#not that that’s so bad but I can’t play botw or tp OR ww | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

clara-aeri · 4 months

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Love how you handled the different Zeldas in your Advent fic. And how you write Link in Rootsverse, it's exactly how I see him in this era. Do you have any thoughts about the other Links in other games? How they compare/contrast with botw/totk's Link?

Oh thank you!! 😊 Glad to hear that!!!

Boy do I have thoughts.

I guess- I should say that the way I wrote Link in Roots is definitely not how I’d imagine him to be in cannon. If only because I feel Nintendo values the self-insert aspect of the Zelda games too much to let the character stray very far from the “stoic hero” archetype. If anything, the Link I wrote in Undertow is the most similar to how I’d imagine his canon self to be- largely just due to how he doesn’t outright reject his responsibilities (pre calamity at least. I do subscribe to the idea that he’s much louder and funnier after losing his memories).

Agh- but anyway lol see my rambling below.

Starting with Ocarina of Time (OoT), that version of Link is definitely sadder than the others. He had a pretty good childhood, but his adult life fell apart in much more profound ways than the others’. He’d be as quiet as pre calamity botw Link. There might be a hint of the mischievous fairy kid still left in him, but very little. Lots of longing and disillusioned feelings that would maybe be best replicated in pre calamity Botw Link, yeah?

As for Twilight Princess (TP) Link, he’s a country guy 110%. I imagine he’d be too restless to go back to farming though- not after the world got so big. I assume he’d be a great guy to talk to, best with kids/animals, probably one of the most well adjusted after all his trials and a good pen pal to Zelda. He wouldn’t be as lively after losing Midna, definitely, but he’s doing leagues better than OoT Link. Probably has a much more dry, sarcastic sense of humor than Botw Link’s “He has a dumb belly” absurdist comedy.

Wind Waker (WW) Link- at a glance I’d almost say he’d get along with Botw Link, but after more thought I think WW Link would despise him. Botw Link would willingly eat rocks or stuff himself in an explosive barrel for jokes, but WW Link would either have to be tricked or forced into it. He seems… high anxiety. But also irritable. He has the most common sense out of all the Links and that is probably exactly what his problem is. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that most animals would attack WW Link on sight because of his constant bad, exasperated energy.

As for Skyward Sword— lol I think he’s so funny. I think growing up with Zelda “the Goddess turned teenage girl” would have had an impact on him. By far he is the most stable, most extroverted version of Link, but I think there’s something about him that would make him unknowable. He’s so relaxed but upbeat at the same time, seems like he’s always up to something but nobody ever knows what since he’s always asleep. He doesn’t have a thought in his head but he’s so perceptive too just- he’s just odd. But cool. Botw Link’s extreme stoicism pre calamity and crazy behavior post calamity would both stand out a lot next to SS Link. Yet his relationship with Botw Zelda most closely resembles SS Link’s with his own.

I’m not very familiar with the other 3DS Links etc so I can’t say much about them. These are also the vibes I get from how I remember all these Links after 10 years of not playing their games, so I could be wrong in how I’ve described them for sure.

Lol either way thank you for asking! I was a fun question to think about! It makes me want to write a reverse Advent featuring all of them ugh 😭😂

#claraaeri #botw fanfiction #anon asks #ao3fic #the legend of zelda #botw #zelink #totk #twilight princess #ocarina of time #wind waker #skyward sword

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st0rmyskies · 2 years

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Hewwo my belovd! This amphibian hops on every question from 1-50 for the Zelda asks 💖

Toadbae I Tried but I couldn't do them all. Here's the ones I found interesting!

1. Is there a Zelda game(s) that you associate with each season or time of year?

Yes! I’m pretty sure I got TP for Christmas one year and I always associate playing that with the abysmal darkness that is winter in the northern hemisphere. Also rather theme-appropriate to the game tbh.

2. Favourite 2D title?

I haven’t played a single 2D Zelda yet.

3. Favourite incarnation of Zelda?

Ahhh that’s a hard question! OoT Zelda holds such a special place in my heart as my first Zelda, but Dusk is so gorgeous and looks like she just never smiles (love that for her), but then Tetra is such a badass, and SS Zelda is such a sweetheart, BotW Zelda has such incredible characterization and growth… I can’t choose!!

4. Least favourite entry in the series?

Gonna get my ass beat by a breakfast food for this one, but honestly?? TP. It’s the only title I didn’t immediately pick up and play through a second time. I bet I’d feel differently if I picked it up again today, though.

5. Favourite LOZ soundtrack?

If we’e going with game as a whole, absolutely BotW’s soundtrack. The beautiful melancholy of riding around Hyrule to the notes of songs half-remembered just soothes my brain, and hearing Termina’s clocktower chime in the Hyrule Castle interior theme legit made me tear up.

6. Is there a Zelda game that intimidates you/looks too hard?

Not really! Zelda titles are always super fun and challenging, but never “hard.” The only game I’ve stopped for being hard/scary was RE4.

7. Favourite dungeons?

OoT Water Temple, MM Stone Tower, SS Ancient Cistern. I love dungeons that are huge puzzles!!

9. Least favourite character in the series?

Honestly, Midna. Her redemption arc never satisfied me, but I am the type to hold a grudge.

11. Favourite Ganon characterization?

WW’s Ganondorf was the most sympathetic of his incarnations imo, he had an interesting motivation and I felt bad for him, honestly. Dude deserved better.

15. Favourite location within Hyrule?

That depends on the game, tbh. In SS, it’s the Lanayru Desert (AND the Silent Realms). Kakariko Village is usually pretty solid no matter the game.

16. Favourite location outside of/parallel to Hyrule (Termina, Lorule, Holodrum, Subrosia, the Dark World, Labrynna, the Great Sea, etc)?

On the Great Sea, the Tower of the Gods.

In Termina, Ikana Canyon.

22. Favourite incarnation of Link?

My fav Link will always be my OG, OoT/MM Link.

25. Favourite companion (Midna, Ezlo, Navi, etc)?

Honestly Fi was pretty legit. I appreciated the subtle sass.

31. Hardest dungeon played?

Back to my favs: OoT Water Temple, SS Ancient Cistern. They’re difficult to figure out but so satisfying when you do!

32. Game with the best map design?

BotW, I could literally get lost on that map for days (and I have!).

33. Do you prefer puzzles or combat?

Absolutely puzzles. Combat is just mashing buttons and timing, but the puzzles actually use my brain.

35. Game with the hardest final boss?

Demise is the only final boss who killed me MULTIPLE TIMES.

38. Creepiest enemy?

Anyone who doesn’t answer Dead Hand is lying to themselves and Hylia.

41. Favourite ocarina song?

Song of Storms.

43. Favourite transformation mask from Majora's Mask?

Obvi the Fierce Deity mask.

44. Hardest sidequest in the series?

I’m not sure this qualifies as a “sidequest” but that goddamn motherfucking asshole in SS with the carnival game that shoots you in the air can suck my dick. I never got that piece of heart. I wanted to wrap that horn around his THROAT.

45. Best sidequest in the series?

The Anju and Kafei sidequest from MM is probably the most memorable, but the fetch quests in SS were pretty fun.

50. Favourite shield?

Goddess Shield is so pretty, even if the colors make my eyes bleed just a lil.

#ask game #stormy talks

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only-by-the-stars · 3 years

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the annotated Tome of the Wild

Part 7: The Wild!

- Link didn't open his eyes. A twist on the beginning of BOTW, where you hear Zelda telling Link to open his eyes. I couldn’t resist.

- Hestu’s cameo was a lot of fun to write too. I always found him adorable, first in BOTW and then in AOC as well, and the idea of him waking up Link with his maracas was too amusing not to do. I also had to include his “shimmy shimmy” battle cry from AOC because I always laugh my head off whenever I hear it.

- This also reveals that Midna brought Link to the Great Deku Tree, a character that debuted in OOT and made further appearances in WW and BOTW.

- Something tickled her arm, breaking her out of her gloomy thoughts. Midna lifted her head and looked down. New growth was sprouting from the branch she was sitting on, wriggling its way up onto her. Nothing like this happens to Beatrice in the show, but I had to put in this chilling little moment of Midna nearly succumbing to the dekuwood. It provides a way later to introduce Rhoam’s presence in his scene, as well as some horror at what could’ve happened to her here.

- Note to self: never visit Tabantha if you can help it... Tabantha, of course, being a very cold region in BOTW’s Hyrule. Link’s newfound hatred of snow mirrors my own, and now he’s going to associate it with this horrible experience.

- “It's a bad habit, I guess.” He laughed softly. He’s referring, of course, to how he casually greeted Riju and Medli back at the school pool and they gave him a bit of a hard time about it.

- “You...” Midna stared at him for several seconds, stunned. “You...” She slapped his hand away and starting swinging her tiny fists at him, which he easily dodged. “You oaf! You idiot! What the hell—what the hell is wrong with you? How can you forgive me so easily, when you're still in a shit situation because of me? Neither one of us would be out here groping around blindly in the fucking snow if not for what I did!” I set up Midna and Link to be parallels of each other in a couple ways. One of which is that while Link has isolated himself from Mipha, hurting and confusing her, Midna is on the other end of something similar with Zelda. And here we see something they both struggle with: forgiving themselves. Midna can’t understand how Link can so easily forgive her actions towards him, while Link utterly despises himself for his actions towards Mipha and cannot forgive himself for causing her pain. He’ll later struggle with the fact that Mipha forgives him easily, just as Midna is having trouble understanding his forgiveness of her here. All of them find it easier to forgive their loved ones than to grant that same grace to themselves.

- “She told me that while she appreciated how much I cared, I should think a little more and be less reckless. I know she'd never call me stupid, but...” Link shrugged. “Honestly, I kind of am.” Another reference to Mipha calling Link reckless, and how she hates seeing him get hurt. He is indeed not the smartest guy around, but she does describe him as being very kind and determined to help those in need, so I tried to emphasize that aspect of his personality in this story. Although the “I kind of am” line is also intended to be a subtle red flag. We’ve already seen that Link thinks very little of himself and his abilities, even when it’s clear from the words of others that he’s very talented. And we’re about to soon see him use a bit of intelligence he very much does have, in order to save the day. He would never believe himself capable of such a thing, but he does it anyway.

- “Even just a few branches could be processed... enough to get us through this storm...” Note the use of the plural here. This is leading up to the revelation about his belief that Zelda is in the lantern. His desperation to find more oil anywhere is because, of course, he believes that if the light goes out she will die. And he wouldn’t be in this scarcity if not for what happened back in chapter one, with Link and Aryll and the dog accidentally wrecking the mill and his oil supply.

- He was soon rewarded with a most welcome sight: a single dekuwood branch, growing out of that of a normal tree. It seemed sickly, withered, and it waved feebly in the air, but he rushed forward and hacked it off anyway. The very same branch that tried to attach itself to Midna, sickly and withered precisely because of that failure.

- And now we come to the confirmation that the dekuwood is made from the people who succumb to despair and exhaustion in the woods, right as we see it growing all around Aryll. Rhoam has been unaware this entire time of all the souls he’s sacrificed over the past several months, and now that he knows, he refuses to do it any longer. For he, like Midna, recognizes that Zelda would never want anyone to be harmed for her sake.

He’s also right that Link would never leave Aryll to such a fate, recognizing Link’s love and protectiveness towards his little sister. This is a point where my characterization of Link wildly diverges from that of Wirt, the protagonist of OTGW. I pulled some things from Wirt for Link and his arc, but one thing I didn’t keep was the resentment and initial callousness that Wirt displays for Greg, who is revealed in the tavern sequence to be his half-brother thanks to his mother remarrying, something Greg frowns at when Wirt mentions it. Aryll is also technically Link’s half-sister, as I revealed in the letters that his mother remarried some years after his father’s death and had Aryll with her new husband, but I could not for the life of me see him being resentful or unkind to his little sister. Whatever his faults, I’ve written him as being, at his core, an incredibly kind and deeply loving person, and his adoration of his sister is a part of that. He doesn’t view her as a “half” anything, she’s just his sister and he’ll do anything to protect her. Which of course is a big part of what led to his breakdown: his feelings of guilt over not doing as good a job of that as he thinks he should be doing.

- “Link, I don't... I don't think that's natural light. It looks more like...” This has a double meaning. The fire in the lantern is not the “natural light” of the sun, and it is also deeply unnatural, given that it’s the Beast’s soul in there.

- Speaking of that! The confrontation with the Beast plays out a bit differently here than it does in the show, thanks to Midna’s personal connection to all this. Rhoam’s mention of Zelda gets her attention, and the Beast uses her love for Zelda as a way to try and turn her and Link against each other with his attempt to make them choose which soul will go into the lantern. He’ll get fuel and kill Aryll either way, but why not pit these two against each other as a way to manipulate them into doing what he wants? Except it backfires, because Midna won’t harm anyone for Zelda’s sake, and Link figures out what’s going on anyway, thanks to remembering the words of Rhoam and Telma.

- Link stood up, his mind racing. It was like when the solution to a puzzle finally presented itself in a moment of stunning clarity. For all that he’s not that bright in so many ways, it’s important to remember that he’s canonically able to solve all those tricky puzzles we do, without benefit of a guide, just using his wits and the tools he has at hand. And so too does he solve this particular puzzle, by remembering what he’s been told and piecing it together with what he sees here, thinking about the fact that the Beast’s story doesn’t add up. Which saves the day, in the end.

- “Am I wrong?” Link repeated, his voice shaking with barely suppressed fury; he took a few more steps, forcing the Beast to retreat further. “No more lies. Tell the truth for once, Beast.” Referencing, of course, the fact that Telma told him the Beast lies. He’s absolutely furious right now because of the attempt on Aryll’s life; you do not mess with Link’s loved ones. The Beast, too, fucked around and found out the hard way.

- In the show, Wirt gives the lantern back to the Woodsman to blow out after the delivery of the “Are you?” line that I kept (and had Link nail the delivery of on his first try, unlike Wirt, because that’s what makes sense for both their characters). Here, I chose to let Link kill the Beast, because he is, after all, the legendary hero who slays the villain. But even more importantly, I felt he deserved and had earned such a moment with his growing courage over the course of the tale.

- “See you later, Link.” Hey, remember how Midna broke all our hearts by saying a similar line to Link in TP as she broke the mirror and went back to her world? I sure do!

- “Sleepers wake, dreams will fade... although we cling fast..." This, and the lyrics that close out this section, are the first few lines of the vocal version of Ballad of the Wind Fish that was done for the LA remake.

- There were lights and shadowy figures coming closer, and voices—was someone calling his name? As I would later reveal in the prologue of a place to start, Mipha was screaming his name as she ran down the hill towards him.

- The words he wanted so badly to say to her hung on the tip of his tongue And it shows on his face, that desire to express the love for her that is all but bursting out of him in this moment, and Mipha sees it. She sees that love shining in his eyes as they stare at each other, giving her her hope back and then some. In a way, Link was right: if he hadn’t hidden from her, she would’ve realized what his real feelings for her are. He just didn’t know how happy it would’ve made her. But he will soon.

- “—and that's how we got away from the evil possessed lady!” Out of the corner of his eye Link saw Aryll shake the frog triumphantly, and Mipha, distracted by the sudden commotion, looked away from him. A small, muffled chime sounded, and the amphibian's stomach glowed. “The ringing of the bell commanded her! Though she wasn't really evil, just...” The series is never clear on just what the otherworld the brothers enter is, but it is clear that it really happened to them, and I preserved that ambiguity in the same way, by showing the bell as still being in the frog’s stomach.

- Link nodded. “Yes.” It didn't matter anymore how it'd gotten into her pocket; he'd made it, and brought it with him tonight, with the intention of giving it to her. There was no more question of taking it back or denying it. Courage has been achieved; he’s no longer going to hide or pretend, or try to take back the gift he worked on so hard. Midna is right: he’s been so brave in the Wild, and it’s time to apply that bravery to confessing his feelings to Mipha and letting her know that he loves her. The words will have to wait till the next day, but for now he’s doing all he can to face his fears and stop running, by hugging her and holding her hand and wiping her tears away, letting his love show in his expression as he looks at her without avoiding her eyes. Plus, of course, admitting to his intentions with the tape and inviting her over to listen to it together. They’re finally getting a breakthrough after two months of separation and pain.

- The doctor, Syrup, is a recurring NPC throughout the series, a witch who brews up helpful healing potions for Link to use on his adventures.

- I'm home, Mipha. Calling back, of course, to Midna’s line about there being someone waiting for him and to go home to her. Not only that, but in Mipha’s letters, I had her mention wanting him to “come back to her”. And now he finally has.

and that wraps this up, as the epilogue is composed strictly of Miphlink fluff and sweet, sweet payoff. if you took the time to read the fic and these write ups, thank you, I hope you enjoyed them! ❤

#annotations #and happy zelda anniversary!

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insertdisc5 · 5 years

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Yet Another Zelda Roleswap (the masterpost)

✨what's this AU?

Check THIS POST I DID that started it all and also the AU’s tag

✨in this au, the previous legends about the triforce are the same, aka “zeldas are princesses links are heroes and ganon/ganondorf is always the same guy and the big bad”! BUT THIS TIME DESTINY DID AN OOPSIE and ganondorf forgot all about his previous lives while link is the one who remembers them all!!! zelda just wants to travel and read cool legends and didnt expect to be part of one

✨ZELDA STUFF

-trans girl, found the name zelda in very very very old royal records

-she's like 16 or something

-seventh heir to the throne who wants to prove herself, so she goes on an adventure to save the world!!!!

-adventurous and impulsive and naive

-main weapon is bows, she also knows magic and sheikah techniques

-has six siblings who dont really pay attention to her. shes probably the youngest

-her point of view is very black and white at first

-even when she gets in the middle of link and ganon’s story she still doesn’t believe she is The Zelda of legend

-how could she she’s just a zelda, one among many, just a kid playing at being a princess

-(she IS the zelda)

-she gets a bird AND a white horse!!!!

-if she sees a weird cave she WILL go into it

-would probably eat moss if dared

✨LINK STUFF

-genderfluid, uses he/they

-hes in his early twenties

-a man zelda meets during her travels, who seems to know a lot about old legends

-he can see koroks and fairies, who can’t be seen by most people

-gets all his past lives' memories after he gets the master sword, over a period of a day or two

-maybe link does remember his past deaths along with his past lives, but past deaths are maybe more muted…. less like he experienced them and more like someone told him about it. still fucks him up tho

-i feel like he’d be pretty nice and sleepy all the time, until you mention something that has to do with his memories (aka, ganondorf, but also like “oh ive heard some hero in the legends went back to being a kid to save the world or whatever) and he’d get this super serious, focused look… something like that, little things that would make zelda go :^?

-he just really wants to kill ganondorf ya dig

-SO MANY BOSS FORMS probably one per main title (kinda like xant’s battle in TP) (strongest/hardest to fight is majora’s mask link), and final form is definitely some twisted looking fierce deity

-as for his past selves he has all of their memories and its kind of… they’re not him, he’s him, they’re just memories that he has, but when he is very very stressed its “memories become actual personalities for a sec” time. 99% of the time its just him and then ganondorf is there and its like WILL EVERYONE SHUT UP IM TRYING TO MAKE A MURDER HERE

-he’s not controlled by malice or anything because it would feel like a deus ex machina to me

-in the end he doesnt die and he gets redemption because he didnt hurt anyone he just tried to kill ganondorf a few times hes good, and also zelda is his friend and an heir to the throne he’s got immunity. poor guy just needs help processing all those lives and needs a cabin in the woods with some fairies!!!

-re: his past lives, oot link SUPER HATES ganondorf while ww link is more sympathetic. links who havent fought ganondorf are ambivalent about him

-endgame ship is either with ganondorf OR beedle. beedle is the secret ending

-will eat moss

✨GANONDORF STUFF

-he's in his twenties i promise he just has resting old man face

-zelda’s old childhood friend

-doesn’t remember anything about his past lives

-gerudo king, very serious but fairly well loved

-lets not talk about malice it either doesnt exist/this ganondorf doesnt have any/this ganondorf knows how to control it. either way its not gonna affect the story

-”what are you wearing today king” “oh, just whatever” (its not whatever he spent hours finding the day’s outfit)

-found out about his past lives while reading a very very very old book, probably read it and stayed in his room for a week and then promised himself to never ever ever turn out like that

-genuinely a good person

-would never eat moss

✨RELATIONSHIPS STUFF

-zelda and ganondorf actually knew each other as kids! Both being royalty and all. legends do talk about a hero a princess a beast or whatever but don’t use link or ganondorf’s names since it’s been so long- it takes zelda and ganondorf both finding old, old books on their own to be like “AH OOPS”!!! Ganondorf learns about his past lives much earlier than zelda, who finds out during her adventures, and she goes from seeing ganondorf as a dear friend to being like “…but what if he’s really bad though”

they’re old childhood friends, you know, the kind that were best friends before and then grew up and saw each other less often (different kingdoms and all) so they kinda grew apart, and then zelda starting her quest made them reconnect again! Ganondorf is a little older than zelda so he always saw her more as his little sister who just jumps into mud because she totally saw a sword there i promise, and zelda sees ganondorf as her cool older brother who actually pays attention to her, unlike her actual siblings

-when link and zelda meet, zelda’s like “weird dude but probably harmless” and link is like “weird girl but probably harmless” and then she’s like “oh my name is zelda” and link goes “ah just likeWAIT” and he kinda observes her to… gauge her abilities? My Zeldas Were Better kinda thing. i guess during their final battle he’s like “you’re really a zelda, after all” and its bittersweet

the second zelda figures out link is also part of those legends she goes full hero worship mode, which makes link’s fall from grace… really… hard on her. ive been admiring you and wanting to be a hero like you all this time, turns out you’re not a hero and also Not Okay

-re ganondorf and link, after everything that happened uuuh

human brain: it probably takes them both a long while to get used to each other, given that one was almost killed by the other and the other has vivid memories of having their world(s) destroyed by the one, but after a while they probably bond over their shared uuuuh memories i guess. link visits gerudo city once in a while and they catch up and become friends and

lizard brain: after 100k words they DATE

no i wont write how it happens you will NOT make me embarrass myself in front of everyone because i earnestly wrote about how link visits ganondorf every time he’s in gerudo country and at first link just passes by to give ganondorf news about how zelda is faring as queen and news about the world, and as time goes and years go by they start talking about their lives and struggles and just taking walks across the desert together and having sand seal races and everyone in ganondorf’s court is like “so when’s that little voe coming back” and ganondorf is like “i neither know nor care that its been three months since his last visit” and everyone’s like (smirk) “okay” and when has he even started to look forward to link’s visits anyway how did this happen and then link comes back and smiles gently and shows ganondorf this cool rock he found that looks like ganondorf’s face and ganondorf is smitten

takes them both Y E A R S to realize their feelings and then date tho. slow burn or bust

✨WORLD STUFF

-takes place in a time where the games’ adventures are only known as legends where they didnt even write down ganondorf’s and link’s names

-now that im thinking about it it wouldnt happen like THOUSANDS OF YEARS after any game because then ganon and link wouldnt be that worried about their destiny??? so maybe like 100-200 years after a game??? and the ppl writing down the legends were just terrible bookkeepers who couldnt even think write down link and ganon’s name

-(smash voice) EVERYONE IS HERE!!!!!!!! tingle and agitha the bug princess and sidon and especially groose who is uuuuum zelda’s rival who is totally not in love with her

-i think in botw its implied koroks are only seen by people like link and zelda??? so id say only people with uuuuh magical power??? can see them???? so koroks are just doin their thing, playing pranks, helping people without them knowing, and, in the case of makar, playing romantic music around couples

#Yet Another Zelda Roleswap AU #zelda #ref #im gonna put most questions ive answered on private so this tumblr remains pretty much art #but i might as well do a post with all the stuff ive said!!!!#i LOVE your questions and i still have some to answer but i usually put ask tags on private after a few days so #PLEASE SEND ME MORE QUESTIONS IF YOUD LIKE!!!#will update this post as time goes on

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littlealeta · 6 years

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What is ruining The Legend of Zelda stories?

This is going to be a pretty long blog about what I feel is possibly ruining the Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda used to have good stories, stories that didn't focused on cliched main character romance for example. But since I played Skyward Sword, the stories have become melodramatic, overly romantic and non-zelda like. SS and BOTW both have overly emotional stories and a lovey-dovey Zelink relationship and didn't feel like a Zelda game. Both games had the worst incarnations of Link and Zelda, both of them seeming too mean in the game such as Zelda constantly teasing Link and is jealous of Link's loftwing and Link insulting a mogma who tried to help him get his things back. BOTW has Zelda scolding link such as in the frog scene and Link selfishly ignoring a man named Bozai's feelings in favor of sand boots. All he wants to talk about are those sand boots! And not to mention, both SS and BOTW Zeldas were over-emotional Zeldas having lovey-dovey relationships with the protagonists and that was just non-zelda to me. Yes, AOL had the kiss but the games, especially in SS both sort of had love plots between the protagonist and the titular character and it didn't feel like a Zelda game to me. Also, SS and BOTW Zelda being overemotional did not feel like a Zelda game to me.

While the gameplays are still good, well, except SS had just okay but flawed gameplay such as an empty world, sometimes frustrating controls, backtracking, hand-holding, railroading, linear gameplay, some annoying quests such as chasing after those annoying kikwis and tadtones. There's a lot of things wrong with that game and I can go on forever about what is wrong with it. It's too bad SS had focused too much on its story to even do much with its gameplay.

Now, I can't say anything about the ds Zelda games or WW because I haven't played them yet but am planning on to. But the last great Zelda game with a good story I had played was TP. BOTW is alright but not as good as TP.

I noticed that Shigeru Miyamoto has only been the general producer of the last two official 3D Zelda games, but not just simply the producer. Eiji Aonuma has taken over producing the last two Zelda games instead of being the director and I think Aonuma being the director and Miyamoto being the producer were part of why the Zelda series had charm. Instead, a guy named Hidemaro Fujibayashi has taken over being the director. This change in staff roles seemed to have caused the Zelda series to drop the ball. I think Aonuma should just stick with producing only the remakes, not an original game.

The result are two of the most recent Zelda games that seem more anime like. Such as having the cliched childhood friend turned implied romance trope in SS. You know I am not a fan of anime and this is why I have a problem with SS and BOTW being more anime like.

Anyway, these are my opinions on the games and what is ruining the Zelda franchise. I love the Zelda games and I do not want to see it go down this route of a good franchise slowly becoming not so good. These were my opinions on what I feel should change to give the Legend of Zelda series back its charm.

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honestground · 6 years

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Hi! I love your blog! I don't know if you're still doing asks and I don't know if someone has asked this, but how do each of the Links and Zeldas like to fall asleep with one another? Are they close cuddlers? Who's the big/little spoon? Is one of them/both a tangled mess of limbs and blanket? My shipping soul must know! (Sorry for rambling)

now here’s the good wholesome question i’ve been waiting for

SS: they’re big cuddlers. Link has a growth spurt postgame so he becomes the big spoon. if he falls asleep on his back, Zelda snuggles up to his side and tucks her head under his chin. they’re both heavy sleepers and will often wake up in exactly the same position they fell asleep in.

OoT: they like to fall asleep facing each other, often sharing a pillow and holding hands. Link has nightmares and a tendency to wake up a lot during the night, and being able to see Zelda’s face immediately is calming. they cuddle more when they’re awake.

TP: Zelda likes to sit up and read for a while, so Link curls up at her side like a puppy and lays his head on her lap so she can play with his hair until he falls asleep. when she puts the book away he’ll often roll over so she can spoon him.

WW: Tetra tends to overheat and doesn’t have a lot of patience for cuddling. usually she sleeps on her back and Link presses up against her side with his arm around her waist. when she wakes up she’ll lie there a while and stroke his hair (fact: all Links like having their hair stroked)

HW: Link often falls asleep flat on his back and starfishing, so Zelda just arranges herself around him and gets comfortable. they both shift around a lot during the night; once Zelda woke up on her back to find Link, still dead asleep, all the way down the bed and hugging her knees.

BotW: Link can’t fall asleep unless he’s touching her somehow. when they were platonically sharing a bed he’d wrap his hand around her wrist, and if they were sleeping top to toe he’d hold her ankle instead. as things progressed he’d lightly have his knuckles pressed against Zelda’s lower back with his nose in her hair. when things became more intimate he’d just want to hold her or be held in whatever way possible, though he particularly likes being the little spoon. they both have night terrors, and if they wake up at night after a particularly bad dream to find they’ve gravitated away from each other, they’ll move into the middle of the mattress to tangle their legs together and just hold on until morning.

#coffeefueledreader #thank u friend!!!#notice how botw is longest because i think about this A LOT #zelink #asks

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vio1315 · 6 years

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So one of the panels I went to involved a guy trying to explain why Link/Zelda/Hyruleans were immoral in BotW and Ganon was good (to further a point about ethics being bs or whatever)

But he was factually wrong on a lot of things, so I’ll go through it

Point about monarchies being a poor governmental system, fine. Everything in that sort of category, I’ll give him.

The rest though

Monsters being intelligent, and thus wrong to kill:

Monsters often are shown to be smarter than animals in multiple games, yeah. They use tools, some of them have language, some can even start fires and show indication of cultures. Regardless on where we rate them on sentience though, the fact remains that they’re an invasive force who attack humans on sight. Even if we look at them on the same level as humans, they’ve essentially entered into someone’s country in an attempt to eradicate that people group or control them. If we believe at all in self defense, it’s justifiable. You can however question some methods as needlessly cruel.

Along with this point, it was also referenced that as long as people stayed in their towns and such, monsters didn’t bug them. So they were clearly living at peace until you decided the monsters needed to die

This is incorrect.

If you notice, every town is either walled off (in varying capacities) or in a defensible position. There are also generally guards of some sort.

(I think that fishing village is the only one not this way...? Though it does have a mountain on one end and ocean on the other, idk how good they’d handle an actual attack)

We never hear of this being a defense against people

Rather, we do see two women directly outside their town being attacked by monsters.

People on the roads being attacked by monsters

There’s not boundaries with these being newly established territories. People are staying in their towns for the added protection from monsters who attack on sight.

They would surely attack the towns as well if they weren’t defended.

So again, this is more akin to the country being taken over by a foreign power/people. The monsters, without proper guidance, can’t make coordinated attacks however, and thus are mainly built around. This doesn’t make self defense morally reprehensible however. Attacking their camps isn’t much different if say some foreign country sent groups to set up camps in our country with the intent of killing as many of us as possible to take over.

(Stables are another beast entirely, though)

Ganon possibly being a good leader, which we have no proof either way on due to him never successfully gaining the position:

If we go back to OoT, we see that after Ganondorf takes over, everything is destroyed. People are dead in Castle Town, and he rules with an iron fist, hurting people in every civilization just to ensure allegiance. He about wipes out all zora and gorons.

Even if we don’t go back, in BotW, he is more beast like (though he maintains some amount of understanding due to his handling of the guardians) but I don’t think this would help his capacity as ruler.

Historically we see him commit evils, though we get less chance to see him do so in a direct capacity in BotW due to his being sealed.

The best we know is his destruction of Hyrulean cities/similar, killing them, all in their own country and capital. So in his current state, his version of ruling over Hyrule involves wiping them out. There doesn’t seem to be much distinction made between targets. Again, calamity ganon is different than Ganondorf was when he had his mind. Even back when he was human, he had a tendency for wiping out people groups, but as calamity ganon, there’s really no holding back in an attempt to have survivors to serve him

He also spreads the malice which seems to make monsters and the pollution that is harmful to humans (and all living creatures, as it even has extremely negative effects on a dragon, which is much more powerful than humans.)

If he has enough mind left, this at best is him wiping out all Hyruleans to have the land for his own... monsters?

Not even his own people, as the Gerudo are not free from his targeting.

Likely, calamity ganon has lost his humanity, and is not capable as a ruler on any level, lacking strict control of his thoughts and actions. I mean, calamity is in the name.

The attack against Hyrule (resulting in the guardians being overtaken and Ganondorf sealed) being a justified attack:

It was mentioned that the Hyruleans were looking for weapons to destroy Ganon once and for all, and so his attack was self defense.

This required rewatching cutscenes, as I didn’t honestly remember, but basically the guardians were built before his return 10,000 years prior to BotW. They were employed after he struck again, which is where he got his knowledge of them

So they were made in preparation to fight against him. The fact that he knows about them when they’re attempted to be used again, 100 years in the past, suggests it’s the same Ganon, not a reincarnation.

Thus, they have reason to seek out weapons against him as they prepare for his next attack.

At this point they know he’s been doing this over and over again since the beginning of time

It being wrong to assume Ganondorf will be evil in all reincarnations:

Interesting, but this depends on what theory you go with.

I have usually felt it’s the same Ganon(dorf) without resurrection each time.

Such as

from OoT to TP, it’s the same Ganondorf

From OoT to WW it’s the same Ganondorf

in Zelda to Zelda II it’s the same Ganondorf (though he was killed and Zelda II is trying to /resurrect/ him)

in the seasons and ages games, I forget if they’re trying to break a seal or resurrect him, but it ultimately succeeds and he comes in as Ganon

That’s just from memory.

So I always had the sense that while the heroes tend to reincarnate, through being sealed and breaking out of seals on top of resurrections, Ganondorf is the same, or very rarely reincarnates

This tends to make Ganon (the beast forms) make more sense in my eyes as he kinda loses more and more humanity in the process each time.

But if we are assuming each Ganondorf is separate unless explicitly stated otherwise, and we are assuming he doesn’t get any memories through the triforce of power (which I don’t think has ever been confirmed, and I forget any hints to it honestly, so it might be fanon) In that case, then yes, you’d obviously want to not just murder him as a preventative measure

That said

Every game where he appears does have him do something bad before you’re sent to face him. In BotW, as mentioned before, they’re expecting the same Ganon, who already seems to be in calamity form. And really, when you look at that, do you really think ‘Yeah that looks super mortal and killable’

No, they were expecting that same thing to return

Like they never went baby hunting or any such thing

In the old days, that would have been really easy too. Find any male Gerudo and kill him? Like before Ganondorf became a beast, it would have been simple.

However, most times the story is such a legend by the next game, that details like that tend to be lost to the people anyways

The Yiga clan being justified:

If Ganondorf can not be made out to be good, the Yiga also can’t.

They’re at a similar level to a cult in some ways, much as I enjoy them. They want Ganondorf to reign, though he destroyed half their country and has never spoken a word. We don’t see evidence that he’s even aware of them, I’d say?

I’d argue they’re better than the monsters, since they only target Link as far as I recall (they’re human and thus capable of such coordination) but it still doesn’t really spare them for serving calamity Ganon who just killed half the country and then flew around the castle not saying anything for 100 years

(I might have missed some lore somewhere, idk)

And that’s without getting into all the ‘Link’s crazy, seeing his dead friends’ and so on stuff. We all know that stuff is part of the games high fantasy world, and we have been given no reason in the narrative to question the authenticity of seeing these things.

In terms of the point made about Link violating the Gerudos customs and cultures by forcing his way into their city? Desperate times is all I’ll say there. If we believe Ganondorf was a true threat, then we can excuse this sort of thing

Basically, the guy ended his presentation saying that ethics were bs (particularly in gaming?)

But honestly if you twist and misinterpret information, you can do that to anything. There’s very legitimate things to hook onto, but this doesn’t really drive home his point to think things through. If you don’t make legitimate cases yourself, why should I take you seriously?

You know in TP it’s implied that the royal family did pretty terrible things to the gerudo people? There’s literally a prison with torture mechanisms in the desert, classically depicted as where they lived, but no gerudo.

We know a lot of the prisoners were sealed away in another realm there too. It could be argued against, but there’s a lot more evidence for this sort of thing.

We know that in ALttP the soldiers who hunt down Link are being mind controlled/similar. They’re actual people that you kill. There’s something to be said there, and a lot of questions you can ask.

I mean, if you really want to stretch, in WW you’re working with pirates, and we never really know what they did before searching for new land. With how they handled things on Windfall, they did kind of do what they pleased to some extent.

These are off the top of my head, with a little effort, you could think of really valid points to question how we perceive good/evil in these games. I think it’s especially cheap to rely on player action to portray these matters.

If you went through a game like Skyrim, you can play it by joining the dark brotherhood and killing and stealing everything in your path. Or you can not steal, not kill outside of self defense, and so on.

The game gives you options, but it should not be assumed that the game’s protagonist has taken every single option.

You can steal in Link’s Awakening, but we can’t assume that as an inherent part of that Link’s character. That is entirely player choice.

So those are all my feelings involving the points brought up during the panel.

The inaccuracies bothered me is all, but I had little freedom to mention all my points at the time, so they go here.

#Vio's Personal #Not putting this in the tag though idk if it matters with search #anyways this is going off memory but I'm pretty confident in this stuff?#The tone of the guys voice told me he knew he was twisting things #but he annoyed me by not even trying that hard #And why is it that everyone who twists things always said #'I can see I just blew your mind' or whatever?#Like you blew my mind how inept you are at this #No. I'm aware what he was doing and that it was intentional #but the cockiness was a tad annoying when he hasn't even played OoT apparently #(and thus who knows what else?)#I agree that in games people make a lot of assumptions #but this was a poorly executed way of showing that #not to mention. He mentions Link being a mute psychopath. Link literally writes his own logs?#I know the English version changes this so I can't expect him to know this per se #but he literally writes stuff like 'I hope they're okay' 'that was fun' 'I hope to see her smile again'#I believe the English version puts it more like 'you hope to see her smile again' which still communicates this stuff #so you have to ignore that aspect of the game to decide he's psychotic

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sweetchcolate · 7 years

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Reading the comments section on SS reviews/rants is a PURE NIGHTMARE because for every “oh, well, I liked SS despite its flaws” or “well, the motion control worked well for me” comment, there is a billion people jumping on the hate bandwagon because it’s cool to shit on SS and saying “you’re just a Nintendo fanboy!!!”, “fck this game,” or “SS scks! Worst game in the series!”

We get it, motion controls ain’t your taste. Linearity ain’t your taste. You found the story bad/bland. I can understand, since those are all subjective opinions, and of course a game would have flaws.

But you know what? For every thing you hated, there is at least one person who loved it. And for everything you loved, there is at least one person who hated it.

And I’m seeing the same phenomenon but in reverse for BotW: everyone absolutely losing their mind on the game, the open-world, the shrines, and the sheer fun of losing yourself in Hyrule.

But you can’t find a single “as great as BotW is, I found it a bit repetitive” or “I didn’t like the game that much” comment without a billion people calling them haters, fake gamers, etc.

CAN SOME FANS JUST CHILL? SOME PEOPLE LOVE SS, SOME DON’T. SOME PEOPLE LOVE BOTW, SOME DON’T.

Why do you have to be so virulent?

Not your style of game? Try the others! Love the game? Cool, play it and have fun. It’s all fine, as long as your enjoyment/dislike doesn’t come in the form of shoving your opinion down someone’s throat and impeding THEIR experience.

I don’t know whether this aggressiveness in hating or defending a game is a recent thing because of the internet or if I’m just noticing it because SS and BotW are the more recent games (whereas that phenomenon could have applied to TP and WW, but is less apparent because those games are older and the hype has cooled down), but it’s getting old.

#legend of zelda #skyward sword #breath of the wild #ugh #i hate it #sigh #rant

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mimski · 7 years

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whywolfprincess hat auf deinen Eintrag geantwortet: me, after having played mostly indie games...

Haven’t played an indie game in ages, yet your achievements in Okapi sound way better than mine of being with 45 hours in BotW and all I'be done is taming the special horses….

i dont have money for botw now (though im glad the wiiu version is not worse/shit bcuz dang i dont need the switch at all), so i can’t say anything about botw yet. but i have neither finished playing ww HD nor tp HD...

But I have a broken ps3 from a friend (doesnt take discs anymore) lying around and since journey was off and okami isnt expensive I finally bought these last month

I really love okami, dang. That game is so good. I’m just not used to not being done with a game in like 10 hours. (not that indie games are bad, they do have lower production value and are cheaper, so I take that into account)

Ammy is such a sassy little shit and I love it. All the animations are done with so much love.

Also, replaying it after having played Bayonetta I now realise all the similarities between Okami and Bayonetta. no wonder Bayonetta was so much fun

#whywolfprincess #my post stuff #okami #bayonetta

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chandelierslayer · 6 years

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So... I also noticed while going through my archive that I tend to reblog other people’s stuff and go on huge rants/rambles/analysis-fests, while still piggybacking on their stuff, instead of making a whole new post. So I figured I’d fix that while I’m at it. I meant to start this sooner but NaNoWriMo has me pretty preoccupied. And I was sleeping way too much for a while. BUT ANYWAY ENOUGH ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE. Here’s the big rant about Zelda and how much I care for her (even though hearing her speak irritates me):

Also, keep in mind that this is in regards to the end of BotW, so if you don’t want spoilers... Well, I tagged this as spoilers so yeah.

I hate that she only talked about Link and Ganon and the fate of Hyrule etc. Just once, I wanted to hear her say ……

…..Actually, I don’t know what I wanted to hear her say. I don’t know. In all honesty, I just wanted to hug her. Like. I just want to sit her down and hug her and be like NO girlfriend, let’s talk about YOU for a minute. I’m gonna make you some fruitcake and tea and we’re gonna just chill and you can cry it out as much as you need to or whatever, just focus on YOURSELF for a minute.

You’ve been locked in this situation of keeping the reincarnation of the demon king sealed away so he can’t hurt anyone for a hundred years. A HUNDRED YEARS. 100 YEARS. There’s no way that was easy, even WITH the power of the Goddess and the Light Force and the Triforce of Wisdom (um… Triforce? It looked like the whole thing when she killed him. Are we departing from the “each of these three people gets one” system? ANYWAY). I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like. How did your mind stay intact, honestly? I just.

You gave up everything. You wanted to have a fulfilled life, chasing your dreams, being a total fucking nerd and studying the things that fascinated you. You had goals. You had a life. And when the signs of the Calamity showed up you jumped to the task willingly, thinking “Oh yeah, my knowledge of ancient shit is gonna help us save the world, this is gonna be great” but then your dad forced you to leave that behind and go try to awaken the power of your bloodline. And you went. It was the RIGHT decision, because that power would be needed to take down Ganon, but that doesn’t make it FAIR. In ten seconds flat you went from happy kid studying things she loved for fun, to stressed-out kid beating herself up relentlessly because no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t feel the sacred power, couldn’t do the ONE THING that was expected of her, the one thing that could help her save the world. You took the weight of the world on your shoulders, literally, and even when your power finally awakened, you STILL felt like a failure because it was too little, too late. Your champions had all fallen, including your knight. You had to go take on the demon king. Alone. And a hundred years later when everything’s over you’re like “I’ve been watching over you all this time” like wtf get out of town are you serious right now? You didn’t even think about yourself, you just. I’m crying right now, y’all, for real. Oh my gosh. This woman.

Okay now that my face is dry…

I’m not even gonna BEGIN to get into how much I hate that Sacrifice at the Expense of the Self is always portrayed in shit as this great amazing noble thing because it’s BULLSHIT, it’s NOT noble, it’s fucking STUPID, and I get that in this case she had no choice BUT to sacrifice everything to save the world etc. because she was literally the only one, but PEOPLE WRITE SCENARIOS LIKE THAT ALL THE EFFING TIME. Especially with female characters. Like. You have a CHOICE. The people who wrote this story had a CHOICE, and they CHOSE to go this route. …Oh look, I said I wouldn’t go into it, and here I am, going into it.

Seriously though, I’m glad this was a Zelda who actually DID THINGS (there are more of them than people think), but I hate that her doing things happened at the expense of herself. Her life. Even before she lost her dad and saw her kingdom torn to pieces, she had to turn away from the things she loved and her very way of life as she knew it to chase some faerie tale she wasn’t even sure would work. Nothing is of her own agency, except that one final decision, once everyone else had fallen and her power was finally awakened, to walk back up to the castle and imprison Ganon by herself. And I mean. Hah. Right. “Decision”. Like she really had a choice in the matter. That moment is the most bittersweet. I just. UGH.

Zelda never really gets to shine without being diminished in some way. The Zeldas in the first three games (And ALBW) were just there to be rescued, the Zelda in Ocarina of Time got to help out a ton while in disguise (via cross-dressing! A++) but once she reveals her pink-dress-wearing, non-ninja self she’s reduced to yet another DiD. And an overly helpless one at that, for the sake of a last-minute race against the clock challenge. I mean, you can blast Ganon with a huge-ass beam of light, and lift up iron bars like it’s nothing, but you can’t dispel some flames and kill some basic monsters? I call bullshit. Oracles Zelda was only there for the linked game ending so the bad guys could try to sacrifice her to resurrect Ganon (weeee), and the Zeldas in the Four Swords trilogy were hardly there. WW and TP’s Zeldas are finally badass, though, the one in TP was forced to surrender her rule to a usurper king and sit by quietly - though she did get to do stuff later in the game. Tetra, on the other hand, was a badass pirate captain. Buuuuuut once her identity is revealed, again, she’s reduced to Princess Form, even having her clothes change magically from pirate garb to a pink dress (is that… did you put MAKEUP on her? With MAGIC? That’s not her skin tone! UGH.) for no reason whatsoever. What makes me happy is that in Phantom Hourglass, she’s gone back to her pirate threads and refuses to be called a princess. And rightly so! The world in which she was a child of the royal family is gone now, sealed beneath the ocean forever. She never knew that world. The Great Sea is where she’s really from. Just because you have a bloodline doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t change who you are. Thank you for letting her be herself, Nintendo. YES I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.

Spirit Tracks Zelda probly did the most out of them all, because she came along on the journey the whole way, albeit as a ghost most of the time (it’s a long story). And SS Zelda is another self-sacrifice person. Impa’s like “Lemme explain what happened forever ago and who you are and what you need to do and why” and she’s just like “Okay!” and does all the things. No second-guessing, no complaining, she just goes on this long journey and eventually seals herself away to save the world (please tell me this is not gonna become the trend) with nothing but faith that it’s gonna work out. I just.

YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD CHILD FOR SAVING THE WORLD AND DOING WHAT’S RIGHT BUT YOU ARE A PERSON TOO AND YOU MATTER AND YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS MATTER AND YOU DESERVE TO CARE ABOUT YOURSELF AND I LOVE YOU AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING ANYMORE IT’S LATE AND I NEED TO GO TO BED I HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING BUT PLEASE CHILD JUST TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF OKAY?

Here, have some old tags, just because they add to the ranting:

Zelda, The Legend of Zelda, spoilers, ranting, rambling, thoughts, sacrifice, self-sacrifice, writing talk, female characters, tropes, Damsel in Distress, crying all over my damn keyboard, WHY CAN'T A FEMALE CHARACTER JUST SHINE WITHOUT BEING DIMINISHED OR DEGRADED IN SOME WAY???, NINTENDO YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS, YOU DO WELL, YOU DO SOME REALLY GREAT THINGS, BUT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THIS SHIT OKAY?, I'M SERIOUS, I'M LOOKING AT YOU TOO SQUARE ENIX, KAIRI LITERALLY JUST EXISTS TO BE FOUGHT OVER SACRIFICED FOR OR TO JUST SIT THERE AND WAIT OR BE IMPRISONED ETC., IF I CAN'T PLAY AS KAIRI IN KINGDOM HEARTS THREE I'M GONNA FLIP ALL THE TABLES, YOU TOO DIGIMON, DON'T THINK I DON'T SEE YOU STILL FAILING IN THE FEMALE REPRESENTATION ARENA AFTER SEVEN FUCKING SEASONS, YOU HAVE HAD SO MUCH TIME, COME ON, APPLIMONSTERS IS AMAZING AND I LOVE IT BUT GIVE ME MORE FEMALE CHARACTERS, AND LET ERI-SAMA ACTUALLY PUNCH SOMEONE, FUCK, I'M TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT DOKA-PUNCHES AND SEEING NOTHING

#Princess Zelda #Damsel in Distress #sacrifice #sacrifice at the expense of the self #is a stupid concept and needs to stop being glorified #tropes #tropes meets Zelda #writing talk #characters #The Legend of Zelda #Breath of the Wild #SERIOUSLY THOUGH TETRA'S NAME IS NOT ZELDA SO FUCK OFF WITH THAT

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skyward-floored · 1 year

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Courage of Ages: motorcycle chase

*shuffles in*

So the other day I mentioned I found an old fic of a modern au of my Links meeting au, and a few people seemed interested so I cleaned it up and here we are. I have some other fics with these guys floating around, but this is the only modern au one I have so some things are a little different heh.

Who’s who—

Slate: botw Link

Light: 4s adventures Link

Spirit: st Link

Windy: ww Link

Gloam: tp Link

Era: hw Link

And content warning for guns, some injuries, and just sort of dramatic car-chasey things. It’s not too bad, but I figured I better warn you all because stuff does happen. Enjoy.

————————————————————

“Slate we’re being followed!” Light yelled over the wind.

The teenager driving the motorcycle glanced behind them, then tensed, gripping the handlebars more tightly as he sped up. Windy and Spirit, who were squeezed into the sidecar, yelped as they sped along the road, the black car behind them gradually gaining despite their increased speed.

Light suddenly heard a bang and he ducked, something wizzing by his head and coming so close to his ear he felt it go by.

“They’ve got guns Slate!”

“I kinda figured that out!”

Slate began to swerve, making them all a more difficult target as more gunfire came from behind them.

“What do we do?!” Spirit gasped, face white as a bullet whizzed by his head. Windy pulled him down, looking no less worried but slightly less terrified.

“Why are they even chasing us?” Windy questioned with his brows drawn. “It’s not like we’re rich or anything!”

“Well at least they’re crummy shots,” Light commented as they continued to be shot at, but pointedly not hit. “Maybe we don’t—“

The SUV suddenly put on a burst of speed and ended up right next to them, all four of the teenagers on the bike yelping in surprise. The window of the car rolled down and a large figure in an eerie white and red mask stared at them.

“Slate why aren’t you speeding up?!”

“I can’t without crashing!”

The man leaned out a bit, and they all froze as he held a gun out directly towards Slate.

“The Yiga Clan does nothing by halves,” he sneered in a deep voice, then clicked off the safety.

Light felt his heart leap with fear, but then Slate slammed on the brakes, sending the car shooting off in front of them while he swerved down a side road. Light clung on for dear life as he took a few more sharp turns down some side streets and alleys, then eventually ended back up on a bigger road, farther out from the city.

“Think I bought us a minute or two,” Slate gasped, getting back up a speed no doubt way over the speed limit.

“Now what do we do?!” Spirit yelped, sounding a little hysterical despite them no longer being chased, “who’s the Yiga Clan? Is it like some sort of a gang?! Who made a gang angry?!”

“I bet it was you Light!” Windy accused with a hint of a joke in his voice, and Light was about to protest when cheery music suddenly rang out from Slate’s pocket.

They all fell into surprised silence as the tune continued to play.

“Is that your phone?”

“Oh crap if that’s Gloam we’ll never hear the end of it—“

“Who cares?! Pick it up!”

Light snatched Slate’s, well, slate from his pocket, and picked up the call, nearly dropping the phone as they went over a particularly bumpy spot in the road.

“Hello?” he asked hesitantly.

“Light? Where’s Slate? Where are you guys? You were supposed to be back hours ago!” Gloam’s voice demanded through the slate, loud enough that the rest of them could hear it. “I’ve been trying to call you for almost an hour!”

Light swallowed. “Well, uh, we kinda stayed late to help clean up, and then we saw Malon so we stopped to talk to her, and Erune was around too and then we were talking about this restaurant—“

“Forget that!” Windy interrupted, snatching the slate out of Light’s hands, “Gloam we’re being—“

Tires squealed behind them and the black car reappeared from a side road, more gunshots immediately ringing out as soon as they had a clear shot.

All of the Links yelped and ducked down again, bullets grazing the side of Slate’s bike.

“Aw, I just the paint redone!”

“Windy were those gunshots?” Gloam’s voice came through the slate, sounding frantic.

“Yeah, we’re kinda being chased by crazies in masks with guns?” the teenager explained, equally frantic. “Could you maybe—“

More gunshots rang out, and Windy’s voice cut off into a loud cry.

“Windy!”

Light frantically tried to get a look at his friend, who’d doubled over and was clutching his arm, but the gunshots continued, and one of the bullets finally hit true. It punctured Slate’s back tire, causing the bike to veer wildly towards the edge of the road, and Light could only watch in horror as they swerved straight towards a ditch.

“Oh— hang on!”

The Links all screamed as Slate failed to regain control, and the motorcycle flipped over the guardrail, crashing into the ravine below.

———

A black SUV slowly pulled to a stop where the motorcycle had gone off the road, the guardrail blackened and bent.

Two large men got out of the vehicle, both sporting white masks with a blood-red eye painted on the front. The first pointed down at the ditch and the other leaned over the edge with a heavy-duty flashlight, slowly trawling it over the smoking wreckage of the bike below.

They paused at the sight of an empty helmet lying in the dirt, then continued on.

They searched for what seemed like forever, shining the light over the bushes and rocks, but eventually shut off the light, chuckling to each other. They exchanged a few words, then got back in the SUV and drove away, leaving the wreckage to burn out in silence.

The road went still.

And Slate dazedly poked his head up out of the bushes.

“Guys?” he called out hesitantly, wincing as he shook out an arm.

He wasn’t really hurt from the crash amazingly, apart from some small cuts and bruises. He’d managed to jump off the bike and land in a bush, the branches cuschioning his fall, and he’d thought the others had been right behind him.

Evidently not.

“Slate?”

The teenager turned at the voice, several bushes down from where he had landed. He pushed his way towards it through the shrubs, then gasped, quickly shoving his way through the last one when he saw who it was.

Light lay on the ground, awake, but tightly clutching his leg, face twisted up in pain.

“Light! Hylia, are you okay?” he asked, dropping to his side.

Light stared at him, wincing as he raised an eyebrow. “Dandy. Thanks for asking. I feel great, fantastic even. Maybe I’ll take up ballet—“

He cut off into a sharp keen of pain, and Slate looked down at his leg, feeling his stomach churn when he saw the angle it was at.

“That looks pretty bad Light.”

Light growled and managed to pull himself up into a seating position, breathing heavily through his nose. A few tears shone in his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away when he thought Slate wasn’t looking.

“‘S fine. Are... are those g-guys gone?”

Slate nodded. “They’re gone.”

Light sighed in relief and let his head rest against one of the larger bushes’ trunks.

“Who the heck were they?” he muttered, face set in a worried frown. “I can’t believe they were shooting at us, that’s like, ten different kinds of illegal. And you especially, what was that about?”

Slate bit his lip. “I don’t know. But they... they seemed kinda familiar,” he said, nervously scratching his neck. Him and Light went quiet for a second.

“Do you know where Windy is?” Light asked next, face worried. “Or S-Spirit? They okay?”

Slate shook his head. “I don’t know. You’re the only one I’ve—“

A pained cry cut him off, and the two boys exchanged wide-eyed looks. Light attempted to scramble to his feet, and Slate quickly threw an arm under his shoulder, helping him up and then rushing off in the direction of the sound. The two shoved foliage out of the way as fast as they could, then Slate froze at the sight in front of them, forcing Light to a stop as well.

His motorcycle’s sidecar was above him, wedged loosely in a cleft between two rocks. It looked like it had somehow been flung there after the crash, separated entirely from the bike, and hung precariously over a deeper part of the ravine, teetering in the breeze as if something had just shaken it.

Windy lay on the ground beneath it, face white and shoulder red.

“Windy!” Slate and Light gasped at the same time, and they stumbled to his side, nearly tripping in their haste. The teenager managed to sit up a little as Slate skidded to his side and helped Light down, but his face was twisted in a grimace. Slate put a hand on his unhurt arm and studied the bloodiest looking part of his shoulder, then steadily met the sailor’s eyes.

“Hey. Windy are you okay?” he asked, looking directly at his pale face. The kid swallowed and nodded, then looked up at the sidecar.

“Spirit’s still... still in the s-sidecar,” Windy murmured, and Light grasped his good arm when he started to list to the side. “I tried t-to climb up and get him, but my shoulder...”

“I’ll get him Windy,” Slate assured through his growing panic, gently propping him in a sitting position. It looked like Windy had been nicked by a bullet from what he could tell, and that more than anything was what was making his hands shake.

Why did I ever offer them all a ride home?

“Light, help him keep pressure on his shoulder alright?” he asked in a voice he had to fight to keep from shaking.

Light nodded, and Slate gave them both a reassuring look which he didn’t really feel.

“Okay. I’ll be right back.”

He then began climbing the small cliff, careful not to shift any rocks as he went in case they caused the sidecar to break loose. He winced as several pebbles hit his face, and looked over at his poor sidecar, but he couldn’t see anyone inside from the angle he was at.

“Spirit?” he called, but got no response.

When Slate finally reached the sidecar, he swung himself onto what appeared to be a sturdy ledge, and immediately peeked in... then blanched at the sight inside. Spirit lay at the bottom of the car, pale and unmoving. His helmet was gone, and Slate could see a small gash on his temple, trickling blood down his face and getting in his hair.

“Spirit,” he breathed, and carefully leaned closer.

Slate gently nudged him, but Spirit didn’t react in the slightest, and he quickly stretched his hand out to press his fingers to his neck. A steady-enough beat pulsed under the pads of his fingers and he let out a small sigh of relief. He was breathing at least, that was a start.

Slate shifted his footing on the ledge, and carefully leaned his weight on the sidecar, reaching out to try and pull Spirit closer to him. Something shifted as he leaned though, and he froze, listening to a few pieces of rubble patter down the cliff.

The car was too precariously balanced on the rocks. If he continued to lean on it, the sidecar would likely come loose, crumbling the hillside and sending both him and Spirit to the bottom of the rather steep drop.

But leaning on the sidecar was the only way he’d be able to get Spirit out.

Slate groaned to himself and took a deep breath, then moving as lightly as possible, put more of his weight on the car. It creaked ominously, but Slate ignored it and managed to grab Spirit’s arm, tugging the younger boy closer towards him. Something shifted under his foot, and he bit his lip as he tried to tug Spirit faster, but the younger boy’s leg was stuck on something.

“Ohh, come on,” Slate muttered worriedly, but Spirit’s leg wouldn’t come loose no matter how hard he tugged.

He’d have to climb in the sidecar and get it loose himself.

Slate gritted his teeth, then before his common sense decided to kick in, scrambled forward into the car, ignoring the loud groan that rang out.

Light and Windy shouted something below him, but Slate ignored them as the car shifted under his feet. He quickly tugged Spirit loose from where his leg had been trapped, and bundled the younger boy into his arms before attempting to climb back to the ledge where he’d been perching.

But with Slate’s added weight, the precarious balance of the sidecar has been disturbed. And with an ominous crack, he felt the entire thing began to fall down the cliff.

He only had seconds to make a decision, and without a moment’s hesitation, Slate frantically leapt out of the car. He clutched Spirit to his chest with one arm and reached desperately for the ledge he knew he was too far away to grab with the other. Light and Windy cried out again, and Slate felt his outstretched fingers just barely brush the cliffside.

Then he felt his stomach drop as gravity tugged him and Spirit downwards to the unforgiving ground.

Until two hands snagged his.

Slate gasped as his and Spirit’s fall was abruptly stopped, and he held tightly to the younger boy as he looked up at their savior. Era looked down at him, grunting with the weight of the two as his scarf flapped gently in the wind.

“Era?” he gasped out, heart beating nearly out of his chest. The older Link didn’t reply, merely steadily pulled him and Spirit up, not saying anything until they were safely up on solid ground.

Then he pulled them both into his arms, breathing out a great sigh of relief.

“You all are going to be the death of me I just know it,” he said somewhat breathlessly, giving them both a hug. Slate closed his eyes for a second, letting the steady arms around him help calm him down, and sighed in relief as well.

That had been way too close.

Era pulled back a bit, tilting Spirit’s head with the utmost care as he studied the cut on his temple. “Where are Windy and Light?”

Slate breathed in, his heart still thudding too fast, and gestured below them towards the bushes.

“Down there, they’re hurt, but... they’re okay,” he managed to get out, and Era gently gave his shoulder a squeeze. “How’d... how’d you get here so fast?”

“Gloam sent me the location on your phone. I happened to be nearby, thank goodness,” he murmured, brushing a hand over Spirit’s forehead. “He’s coming too, I’d expect him shortly.“

Slate nodded, only half-processing what he was saying. He was feeling a bit distant from everything all of a sudden, and barely noticed when Era gently set Spirit down in his lap and went to go check on Windy and Light. Slate messed idly with the younger boy’s hair while he held a cloth to his injury, and time seemed to blur a bit as he waited, watching him breathe steadily in his lap.

But before he knew it, Spirit was suddenly being tugged out of his lap, and Slate was pulled into a crushing hug.

“Goddesses I’m glad you’re okay,” a voice Slate recognized as Gloam’s breathed as he squeezed him. Slate rested his head on his shoulder, and sank into his arms a little. “Don’t give me such a terrifying phone call ever again.”

“To be fair, you were actually the one who called him,” Era said from nearby, and Slate belatedly realized both Light and Windy were only a few feet away from him. Apparently Era has gotten them both up out of the ditch, though both were rather pale.

“I don’t care who called who, I just don’t want to receive another phone call where I hear you all being chased and shot at,” Gloam said, still hugging Slate. He sighed and pulled back, and scanned his face. “Are you hurt?”

“Not really,” Slate answered quietly. “Some bruises, little sore. The others are worse, did you call an ambulance yet?”

“No,” Era said, checking on Spirit again. “And we’re not going to.”

“Wait, what?” Slate asked, looking over at him in confusion. “Why not?”

“Yeah, a motorcycle crash and bullet wound and everything else would generally be considered a 911 kind of situation,” Light murmured with a raised eyebrow.

Era and Gloam exchanged looks.

“...if these men were who we think they were... it wouldn’t have been wise,” Era said quietly. “Light told me they said they were Yiga clan. And Yiga don’t just randomly chase down a bunch of teenagers. If you went to the hospital they might find you there. And based on what happened here... they had a reason for what they did.”

“What kind of reason?” Light asked in a quiet voice.

Era sighed, but before he could reply, Windy suddenly sagged, nearly falling over backwards. Light managed to catch him, but Windy still looked dazed, and Gloam quickly went to help him.

“‘m alright,” Windy mumbled, and Era shook his head.

“No, you’re not. This conversation can wait, let’s get you all home,” he murmured, standing up with Spirit in his arms. “We’ll call Hibiscus, if he can’t fix you all up he’ll know someone who can.”

The rest of them merely nodded in exhaustion.

Getting them all fixed up enough to get home and then settled into Gloam’s car took some doing, and Light actually passed out at one point, which Slate supposed was a small mercy considering how much they were moving him and his leg.

Era continued to hold Spirit as he settled into the front next to Gloam, and Windy slid carefully in next to Slate, his arm wrapped as tightly as they could get it. Light got set in between them, and as they finally drove off, Slate rested his head on the window, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

His mind was working in overdrive trying to figure out why those masks had seemed so familiar, but he wasn’t coming up with anything. The red eyes printed on them filled him with a sickening dread and anger, but he had no clue why.

And not knowing was freaking him out.

He sighed, and felt Light stir a little from next to him, mumbling a bit. He looked over, then wordlessly pulled Light’s head to rest on his shoulder, the other boy relaxing and falling back asleep.

Slate himself drifted off a few minutes later, the night’s events finally catching up to him.

#writing from the floor #courage of ages #legend of Zelda au #fic #legend of zelda #coa slate #coa Spirit #coa Gloam #coa light #coa Windy #coa era #modern au #not my best work but people wanted to see it #still feels weird posting writing about these guys I feel all flustered now

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