Have a few rauru doodles I've done these past months.

role swap

been seeing some of that totk awesome role-swap art and just thinking abt it tbh. spoilers for the storyline and end of the game after the break!

our story could start with ganon destroying links arm, right at the beginning. he tumbles back, dropping the master sword and tipping over the edge of the platform. zelda leaps after him, unable to catch him, but her triforce still sends link back in time. she wakes up in the temple, follows raurus guidance for the beginning of the game, and has to save hyrule- handicapped not by a lack of a limb containing new powers, but instead the fact she's never *had* to quest before. she wasn't built for saving hyrule with a sword and a courageous heart, her role is to deal the final blow to ganon; being his ultimate usurper side by side with a physically armed hero. how would she handle that? link in every reincarnation is made for the blade, either through training or just pure instinct and urgency. would she use a weapon? would she harness her powers in more frequent ways to deal with enemies and shrines? would the timeline recognize her, or would it cut off all resources needed to fight evil: shrines, blessings of light, etc? its fascinating to think about!

and we cant forget link! he's flung back in time, the heroic knight separated from his wise princess (*cough* wife *cough*). while his ability with a sword would absolutely come in handy, he doesn't have the skillset required for such a time and place. zelda is well-educated, perceptive, eager to learn, and headstrong. while link may posses some of these aspects, he was built for the sword, not the mind. and think about how losing the master sword affects him- when it's returned to his time, a broken, longing gift and message from zelda, he realizes a piece of his power- his prophecy, destiny, whatever- is now just a broken sword that even he won't be able to wield effectively. so what does he have to do? turn himself into a dragon, hoping that when he "wakes up," he'll find zelda retrieved the sword and kept it safe.

this role-swap may need adjustments to the timeline to work- for example, zelda cannot wield the master sword, so presumably, she'd have to figure out how to fix dragon link before fighting ganon so link could deal his part of the damage.

this was a really random midnight though generated by lovely fanart and my very recent completion of tears of the kingdom. im not typically big into theories (i like thing to be answered quickly and obvious in media, haha) but this is such a fun topic to think about.