warmup zelly 💕

so about that lotr x zelda au...

TotK DLC idea!

The screen is black. You don’t hear anything for a long time. Then, faintly, in the distance, you can hear it.

Link. Link. Open your eyes.

While the line echoes familiarity, the voice does not.

Or. Well. It does. Because while it isn’t Zelda, it’s a familiar man’s voice speaking gently, so gently you almost don’t recognize it because there’s no way he ever spoke like this in the main game.

But he is now. And instead of a golden light being the first image you see before the screen shows Link awakening… you see gloom floating in the air. The image cuts to a Hylian waking up who… doesn’t look like Link from TotK?? He’s different, still small in stature, with slightly tanner skin, platinum light blonde hair, and red eyes. But… something’s wrong with his forehead. There’s a weird line on it.

This new character you apparently are gonna be playing in the DLC blearily blinks his eyes open, clearly groggy and too weak to really move. But then that line on his forehead moves a hair, it splits apart, and you realize it’s a freaking eye, red and yellow and it’s like the ones on gloom hands and oh gosh what the hell is it doing on his forehead—

Link realizes something is off and his eyes blow wide, his hands reach for his forehead and he screams in agony and terror, only for someone to scoop him into a hug to soothe him.

And suddenly you realize why that voice was eerily familiar.

It’s Ganondorf. He resurrected you from the era of the Imprisoning War. You, who have a history with him and his family. You, who he wants to protect, who he views as his kid, who he calls a prince and says he’ll keep you safe by controlling your body with his dark magic if he has to.

Welcome to Tears of the Kingdom: Hero’s Shadow.

You have to play a long gone Hero who was resurrected. Ganondorf, who is still recovering his strength in preparation for killing the current Hero, tasks you with finding your betrothed, his daughter, as well as his wife. They’re buried somewhere in the Depths like you were. He wants you to find their burial sites so he can use his secret stone to resurrect them like he did you, and control them as well. Which is doubly bad when you realize his wife was the original Sage of Lightning. He gives you free reign to wander once you go through a tutorial (he tests you to see if you’ve recovered enough strength), because he knows you love wandering and collecting things. Your own personal objective, however, is trying to help Hyrule from the Depths, to break free from Ganondorf’s control, because Link would rather set himself on fire than let Ganondorf resurrect and control the love of his life and his mother-in-law. Your best hope is to find shards of the shattered Master Sword to try and stab the eye on Dark Link’s forehead and break the control Ganondorf has on you. Until you can, though, the monsters are your allies, you can teleport across the Depths by manifesting out of the gloom created by gloom hands (just like what Phantom Ganon does), and the world below is your oyster. If you get too close to sword shards when gloom hands are nearby, Ganondorf can see your attempt and immediately takes control of your body, and no matter what button you press Link just walks back to Ganondorf’s location and stays there until you get a chance to try again.

You start with three hearts, all empty looking like when gloom hurts you, and if you get injured they just shatter. Whenever they all shatter, you respawn at Ganondorf’s location because his gloom hands came and rescued you from dying. The only way you can get more hearts is by collecting poes and offering them to the statues in the Depths. You can communicate with the spirits of soldiers, who may give you combat tips or info about the area. If you gain enough of Ganondorf’s trust, he’ll let you command monsters, and he might even let you wander the Surface (under his supervision) during a blood moon.

You learn of Link’s and Ganondorf’s history through discovering ancient relics/texts that trigger memories. This connection between you and Ganondorf stems back to time before the war, well over ten thousand years ago. Link was engaged to Ganondorf’s daughter, but during the Imprisoning War the family fought against the demon king. Ganondorf did love his family, but he loved power more. Link sacrificed himself, letting himself get mortally wounded to save Rauru from a killing blow. Gan held him as he died, and it allowed Link to both beg him to stop and stab him in the heart with a light shard. The shard didn’t kill him, but it was what Rauru connected with when he hit him in the chest, allowing him to seal Ganondorf away. Ganondorf still wants the world, but his love for his family is still present, though now twisted, so he thinks he can control Link and everyone else with his dark magic in order to keep them safe and in line. Once the threat of the current Hero is eliminated, the world will be his, and his family will be safe. As such, he treats you, Link, the player, like a stubborn child, reeling you in, but does so in a horrific way, torturing Link by controlling him.

You have to break free of this and stop him, and the only hope you have is the distant call of a sword spirit…

Zelda 🌟

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM WOOO

Drew my favorite sages too <3

Link uses they/she 👍

Drew my version if Rauru and Sonia had a daughter. This was an idea while reading Two eras apart ❤️

Highly recommend this story.

'cursed plot arm' this, 'return of an ancient evil' that, not my business - i'm a simple lad tutoring school children and sometimes helping my fishermen friends with home repair.

Truly WILD that we only saw Zelda’s dad for that one scene I loved him bring him back for Junior Year

Listen before you vote

[ Suggested by @hey-adora ]

I saw someone on Twitter talk about how BOTW-verse Zelda wouldn't have kids, which would end the goddess bloodline and now it has me thinking like....did every Zelda...always end up having kids? For thousands of years? Was the bloodline continuous since Skyward Sword Zelda (which has to be like...hundreds of thousands of years AT LEAST at this point). It's interesting to think about in a scenario where a Zelda doesn't manage to have kids....how does the bloodline come back...

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

Featuring: Wind Waker and Gerudo translations from here

*"You...look different, little captain."

Ganondorf couldn't help cringing just a little. The guise of Princess Zelda ill-fitted the pirate.

"I can't see my face, but my arms are the wrong color. How bad is it?" Tetra demanded, "What did that ghost creep do with my sword?"

She truly did not understand who he was, then. What he represented. To her, Ganondorf was merely an antagonist she'd run across, but not a serious nemesis. It would have been insulting if it weren't so amusing.

"He has made you into the likeness of his departed daughter, your ancestor," Ganondorf said bluntly. "Anything that does not fit that role has likely been discarded."

Tetra was furious. "Dorta Hailiya voe!" she shrieked, "Sa'deva!"

In flawless Gerudo.

Ganondorf had not anticipated this. Who had taught the sailor's brat Gerudo? He was the last of his people, was he not? The dark lord drew back a step and pondered this unpleasant surprise. Perhaps the Sheikah still lived. After all the generations of Gerudo they'd killed in the days before his birth, Ganondorf wouldn't have been surprised if some of them picked up the language for espionage. That added insult to injury, then.

Ganondorf drew himself up to his full height and glared down at the would-be princess. "Who taught you those words?"

Still fuming, the child paced back and forth. After a moment, she ripped off the long gloves and threw them down to be trampled. "These are not my clothes," she growled, "this is not my skin. These are not my weapons. A'ni yaigeru'orq!"

I am of the Traveling Women.

Ganondorf knew where those words had come from. Could a descendant of his ancient enemies really share kin with his people? Was it possible that the blood of one of his many daughters flowed through the little pirate's veins? The sorcerer stroked his beard and frowned. Then, he decided that it couldn't hurt anything but the king of Hyrule to see how far the girl's knowledge went.

"A'ni Ganoendorf, de'shert Gerudo," he introduced himself, "I am Ganondorf, of the Desert People of the Spear."

This halted the girl in her tracks. She craned her neck to stare up at him. After a long few seconds, she stammered, "The- the desert? It's been underwater for-"

"Generations," Ganondorf finished. His frown deepened. "I survived. As did others of my clan, obviously, if these yaigeru'orq taught you to speak our words."

Tetra's eyes widened. "Whoa! How old are you?!" She didn't wait for an answer. "You're like, ancient! A vo'baani! Hey, Vo'baani, what's your deal with Link? Sure, he's kind of a goody two-shoes, but he's just a kid!"

She planted her fists on her hips. "You don't have to make things so rough for him all the time! He's got enough trouble with that dumb talking boat Hailiyadorf that keeps dragging him into hero business."

Ganondorf couldn't be certain, but he thought he felt his right eye twitch, just a little.

Sometimes I’ll draw Link a bit… older

In the wild west of Hyrule, Link goes yee-hyah

Oh my GODS I forgot about my old Karai adopted by Nomura AU. Holy shit this is amazing I found my old art of it and I'm giggling

Basically it was an AU where Trollhunters happened and Nomura is out here like "I don't know what to do with a CHILD" so she goes in search of a human to help her raise her new baby, since, you know, humans are better at being kind and nurturing and shit. But Nomura is a strong independent changeling who don't need no man, or woman, and she's not interested in getting in a partnership. All she needs is someone to help take care of her daughter familiar. So she fucks around and is like "You know, I don't need to be as careful as I used to be. If I have a grudge, I can just.... act on it. Hee hee."

And you see Nomura can't just get ANYONE to help with Zelda, she has to have someone who can protect Zelda just as well as SHE could. And Nomura is a busy spy assassin who is helping clean up the remnants of the Janus Order around the planet, so she needs someone who is independent and can either look after Zelda alone for a while or just move somewhere new with her when the need arises. So through a LONG stream of candidates Nomura settles on fucking. Karai.

She has some beef with Oroku Saki, what kind idk and changelings are p petty but Shredder’s a dick, so, probably something valid. Nomura's grand idea is to expose the child kidnapper for who he is to his "daughter". She manages to track down enough proof and force his hand enough that Karai actually believes it. Karai, now knowing she's Miwa, is devastated. Because Shredder is a dick but he was still her dad?

And Nomura saunters over like "I gotta deal for you kiddo! Help me raise my daughter and I'll help you look and see if there's anything left of your real father. No promises though, he went missing like, ten years ago. But I'll try! And as you can see, I'm very very good at finding hidden stuff :)" and well Miwa’s gotta try

Nomura kidnaps Shredder’s daughter while flipping him the bird and then Miwa helps raise Zelda for a few years. She actually really likes Zelda, she's a clever little terror, and Nomura is a cool "mom" even if they have an entirely transactional relationship. Miwa is just her fake daughter to help raise Zelda, they have fake papers and everything... but..... you know......... this is kinda nice. She never had a mom before, so even a fake one is cool

Nomura over here, having a panic attack when she realizes that she genuinely likes and adores this little bloodthirsty kunoichi and then eventually just straight up "Listen I like you, little viper, let me adopt you?? For reals please???" And they're a little happy family

And then Nomura gets a hot tip on the Hamatos in New York so the Nomura family gets to move to a little apartment there in search of Miwa’s real family, and Hilarity and Identity Shenanigans Ensue. Miwa ends up going to April and Casey's school. Zelda's daycare gets caught mid Kraang crossfire. Miwa sees Foot ninja and goes feral (being adopted by a changeling doesn't do a lot for your sense of morals). At SOME point, Zelda goes from cute toddler to tiny terror monster on a bad guy while Miwa just watches on from the sidelines with pride.

In the hero side of things the turtles find a new ally in a masked kunoichi who goes by Karai. She doesn't tell them anything about her except for the fact that if the Shredder hates them, she's on their side. She uses this to try learning about their family because they claim HAMATO as a name, surely they must know something about what happened to Hamato Yoshi.......

Every time I go to hyrule castle I remember that video about the royal guard weapons and how they were shiekah tech created to mimic the master sword (and failed - they're powerful but brittle and no more effective against the calamity than anything else). And I just remember the little detail of the wings on the hilt. On the master sword, they face up when the blade points down. On the royal guard weapons, they face up when the blade points up.

And to me, that little detail is very indicative of what they thought about the hero and the cycle.

The wings face up when fi is at rest. Waiting. Sealing. Not lifted.

For them, their swords face up when they brandish them, when they raise them against their enemies, when they wave them around and cheer.

That's what they think the hero does. That's what they think they can replicate and take for themselves.

That's not what a hero does at all.

Sure, he spends a lot of time doing that, but it's a fraction of the whole. The hero does not do it for glory or pay or fame. He is kind. He helps everyone who asks. He gets things for little kids and listens to their stories and helps people find their pets and goes out of his way to leave the stranger a little happier them when they met. He spends hours crawling through mazes and enemies to find something he can use later.

He does not raise his sword in anger. The job is not done once the villain of the day is skewered on his sword. It needs to be sealed, the darkness pushed back until the next generations can take up the call. It's passing on the torch to yourself. The master sword must seal evil during those intervening centuries.

The heroes soul is one, by breath of the wild, long forged in faith and love and determination and the flames of war and loss. The curse of demise makes it so that only one strong enough to stand against it can push it back. The heroes soul is one that is pure. It's a long reset game, and everyone knows the way it plays out.

And under rhoam, hyrule believes it knows all there is to know about the hero and the cycle. It thinks that it can shove the pieces where it wants them, that with the aid of the ancient technology it can force the warnings of history to bend to it's desire. It thinks enough violence will solve the problem entirely. It makes the master sword mimics with the blades facing up.

And it gets it wrong.

The hero reduced to a silent weapon, a shadow of the royal family, the princess helpless and unable to act, unable to access her own power.

It tries to force the issue with manpower and restrictions and piling societal pressure on the children, and hyrule falls.

Immediately, zelda is able to unlock and channel the full extent of her power, she can make a plan and not have it dismissed, she sends link to safety and travels hyrule setting the parts of a constantly moving puzzle into place, she meets ancient spirits and talks with the master sword and seals ganon on her own for the century it takes for link to return.

When he does, rhoam does not order link to save the princess. He does not pile titles and restrictions and pressures on him. He asks him to save his daughter. The hero finally gets to act at his own pace, and he chooses kindness. He chooses to go out of his way to talk to people outside his station, to listen to kids stories and leave strangers a little happier than when they met. He gathers allies loyal out of trust and not forced respect for things he hasn't done yet.

By choosing kindness and not violence (though there is an incredible amount of both), link becomes able to defeat the calamity and save zelda and the kingdom. Zelda is able to guide him and trust him to come. By working together as respected equals, they save the world.

And afterwards, the master sword is returned to her pedestal, triumphant, blade down and wings raised high.

Underneath the skin there's a human

Buried deep within there's a human

Despite everything I'm still human