Simply a sleepy person, call me Summer. Occasional author so you may see some stuff here, maybe not, it depends on how much coffee or tea I have in me, feel welcome and rest for a while. Lurk or feel free to shoot an ask if you want to talk LoZ or Linked Universe! The box is open for a reason after all, or don't, that's chill as well. I'm just here doing my thing and having a nice place to write. Warning that it's a mainly The Legend of Zelda and Linked Universe focused blog, occasionally Hollow Knight and Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous too, so don't be surprised if you see crazy theories, headcanons and the sort every once in a while. Profile by @parksrway , go check their art and all their works out, they make amazing content and I would literally die for their art, or if I had the chance to be sworn into office be sworn on it. They also make top tier Sheik content.
Ok ok, with the oot remake coming out, we can all agree to be respectful to each otherās opinions, right? People excited for the remake arenāt going to personally insult people who donāt like it and vice versa, right? We can be normal about this yeah? We all know that a toxic fandom comes from people being unable to handle differing opinions right??? Right???
I love my country š£ļø I just like to think of him as ace, iām ace so I turn characters into this cult because there isnāt enough ace representation.
honestly I think iām gonna open ych comms with this one lmao.
"Lu Warriors is an overconfident and vain ladies' man" but in a he's actually just a terrified teenage soldier underneath the facade he's put up as armor to protect himself and he's deeply horrified of romance kind of way.
Alright, slightly more on my thoughts the Ocarina of Time Remake, this is just my personal take at this time now that I have slightly more sleep in my system (no coffee thought :( )
On one hand, I don't think it was really necessary, both because I am extremely biased towards the 3DS version and don't really buy when people aim towards people's nostalgia of a good thing only to remake it as a shell of it's former self, and because as a longtime Zelda fan I personally believe that it would have just been more effective to port over the 3DS version (maybe with some qol updates) and keep it as is, like yes have your nostalgia, but you don't need a whole remake for it.
If anything there are other games fans have been looking forward to for years to getting a modern port in between the releases of new games they could be focusing on like Twilight Princess, Minish Cap, Wind Waker, A Link Between Worlds, Spirit Tracks etc etc, Ocarina of Time 3D feels like the definitive edition of that arc of the Zelda and especially The Hero of Time story so technically it should be a closed book so they can focus on that, but maybe that's just me.
On the other hand, I can't help but be tentatively hopeful and excited because it's Ocarina of Time, my first true Zelda experience alongside Majora's Mask and A Link Between Worlds (something I've talked to at large, I saw a family member play Twilight Princess when I was young, and then later on my grandma and mother got me the first three Zelda games they could find and a 3DS, there was kind of no going back from there and I associate the games with memories of them ^^), I dearly love that game and just hearing the first few notes to Saria's Song and the main theme on the trailer almost made me tear up.
Overall, for all I do have some criticism of the series in recent years (mainly for some of the post BOTW games among other things, though I did really like Echoes of Wisdom), I'm really hopeful that the remake can stand on it's own and do well as someone who was a child when they first witnessed the story of a boy without a fairy set off on a lifechanging adventure in a wonderfully beautiful world, and now an adult fighting my own battles who dearly thanks that story for their own courage to get out of bed every day, no matter how brittle it is.
(And who also wishes they could give that kid a hug, as an older sibling now with the benefit of hindsight that is a child please give him a blanket, headpats and let him nap, yes yes cycle of reincarnation and destiny and he dreamed of adventuring anyway, but also if it was my younger sibling on Ocarina of Time Link's shoes I would have gone out there and fistfought Ganondorf myself no matter my odds of winning or losing, he can be an adventurer I can make sure he doesn't need to deal with at least one(1) issue by putting it down).
Also, I hope that if this does well and actually stands on it's own, that it will bring more fans to the series in a more accessible way (thought knowing Nintendo's prices I doubt it, I still sigh that I don't have a Switch either one or two for BOTW) and open the door not only for a good Majora's Mask port to a modern era, but also pave the way for other games to be adapted that definitely need more and also deserve to have their stories reintroduced to people.
As for how it looks, the tapestry is gorgeous (though I half wonder and worry about wether or not it'll ever be fully showed in game), and I really like the look of the environment so that's promising, I'm hesitating a little on Link's design, but I feel like it'll be better to judge it in motion rather than just a snapshot, might just be me but we'll see.
Overall, I'll probably watch someone else play it and read the OOT manga until it comes out (and let the OOT/MJM specific hyperfixation take the wheel for a little while when I can be here lol).
Sleep Deprived Rambling/Yapping About First (Aka Hylia's Chosen Hero) Because He Lives In My Head Rent Free and I've Just Had A Day
Note: The writer is not fully caught up to LU (Yet) or any other Link's meet aus, they are, however, a person who has Zelda knowledge living in their head rent free that activates like a sleeper agent at any given time and will catch up to LU in time, this might get updated in the future with proper info.
Alright, that out of the way, I'mma have some loose ramblings here and this is mostly a summarized thing about First's whole deal, both for myself as reference and other people who feel like reading this (though feel free to correct me! This is just what I remember from the manga and I'm sure people smarter than me have compiled it better + this does not extent to LU First at this time, because I'm sure the LU creator has their own interpretation of this character as I feel like that is something that will always happen when talking about Links on the fringes of the narrative/aren't talked to as much due to a myriad of factors such as people not playing their games/we as an audience also don't get enough of them in the games beyond a passing mention so everyone has a different takeaway/point of view, which is really cool and I adore that, but also I haven't gotten to really chomp on their interpretation yet. Sorry for those here from my writing in a LU context because this was before we had any introduction to him no matter how vague).
At the very end there will probably be some theories and analysis and the like among some personal things I headcanon/like to do when writing First as a character (and probably meandering shenanigans in between analyzing to be fair), as even with how little we know of him he's fascinating to look at with what we do have. But if that's not your cup of tea dear reader that's fine, feel free to skip.
Basically: this is an excuse to ramble about Hylia's Chosen Hero lol
Who is First/Hylia's Chosen Hero?
This guy! His appearance is limited to the Skyward Sword manga and he has some mentions in the SS game, albeit in passing, the most we know about him comes from the manga by Akira Himekawa:
We don't have much about his early life, but we do know that he started as a knight serving Lord Dagianis (makes sense from a medieval point of view, even if it does beg the question of how Pre-Skyward Sword Hyrule worked, but this ain't the time to open that fairy bottle) and he was well respected and regarded by the people of Hylia (though we do not know his relationship with other knights or with Dagianis before this and are only vaguely privy to his relationship with Orville, Hylia and The Crimson Loftwing, besides, well, one detail with Dagianis, y'all probably already noticed the chains).
He was framed by Dagianis for 'blasphemy and treason' aka code for "I have noticed an uptick in demonic/monster activity around here, can't we do something about it ourselves? I'm not too religious but the vibes in my dreams and in really are off, just saying, even if I was I'd be wanting to cut the problem at the root." *Gets throw in the slammer for four years and as seen in the manga, treated none too gently, seriously, the one panel we see before he is freed in the manga the man looks like he's been tortured (which does beg the question: who was in charge of the dungeons/punishments? Was it personally the Lord's or?)*
(I'm thinking too hard and getting off track, sorry.)
Eventually he is freed by the people after Lord Dagianis is killed by Demise because they needed someone who could stand up against him and he was the best fit for the role, so he is given his sword (tended by the one other person in his life we actually know of, Orville, a friend who restored it, possibly a blacksmith/a person with enough means to be able to keep it in good condition), a tunic, his cloak and armor and basically takes up the reins of the situation on the Hylian side.
Note: He is severely weakened because let's be real, imprisonment does awful awful things to the human body, especially long term imprisonment and we don't know if he was freed immediately after Dagianis died or if the Hylians just looked for other options first/waited for a divine sign before going 'Fine let's free our most capable fighter, surely he can/will want to do something about the problem he was pointing out before he got jailed' (thankfully he was willing).
In the game him and Hylia basically collaborated from the start, in the manga it's noticeable that First held some religious skepticism, albeit not particularly loud ones even if it is ultimately what Dagianis uses to frame him. He loves the people of Hylia and cares a lot about them even after what they've essentially let all of that happen to him, but his true feelings about Hylia herself are ambiguous at best/somewhat critical at worst (if I had to describe it in anyway is that while he IS faithful {kind of hard not to be in Hyrule to be honest}, it's not really blind faith or an absolute form of dedicated faith towards a Goddess, and more so that 'To align with the Goddess is to align with the people, and I do love the people' if that somehow makes any sense), though he doesn't hate or resent her for his circumstances to the point of refusal to take up arms with her.
Similarly, him and The Crimson Loftwing don't warm up to each other right away in the manga, as Crimson also has his own criticisms of Hylians who 'Can't see the difference between something monstrous and divine'. (Which is an interesting parallel to First's view of Hylia), it takes a little bit of time but after recognizing his spirit and courage they do become close companions. With The Chosen Hero riding astride the Loftwing's back in the battle against Demise before the Hylian people are sent skyward, guided by him and the divine bird.
Later on, Hylia offers him the Goddess Sword, however he does refer to himself as 'impure' and thus can't wield such a pure blade, so she reframes it as a choice: take the sword, you may either fight against Demise and protect your people or take revenge against them for what they've done using this sword, he chooses the former as he 'shall remain loyal to his friends'. Later on he is informed he needs to break the blade before reforging it into it's true final form: The Master Sword (not dissimilar to Skyward Sword, but actually closer to Tears Of The Kingdom if you think about it), later on he receives the blessings of the dragons onto the sword in the middle of the war. (And yes the other tribes are also here and contributing).
(Which speaks a lot about his psychological state after the imprisonment alongside his view on Hylia to be fair, again, he might not be fully 'faithful' in the traditional sense, but I do think she earned his loyalty here, or at least she knew it was a spot she could safely press so he would agree, but that's probably for a Hylia only post, either way: it says a lot that Hylia doesn't really absolve him or 'forgive him', but accepts him in a way, like 'Indeed that is a choice you COULD make, but we both know you won't do it. You're fine, pick it up.')
So in the middle of the battle he gets grievously injured, hands over the sword to Hylia so she could send the people to the sky, although she does send the sword back to him. The Hylian people leave, he stays behind and succumbs to his wounds, later on, Hylia finds him and decides to enact the reincarnation plan from there
(Cue the Skyward Sword plot here, Fi does mention him here and there and there's some sparse stories, but quite vaguely so nothing much really sticks out/comes to mind, truly haunting the narrative).
So yeah basically this is all the canonical information we have on First/Hylia's Chosen Hero. All in one place both for self indulgent yapping reasons and organization readers, all that to say: everyone please go read the Zelda mangas right now they're all so good and have a lot of strong points. Especially the OOT manga in time for the remake but mostly the SS manga.
Personal Theories/Headcanons and Derived!
Alright so hear me out because I'm probably going to sound a little insane, please stick with me here.
So we know how the undead are real in LOZ right? We have Redeads, Stalfos, Poes, Dead Hands, technically the Skull Kids, among other things that indicate death and reanimation is all very possible in Hyrule. And we do know that, to an extent, deities/greater beings can 'die' and become new beings (or at least divorce pieces of themselves into smaller wholes like Hylia with Zelda, a piece who is whole, technically Hylia, yes, but 'Still our Zelda.' to paraphrase Skyward Sword Zelda, who I feel is definitely the best way to describe it, other examples that come to mind to me being obviously Demise and Ganondorf and to a lesser extent Lana, Cia and the Time Sorceress in Hyrule Warriors.
So what I'm hearing here is that there's the very real possibility that later on whatever remains of First might have later on become the Fierce Deity, because while Hylia is more or less a continuous line, The Links have a lot more mirroring going (all of them Links in a Chain, all of them positioned slightly differently, I'm probably not wording this well). If we go through the thought that Dead Hands are basically preserved snapshots of prisoners who died of hunger, who's to say The Fierce Deity isn't a snapshot of Hylia's Chosen Hero that, through time, ended up evolving into it's own deity? Because I don't think many things can motivate someone to leave an impression of themselves in the world a Goddess can just take with her in her reincarnation cycle won't leave a strong impression somehow, at least what remains.
By extension, that would make Dark Link a twisted snapshot of Link, in that they are more diminished and twisted, like a painting that rotted without proper preservation, Shadow Links meanwhile I prefer to go with the Four Swords manga interpretation to a point, technically still Link, shares an origin point with him, probably has more of his negative/possible less acceptable traits on display, can still evolve into their own thing if given time {RIP Shadow Link Four Swords Adventure, you will always be dearly missed by myself, the Four Swords Adventure side of the fandom, Four and The Colors})
Again I don't know if I'm making any sense but hopefully my meaning comes across, basically: if anybody reveals the Fierce Deity started as a Link at any point in the Zelda canon be it Hylia's Chosen Hero or Skyward Sword or otherwise I WILL be cackling like The Witch in Slay The Princess, mark my words.
So for First himself: He definitely has his heart in the right place, but I can see him also being very, very weary of people in general, in the sense that he won't outright push people away, but that he's always waiting for the sword to fall upon his neck, it'll hurt but he's seen the glint of it so he can't help but think bracing himself will help hurt less. Because again imprisonment is not good for anyone's psychological state and I doubt the conditions were bothering to be humane, it's a bit of a mess. Not exactly defensive about it, not quite avoidant or too stiff but a secret third thing (already preemptively made peace with it even if it might not happen). Once someone earns his loyalty though you can BET he's ride or die (I just KNOW him, Warriors, Legend (I like to think that to how Sir Raven, Wild, Sky and sometimes Wars if he's feeling generous are exceptions to him, not the rule), Twilight and Wild would all have 'The knights of my era weren't a good example of knighthood/very quickly made me not believe in them for any one reason' solidarity {yes even Wars, I will die on that hill I fear, but this post is long enough I do not have the time to go there, outta my way soldier boy I'll get to you later (promise/threat, you can tell he really grew on me as a character with time by how much I like to twist the knife) and for Twilight: I feel like in his mind Rusl doesn't fall in that scale anymore given his time in Ordon and the Resistance is how he knows him}, Time very very rarely joins in with an anecdote or two to keep people on their toes (I think he sometimes thinks back to the Hyrule Castle knights in his game and what they did to him as a kid and just itches to add to the drama out of spite, not counting that unfortunate guy in the alleyway) and also Four when he remembers some of the things his father did in the manga before things went horribly and feels like venting (though his father is definitely on the scale of both 'decent parent/knight', alongside the other knights in the Four Swords Manga), on that note absolutely hysterical to think about the fact that of all the Links, the only ones to have more positive experiences/memories with knights are Sky (raised in a knight's academy, biased), Four (father is a knight and was exposed to a lot of knights in his youth, it's like his era hogged most of the good ones and even then he had gripes with his father pre manga, biased but acknowledges there's familial bias), Hyrule (never personally met a knight if I remember correctly) and Wind (Also hasn't personally met a Hylian knight). I don't know something about that just makes me giggle.) This is the man that even after the people of Hylia left him imprisoned for four years rode an ornery Loftwing into battle for them without hesitation, you don't see dedication and goodwill like that every day.
Adding to that, I like to think Hylia favored him so much because he could look past her divinity to see the bigger picture and it's very rare for a mortal to treat anything divine with something close to normalcy (and clearly a decent amount of skepticism but still decide to stick by her way of doing things anyway). I get it I too would want someone like that to be my companion in a reincarnation cycle to make sure what might be my sibling in divinity ceases his nonsense even if only for every few centuries, I feel like in a way they kept each other grounded for better or worse (or maybe I'm just projecting because when I think about Hylia I mostly lean towards a 'well intentioned but because of her divinity her concept of morality is somewhere in the gray' read of her, fully benevolent divinity doesn't quite work for me but I don't think she's outright secretly evil/intentionally cruel either, more in the sense that her plan requires her inaction but she overall wants the best for the people who worship her/that she was created to watch over, even while taking flawed actions to get there).
Just as much of a menace as all Links (again, rode an ornery Loftwing into battle), is just more subtle about it, you only see in hindsight when it's already too late to stop him from doing anything too unhinged (man's been imprisoned for four years and the first thing that was done to him was throw him at a war by the side of a Goddess and a variety of different species with no recovery time, his standards tend towards a little skewed, even towards LOZ standards, let him be a little feral and unhinged while pretending he's Perfectly Fine, as a treat).
If he ever sees the shackle on Twilight's wolf form I think he just, kind of needs to take a moment to check the perimeter, give him a few, he's functioning, everything is fine, don't worry about it.
(Everything is not, in fact, fine).
All of the Links have trauma to be fair, but I like to think his lingered for longer because again, imprisonment does awful things to the human psyche and he had literally no time to recover/process it and the idea that any of his successors could have similar trauma is soul crushing (probably finds some way to blame himself for it too since all Links share an aspect of him).
First: Oh Goddess Hylia, radiant pale being, my patron and benefactor, one of my few friends before it all came to an end. *Gestures vaguely at Twilight's direction specifically* Rude? Hylia, about to send a prophetic dream through one of the Zeldas too him: LISTEN that was NOT in the plan, don't you yell at me.
Anyway I like to think he deals the absolute worst with enclosed spaces and restraints, he doesn't really like the clink of chains and closed dungeons make him grimace but he can power through it, what he really doesn't like the idea of being locked without an exit strategy and will probably start biting if anyone tries to pin him down or something similar, easiest way to make him lose it (negative), just that full blow moment of simultaneously resolved and panicked "I am NOT going back there." Also doesn't take it too well if any of the Links are restrained because the idea of them sharing that exact same trauma as him makes him upset (handshake with Time {Dead Hand, enough said, technically time loop shenanigans count as a form of restraint especially when you view the events of Majora's Mask through a trauma lens}, Twilight {literally kidnapped and imprisoned in the first half of the game} and Warriors {can't imagine he likes enclosed spaces he can't get out of easily after the Temple of Souls, Cia when I get you}, at least off the top of my head).
First (hah) thing he probably did once he registered he was safe in a group that is unlikely to throw him to the wolves again was probably nap, just the hardest power nap, nobody could wake him up and honestly that's fair, let the man sleep, otherwise probably the Link that stays up the most and makes his watch drag on for more time on purpose as his insomnia is probably pretty bad (plus I doubt he wants to close his eyes one day and suddenly find out nothing was real/mattered).
Very capable fighter, properly trained and also has a lot of good experience/very little qualms about prioritizing his survival and other people's by any means necessary but since he was already fighting with a handicap during the war he has a habit of just plain ignoring his limits and any injuries/exhaustion he has on purpose because he was intentionally compartmentalizing it the whole time {on the reasoning that 'this is nothing compared to fighting with the aftereffects of starvation'), can and will fight like someone who can't die if you leave him to it (please don't, he WILL collapse).
As it's literally implied he's been having divine visions regarding the whole thing with Demise before imprisonment, I like to think he's also the one who helped deal with Majora at the time, just to nip it in the bud before it could become another problem and also because I'm biased towards the Fierce Deity connection.
Not quite stoic/stern, but probably the most 'soft' of the Links to be around even if not necessarily gentle/overly friendly, I don't know something about him just feels very safe in a sense (which is also a similar vibe I get to SS Link). He's like one of those old weary hounds who went through a lot but are still really gentle and tender with the people they like to me, won't necessarily snap and knows how and when to enforce his space, but also just really comfortable to be around.
And that's all I have for now while remaining in a general-ish territory because I'm tired lol.
Basically I think he's neat, I like him a lot, much like most of the Zelda knowledge he lives in my head rent free though he's arguably not my one of my main muses (that would be Twilight with Wild and Time also taking up the other spots with more consistency), I'll probably write more for him in the future (though if you've seen my blog it's chill if you don't wanna stick around for that if you've got this far lol), thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Yeah I get that no dark age is forever and that nothing is eternal and hope and whimsy are still things that keep us going however how small it is, and the only one who can pick up the sword to defeat the evil is you and all that but what in the actual fuck man. Can't a break be given? Perchance a moment to nap without worrying about whatever calamity is gonna go on next? Doesn't have to be from seven to a hundred years just one minute without stress induced by divine tendency towards schadenfreude and/or humanity being it's own worst enemy would be nice.
This special is from a scene much further in the LU comic. It felt like a fitting way to reflect on the journey that started it all. What an impression it left, as we still feel that sense of adventure all these years later.
Young Link (Soprano), Wind Waker Link (Alto), Adult Link (Tenor), and Twilight Princess Link (Bass) wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with their, er, rousing rendition of a Christmas classic.
let me point out that Christmas has been over for nearly four months and Iām still getting the occasional notification that someone has reblogged this.Ā Itās also probably the single most popular post on Link Making Faces.
I do so much stuff in this fandom and the thing that gets the most exposure is Links screaming to the tune of āCarol of the Bellsā
