I Exist...I Think

🏳️‍🌈 He/him, over 18 🏳️‍⚧️ Call me Wings or whatever else you want to I'm a LoZ fan who writes, draws, and makes music

[broadestwings]

About This Blog:

Hello! I'm a fan of The Legend of Zelda series and Linked Universe who makes art, writes, and composes music. I am almost constantly working on something and experimenting with new techniques.

Feel free to use/share whatever is posted here as long as you include credit and don't use it to train AI. Asks are welcome.

Reblog Side-blog: @broadlywinging

Ao3: BrodestWings

My Ravios meet AU: @a-band-of-merchants

⋆ . *. ʚ○ More About Me ○ɞ . *. ⋆

Part of the LGBTQ+ community, autistic, and 18+

I live under a rock, so I will likely not understand most non-Zelda references or more obscure text speak. Also, if I come off as too formal in interactions, just know that it is just how I naturally both speak and write.

Zelda games were an integral part in my childhood. Despite that, BOTW was the first one I actually beat, and that was several years after I started playing it (I have a bad habit of getting to the final dungeon or boss and just never picking up the game again).

Games I have beaten: Breath of the Wild, Skyward Sword, Minish Cap, Echoes of Wisdom, Tears of the Kingdom, A Link Between Worlds

Am in the final dungeon of: Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening DX, Ocarina of Time

Started: ALttP (am about half way through skull woods), Oracle of Ages (lead up to 6th dungeon), Phantom Hourglass (finished 2nd dungeon), Majora's mask (finished 1st dungeon)

Am very familiar with but have not played myself: Wind Waker, Zelda 1, Zelda 2: Adventure of Link

Favorite: Skyward Sword (Link’s Awakening is a close second)

[hollow-toy]

mutuals can always dm me but be warned i talk like your coworker who is trying too hard to get to know you and my response times are akin to the response times you might get if we were communicating by letter

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Character Analysis of Twilight (TP Link)

Wolves are pack animals. They commonly represent protection, loyalty, and instincts. These are all important aspects of Twilight’s character as can be seen in-game. 

Twilight is driven by protecting others, primarily his loved ones. He goes into a dangerous forest to save one of the village kids and initially becomes willing to help Midna because that’ll mean he can save the ones that went missing (along with being stuck as a wolf, but that’s not the core drive here. Protecting his village’s kids is, as is demonstrated by his reactions in cutscenes). 

He is loyal first and foremost to the people of Ordon village, who would act as his figurative pack in a sense. Over the course of his adventure, Twilight also becomes loyal to Midna. There’s a deep care at the core of his character for those close to him. His care for animals and the village children in particular point to protecting the innocent especially being an overall larger drive for him.

This protecting of those he is loyal to is done through strength. That’s not physical strength necessarily, as is stated by one of the kids from the village he grew up in, Colin, but by being brave. Of course, Twilight is still physically very strong (he can somehow throw an entire Goron for one), and courage is an important trait of all the Links, but this Link’s bravery is still especially notable. 

Twilight embodies courage on a more instinctual level. He leaps from a burning bridge high above water without a second of hesitation, practically immediately leaps onto Epona when she’s spooked to reign her in, and faces charging goats and Gorons head on and without flinching. 

His Twilight Realm form being a wolf then speaks a lot to these characteristics of his.

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Wild Character Analysis: 

To me, Wild is very much driven by survival and curiosity in a “there’s so many things to discover and who knows what those new possibilities may be of use” way. I see what people consider his “wilder” tendencies (ex. mining using swords, still eating dubious food, making elixirs out of insects/lizards/frogs, etc.), not as being due to stupidity or a love for chaos, but as creative adaptability for the sake of survival and (especially) his immediate goal. Also, while this is more headcanon-y, I think he'd have ADHD. ...And that's not just me projecting, I promise, lol.

Basically Wild’s thought process is (according to me): Something works? Maybe it’s not conventional, but if it means he’ll be able to accomplish what he needs to do, that’s great!

That’s not to say he doesn’t have a moral limit or feel social pressure to not do certain things, however. He definitely does, just not as much now compared to in the Before Times (100 years ago). Losing his memories probably would have alleviated a lot of that. Now he just feels A LOT of guilt and most likely has an identity crisis! …Yay? (Though I imagine a lot of this gets resolved by TotK, at least to some extent). 

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Lorule/Hyrule Situation Swap AU Notes

First post about this Situation Swap AU for Lorule and Hyrule: here

For a general run down of this AU, basically, Lorule is the world with a Triforce while Hyrule is without its Triforce. Hyrule is in ruin. When a fissure to Lorule is discovered, Zelda sends Link to ask Hilda for help to avoid the doom seemingly looming in Hyrule Kingdom's near future.

These are a few additional notes:

I’m making it so that the thing that allows Link and Ravio to freely travel between Lorule and Hyrule is actually a Mirror Pendant that functions like the Magic Mirror in ALttP. 

I’m also changing it so that, when Link and Zelda reunite (and Ravio meets Zelda for the first time), she explains that, “Sheerow is alive and well, but cannot be returned with Agahnim still here in Hyrule Castle.” This then leads to Link and Ravio going to get the Master Sword, which instead requires something at the end of 3 dungeons in Hyrule. That gives Ravio more motivation to continue helping and a chance to see the state that Hyrule is in without its Triforce. That (in addition to Ravio not wanting Hilda to go through with this war anymore than she has when he knows she’ll regret it later, and possibly cause her own destruction in the process) then leads to him actually agreeing to help Link request aid from Lorule for Hyrule. 

Also, Ravio gets the Bow of Light in this AU for a few reasons. First of all, in Hyrule Warriors, although it's not officially canonical, Ravio is the only non-Zelda to have Light arrows as a part of his permanent move-set. The bow is also a good fit for Ravio's personality in terms of weapons as it is long range and is often shown to stun Ganon in the Zelda games rather than outright kill him. Besides that, Ravio in general is more magically inclined, so him using this magical bow and its magically powered arrows makes sense to me.

Lastly, the Bow of Light is a staple of Zelda games, especially when paired with the Master Sword, and I wanted to give Ravio his own weapon like the Master Sword. The Bow of Light therefore fit well, even if Lorule seems to be more aligned with shadow than light elementally. It could always be replaced with a Bow of Shadow or something like that, though.

Dungeons if this were to be a game:

Introductory mini dungeon: Lorule Castle dungeons

Full dungeons 1, 2, and 3: temples in Lorule 

Full dungeons 4, 5, and 6: temples in Hyrule

Mini dungeon: Hyrule Castle (has surprisingly easy boss battle against Agahnim)

Dungeon 7: Lorule (possibly Skull Woods or a temple in the Skull Woods)

Final dungeon: Lorule Castle (Ravio stops Link from slaying the guards, something which he does throughout their journey. They can instead just be knocked out) 

In this AU, Link, Zelda, Ravio, and Hilda are all in their older teens (Link and Ravio: around 17-18, Zelda and Hilda: around 20-21). 

I took a lot of inspiration for the plot itself from Twilight Princess. Ravio takes on a similar role to Midna and he and Link have a somewhat similar reason for working together initially. This was not initially on purpose, but once I realized the similarity, I leaned into it a little more. Overall though, I wanted to stick fairly close to the events of ALBW and general Zelda conventions, but it is of course still different.

There were probably other things I was going to talk about…but I can’t remember what they were anymore, lol.

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Peach Is Malon's Mom Fic

So...I wrote a thing and now this exists.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Summary: Malon’s father, Talon, shared his appearance with a certain jump man from another universe.

It was from that other universe that Princess Peach, tired of being kidnapped, fled to Hyrule. She fell in love and started a family with a man there, one so much like her jump man back home in the Mushroom Kingdom. But Talon could never truly be her Mario...

Or: the (true) story of who Malon’s mother really was, the reason for her absence during Ocarina of Time, and the jump men she met along the way. Because Peach is Malon's Mom.

[a-band-of-merchants]

Techy, Wild's Lolian counterpart. This is a design concept for the Lorulean version of Breath of the Wild.

Thank you @maareyas for the The Legend of Hilda: Still of the City logo design! The original post of this logo can be viewed here.

▽ AU Master Post

Version without logo + a few notes below.

The flowers in this are symbolic. First of all, red was historically the Lorule Royal Family's color until yellow (or gold like the Triforce) became more prominent. Red then connects to the kingdom’s past. As for their placements, the flower behind Techy then represents him, with him being distant from everyone else due to various aspects of his backstory. The rest of the flowers are then in front of him as part of the more overgrown vines and moss, representing the later state of his era of Lorule and its people.

Techy's pose in general is also symbolic, with him looking back/down at his arm prosthetic instead of forward, towards the light (this is related to his backstory and relationship with his past, but I won't explain that here because of spoilers). And despite looking back, away from this light in front of him, the spotlight is still on him.

Where is he? Probably somewhere within the Sanctified City (Lorulean counterpart to the Divine Beasts) or his Lorule's underground tunnel system. I was going to add gears in the background to make this more clearly part of the Sanctified City, but they took too much focus (and I need to continue working on my perspective painting abilities).

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I’m making a linksmeet involving Null, and I really like your idea of Hyrule and Lorule being like a tube imprisoning it. Can I use that in my linksmeet? With credit, of course.

I don’t even know if it’ll become relevant to the linksmeet, but I love the idea and I wanted to ask if I could use it. If you don’t want me to use it, I won’t

Of course! You’re more than welcome to use that idea! Feel free to use any of my ideas, whether to build off of them or as inspiration for something entirely different. And while I’d appreciate a small mention of you do, even that’s not really necessary, honestly.

I’m honored that you’d want to make that idea a part of your Linksmeet!

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The reflection of greed

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Hyrule Warriors Link + Proxi sketch

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ALBW AU Idea

Related to this post by @maareyas because this got too long for a reblog.

My immediate thoughts on what I would do if I were to make a Hyrule/Lorule situation swap AU like this:

First of all, Hyrule of course doesn’t have its Triforce and is decaying as a result. Link is Zelda's trusted knight, and Ravio is kind of an unofficial advisor of sorts to Hilda. Then Zelda finds out about Lorule, a place with a Triforce. She hopes that maybe they can help in some way.

Zelda reaches out to Hilda diplomatically for help. I don’t think she would want to subject another world to the same state of decay that Hyrule is going through.

So, she sends Link. He’s loyal to her and can defend himself if his visit goes sour. And, once he’s in Lorule, things do indeed go very sour.

Yuga manipulates the situation. He’s interested in Hyrule and its potential, but he also sees it as a threat to his own position in Lorule. Basically, he’s afraid that Zelda and Link will see through to the leach of a person he really is and get Hilda to realize that. Yuga has suspicions that Ravio already knows this about him, but he feels unthreatened by the boy because of how cowardly/nervous he is.

So Yuga convinces Hilda that Link, Zelda, and the world of Hyrule is a threat. Hilda thinks that they want to steal the Lorulean Triforce. After all, she knows that if she were in their situation, that’s what she would do. Hilda also doesn’t want to put her people in danger when they don’t have to be though.

Therefore, when Link arrives in Lorule, he gets escorted to Lorule Castle. He delivers Zelda’s message, but Hilda stops him when it seems her fears might come to fruition. Hilda declares Hyrule an enemy, not declaring war just yet. Link therefore gets shoved in Lorule Castle's dungeon.

Still, the tensions between the two worlds make war seem just on the horizon.

Ravio, not really involved at the moment, is just kind of watching this situation escalate like “none of what I’ve seen or heard from Hyrule supports this hostility at all. I’m confused and suspicious, and above all, I’m afraid. I’m afraid that this will result in a needless war, and I’m afraid that Hilda will do something she’ll come to regret and never be able to forgive herself for.”

Not willing to fully step in just yet, Ravio sends a letter signed only with a purple rabbit head to Zelda via Sheerow that details what’s going on in Lorule (while still being cautiously vague). Except, unbeknownst to him, that letter gets intercepted by Agahnim, AKA Ganon (because I want to include him for fun).

Link is also very confused by this turn of events. Like, he just wanted to ask for help, man. He’s not one to sit around and wait in prison, however, so he makes his escape (1st dungeon)…only to get caught again shortly after to be sentenced for execution (by order of Yuga). Except, not really, because Ravio, not having heard back from Zelda and being concerned that something happened to Sheerow, talks the Lorulean guards out of it. He’s a high enough authority that they follow his word.

After saving Link, Ravio basically blackmails him to help find out what happened to Sheerow. It’s not like he can stick around in Lorule now anyway. Ravio keeps dodging the question of whether he’ll help Link out with Hyrule’s situation after though… Link isn’t sure if he can trust Ravio, and finds it especially off-putting that they share the same face, but complying with his counterpart's request is Link’s best bet at the moment.

Ravio informs Link of 3 more dungeons where the 3 items that they need to get to Hyrule are. They need them to combine into, let’s say, a necklace that will create a new fissure because the actually open fissure is too heavily guarded. The 2nd dungeon, Ravio waits outside while Link completes it, but he needs to hide after some guards come looking for him. Going forward, he decides to stay with Link even in the dungeons.

Meanwhile, Yuga finds out about Link and Ravio’s disappearances. He’s not too concerned about what they’ll do, but he is starting to panic. Still, he decides to use their disappearances to his advantage and tells Hilda Ravio is a traitor, leading to Hilda declaring war on Hyrule in anger. Also, Agahnim reached out to Yuga after intercepting Ravio’s letter and basically said he’ll help Lorule as long as he will be ensured a place there once Hyrule falls (he really just wants to steal the Triforce for himself). Yuga accepts because he’s overconfident in his abilities even if he gets betrayed.

So now you have Hilda, hurt and angry because her best friend betrayed her, warring on Hyrule; Yuga and Agahnim working together in the background, both with plans to backstab the other once all is said and done; Link and Ravio trying their best while being hunted by Lorule’s military and Agahnim’s minions; and Zelda saddled with trying to fight the war on her doorstep while Agahnim tries to make things worse but has also made himself too much of an asset to get rid of. It’s a very messy situation.

Link and Ravio get to Hyrule and speak with Zelda. She gives Sheerow (who they find caged up somewhere in Agahnim's quarters) back and they plan how to end the war. This would be done by exposing Yuga’s treachery to Hilda by way of a confrontation like in ALBW. To do this, Link and Ravio needs to get the Master Sword and Bow of Light. First is the Master Sword, which leads to another dungeon.

Once Link has the Master Sword, with Link and Ravio’s help, Agahnim is not needed for Hyrule’s survival. Zelda therefore banishes Agahnim from Hyrule Castle. He goes with oddly little resistance...

Link and Ravio then go to a temple in Lorule to get the Bow of Light. Ravio expects Link to be the one to wield it, but it turns out that Ravio is the one who must actually summon it. He struggles at first, doubting himself and his abilities. But Link has grown to trust him and has seen what he can do in the dungeons, helping out with puzzles and even the bosses, though in an indirect way. Link gets Ravio to duel him, and although Ravio doesn’t really put his heart into it at first, Link is persistent. Ravio successfully summons the Bow of Light.

After this is the last dungeon, Lorule Castle. In the throne room at the end of the dungeon, Hilda is too consumed by rage by seeing Link and Ravio that she doesn't let them speak at first. So Link needs to battle her. Once both are almost to the point of defeat, Hilda ends up with the Master aimed at her heart.

But the final, killing blow? ...It never comes. Hilda questions why.

Across the room, Ravio lowers his Bow of Light (he had been creating barriers, obstacles, or something like that with its magic maybe). He gives a speech, Link is there as support, and they get Hilda to see what Yuga's true motives are.

This then all ends in a battle against Yuga and Agahnim. Only, in phase two of the boss battle, Agahnim kills Yuga in the last moment, absorbs his power, and becomes his true self, Ganon (or Yuganon. Or maybe the opposite happens where Yuga betrays Ganon. IDK at the moment).

Link, Ravio, and Hilda all join together to defeat this final foe, each representing a different piece of the Triforce (Courage, Wisdom, and Power respectively). And with one final sealing blow of the Master Sword, Ganon is defeated.

In the end, with the reassurance of Ravio, Hilda restores Hyrule's Triforce. Zelda promises to keep Lorule in her prayers while Hilda apologizes for her suspicion. Link and Ravio then have to say goodbye for what will be the last time.

Back in there respective kingdoms, the final fissure between worlds closes. Except, Link looks down to see the necklace still intact around his neck. And it's faintly glowing.

The end.

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Headcanon: Language in Zelda

Everything we read or that is spoken in-game is translated for us through the in-game textboxes (because everything would have otherwise been in Hylian or whatever other language). What we see and read as players is not necessarily the direct words originally getting communicated.

This can actually be seen in-game. When you go up to a sign or book written in Hylian, you can see that it's written in Hylian. But when you go to interact with it, the textbox that shows up is in whatever language the game is in instead. This is, of course, really because Zelda games are video games for real-life humans, but I prefer to view it through this other lens.

As a sidenote, this could then be used to explain away certain inconsistencies in-game, like the "malice" in BotW being renamed to "gloom" in TotK.

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Ravio discord server "Triforce" prompt ficlet (also posted on Ao3 here):

Mark of a Hero

Ravio put on a smile at the familiar sound of his shop’s door opening. Like so many times before, his counterpart walked into the room with barely so much as a hello. 

“Welcome back, Mr. Hero!” Ravio said anyway. He opened his mouth again to ask of Link’s progress, but the words died before they could leave his lips. 

The Triforce. Link had come back with the mark of the Triforce of Courage on the back of his hand. It was flipped, wrong, but… It made Ravio wonder. 

With a small nod of acknowledgement, Link approached the back-most shop display. Ravio fought not to stare at that new mark of his. Maybe Link would not be able to see where he was looking with his hood and all, but he was almost afraid that if he looked too long, he would start planning or wanting some way to...

But no. Link had rightfully earned the Triforce of Courage. It was proof of his, well, heroing. After all, Link was a real, live, genuine hero, not some coward who could not even—

The hero’s eyes flicked up to not quite meet his. “Hey. You listening?”

“Huh?” Ravio asked. Oh, Mr. Hero was trying to buy bombs. “Uh, yeah. Of course I am! If you want to buy that, it’ll be 800 rupees.” 

For a second, Mr. Hero just looked at him, his eyes slightly narrowed. Then he nodded once.

Ravio sighed but caught himself. He could not let his guard down. Not now. Not while the actual hero was still there. But once he was 800 rupees richer? Once Mr. Hero was gone—again? Well, then he could freak out all he wanted. 

And, soon enough, Link did leave. And Ravio had just stared at the door where the world's hope had gone.

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Drawing of Tenor, the Ravio designed by @maareyas as part of her Hero's Rondo AU (check out her post of his design here)

This drawing's admittedly a bit messy, but he was a new, possibly era hopping Ravio (depending on what his backstory may be and how similar it is to Tempo's), so I wanted to try my hand at drawing him.

I was originally going to use a style closer to the more recent one I’ve been using for the A Band of Merchants Ravios. I got a bit carried away with experimenting, though. ...That seems to happen a lot to me.

Sketch/line art below

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Realized I should add some kind of background so it's not just gray, even if only a simple one like this.

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Drawing of Tenor, the Ravio designed by @maareyas as part of her Hero's Rondo AU (check out her post of his design here)

This drawing's admittedly a bit messy, but he was a new, possibly era hopping Ravio (depending on what his backstory may be and how similar it is to Tempo's), so I wanted to try my hand at drawing him.

I was originally going to use a style closer to the more recent one I’ve been using for the A Band of Merchants Ravios. I got a bit carried away with experimenting, though. ...That seems to happen a lot to me.

Sketch/line art below

[broadestwings]

Headcanon: LU Links' Dark World

Sky: remlit 

Honestly, I think this fits him really well personality wise. Generally, he is a pretty laid back guy who enjoys a good nap and has a generally soft/fluffy energy to him, but, when there are demons around, he becomes a force to be reckoned with (this is canon to both him and remlits).

There's also, as one example, that SkSw quest where Link breaks a chandelier for a piece of heart (or maybe just for the fun of it), which is very cat coded, and so this fits remlits, which are basically cat lemurs. On a more serious note, remlits' inability to be killed and ability to fly back onto Skyloft if they get thrown off the edge (no comment on how I know this) is also like the whole unbreakable spirit thing where he keeps getting up and trying despite being faced with insurmountable odds. 

Hyrule: honey badger

Despite their name, honey badgers can be quite ferocious. According to my brief research, they're also apparently known for their courage and determination, have very thick skin, and are very resistant to many types of snake venom. This is fitting for the difficulty of his games and characterization in LU of not knowing when to give up. Honey badgers are solidary creatures who live in burrows as well, which fits him and his games nicely. Lastly, there's that common headcanon of Hyrule really liking sweets. I don't need to explain why that's relevant to honey badgers (except I will say that honey badgers are carnivores who raid beehives, not for their honey, but for bee larvae & pupae).

Wild: flying squirrel

There's many reasons for this: climbing, gliding, foraging, and a hoarding tendency to name a few. Besides that, according to Wikipedia "[Flying Squirrels] eat according to their environment; they are omnivorous, and will eat whatever food they can find," which sounds remarkably like Wild if you ask me.

Flying squirrels also apparently glow under UV light, which doesn't have much to do with this, but I found it interesting.