#i wanted this game to get into GANON'S side of the story | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rawliverandgoronspice · 11 months

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Okay so this has been on my mind for awhile and I wanted to get my thoughts out there. Regarding the topic of Rauru and Ganons relationship, I feel like rauru has kinda been bashed? people seem think that rauru in memory 6 (I believe) had a bit of a god complex, and that he was disrespectful. I feel as if rauru kinda had a right to act the way he did.

Rauru had wanted to become Allie’s with the gerudo. Not necessarily because he wants them to serve him but more for resources. Or more likely knowing Ganon he was attacking hyrule. The reason why I suspect this is because during the molduga incident rauru and Sonia seem to be very familiar with theses types of attacks. So it’s likely Ganon had ordered monster attacks on them before. Likely the attacks were getting to much for rauru and Sonia to handle; on top of establishing hyrule, rauru sent out messages for Ganon to join the kingdom in order to stop the attacks. Or another reasoning is that the gerudo were likely suffering. Ganon has been shown to not always prioritize his people. And knowing from past games the gerudo desert doesn’t have much resources. We can kinda see this in Totk they seem to only have hydromelon and voltfruit (I highly doubt that the gerudo had men at the time bringing them food from hyrules fields). If you’ve talked to rauru on the sky islands you’ll know that rauru is actually a very sweet and sympathetic guy, so I believe this could be a possibility.

Moving forward to raurus attitude during their meeting.Now rauru wasn’t exactly the nicest during the meeting, but I don’t really blame him. Rauru probably annoyed that ganon has been ignoring his letters and putting his people in danger. Also Ganon was very sketchy during that entire meeting and was rude in his tone.

Why did Ganon bow? Ganon and rauru are not equal, yes they are both kings but rauru has massive amounts of power and has a much larger land mass. (and zonia are kinda gods) but I don’t think the reasoning for Ganon bowing is because he less than or non equal to rauru. More like he was apologizing and giving rauru respect for the countless times he’s ignored him or tried to kill him.

More of raurus tone in the meeting Again I think he was really fed up with Ganon and rauru seems very non confrontational (he apologizes in the sky islands that the constructs attack link, and ask link not to be angry because they can’t understand) rauru likely wanted it to get into ganons mind not to attack the kingdom again because rauru had a lot of Allie’s and power and will attack Ganon if he pulls a stunt.

Ganon vs the gerudo. This part is a little off topic but, lots believe rauru is low key kinda racist towards the gerudo. But if this was true why was gerudo sage working with rauru? I don’t think that the way rauru acts is how he acts to all gerudo. The sage of lighting very obviously doesn’t like Ganon. The reasoning could be my first point. And later on after the imprisoning war the gerudo still stuck with hyrules side.

That’s all I have for right now, sorry if it’s all jumbled up I tried to make it coherent. Anyways I appreciate you for reading this :3

-🔺

Hi, thanks for the lengthy ask!! I'm sorry for the lengthy answer this beckoned, but I think this conversation is pretty important --even beyond Zelda and this specific case. We're talking themes and tropes and framing!!!!

I will try to reply to all of this in a way that kind of threads through several layers of why people have been bashing Rauru, me included. I will try my best to explain why I dislike this character, and try to parse out why I am this miffed by Tears of the Kingdom's storyline overall.

The long story short is: I don't dislike Rauru as a person (I mean, I also would tbh), I dislike him because of what he represents.

I think the waters did muddy a little in the "discourse" recently, and it's a good thing to take a step back and re-explain where I'm coming from (me personally, not going to speak for anyone but me here).

Also, before jumping in: this is not a condamnation on anyone who enjoys this story or these characters, nothing is unproblematic, it's fine, everybody does what they want, all of the things. I like the game and I keep playing the game in spite of being harshly critical of the ideas pushed forward. Also: it's fine to digest this and come back later (or not at all) if that feels like a lot, or if some of these ideas don't immediately click. But it's also partially why I think it's important: this game is aimed at a young audience, and one who might not have all of the keys to decipher what's going on, which is why I think it's quite irresponsible (which is the charitable interpretation) on Nintendo's part.

Anyway. Too many words underneath the cut.

The Story

So, first of all, I want to say that I believe you completely and fully read the situation as Nintendo intended it to be read. This is the text of the game (aka, the story taken at face value). You picked up on every single safeguard put into place to have Rauru and Sonia act in the most justifiable way possible, and have Ganondorf, on the other hand, act as a duplicitous, power-hungry and downright insane as they could have made him. In the reality of their universe, and only taking into account what is given to us through the narrative, trusting it comes from a neutral place and isn't influenced by anything, everything you said is 100% correct.

Rauru and Sonia WERE acting in self-defense, and were even kind not to turn their incommensurable power against the invading army.

The kingdom Rauru built as a demigod IS a paradise and they WERE very generous to invite neighboring nations to bask in their wealth and its technological and natural blessings (and the results of their extensive mining and why are there killer robots everywhere if this world was such a peaceful paradise uhh let's not ponder about this too much). That Ganondorf was too prideful and envious to accept IS a sin that rests solely with him.

Rauru IS a brave hero that sacrificed himself to seal the invader that killed his beloved wife.

Every single Sage IS extraordinarily devoted to protect both Rauru's lineage and their own lands, and gleefully pass down that duty to their ancestors --all thanks to Zelda, heir of that blessed royal line who returned to the past and made them promise to fight alongside Link to seal the Evil once more.

The gerudo WERE (apparently) oppressed, as they decided to fight under Rauru's authority freely (so against their own chief??) and, also, must make amends for having put Ganondorf in this world in the first place? ( I think we are already starting to see some contradictions --were you always victims or did you start this conflict in the first place? what is your place in all of this? why don't we ever get to know?)

This IS the story of Tears of the Kingdom. A story of a great sacrifice that happened in the golden mythical past (confirmed as unquestionable truth through the archeology motif), done by benevolent godly figures of royal blood and immense power they would never abuse, giving their everything to bring Light into a broken world corrupted by the degeneracy of Evil, echoed by the devotion of nations who swore fealty to that divine being and must now renew their vow in the present to defend their lands and Hyrule at any cost. Also, the impossible and magnificient suffering of the princess, whose tears lead to a trail of truth into the very land, informs the current population about why they're fighting now; she's at once a hero of the past and a martyr in the present, completely incapable of acting on her own, carrying with her the blade that will slay the crushing and violent sway of Evil for good and bring eternal peace into the land (Evil who uses her own appearance to cause chaos and violence against her own people --the blasphemy!!). The title of the game reflects this too: the Tears of the Kingdom are hers. Zelda is the kingdom here, and her pain/the pain of that mythical past is what is centered.

Also Ganondorf IS green so it's not racist okay let's stop right here and unpack all of this mess, because BOY oh boy oh boy oh boy.

oh boy.

The History

Now comes the time to point out the obvious, but that bears being repeated: this is a fictional story. It's a story crafted by a very powerful game company set in Japan. It's a story crafted by a huge number of people, who debated for years how to best tell it, why, and what for. Every single choice made in the narrative is purposeful, has been weighted against other options, and was picked over what could have been virtually anything else. Again, I want to state that I don't know if any single person took these decisions, probably not entirely, and it's even possible Nintendo didn't realize (I doubt it heavily tbh, but I'm sure there are people in the team that didn't get it or didn't see the issue), but a certain kind of story was crafted in the end, and it's the one we got.

One word that has been tossed around a lot as far as TotK's story goes is ✨ imperialism ✨, and I want to pause and take a second to analyse exactly what we mean by that and why I think it's painfully relevant here (and, honestly, I think another word would be very very relevant here also, but it's the kind of word you keep for after you're done with your argumentation not to scare off the unconvinced audience --but, to anyone who reads and might have picked it up already, yeah.)

In our real world of Earth 2023™, we have seen quite the number of extraordinarily powerful nations becoming gradually larger, engulfing neighbors, breaking apart, and leaving the buds of new future empires behind them. Hell, there's a number of them existing right now, even if they don't call themselves empires and don't have literal emperors at their head anymore (though Japan does, and it is important here). Of course, no nation, especially nations striving for expansion, worldwide legitimacy in culture and power, and their own understanding of "greatness", would ever call themselves anything but enlightened and justified. After all, the Roman Empire brings aqueducts and infrastructure to the lands they conquer, China unifies disparaging regions struggling under constant barbaric attacks, France and Spain converts local populations of the "New World" and save their souls from eternal damnation (wow thanks guysss), the British Empire brings industrial revolution uhhh everywhere please don't ask what was the cost, Africa sure loves everybody ripping their culture and lands apart and were so super glad to receive whatever "civilization" is supposed to mean when their literal people were being pillaged away to keep on building said empires using their blood as mortar, the URSS protects neighboring nations from the Evil Capital/West, fascists want to purge the world of anything they consider impure, the US brings freedom to the world and the whole world is grateful forever!!!

Everyone always has an excuse, and everyone is always kind of semi-mandated by God (in the largest possible sense; divine responsibility would perhaps be more appropriate, it's kind of the idea that with great power comes responsibility, while defining what responsibility means and inflicting their conclusions to conquered lands to squeeze even more value out of them) to do whatever the hell they want to others, claim their lands, their bodies, their minds, their culture --and demand gratefulness on top of it all to avoid having to feel bad.

There is a large body of fictional works that are dedicated to boister the image of the Empire. Every single empire has a number of them; their goal is often to mythologize, in some form or another, the story of their expansion. It often flattens every nuance, paints the actions of the empire as the natural order of the world and its opposition as morally malignant, their leaders are charismatic, benevolent, powerful and self-sacrificial. Often, it invokes previous empires to cast the current one as inheriting a grace that was tragically lost and must be restored through war, hard work, and healthy natality --I'll dip into the forbidden comparaison but Nazi Germany loved its greek myths of Sparta and Athens (and modern day fascists still do), or the Napoleon Wars so they could retell the story of their own empire by invoking a legacy of moral diligence and ethnical greatness being restored. But the pattern is often very similar: we used to be Great, a tragic event due to both external invasion and internal corruption precipitated our golden age into chaos and degeneracy, and now we must fight off current day corruption to restore the Glory of the old times we lost --all of this under the benevolent gaze of our leaders, whose mission is a direct or indirect intervention of divinity into mortal lives. It is righteous and glorious to fight/die for the nation (and its leaders) and protect it from the uncivilized, who are inhuman and exist solely to trick us, corrupt us, attack us and assimilate/destroy us.

Are we starting to notice some similarities here :) :) :)

The Narrative

There's two conversations running in parallel here.

The first one is the least important in my opinion, even though it's the one we tend to focus on a lot as theorists/enthusiasts/enjoyers of media: is Rauru oppressing the gerudos, and does that inform Ganondorf's actions?

Honestly? Textually? Probably not.

There are arguments to be made (and that deserve to be made) about the insane power imbalance, there are a lot of suspicious aspects that deserve to be picked apart like the address and deference of Ganondorf towards Rauru, the whole mining thing that I don't see being discussed much but could be a huge part of it --there are ancient mines in the gerudo region after all; since when? what's the history here?-- the strange masks the Sages are to wear when Zelda, as a direct descendant, isn't wearing any, etc etc. Lots of other posts have been made about the million tiny red flags that litter the game, but I think that if we take the game at face value, they barely matter. I would love them to have been placed with intent (and they maybe were as a desperate attempt by an employee trying to inject grayness back in the equation and if that's the case I SEE YOU random gamedev and I love you and you did the best you could <3), but to me that's more a case of wishful fan thinking (including mine tbh) that any concrete argument that the story is secretely about Rauru being imperialist and this costing him everything. There are some hints of a more nuanced world (the Horned God, the Bargainers, that some NPCs are invested in monsters are creatures worthy of study and awe --tho almost all of them ridiculed in some form), but these demand that you go out of your way to collect them and make the connection yourself. Can this even qualify as subtext? As in: the story under the story? As much as I wish this was the case, I don't think so. We can't make the case that it's a simple story for children that isn't trying to say anything grand while also demanding people to make insane mental gymnastics on their own, without any help on the game's part, for it not to be a blatant endorsement of imperialist thinking.

(especially not the kind of game that repeats 3 different times back to back that Sidon didn't talk to Yona because he was afraid to lose her like he lost Mipha --honestly what's up with this writing I don't get it, BotW didn't act like its players' brain was this unplugged, ANYWAY)

The story is about Ganondorf being duplicitous and monstrous and destroying the beautiful kingdom of the past, and us preserving our modern day kingdom from its corrupting influence by recruiting allies and friends in that fight. We are given a plethora of situations that paint him as inhumanely cruel and chaotic, and none that breath even the suggestion of a critique towards our heroes. He's evil: we must stop him.

Now comes the second conversation, and one I think is more important: is this entire storyline built off imperialist tropes that were created to oppress and exploit marginalized populations in real life while justifying the violence inflincted upon them?

In my opinion, yes. Undeniably so.

I am not so much invested in Rauru being racist towards Ganondorf; I am invested in the real life Nintendo videogame being racist towards the idea that Ganondorf represents: the scary foreigner that will lead to the fall of civilization if we let him in.

(and perhaps this was Rauru's hubris all along: to believe he could let a scary (male) foreigner in and then trust him to remain docile.... a little too much. And then he reaped what he sowed.

checkmate liberal.

This makes an uncomfortable amount of sense and I kinda hate having made the connection tbh)

This is especially true when it's the second time around that this exact storyline is represented, and I believe it to be much more insidious this time around --because now, gerudos are our friendssss and feel great shame and personal responsibility towards that aspect of them that once rebelled. Meanwhile in OoT, a majority of them were onboard with Ganondorf as their leader and explicitely did not want to be assimilated in the kindgom (Nabooru being specifically painted as one of the exceptions). I go more in depth about all of this in this pre-TotK post about gerudo culture. We had plenty of conversations about orientalism and islamophobic representation in videogames since; it was A Thing at the time, the turn of the century was particularly egregious in that regard. But It's not 1998 anymore, and I personally believe it's pretty inexcusable to rethread that same ground beat by beat without batting an eye at any of its implications (especially since they have done better since; even Twilight Princess, who gave him very little grace overall, dared to criticize hylians through Midna, Zelda and even Zant --and Wind Waker towed the line rather beautifully between the part of him that was human and the part that was monstrous, and the tragedy of these two cancelling each other out constantly). I was expecting much, much better than what we got --I didn't even dare to imagine they would just double-down on that aspect and make a worse version of Ocarina of Time to reintroduce the character.

This is also partially why I'm so uncomfortable with the green skin situation: can you imagine how this scene would have felt like, with the single brown-skinned guy having a central role in the game kneeling in front of a white old man with a droopy mustache (which was Rauru's first iteration in the series, and the one I always keep in mind when having these conversations) and his blonde wife, and Zelda being "hmmm he's evil for sure"? And then he 100% is, with no justification or reason beyond an urge to consume the entire world --even this, which is not uninteresting, remaining completely unexplored in a 150+ hour open-world game that decided to focus on everything under the sun EXCEPT Ganondorf's motivations and his relationship to his own people? Can you imagine how obvious of a racist caricature Ganondorf would have been just by keeping his skin a normal brown (not to pretend he's not already super coded as Foreign in every possible way)? The man is intimidating, uncomfortable to be around, he's greedy and power-hungry, he's insane, he comes for our lands and our women and oppresses his own and also corrupts everything through either infiltration or literal disease. Also he's uhhh the Devil, for good measure.

As much as we can rationalize and embrace these parts of who he is as fans, there's no ignoring how icky this entire situation really is.

So, to tie everything together.

There are three readings of this game competing in my head.

The first one is: the textual interpretation. Rauru is self-sacrificial and a victim, Zelda is deeply brave and an icon of the empire's longevity and deep-rooted history, Ganondorf is utterly inhuman and must be destroyed at all costs. What the game says it is --and what it is.

The second one is: the critical interpretation. That this story sounds awfully convenient for the prosperity of the Empire (here the empire being Hyrule), paints Zelda, the current leader, in a weird fanficky way by literally sending her back to the past with her super cool ancestors and allowing a military victory in the present while also being a martyr to the cause and being much more of a symbol than a person, and nobody even bats a fucking eye in the direction that Hyrule might have been questionable in any way --everyone is so happy to be a vassal, see? Let's not unpack why the king of the zoras prefered hiding himself than facing the consequences of what would happen if Zelda really did attack him out of the blue (this plot point is insane, but its potential is too good so therefore it's illegal and immediately dropped). Let's not unpack the absolute insane amount of abuse false Zelda gets away with by virtue of acting as the princess of a sacred bloodline (but she's nice, right? because that's how you want to make a sure a ruler won't hurt you: praying they will be nice). There are enough red flags to doubt this world, its reality, the complexity of these people's inner lives. The rejection of the notion that any sort of flaw or problem could exist within the system makes it borderline dystopian in my opinion (especially when compared with BotW's Hyrule, which had problems who led to its own downfall and were the fault of nobody but their own actions as Ganon is portrayed more as a natural event than an actual, malicious person), and this is the first reason why I don't like Rauru: the entire world revolves around this goat-kangaroo-furry man's chiseled navel. Everyone is, quite literally, a faceless tool in the glorious and tragic story of his lost empire (or they're women here to become sacrificial objects serving the fights of men; or they're Ganondorf, who's a non-person and an antagonistic object lacking any interiority or humanity, and the narrative being completely uninterested in that), and only his bloodline and his vision for the future really matters. Not that Rauru thinks like this --but the game does. And so, it's hard for me not to see him as either the most narcissistic person ever if we accept him as the narrator of this story, or a flat propaganda machine built for an even greater cause (Hyrule, the Empire).

And then, the third one: that Nintendo would put out a game that is so deeply embedded in imperialist and orientalist language and tropes, so invested in its traditional and patriarchal values, so uncurious about the Other and so critical of it while refusing to look inward, is not neutral (yes even if the game is super fun and has other great qualities, I do believe this game is a monumental achievement in game/level design and in optimization/tech art while also being a trainwreck in quest and narrative design). This rethoric is not neutral, especially when addressed at the West at large --especially right now, with such a global uptick in traditionalist values overall, and Japan not exactly being spared. I won't pretend to be knowledgeable enough about Japanese history and culture to pick up all the little nuances of what is going on here, but I know enough to recognize that such stories do play out a certain understanding of this country's history, its fears and its difficulties to reconcile with its own (very recent) past as a colonialist empire --both the terrors it unleashed on others and the terrors that were unleashed upon it as it was dismantled. Instead of exploring that subject, every potential for nuance and conversation and self-criticism is slammed shut immediately, often at the cost of their own characters and the depth of their quest design/writing. The unearthed past agrees with its current understanding of itself; there is nothing discovered that leads to being questioned and reconsidered. Everything wrong is the fault of a single, corrupting entity that can be identified as Foreign and Other. There is a literal Heaven (zonai and civilized, Rauru's) and Hell (monstrous and corroding, Ganon's). None of this is neutral. Especially when infused in a game targeted for a young audience lacking context.

So I hope this very verbose answer helped a little to parse out what is being criticized at which level! Thank you for giving your thoughts, and I hope mine were clarifying to a degree.

I understand it can get a little confusing; but a lot of the urge not to take this scene at face value is born from the knowledge that nothing is ever that simple in real life, that these sort of self-serving narratives often hide horrific amounts of systemic harm underneath its perfectly curated presentation, and that, well. Some Zelda fans, especially the older generations that were invested in these characters and their re-imagining, expected Nintendo to be less..... like this.

And the wake-up call stings a little more than we would have liked.

(again obligatory disclaimer that I'm not saying TotK is Bad or should be Cancelled or that you're Bad for liking it --but it's still important to explicitly talk about how themes like these are being utterly glossed over when I don't think they would have been if they'd come out of a new IP, and not with the huge nostalgia cloud that envelops The Legend of Zelda and has people being extremely uncomfortable at criticizing the ideas the series can sometimes champion --though the series never veered in that direction nearly as hard before in my opinion)

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sheeparuu · 3 months

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I’ll call it Severed link au for now.

So I was always a sucker for a bad ending and I wanted to put out a few ideas cuz I thought it would be fun. Yes it started from Linked Universe since I’ve seen people make their own versions and I thought it would be cool to do it too. Also, English is not my first language.

Games I’ve finished:

1. Sky: Inheriting a god’s power after defeating them is not something Link would have expected to happen after stopping Demise. Still, if the corruption of his mind and body is not enough proof of that, his old home falling out of the sky might be.

2. Twilight: Having a pointy chunk forcefully jammed in one’s brain is bad, using it to keep switching between hylian and beast form is worse, loosing their mind the more they shift is the worst. At least he might be able to get a position as Ganon’s lap dog.

3. Wind: One would be surprised how hard it is to kill a parasitic entity, especially when it takes over your body as a host. Still, after such a gruelling fight, it might remain inactive for a long time, licking its wounds at the bottom of the sea.

4. Spirit: When the hero fails saving his best friend and end up having to swear allegiance to the demon lord inhabiting her body, everything seems to be going to hell. But having that fight with the said demon awaken something from the sea might be just as bad.

5.Wild: Sometime even if a friendly goat amputates your arm, it might not completely remove the malice from your blood stream, or stop it going to your brain. It might just slow it down enough for you to realize that something is taking over you from inside out.

Games I haven’t played/ finished but I tried to research:

6. Losing your uncle, the girl of your dream and having the path to Lorule closed might give someone things to grieve about. Hoarding magical items and knowledge for the purpose of “keeping the people you love safe” is also bad. Being swayed by the dark magic to the point where turning people into stone to “protect them” is, you guessed it, bad.

7. Time: Once a certain evil entity realizes that the kid carrying godness power is a better target than a mere Skullkid it might just have to switch hosts. Maybe if the other masks the “hero” carried weren’t splitting his mind like hair ends he could have stood a chance.

8. Four: Sometime allaying with the wrong side, even if you plan to change sides once you get the upper hand, might lead to actions that you can never forgive yourself for. And sometimes the shame grows to the point you can’t even face the three other versions of yourself, even when they are fighting the big bad of your world. And sometimes when they lose, you might feel the most vulnerable you’ve ever been.

9.Warriors: Maybe if the portals Cia chose to open lead to worlds were the heroes won their adventures, the story would have been different. Maybe if she never realized that Link wouldn’t be hers, even by force, she wouldn’t have turned him into a puppet king. Maybe if his mind wasn’t completely aware of everything around him, while being completely disconnected from his body he wouldn’t have had to agonize like this.

10. Hyrule: Sometimes when a the kindness and heroism of a child is rejected by the entire world and the cult that’s following him takes a much more manipulative approach instead of trying to kill him, it might just end much worse for the common man.

Notes: I always liked the idea that heroes are not purely good and always getting the good ending, and that if their life had just enough differences they would have failed/turned to the dark side. I mostly thought it would be cool for the characters to have a “failed” version and in my head they could serve as a “self discovery journey” for the og heroes. Like having to compare yourself with your worst version would cause some major introspection.

P.S: Yes I added Spirit since I think he and Wind could have some really cool dynamics. Also if someone already did the idea before me I'd like to know.

#loz #loz link #legend of zelda #my art #digital art #fanart #au idea #loz au #loz fanart #linked universe #lu #not sure it fits the lu tag entirely but was inspired by it

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blueskittlesart · 1 year

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i would love to hear how youd want to do a botw manga

YEAAAAAAHHHHH ok ok ok so. i would have the manga follow largely the same structure as the game, beginning with link waking up on the great plateau. he would go through the opening segment almost the same as the game, but with a little more emphasis on the physical toll that the shrine has taken on him (notably i'd frame the old man's baked apple as his realization that he's HUNGRY, that his body feels physically weak and untrained after 100 years of sleep.) i would also place a lot of emphasis on the eeriness of the plateau and the fact that link feels he SHOULD remember these locations but doesn't. the plateau segment would otherwise be very game-compliant, including the shrines, tower, temple of time, and the old man's cabin as spotlighted locations. the key difference here would be that instead of the gameplay mechanic where shrines give link something physical that makes the game easier for the player, they would instead be framed as training exercises which, while lacking material reward, would help him retrain his body and regain the strength he lost in the 100 years he was asleep.

after leaving the plateau the general structure of the game would be loosely followed, (impa > purah > divine beasts & memories > ganon) with a few key pieces of worldbuilding/side quests spotlighted along the way. the first major event after leaving the plateau for link would be his discovery of the dueling peaks stable, the first real indication of human society he's seen since waking up. this would be an important introduction to the society of hyrule post-calamity, and link would also get his first horse here, finding that he's strangely good with horses and perhaps getting a quick flash of a warm feeling, almost like an old friend :)

The memories would still be initially revealed to link via images within the sheikah slate, but unlike gameplay i wouldn't have link specifically seek out memories, instead i would have him stumble upon familiar locations while exploring, which i think is closer to the original intent of that feature. he would find each memory in order and they would play out very similarly if not exactly as they do in canon. the divine beasts and their quests would also play out largely like canon, with the exception of me retconning the transphobia out of the gerudo quest line. I also might like to spend a little more time on the legacies of each champion and how their losses are felt in their respective communities. they all have very strong characterization already and i would love to take the time to expand upon it a bit more!! the same goes for the NEW champions (sidon, teba, yunobo, and riju) i'd like to take some more time to expand upon their characters as well!

the sword-claim is the one thing that i don't fully know how to deal with. i think logically, it either has to come before all of the divine beasts, or after all of them. if i put it in before all of the beasts, it would require some gratuitous shrine training montages to convey how much work it takes link to get to the point where he's able to handle the master sword, which would break up the flow of the story and imo isn't very true to the gameplay which usually just has you explore shrines as you find them during your journey. the only other option, though, is to put it in AFTER the divine beasts, which may lessen the impact it has on the story if the only time he ever ends up using it is to defeat ganon. it sort of makes it into a deus ex machina instead of a pervasive element of the story in the way it is in the game. the way that i think i would deal with this is to have link hear about the master sword's legend from npcs as early as that first stable, and have him stumble into the lost woods BEFORE he has trained enough to be able to handle the sword. he finds it, learns what it is and that it's waiting for him, but he isn't able to claim it in his current state. this gives him a tangible goal to work towards for the rest of the story--a reason to continue entering shrines and growing stronger while he's doing divine beast quests. it also allows the master sword to remain present and active in the narrative without forcing link to get too strong too fast. THEN, when he's finished all the divine beasts, he can have a moment like, "i think i'm strong enough now. i'm prepared" and he can go BACK to the lost woods and successfully pull the sword and then go straight to ganon.

aside from the main quest line there are a few really good side quests i want to include as well, notably the kakariko yiga shrine quest and the hylian homeowner/tarrey town side quests. the former i just think is a very impactful storyline and nicely sets up the yiga as villains later on in the gerudo quest, and the latter is imo thematically important as a physical example of link rebuilding his life and watching hyrule continue to grow and heal despite the wreckage of the calamity. ideally this would be the last thing link does before facing the calamity; the wedding scene would end with link deciding the time has finally come for him to face ganon again, having found hope and community, knowing that no matter what happens hyrule will never be broken beyond repair.

the final battle would go similarly to canon, with callbacks to pieces of training link would have received earlier in the story--perfect parries, aerial archery, shield surfing, and all of the champion abilities would be highlighted during the battle, which would come to a triumphant end with ganon finally defeated and link and zelda reunited.

sooo yeah! largely canon-compliant but with certain aspects adjusted for readability. botw has such a strong narrative that it would actually be super easy to adapt imo but that might just be my opinion because i never think about anything else lol

#the same themes that we see in the game would be really prominent throughout this hypothetical manga obv #but in general i would just choose what to adapt and what to cut without changing too much actual story LOL #asks #OH I FORGOT TO PUT THIS IN THE POST BUT!!! link would be completely nonverbal for the plateau segment and would slowly regain speech #as the journey goes on. initiall he would assume this to be a side effect of the shrine of ressurrection but. well.#he'd learn the truth eventually

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luimagines · 6 days

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Hello Pinky I hope you missed me and my Lynel Farm!

I got an idea which would be hilarious! Reader is a Link! But not any Link no they are Wild and the Link from TotK! And they are a MENACE! Why?

Well, Reader can use glitches like Bullet-Time Bounce or clipping or Wacko-Boingo. They also wear the Tunic of Wild. But they came after TotK to the game and they can duplicate everything! And everything is maxed out of capacity they can't carry a single drop more. Their Purah Pad is about to explode! But then just imagine their meeting.

Legend: „Seriously does anyone know where the fuck we are?!“

Wind: „It looks like a forest.“

Reader used BTB and yeeted themself above the group with their shield on their feet just to shield surf the hill down with speed.

Sky: „What was that?“

„I want that too!!“ with that Wild shield surfed the hill down too.

Twilight: „I will go and get him...“

But the whole group follows as Reader is obviously someone who knows where to go. But as they see Wild and Reader standing there face to face. They are just stunned. They look the same! But Reader is missing an arm and has a mechanical arm instead. But these two seem to get along. This is how they learned that Reader is Wild practically but instead of doing all the Beast, gathering memories and the shrines to pull the sword. They instantly went after Ganon. They fought in their underwear and some Weapons they found on their way and sticks against the Calamity. They don't even know what a Master Sword is! They did the shrines after the Calamity.

But even if they are so bubbly and well wild. They don't talk about their journey and to Twilight. They felt betrayed by him. They needed him as they woke up in a shrine without any orientation or knowledge where they are and what happened. They just needed Wolfie by their side and to help them with their upcoming panic attack. They also don't trust the Chain immediately. They could be Yiga or puppets, sorry for Spoilers, like the Zelda which they chased after in the present. And if someone asks about their journey they only tell the stories of The Hero of Wild not the Hero of Ruins, who they are now. They turn cold and say with an icy tone „It's not your business!“

But Four should never see their weapons or he gets a heart attack. They got so many cursed weapons. But Reader is also freaking strong! Lifting a claymore is hard enough but a claymore fused with another claymore, that's heavy! They fused two Biggoron Swords together or two Dusk Claymores. They also hear the poes in the Depths and that's how they got the weapons. Thanks to the talking statues.

Reader also talks more to their horse and this one isn't small! Even Ganondorf's stallion is smaller than that. It's a giant white stallion and it stomps on everything that comes across their way! With the beautiful name "Thunder" because this thing has loud stomps! But since it's so tall it also takes great maintenance and that's Reader's therapy. When they take care of their giant, they don't feel the phantom pain of losing their arm or hear the whispers of the dead. Just the snorts of their horse and the brush. They also sleep with their horse but mostly on fields or caves as forests can have Evermeans and they want to sleep one time without an ambush from everything that wants their death!

Wild and Wild obviously are all around their giant horse. Four is all about their Lynel Sword collection, swords fused with lynel horns. Twilight tries to mend the bridge while they both are carrying about their horses. Legend and Hyrule ask about the sages and their abilities. Warriors and Time tries to get them comfortable enough so they share their journey. Sky teaches them about the Master Sword but they turn off as soon as he begins with Hylia. They are an atheist they don't believe in her.

The rings from Rauru as they lost their arm are built into the artificial arm as the sages gave them an oath of loyalty.

I feel like I understood about 50% of this because I know so little about Totk.

I know about the arm of course and the the cursed weapons! XD

Four would absolutely lose his mind about them. He freaked out when Wild broke his sword on a rock- just wait until that Reader attached a rock to their sword.

I don't know if they would even know who Wolfie is. If he was never there for them since BotW, then would they even know that Wolfie was someone who would have had to there anyway?

So it would be more like-

Wild: Wolfie was a great help to me when I needed him most the first time around. Reader: ...Who? Wild: The wolf... the wolf that followed me- us- you (?) around? Reader:.... Nope. I don't have a clue who you're talking about.

And another note, I do think that they wouldn't trust the chain off the bat though. You're right. They could be yiga in disguise. A new threat to the the land or to Zelda. There's just something off about them that Reader wouldn't have been able to tell what it was.

Especially since they might not even have all their memories anyway. If they did the shrines after Ganon, then who's to say they would have bothered with doing them all anyway? They coudl have just checked out a few, got bored and left it at that.

They might not have any of their memories and are perfectly fine that way.

#pinky replies #totk! reader #anon headcanons

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ratsnvermins · 15 days

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Now that it's been a year since ToTK was released I think I can finally put my thoughts together about it. Firstly, do I love this game? Absolutely. Do I also hate it? Yes.

There are so many times where I felt the game was completely inaccessible to me to the point where I took months off from playing it because of how frustrating it was as a disabled player who couldn't progress very far without straining myself for little to no reward. There were so many parts of the game where I had to question if they were even player tested. I kept thinking about how rushed everything felt despite how many years went into making the game.

The sage fights are extremely lack luster. The depths are meh and I didn't spend anytime in the sky Islands outside of the incredibly long tutorial. I might need to replay BoTW to see how much time is spent on the story but from what I remember in comparison with ToTK the main plot is executed far better (this will be the only time I compare the 2 as I feel it is best to view these games as completely separate outside of being a continuation of this timeline). I found myself more compelled by side quests than the actual plot.

I absolutely adore the idea of dragons in ToTK and was so excited that they gave us lore in this game. I just wish that there was more. We now know that dragons used to be people and are essentially suffering a fate worse than death, but we know nothing about the other dragons or attempt to save them. I wish the other dragons played a bigger role in the game. Maybe they could've helped in the Ganon fight idk but I feel like it was such a waste to not do more with them. In that same vein, WHY COULDNT WE PLAY AS ZELDA IN HER DRAGON FORM DURING THE GANON FIGHT WHY DID HER CHARACTER GET SIDELINED YET AGAIN????

Zelda continuously sacrifices herself for Link and vice versa. i would've loved for her sacrifice to have any merit outside of amnesia. She changed forms because she wanted to save Link why take away the depth of her sacrifice. I think there should've been a greater consequence for this sacrifice, and I'm not saying they don't deserve a happy ending by any means, but what was it all for?

Reminder that I do love this game, which is why I am so upset about how much wasted potential this game shows. Maybe I'll talk more on this later, but to close this off I'll say that Link and Zelda deserve to live a peaceful and domestic life and this game series means a lot to me.

#legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #link #zelda

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ocarinas-princess · 10 months

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Why Ocarina of Time's Princess Zelda is is underrated, and why she is one of the most tragic incarnations of Princess Zelda: an analysis post

Ocarina of Time's Princess Zelda is my favorite Zelda character, and on of my favorite characters ever. Sadly, she is not talked about that much. I've seen some people call her boring and I've actually seen quite a few people hate her due to her actions at the end of the game. I wanted to make a post analyzing her character and talking about some of the things about her that people overlook. I will be using the manga some here, which is not canon, but I encourage you to keep an open mind. I'm cross-posting this from twitter with a few changes and things I forgot to mention. The original thread can be found here.

We first see Zelda in the courtyard. We learn that she has prophetic dreams, and that her most recent ones have been about Ganondorf and the fall of Hyrule. So at the age of around 10 she’s already worrying about saving her kingdom from disaster. It’s far too much for a 10 year old to be worrying about. And you can see that she’s very concerned and that it’s all she’s been thinking about.

I’m going to assume that everyone knows the general story of Ocarina of Time, so I don’t need to explain every little detail. Long story short, Ganon attacks Hyrule castle and Impa takes Zelda and flees with her. It’s unclear exactly what he did but I think it’s likely she saw people die that day. Some guards maybe, or possibly even her dad. It’s heavily implied that her father is dead in the game. And in the manga Ganondorf straight up says that he killed him.

I’m going to take a second to talk about the people in Zelda’s life. It’s very clear how she trusts Link with all her heart and I don’t think I need to explain that one. But I do want to talk about Impa. Impa has known Zelda since she was a baby, and is Zelda’s attendant.

These two care about each other very much. Impa believes Zelda when she tells her about her dream. Zelda trusted Impa enough to confide in her. Also, Sheik later begs Link to save Impa, and Impa’s parting words are asking him to protect Zelda.

Apart from her Impa, I doubt Zelda had many other real connections in her life. Possibly a few guards? I doubt she was every able to go outside of the castle. In the manga we see that a part of her longs to be a normal girl.

A bit about Zelda’s personality. She’s adventurous and playful! When Link takes her letter to the Death Mountain guard, he makes a comment that Zelda has come up with games before!

We also see this side of her in the OOT manga. It’s clear she doesn’t like staying inside and being regal.

She’s also very brave. In the OOT manga she stands up for Link when he gets into trouble, and she even stands up to Ganondorf, right to his face!

Now, while the OOT manga technically is not canon, here’s something that is canon. With the Mask of Truth, Link can read gossip stones across Hyrule. One of these gossip stones says that Zelda is a tomboy!

A few things I forgot to mention. It seems like Zelda’s father was not very involved with her life. I mean, he didn’t take her seriously enough to even hear her out about the dreams she was having. And I presume her mother is dead. So she really had very few people in her life.

Another quick thing about her is that she cares deeply about the people of Hyrule and her kingdom. Despite the fact that she wishes she was a normal girl, she still takes her duty as princess and eventually queen very seriously.

Let’s talk about the 7 years that went by while Link was asleep. All 7 of those years, Zelda had to live through. She was only 10 when those years began. She watched her kingdom fall and she watched Ganon come into power. She likely saw people die. What little childhood she already had was taken from her. But she didn’t just give up and wait for Link to save her. She is NOT a damsel in distress. She started to train. She wanted to become stronger. She wanted to be able to fend for herself. She wanted to be able to assist Link when the time came.

Enter Sheik. Often called Zelda’s “persona” or “disguise” but I’d argue that this is actually her embracing her true self. This is the first time in her life where she’s not under anyone’s control. She does all of this while hiding from Ganondorf, who seeks her. When the time comes for her to meet Link again, she assists him in his journey by guiding him and teaching him songs. I think it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to see her fight but here’s an official art that shows them battling together so I think it happened offscreen!

Another thing that she did is she saved Princess Ruto from under the ice of Zora’s Domain!

Link battles Ganondorf and Zelda does assist! She uses her power to hold him down while Link delivers the final blow and she then initiated the Sage’s Seal!

And now I have to talk about her regret. She blames everything that happened on herself and herself alone. She blames herself for dragging Link into it. She even feels that she needs to make it up to him. It’s a horrible burden to bear. She’s only 17.

She sends Link back to his original time. And she often gets backlash for doing this. But she does it for two reasons. The first is that she believes this is her atoning for bringing Link into the fight. She wants him to regain his childhood. She won’t ever get hers back.

And the second reason is that Link must seal the door of time, so that his timeline will have a future (for a while). Ganon was able to be kept at bay.

With Link no longer a part of her world, and Impa no longer a part of her world, she truly has no one. She will go on to become Queen and Hyrule will be rebuilt. But I don’t think just because Hyrule is rebuilt that that’s a happy ending for her. Like I said, she has no one. No one that she can confide in about her trauma. No one that would understand the burden that she bears. She will eventually have to marry someone and have a child to continue the royal bloodline. And while some things could possibly bring her joy, like a child, I don’t think she’d be truly happy for the rest of her life. She’ll never see Link or Impa again.

Thanks for reading!

#ocarina of time #the legend of zelda #the legend of zelda ocarina of time #tloz #tloz oot #oot #oot zelda #princess zelda #zelda #zelda oot #ragan's posts

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doomed-era · 17 days

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also. i was going to ask this before but i didnt know how to word it: any zelda tropes you like/dislike? stuff like fairies being guides for link or the concept of sages/Legendary Sword or how link and zelda are always depicted or reoccurring characters like impa or beedle or epona. though theres probably not. a lot of tropes considering most games are vastly different from each other. uhh yeah if youve got nothing . things that were done from a zelda game that you liked?

OOH. tbh I had to think about this a bit (my gripes are usually with the fandom and how they depict the tropes as a Strict Narrative Rule) but! I do have some

UH ONES I HATE. this is gonna be long no matter what so it's going under a cut

Number one has got to be making link into a super special boy for basically no reason!!! being from a special type of knights is. so irrelevant to everything else about alttp link that I think a lot of people legitimately forget this. it barely ever comes up and it's honestly not that important to the story except as an excuse for why link's the only one that can grab the pendants and pull the master sword, which. why not just have him be the one to do this because he's just really determined? Ocarina of Time...tried this, sort of? almost completely irrelevant AGAIN. in twilight princess and wind waker they are just some guy basically and this is the best direction they could have gone with his character. except they ruined it in botw and ss and I will neverrrr forgive them for this. botw link beats up grown men at five years old he's like superbaby instant knight and I HATE it. it's just stupid. I don't even care that it applies pressure to him as a character and seems to affect him; they could have just made it an in-universe lie and it would have had the exact same effect so genuinely screw that trope

number two is calling random soldiers knights stop fucking doing this. i dont care that its fictional fantasyland it annoys me

number three! the 3D games' great fairies! I hate almost all of them the oot/mm great fairies are freaks, botw ones are so pretty but they're creepy as hell, and twilight princess is just a naked lady and it's stupid I hate her. wind waker minish cap and alttp fairies are gongeous though

number four. everyone thinking link is cool and or hot. I hate this in universe and in the fandom. I don't care that the devs wanted to make him """"cool"""" he's 100% always a LOSER!!!!

number five I hate the hijacked by ganon trope in zelda games so much. STOP ffs please let ganon/ganondorf take the spotlight we all love him. or let another villain be the main baddie

ok now for ones I like :)

nunberone...SENTIENT MONSTERS SENTIENT MONSTERS BABEY SENTIENT MOSNTERS ILVOE SRENTIERHSDJKFHSFHAAAAA

GRRAAA ITS A SECRET TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! MOE THE MOBLIN!!! KING BULBLIN SAYING HE FOLLOWS THE STRONGEST SIDE!!! THE ENTIRE DARK WORLD ITS SO

two. npc companions...rips off my shirt to reveal another shirt that says I LOVE MIDNA AND TATL AND EZLO AND KING OF RED LIONS AND GHOSTIE ZELDA AND MEDLI AND MAKAR AND TETRA AND SIDON AND YUNOBO AND

number three...I love random gods and spirits that are just hanging out because. keaton malanya zephos satori light spirits what have you. theyre great I need more of that.

number four incredibly weird npcs. need i say more

number five soldiers being extremely incompetent and dumb or getting possessed. soldiers as enemies or easily corruptible people

number six that one character that doesn't like link. you know what i mean (revali. groose. mido. iirc ralph? maybe? I haven't played much of the oracle games)

number seven hyrule with a dark and bloody past. and not only that but a fairly simple presentation of it that's clearly hiding a more complex underbelly. its just neat to see simple, clear-cut writing tell you so much with so little. it's a big reason I love alttp; it's simple but there's so much grief in it

number eight uh. clawshot/hookshot :] good stuff

#asks #hehe!!#glider rambles

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skyloftsword · 1 month

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Ranking Zelda stories because I am bored

Happy Easter and Trans Visibility Day! I'm bored and wanted to rank the stories of the 3D Zelda games. Spoilers of course. Ranked from favorite (top) to weakest (bottom). I also won't be including WInd Waker because I never beat it (not the game's fault, I bought HD during the Switch's lifecycle and got tired of the Wii U gamepad). A lot of my problems are just personal gripes and not really criticisms.

Tears of the Kingdom: Controversial placement, I know (I have been literally harassed SEVERAL times over this take, I am disappointed in humanity). It has its issues, but like, what thing DOESN'T have flaws? Everything is flawed, it came free with your entertainment. The plot beats for Tears of the Kingdom are absolutely insane. The Imprisoning War and the events leading up to it all felt connected and relevant to each other and the events in the present. Not to mention watching stuff like the Molduga memory and the Imprisoning War itself was extremely hype. Seeing the interactions between Sonia, Rauru, Zelda and Mineru got me really attached to these characters. The events in the present also feel meaningful and urgent. Your friends from the previous game are ACTUALLY in trouble in this game and not just being stalked by a giant robot that's doing nothing. The Sages also felt more connected than the Champions ever did. The camera not being locked behind a backtracking quest this time was cool too. Overall, this game's story hit the hardest, especially with the Dragon Tears quest.

Skyward Sword: Great story with a great cast. Backtracking is a bit of a pain and could have been handled better, but I love the events of the game. Groose's character development is truly excellent. Link and Zelda having a connection also assisted in making the adventure hitting harder.

Twilight Princess: As a former Twilight Princess hater, I would like to apologize to this game. I had a biased hatred against the game because I thought it was just TP fans that were toxic when in reality its just the Zelda fanbase as a whole that has a massive toxicity problem (not all Zelda fans are toxic). The whole beginning segment with Ordon Village and the Twili Realm sets up Link's quest perfectly. The story as a whole is really great until Ganondorf. Ganondorf in this game is genuinely really weak as a character, same with Zelda. They at least have the manga to help them but still...

Majora's Mask: I love the concept for this game's story and for the most part its really well done. Its just short and a lot of the interesting stuff is in the side quests. This is totally fine because it helps get me invested in the world, but most side quests are just... meh. Anju/Kafei, the grandma stories and the Romani Ranch quest lines (including the Ranch Race with the Gorman Brothers) are really great though.

Breath of the Wild: Man... This game's backstory is SO, SO, SO GOOD. Like wow is it good. I just HATE how its told. Stuff that would be cool to see is NEVER shown. Like why not show us Zelda and Link vs Calamity Ganon? Not to mention the Camera backtracking quest... I will say, at least it made the Champion's Tunic plot relevant. TotK should've made the Leathers important. Also the Divine Beast quests just don't sit right with me (outside of the Gerudo one, that one was really great). The Divine Beast fights are incredible though, they make up for the atrocious dungeon bosses.

Ocarina of Time: Too boring and unoriginal for me. Yes, TotK takes a lot from BotW's style of story, but it at least builds upon it and has unique aspects like Crisis at Hyrule Castle and Mineru's entire questline. I do like how Ganondorf mocks Link, especially in the Forest Temple, as it makes him more relevant. Ganondorf waiting until Zelda gave Link the Light Arrows just was incompetent though.

Alright, that's my ranking of each 3D Zelda story I have an opinion on. I very much expect disagreement (especially with TotK) and that's fine, just please do not attack me over this stuff. Its just opinions. I've been harassed way too much over my takes on TotK, its tiring.

#tloz #zelda #totk #skyward sword #twilight princess #oot #majoras mask #botw

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blackstarchanx3new · 8 months

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FSR Rambles 11 big brain moments

Immediately going from Gannon's rant we wake up...SOMEWHERE.

That iconic triforce symbol glows on Shadow Link's hand.

Uh oh.

Ganondorf rants to himself smth he says during the Twilight Princess manga.

Hello Ganondorf! :D

Alright let's dissect the shit Ganondorf says real quick.

Panel 1: He's talking about Link, obviously. Who unlike Ganondorf and Zelda (Sometimes...Twilight Princess Zelda outright calls OOT Zelda herself/her so...) doesn't/never seems to remember their endless reincarnation....Which I have some THOUGHTS ON WHY but we might get to that when it's more relevant. Just keep it in your back pocket that Link never remembers "His" previous adventures.

Ganondorf's the same Ganondorf from OOT in Akira's manga series, we dunno how much FSR Zelda currently knows about her endless reincarnation because she has the soul of Hylia in her,

Panel 2: Shadow Link has never seen Ganondorf in his human form. That's established with his lines of confusion. He clearly RECONIZES him either through his presence or voice though.

Panel 3: Ganondorf ignores Shadow's question to keep rambling.

"I even thought...Two can play the split ourselves in pieces game..."

He's clearly referencing the FIRST time a Link used the four sword, as there's a previous hero of the Four Sword mentioned at the start of the FS Manga. (That's my interpretation since there's two different four swords games, SOME people think he meant the Minish Cap Link but...I disagree strongly with that shit ngl and I think the ONLY reason that idea exists is because we never got a manga for the first Four Swords game but the SEQUEL for whatever reason...? As minish cap Link was a child when he went on his journey and looked NOTHING like the OOT style adult hero we saw in the "Flashback/story" scene in FS. I'm like 99% sure it was referencing the hero from the FIRST Four Swords game because the four swords manga we HAVE is based on Four Swords Adventures from what I can tell?)

Either way, in FSR he's refencing THAT Link as the reason why he...split himself in pieces.

"This game of ours gets boring after awhile...We have to make new rules...invite new players, mix things up..."

So, this is why he used Vaati. Vaati was the "New player"

Technically an old player brought directly into the Triforce gang's bullshit as Vaati used to be a solo villain from what I understand removed from Gannon.

Shadow Link could ALSO be a part of these "New players" he's talking about.

Either way Gannon's view on the endless cycle has seemingly shifted to a "Game". A game he wants to win, obviously.

If you want a reason why he'd try taking this outlook: Dude's coping hard, he keeps losing. Looking at it like a childish game makes him retain SOME sanity he's shed after getting his ass kicked so many times. As he clearly shed a LOT of his humanity to become the pig form in the OG manga without ANY PROMTING Usually that's like, a second phase of the fight Something's different about Ganon in FSA compared to usual.

Panel 4:

Ganon muses he didn't think "A part of him" would play "Their" side.

He's obviously talking about Shadow Link at this point aiding Zelda and Link. But the dread of what Gannon's saying hasn't truly set in yet.

Panel 5:

So in Twilight Princess, Spoilers Gannon just like, straight kills himself when he feels he's losing. Man is a massive piss baby.

He does something similar here. "CAN'T KEEP ME IN A SWORD IF I END MYSELF HAHAHAHA" - Gannon.

But...There's still a part of Gannon around...As he passes the Triforce of power (Something he admits he cannot stand in Twilight Princess, if nothing else BECAUSE it ties him to Zelda and Link who have Wisdom and Courage respectively.)

So while not outright CONFORMING FSR Link and FSR Zelda HAVE the Triforce, it's heavily implied they do. Zelda at least, had it on her hand earlier in the comic. (With an outdated design of her haha but it still counts here. Haven't been any major ret cons as of rn in FSR and I'd mention any if they do come up hah)

Ganon not so subtly references the conversation Vio and Shadow had about the Triforce where Shadow admitted he wanted it to make his wishes come true.

Which just, with current context really puts into perspective that little desire of his.

Also, it's even FUNNIER that he says he wants to touch the Triforce...While being all over Vio. Who has a piece of the Triforce of courage.

Yes that was intentional and yes I was laughing my absolute ass off while drawing/writing those scenes...I was shaking that I couldn't mention that for so long lmfaooooooo.

He's a part of Gannon. Of course he wants the Triforce.

Shadow still looks like he's comprehending shit. I mean this is a LOT to take in. All this time he assumed he was NOTHING but Link's shadow. But NOW we know he's not only Link's Shadow, but a part of Gannon as well.

Ganon congrats our little man.

He gets to wield the title of the Demon King AND the Triforce of power! :D HOW LUCKY...HE GOT TWO THINGS HE WANTED! :D

BEING THE KING AND THE TRIFORCE!!!

Oh...Shadow isn't a fan of that. Especially at Gannon's prospect that he should destroy Link.

Lines that are hilarious with this new context go brr:

Haha- Well he IS A KING-

Vio just look to your left.

"I've done infinitely worse in past lives pal-"

Literally this entire scene has new meaning with how VISERIALLY ANGRY he is at the prospect they just gotta do what they have to because "it's what we're supposed to do".

Shadow Link's behavior in general in current day in FSR is just, makes much more sense with the context he KNOWS he's a part of Gannon.

His desperate urge to be nice, seemingly TOO NICE?

Well, he's trying to reject the idea he has to destroy the heroes and wants to be helpful and good.

Translation: "I don't have to be Gannon if you don't have to be Link"

Also smth you'll notice in the Gannon talks to Shadow pages: Shadow's eyes are red the whole time just like when was talking to Vaati.

Shadow's ending state in FS was a form of torture and you can't convince me otherwise.

He's in misery.

Fucked up thing to note: Shadow link feels he deserves to suffer.

We're not given his full thoughts on WHY but we can either assume because of his actions in the FSA manga OR because he's Gannon.

That's just sad.

Link's catatonic like usual.

Shadow likens Link's state to a corpse that's rotting which is, disturbing.

Unlike Gannon, he isn't getting any pleasure watching the Hero rot away mentally.

Oof. Yeah. What good's the Triforce of power when you can't use it to save someone?

You'll notice Shadow defaults to waving to get people's attention. What else can he do?

Link notices and touches him.

Which again: We know from Shadow's brief breakdown in the temple this isn't something he did a lot.

We can venture to guess from these pages, Link was usually just, not there mentally a lot of the time to notice Shadow Link and he wasn't filling the gaps because Shadow couldn't talk, because Link went mute after awhile.

Either way Shadow cherishes the times where Link acknowledges him.

If you go back and read the pages where Shadow's talking about his time with Link the main thing he talks about is how LONELY he felt.

He doesn't actually talk about Link's behavior in a negative way per say...Mostly that HE was lonely.

Like from the wording he isn't exactly BASHING Link for ignoring him, just expressing how it made him feel in the moment.

And from here we can see Shadow understands just how poorly Link was doing.

He wants to hug him-

Shadow wants to be comforted and to comfort but can't do or get either.

Poor dude is suffering.

Shadow dissects his feelings.

Vio's promise struck a cord with this dude for a lot of reasons, partially because Gannon as we know from Twilight Princess REALLY wanted Zelda to join him/another Triforce user to join him cobbled with Shadow Link himself loneliness and inability to trust his teammates led to Vio's promise of ruling the world basically made him explode with joy lol.

Gannon's literally always playing this "Game" alone. Shadow Link is lonely from his own experiences and from Gannon's. He actually doesn't MIND the idea they're all gonna be spending eternity together forever, he just doesn't wanna be locked in fighting them lmfao.

Art notes: Shadow's eyes look like Gannondorf's eyes in page 207 the "I want to be close to you Link" panel.

Zelda and Vio/Link have had a positive affect on Shadow Link as a person, so instead of 100% hating them like Gannondorf does he has a mixed bag of emotions towards them.

Another art note:

Page 208 Shadow's eyes look like the Malice eyeballs from BOTW/TOTK

Shadow Link interprets his own feelings as him wanting to be close to Zelda and Link/Vio due to his own loneliness. He's the new demon king and he doesn't want to further their fated connection through hatred alone.

Shadow's further thoughts on being Ganon and the affects it has on his behavior going forward are for sure going to be present so if something wasn't brought up here/expanded upon, it probs will later.

Something to note is Shadow's KNOWN he's a from of Gannon for 7 years and HASN'T Told any of the gang yet...Which is interesting.

Not like he could SAY that before and they've still only been separated for a day but still.

More art notes: The way they're structured in 208, is in the shape of the Triforce. Shadow on "Top" representing the Triforce of power, Zelda to the left representing wisdom and Link to the right representing courage.

It is interesting to note how Vio and Link are interchangeable in Shadow's mind at least in this instance...

From his further thoughts in 209 it's implied he's SPECICICALLY talking about Vio, but Link is still pictured...So Hm.

So it bares repeating Vio booked it to Shadow Link the second he saw him because of their unfinished business hah.

Further idea:

Shadow doesn't purely means "Vio's here" as the "dream" he's talking about.

He has a physical body again after 7 years. He's not a prisoner to his own mind anymore and has the ability to affect the world around him.

He was completely stripped of agency and ironically enough "Power" for 7 years.

Like Vio, someone he loves being there is nice too but I don't wanna understate how important Shadow's relationship to Link himself is either.

As in the series so far Shadow's blatantly done the things he stated he wishes he could have done for Link in the pages previous TO Vio because, he has the ability to now.

Basically: We don't need to shoot down Shadow's 7 year long relationship with Link just to bolster Vio and Shadow's.

Stalker lmfao.

So it's interesting to note he CRIED from Shadow's memories.

Weird moment for Dark Link. It's odd he even cried at all. He has an actual personality outside of just batting people's anxieties and fears back at them after all.

He himself seems rather calm but if you notice, his chest eyeball looks deeply emotional over it.

Question to ask: Is he crying from joy or sadness? Or some third thing?

Did he even realize he was crying? He didn't wipe his tears away.

You'll note, instead of just purely calling Shadow "the traitor" as he did earlier, he switches to calling him his title + traitor lmfao. "Treacherous demon king" he changes his language to be more accurate to his new information about Shadow Link.

Another thing: Dark Link isn't INTERACTING with Shadow Link here like he did with Vio. How he approached it was purely as a spectator.

He's not mentally fucking with Shadow here.

Which shows an odd sense of, genuine interest about Shadow's past that didn't exist earlier with Vio when he purely only said things to make Vio break down.

HE was watching those flashbacks with us and soaking in the information. He has a better understanding of Vio AND Shadow because he can see from BOTH their perspectives as you noticed...and Vaati's.

But that cute little fact isn't important rn.

And with all that word vomiting we will pick up again another time.

#four swords returns #four swords returns au #fsr rambles #loz fsr au

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raycatz · 1 year

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I wish so much that I could fully enjoy totk but I am struggling so much. Idk why some of the decisions for the game are the way they are. I can't help but be critical given how important the series and botw are to me.

I feel like the game is struggling to have its own identity. I feel like some creature has wormed its way into botw's skin and is wearing it poorly.

(So far I've played through the Gerudo and Rito story quests. What I've written here though is mostly about the world and direction. I just need to get some of these thoughts out. There are spoilers.)

The three main criticisms people had with botw were the story, weapon durability, and dungeons- and man so far in totk these things have only been worse. (The boss fights are incredible though)

The framerate drops whenever I use ultrahand, and combined with my left joycon drifting it makes trying to use the new mechanic difficult to the point that I will avoid it to do something else.

Some of the game does feel like mashed up dlc ideas. I would have preferred them to be dlc even. If the Zelda devs wanted to tell this story or make a game with these mechanics I wish they would have made an entirely new game instead of using botw.

So far totk has no through-lines between itself and botw. No one has mentioned the Champions, only a single npc has talked about the Calamity, no one has mentioned Calamity Ganon or the divine beasts Link calmed, and only a few people recognize Link himself. The champion successors I've met haven't spoken of the Champions or their divine beasts which is strange given how they spoke of them in botw, and at most have only referred to Link having been there in the past as, "when you helped us" without any specifics as to what. I've done all the side quests in botw and to have the people I helped call Link a stranger is saddening. It's even more pronounced in Hateno. I bought a house there. I helped its people. And the house no longer has Link's name by the door and Hateno's people remark at how Link is a new face in town. Didn't I live there? Given how some of the kids have grown it's probably been around 4 years since botw. Where has Link been in that time for the people to forget him? In Kakariko Cottla says she can't talk to me because she isn't supposed to talk with strangers. We've played tag together. I cooked meals with her sister. It's sad. In botw we spent the whole time collecting Link's memories and growing attached to the land only to have the land forget us. I feel like it's a disgrace to all of the time and joy players put in and found in botw, and to botw's story- to have none of that matter.

What happened to the Divine Beasts and the Sheikah shrines and the slate? Further, some important npcs from botw are just gone without explanation.

If the events of botw are so irrelevant then why use the same world and characters? I understand it's a way to save time and resources but this game took 6 years to make past botw. I would have preferred a new world and princess/hero entirely so I could go into it as a fresh experience. Instead, it feels like what made botw important was swept away, and the map and characters are only being used as an empty husk, like setpieces. Majora's Mask being a sequel with reused assets worked because in Termina there was no reason for anyone to know Link, and him traveling to find Navi made sense, and the look-alike characters are different people. In botw, there is no reason for no one to recognize Link or his achievements. He is the Hero of Hyrule for that world and it's people. He freed the divine beasts and put an end to the multiple local disasters they were causing, yet none of that is acknowledged and it sticks out like a sore. (I'm really really hoping that Sidon talks about Mipha and the constant rain caused by Vah Ruta because how could he not? That's his sister! Yunobo saw Daruk's spirit in botw so I'm hoping he says something of the Champions. I'm really hoping.)

I enjoyed exploring botw's world because there were always koroks and shrines to collect. I could wander knowing there was something in store to find. The world never felt too big or empty for this reason, and the solitude made sense because of the Calamity. In totk the number of shrines and koroks has been greatly reduced (edit: there are more shrines and just as many koroks as in botw. It just seems I'm having difficulty finding them ashfsjdf.) I know the overworld already so there not being a reward for exploring gives me no incentive to. The lack of shrines and the cutscenes required to go through to use the towers is another hindrance on exploration and quests. I can't get spontaneously sidetracked because there's no nearby place to warp back to, and I know how far I'll have to walk to get there. Traveling can feel like a chore instead of something enjoyable. It feels like the overworld has been stripped.

The world wasn't made for the new mechanics either, and so the areas to use them in are all tacked on as monster camps or fallen ruins, instead of a natural part of the landscape.

The new map content, the Sky and Depths, would have been better being condensed. They don't fit within the scope of botw's map. The Sky Islands so far don't take up much space and are significantly less important than I hoped they would be. The Depths is a fun concept and I enjoy the restrictions it puts on players, with the soft cap and kinda rougelite aspect while you're in the early game, but it's way too big, very repetitive, and there's not much point to exploring once you know what it's about. Both the Sky and the Depths would have benefitted by being more carefully thought out, concise, areas and suffer from having to fit the scope of botw's map. The Depths has poes and zonite to collect, but these things come in such huge quantities and require even huger quantities of to be useful that it feels grindy. I need 3 zonite ore for one crystalized ore, 100 crystalized ore for one fuel charge. There are three charges in one canister, of 8. That's 7,200 zonite ore like wtf. How is this supposed to be achievable? So far I haven't needed to use the vehicles all that often so it's not particularly useful atm either. The amount of cross-trading currency collectibles is overbearing. For some time I had no idea what any of them were used for so I didn't know what the point was in collecting them. Bubulgems, zonite ore, large zonite ore, poes, crystalized charges, large crystalized charges- too many. Please condense some of them.

Gone are all the very cool weapon designs, replaced in favor of the new fuse mechanic and endlessly scrolling through materials to find the right thing to attach.

The memories and the story in that aspect are still passive. Even more so.

We're all familiar with the Zelda formula- totk now follows the botw formula. Plateau area, back and forth fetch quests to upgrade your abilities, four main story beat locations, memories, and then the open world for players to tackle freely. I'm really hoping there is more. There has to be because the Sky and Depths haven't been used in the main story beats so far. In botw you could go anywhere and have everything to do in a given location immediately assessable to play through, but in totk there are things locked by progression. However, it's awkward because you aren't told precisely what's locked or why. I'm like- I went through the effort to get here but there isn't anything for me to do. I know there's something here! But I can't do anything yet and idk why or what I'm missing! and instead of building anticipation it just makes me frustrated. I'm not sure if what I'm missing is locked to progression or if there is something I've truly just missed.

So I have a feeling of having missed something important story/mechanic-wise when exploring, and then on the other hand I have the feeling of being very clearly shoehorned towards certain goals. Nearly all of the npcs have dialogue that leads you towards something. I don't feel like botw was ever this in-your-face about goals. The Calamity happened 100 years ago so the people have had time to adjust, while the Upheaval is happening now. It makes sense that the Upheaval would be much more pressing, I just wish the npcs would chat about something other than "go here, do this" once in a while. Like, I found Bolson, and instead of being greeted as a familiar face or getting to see Bolson in character, he just told me to go somewhere for a quest related thing. So many of the familiar characters are missing the quirky characterizations they had in botw that made them them.

With being shoehorned towards certain locations: many, many of the npcs want me to clear out monsters at Lurelin. So I went to Lurelin. At that point I'd only completed the quest in Gerudo and five shrines, yet the monsters I faced in Lurelin (and widely across the overworld) were black level monsters, which I was and still am nowhere near prepared for. Totk is either meant to be more difficult than botw or there is an issue with balancing. I've touched maybe 25 shrines and have lit a good number of lightroots, but haven't completed many, so maybe that's a factor into the enemy leveling? I also think there's a way for me to get help that I haven't found yet. Regardless, the enemy scaling across the world feels like it happened too quickly and I don't enjoy the npcs pushing me towards things my character isn't ready for. I feel like there should be more checks in place for this that determine the npc dialogue to the player's progress.

I haven't even talked about the story.

I know I'm being very critical with the game, and I wish I could just enjoy it. I need to stop trying to find botw in this game. And I should take a step back for a while too. I'm just disappointed.

The music and boss battles have been incredible! I hope there's more structured boss battles outside of the main four + ganon. Heck I even hope there's a boss gauntlet with a cool reward.

Just- yeah. So far I am not enjoying the new Zelda formula when it comes to totk. Botw worked for botw. totk looks and is structured too much like botw to feel like its own thing, and yet trying to play it like botw is just upsetting because it isn't.

Totk is a good game, but it's a bad sequel.

I hope the Zelda team returns to the old format sometime, or at least pulls forward some of the ideas. I miss the concise dungeons that take multiple play sessions to get through. I miss the tricky puzzles that make me feel smart for solving. I miss combat being a puzzle requiring certain items or learning boss phases and patterns (rather than sticking materials to your bow and taking a "just deal damage" based approach. I want to be closer to it.) I miss the worlds that were puzzles in and of themselves like Minish Cap or the Oracle games. I miss seeing a clearly marked spot on the wall or a tree in the way and knowing that I'll pick up an item that will help me here later. I like that there were clear solutions. The clues in botw and totk for progression are not as clear. And the botw open-world format is too large for concise puzzles like this. I enjoyed the open-ended way to combat and puzzles in botw, but I feel there should be space for both. No more ways to fenagle the physics or smack your way through obstacles. I want to see linear progression and long-form puzzles return to Zelda games, at least for the next one.

I'm hoping there's some plot twist or turn in gameplay that I haven't reached in totk yet. We'll seeeeee

#rays random ramblings #totk spoilers #totk #long post #sorry- I know the game just came out #I need to slow down with playing it #I hate being so critical with it #I just want to play and have fun but I can't stop thinking about what parts have let me down #given that it's supposed to be a sequel to botw #totk criticism

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ziskeyt · 3 months

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i'm playing tears of the kingdom for the second time right now and i had issues with the story the first time, those aren't gone. However, playing it this time i am convinced that the memories in the tears actively work against the tension, confusion, and overall dread it seems nintendo wanted us to feel about Zelda's whereabouts. we follow the puppet up the castle grounds after completing the regional phenomena, and in-game it seems we're supposed to believe that as Link we are following Zelda. that we're supposed to be worried about her. But i've already seen the memories at this point, i know this Zelda isn't Zelda. I know she's a dragon in the skies above me. there is no tension here, she's some creature of Ganon's and must be, because he's done this before in the memories.

However, if we'd just had the sightings of Zelda in the regional phenomena, perhaps even as cutscenes to show her in a more convincing way and not just oh on the other side of the screen where we cannot speak to her. Then i may have felt more tension. If it had played up this question of: did Zelda really disappear in a spark of yellow light, or did she fall into the Demon King's clutches somehow instead? Did she fall into the abyss and was broken by his mind games deep, deep below the world? Was she corrupted somehow? She sure seems to be working for evil in the her that we see in the present, and i think it would've been cool to see more of that and less of oh she's safe in the past! oh wait no she's a dragon. but! she's not this Zelda in the present cause we already know what happened.

And sure, it's an open world game with no set linearity. Sure! However, even before i got all the memories, just getting one solved my "where's Zelda? should I be worried about her?" thoughts. she was in the past. millennia or so well behind where i was, why should i worry about her? i don't know the rest of the story yet but like, if she can magically transport to hyrule's founding she's not a pressing concern as much as the blizzard in hebra, or the sand shroud in gerudo, or the poisoned water in zora's domain (addiction is not magically solved except in stories, so like, i wasn't worried about the gorons as much as just horrified by their glowing eyes. the solution there is more structural support but lol that's boring so it's magically not a problem and there's no withdrawl after you 'solve' that area). Anyway. maybe you don't get any memories during the main quest, maybe you do all four regions and go up to the castle and you've seen none. why not make them something that unlocks after a certain point? perhaps the glyphs only show up after zelda's puppet is revealed and you get a cutscene with dragon zelda ascending up like she did at the start of the game, only tears fall and the glyphs appear and then you go and find out where she is.

but either way all of this hinges on Zelda being a completely different person to the Zelda we know. Zelda we know is a amateur researcher, she keeps notebooks all over her study, she keeps notebooks in her new home. if we can keep notes by way of quests and such in the pad, she would have as well. even if she couldn't, if she entrusted the pad to the steward why not a notebook or some stone slate that she leaves for Link saying: i can see no other choice. To get your sword back to you with the power it needs to defeat the Demon King, i must do the unimaginable and become an immortal dragon. the Zonai say it is irreversible, but you we've done the impossible before. Link, i leave you my research i could find into this process. Please. Find a way to change me back. As if researcher Zelda who is so excited by the reliefs we find at the start of the game wouldn't have kept her own records, wouldn't have noted her choices down, and wouldn't have found a way to leave this to Link without being stupidly vague, not when she spent her entire childhood attempting to tap into a magical power that she was vaguely told would probably, maybe, should awaken due to prayer.

long and the short is: memories ruin the game tension, but the overall premise of "where's zelda" makes no sense with the zelda we have in these two games

#Totk #Loz #tears of the kingdom #totk thoughts #i WANTed to feel that tension as i was following puppet zelda but it just isn't there #which is a shame it's the only time her va gets to do anything fun

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rawliverandgoronspice · 11 months

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I absolutely love your analysis of the gerudo and Ganondorf because they put into words what bothers me about how TOTK portrays Ganondorf. That being they remove his agency as a character in favor of having some great evil against the good guys.

[Major story spoilers ahead for the end of the game]

At the end of the game, when you’ve defeated Ganondorf, he swallows the secret stone and becomes a dragon, like Zelda, fully knowing the consequences of what happens when that happens. And it’s just kinda left me with a bitter taste in my mouth? In the context of the story it makes sense, he’s portrayed as a egomaniac who just wants to destroy Hyrule. But compared to other versions of him, this one just feels more openly biased against him and the gerudo, with no reason or justification other than “he’s evil, hate him.” As far as I can tell… They never really show us that he’s done anything horrible or deserving of being feared before the show of fealty cutscene, other than not submit to Hyrule, attack them once, and generally have bad vibes. It feels forced how much they want us to hate him and the people who follow him. I’m not saying character in video games always have to be nuanced or complex but comparing like, Wind Waker Ganondorf next to TOTK Ganondorf…. 🙃 Waste of an excellent design imo.

Heyyy sorry for being a billion years late with this ask!! I was busy finishing the game!!! among other things!!! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm super happy it resonated with you in that way!

I mean, the whole draconification plot beat doesn't really work for me. Like yeah, sure it's sad that Zelda is now a giant dragon and it's cool to have her soaring above your head while you have no idea where she actually is (a situation that isn't nearly tapped into enough in the narrative imo, like it gets obvious way too fast if you happen upon the wrong memory, etc), and I actually think the whole sequence of you removing the Master Sword from her head was the best scene in the entire game in terms of mood and emotions --even THOUGH it would have been so much better with a stronger story and stronger stakes-- BUT. How does that build up thematically?

I think what doesn't work for the Zelda side of this plot point (I'll get to Ganon next) is that... she doesn't make that choice. It's not like she's being tempted by an easy way out and decides to sacrifice herself for the sake of Hyrule or Link or whoever: she has no choice in the matter. Her powers activate (?? somehow? once and never again also, talk about dropped plot threads), she finds herself in the past, is the passive witness to a bunch of shit that only tangientially relates to her --it's like she's visiting estranged family in a foreign country and watch their drama awkwardly before being dragged into it against her will even though she was just trying to renew her passport and get back home (if there had been any callback to her relationship with her father it would have landed better, but it's just completely ignored so vOv). Then her relatives all die or corrupt or something, and she still can't get back home. What is she meant to do besides draconify? Grow old and die in the past? What would that accomplish?? Her adventures in the past are just basically about solving a shrine puzzle with a particularly weird solution --but the game treats it like a huge sacrifice when it's basically her only way out, and she lost absolutely nothing making that sacrifice (and then she... cries about the weird family drama? sure. Honestly I think it would have worked better if the tears were Rauru's, it's his bullshit everyone is dealing with right? He's the one who feels broken and aggrieved by the whole thing.)

So, if we ignore the draconification precedent builds up to zero thing thematically beyond cheap drama that reveals nothing about neither the characters nor the world, I think Ganondorf's case is a little more compelling because he does make a choice here: dying as he tries to achieve his weird lofty goals (and fail), or postpone his victory eternally by sacrificing his objectives but reject death and defeat --while also barring himself from victory. In a better crafted story, this could be utterly excellent and it feels very Ganondorf to me. BUT, my beef with that plot beat isn't that he chooses the second option, making him kinda active for the first time in the entire game (and makes an appropriate hideous smile: *loved* this second one, the first one didn't land for me but this one really captures the ecstatic insanity and transcendance and desperate madness of the act --I have nothing against Ganondorf offputting smiles and cackles when they feel earned, and the Sonia one just... doesn't to me, it just feels like weird rigging and mesh deformation choices getting out of control).

My problem is that his existence as a dragon contradicts everything we knew about dragons before --both for him and for Zelda. I thought the big issue with draconification was that you'd lose yourself to the act entirely, and would become this sort of organic landmark of infinite power and eternal life but without will to act on your precedent goals and understanding of yourself. But the second the big man becomes an evil dragon, suddenly Zelda zips in to the rescue (apparently remembering who you are? understanding she's meant to fight Ganondorf? I mean, this kind of works emotionally as a climactic ending and the power of love or whatever, again it would have worked better in a better story), and Ganondorf is still very much into destroying the world as well as you and Zelda.

Also, he's very definitively mortal (and he has the stone on his head again? And so if you destroy it you destroy his immortality? why???)

So... What I dislike here is the suggestion that he was somehow so evil and rotten and bad that all of these rare moments of interesting worldbuilding and ambivalence gets completely swallowed in the bossfight logic, making his choice (and Zelda's) completely meaningless in retrospect.

also: let Zelda remain a dragon you cowards, that way Hyrule gets any sort of chance to escape and reimagine its horrying eternal monarchy instead of re-establishing it even harder than before!!!

#totk #totk spoilers #totk critical #asks #tloz #zelda #ganondorf #any change to the statut quo emotionally is so unbearable to this game's writing it's so weird #the dragon thing is a cool idea but I'm not sure it should have involved zelda tbh #if it had been rauru's thing while mineru held ganondorf in place it would have worked better in my opinion #I feel like this leads to much better character arcs and make mineru more of a character #and someone we could connect to much more than rauru #something

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finluz · 1 year

Text

TOTK Rant: How Much Better Than BOTW?

//major totk spoilers ahead

The Good

Ultrahand is amazing, it's a simple idea with few limitations leading to a lot of complexity and flexibility

Ascend is fucking awesome. im not even gonna like, critically analyze this one. i wish i could jump through ceilings in real life

Being able to throw items is extremely useful, meaning you don't have to waste arrows to get certain effects

Zonai devices are all amazing, same principle of Ultrahand where they all have simple uses with few limitations, meaning that you can create really complex machines very easily

The Music™ 🎷🐛

Rauru's sopping wet man vagina

There's a shit-ton of new enemies, including like-likes, gleeoks, evil rigby mfs that crawl on the ceiling, floormasters, phantom ganon, the assorted zonai creatures, froxes, baby froxes, yigas with driver's licenses, battle tali, damn those trees are WALKIN

Depths exploration is fucking amazing

Depths atmosphere

Sky Islands when they have anything on them

Air travel

60 new side adventures, which are waaay fuller in good content than the side quests or even the main quests lmao

build your own house

the boss fights

the final boss fight

shrine puzzles with Ultrahand

Proving Grounds shrines

Master Kohga

the guy that walks around continually failing to demonstrate any degree of professional signage

the side dialogue is really funny and well-written

the isolated vibe of botw has been traded in for a feeling of togetherness as a kingdom

large-scale battles with tons of monsters and friendly npcs

muddle buds

zonai architecture

did i mention the ost yet

skyview towers > the ubisoft towers

link has his hair down

tauro

purah

short-hair zelda

rauru

ganondorf

mineru

been spending most our lives living in a bisexual's paradise

the lightning temple

the construct factory

the quest to obtain the master sword

dragonhead island

the dragonhead island music

fusing items to arrows and shields

the yiga clan expansion

do the earthwaker link come on quake that shit

the all-clucking cucoo

froggy armor

the lucky clover gazette

all of the new outfits

the dragon-themed outfits

horns on enemies

link let his hair down

the plethora of armor effects that are now also cooking effects, like slip resistance, swim speed, weather-based attack, and more

railgrinding

princess monoke themes doubled down on

gloom

robot arm

I think a common theme in this list is that rather than being different from Breath of the Wild, there is just more of Breath of the Wild.

"No shit, it's a sequel."

Yeah I get that, but this is the first time a Zelda sequel specifically has failed to really distinguish itself from the game before it.

Tears of the Kingdom has everything that Breath of the Wild had, including its flaws. The fact that it's just "more of it" and "better" kind of makes the previous game completely obsolete, which is a first in the series.

Majora's Mask, Link Between Worlds, Adventure of Link, the Oracle Games and Link's Awakening are all direct sequels of previous games, and yet their identity is so distinct that they become standalone entries in the series.

Majora's Mask is not Ocarina of Time 2.

Tears of the Kingdom is 100% Breath of the Wild 2.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and considering the series has been almost rebooted entirely I'm not even opposed to the direct serialization of these games,

but if they are going to go this route,

and there's going to be 6 and a half years between the two games,

You need to do better than the last game.

And so we arrive at,

The Bad.

With the exception of the aforementioned Lightning Temple and Construct Factory, the dungeons, and subsequently main areas and story in this game blow ass.

The Dungeons in this game are just Divine Beasts but with somehow even less creativity. Say what you want about the lack of interconnectedness between and the quality of the puzzles, but they provided a feeling of controlling and manipulating a huge, moving being that sets the game apart.

In comparison, TOTK's dungeons are completely devoid of any original ideas, instead opting to be divine beasts without the movement gimmicks, meaning that they're just "go hit the four or fie switches in any order"

Breath of the Wild traded in the unique and distinct atmospheres of the franchises temples to capture a different feeling that sets it apart. Tears of the Kingdom tries to return to the old temples, but without committing all the way and missing the mark completely.

The Water Temple in particular stands out as completely fucking lazy to me, since it is literally just a bunch of blue platforms in the sky with 4 un-themed and not even water-related puzzles and a boss that is treated as a joke. There's almost no buildup in Zora's domain as well, as you just do a couple of short tasks to unlock the path up and then beat the dungeon in 30 minutes.

It's the worst kind of Zelda dungeon, with generic elemental themes but none of the art to tie those into actually unique places. And considering that there's no dungeon items, no double-backing, or any sort of semblance of an idea of you completing an actual dungeon and not just four shrines in a meat grinder, I would say it's ultimately WORSE than the divine beasts from Breath of the Wild.

The rewards for dungeons

In every dungeon, you get an NPC follower that fights with you and has an ability that you press A on to use. These are used pretty well in their respective areas. When you beat the dungeon, your reward is a blue clone of them that does less damage.

I get what they were trying to do, I really do, and on paper, it's a really great concept.

It's the champions from the last game, except they are actually there and fight alongside you, using that togetherness theming i mentioned earlier.

However, having them out is pretty much a straight downgrade since they are annoyances 24/7.

Their abilties range from mildly useful in some contexts at best to "i would only press a on you by accident."

and trust me. you are going to accidentally press a on them a LOT.

Somehow, they manage to both be in your way when you want to do literally anything else and also never there in the rare circumstance that you actually want to use your ability.

Their AI is complete dogshit, and they rarely swing at enemies, and when they do, the damage is pitiful. Tulin flies through the air, and is mostly behind you when you need him, but everyone else paths along the ground and will often get stuck on rocks, river edges, or random patches of grass sometimes because they lack any intelligence whatsoever.

It's such an easy fix too, just have a "sacred stone" rune in the radial menu where the useless map one is and let me manually select which ability I want. Bam. No more blowing big hearty truffles off cliffs or setting them on fire when im just trying to pick them up.

Fuse does not affect the durability of weapons.

Rather than opting to have the interesting choice of being able to repair your weapons at the risk of losing a rare quality of them, rehabilitating them using items from your inventory,

Nintendo instead opted to have the durability not change at all when you fuse something.

Also, every weapon in hyrule has "decayed," which, as well as being extremely contrived, means that fusing is required for weapons to be viable.

So not only does this not improve the weapon system from Breath of the Wild, it actually makes it more tedious, since now you have to collect not just a weapon, but two parts of a weapon and then fuse them into a weapon.

It's taken every weapon in hyrule, broken them in half, and made you go find the pieces.

This also means that fusing funny stuff like minecarts or logs like they suggested in the trailer isn't viable, since it will only add a few damage points and waste a weapon slot.

In Conclusion

Yes, Tears of the Kingdom is the better game. It not only has more content, but the content is also just better, more experimental, and memorable.

And don't let my huge rant about The Bads misconstrue my thoughts on this game.

This is easily a 9/10, and probably my favorite game of all time.

But it certainly isn't a 10/10.

Breath of the Wild's flaws set it apart, it was easy to forgive them because they played into its unique experience.

Six years later, with an almost identically structured game, it's not as easy to set those aside.

Anyways, this has been World's Biggest Zelda Fan Finluz, and I want to raw link

#born2rig #zelda #legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #loz totk #tloz totk #totk spoilers #zelda tears of the kingdom #zelda totk #botw 2 #totk

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