#Zelda's agency

[ganondoodle]

some die hard totk fans can be so annoying

you can like a game without jumping through hoops to justify why its bad writing and questionable choices are good actually, its ok to like things that arent the bestest most perfect thing

you can have your opinion and thats all well and fine but im tired of some people taking my posts as ground to debate me on bc they are 'objectively' more right than me despite their opinion too being based on their own interpretation and bias

i love ww and botw but im not acting like either is perfect, tetra/zelda being whitewashed suddendly when shes revealed to be royalty? bad, very bad actually; ganondorf only having a few lines right before you kill him to hint at there perhaps being more in his head than EVIL EVIL I AM EVIL ARGAGRGAHGHS? disappointing; (and so on and so forth) botw locking zelda away to be rescued yet again in the castle? not the greatest thing but at least it worked with the story and themes better than it did in totk; botw having that orientalist gerudo outfit that to this day is used to sexualize whatever chaarcter is put into it? not cool (as far as i know totk did away with that one at least); the gerudo design as a whole still being on the same level of not cool in botw as they were in oot- you get the point

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #totk #ganondoodles rants #like how the hell does NPCs talking about zelda equate to her having agency in the story #also despite botw zelda being less present in a technical sense she still feels more THERE than totk zelda #like at least botw zelda is fucking conscious and can talk to you in the present even if not much #and her time fighting clamgan is time she remembers #unlike totk zelda I doNT rEmeMBEr aNyTHIng LöLÖS #i get wanting to share ones opinion #but i feel like theres a line between sharing ones opinion and doing debate me arguments on someone elses posts

[carrotsnake]

Zelda and the Tale of Melusine

I'll be looking at the parallels between Zelda's arc and some Medieval tropes of female metamorphosis, using Melusine: Or the Noble History of Lusignan as an example. Specificially a translated copy of Jean d'Arras's version, since that's the most well known one.

To start, a run down of Melusine:

She's a half human, half fairy woman cursed by her mother for imprisoning her mortal father in a mountain. The curse dictates every Saturday she turns into a serpent from the naval down. She must marry a human man for a long time to slowly undo the curse and become fully human, but he must never see her monstrous form beforehand.

If he does, she'll lose her humanity forever and transform into a dragon.

She meets a knight in the woods, he suspects her otherworldly knowledge comes from "some phantasm or diabolical power", to which she goes don't worry about it kitten. But he likes her so he's like ok! ^_^ yay!

She keeps giving him cool fairy advice, and with it his life magically becomes a whole lot better - he gains wealth, power, and not just him but other people listen to her advice: crops flourish, castles are built. The kingdom is thriving! They love her just as much as he does, so it's no surprise they get married. But there's just one condition, she hides in the bathhouse every Saturday, and he's never to visit or peep at her.

He breaks his promise and discovers her secret. She says he's cursed both of them, and now he's lost her forever: "Be sure that as long as you live I shall always find pleasure in seeing you; but [...] never again shall you see me in female form."

The next passage is as follows:

'Melusine, uttering a very doleful cry and then a heavy sigh, leapt from the window into the void, and as she swept across the orchards she metamorphosed into a massive dragon some fifteen feet in length. [...] In her dragon form she circled the fortress three times, and each time she flew past the window she uttered such an excruciating, desolate cry that everyone wept for pity, knowing that she was leaving under constraint and against her will. Then she disappeared in the direction of Lusignan, letting out such rueful shrieking and strident cries that wherever she passed it seemed as if lightning and thunder were about to split the sky.'

He never sees her again after that. But phantoms of her start appearing in the castle, secretly visiting her children at night and generally just spooking people by standing there menacingly. And that's how the myth is born.

I've already drawn connections through the images above, but what's the point of this?

Like lots of other fans I was irked by the whole 'zelda jesus' thing in totk, yeah it is a little odd that everyone follows her advice without question, and it's never wrong.

I'm curious, if the team was drawing from Western myths, that this was supposed to echo the fae. Especially since most of the quests keep you on your toes on whether this was the real Zelda giving advice, or a fake - a phantom(!) - deliberately sabotaging them. It mirrors how opinions on Melusine were split between a benevolent fae or a demon. Splitting them into two entities though, I can see how that would defang it.

The og text wasn't exactly that nuanced either. I remember my prof joking the message amounted to "always listen to your weird snake wife!" Maybe we SHOULD listen to our weird snake wives.

It's interesting Melusine only interacts with children after the curse - botw+totk imply only young children who are pure of heart can see dragons.

I recommend reading the whole thing if you can find it! Then you can look for more parallels, and read riveting pieces of dialogue such as this:

#totk #totk zelda #legend of zelda #tloz #tears of the kingdom #loz #totk thoughts #tloz totk #zelda tears of the kingdom #totk spoilers #light dragon #totk light dragon #botw dragon #totk dragon #totk theory #zelda theory #melusine #that's why i named my golden horse melusine #also i find it ironic this medieval text gives its woman more agency than totk zelda ever got :') where did we go wrong

[scopophobia-polaris]

Honestly could we throw out the idea that totk's story issue is that it isn't consistent with the lore of the older games but instead drops intresting world building from botw because it might have gotten actually dark

#seriously eveeyone keeps up bring up the triforce not being the same like the older games instead of HEY why DOES the royal family just..... #have it #like all of it #and was the sheikah tech from the last game that functions the same was as light arrows/the biden blast was uh #how do i put this #how did they weaponize lightmagic in robots and does this all tie in with the “banishment” thing #or idk dropped point from botw zelda's fucking chracter arc #i know it ended with LOOOK!!!! YOU FUCKED UP BY DOING WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS RIGHT #But damn they could of just not done that shit in totk making her just the #what was jt #idk man they just keep taking away her agency #man and it sucks cuz the dragon is so cool but mf shes forced to do it what she gonna do stay in the past and DIE? #idk man it just all feels hasty. makes me sad #and it sucks cuz a lot of shit shit is really cool and intresting but man idk i may become a botw zelda deserved a better weiter for her #becuase girl she needs a break. not saying chracters cant go through hardship #but there is something so nasty about the framing of youll never be anything but eveey past princess zelda trope and nothing more #instead of a crystal she turns into a dragon like guys this is the same as skyward sword but idk man is it werd to say #when Hylia does it aginst a thing that wants to steal the god triangles and is also a god its like yeah you had no other choice #how the fuck did one fuckass stone make ganondorf into a god like being you would think that like #mannwhy are the stones THAT powerful and why werent the other bitches able to take them down what because #did #did rauru give sonia the equivalent of the one ring at their wedding hey wait a fuck #sorry for all my spelling mistakes but what the fuck man

[qualiacumque]

broke: zelda should have stayed a dragon in totk

woke: zelda shouldn't have been made a dragon in the first place

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #sorry but her entire characterization in botw was frustration with the lack of agency implicit in being a chosen one #then in tears of the kingdom #when she should be able to finally enjoy some freedom to run her own life #she is made to lose all agency by shitty writing #either her botw characterization doesn't matter #or the totk writers thought zelda sacrificing her agency completely without protest for the sake of link was 'character growth' #either way they did her dirty #also so much of botw's plot was about her unlocking her goddess powers #and then they're never fucking mentioned in totk #i get that if she just zonked ganondorf with her powers then the game couldn't happen #but they shouldn't have written her into a situation like that in the first place

[blackstarchanx3new]

This idea for a later part in Four Swords Returns floats around in my head and I find it hilarious:

So you get to see it. X"D

Vaati (Still being lose) is completely enamored with the lovely princess Zelda, so he kidnaps her to be his bride.

Woops. He kidnapped Vio instead...However did that happen...

So Zelda dons the Vio persona and helps the other 4 (including Shadow Link) save the real Vio before he and Vaati are married.

Hilarity ensues.

#four swords manga #four swords #four swords adventures #loz #vio #Zelda is some sorts of trans/gender non conforming deal with it #There is no cis explanation for sheik no matter how hard nintendo tries #she just has the boy potion btw lmao #I want Zelda to adventure with the boys and this is what I came up with lmao #I wanna give this girl some damn agency she ain't the one being saved. X'D #vio and her have so much in common tho #they're both smart and like archery! #genderfluid zelda genderfluid zelda-

[metanarrates]

it's interesting to think about like conservative worldviews because they clearly don't think this role is demeaning to zelda. like if you don't believe in the feminist project and liberation and stuff it SEEMS empowering to say that zelda has to be kidnapped or depowered because she's too powerful, because she's so strong the game wouldn't happen if something didn't take her out of the plot or because ganon targets her first and ignores link because he's so weak as to be beneath his notice. this is clearly nonsense but i think that's the rationale that makes zelda function, that actually she IS powerful, just so long as it doesn't risk emasculating link

honestly i don't think empowering even enters into the equation 😭😭 its more that her power is a) in the domain of Womanly Things and b) honestly part of what makes her a desirable goal in the plot. she is a Cool Power Up and her power is an excuse to place her in the position of a contested object to be saved. like i don't actually think her character/personhood matters in the series, with a few exceptions 😭😭😭 she just really isn't thought about that much by the writers. demeanment or empowerment don't matter much when a character exists to be a plot device

#narrates #zelda #the series IS not very character driven so it kind of makes sense that link is usually the only guy with agency in the plot #but like.... this is absurd. she's the title character. the last two games HAVE tried to go stronger on characterization for its cast. #why did she get dragoned for 100000 years. what the fuck.

[ladyrijus]

what i absolutely love about the tears of the kingdom trailers is that they do not give us too much to figure out the whole plot of the game, but enough to assure us that our doubts are unfounded and enough to get us thoroughly excited!

#there were so many critiques i had seen #some feared that the game favored gameplay mechanics over storyline #others feared that zelda would lose agency #and look at the trailers #we got creative gameplay mechanics bombass storyline AND zelda agency #like this game is gonna be good guys they pushed back the release for a reason #loz #legend of zelda #totk #tears of the kingdom

[miharuhebinata]

it is beyond frustrating to see the loz series so dedicated to going in such a new & innovative direction in regards to gameplay, yet still so stagnant in regards to the story. like, sorry to be that person but the fact that it's 2023 & you STILL can't play as zelda in any of the main games is mind-boggling to me. even in totk, a major part of the story still revolves around rescuing- sorry, finding her. she has such a deep meaningful story (which is a step in the right direction, for sure!), but the player can only experience it secondhand as link. she is allowed to be a companion character, but only for the first 5 minutes of the 100+ hours you can spend in the game, as a little teaser for the OTHER companions you get much later (who pretty much all suck except tulin & sort of yunobo, but that's another post). we see her sacrifice, but we only get small snippets of the experiences that led up to that sacrifice. she is put through so much trauma & has to make this impossible choice, & we don't even get to grieve her properly or tell anyone what became of her. & by the end of the game, it doesn't matter because she's back to her regular old self, same as she was before she swallowed the stone, with no lasting physical or mental effects whatsoever, because why should her sacrifice actually have any meaning outside of how it served link? & before anyone argues with me for saying that, yes obviously it did have meaning outside of how it served link. but the way she is restored in the most ridiculous deus ex machina i've ever seen in a zelda game cheapens it severely. everything magically gets fixed by rauru & sonia, & just like link's arm, zelda is left no worse for wear, because of course we can't possibly have our main characters permanently changed by any of these horrific events they've lived through, oh no nothing like that.

link saves the day & gets rewarded with the beautiful princess.

this IS the basic story of almost every single zelda game & you can split hairs all you want, but it's the same with totk as well & i'm just so beyond sick of it. i think zelda (the character AND the series as a whole) deserves so much better than that.

#i'm not gonna pretend like the plots of most loz games aren't still good. especially botw/totk (although i prefer botw). because they are! #but i don't understand why they seem to be so stuck in this mindset of keeping zelda as a side character instead of letting her actually... #oh i don't know...do stuff? at least in botw/totk she's been given a more realistic personality than she's ever been afforded in other game #& she actually has some agency. but... what does that *really* mean when it still amounts to link having to rescue her? #i just want them to give her a character arc that we (either playing as her or as link) get to experience alongside her. #i feel like she's earned at least that much. but that would require nintendo to actually give a shit about her as a character #separate from link so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ guess i'll just fuckin die then lmao #princess zelda #c: the silent princess #c: princess of hyrule #the legend of zelda #tloz: totk #totk spoilers #totk posting #🎮 tag #this is worded so badly but i;m posting it anyway idc 😘 #send tweet

[ganondoodle]

is it too much of a reach to say that zelda being reduced to basically an object to farm items from in totk just kinda adds more salt to the wound of how badly shes treated?

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #totk #i know im nitpicking #but i have talked about the big problems alot already #and now i start to see the smaller thingy that dont feel good #i guess you could see it as well if she wasnt farmable for items it would be weird compared to the other dragons #or that you are supposed to realize that you have been farming items from your best friend the whole time is to mean something #or maybe its just a game mechanic #i knew super early that the dragon was zelda #and when i saw i need items from her to upgrade my armor i was like .... im not gonna shoot out heR TEETH WTF #good thing she remembers nothing i guess #so she doesnt have to cope with the fact that link kept shooting off her scales - claws - teeth and horns #god i just want to see her have agency for once #and no i dont count begging unnamed faceless champion mcguffin guys to do a swear or dragonfying herself when she had no other option #thats not a character moving the plot but the plot shoving around a character imo #i want to see her go around HER hyrule and talk to people- solve mysteries- get more competent at defending herself- actively doing anythin #gnawing on wood as we speak

[thebreathofthewild]

the zelda amiibo is, of course, absolutely beautiful... but i wish she didnt look sad in it. because THIS is how i remember the scene its referencing. THIS face. an expression of sheer power and determination. she accepts her duty not with sadness, but with courage. this is the face of sheer will that echoes through time.

#totk #totk zelda #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom #princess zelda #this is how i will always remember zelda in this game - not a sad damsel quietly accepting a duty someone else forced on her #but a power player with agency who braves danger and sacrifice because she wants to. nobody expects her to do this. but she does.

[golvio]

This video about the set design for Phantom of the Opera has me thinking about design engineering, and how it contrasts with regular engineering, and how that demonstrates the contrast in design philosophies between the Sheikah/Princess Zelda and Ganondorf himself.

The Sheikah design philosophy revolves around their spiritual idea that destiny governs everything, that everything was created with a purpose. To that end, the things they designed tended to be very pragmatic and illustrative. The Shrines themselves were designed with this ethos, each building being built for a specific purpose first and foremost. The decorations of their buildings were mostly focused on reproducing the world and cosmos in microcosm, not as something that distracts from the building’s intended purpose, but in order to explain to viewers in the know how this particular structure fits into Hylia’s Grand Design. Zelda herself is very pragmatically minded, attempting to reverse-engineer this ancient technology, or at least understand how it works well enough to reproduce it. She can be a very passionate, emotional person, but she’s not so hung up on aesthetics or trying to figure out “what it all means,” just “how does this work?” No frills, no artifice, just straightforward and to the point.

Contrast that with Ganon. After hearing a bunch of theorists describe Calamity Ganon as something akin to Puppet Ganon from Wind Waker, it clicked into place for me. Ganon is a set design engineer, rather than just a guy working in a workshop to build machines like the Royal Research Lab. His creations weren’t just built to fulfill a purpose, but to communicate something. The purpose his creations serve, while important, is secondary to that desire to communicate a concept, to produce a specific effect in his audience, even if the only thing he wanted to communicate was his contempt for Hyrule and its people.

“The Calamity” is a coup de theatre: this great big spectacle designed to produce a specific impression in the people of Hyrule. In this case, the desired impression was mass panic. Ganon purposefully obfuscated his methods in order to give the impression that “Calamity Ganon” was this vast, incomprehensible force of nature that could not be predicted or countered. Once you start seeing what he’s working with, as you start making connections between the Malice and whatever that ectoplasmic substance the Ultrahand is working with actually is, the actual mechanisms he used turn out to be relatively simple. He just relies on optical illusions and hiding his tricks in order to make things seem more vast and terrifying than they actually are, like how Bjornson used foreshortening to make the chandelier look like this perfect reproduction of the Garnier opera house’s chandelier when it was actually just a flat oval that could fit in the tiny theater and wasn’t as much of a pain for the stagehands to transport, raise, and lower as a perfect 1:1 scale reproduction would’ve been.

And then with Ganon’s takeover of the Guardian tech, he injects this design philosophy into the stuff he’s working with. A lot of what makes the Possessed Guardians so scary is the musical/sound cues associated with them, as well as their body language that suggests a cold, driven, purposeful hostility. Without that, they’re just big goofy buckets with legs. Just compare the Guardian you see in the castle flashback that’s unaccompanied by the iconic, anxiety inducing heartbeat of the “Guardian” music, being gently prodded along in a certain direction by soldiers with the Guardians you’d see patrolling Central Hyrule 100 years later. Ganon doesn’t just want an ambulatory robot that shoots lasers. He wants his war machines to intimidate, to terrify, to make their targets so scared that they freeze in fear (and coincidentally become much easier to hit). The Blights, too, were designed with this aesthetic of fear in mind. They’re also designed to suggest Ganon’s present, even if the artist himself is technically absent.

The desired effect is to establish the omnipresence and frightfulness of Ganon himself, to terrorize his targets, and to communicate his general contempt. He is concerned with the aesthetics of power, as opposed to just having impressive weapon specs. The Guardians by themselves are already potentially dangerous and destructive, as all weapons of war are, but Ganon needs to take it further, injecting his personality into each one he touches to turn them into a tool of communicating his will in addition to just weapons he tries to use to destroy Link/Zelda.

In summary, their general philosophies are like this:

The Sheikah: This is the world, this is how it works. Everything was made to serve a purpose, and this building, too, has a purpose. It was built to fit into this grand cosmic design we depict on its walls.

Ganondorf: I Want These Cretins To Pee Themselves In Terror When They Gaze Upon My Works. Let Them Hate Me, So Long As They Fear Me.

#long post #legend of zelda #loz thoughts #totk spoilers #totk thoughts #botw #totk #ganondorf #the sheikah #princess zelda #i have been listening to lingua ignota's 'caligula' again and that was one of the things that's got me thinking about #the aesthetics of power #and in particular how that factors into abuse and trauma and reactions to trauma #with regards to ganondorf and the nature of his lashing out against hyrule as implied by his japanese speech #and how lingua ignota herself depicts her response to abuse as coopting those aesthetics of power #in order to communicate her rage and grief and retake control of her own body and agency #the bombastic speech of 'butcher of the world' set against the backdrop of the sample of wendy carlos' score for clockwork orange #as opposed to the more hushed intimate 'deathdealer' that uses the exact same lyrics but communicates something more intimate #this juxtaposition of power and rage versus grief and vulnerability within the same character as they try to process their trauma #that i find really interesting

[scopophobia-polaris]

I think there are a lot of criticisms you can give to people who portray hylia as just evil especially when they project that onto any zelda, and end up sounding like complete misogynists. you can like evil women without sounding like textbook misogynist! not saying that you or your anons have done it I'm just venting at the tumblr fandom at large especially when they portray link as a man who can't do no wrong. plus the post was about morally GRAY hylia and not just Evil God Woman

Okay

#maybe its just me and the fact i got a......good chunk of the fandom blocked #but it seems like fandom majority is to declaw hylia and make her a damsel and then yell at people who wanna like.... #give her flaws #or fucking agency in her fight against demise #idk man most people sympathize with the fact that zelda seemed to be ignored by hylia straight up in botw then they do about link's #suffering anymore maybe thats just me but yeah #idk ive had more trouble with hylia has never done anything wrong ever and if you support the goddess doing fucked up things sometimes youre #a misogynist then i have ever seen people unironically saying hylia is evil in canon #honestly if this was about YONA I WOULD FUCKING AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY LIKE IM SORRY BUT WHAG HAPPENED AFTER THAT GAME DROPPED WAS ASSSSSSSS #i know yona didnt have a personality i know shes just supposed to be the love intrest but instead of getting mad at a fictional chracter idk #why these dudes didnt turn on nintendo for constalty writing the concept of an intresting woman and then #not writing anything #totk was really bad aboht this one #ACTUALLY TOTK FUCKED OVER HYLIA YALL SAW THAT RIGHT #one minute im done writing in the tags i gotta make a post send me fun anons next time im sick of fandom drama

[blueskittlesart]

i agree that we likely wont get playable zelda but ill be lowkey disappointed if the game starts and they just immediately fridge her until the end of the game 😭😭😭 like at least make it like impa in botw where we can visit ☹️

i really. wish that the formula that these games have relied on since 1986 didn't require zelda getting fridged halfway through the game at the very least. but the way the lore is written combined with the 35-year precedent of this formula makes it. genuinely very difficult to deviate from it. sequels definitely have some leeway but a lot of sequels in this franchise elect to just... remove zelda entirely instead of having to figure out how to write her into a game when she's not the mcguffin. it sucks but like. i do kinda understand the deviation to the formula bc it really just makes the game instantly recognizable to longtime fans and takes away some of the learning curve that might be there otherwise

#like i don't like it anymore than the rest of you but i do kinda understand that the formula is important to the overall context of loz #and it HAS to be followed to a certain extent in order for the game to 1. fit into the overarching lore #and 2. be recognizeable as a zelda game. this franchise thrives on repetition. its entire lore is based around cycles of reincarnation #it is the same story over and over again by design #and like. does that EXCUSE the way zelda is often fridged or ignored in her own games?? no. #but like. when i was writing sword of fate i encountered this problem #it's SO difficult to give her agency in a story whose formula relies on her lack of agency to progress #asks

[sun-marie]

Out of the original four champions, Revali is the best character specifically because he doesn't think highly of Link and isn't convinced by a shiny relic saying he's special

#and I'm tired of pretending otherwise lmao #off the heels of the last reblog bc it crops up in multiple games and multiple fandoms #people act like a character disliking the main character is somehow an offending the player #when it's literally just. conflict. which is a good thing in a story #“Oh I can't stand Revali bc he hates Link and he's rude and arrogant” you mean bc he has agency and character flaws?? #baffling take imo that I feel like I saw EVERYWHERE when the game first came out #to be clear I also love the other three champions and link and zelda #(the shiny relic isn't WRONG about Link) #but if Revali wasn't the way he is BotW would not be as engaging imo #marie speaks

[nycteres]

ok u can like zelda, love zelda but to act like totk was femenist praxis and centers her in her own narrative rather than just, has her exist there, as backstory, is a bit of a reach lmao

#saw a post with a stance similar to this and im ???? #i dont mind zelda #i think botw version of her was fun and selfish and a teenager dealing with a lot of big resposabilities #but the series has never given the vibe of being about zelda as much as it is about #fridging zelda #lmao #like shes just trapped keeping ganon at bay until botw link comes in #shes trapped in totk again until the plot finds a way to bring her back to the player #she displays more agency in that she chose to put herself in those situations for the greater good to a certain extent #but shes never granted as much agency as link and i think to phrase it like she is not exactly true imo #ofc female characters can be strong without fighting or being in combat #but zelda isnt even wilfully abstaining #shes just not there #bc the whole point of her in the franchise is to not be there #she's princess peached by design #shrugs loudly #txt.wav

[wizardtiger]

I'm ngl the longer it's been since I've played TOTK the less I like it I think

#do not get me wrong i think the game is fun to play and that was like 80% of where my concern lied #but godddd the story sucks so bad. i love the draconification bit with zelda but the rest. augh #why do we need Another ancient civilization literally appearing out of nowhere and infesting hyrule with its ruins #they got rid of all the sheikah stuff with literally no explanation to shove the zonai into the region #but why are we even focusing on the ancient civilizations again???? #it would have made so much more sense to focus on hyrule in the present day. work with the npcs to make hyrule greater than it was #move on from the calamity and turn hyrule into a strong bustling country #the zonai were hinted at in botw but they feel so shoehorned in because they have nothing to do with anything in botw #i dont care about the secret stones we had champion abilities #i dont care about the sages the champion descendants had the champions to look up to #i dont care about rauru and sonia because sonia got fridged hard and rauru's character is flat. pleasant but flat #and i dont care at all about ganondorf because the most interesting thing he ever does is do the gmod face #its so frustrating watching the same 'woah secret stones! sages??' cutscene 4 times with Da New Sages and its so frustrating #watching the other characters speculate what happened to zelda and chase down her ghostly paper trail #when like. i can see her in the sky. she's over there guys #the memories were one of my favorite things in botw bc they all subtly stitched together the story of what happened #in totk they are incredibly plot dense and very linear and very confusing to watch out of order. which is easy to do #the one where sonia gets murked is like. the third memory i found #id at least be more interested in all the zonai stuff if link was the one to get teleported to the past while zelda has to try and save him #giving zelda agency. craziest thing they could have done #ok sorry this is a Lot of salt but just. raaaaagh #maybe my expectations were astronomical but outside of gameplay totk brings nothing good to the table imo #i'd significantly rather they made botw2 more gameplay focused where you can do something like make meaningful changes to the map #tarrey town style #than try to shove a whole different zelda game's plot into a carefully constructed preexisting world #i think the zonai story would be cool in its own game but not botw