The Hero of Men Notes Pt. 1
I obviously could not claim this mini-story to be a Legend of Zelda tale if it didn’t start with the Hero waking up at the beginning! A sham, that’s what it’d be!! Anyways, I’ll be covering some of my thoughts and the creative process through which I made the latest chapter, “The Hero of Men”, from my Zelda fanfiction, If Time Healed Wounds. I’m gonna arrange it into different topics:
The Setting - This being the tale of the Hero known to us as “the Hero of Men”, briefly mentioned in The Minish Cap, I figured that, from an in-world perspective, the traditions and stories of those times had to be closer and more accurate to the events from Skyward Sword and everything in-between it and TMC. Also, we know that the creation of the Temple of Time, the apparition of the Sages and the Interloper War (as the event is known amongst theorists) all had to happen during that time. As such, I’m pretty sure that the importance of the Royal Family being descended from Hylia (and let’s be honest, most likely the Hero as well), would not have been forgotten or obviated yet, both by themselves and the normal people. The story of Demise’s curse would have been passed down as well.
All of these things are super important to the franchise’s lore as a whole, and yet are deliberately left vague by good ol’ Nintendo. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. I’m personally passionate about creators leaving an open note in their lore for fans to fill in with their own theories and assumptions, because it means that there is no established canon in regards to those topics, and everyone’s ideas and theories are equally valid.
(This is something that the creators behind The Elders Scrolls series have done masterfully, imho. I’m a huge fan of the way they’ve managed that principle, making the community a part of the “canon”---which is considered non-existent in the series, due to everyone’s headcanon being as valid as Bethesda’s---along with the concept of the Unreliable Narrator; but that’s a rant for some other time.)
Princess Aryn - Being that the story of the Hero of Men has never been told in detail by Nintendo, we get a LOT of stuff to theorize on and fill in. I got the idea of making her a girl originally merely because the HoM’s hair was the longest of all the Heroes’ before BotW Link came along, haha (as we do get a glimpse of---I assume--- him in the stained glass shown during The Minish Cap’s intro), and also because, for the sake of the story, it fit so much better to have her be a female, like our Reader Character is. I don’t suppose there’ll be a fuss about a “Link” being a girl :D It’s really not a big deal. Also, I like that making her Zelda’s sister gave the excuse for Aryn to care so much for her in the style of Zelda’s traditional Hero-Zelda connection. I genuinely hadn’t planned that bit and it worked so well! I’m so happy with the result. I tried to stress out a lot the issue with her being so young, for most Links always tend to be in the series, and, realistically speaking, the repercussions of something like that are extremely interesting to me. As for her name, I was hesitant for a long time whether I should’ve given her one, or just leave it open for the readers to fill in, using the same “(y/n)” format I use for the OC protagonist, but! in the end I thought that it would make people confused, making them believe that they are the same person, which is not the case. So there’s that.
If she ended up being annoying to some, just know that she was annoying to me too -lol-. It was the intention.
I might change it in the future to a more “Link-ish” name, though, or maybe leaving it simply as (y/n), I don’t know... If you have any suggestions, let me know :D
Princess Zelda - Let me begin by saying that I am so proud of her character, if I may say so myself. I remember that, being a kid, I never liked Princess Zelda before, in any game. She seemed an annoyance to me everytime... Up until I played Twilight Princess. Even though she was still a damsel-in-distress trapped in a tower (despite the choice of remaining there being hers alone), she had a less sparkly-pink princess personality (if that makes any sense), which was what I used to dislike about her before. She was a more mature character, she did not have the big, cute, anime character eyes anymore... I just loved her design. In time I came to appreaciate all incarnations of her, but TP Zelda always remained my favorite. So, that’s what I aimed for here. A mature Zelda, heavily inspired too by Hyrule Warriors‘ Zelda, being a warrior herself and all. I have to point out here though: Her annoyance at having a Hero appear in this story is not based or inspired by BotW’s Zelda. In the game it is a matter of proving herself capable without the aid of a Hero, whereas in this story she is worried because of the prophecy of the Hero of Time, not her own value or capabilities being put into question if there was a Hero.
For more on what I did in regards to that prophecy, check out the second part of these Notes!
The Sheikah - Impa has always been the traditional caretaker of Princess Zelda’s in most games where she has an appearance, and then there are the Sheikah following the King of Hyrule in Breath of the Wild. I think that the concept of having the important members of the royalty being assigned a Sheikah protector since they were born was an interesting aspect I could take advantage on. The Sheikah have always been the guardians not only of the Royal Family but also of their secrets, and as an extension, those of the inner workings of the entire Kingdom. That’s why the Sheikah scouts that first discovered the Stone Tower are able to recognize the black speech of Mordor used by the Dark Tribe; they have been taught these things since forever, they have always been the lore-keepers of Hyrule. This is also why I felt it appropriate to credit them with the prophecy of the Hero of Time, since it is Sheik who mentions it in Ocarina of Time, most likely taught in turn by Impa (or at the very least, I like that theory).
Which leads us to two of the most important topics in the chapter: Majora, the Dark Tribe, and the land of Termina. But I will write about those in a separate post, to make these shorter :D
The mirrors created by the Dark Tribe - In the series we are introduced to various mirrors. The first is the Mirror Shield, first introduced in A Link To The Past, continuing appearances in later games. These shields vary in shape and form, but have one thing in common: they always reflect light, either literally like in Majora’s Mask, Ocarina of Time or The Wind Waker, or light in different presentations, such as the beams shot by some enemies; then there’s the Dark Mirror, introduced in Four Swords Adventures, which reflects the Darkness inside living beings, creating evil copies of them. This is how Dark Link is created in FSA; and lastly, there’s the Mirror of Twilight, from Twilight Princess, which in the game is merely the portal to the Twilight Realm, not the reason for the creation of the twilight in Hyrule, like I use it in the fic. Still, all of these seemed curious similarities to me. Since Light in The Legend of Zelda has always been treated like the embodiment of goodness, it struck me like odd that the Mirror Shield would be created for the purpose of reflecting it, defending its user from it. The Dark Mirror does not reflect the Light inside creatures, merely the Darkness, thus being in a manner similar to the Mirror Shield in that both deflect Light. That’s why I find it possible, even though it’s just as likely that I’m wrong, that both were created by the same people, and since we are told in FSA that the Dark Tribe created the Dark Mirror, then they’d also created the Mirror Shield. At the very least THE Mirror Shield I speak of in ITHW. In regards to the Mirror of Twilight, this was more of a creative freedom I gave myself in the writing process. In Twilight Princess it is suggested that the twilight was first created when the Twilight Realm came to be, as punishment for the dark interlopers, not that they created it themselves.
For the sake of making connections, I assigned all of these creations to the Dark Tribe.
The Fused Shadows - Remember that in Twilight Princess the Light Spirits tell Link that the Fused Shadows bring the worst in people? It is in a way, similar to what the Dark Mirror does, detecting the Darkness within a person and exploiting it, although in different ways. It is, after all, what causes the horrible mutations in the first three bosses of the game. When in the chapter I speak of the dark interlopers using it to bring out the evil in people and force them to fight amongst themselves, it’s quite literal, just like Lanayru showed Link in-game after he returns the Light to that province.
Having used the Fused Shadows to corrupt its victims and turn them into evil, the dark interlopers could use the Dark Mirror to reflect that Darkness more easily, thus creating their doppelgangers.
The Sages and the Temple of Time - In Hyrule Historia, we are told that Rauru, the Sage of Light, was a part of the Royal Family, but it is not stated whether he was a king at some point, or not. That might’ve been left open on purpose, but I still think that something so important would have been specified (maybe?). Then I thought, why not? And I just decided to give him a brother, who would become the first King of Hyrule during this time. And, idk, I thought it would be fun to give Rauru a more specific “origin story”; the reason why he is a Sage, the reason why he can’t appear in Hyrule with a more physical form like the other Sages (since he actually died), the reason why the Sages were created as a whole to begin with---and it offered the PERFECT opportunity to link them to the prophecy of the Hero of Time (again!) whose specifics have haunted me since I first played Ocarina of Time... and which I needed to have in place for our Reader Character’s backstory.
Not to mention that it gave me the excuse I needed to explain the disappearance of the Goddess Statue from Hyrule, which had also bothered me since Skyward Sword.
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