ShroudedScribeQuill

Considering how much this game has drawn me in, and intrigued me with its settings and characters, it only makes sense I'd begin working on a fic, to showcase how invested I am into this world.

The fic is focused on Mina and Thorne's relationship, explored through multiple short stories, while they're both adjusting to what happened after the ending of the game.

As of writing this post there's two chapters already completed!

Here's a link to the fic if you're interested in checking it out:

Not to long ago I got to play and complete this game, and it's got me in a chokehold, so I just had to talk about it, especially in regards to a point of interest that I found to be pretty fascinating.

You should seriously play the game. It's a great time once you get the hang of it!

Now it goes without saying that this post will be containing big spoilers about the ending of the game, and other important details. As well as the fact it will be pretty lengthy.

So if you haven't played the game and don't wish to be spoiled turn away now.

Still here? Alright then, let us begin with the post.

-Short Introduction

First and foremost, allow me to introduce you to this guy. This is Thorne. You may have known him as the rebel antagonist in the game, but as it turns out, he's in actuality the big good of the game.

No seriously. I won't go to much into detail, but just know prior to the events of the game, this guy willingly sacrificed his life of luxury, the love and respect of the people of Ossex, and his prestigious position to do the right thing, without being asked or pressured to do so.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, I can get into the meat and potatoes of my post.

-Radiant Thorne

So to start things of, towards the end of the game, Lionel dupes Thorne into believing he's going to turn of the generators, before double crossing him, tossing him directly into a Spark Generator, which resulted in Thorne being turned into this.

Oh and the name Radiant Thorne isn't a fan name or anything like that, it's the actual official name of his mutated form. But just like any other cool detail, it's hidden away behind some obscure thing.

Now to say Thorne really goes through it while in this form, would be the biggest understatement of the century. Radiant Lionel's final desperate attack to kill him and Mina, messes up him up so badly that it's rather impressive that he was even able to do anything afterwards.

Just look at him! Look at the difference between how he looks in the left, compared to how he looks in the right!

But you see, this is the were the neat details begin to unravel, because his messed appearance in the right, actually hides a pretty significant detail that can only been seen when you next see him during the after credits, if one looks closely. With the detail in question being...

-Thorne's Eye is Still Intact and Fully Functional

You'd think after taking so much damage to where half his face literally gets reduced to the bone, they'd be nothing there. But as it turns out while he was critically injured, he was durable enough for his eye to remain intact, and work without issue.

I wouldn't blame anyone for missing this, considering how specific and easy to miss this detail is due to how small the sprite is, but if you look closely at his exposed skull, he doesn't have an empty eye socket, the eye itself is still there.

Now I'm sure some are probably thinking, oh that's likely just a random pixel placed there, and it's conveniently where his eye should be. However pixel art is known for explicitly placing pixels in certain spots in order to highlight certain details in sprites or images.

And as it turns out in every frame where Thorne is gradually returning back to his normal form, that very same eye is shown in every single frame.

As you can see the eye itself never disappears, it's always there and fully visible at every stage, and at no point is the eye socket empty.

And this brings up the second interesting detail, specifically when Thorne is being healed and returning back to normal. With this fascinating detail being...

-Thorne's Original Body Emerges From His Mutated Bones

This was something I didn't notice the first time round, but upon a second viewing, I noticed when Thorne was being healed, his undamaged mutated body parts didn't grow over the exposed bone, rather as he was being healed and returning back to normal, those specific parts regressed back into him, and his mutated bones appear to regress back into his original body.

Now this initially baffled me, but then I remembered there's an NPC who literally becomes a pile of flesh, but gets a brand new better body after being given enough bones. So it stands to reason Thorne would be able to get his old body back, completely in tact, if given sufficient healing, and all the bones from his mutated form, revert his body back to how it was originally before he mutated.

We've seen that bones can indeed merge together into a single more powerful one with better properties, so it stands to reason Radiant Thorne's bones would be able to do the same. It kind of feels like the stronger your bones are, the more effective one's healing and other attributes are.

Speaking of bodies, there's one last little detail that I felt I should mention, cause I think it's easy to miss to. That detail being...

-Thorne's Completely Nude in The Post Credits

I'm sure most people noticed this, or maybe tried to not think about it, but yeah Thorne's completely nude here.

Doesn't take anything away from the heartwarming reunion between Mina and Thorne here in any way. Besides he never wore pants to begin with lol.

Also his wings aren't clothing, they are indeed connected to his arms, and part of his body.

Here we have another secret dialogue in Age of Imprisonment that reveals something pretty awesome about Link, and also ties into a discussion about Link and Revali.

Turns out while Link was indeed a prodigy, he trained tirelessly to get as good as he did, and never let his skills or accomplishments get to his head.

There was always subtle hints, but I like how here they just straight up confirm, yes Link trained like crazy, just like how Revali did.

And with this reveal, I can't help but find it incredibly ironic, that the one person in all of Hyrule that Revali could relate to and emphasize with, he held nothing but disdain for.

Revali, your best friend, your soulmate even, was literally right there!

So this is a sort of follow up to my Calamo post which does contain spoilers, so those very same spoilers will be talked about here.

So long story short, if you've read my previous post, then you'd know Calamo would become the Ancient Tree Stump. Turns out in Age of Imprisonment, after completing certain missions, there's secret dialogue between certain characters, that I will be talking about in some others posts.

Calamo in particular has a pretty awesome one, which is also a cool little easter egg, where he talks about finding a large flaming sword to fight the cold, only to lose it, and that when he becomes a tree he won't have to worry about it.

This is actually a subtle reference to Botw, where you can find a Giant Flameblade on the Ancient Tree Stump for Link to use.

I absolutely love even before the big reveal of him becoming the Ancient Tree Stump, the game was leaving subtle hints.

The title is self explanatory, if you want to know Calamo's role in the story as well as what he eventually becomes, read below.

Heads up, it's not what you expect.

Seriously it's quite the twist, and something I personally finding very heartwarming.

You have been warned:

Still here? Alright then, in that case, here's the reveal:

Calamo isn't the Great Deku Tree. If you theorized he was, unfortunately you were incorrect.

In actuality Calamo would grow to become the Ancient Tree, which would later become the Ancient Tree Stump found in Botw and Tears of the Kingdom. This spot is also the exact place the Mysterious Construct died.

In Age of Imprisonment, Calamo would claim a spear for himself after he and the Mysterious Construct, which he awakened, save Ardi from Gerudo assassins, claiming that the spear would be used by him, as a landmark for where he sets his roots.

True to his word, when he does set his roots the spear is used as a landmark. That very same spear is mentioned in Zelda's Voice Memories in Tears of the Kingdom, being described as an ancient spear found in its withered tree trunks, and no one being able to figure out the reason for this, due to the little information they had.

Why he's never mentioned

And now comes the sad part, the reason nobody knows anything about Calamo, is because all records of his existence, was erased along with the Mysterious Construct. He's essentially wiped from history, because his existence became tied with forbidden knowledge.

As of writing this post, there's several completed runs of the game, and even a finished cutscene compilation of the game posted online. So I think nows a good time to talk my personal thoughts on the game and it's story.

This post does contain story spoilers, so you have been warned:

First and foremost the story is indeed canon, and leads into Tears of the Kingdom. Yep there's no time travelling, everyone gets saved nonsense. Sonia dies, Mineru dies, the Sages lose, Rauru sacrifices himself, Zelda becomes the light dragon, just like we were shown and told in Tears of the Kingdom. So that's all good.

The Story Itself

Now having said that I can talk about that story, and to keep a long story short, for all of the stuff in the game, it's kind of disappointing. Quantity over quality is the best term I can use when describing the story. It adds a lot of stuff, which in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really add anything substantial the way a story like this should, nor does it really provide answers for certain important points.

If you played Tears of the Kingdom and saw all the memories, then you pretty much already knew how this story was going to end. This is its biggest strength and weakness. It is precisely because of that, the story should have focused on developing the characters we knew so little about, particularly the Sages, and of course the two knew additions Calamo and the Mysterious Construct. And unfortunately it doesn't really do that, particularly with the Sages.

We do get some characterizations with the Sages, but it's incredibly bare bones, the sole exception being Raphica, who's given more screen time courtesy of him interacting with Calamo and the Construct. The other Sages are fleshed out, but it's the bare minimum, it's a case of "oh so that's what they're like." There's not many layers to them outside of, he's like this, and she's like that, because this happened.

The Characters Themselves

Speaking of characters, there's so goddamn many of them! Remember how the website said there were warriors from various races helping out. Yeah they weren't kidding about that. Every race has like two or three additional warriors, and I can tell you right now, they are complete non entities. Outside of a brief description of what they're like, they have absolutely no impact on the story whatsoever. They're all literally just add ons, which makes me question why even have them. Most of the time, the characters are just there doing nothing, or saying one or two lines to remind you they exist. This all is a real shame because some of these characters have the potential to be very interesting if fleshed out, and delved into more.

Continuing on the topic regarding the characters, Calamo and the Mysterious Construct are the main characters of the story. Make no mistake, despite all the screen time Zelda and Rauru get, and Zelda being advertised as the protagonist, the ones who actually drive the story are Calamo and the Mysterious Construct, and they're also the ones who have the most character development, especially in the Constructs case, as he quite literally develops a character. Personally I don't have a problem with this, as they're by far the best characters in this game, and Zelda and Rauru barely get much development outside of a few instances.

Pretty much everything you need to know about Rauru and Zelda can be found in Tears of the Kingdoms memories. This story doesn't really add anything substantial to their characters, from what we already know about them.

Many Questions Go Unanswered

Now to talk about the big elephant in the room. Nothing really gets answered! Sonia and Rauru's child? We never see them. Qia's father? We never see them. How Rauru and Sonia know the Ancient Hero? Doesn't get answered. Where did the Ancient Hero come from, and what his ties to the Zonai are? Doesn't get answered. And so on, and so forth. I was left with more questions than answers. And for a story like this, they should have been focusing on answering all these questions, not creating more questions.

Here's another example. Remember the Divine Beasts that Revali, Urbosa, Daruk, and Mipha used? It's heavily implied there were living beasts similar to them, as the helms the Sages wear modeled after beings the Hylians worshipped. But again this information means absolutely nothing, because it's never elaborated on, or mentioned again, resulting in more questions being added to the already large pile.

The Ending

And I guess now's a good time to talk about the Finale. It's not Ganondorf getting sealed, it's the Mysterious Constructs death after defeat it's evil twin, and Calamo becoming the Sacred Tree Stump. He doesn't become the Great Deku Tree. Like I mentioned earlier, if you played Tears of the Kingdom, you already knew how the fight with Ganondorf was going to play out, so I actually didn't mind the Grand Finale focusing on Calamo and the Mysterious Construct, the true main characters of this game. What's ironic is that the game does explain why no one ever speaks of them, or why no one seems to remember their deeds. It's because all records of their existence were literally erased from history. Basically they got Hero of timed.

Conclusion:

Considering what this game was supposed to be, the story leaves a lot to be desired. I wouldn't have minded if some questions were left unanswered, as it's okay to leave some things ambiguous. But this game barely answered any of the big questions, and ended up creating more.

As the title suggests this is major spoilers regarding the Mysterious Construct, his identity, and his role in the story of Age of Imprisonment.

Again I want to reiterate this is very big spoilers, regarding the Mysterious Construct.

Read below if you wish to know the mystery surrounding him.

If you theorized the Construct was Link. You're wrong. If you theorized the Construct was Fi. You're also wrong.

Turns out the Mysterious Construct is a completely new character separate from Link and Fi, created from a shard of the destroyed Master Sword becoming the Core of a Construct, that was made to be a living weapon by the ancient Zonai. The Construct is a he.

These Construct living weapons have minds of their own, and behave based on what powers them. Because his core is a shard of the Master Sword, the Construct is always compelled to fight evil and help others, eventually becoming a Heroic figure. Another Construct of the same kind was powered by Gloom, thus it's compelled to be destructive.

Said shard was unintentionally sent back in time along with Zelda, when she accidentally used her powers to travel back to the time of Hyrule's founding. It's also the same shard that cut Ganadorfs face.

The Sages and a great number of characters are alive because the Construct saved them from being killed.

This Construct effectively becomes the "Link" of this era. It ends up developing a personality, to where it behaves very much like Link, and becomes loved by all because of his Heroic acts. He's even Knighted, and renamed the Knight Construct. They really add emphasis on the fact the Construct is Link in every conceivable way but name.

This shard does not end up becoming the Master Sword. The Construct ultimately dies protecting Calamo from the Gloom powered Construct, and the shard that was its core is also destroyed leaving nothing of it left.

Another little gem sent my way, of Raphica and the Mysterious Construct fist bumping.

Do the two of them become bros? If So that's pretty awesome.

Cause 10,000 years later, Tulin and Link become bros. As well as Teba and Link becoming close to. Meaning that entire familiy try fates became intertwined with Link's, because of the bond that was formed generations ago.

Had more little gems sent my way, and it's a Raphica face reveal! This is what he looks like under the helm. He's Teba and Tulin's ancestor alright. It's pretty evident where Teba inherited his looks from.

Everything except for that front hair! I was not expecting that! Looks like we have another Rito with a unique set of hair alongside Harth.

Wanna know what's funny? This means Teba and Tulin have recessive genes. Meaning any one of their children or grandchildren, could potentially end up having hair like this.

So I just got these little gems sent to me, and from the details I was given, Raphica and the Mysterious Construct, who's totally not Link, have an entirely unique sync strike.

I think it's pretty awesome 10,000 years later Link would go on to help teach his descendant Tulin archery alongside Teba. And in the distant past some incarnation of Link got along well with the Rito Sage.

So in two days time, Age of Imprisonment will be released, the next game to be part of the wild era, and quite possibly the final game to be part of this era to.

With all that said, there's be a lot of buzz about this game. Understandably so, because of all the advertising. And I thought now be a good time to list dow my Hope's for the game, when it releases.

I even got to try out the demo, which I throughly enjoyed, which is all the more reason why I'm hoping for the stuff in my wishlist to happen.

So without further let's begin.

The Game Is Truly Canon

I suppose I should start with the big elephant in the room, and say I really hope the game truly is 100% canon to the story of the Tears of the Kingdom, when it comes to the Imprisoning war.

People are free to like Age of Calamity, but I genuinely disliked how they pulled a deux ex machina with Terrako, and basically made it a "what if" unfaithful retelling of the story, when they claimed otherwise.

If this truly is canon, regardless of what happens in between, the events that took place during the Imprisoning War have to have to happen exactly as they were shown in Tears of the Kingdom. Specifically Sonia dying, Ganondorf getting her secret stone, and becoming the Demon King. As well as the Sages ultimately losing to Ganondorf, Rauru sacrificing himself to stop him, and Zelda becoming the light dragon.

The Sages Are Nothing Like The Champions

Considering the Sages were basically non entities in Tears of the Kingdom, and just being info dumps, I'm excited to see what they were actually like in terms of personality and gameplay.

And it is precisely because of that, I'm hoping the Sages are nothing like the Champions and are their own characters. From the short descriptions they gave us, they do appear to be different. Like Raphica doesn't appear to be anything like Revali, and more like how Teba was when the first met Link. Or how the Water Sage has a much more commanding demeanor compared to Mipha.

These guys are meant to be the pinnacle of their respective races. The ones who started it all. Their bloodlines that would last generations, until the Demon King returned. Those Sage genes are no joke if you look at Tulin.

No offense to Revali, if anything power to him, but the guy worked his ass of for his entire life to be seen as the best, only for Tulin to be able to do everything that he could do, which includes wielding the Great Eagle Bow, a bow even seasoned adults are unable to use, and just causually manipulating the winds like it's child play. All of this and he's barely half Revali's age.

Still regardless of what their personalities are like, I just hope in the end, they don't make them cardboard cutouts of the Champions. This also includes their play styles to. They were able to gave Revali and Teba two completely different distinct movesets, as well Sidon and Mipha, so I'm hoping they can do the same for the Sages.

The Mysterious Construct Is Written Well

First and foremost, let's not kid ourselves here, this is Link. Or a Link of some kind. Either way it's a Link. Or the Ancient Hero's spirit itself, who is probably named Link. Some previews show him using the same spin attack as age of Calamity Link. They're not even being subtle about it.

That said, I am intrigued that the Construct has digitigrade legs and feet, and four toes, like a certain Ancient Hero. Maybe they are connected. Also I noticed in one of the preview images for him, he has third eye that's hidden by the hood he's wearing. Very interesting.

Now I think it's no secret that when this guy was revealed, he's become one of, or if not the single biggest draw for the game. One part because of the implications of who or what it he actually is, and another part because the developers and Nintendo have kept very tight lipped about everything regarding this character. They told us nothing about his motivations, or even his name.

From the trailers and previews, he appears to be an ally, that's also a third party, whose story is heavily tied with the Korok Calamo. Getting a lot of Hero of Time vibes here.

It's obvious he's going to play a major role in the story. I just hope he isn't used as a convenient plot device, to pull another Terrako, and there's a logical reason why he's even around, and why none of the memories make any reference to him.

While this may be a bit of topic. Tulin, Sidon, Riju, and Yunobo better not show up in the story for the Imprisoning War. Maybe in a future where Link and the Sages are fight the Demon King's armour in the present day. But certain not in the distant past.

Conclusion

I'm hoping against all odds, this truly is a canonical retelling of the Imprisoning War, and they do the story justice. Considering how big the game actually is, I'd imagine they're going to show a lot, and include a lot of stuff.

Revali is someone who made something of himself without being part of some scared bloodline, and he's intentionally been shown to be different from the other champions for better or worse. It's because of these elements that he stands out.

He had no living family that we know of, implying he was an orphan of some kind, or someone that was just alone in general. He had to develop his technique from scratch, rather than it being something that he was born with. Implying he was just another Rito that worked incredibly hard.

He had no blood relation to Teba or Tulin whatsoever, as well as Raphica, and died young, leaving no living legacy of himself, without anyone really knowing who he was, or remembering him outside of Link and Zelda.

It works into the tragedy of his character. Someone who worked hard to become something, and desperately wanted to be acknowledged for his achievements, but unfortunately ended up being forgotten, in part due to cruel fate, and who Revali was as an individual when he was alive.

I remember seeing an interesting theory, where it was said Revali orginally wasn't supposed to be there with Link and the other Champions, but he unknowingly usurped his way into the position through his own merit and perseverance. Then fate and destiny came along and corrected course, which is why in the present day he's pretty much a non entity. Looking at how everything played out, I can't help but feel something like this ended up happening to some extent.