual mechanisms he used turn out to be relatively simple. He just relies on optical illusions and hiding his tricks in order to make things seem more vast and terrifying than they actually are, like how Bjornson used foreshortening to make the chandelier look like this perfect reproduction of the Garnier opera house’s chandelier when it was actually just a flat oval that could fit in the tiny theater and wasn’t as much of a pain for the stagehands to transport, raise, and lower as a perfect 1:1 scale reproduction would’ve been.

And then with Ganon’s takeover of the Guardian tech, he injects this design philosophy into the stuff he’s working with. A lot of what makes the Possessed Guardians so scary is the musical/sound cues associated with them, as well as their body language that suggests a cold, driven, purposeful hostility. Without that, they’re just big goofy buckets with legs. Just compare the Guardian you see in the castle flashback that’s unaccompanied by the iconic, anxiety inducing heartbeat of the “Guardian” music, being gently prodded along in a certain direction by soldiers with the Guardians you’d see patrolling Central Hyrule 100 years later. Ganon doesn’t just want an ambulatory robot that shoots lasers. He wants his war machines to intimidate, to terrify, to make their targets so scared that they freeze in fear (and coincidentally become much easier to hit). The Blights, too, were designed with this aesthetic of fear in mind. They’re also designed to suggest Ganon’s present, even if the artist himself is technically absent.

The desired effect is to establish the omnipresence and frightfulness of Ganon himself, to terrorize his targets, and to communicate his general contempt. He is concerned with the aesthetics of power, as opposed to just having impressive weapon specs. The Guardians by themselves are already potentially dangerous and destructive, as all weapons of war are, but Ganon needs to take it further, injecting his personality into each one he touches to turn them into a tool of communicating his will in addition to just weapons he tries to use to destroy Link/Zelda.

In summary, their general philosophies are like this:

The Sheikah: This is the world, this is how it works. Everything was made to serve a purpose, and this building, too, has a purpose. It was built to fit into this grand cosmic design we depict on its walls.

Ganondorf: I Want These Cretins To Pee Themselves In Terror When They Gaze Upon My Works. Let Them Hate Me, So Long As They Fear Me.

#long post #legend of zelda #loz thoughts #totk spoilers #totk thoughts #botw #totk #ganondorf #the sheikah #princess zelda #i have been listening to lingua ignota's 'caligula' again and that was one of the things that's got me thinking about #the aesthetics of power #and in particular how that factors into abuse and trauma and reactions to trauma #with regards to ganondorf and the nature of his lashing out against hyrule as implied by his japanese speech #and how lingua ignota herself depicts her response to abuse as coopting those aesthetics of power #in order to communicate her rage and grief and retake control of her own body and agency #the bombastic speech of 'butcher of the world' set against the backdrop of the sample of wendy carlos' score for clockwork orange #as opposed to the more hushed intimate 'deathdealer' that uses the exact same lyrics but communicates something more intimate #this juxtaposition of power and rage versus grief and vulnerability within the same character as they try to process their trauma #that i find really interesting

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marinecorvid · 1 month

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uuuggghhhhh the only way totk would be able to work w the preexisting Zelda timeline was if rauru and Sonia founded the “second” official kingdom of hyrule, after all the timelines converged, bc the rito only came into existence during the wind waker when some zora evolved to have feathers instead of fins… so canon totk (flashbacks) couldn’t take place super early in the timeline, unless they rlly are doing a soft continuity reboot/au…..

#every time I feel like I could theoretically place canon totk I learn something new and it all falls apart again

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waywardsalt · 9 months

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mmmm a while(ish) back i wrote out a scene from one of my loz aus (the one with an actual name, 'in the court of the crimson king', [often shortened to just 'crimson king']) so uhhhh i edited it a bit to account for some changes made since then and decided to share it here!

(if this is difficult to read for any reason let me know and ill just paste the text in normally)

this was also my first time actually writing bellum for real as opposed to how it works in peus so im still a bit shaky with him

this is meant to be a flashback scene for... somewhere within the story, a lot of the more specific plot details of this au are still murky, but it's the most developed one and most likely to be the next au i actually write. its fun and older than i expected, since my friend was able to find and share some old documents i had shared with him a few years ago and i was surprised to find an early draft for this au in there.

the basic idea of this au is that it is set in a semi-industrial hyrule city, separated into segments (districts?), each of which is run by an anonymous leader who handles both the general matters of their segment as well as being in charge of a lot of crime. bellum is one of the leaders in this scenario.

linebeck lives with his adoptive family (link, aryll, and their grandmother) and helps them make ends meet by going off every other week to earn money through jobs. due to money often being very tight, linebeck secretly moonlights as an urban legend-type figure known as the 'demon of the gray moon', and takes extra jobs ranging from theft to spying to murder, often working directly for bellum, who is a close friend he's known since childhood and the one who helped him cultivate and bring into reality the persona of the demon.

(i need to somehow shorten this synopsis, but there's a lot going on from the start and i have yet to even figure out how things begin, so... it's a work in progress. the plot that takes place has some elements of wind waker and a little bit of phantom hourglass as well as kind of being its own thing)

#my post #uhhhh i dont have an au tag for this one hang on #not gonna tag it with the actual name bc thats gonna put it in tags with like. the band n shit #crimson king au #yeah thats easy #heres some weird thing. with bellum in a humanoid form being linebecks really weird friend. this is the one where theyre kinda homoerotic #even tho this is a fucking ganonbeck au. THE og ganonbeck au of mine #anyways linebeck killing people (usually for money) is a consistent through-line between a lot of my aus #he's kind of just straight up a serial killer in this one #linebeck is like 20-ish in this au and was adopted when he was like 12 btw. hes link n arylls adoptive older brother #ID BE GLAD TO ANSWER ASKS ABT THIS. BTW. THIS ONE HAS BEEN SIMMERING A LOT AND IS THE MOST DEFINED #girl i WISH i could show you the design for the demon of the gray moon outfit im so proud of it #i could probably draw up a really crude idea but rn the mask is kinda inspired by the all night mask in mm and has a bunch of curved horns #also the long description of bellum is bc its my first time writing him w/ that desc and bc this might be an early flashback #my writing #fanfiction

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h-worksrambles · 1 year

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Apparently my fixation on furry visual novels is only taking me further and further down the rabbit hole (don’t). Because on a recommendation by some folks on Discord, I just started Remember the Flowers (yep, we’re going out of Echo Project territory this time).

Three chapters in and I’ve gotta say…I’m hooked.

The isekai/dystopia premise is really effective. In particular I enjoy how we alternate between Cyrus’ memories of his old life, and the new reality he finds himself in. It gives the reader the same disorientation Cyrus himself is feeling. Just as he’s questioning reality, wondering if he’s found himself in some kind of dream or simulation, if anything around him is even real, so too are we. But then, in that case, which one is real then?

Cyrus himself is already a pretty refreshing and sympathetic protagonist. His reactions to waking up in this new world in such a state feel incredibly believable. The game doesn’t shy away from just how much emotional stress he undergoes as he desperately tries to piece together his fragmented memories and make sense of the new world he’s found himself in. He has a solid amount of backbone which is a great change for the genre. Assertive enough to feel like he has a backbone but vulnerable enough to feel believable. I particularly enjoy the lengthy flashback into his relationship with Damion during the third character. Not only are they a cute as hell couple (I cannot stress how precious Damion is, dear god) but it does a very good job at establishing what kind of person Cyrus once was. And helping us understand what he needs to get back by returning home. Side note, but it’s also great to see that he’s openly asexual, and that it’s incorporated naturally into the story.

And of course, we have our other major character in these early chapters, Cooper. Because I cannot seem to escape problematic wolf men in these games. I knew very little about this game going in, apart from Cooper himself, and the fact that he is apparently a…controversial character, though I had no idea about the context as to why. Naturally, after coming off of Leo in Echo (my beloved/beloathed in equal measure). I was gearing myself for the worst. So far though? I like him. He walks a good line of abrasive and flawed but still likeable and the pair’s dynamic is effective. The tension between him and Cyrus as they’re alone in this bleak dystopic setting is really well done. Cyrus knows that Cooper is his best chance at survival, but between Cooper’s terse personality, his refusal to tell him all but the barest essentials and the simple fact that Cyrus hates feeling so dependent on someone who’s kind of a jackass, his mistrust of the wolf is palpable. And I enjoyed how it comes to a head in Chapter Three where Cyrus puts together (pretty intelligently tbh) that Cooper is hiding a lot more about Cyrus’ own identity from him. But that confrontation is what leads to a moment of truce between them where the walls start to come down and it’s satisfying to see unfold. Chapter Three was where I really got hooked because it was where the character writing really started showing me what it was capable of with stuff like this.

So far, I’m really drawn in by the world here, the contrast between the fantastical technology and how lonely and desolate the actual environments are. Coupled with the little tidbits in Chapter Three about the ‘Seven Stars’ disaster, I have tons of questions about the world that I’m excited to see answered.

I also have to credit the presentation. The artwork is lovely. The character designs have a distinct style that reminds slightly of Wind Waker. And their sprites have been very expressive. Cyrus’ own design is especially striking. We’ve also got Anthemics contributing and after loving their work on Arches and Glory Hounds, their work here likewise doesn’t miss.

Seriously, just look and listen to this title screen and tell me it’s not a wonderful mood setter.

youtube

Still, as I said, I’m only 3 chapters in. And if what little I’ve heard about this game is to be believed, I haven’t seen anything yet. But so far, this game has excellent mystery, strong characters and gorgeous presentation. I’m really excited to see what comes next.

#i wonder how well these first impressions will age as the story goes on #as i say I have pretty much no idea what to expect #but i’m really excited to find out #remember the flowers #first impressions

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