#tj overanalysis

[thejolteonmastertj]

I just realized something re: this post!

There’s an actual legit reason Legend might’ve legitimately thought Four is a grown-ass man & it’s because of these fellas!

The Dawrven Swordsmiths from ALTTP….

Lookat how smol they are!

They’re shorter than Link on his first quest! 🤣The thought that Four might be a child simply due to his height must have never even crossed Lege’s mind! Cuz he literally grew up sharing a neighborhood with these tiny fellas! 🤭

So like, inagine Legend approaching Four, all bashful like, “um, how old are you?”

& Four’s like

——————————- “Guess”

Legend: … “Honestly I was thinking you were like, in your thirties?”

Face of a man who just got called old for the first & only time in his life-

[thejolteonmastertj]

Poor Lege having an identity crisis over the Smith’s age 🤣.

Holy fuck is the Smith younger than me?

-Legend’s thoughts, probably. 😂

[thejolteonmastertj]

I’m hella stoked for how Jojo’s gonna handle Legend’s knighthood backstory?? 👀

On the surface he’s so vocally critical of knights—& even seems to be rejecting his own heritage by claiming to be an “average nobody.”

But here he looks—almost sad. Conflicted. 👀 It’s hard to say exactly where Jojo’s going with this, but I get the feeling it’s gonna be an actual character arc & I’m so hyped for it. 🔥

Like—listen! He & his uncle are the last of a dying bloodline. Course, Legend seems understandably critical of knighthood as a structure, but there being an undercurrent of melancholy through it all is *chefs kiss. 👌 Bro has a reason to hate knighthood, but also reasons for melancholy…

There are several directions Jojo can go with that & hoo boy am I looking 👀.

[thejolteonmastertj]

New chapter’s got more fuel for my ‘Wild is a cuddler but is awful at asking for it’ agenda! 🤭

See, aside from Wild giving a scant few of playful pats on the shoulder—or Twi’s face at one point—(usually either right after petting Wolfie, or not long after their hug in the Dawn arc)… it always seems to be Twilight to initiate contact.

This time is no exception.

Lookat that body language! Wild’s stiff & reserved at first, to the point that Twilight needs to reach out pretty far to put a hand on his shoulder.

Then Wild lights up & escalates it to full-on horseplay. Twilight even needs to push him away to get him back on track.

This isn’t the first time by far either (hence why Twilight knew his contact would be welcome in the first place).

They’re dorks & they’re brothers your honor. 😂 Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[thejolteonmastertj]

Legend & Fi Are Best Friends Y’all

One of my favorite HCs/Plot-bunnies is Legend even has heard the Master Sword’s voice before, during his first adventure as a kid. Grew real attached & even had full conversations with her…

… but as he grew older he began to assume it was all his imagination.

Nobody in his era knew the sword was supposed to even have a voice, the knowledge had been lost to time. Even if he pieces together the fate of his predecessor based on the state he found the blade in—He’d have had no proof that the pungent air of melancholy & mourning surrounding the blade was literal…

… Until he meets the Chain.

He doesn’t even make a big deal about it—It’s all very subtle. Soft adoring gazes & a few particularly telling blink-&-you-miss-it details.

Young Legend may or may not have ever even told anyone, (specially not Zelda, he didn’t want her to think he was a kid!) but he might’ve felt expected to grow up fast & caught on to that talking to inanimate objects is very childlike. I get the feeling he would’ve kept it to himself for the most part.

It’d be pretty easy to pass-off even. It’d barely even need to be a secret. Guys using personable feminine pronouns for boats, planes, cars, even, yes, swords has been very much a thing through history. Any slip-ups on the Vet’s part would simply be interpreted in this manner, he could even keep outright talking to her once in a while…

… but there’s still a difference between a grown man personifying one of his prized tools & a child bonding with an imaginary friend. It just wouldn’t be the same.

The bittersweet wonder, relief & vindication Legend must’ve felt when he learned one of his longest-allies wasn’t a mere figment of his imagination after all.

Lookat how ready & willing—thrilled even Legend is to not just speak to Sky’s Master Sword, he’s also the only one aside from Sky shown so far to like, actually talk to her as if she’s a person. The other Links—even Wild refer to the blade as an object.

That’s a dude that’s definitely heckin spoken to his dang sword before. He does it so easily, there’s zero awkwardness,

idk, it’s just… these are the vibes I get.

From his facial expressions alone frankly. 🤭

[thejolteonmastertj]

Yoooo holdup.

Somebody on discord (@thehumantoolchest) actually pointed me towards the Ancient Cistern from Skyward sword as a possible source for the EOW Faron dungeon’s flower motif. The Cistern’s also in Faron after alll!

& not just the flower motif either, it’s got a similar triangle pattern on the walls too!

So here’s what I’m thinking, the Ancient Cistern is a ruin from… what I’ll call the pre-Zonai. Not quite the Zonai we know in TOTK’s Sky or BOTW’s Faron… but, y’know. The Ancients(TM) lol.

The flower motif particularly would be passed down to an eventual era of collaboration with Hylians (I assume based on the presence of Armos, & how much further removed the rest of the architecture is from the pre-Zonai style & the later Sky-Zonai style). The ruins from this era can definitely be seen in Echoes Of Wisdom’s Faron…

Meanwhile, a separate, distinct Zonai culture had been developed in the sky. This culture would settle the depths for extraction… & at least some small pockets of land on the ground. Evidence for surface settlement can by the time of TOTK be found almost exclusively inside caves. Some seem ceremonial, many seem… militaristic. Full of weapons & nothing else, hidden in sometimes elaborate cave systems.

Indeed, whatever culture built the Faron style of Zonai ruins in BOTW must have not got along with the Sky Zonai. They blatantly covered Sky Zonai stonework at the entrance to the construct factory… it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume they also dismantled the ruins we see in Echoes Of Wisdom. (The Deku Scrubs already got started on that, after all)

[thejolteonmastertj]

Anyways NGL the archeology nerd in me went to the Faron region first once the main quest for it opened up & proceeded to lose my mind over how the Deku Scrubs carved their own image into all the ancient definitely-not-theirs architecture! 😂

This is definitely one of the funniest ways they could’ve possibly included the region. Fr cuz like,

The statues? While the carving itself is impressive—the bases, however, were much lower effort & are obviously random bits of ruins mashed together.

Then there’s this painting inside one the dungeons that sealed the deal for me though.

It’s literally just drawn over top. The stonework was not built with it in mind.

Deku scrubs be casually committing archeology crimes as they should, it’s so on-brand for them I love it. 😂

(The designs on those tiles are throwing me through a loop though. Way more than the inclusion of the Armos fr. Cuz like, we know there was at least one era where the Zonai & Hylians would’ve closely collaborated… those tiles though? I can’t identity their origin. [Edit: Nvm somebody helped me cook]

Genuinely wtf is going on in Hyrule’s jungles lmaoo but also like as someone familiar with IRL archeology I’m not even mad cuz it really do be like that sometimes FR. 🤭)

[thejolteonmastertj]

I cannot gush enough about how Echoes Of Wisdom handles Zelda as a character & the ending is no exception.

Like, yea? There was a moment of apprehension at no longer being able to use her sword form at the end of the game… but I now realize it had to happen.

Finishing the game without sword-form drove home how Zelda’s own skills are more than enough to carry the both of them. Her & Link. Bind in-particular turns out to be essential for the final puzzle & final boss.

We’ve seen plenty of action shows with subplots where the support side-character is proven to be essential for the team or main action hero’s success, sure. But this time we’re proving that we are the main character. We are carrying Link (sometimes literally 😂) & for all intents & purposes, he is the support. EOW flips not just the script but the perspective on the whole caster vs melee-dps dynamic & I love that!

Btw it’s extra fun if you have the shoulder guards equipped & can shove enemies into either Link’s or one of your echo’s blade. Very challenging but possible! (Ngl if Zel actually had a melee button there’d be too many parallel processes to keep track of for the late-game in-particular. 😅)