#fd.txt

[fiercerdeities]

ocarina of time Link is particularly tragic for the reason that, even though every incarnation goes through the hero's journey, none of them are ripped quite so viciously and mercilessly from the world they knew before like oot Link was—Kokiri Forest was all he ever knew, he only ever saw people like him and never knew there was a world beyond the forest. all of the other incarnations existed around people like them and were sent out of circumstance to continue to be around mainly people like them rather than being forced into the circumstances of a world they didn't even know existed, full of beings so very different, and then Link himself becomes so very different from who he used to be and the world he used to know, and even when he returns to his original appearance, he can never return back to that world or live in that peace again. many of the other incarnations can. he wasn't fighting to return to his own life. he was being commanded to fight by beings and concepts he couldn't say no to so that everyone else could continue their own, same lives. everyone gets their happy ending... but not Link. never this incarnation of Link.

i can't imagine a worse fate.

[fiercerdeities]

one of the reasons i prefer Majora’s Mask to Ocarina of Time is the setting. not necessarily Hyrule vs Termina or the fact that Termina is so unlike most other worlds that zelda games are usually set in with all of its creepy eccentricities, but for the fact that Link chose to save it. he didn't choose to save Hyrule, he was forced to. he didn't have to save Termina. he didn't have to interfere with the every day lives and problems that the denizens there dealt with. he didn't have to take the moon upon his small shoulders or defeat an eldritch abomination sealed inside a mask. he could've left as soon as he was freed from Skull Kid's curse. he could've even left and found his own solution, because he probably would have. he could've continued on his way to search for the friend that was more precious to him than anyone else.

but he chose to save Termina. he chose to help the people with their every day lives and bring peace to tortured souls whose homes and world were doomed otherwise. he took the moon upon his small shoulders and abandoned his humanity just so Termina could be saved. he wasn't a puppet on divine strings, he was a boy with a good heart who wanted to help. to me, that makes Termina more worth saving and treasuring than Hyrule.

it wasn't for goddesses he couldn't touch and a princess he's never met. it was for the people.

[fiercerdeities]

sheik and link in regards to link is terrible—this boy stuck in this adult body who has probably never known what it meant to even have a crush on someone, or has no concept of puppy love, is undeniably drawn to this mysterious boy who appears exactly when and where he needs him. this boy stuck in this adult body with no concept for crush or puppy love is suddenly in the throngs of desire and not understanding it, only knowing that he wants to be closer, that he doesn't want sheik to disappear again, that he wants to be closer to sheik. this is new to him.

and imagine he's right there—he's on the verge of getting what he wants, and then... it turns out that sheik is not real. sheik was never real. now he has all of these feelings... and they have nowhere to go. how awful must that be, a child with the broken heart of a grownup who'd never known that kind of pain existed in the first place.

[fiercerdeities]

made a post about how oot Link was alienated from the life he'd known before and how he could never return to that, and briefly mentioned how he was alienated from himself too, but i'd like to take that a step further in being trapped in a body that has no shape to call home—what must that be like? what must it be like to lose your body, not physically, but to become so distant from it that you no longer know what it was you originally looked like in the first place? what must it be like to a be a stranger to yourself, to never be comfortable in your body, to move like an adult with limbs too short, to fight like a god as nothing but withering bones, to shamble like wood in the ocean, to stomp just a little too hard with a human leg that it hurts. to have your muscle memory pulled apart on the loom of rocks and skin and scales and fur and bones, stretched like taffy, pulled and folded over and over and over until it's all you and not you at all. to have been a fish and breathe sea water, to have been a maladjusted adult, to be a wolf hiding a human skeleton, to be so small when you had once taken the shape of a god...

what must it be like to be a stranger in your own body, even after death?

when you look in the mirror, what stares back at you? is it a hero with a tunic of green with not a trace of baby fat in his face? is it living rock with eyes staring from the grave? is it a mask with an eye that sees the truth, or a fox filled with riddles, a stone face that can't be seen, a missing fiancé, a sorrowful troupe leader, insomnia, captain of a dead army that doesn't know the war is over... is it a being beyond comprehension that is all of these things and none of these things, who is an entire world wrapped up into eyes that don't see and can throw the moon back into the sky?

is that you? or is that you, a singular, red eye hidden under the last armor you ever wore, shame and regret and agony hidden under dirt and vines and metal?

you don't know. but you do know what isn't you; faint glimpses of a young face with bright eyes and a green cap and a fairy that finally came to you.

boy with no face and no body, what could you ever possibly claim to be?

[fiercerdeities]

interesting character study someone needs to write is Link being told to "be a man", he'll grow into a "fine man", things like that, is that Link wouldn't know what the hell a man is. Kokiri have no concept of an adult, especially not one by human/Hylian standards.

and after seven years when his body has finally grown into that of "a fine young man", he feels more alienated than ever because no one ever told him what that was supposed to mean. he never knew that his body would ever get to be this big. what does it even mean to be a man?

[fiercerdeities]

part 3 of things they should modify/include in a True remake of Ocarina of Time, as told by me and my bias (part one / part two)

let Link talk to more fairies! let them be environmental guides and have nifty little facts about the region

and speaking of fairies, let's talk about the Great Fairies. make their fountains elaborate mazes that only the absolutely determined can solve. do i want to turn everything into a dungeon? yes! but a lot of the dungeon ideas are really just bonus content

let's do side quest/mini games with the owl. he helps you fly down Death Mountain, it's be cool to navigate him yourself and collect things as you fly down, maybe for a piece of heart!

for the Skulltula House, that should DEFINITELY be a mini dungeon, and each of the 5 family members are spread across it and you have to find them to receive your prize for freeing them. they'll reappear in the main entrance of the house once you've freed each from their curse. when you've freed the whole family, the house is renovated!

about the medallions tho instead of being generic coins they should be items that have some kinda emotional relevance tie between Link and the sage he's receiving it from

a more empathetic Impa, a member of the Sheikah who would know the history of the incarnation cycle and previous heroes, to Link who is but a child unlike some before him.

a more complex and unique design to the thieves' hideout in Gerudo Desert—as well as a more difficult Haunted Wasteland

let's raise the overall difficulty of the game tbh, it inspired the likes of many open world/adventure games like Dark Souls, an infamously difficult series, the least a true remake could do is add difficulty selection from the get-go

returning to the barriers inside Ganondorf's Castle for a sec, i'd love for the barriers to be more illusory, designs as pocket-dimensions of the Sage they represent/the temple they mock

speaking of Ganondorf's Castle, Zelda should be a more active participant in escaping and not just be left to being the damsel in distress. she'd been a ninja for 7 years for god's sake. gimme a BREAK.

[fiercerdeities]

thinking about Link who had to loop through time again and again until he was able to beat Majora because something about the battle would inevitably catch him off guard and he would almost lose more than the fight—and he goes and he goes and he goes until he's hanging on to the final slivers of hope that he can save this world, and right when he's on the cusp of utter despair, a voice says to him,

termina fights with you

and suddenly, it feels like he can breathe again, like he can do anything, like he is everyone. like he's a god.

when he next meets Majora, not even the sky falling down upon his shoulders can stop him, someone so fierce that even a deity would be envious.

[maskbound]

He may look young, but he's aware that he's old. Very old.

Old as balls.