thinking abt botw!zelda after ganon shows up and is wrecking everything. because she doesn’t go straight to the castle- multiple people tell link she talked to them after the calamity started. she told impa that the divine beasts are the key. she traveled all the way to the heart of the lost woods to lay the master sword to rest and talk to the deku tree. presumably she talked to a few other people too, they just didn’t survive. so i’m just. thinking. about zelda, terrified, knowing what’s happening to her people, but stopping before rushing in to actually think things through. stopping to put contingencies in place. because that’s such a zelda thing to do isn’t it? to do all she can to guarantee a victory she may not live to see? in skyward sword she knows what will happen after she seals herself in amber, because she has lived through it both as herself and as hylia. in twilight princess she does what she can from the confines of her tower. and now again she keeps her head and does what she does best- she leads. her plan relies on her trust that others can and will do their part, because it is the only way to save them all. all the way back in skyward sword it is established that one would not- could not- exist without the other and that still holds true after millennia- it is she who saves his life with her decisiveness and wisdom, and he who saves her with his strength and courage. and now here she is again, and her world is crumbling around her, and she is laying down the dominos, and link is the force that sets them falling, and on and on forever and ever until the gods are dead amen.
just thinking about every zelda, in every legend, knowing what is happening to her people, and forcing herself to think of the future before the present. to think of others before herself. because that is what the goddess within her knows she must do.
and on and on, forever and ever, until the gods are dead, amen.
