#i really like the zonai aesthetic

[leavingautumn13]

some rauru sketches i do plan on finishing

#love this funky goat man #rauru #tears of the kingdom #tloz totk #autumn.wip #i really like the zonai aesthetic #gonna do some construct sketches at some point too bc those dudes are adorable

[starlitangels]

Talk Nerdy

Listen, Erik said Link would be Vincent's main in Smash Bros because Vincent has a fondness for the character and fell in love with Breath of the Wild like the rest of us did. That is enough for me to decide Vincent is at least kinda a Legend of Zelda fan. And as a Zelda fan, this was just an excuse to be a Big Nerd. 1.2k words

—

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! I just need one more hit..." Vincent muttered under his breath. So focused on his game that he didn't realize I was standing in the archway behind him. He didn't hear me, smell me, see me—nothing. I smiled and watched Colgera fly around the screen while Link and Tulin furiously flew around in the swirling wind.

Biting my lip, I crept out of the archway and behind the couch. Vincent swore as he took a shot with his bow and it shattered. I smirked, leaned down until I was right behind his ear, and raised a hand.

I dropped it onto his shoulder. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked loudly.

Vincent swore and nearly threw his controller into the TV. Instead managing to only arc it over the coffee table. "Lovely!" he exclaimed. "Don't do that to me!" In a blur of movement, he had his controller back and the game paused. He spun to look at me. "What was that for?"

I laughed. "I'm sorry," I said around my laughter. "I couldn't help it. You were so focused you didn't—you didn't even notice I was right there. I had to see how close I could get!"

He sighed, giving me an affectionate—but exasperated—shake of his head with a little grin. "You're a menace," he said.

I shrugged. "Just for you, and just when we're alone. Because you love me."

"I do. I do love you." I leaned across the back of the couch and met his lips in a kiss. He reached and grabbed at my hips, hauling me over the back of the sofa while I shrieked as I flopped down onto the cushions. He cackled. "There we go. We're even now. And you get to sit with me and watch me play."

"Fine with me."

He kissed the top of my head and unpaused the game. Quickly equipping a new bow to try and shoot Colgera again.

"Rare for a Zelda boss' weak spot to not be their eye," I joked.

"Mmhmm," Vincent agreed, barely paying me any heed.

We sat in relative silence, broken only by Tulin's encouragement and the boss music and various sound effects like the cyclones and Vincent's controller clacking, for a few minutes.

"You're running out of cold resistance," I said.

He cursed under his breath and paused, searching his menus for another dish of food for cold resistance.

"Didn't you get a portable pot in one of the Zonai capsules?"

"They don't work in boss fights," he replied. Right as he found another meal he'd made to fight the cold and had Link eat it. He unpaused and went right back to it.

"Damn, this track slaps," I said quietly.

"It really does. I barely noticed it my first time playing through this game since I was so focused on the fight. Now, every time I restart, I always fight Colgera first. It's the best boss fight."

I smiled. "How many times have you played through Tears of the Kingdom in the last six months?"

Vincent shrugged. "Like five or six. But I don't search for all the Koroks every time. Just as many as I need to get all the spaces in my inventory. I still haven't found all of them on my main Switch profile's save. They added more. It was already a pain in the ass finding nine-hundred in Breath of the Wild. Now there's a thousand. They managed to shove a hundred more into almost the exact same map."

I smiled. "These are your favorite Zelda games, aren't they?"

He didn't even break his concentration from the boss fight. "Maybe. Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina of Time are pretty high on the list too." He moved around with his motion controls to aim his bow. "Twilight Princess is high on that list," he added. "I'd only been turned for six years when it came out and I was in the perfect moody, dark headspace to vibe hard with the game's aesthetic. Maybe the nostalgia helps keep it that high on my favorites. It's also just a good game to boot. And, if I may say, the most iconic appearance for Princess Zelda. She was barely in the game and yet when I hear the name 'Princess Zelda', I always think of her Twilight Princess look before even her Breath of the Wild one."

I smiled. Mmm... talk nerdy to me, you lovable dork, I thought fondly. "I never finished the Forest Temple in that game. Much to my best friend's chagrin. Twilight Princess was their favorite Zelda game while we were growing up."

Vincent shot me a quick look. "We'll fix that. I'll break out the Wii or the Wii-U and we'll get you through it."

"If we ever have time," I muttered sarcastically.

"Fair point. We'll find time. The fact that we don't really need to sleep as much has helped me get through this game multiple times."

I snickered and continued watching him.

The Rito Village/Dragon Roost Island theme hit and washed over our living room in a wave of nostalgia. Vincent sighed in rapture at it.

"This music is so good," I whispered.

"Uh-huh," he agreed. "Nintendo really went off with all the Tears of the Kingdom music. Remember that trailer's saxophone?"

"Mmhmm." I grinned. "Remember the first trailer to feature Ganondorf's voice and the entire internet blew up like 'Matthew Mercer'?"

Vincent started laughing. "That was hilarious. So many memes."

"Yeah. It was great." I gasped. "You're on your last shot, Vin!"

"I know. I'm so close."

"You know, if you did this with a Multi-Shot bow, you could do this a lot faster."

"Yeah, yeah. But I like doing this fight first. It's a challenge." He let go of the button on his controller. Link loosed the arrow.

It arced toward Colgera. Vincent and I both held our breath.

It struck, breaking the final bit of cracked ice.

"Yes!" Vincent cheered, pumping his fist into the air. I whooped and let him give me a kiss.

"Good job, lover boy," I said.

"Thanks, lovely." He gave me a soft look. "I forgive you for scaring me to death."

I burst out laughing. "Thanks. And you're welcome."

He kissed my hairline. "Were you wanting a turn on the Switch or were you just coming in to watch me play?"

"I was actually coming in to ask if you wanted a hot cocoa or something but I saw an opportunity that I couldn't pass up."

"Menace," he accused affectionately.

"Playboy," I retorted. He grinned.

"I would actually love a hot chocolate though," he added in a cheeky little whisper, curling his shoulders up and smiling like a mischievous kid.

I smiled. "I'll get some made for us. You're cute." Kissing his curly, glossy blue-black hair, I got up from the sofa and went toward the kitchen while the cutscene kept playing on the TV.

—

Tag list: @pinksparkl @zozo-01 @thegoldenlittlerose

#Redacted ASMR #fic #Redacted Vincent #Redacted Lovely #Redacted Audio #Starlit Fic #this is half fic half ficlet #idk it's right in the middle

[chaotomatic]

Hi! Yesterday i made this post about a theory i had about LOZ tears of the kingdom in which i somehow drag the seven heroines into this

Go read that rq cause this is p2

Anything for u, random citizen. Have my insanity on a silver platter 🥰🥰🥰

So we have a lot of pieces, so lets try to put them together. This is about to be a game theory video in text form, so if something sounds like a stretch ✨thats because it is✨

Anyways.

What do we know about the seven heroines?

Well, not a lot. We know that, according to the Gerudo historian Rotana, the seven heroines were 7 divine protectors of the Gerudo, and are a popular and well known legend.

She says that each heroine has a different power: skill, spirit, endurance, knowledge, flight, motion, and gentleness.

Idk about you but to me these sound like ✨dungeon prompts✨

We also know that there is Gerudo script on the sides of the statues, which reads “The Seven Sages”

So clearly the heroines and sages are connected, quite possibly the same thing.

But what about the 8th heroine?

Well, we know even less about her. We only really hear about her from incel-boot-guy who sends us out to go find her statue in the first place, and he himself didn’t even think the statue was real, only an urban legend. In fact, compared to the other seven heroines, the 8th heroine is a lesser known myth.

The 8th heroine is strange. Shes merely more than an urban legend, the Gerudo script on her statue also says “the seven sages” despite her clearly being the 8th, not to mention that for some reason shes been built in an inaccessible canyon in the middle of nowhere. And because WHY NOT, her SWORD is on the other side of the mountain range.

In past Zelda games, the sages have been 6 main sage guys and their leader, princess zelda, the seventh sage. The statue could be the leader of the seven sages, instead this time being a leader of the sages as the 8th. But thats me grasping at straws, really.

Now to drag all this nonsense into Tears of the Kingdom

Ganondorf is like. Here now? We only really see him in the first trailer. Ganon is cursed to be reincarnated as a Gerudo man for eternity, and im sure has made the Gerudo people suffer under his rule before. (If not teeechnically canon to the games ppl who know the older games better than i can fact check me)

So by that logic, we could be seeing a lot more Gerudo centric history in the new game. YES, the game’s clearly aesthetically centered around the Zonai, but the Zonai are not the only 10,000+ year old race around. The sheika and the gerudo have both been around for just as long if not longer. Much, much longer. Its possible the seven heroines were in kahoots with or were even apart of the Zonai and helped save the Gerudo from Ganon. Or not.

Again, im grasping at straws and then putting them into my zelda themed insanity puzzle.

But i think the most consise thing in this whole mattpatt knock off text dump that i can think of is this

Eight heroines. Eight sages. Eight tears. Each tear represents a sage, similar to the medallions from OOT. You go through sick ass sky dungeons to get them. Those tears contain energy magic shit you can use to repair the master sword and kick ganons ASS. Its gonna be sick. Also somehow shove the zonai and hylia and the cave paintings and time travel and ouroboros in there.

TELL ME YOUR INSANE THEORIES I CANT BE ALONE IN THIS.

But again.

Thats just a theory.

A GAAAAAMME-

Thanks for reading :>

@lurelinlink @polygenderroulette

#loz #loz tears of the kingdom #totk #tears of the kingdom #legend of zelda #legend of zelda botw #legend of zelda tears of the kingdom #theory #game theory #loz totk #botw #botw2

[cooking-with-hailstones]

I’m curious, what do you think about Zelda games and continuity in general? I know one point of contention with BOTW/TOTK is the “lack” of continuity which yeah, i get it. It could be better. However the Zelda series is not known for its continuity lol. Like, take OOT and MM for example. MM is supposed to be a sequel to OOT, right? Well, tbh it’s not a very good one. Besides the fact that Link is the same one from oot, and the happy mask salesman and skull kid return, it feels really disconnected from its predecessor. I think Twilight Princess fits more as a sequel to OOT than MM. I could go on and on but what are your thoughts?

Very good question! So yeah, I know that the Zelda games give 0 craps about consistent lore or continuity, which is fine! I think they put forward a lot of different and interesting ideas. As a fandom, and especially as writers, we can treat it like a buffet of ideas to sample and play around with.

You raise an interesting point with oot/mm. I think the difference between oot/mm is the fact that they have very little in common with each other. New map, new characters, a completely different concept. There's a lot of mechanics that are the same but it really feels like you're in a new universe with the same aesthetics as the previous one, and that's about it.

I think TOTK stands out to people because it is a direct sequel with only a few years between them in-universe, but there is very little story, lore, and setting continuity between botw and totk. If it were a whole new game with a new slate of characters and a new map, I don't think the discrepancies would feel as jarring. That being said, I really love totk as a game! It's fantastic and I've sunk at least 100 hours in.

However, botw remains my favourite game because: botw is a gesamkunstwerk. TOTK is not a gesamkunstwerk.

And now here's my very long tangent about this:

I'm sure I've seen a video talking about this idea before but basically, a gesamkunstwerk is a German term for "total work of art." Coined by the composer Richard Wagner (whom we do not like, but his ideas were very influential), a gesamkunstwerk is a large scale work where everything reinforces each other. It is "a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms, or strives to do so." So in opera, for example, this would be how the orchestra, the costumes, the text, the music, the set pieces, everything comes together to tell one unified story.

I believe botw is a good example of a gesamkunstwerk: the open world setting serves the narrative framework, the Sheikah technology is incorporated seamlessly into the game mechanics, the story is scattered throughout the world for you to discover, but everything is still centered around your final goal and the narrative arc you're meant to travel. You're meant to explore, meet people, hone your skills, then face off against the final foe that you've been staring in the face for the whole game. You're meant to discover the world, to do all these things, as the player and as Link. Everything in botw reinforces everything else. It's not a perfect game by any means but it is incredibly well crafted.

And while totk improves on all the things in BOTW, it loses the cohesiveness that tied the first game together. I find that totk fights itself in a lot of ways. It didn't commit to being a linear game but it clearly has a linear path in mind (hello dragons tears...I am so glad a friend of mine told me to do them in order) The integration of zonai and Sheikah mechanics made no sense to me. The sages... Good gravy the sages...

Anyways this turned into a much longer post than I intended, but I hope this all made sense.

#Emily talks #asks #Anon #thanks for the ask! #breath of the wild #tears of the Kingdom #legend of Zelda #legend of Zelda lore #continuity #storytelling #loz #botw #TOTK #vaguely totk critical

[terracomets]

The way you draw Endermen is really unique, what led to you taking that direction with your designs for them?

well i am a furry!

but to give you a serious answer, a whole lot of things! heres a pretty basic "anatomy" chart with one of my enderman ocs, parsley:

horns: this is simply because i thought it balanced out the designs pretty well. i also really wanted to connect the endermen to the ender dragon more; so i made them a bit more "dragony" in that aspect!

fur and manes: as i wrote in the diagram i personally imagine the end to be pretty cold. there's no sun, just inky darkness all around! so i figured the endermen would adapt in turn and have fur to keep their bodies warm. think of it (the endermen and the ender dragon) like birds and dinosaurs!

long, narrow snouts: another sort of connection to the ender dragon. outside of anatomical stuff, and while ive been drawing endermen like this since long before totk came out, a big design inspiration for them are the zonai!

long tails: i thought this would balance the designs both anatomically and aesthetically. the manes tend to run down the endermen's backs and kind of "merge" with the base of the tail. think of cats! think of cats with a lot of this.

paw hands: .....................i like drawing paws :)

#terra.art #oc #ocs #misfit mania #mcsm oc #mcsm ocs #parsley #endermen #enderman #minecraft #i adore getting asks like this. thank you!!

[dynamic-narrator]

i started replaying botw (because i didn't want to overwrite my totk 100% file lol) and i'm just struck by how much of a feeling of mystery there is to everything, and the weight and tragedy to the backstory stuff that you don't really get in totk. also i like the aesthetic of the sheikah tech more than zonai, being based on jomon pottery gives it a sense of being ancient while also being this alien technology

#i love how much of a tragedy botw is #the feeling that fate is set and all you can do is avenge the deaths you failed to prevent #compared to totk where zelda's fate is tragic but that's the only part of the game that carries the level of weight that botw has #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #botw #totk

[divineprank]

One thing I really like about Ganondorf’s reveal issssssss 

The hair. Normally I’m not a fan of the Hyrule Warriors mane, I just don’t think it looks good. But here, I think it fits really well, both aesthetically and for storytelling purposes. But besides how much of a thirst trap he is, I think the hair is actually a really important character design choice for storytelling purposes. Look at this glorious bastard and his hair. 

Now, let’s think about Ganondorf’s character for a second. We know that he wants power, he wants to rule Hyrule, and he wants people to look him in the eye as he rips their lives from them. I mean, he’s pretty narcissistic, yeah, but despite that, he understands honor. While his sense of honor doesn’t seem line up with what most people consider to be “honorable”, I think we can still see this in how he still proudly wears Gerudo jewelry and is adorned with more traditional voe clothing. A notable contrast to his usual armor set. This is really interesting because BotW indicates that the Gerudo have completely rejected Ganondorf and don’t want anything to do with that mess. But with the Gan-man, I think there’s still some of that Wind Waker characterization happening, he doesn’t quite want to let go of his old world. How far they’re willing to address that remains to be seen. But this world has moved on without him, and he doesn’t recognize this world anymore. So he’ll destroy it all, and in its ashes create something familiar to him.

What the fuck does this have to do with his hair, though?

Well, let’s take a look at two other characters with long hair. 

Oh, wait--sorry. 

Yes, they look great aesthetically, and it makes sense when you consider both women are women of action and having short hair is better for utility, but it can be therapeutic to cut one’s hair. However, I think Nintendo’s trying to indicate something else. I am by no means an expert in this field, but I understand that there are old Samurai traditions surrounding the cutting of one’s hair. It usually represents retirement, however it’s also been used to indicate the changing of affiliations. And, in modern times, it appears that there are Japanese traditions that celebrate the cutting of long hair, viewing it as a refreshing new beginning and a chance to cleanse themselves of the old, metaphorical weight on their shoulders.  

At this point it’s a pretty over-used trope for characters to cut their hair during a period of great change. But I do think that’s what they’re signaling here with Zelda, Riju, and Ganondorf. Nintendo is using both ladies as a kind of baseline: two long-haired characters have cut their hair, and a usually short-haired character now has long hair. 

It’s been 10,100 years and Ganondorf’s still dancing his same dance and singing his same song. 

He’s stuck on something. His ears are rounded, his hand isn’t marked, so it’s not the Triforce. In my perspective, he seems to be in possession of a tear. Just like Sidon, Tulin, that mysterious dragon-lookin’ Zonai guy, and Zelda. 

Something’s keeping him from moving on, from changing. I think we’ll explore a lot of that in Tears of the Kingdom. 

#I have no idea what the fuck to tag this #Ganondorf #He who wields such power would make a suitable king for this world... Don’t you think? :: [THE DEMON KING] #please know that this is not an invitation for spoilers. i know the artbook leaked and I don't want anything to do with that information #i want to find out on my own please thanks.

[waywardsalt]

thoughts on totk now that i’ve beaten it

under the cut bc of length and bc there is honestly a fair bit of negative stuff

i don’t really think i can say that i liked totk.

it’s fine, it’s genuinely fucking incredible from a technical standpoint with ultrahand, recall, the three map layers and with how smoothly it ran for me. as a game it’s fine.

i’ll start with the things i dislike and end with what i actually liked

i honestly didn’t really like ultrahand? i disliked how much the game leaned on it, since so many puzzles and whatever just boiled down to ‘make something that’ll work’ and it just... it was far too clunky for me to really enjoy using it, outside of using some of the same few designs for traversal. there were a few times when i could see what the game wanted me to do with ultrahand and the given zonai parts and sometimes it just... didn’t work at all. more often than not ultrahand was frustrating for me to use so the game’s reliance on it just made it into a chore sometimes.

in a similar vein the dungeons were serious letdowns. i mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re fine, they had good themes and (mostly) had good aesthetics and general looks and identities to them, but the fact that they were just... basically twenty-ish minute little things was kind of disappointing. i hate that they all had the exact same ‘go hit x number of switches’ gimmick. it really limited what you could do and fucked with the dungeon design, too. the only one where that really worked for me was the fire temple, which was my favorite overall. the water temple was especially dismal, with the least inspired look and just being an astoundingly easy experience. the puzzles in those dungeons were so awfully easy, too, especially since half of the time they just hand you what you need so you barely need to really assess the situation and put a plan together

i hated the water dungeon’s little mini-areas where you do a single piss-easy puzzle to automatically get your prize, i hated the wind temple’s god damn ‘pull a lever and get your prize’ kind of puzzles, i hated how soul-crushingly disappointed i felt when i took a look at the lightning temple’s map and realized that every fucking floor had a singular room just for the switch puzzle. god forbid it’s as fun as the lowest level of that temple. i really miss stuff like mini-bosses or rooms where you have to do a puzzle in order to just... progress, i miss dungeons that i could get lost in or spend a while in or just had... something more interesting or some more substance so that i can’t just breeze through like it’s a glorified shrine. most of the puzzles in those dungeons were simpler than some shrines i did.

i didn’t care to do much exploration since there honestly isn’t much motivation to explore the surface map if you’ve already played botw, and the scarcity of materials this time really got to me, it took me a while to have a half-decent stock of materials, and i still had trouble not running out of stuff even though i was using amiibos to stock up on some things. the money situation was rough, too... a lot of things are cheaper to sell, but some armor is still really expensive plus you have to pay the great fairies to upgrade your equipment in addition to having the correct materials. that especially felt odd- having to grab a handful of (goddamn hard to get) lynel guts is hard enough to upgrade the soldier’s armor, but you want me to cough up 500 rupees, too??

(the scarcity of monster guts also got on my nerves, but i’ll just chalk that up to just some kind of really weird difficulty thing. it was annoying until i tracked down the stronger monsters.)

the story is probably the weakest part of the game to me. it’s really hard to have a baseline investment when you don’t care about these characters, anyway, and what i saw in this game’s story still failed to endear me to hardly any of them. link’s role frustrated me; he just comes off like a tool rather than a character this time through, he barely has any actual relevancy to the story segments beyond being the guy who can use the master sword and being the player’s vehicle to get from point a to b in the story. the blank stare and limited emoting worked in botw because... there’s a given reason for his lack of outward emotion in the past, plus he has no memory in the present. it makes sense. but this time around, he’s gotten memories in the years between this and the last game, but he just feels like a background character in most of the story beats. 

he has no role in the memories and in the present just exists to gather some stuff for other people, he gets the master sword from zelda and then helps the other sages get their secret stones, but he’s barely addressed as his own character in the grand scheme of things unless he’s being directly spoken to. he’s just the swordsman capable of wielding the master sword and zelda’s chosen protector as far as the story is concerned. he has no opinions outside of doing what he’s told and looking for zelda. at least not as far as i could really tell. at least in botw, the story directly concerns him, and it’s his story we’re following. this time around zelda and the sages seem like the most important characters, link’s just... there, doing what he’s been told to.

the new sages are fine, none of them really endeared themselves to me, and i will say that making the player watch essentially the exact same cutscene each time you finish a dungeon was BAFFLING. they were long and you learned almost nothing new after the first one, and there was nothing done to make them very distinct to each individual pair of sages or their respective regions; at the very least, it could have been interesting to meet the ancient sages not in the exact same stone garden, but perhaps at the top of a snowy mountain for the rito, near a volcano or something for the goron, maybe in a shallow pool of water for the zora, and in the desert for the gerudo- but no, they’re all effectively the same thing just with the speaking character swapped out with some minor changes.

(the sages themselves are a pain in the ass to use, having to chase them down to activate their power or accidentally activating a power when you don’t want it; yunobo was honestly my favorite, but because i generally defaulted to having them all activated at all times, i had a lot of trouble with tulin blowing shit away from me when i was trying to grab it while midair. they’re half-decent for combat)

i didn’t really care for rauru or sonia, either. rauru in the present as a ghost was fine, he was kind of interesting and seemed to have changed from his time in the past, but he never managed to be a character i particularly liked. i wasn’t really a fan of his... arrogance? or something in the past scenes, and he never really came off as very interesting. sonia was nearly completely uninteresting which is a shame since she has an interesting design, she just felt delegated to the role of supporting rauru and zelda and then dying to motivate them.

ganondorf is a character i was really looking forward to seeing, and it really fucking sucks that he’s so god damn one-dimensional this time! the story can’t be fucked to delve into him beyond just giving us scenes that just tell us that he’s evil and wants to rule hyrule and get the secret stones and nothing else because fuck having complex villains, i guess. especially frustrating because within the game itself you can draw more interesting motivations up for him, but the game really just doubles-down on him being evil for the fuck of it and wanting to end the world because uhhhh... he’s evil don’t fucking worry about it

the ignoring of the triforce in this game sucks in that way, too, because the way the triforce works and how it can grant wishes made it a much more interesting goal for ganondorf to attain, rather than some poorly-named ‘secret stones’ that do nothing more than just amplify power or something. it sucks how black-and-white this damn story is and how it seems like it just wants to do away with any possible nuance or gray area. no one but the bad guys or side characters are flawed in any actually interesting or significant way.

at least ganondorf was still the most interesting character in the flashbacks.

and then zelda, oh god ZELDA. i honestly really liked her in botw. i liked how you saw her as a flawed, insecure, pressured teen, and how you saw her struggles to relate to link and how she eventually warmed up to him. you saw her as a flawed person who develops and as someone who cares deeply about her friends and her duties and gets frustrated by her failings.

and then in totk a lot of her more interesting traits- her interest in sheikah tech, her excitement over field study and research, her more defining traits as this incarnation of zelda- are basically sanded down and she’s just this perfect flawless princess with great power and an insanely passive role in the past beyond finally taking some kind of action after one of her friends dies and she’s pushed to the brink. cool. great.

she has practically no flaw in totk. if anyone in the present talks about her, they have nothing bad to say and just want to please her and follow her orders, she is right in telling the gerudo how to train their troops she is right even when misheard to tell people to put themselves in danger and she is hardly meaningfully questioned when her imposter is doing very clearly suspicious shit. neither the story nor any of the characters wants to let her be flawed. she’s just perfect in damn near every way and barely retains any interesting characterization she got in botw. there are some interesting snippets in her being a teacher and setting up memorials to those who died in the calamity, but there’s hardly any more than that, and it makes it really hard for me to give a damn about her. she’s not interesting this time.

the whole thing with zelda becoming a dragon too, is... it’s fine. it’s ok. but the fact that she turns back at the end with no problem whatsoever is one hell of a fucking misstep. why talk about draconification being forbidden for a good reason anyways if it doesn’t actually matter anyways??? if you never actually see any of those fucking repercussions why even bring them up??? i really feel like it would have been more effective for there to have been actual consequences for zelda beyond just fucking flying around half-conscious for a millennium or whatever- have her lose her memory when she’s brought back! there you go! there’s the reason why draconification is forbidden! there’s the thing about losing yourself! plus, zelda losing her memories as a result would mirror link having lost his memories in botw! that has so much more weight and significance then ‘oh uh ignore the warnings from a while back she’s completely fine dw abt it’ i hate that she’s back just like that without any of the consequences that the game suggests.

the dragon’s tears in general kinda just felt weaker than botw’s memories anyways bc you’re more just. watching stuff happen then actually learning anything. it has less characters and yet i feel like you only get to know like half of the important ones. like three of them are all about the same event. a few times they just replay parts of old memories in new ones. if they ever reference a past memory they just show you what they’re referencing instead of leaving you to piece it together. just play the voices or something don’t break the flow of things to play a clip of something i’ve already seen.

plus the fact that totk... barely acknowledges that it’s a sequel to botw really rubs me the wrong way. i understand that loz is extremely loose with its lore, but totk is a direct sequel set in the same world a few years later, and yet the events and characters of botw have might as well been forgotten and its all either ignored, brushed aside, or straight up replaced by something else for no good reason. the continuity between these games is absolutely dismal and to see the different ways in which the events and concepts or botw are just... disregarded really just left a bad taste in my mouth.

just- i love good stories and worlds in video games, and while some games can coast by for me by feeling good to play, having a good and engaging story and characters is usually essential to my enjoyment of a game, and when i don’t care about to the point of disliking the story and characters, and when none of the important areas are fascinating or distinct enough from each other, and when the game even fails to really reel me in with the gameplay...

i wanted to like totk, but it really just did not work for me. i just ended up feeling frustrated and disappointed and even sometimes bored with all of the major stuff and man. totk is really, REALLY, not for me, and it just left me wanting to play older zelda games instead.

...

HOWEVER! there were actually some things i really loved about totk! it’s not all doom and gloom! (well, not all doom, at least)

so! the music was great! not all of it really fit or made a lot of sense with the context in which they played or failed to evoke the feeling they were meant to, but the new tracks in this game were great! i especially love the first two phases of the fire temple’s theme, the depths music, and most of the new battle and boss themes. zelda games almost never fail when it comes to the music.

i did genuinely like the fire temple- yunobo’s ability was used the best in this dungeon, and it had the best five switches gimmick, i loved how you had to hit the gongs (sometimes having to construct a path to account for the weaknesses of yunobo’s ability) and how it then ‘scared’ each of the five statues holding a part of the gate- it was very cute and fit in very well with the general feel of that part of the story. it was the best in terms of difficulty and complexity, but it didn’t have the best boss- the lightning temple had the best boss, and i will admit that even if most of them were easy, i really enjoyed the mirror puzzles, as well as the process to unlocking the dungeon. the wind temple had my favorite visual identity and aesthetic, though, i liked it being a part of this old rito song, and how it was the most distinct in looks from the other dungeons.

the sky islands were honestly fun, even if they weren’t all that interesting. getting to some of the harder-to-reach islands were some of my favorite times i had to use ultrahand, and stuff like the zonai forge island and the one orblike island with the mirror puzzle, and pretty much all of the more complicated parts of the sky islands were a lot of fun to explore and figure out.

being able to ride on the dragons was just really cool, and the fact that they come out of the chasms was fun.

the new horns for the monsters were cool, it helps differentiate the different monster strengths and i just thought they were really neat.

the quest with lurelin village was fun, even if the pirates just being monsters was a real let-down.

the stable trotters were also a fun bunch of characters, that was a good, new way to open up fairy fountains.

all of the new stuff with the yiga was really fun, like getting their outfit and being able to pretend to be one of them and learning the blademaster attack- so much fun it was so cute.

most of the new outfits are really good and useful, and while a bit janky and not that great, the house-building bit near tarrey was endearing.

while none of the main characters interested me, i really, especially liked tauro and yona and penn. for some reason they just appealed to me and i really wish they had bigger parts in the game because they’re interesting and they have good designs and i’d really like to know more about them.

the underground gerudo shelter was pretty cool, to be honest, and the look of the caves was really cool.

i adored the proving grounds shrines- easily my favorite shrines in the entire game, i had no problem spending a decent amount of time in those kinds of shrines, they were fantastic.

the new ingredients and recipes and new weapons were cool.

the way you basically return to the area you started at on your way to ganondorf is pretty cool, that whole path is really neat.

ganondorf in general was a pretty cool boss, even if he ended up being kind of easy for me. the whole final boss sequence was neat.

by FAR, though, my absolute favorite part of this game was 100% the depths. the fact that there was just an entire second layer to the map that was the same size as the surface, just inverted and dark and filled with new bosses and locations... i spent hours down there without going back up to the surface and absolutely had a BLAST screwing around in the dark, lighting up my path with brightblooms and tossing together little vehicles with lights so that i could get to the next lightroot off in the distance. the depths was probably where i ended up using zonai vehicles the most, and it was honestly pretty fun to go around spotting and reaching every lightroot, coming across different mines and weird little landforms and coliseums and yiga camps. the music and plantlife and look of the depths were so good, and it really felt distinct from the rest of the game in a very good way. doing all of the lightroots and getting enough zonaite to max out link’s energy cells was definitely a good move since it made finding shrines and dealing with later zonai machine stuff easier.

overall, tears of the kingdom was a severely mixed bag for me, and while there was stuff i did like, i don’t think it’s enough to really get me to say that i really liked this game overall- after all most of the stuff i disliked was unavoidable parts of the games, and it definitely put a hamper on my interest in the rest of the time. totk is fine, but it’s really not my thing. 

#i just- *slams head into brick wall* bro i did not have a good time with this game #going back to my silly little comparison point; totk was $70 and my copy of phantom hourglass was $70 #$70 is a bullshit amount for a game but thats no the point here #totk from a technical baseline standpoint as a GAME is worth $70 #its story and the amount of enjoyment it gave me was not worth $70 tho. the story and enjoyment i got from ph was more worth $70 to me #salty talks #loz #legend of zelda #totk #'zelda games almost never fail when it comes to the music' if you talk shit abt ph's soundtrack i'll kill you. i like the dungeon track #i partially have the shinji chair image saved for this but i did also initally save it yesterday when i finished nge #listen this was fine on a surface level but it just wore me the fuck down #link was just some flavor of stonefaced or surprised or determined in any given cutscene and like. idk. wasnt too interested in him either #look i know about the silly little dialogue options. still didnt do it for me #link getting his arm back only makes sense to me bc i got every last light of blessing and heart container and stamina vessel #the gloom in his body is 100% gone hes squeaky clean for me. whyd you take his shirt off tho. at least keep his hat. cant take it seriously #put him in the archaic set or smth his arm is fully visible that way at least and its full circle thats what he wears at the start #couldnt take the whole grabbing zelda sequence seriously bc i missed the (hold) prompt and link flew away lol #totk spoilers #also wasnt really a fan of most of the voice acting yeah sorry. kinda rough all around aside from like ganondorf and dimitri- i mean rauru #mineru and the rito sage were fine too ig. im not going to bother watching any vids or whatever to check again #riju and sidon were fine too #sonia was cool too but everyone else was a lil rough tbh esp with having to say 'secret stone' that name sucks shit #my switch died in the middle of the credits. i had like 25% when i started fighting ganondorf. #it died twice actually cuz i charged it for a few minutes and what like yeah 5% should be good and nope. died again #anyways whatever. im not giving it a rating im tired of this game i dont think i'll be replaying or even just touching it any time soon #music was top notch again tho. made me feel stuff more than the actual story did. cool ig #bitching abt totk

[ruthlesslistener]

Thoughts/opinions on the gerudo in general? I'm curious. apologies if this is too open-ended

I fucking love them personally, they're one of my favorite races, but I'm not a Zelda specialist so I only really know what I've seen in BOTW and its related games, and even then only via playthroughs. I'm sure there's an argument to be had about Orientalist sterotypes with them, what with the whole bare-bodied beautiful desert woman clad in silks and all, but I also think that they're mythical enough in nature that it isn't as much of a problem. There's also the fact that they very much do not confine to the 'passive concubine/harem girl' sterotype enough that I think it balances it out. If anything, they remind me more of the Greek legends of the Amazons, which is an odd fit to a general desert aesthetic, but again- they're fictionalized enough that it all wraps around to just being neat as hell again.

I think an all-female society is cool to think of too. Personally I headcanon that they work like those partially asexual female lizards who need to mate with a male of their species in order to fully trigger ovulation. They can reproduce sexually, and often do so with Hylians to strengthen bloodlines, but asexual reproduction is always gonna happen with at least one kid. I'd have to think about how a pureblood phsyically male Gerudo could come about more when I'm a bit more awake, but my guess is that it's more of a genetic anomaly than anything else- maybe XO rather than XX, which results in male characteristics developing because two x chromosomes are required to trigger the female development pathway. Or its just magic fucking with genetics, bc apparently Zonai and Hylians can interbreed, so magic is 100% at play here

Gerudo cool. I love them :)

#yeah they are kinda genaric middle eastern folk but also #they are cool warrior women who have lightning powers and arent human so some leeway should be given #anon #reply

[summerendroll]

wait guys can i be a little hater about totk i haven’t done that on here. and like for the record i’ve been having lots of fun with it even if i haven’t been able to play for a while. but also

idk how to do a read more on mobile. idk if u even can i didn’t use mobile when i used to make posts more. like five yrs ago. ill add that when im on my laptop next soryyyyy

anyways NUMBER ONE. sticking with the nonlinear storytelling. i think it worked for botw, felt immersive with link uncovering things about his past on his own, etc. i don’t understand the point of it here and i think it takes away from the story lol. especially with the dragons tears where they like try to foreshadow and they try to show u characters and a storyline but succeed in actually letting us know the characters hardly at all and all foreshadowing fails because you can get them in any order which also brings me to the end cutscene of minerus temple which for some reason is just 70% recapping what the dragons tears said? then the temples didnt feel very rewarding to finish just because you didnt learn anything new unlike the divine beasts you just got nearly identical scenes for all the dead sages changed only by speech patterns and approximately 3 lines from the new sage. id rather just have a scene with the new sage then the sameee cutscene with zelda every time. and i truly believe the scene after the last geoglyph dragons tear wouldve been way more impactful for me if id gotten the last few in order. i felt a drive to advance the plot for about three days and then nothing. because there is SO LITTLE plot it feels like. you get these fragments here and there and while ive been loving to explore this changed hyrule its like. i was so excited for new plot especially bringing back ganon back into the mix after so long and all we got were crumbs. come on now.

SECOND speaking of plot what was with all that emphasis on the sky islands in trailers when its the DEPTHS that r so much bigger. and there is like NOTHING about them in the plot of the games — they’re just an extension of the sky islands and overworld, really, in everything but aesthetic appearance, and they’re never relevant in the story despite how huge it should seem that there is clear evidence of zonai civilization there which is for some reason identical to whats in the sky? everyones like omg look in the sky and only josha cares about the underground in a sidequest that means very little.

THREE everyones already said something about the disappearance of guardian tech and its already been countered with a “well they must have dismantled it all to avoid it being used against them again” and thats all well and good but the complete lack of mention despite working closely with the sheikah tech researchers is INSANEE whered the massive divine beasts go?! its like the events of botw never happened no one talks about it ingame!!!!! no ones ever like well ever since we cleared all those broken down guardians from the field by fort hateno, or we’ve been using the old tech to learn from to create this new slate that is nearly identical in function to ur old one but we’re gonna for some reason always act like this camera or sheikah sensor r totally new and exciting. ???

#totk #omg i forgot they automatically do a view more now ??

[legendofzoodles]

LU Character Design Analysis 1

The incredible designs for each of the heroes was the first thing that sold me on this story and concept. I love analysing things in stories and character design is something I haven’t talked about yet. I got this idea from watching character design analysis videos on youtube, and those creators sometimes put the designs into a tier list. So I thought I’d do that with the LU designs.

I’m going to rank them based off of aesthetic, (i.e. how good the character looks and how well the colours and textures go together), how well the represent the character and how practical the garb would be for the kind of travel and environments in LU- which will be mostly my opinion so take each placement with a side of salt. I’m not an expert on this stuff, but I’ve seen a few videos on colour theory and stuff like that, so I’m going to try my best at applying that here.

Onto the list! Starting with...

9th place: Wild 

I’m sorry but there has to be a last place, and for me that goes to Wild. There’s a lot you could do with a redesign of his character, although it’s impossible to mix in every aspect. That being the polished knight aesthetic, the wild survivalist thing he’s always had going on and ancient Sheikah aesthetic- maybe some Zora and Zonai stuff too. 

Pros: I love the long ponytail, aesthetically it looks great and it gives the impression that he is somewhat of a rebel, which would reflect his unpopular opinion of the Master Sword and King of Hyrule. Long hair can also act as a shield that symbolizes a lack of maturity or toughness. Wild is as tough as old boots- he is a survivalist after all, but as shown numerous times in the comic he does lack maturity, often acting childish and impulsive. 

I will point out that while it is a bit of a shame that the hair is so long because the shorter hair made a similar silhouette to the one the pointed cap made, at the same time it makes sense. The cap is part of the hero’s garbs right? But Wild feels like a screw up, he doesn’t believe himself worthy and therefore still feels like he needs to redeem himself more before he can proudly carry that title.  

I love that he’s still wearing the champion’s tunic. I feel like it would hold a lot of importance to him, as it’s a tether to his past self, so he’d worry about making sure it doesn’t get damaged. I feel like in BoTW he wouldn’t have worn it much only when speaking to leaders or those who knew him 100 years ago. He’d wear it all the time around Zelda, as a sort of visual representation of his duty but also to help show that he’s still the same person deep down.

I also really like that he’s wearing the amber earrings, not only because they’re my personal favourite but also it’s a nice nod to the colours of the ancient Sheikah who’s technology played a large role in BoTW. 

The guardian scars are well placed too, having them be primarily on one side makes them easy to keep track of. Plus they’re bold and distinct, one of the first things someone’s gonna notice when they see him. The fact that they stand out so much and can’t easily be hidden reflects how Wild can’t hide from his past and has to constantly pick up the scattered pieces of his lost identity. His body is broken and torn like his sense of self, and while those cracks will never quite be the same they can be healed with time. 

Cons: Gonna be honest, the dark and light blues of his tunic aren’t really doing it for me. It doesn’t show me that he’s an accomplished knight travelling with the princess, because to me it looks a little like he’s the court jester who happens to train with a sword. 

From a character standpoint it could symbolize how much he relies on others (especially Zelda who’s royal dress is that same dark blue) to validate his identity, hence creating a mismatched and stitched together sort of self image- like a mosaic of different people’s expectations and opinions. But to me the two-toned colour scheme doesn’t look very good visually and it doesn’t look very ‘put together’, which I assume is how Wild wants to present himself. Besides, I think the scars do a great job of representing all that on their own. 

I do like the style though, the flared sleeves and tunic make him look a little more androgynous, which is I think is one of the best parts about his look from BoTW.

Keeping the hooded cape was a great design choice. Although keeping it short would’ve been much more practical and shown that he still has to do some learning and growing as a person.

I’m a little conflicted by the fact that he’s not wearing any armour or chainmail. On one hand it keeps the essence of his original design from the game and helps him stand out amongst those in the chain wearing chainmail, but at the same time I feel like he would. 

He’s been through many near death experiences, if he wouldn’t slap on a bit of chainmail or some metal arm guards for himself, he’d surely do it to put the mind’s of the people he cares about at ease. 

...but maybe it would be better to keep his armour as just tough leather which would help him look like a survivalist, but at the same time I like the thought of it being polished metal, but at the same same time I kinda want it to be modified ancient Sheikah material. Like I said, I’m conflicted. 

Wishlist: There’s no such thing as the perfect design, but if I could add anything I’d give him a little more of an ancient Sheikah motif. The orange flaps on his boots don’t look right to me. I get that they’re there to balance out the orange in his earrings and arm guards, but I’d like it if it were maybe on the very bottom, or as laces or as little stellar constellation patterns like the ones in the shrines. Those patterns could also maybe be on his quiver or painted on a shield. 

I don’t like that the trousers and undershirt are the same colour. I get that they have to be light coloured as too not blend in with the hooded cape, but if it were shorter, his trousers could be a darker. 

Ok so, I once saw AoC Link fanart where the artist put the champion’s tunic over the Zora armour, and other than making me gush about how sweet it was, it also made me realise that a dark blue undershirt would go great with the tunic. Since Mipha is dead in BoTW, it wouldn’t really make sense for Wild to have any Zora motifs in his design (unless you ship him with Sidon I suppose)- but that undershirt could also have some ancient Sheikah inspired patterns on it. That could maybe be echoed on his trousers too. Also, instead of having ancient Sheikah armour- which is bulky and can look strange- have it be metallic knight’s armour/or leather and keep the Sheikah elements strictly on the clothes and colour placement. 

Last minute thought here but hear me out: what if Wild wore turquoise? A mix of the traditional hero colour and the colour of the Champions. Just putting it out there. Maybe he can wear a turquoise tunic, or cloak or scarf once he fully grows up into a competent and confident adult at peace with both duties. 

Btw, all that being said I do like this design for what it is. 

Score:

Aesthetic and visual score (/10): 4 Character representation score (/5): 3  Practicality score (/5): 3  Total (/20): 10

I didn’t mean to score him low, I had to set a precedent for the others to follow. But this doesn’t mean I think his design is bad, it’s good, I just think it’s the weakest compared to the others. 

Sorry I had to give 8th place it’s own post, cuz this was too long:

See 8th place here

7th place

6th place

5th place

4th place

3rd place

~~~

Thanks for reading! What modifications would you make to their designs? And do you agree with me or not? I’d love to know :)

Masterlist

Relevant character analysis/rant posts:

Hero of the Sky, Hero of Time, Hero of Twilight, Hero of the Wild, Hero of Warriors

#linked universe #loz #legend of zelda #lu wild #lu sky #sky linked universe #linked universe wild #linkeduniverse #character design analysis #i love analysing outfits #ive spent too long thinking about this #lu tier list #lu rants

[veronix]

the more and more i think about it the more i become upset with totk. like as a remake of botw it does add new and interesting features of gameplay but story wise what the hell were they doing. Botw was about loneliness and grief while still experiencing the beauty of nature. totk took that and was like. nah have some alien magic.

as it's own entity i really did enjoy totk. the new gameplay mechanics and some of the cut scenes especially. some of the major moments felt wayy more epic in totk. like. the sword pull and the entirety of the final battle was amazing. im just really bummed out that nintendo didnt try to extend the actual story of botw and instead we got fucking time travel of all things. ill be so fr i do not care about the ancient lore or whatever. and i understand that something HAS to happen for nintendo to put Link back in the same slog of lose zelda. do temples. find zelda. but the way they did it. :/

i probably wouldve been way more open to the story if they hadnt fucking. wiped any and ALL mention of the sheikah tech. like. the sheikah slate becoming the PURAH PAD??? Eat my ass nintendo. ALSO THE AESTHETIC CHANGES. THE GUARDIAN AESTHETIC FUCKING RULES AND I HATEEEEE THE ZONAI AESTHETIC!!!! I HATE THE FUCKIG EGG TEMPLES

#realizing that maybe sequels take a little more effort than just reusing assets... #in botw you were grieving everyone you didnt even know you knew 100 years ago and now its like. yea we lost Zelda again. back to the grind #Totk Link feels like such a static character compared to Botw Link :(( #thinking about hades 2 got me thinking about botw 2. and Silksong #Which completely off topic but the fact that Silksong isnt called Hollow Knight 2... team cherry id suck you off myself #im sure Melinoe is also trying to escape Hell so thats why its called Hades 2 but still... #actually team cherry i take it back fucking release silksong im on my hands and knees begging please #op

[alphascorpiixx]

On the one hand (ha) I love the Zonai their tech and designs are so cool somewhat similar to the Sheikah but different enough that they feel distinct

But on the other hand where did the Sheikah tech go?? The shrines and the guardians and the divine beasts are all gone like yeah maybe the shrines all disappeared below ground and maybe the towers were repurposed into the sky view towers (which now brings up the question of why did they need to move them)

But the guardians? No decayed corpses still scattered around hyrule? Not all traces of the calamity are gone there’s still village ruins around but these were always a living reminder of the calamity and yeah they would be all deactivated now but I’d like to see at least a few deactivated ones still around

(Maybe there are some and I just haven’t found them yet since I’ve only finished the first temple)

And the divine beasts! In the herba sky islands there was bits of Vah medoh’s theme and I was really hoping to see it again. I’ve said this before but I do love the wind temple and the musical references to Vah medoh but the divine beasts were The Dungeons(tm) in botw. Couldn’t they be like sitting at their locations like when you finish the dungeons in botw but deactivated since the champions’ spirits probably moved on. Just a visual reminder that the divine beasts were a thing that impacted this world and not something to be ignored in bowt’s direct sequel in favor of the next cool thing

Maybe the guardian corpses were all gathered up and thrown into the big chasm surrounding hyrule but the divine beasts should definitely still be around. Or at least there should be some explanation for why they aren’t

It just feels weird how the Sheikah were such a big focus on botw and now there’s no trace of them and everything’s about the zonai. Like did the Zonai and Sheikah ever interact and share tech? I get that these similarities were likely because Nintendo wanted to keep botw’s distinct aesthetics and magitech and still make totk different enough from botw but may I have an in-universe reason pretty please??

(Hopefully there will be more to learn about the Sheikah as I’m still not very far in the game)

#it’s like is there was a twilight princess sequel that focused entirely on the yetis and ignored the twili #*if #I like the zonai but botw raised so many questions about the sheikah #listen I’m in favor of ignoring the timeline when I feel like it but consistent worldbuilding for a sequel game would be nice #julian plays totk #totk spoilers

[aikoiya]

LoZ: Wild - BotW VS TotK Weaponry

I'm honestly a bit upset that they took out the Silverscale Spear (technically, it should've been called a bidant), Moonlight Scimitar, Serpentine Spear, Vicious Sickle, Demon Carver, & such. The Moonlight Scimitar & Silverscale Tridant were especially pretty.

Interestingly, Demon Carvers are a weapon pretty unique to BotW that might be inspired somewhat by feng huo lun or wind-and-fire wheels. Unlike Chakram, which are made to be thrown, feng huo lun are used in melee. However, feng huo lun do not possess handles the way that Demon Carvers do. Rather having a bar inside the rings that you're supposed to grip. However, realistically speaking, this weapon wouldn't really be very effective as niether were feng huo lun. It think that they'd be called Oni-hori Enkama (Demon-Carving Circular-Sickle, 鬼彫り円鎌). - As opposed to the canonical name of Oni Enba (鬼円刃, Ogre Circular-Blade) as not only does it seem more like a sickle weapon, but I just wanted to keep the kanji for "demon-carving" in there.

I also kinda wish that they traded the Golden Claymore for something like a Dadao (maybe with some inspiration from the Greek Kopis). Just something that would more resemble a large, 2-handed scimitar.

Maybe add things like Kodachi, Naginata, Kunai, & Zanbatō to the list of Sheikah/Yiga weapon sets, then maybe name the Eightfold Blade an Ansatsu Wakizashi (1-handed assassination sword) or Sheikatō (after the Ninjatō) & the Eightfold Longsword a Sorikaze Katana (2-handed windcutter sword). Also, they should've kept some of the aesthetic from the Windcleaver with the Eightfold Longsword. I loved the look of that sort of wavy groove in the middle that lit up & the holes. Like halves of 2 different blades fused together!

I mean... I suppose that the Gloom Spear is technically a Naginata now that I think about it, but still.

It'd also be really neat to have an Urumi or Razorchain Sword type of weapon too. Maybe add in some hand & a half swords.

Also cool to add would be a Dadao or whatever type of massive, two-handed sword it was that Koloktos used. Or a sword inspired by the Sword of Manjushri, a.k.a. an old Khagda Wisdom Sword.

Khopesh for the Gerudo would also be cool!

Another cool thing would've been cutlasses. Like, seriously, one of Hyrule's ancient princesses was an effing PIRATE QUEEN!! Why are there no cutlasses??

I mean, sure, you could probably call the Moonlight Scimitar a cutlass if you wanted to, but it's just not the same... ;_;

Also, the various types of Lai'o'manō for Lurelin weaponry! Like the most commonly known Lei'o'manō, a Palau Papanihomanō (sharktooth club) or a Pahoa'i'a'me Lei'o'manō (sharktooth spear) or Ku`eku`e Lima Lei'o'manō (sharktooth knuckles). And maybe some other stuff like an Ulimasao (paddle club used to end war & steer towards peace) or Nifo'oti (cane knife) or an Aufana (bow)!

It would've also been cool for the Zonai to have something like a Macuahuitl. Or wooden war club with obsidian razors down the sides.

---

Can we also talk about how interesting it is that the Gerudo are inspired by Egyptian/Middle Eastern cultures, yet their weapons are very powerful, but not durable? Because, this very much contrasts with how actual Middle Eastern weaponry were historically.

It suggests that the Gerudo don't really have access to very high-quality iron in the desert, so the advantage of their weapons comes in their design & forging method which, due to the curve of the blade, results in more cutting power. (Which itself is actually accurate to the Middle Eastern sword design of pattern welding.)

Contrast that with the Middle East having ready access to things like Damascus Steel, which is made from extremely high-quality iron, while also having wonderfully designed blades, thus making them both deadly & durable.

Which, when I look, the Yiga's weapons are more durable than the Gerudo's. This suggests that their weapons might be made of better stuff despite their main base being in the Gerudo Highlands & thus right next to the desert.

This implies that my theory that the Desert doesn't have very good forging material (instead having an abundance of high-quality jeweler's metals), but the Highlands do, might be correct.

Which would make the metal that the Yiga are working with, most likely, the Hyrule equivalent of Damascus steel.

However, at the same time, the Yiga's weapons aren't much more durable than the Gerudo's weapons. Which could mean that the Yiga aren't really very good blacksmiths & if the Gerudo got their hands on this steel, then it could increase the durability of their weapons by leaps & bounds.

LoZ Wild Masterlist

LoZ Cultural Masterlist

#loz #botw #totk #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #tears of the kingdom #weapons

[arengnera]

Hi I’m here to ask you for your thoughts on the zonai

Oh my god someone actually did.

So despite my attempts to run a half respectable blog I actually have deep and incurable zelda brain rot. I'm going to do my best to give an overview for anyone who doesn't have that. The Zonai are a tribe/race that either predated or were contemporary to the ancient Shiekah, either collaborating to create several shrine quests or having their architecture and ruins repurposed for such. They span to every corner of the map, but are most present in the Faron region, with the Shrine of Courage, The Labyrinths, Thundera plateau, and Typhlo ruins being the most obvious and stand out examples. Their architecture and style could most easily be explained as combination of Indian and Mesoamerican. (As pictured below with a concept piece of Sarjon bridge, which is very accurate for the in game model) They often use the motif of geometric swirling patterns, as well as Stylized Dragons, Boars, and Owls to represent Courage, Power, and Wisdom respectively.

The new trailers for tears of the kingdom shows A LOT of Zonai stuff, with the sky island architecture and and constructs more or less being confirmed as Zonai make. While I had personally considered the Zonai to be a very humanoid tribe like the Shiekah or Gerudo, it's entirely possible that they're a completely different race entirely. I fully believe that this screenshot here is an example of a Zonai.

I don't have much evidence beyond the fact that I think Nintendo is too much of a coward to make Hylia a furry. The Zonai never depict themselves in any of their surviving in game artifacts so it's really impossible to say. But I bet they will be something similar to the Twili as a separate race and dragon people would make a lot of sense considering their veneration of dragons.

That and the bronze hair pieces look very similar to the other Zonai constructs and the swirl motifs they often use, and they are completely lacking any iconography that would link them back to Hylia (ie purple, gold, and wings) with the closed eye on the forehead and tears under the eyes being way closer to Shiekah than hylian if anything. The green stone (looks like malachite or jade imo) and bronze/brass really fit the color scheme of the Zonai, and the general dragon look meshes really well with their established aesthetics. It's shabby evidence at best, but it's more solid than evidence for them being Hylia. Anyway this is an excellent video that will explain these bitches way easier than I possibly could. Although this is all way before we had anything beyond the smallest crumbs for Tears of the Kingdom, so it's rather outdated now, considering we have a much larger wealth of information for the Zonai just from the trailers than we had in the entire game of BOTW.

#zonai #tears of the kingdom #zelda #Look man I am very normal about this

[kafkaoftherubble]

所以2023年的最后那这几天你都去哪儿了？

...还问什么问？当然是去玩啦！不然做什么? 在什么树下打坐冥想几天然后悟道吗？哈！

傅尹比俺还有可能来这套啦！

Since I documented the Coldplay event here (and failed to find the time to document the same event in Paradehye, the diary, beyond the journaling scraps written in The Commonest Man in Festo, a.k.a our commonplace book), I'll also record some of the stuff happening on December 23rd and 24th here.

Yo bruh, what else could we have done?

It's fucking CF!

It's our way of semi-celebrating Christmas! Where you get to see Christmas splendor and cheer melding with weeaboo shits! Lotsa lotsa weeaboo shits!

Report: Still way too many Genshin Impact cosplayers. There was also a huge bunch of Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen, but generally, I think this year was impressive in its diversity of costumes. There were a lot of really unexpected shits and some old anime/video game/pop culture cosplays reared their heads, but damn, you'll get to the Indisputably Bestest Cosplay Ever In My History of Attending CF real soon, Lyndises of the Future.

This time, we got to invite and induct Sharon, who had been missing from the main family for more than a decade. She couldn't even remember the correct terms she needed to address our uncle and aunt anymore! So the Me At That Time greeted Ah Cik and Ah Jim loudly before she did, so she could copy me!

She also said she had social anxiety and was really nervous about seeing everyone whom she hadn't been meeting for, again, more than a decade. But really? Wei Wei is bonkers and laughs like a banshee with an easy threshold for humor. Ah Jim likes to listen to gossip and is an impressive conversationalist. Ah Cik is an extroverted businessman with an origin as a salesman; holding conversations and making things not-awkward is his forte. Qian Qian takes some time to warm up, but she easily talks a storm when it's something she likes—such as performing on stage and Loki and some manga/manhwa and cats. Hang Hang? Bro dips in and out. But he laughs at the stupidest things until his face flushes and is generally chaotic. He acts like a cool bro and yet his body betrays him by farting when he's excited.

And she's got me. It's my principle not to make anyone feel left out or lonely as best as I can in a given room. What's the point of training to be observant and attentive to people if I couldn't even realize someone's feeling left out?

Oh, it worked out in the end! And I don't think it's because of me, either. It's because she's a good sport who did try to join in on the conversation and listened and talked! And because everyone else was so welcoming to her, too. I really picked the right family to induct her back into the Big Family. Phew. Good thing I was skillful enough at choosing...

(Annoyingly, when I told her we're actually an introvert, she called me a liar. Lyishere called me a liar too just two days ago. Liar?! Moi?!)

Anyway, this was us!

Damn, should have made sure Malaysia's easiest landmark is included in the picture instead of just the Christmas tree. The goddamn Twin Towers where Mei Mei was near in one of the last episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen: Shibuya Incident should have been here...

Why aren't my pocket-flowers showing?

Okay, this one showed a little.

We spent the first day completely inside Art Market so there wasn't time for cosplay pictures. I mean, the market took 5 fucking hours to tour, and I didn't even comb through everything as carefully as I wanted to because Qian Qian was suffocating from the crowd and the smell. Sharon was tired; she had never walked so much before. Conventions are tests of endurance.

This was one of the best stuff in the market! But it was too expensive for my budget. Goddamn it! I swear I will even make space for this amazing ass banner had I bought it. Kulit Wayang style on Zonai aesthetics? Fucking swell!

We did find the Uncle-est Nanami ever while we were on our way out, and honestly, he was one of the best Nanami I found on Day 1! Sure he didn't have the abs and the height, but he had the semblance!

There were some missions, really. Find buff ajuicy Nanami; take pictures of them. Find Nanami re-enactment; take pictures of them. Things I do for Crow Curry, man. THIS IS FOR YOU, YOU NANAMI SIMP!

This cosplayer was so happy, you know? He was so excited to see us excited to take pictures with him, that he forgot his gah-chang, okay? Ya know, the knife?

Even after we left, Qian Qian said she saw him still grinning widely over the whole thing. I didn't even know he could be so happy about it, because cosplayers are so used to being taken pictures. Turned out, his Instagram revealed that this was his first time cosplaying. No wonder!

When we later told Ah Cik about this, his Buddhist ass immediately characterized this as 布施 (Dāna). I mean, none of us thought we were making someone's day, so does it even count? But I'd be lying if I pretended that making one person—goddamn Nanami at THAT—happy didn't please me.

We then walked a few kilometers to Pavilion and the surrounding malls to find some place to eat. KLCC で大変混んでいったから食事が無理だった。

---

Day 2, 24th December 2023

We were pissed not to have taken pictures with any cosplayers (except Uncle Nanami), so we did what Ah Cik and Ah Jim and Wei Wei and Hang Hang thought was insane—BACK TO CF DAY 2!

The best part? I think most people had the same idea as we did! There were even more cosplayers on Day 2! Most of them hung out at the park, like us. I mean, right off the bat we got this:

Dude did work on their eyes!

She couldn't walk without her 4 assistants/friends helping her! Now that's fucking dedication. I wonder if I did end up doing my Monster Rika cosplay (don't bet on it), would I need help walking around too? My ears may be my best sensory organ, but I don't think they are good enough to replace my eyes. I've been a seeing person all my life, after all. I'm also not as good at sensing things as Fionn is...

Fucking found Waldo! And Waldo found us! Yo, here's Wonka over there too!

We looked good for each other, right? Wrong!

Every year during CF, there is a tradition: Qian Qian will always encounter people who just wanna take pictures with her even though she made it explicit that she wasn't cosplaying and was just putting on whatever she likes. The only makeup she ever does is her lips, but she's really pretty and eyeball-attracting, innit? Ha! Stuff like this makes Ah Cik proud.

This professional photographer was just one of the many people who wanted to take pictures of her.

I wonder what it's like to be so visible and eyeball-attracting. All the Past Lyns had wondered the same at some point, right? It would definitely ruin our ability to not be noticed and then jump on someone, that's for sure. Can't be a ghost if you're too visible. But I wonder if being so seen would lessen that feeling of being a see-through not-there... "thing", the way it seemed to be to us throughout our life.

HOLY SHIT ALICE LIDDELL FROM MADNESS RETURNS! Now that's old stuff being brought back!

(Here's the Twin Tower!)

GET IT?! BLUD WAS USING A SWITCH AX! A SWITCH AX!!! AND HE THEN TURNED IT FROM AX MODE INTO GREAT SWORD MODE!

Monster Hunters, riseeeeee! And he wasn't the only MH cosplayer with an amazing weapon prop! There was also a Zinogre cosplay set. You gotta see it for yourself in the album.

I didn't think Cursed Miku would show up, but show up she did!

Okay, here they are. Indisputably Bestest Cosplay Ever In My History of Attending CF:

NANI THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!

Goddamn Guanyin and Buddha cosplays?! And really, this wasn't even the only bunch:

AND THERE WERE AT LEAST TWO GUANYU, AND ONE SUN WUKONG, AND ONE XUANZHANG that we didn't manage to take pictures of—like guys, where did all these deity cosplayers come from?!

Fucking dope though!

Of course, the Nanami Shrine is ALSO hella dope. Hey, wanna see a dead body?

Rate them peaches Rest in Peace!

The Ubiquity of Gojo Satoru: How I Was Space Cleaved by Sukuna and Transported to Another World Along With Many Other Me

You don't always get to see a Mob Psycho 100 cosplay, so all three of us took pictures with them! Mob Psycho 100 is our commonality!

BRUH.

And last but not the least, because it was such a beautiful day where the rain was only half an hour long and a drizzle, and the sun was beautiful, I recorded my official drip of that day,

These are by no means the only pictures we took, guys. Please go to the Google Album attached to the account "black bird" and "short skirt" and "gmail." You know the one.

#a piece to the rubble #Event: Dec 23 2023 #Event: Dec 24 2023 #Event: December in General