My last Zora May piece for this year is finally done! Despite my hope that I’d finish it before August unlike last year’s final piece, things ultimately did not shake out that way. But at the very least, I’m getting this out around the exact same time of the month as last year’s piece so I’m still counting it as a win! (Once again, rip to the saturation on phones, you’ll probably want to view this on a computer)
It’s finally happened y’all, I have officially done a crossover of the main two Zelda things I love: my zora oc and Linked Universe!! This has been a long time coming because I’d actually started this piece for Zora May of last year, but considering how long my main piece that year ended up taking me, I barely made any progress on just the sketch for this one! But with the prompts for this year being any of the ones from the previous years, I had a second shot at it and I was determined to see it through to the end even though it (once again) took me longer than I’d expected!
With all that said, I’ll put the rest of my explanation and whatnot under the cut cause as always it’s long because I have a lot to say :) I’ll also put a version where you can see what’s in the bubbles better down there as well
I know that technically all the zoras in BOTW/TOTK are classified as ocean zoras (in comparison to the usually antagonistic river zoras) but most if not all of them—aside from Yona and her attendants of course—seem to have grown up in Hyrule and as a result have lived very semiaquatic lives, accustomed to spending their time both in water and on land in relatively equal measure. With Varius though, she isn’t native to Hyrule and instead grew up in a domain in the sea, so she’s not just an ocean zora but a zora actually from the ocean! And seeing how it was extra fitting for Varius, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do this prompt!
I just know that out of all the Chain, Wind would by far be the one that’s the most fascinated by her since she’s from the ocean, given his love for sailing it. Considering the nature of the Great Sea in Wind’s era basically being unable to support life, so much so that even the zoras couldn’t live in it and had to evolve into the ritos, I can just imagine him asking her tons of questions about what the oceans are like in her era and her getting to talk to her heart’s content about all the nerdy things she knows about it! Sufficed to say, the dynamic I imagine Wind and Varius would have is adorable and I’ve been wanting to share it for a while, and now I finally can! (Also it’s important to me that y’all know my friend Butters told me she imagines Wind calls her “Ms. Rainbow” because of her color-changing ability and if that’s not the cutest thing ever, I don’t know what is)
I do have ideas for her dynamic with the others in the Chain as well, which I would like to draw too if I find the time for it!
As for my thoughts on the art itself, this one proved to be a little bit of a challenge for me at various points! I struggled for a good while on the poses and general anatomy, especially when I had first started working on the sketch, because by that time I had only been drawing Varius for a few months and I didn’t have much practice with drawing zoras. The clothing gave me issues as well, and it took me a while longer still to figure out what to put in the speech bubbles. Wind's hair was also weirdly tricky because by the time I'd gotten around to working on that part of the sketch, I'd been drawing nothing but zoras for the past few months and was very out of practice with drawing humans. And backgrounds as always proved to be the worst. Something that was actually pretty interesting was the speech bubbles because I wanted to have the dialogue be pictorial rather than written, so figuring out how to portray what I wanted them to be talking about was actually a fun challenge, compared to the other challenging parts I had to deal with! Overall though, I’m pretty satisfied with how this piece turned out in the end, especially since there were points at which I was wondering if I’d ever get it done! And as always, I hope you guys like it too!!
(Side note but I think that little Varius in Wind's third bubble might be one of the cutest things I've ever drawn)
okayyyy so thank you to @rosanqro for motivating me get my ass together and make a totk sheik ref hes my weird little son and i love him
okay first ill explain his character and headcanons and stuff but theres also an infodump about my au for those interestedd
soo hes part of my totk au, an incredibly self indulgent version of totk where the zonai just. dont exist. i have many reasons why but will not elaborate.
i actually havent played oot yet so i dont know how similar he is to that version of sheik?? but his characterisation is HEAVILY based off Sheik in ‘Would You Love Me If I Was A Wyrm?’ by FandomMenace on ao3 (im not aware that they have a tumblr) i dont know why i read a fic with such an obscure rarepair but boy am i glad i did cause its so peakk. a few bits of story is also inspired by or taken from the fic, as well as the pairing (kohga/sheik) I KNOW I KNOW ITS RANDOM. but ive essentially used it as a base and built upon it, making their dynamic different and more complex, and ive given them more development.. also no they did not meet pre-calamity when sheik was the same age as zelda, he was away doing fuck knows with the sheikah. kohga is both mentally and physically like in his 40s id say, but again is 100 something? sheikah aging is weird as hell.
so sheik is zeldas non blood related sibling, adopted by the royal family from a very young age to replace zelda in the case of her death. along with zelda and link he is part of the legend, being link’s guide. though him and zelda are not related, they look very similar, and with a bit of magic assistance sheik could easily take her place.
he takes his duty veryyyy seriously. between him, link and zelda theres a big focus on their roles and how they handle them.
Sheik accepts and gladly performs his role, he would do so no matter what that role was. If it was what he was born to do then he shall do it whether he likes it or not.
Zelda hates her role. Hates that is was forced upon her and was all she ever was to most people, that it took priority over what she wanted to do with her life. No matter how hard she tries she will always be the princess, not Zelda.
Link accepts his role for the sake of Hyrule. He is neither happy about it nor unhappy, it has its pros and cons, but he will overcome the negatives because he is the only one who can.
sheikah tech is still around but has been altered and decayed by nature, after serving their purpose; shrines are overgrown with lightroots and no longer open, something similar with the divine beasts which have shut down, guardian’s have all shut down due to decayed cores no longer having malice to power them, and nobody plans on bringing them back (except from one guy dw about it)
the depths is essentially hell, where all the spirits of dead hyrulians roam trapped under the surface. the upheaval causes patches of gloom to corrode through the ground and creates the chasms, letting some of the more.. malicious and curious spirits escape into the surface, causing trouble around hyrule. legend of zelda ghost of the busters
thats a pretty basic summary but im planning on making another post with diagrams and charts to explain more and give some dynamics because agshhsuejie i have a problem with making aus of my interests where i just change elements of the story i dislike and add new stuff and characters
anyway im making a comic for it, but im still a littlee unsure if im avtually going to post it here or keep it personal? its most likely ill share it though so just. wait look out for that😛😛
OH OH ALSO ITS CALLED DANDELION STEW
cause my oc (big focus in the comic) has a dandelion motif, and pork soda is such a good song🔥🔥 i did not know dandelion stew was an actual thing okay cool wow it looks unapetising but💚you go girl💚
