#zelda hot takes

[villian555]

You are Link yes, but Link is NOT you. He is his own character, as much as some of you want to pretend he isn't at all:

He is sweet, honest, has insecurities. Has worries. Cares

As fun as "manwhore tarzan gremlin" Link can be in fan content, far too many people treat that as canon just because of popular memes or fanart. When in reality, he's more like. a serious and awkward teen who makes an occasional joke every now and then.

It sometimes feels like people forget he's meant to be a loyal knight and a hero

Just because YOU don't care about anything or Princess Zelda, etc, doesn't mean that Link also doesn't care.

#zelink #botw zelink #totk zelink #breath of the wild #botw link #tears of the kingdom #link #totk link #legend of zelda #loz #tloz #age of calamity #aoc link #zelda #hwaoc #zelda hot takes #unpopular opinion #stop projecting so much that you actually think he's a “chad” asshole who treats women as just fuck objects #or just an idiot monkey #he's not like that at all #“link doesn't care about her” wrong. YOU don't #sad some of you hate to see a fantastic female character get the happiness she deserves

[appaeve]

homesick

#big ordon village enjoyer #uh uh maybe hot take I actually really love the slow opening in tp #getting to run around ordon village and meet everyone made it 10 billion times worse when The Horrors struck #twilight princess link #link #midna #twilight princess #legend of zelda #loz #Snowpeak Ruins #comic

[vampire-wizard-solidarity]

a lot of people have already pointed out how totk has a lot of themes of imperialism and generally leans conservative ideologically, but what i think is interesting is how totk subtly redefines what a “researcher” is.

zelda wants to be a researcher in botw, and what this means in the context of botw is largely someone who works with sheikah technology. she wants to figure out ancient sheikah tech, she has an interest in botany and otherwise nature and biology (the whole silent princess and the frog thing), robbie and purah, the two characters who are the closest to us seeing what a researcher in the context of botw is are basically inventors. in totk, however, the main researchers who are presented to us are all historians.

this is an interesting pivot, because in botw zelda is not really interested in history. if anything, the one who’s deeply concerned with history is rhoam, wanting to preserve historical tradition and his uncritical reliance on said tradition and historical precedent is what leads them to their doom. in botw, zelda is narratively opposed to history, if anything, all the ancient tech backfires on them and traditions fail to awaken zelda’s power. zelda’s urge to be a researcher is in wanting to understand the world around her, not just blindly follow ancient plans but rather have agency within them.

totk, however, is obsessed with ancient plans. the only real moment where zelda gets to geek out in totk is her getting all giddy about finding out more about the divine origins of hyrule. all the researchers in the game are concerned with finding out more about the zonai. since all the mentions of ancient sheikah technology are scrubbed from the game purah and robbie read more as strange outliers, the sheikah slate is no longer, now it’s the purah pad, a product of purah rather than something larger. the whole game is literally about following an ancient plan, a plan most characters don’t fully understand as they sign up for it. totk’s main story is built on confusion, on the characters not knowing what’s fully going on but having faith in ancient sages telling them what to do. in botw, following ancient plans you don’t fully understand was the thing that doomed you. in totk, following ancient plans you don’t fully understand is the gimmick.

that juxtaposition between the two games has an ideological through line: botw posits that progress is necessary. mindlessly relying on tradition doesn’t work. prophecies are omens, not instructions. history must be learnt from, not repeated. the ancient sheikah aren’t a group to be emulated, but rather to be learnt from, considering their machinery backfired and the royal family betrayed them. totk, however, is obsessed with the mythical history of hyrule, a time where everything was idyllic until one bad man showed up, a time we must emulate in order to win. i already talked about how the past in totk is zelda’s life pre calamity but better here, but that also plays into the idolisation of that era and its royalty. in botw, even the myth of the first calamity preserves the fact that the yiga clan has origins in the royal’s family persecution of the sheikah, even the time when they successfully held back the calamity is tinged with mistakes that still affect the world ten thousand years later. in totk, ganondorf’s origins are nebulous. nobody provoked him, nobody did anything wrong, he’s just evil because he is.

a lot of right wing ideologies are hinged on preservation, but more than that: the belief in the nebulous mythical past in which everything was better. “make america great again”, the fascist’s idolisation of ancient rome which is represented largely inaccurately, look at any conservative rhetoric and you’ll see people complaining about how things nowadays are ruined or are being ruined, how in the past things were this way and they’re not anymore, which is bad. the belief in the fact that in some past period we were great and are not anymore, and the strive to emulate that past is a trait highly typical of right wing ideologies. and in totk the past as a great era is an idea presented completely uncritically, the narrative is entirely controlled by the game and doesn’t dwell on any of the inconsistencies in this idea.

now, obviously, not every story in which a great ancient era exists is fascist, right wing or conservative. but to me what’s interesting specifically in totk is this shift between the two games: botw is critical of the past. it’s critical of arrogantly repeating history, it’s critical of having blind faith in great relics of the past. totk isn’t. totk idolizes the past, totk tells legends and tells you to believe them without any doubts. botw believes researchers are those who seek to understand the world, innovate it and solve problems without relying on ancient ways. totk believes researchers are those who discover ancient instructions, ancient ways and relay them to great men in the present to be followed. the four mainline regional quests in botw are about discovering four ancient relics that are terrorising the land and fixing the mistakes of the past. the four mainline regional quests in totk are about discovering four ancient legends are true, and receiving instructions from an ancient sage on what to do.

totk is not simply neutral, it is ideologically conservative in stark contrast to botw, because of the things it chooses to leave uncriticised, notably the things botw was very poignant about examining critically. the way totk redefines what is a researcher is indicative of this, indicative of the way it chooses to idolize or present as an unexamined good that which was nuanced in botw. totk isn’t just conservative in the sense that it presents uncritically a “good king” and “evil conquerer”, it goes deeper, it’s notable because botw was starkly opposed to the thematic axioms totk presents.

i just think it’s very interesting that they made a sequel to botw, and completely redefined or otherwise ignored botw’s thematic core.

#totk critical #loz #botw #totk #legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #meta #analysis #my hot takes

[shishuri]

Rauru and Mineru have the same exact ears except, Rauru has his weighted down by earings while Mineru doesn't. So that means Rauru would have his ears up without the earrings.

#is this a hot take #theyre not goats theyre bunnies #totk spoilers #totk #rauru #mineru #totk rauru #totk mineru #tears of the kingdom #the legend of zelda #legend of zelda #loz

[appeypie]

our favorite gay sword resident

#hes a binary trans man to me but that may or may not be a hot take #ghirahim #skyward sword #loz #loz ss #the legend of zelda #paper art #embarrassing moment : i realized that i own a scanner. attached to the the printer i use like. every other day. lmao #i dont have to take shitty iphone pics of these #whatever

[alicenpai]

emilico :) super rough + small 5 min style test

been thinking of changing my art style a bit more lately to have more texture + a bit simpler bc all of my previous illustrations were taking too long. the timeline for my most recent drawings was like, nov-jan: 4 zine drawings over the course of 3 months. which burnt me out so bad.. it was too smooth and too anime for my liking.. then nothing until i did that pandora hearts illust in may. which also was exhausting! it's now 2 months later and i gotta attempt at least 1 or 2 new drawings for otakuthon. and i do not wish to have burnout again, so i really need to change up my approach to art :'))))

#posts the most unaesthetic wips ever but this is really just for me to see my thoughts out loud #my art #wip #been a hot many years since i lasted posted wip on tumblr #i might change the brush. or at least lower the texture density or sth. this one is too stiff for me i think. #thinking of the one i used for my harvest moon doodles + zelda profile pic #i want the faces i draw to be a bit more. not weird but like.. unique to my own tastes and style? #i want to do better artistically and im gonna work hard #i also want to delve more into gothic victorian aesthetics i want my art to reflect on my tastes more. i want my art to show who i really a #am* #im ngl im obsessed with how tactile art made on procreate looks and i wanna take that textured look too. im gonna eat those textures #unfortunately i do not have an iPad. isad #but there are a ton of amazing brushes in csp too. and a large majority are free #shadows house #also want to make a black butler print next week.. #and girl from the other side if i can..

[gaylactic-fire]

Look look I love Hateno house fics as much as the next guy, but you can't tell me that Link and Zelda lived the rest of their lives in domestic bliss after BOTW. Ignoring TOTK's existence for a minute, I do truly believe they took a long while to rest and heal and get to know each other anew, but!! Did you guys literally forget the very subtle quote "The princess can only thrive out here in the wild."? There's no way these idiots spent months, even years, living together quietly. You guys just gotta face the cold hard facts. These dudes walked the roads of Hyrule together til their feet got blisters. They cuddled all cramped in a stable bed bc they ran out of rupees. They bathed in ice cold rivers and pooped in the woods. And they loved every fucking second of it.

#fires posts #ramblings #zelink #botw #my other hot take is they don't have kids and instead just take custody of some koroks or sth #or Zelda builds some robot pets idk

[the-carnival-of-time]

Majora's Mask 3D

#my guess is since this wasn't a difficult water temple in the n64 version besides that fuckass mini boss #literally my most hated boss in EVERY Zelda game. The Wart. #they made the zora controls bullshit to make the temple harder #that's my hot take #legend of zelda #the legend of zelda #tloz #loz #tloz mm #loz majoras mask #majora's mask #majoras mask #nintendo #mm3d #video game scenery #my gifs #mm3dgif

[gideonnavsenormousbiceps]

whoever joked about rehydrated Ganon being hot, this one is for you

#tears of the kingdom #i saw that official art and lost it laughing #i love when people are right about the funniest things #legend of zelda #loz #i cant remember who it was that original did like art and stuff of hot rehydrated ganon but how does it feel to be proven rigjt #also that one meme of i can take him #you mean in a fight right???

[hot-take-tournament]

i was wondering if you guys have a favourite link design

it's not a submission i'm just curious

#legend of zelda #hot take tournament #link #zelda

[villian555]

"Ugh, shippers! Why is it so hard to imagine a man and a woman are just friends??? Platonic love exists!"

Literally nobody said it didn't, but their relationship is literally canonically described with romantic terms? Do you usually "only have eyes" for your completely platonic friends?

And this is just one of the times. Sorry but am I supposed to ignore the words on screen all because you personally have a hard on for the found family trope and personal hang ups about romantic love? or Zelda...

#zelink #zelda hot takes #botw #totk #some of y'all act like it's a crime for *any* romantic love stories to exist anymore #overcorrection much? #romantic love is not a bad thing

[ophanim-vesper]

Hot Take

Link DOES communicate in sign language (Hyrulean Sign Language™ to be precise) but tells people the 'vow of silence' thing because everytime he does HSL people think he's a witch casting a spell on them.

#ok pls ignore how badly I edited in the pitchforks and torches I was too lazy #Link is either selectively mute or has a condition that makes it harder to speak #so he prefers to use HSL #but at the time it was a relatively new language #so most people assumed he was a witch lmao #shitpost #headcanon #hot take #hc #loz #legend #zelda #link #loz link #loz hc #loz headcanon #link headcanon #link uses sign language #big fan of the 'LOZ but set during the witchhunt era' idea #imagine Zelda finding out she has powers but assumes she's a witch #or she tries to tell the townsfolk but they're just like “BURN THE WITCH” #then Link and Zelda bond over their shared trauma of being accused of being witches

[vampire-wizard-solidarity]

i think the way totk references skyward sword only highlights the problems with totk and gets a little insulting at times.

this is mostly about ganondorf’s demon king form being highly reminiscent of demise. i get that it makes sense, since ganon’s power most likely comes from demise’s curse, so when it’s amplified it visually references that. that’s neat, and not an inherently bad idea, even a good one in some aspects.

however, all it does for me is highlight just how much of a non character ganondorf is. demise is, to an extent, also a non character: he isn’t deep nor extensively fleshed out, but the thing is, not all characters have to be. and him, he works. most of the game is spent with ghirahim, his much more expressive and motivated sidekick. he’s fun, intimidating when he has to be, and balances being silly and being an actual threat well. demise is the kicker, the final punch, when ghirahim spent the entire game building him up, we finally get to see him, he’s intimidating, he’s serious in contrast to ghirahim, he immediately shuts the villain we spent most of the game fighting up, and reduces him to an object to be used to fulfil his own goals. his boss fight is cool, and so is he.

demise is a god of destruction, he doesn’t have a motivation beyond the fact that he is a representation and wields power over evil. and that’s the point. skyward sword’s themes largely center humanity vs inhumanity, link spends a large portion of the game running around fulfilling a plan he doesn’t fully understand, being roped into this ordeal before he even finds out about it, not really comprehending what’s happening or why for a long time. so, it’s only natural the final force he has to face is an equally incomprehensible threat, and he defeats it not because he comprehends it more now, or understands the ancient conflict between gods or any of that. he does it because he wants to protect someone he loves, he does it because he forms a genuine bond with the robotic, originally emotionless guide who was made only for the purpose of aiding him in this godly plan. humanity triumphs over godhood. humanity triumphs over inhumanity.

in totk, however? there really isn’t much difference between ganondorf before and after he becomes the demon king. he has no particular motivation before or after, he is a king who wants to rule over hyrule with evil, and then he becomes a more powerful king who wants to rule over hyrule with evil. he looks more like the god of destruction now, but that signifies nothing other than he is more powerful now. ganon has always been associated with power, and the way power corrupts has always been a fitting theme for him. he could’ve had development throughout the game, and him becoming more like the literal godly representation of evil could’ve signified that development. maybe he was a king with an actual motivation, an actual in story reason to oppose hyrule, we could’ve been shown his human side, what he actually cares for and why he does the things he does, and then we could’ve seen that side of him dissolve as he taps more into his power, becomes more like a being of destruction that destroys simply because that’s what it has power over. him taking visual cues from demise could’ve actually meant something, could’ve been a visual representation of the way his power corrupts him. instead, we get nothing. there was no reason to bring ganondorf back, because he still acts like a motivationless monster, who is evil simply because he is. all talk of this being “his game” was a lie, considering he could easily be replaced by a generically evil monster and nothing would’ve changed.

ultimately, i still wouldn’t have been happy with this story because it would still lean heavily on the orientalist narratives still alive and present in zelda, but this would’ve been at least something. the way it is, the fact that he takes visual cues from demise pisses me off because it highlights just how one dimensional his character is, it makes me feel only cynicism because it makes it clear that ganondorf was only brought back because he’s a popular and iconic character and not because he had any purpose in the story or because the writers had anything interesting to do with him.

#loz #legend of zelda #totk #tears of the kingdom #totk critical #totk criticism #skyward sword #sksw #ganondorf #demise #analysis #my hot takes #meta

[legendofzoodles]

Zelda deserved to become a Dragon tbh

No scientist worth their salt pushes forward ignoring the glaring gaps in a picture. She and the rest of Hyrule made that mistake once: practically handing the Divine Beasts and Guardians on a silver platter for the Calamity to turn against them.

She suffered for a hundred years because of that blunder, it should have made her cautions, patient, wise when approaching the unknown...instead she did the same shit again! It’s pretty on Zelda that what happened to her, happened.

Here’s why:

~~~

When she was in the catacombs with Link she acted like a giddy tourist, taking pictures of the murals like novell snapshots of history, and not the attentive scholar she claims to be. It’s fine to get excited about what you’re passionate about, we all do that, but a professional wouldn’t let it cloud their judgement. Bearing in mind she was down there originally to solve the mystery of the gloom; people were literally immobilised sick on their beds on the surface while she was geeking out over Zonai statues.

More of a critique of the prologue but if that’s not tonal dissonance, idk what is.

Anyway, those murals were an obvious warning, clear cut context for what awaits in the next chamber, like, “hey, there’s some gnarly shit in the next room. Here’s what went down prior...make sure you’re prepared. Maybe bring an army, it could get wild.”

If Zelda was able to immediately connect them to the imprisoning war of her studies without trouble then she should have starting thinking about why there was even a mystery surrounding it. How did it end? Why was it forgotten? Part of the mural- arguably the most vital- was blocked off. Why not leave and come back with a team to carefully excavate?

It sounds overly meticulous, but this is the level of thoroughness I’d expect from an academic coming across something she knows so little about and is clearly dangerous.

I do kind of get why she wanted to rush forward; while the gloom in small hazy clouds couldn’t affect them immediately, prolonged exposure could make them sick and halt progress...but like, there was nothing stopping them from just turning back and going about this slowly. If anything, the creepy murals and sight of a whole mummy being held down by a ghost hand was screaming at them to turn back, think, regroup, and come back with a careful plan with backups and failsafes to make sure nothing happens to the Princess. 

This doesn’t ruin some kind of plan. Zelda wasn’t sent to the past for a reason. It wasn’t part of some grand plan concocted by Rauru. He had no idea why she was there, neither did Sonia, neither did the genius Mineru. She accidently sent herself there because she was falling to her death and understandably distressed when Link failed to reach her.

Remember, the stones don’t grant new power or have any kind of senscience. They just amplify existing power. When Zelda fell, she unconsciously used the power of the stone to teleport to safety. Because she had been thinking about the imprisoning war and that period in the past, that’s where sent herself, and the stone magnified her time/light power to make her travel that huge distance in the timeline.

...so, as long as there’s an outcome where Zelda isn’t put in a life threatening position making her yeet herself into the past, there’s no dragonification (reminder she contributes very little, if anything at all in the past. Only becoming a dragon to restore the master sword and get her back to her own timeline in the slowest way possible). 

Even if it all goes to hell and Link is still arm snatched, so long as Zelda makes it out fine she and Purah can take what they’ve discovered and learn from it. While experimenting with the stone Zelda could then unlock her time/light powers and, with a lot of practice, amplify them using the stone to restore the Master Sword (maybe she only sends the master sword in the past to her ancestors Rauru and Sonia, to then be recharged and collected brand spanking new in their time) and be there in the fight against Ganon. All while helping her kingdom get through the Upheaval as a pillar or order and stability.

...speaking of dragonification, as it happened in game, she really didn’t need to do that. Honestly. Sure, that’s what Mineru suggested, but it’s not what Sonia, her pseudo-mother figure, suggested. Sonia said wisdom takes time, that if Zelda practices, she will be able to control her powers. I’m fairly sure the battle was over when Zelda turned herself into a dragon, Ganondorf was contained by Rauru, she had time. 

TL;DR: Zelda getting herself stuck in the past and going with the nuclear sky-wyrmification option was her own fault. Had she just been a competent researcher, she wouldn’t have put Link and herself in the dangerous position that led to the game’s events.

~~~

Thanks for reading! I like this game, but the story and Zelda’s characterisation are fundamentally broken.

Btw Link clearly didn’t learn anything from the Calamity either; he didn’t try stop her. But when you’re seen as nothing but a bodyguard I can see why he just assumed she knew what she was doing...even when the darn Master Sword was flashing a warning.

Masterlist

Short Story: Blunt Crown (Wild and Flora)

Headcanons: Flora is Feral, Parkour team  

#hot take #the prologue annoys me so much #so so much #the number of times i tried to turn back #only for zelda to keep telling me to run blind into danger #loz totk #totk #totk spoilers #totk spoiler #loz tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #zelda totk #zelda tears of the kingdom #light dragon #totk light dragon #totk zelda

[nolongerapileofashprobably]

They did the new sages so much better in ToTK and they are everything to me. Replaying totk after botw has me really really loving each and every single one of them even more than my first run through.

Tulin is my son. I trained him as a little fledgling and he makes me so proud.

Riju is my partner in crime, she can and will commit war crimes with me. Ride and die. Also little sister.

Yunobo is my little brother that’s sometimes annoying but a tad too lovable for me to care.

Sidon is my bestie that I won’t see for years but when I do it’s like no time has passed (but it has and he has a fiancé ? Like bitch send a letter)

Anyway I really love them all. All of them.

#Yunobo gets so much hate but I actually prefer him over Sidon 😭 #that’s a hot take but it’s not even like I dislike Sidon #I love him lol but Yunobo is just so adorably good natured #I loved Tulin and teba in Botw so I was hyped to see Tulin as a little warrior #Riju is Riju I feel like I don’t need to explain her #like she is canonically the one they saw the most often during the six years #her and Zelda being besties #Zelda teaching and guiding Riju just as Urbosa did for her #UGH MY HEART HURTS #anyway #loz totk sages #loz totk #loz totk spoilers #loz totk Riju #loz totk tulin #loz totk yunobo #loz totk Sidon #loz totk link #loz totk zelda #zelink #totk zelink #botw zelink #loz botw #botw #the legend of zelda #link botw #botw link #zelda botw #the legend of zelda breath of the wild #zelink botw

[master-kohga-dating-sim]

the name of this file is biblical hell.jpeg

#i cant take it anymore #legend of zelda #yiga #yiga clan #kohga #sooga #master kohga #aoc #age of calamity #yiga husbands #hot yaoi base #i hate everything #silly post