#agahnim

The Past Returns by @occasionallyprosie

OOOOHHH SOME GOOD WHUMP!! And Sky being an absolute BAMF???! YES PLEASE.

Ooooohhhh gosh Legend you dumb stupid heroic self sacrificing man - STOP HURTING YOURSELF! Tho honestly all the links would do what he did for Hyrule....but woah.

There's always a bigger fish 🩸

I've had this gothic horror fantasy Zelda au plaguing my head for ageeess

We all know about the curse that Agahnim put on the knights to make them hate Legend in ALttP, right?

I love seeing all the different fics that touch on that. The ones where Legend has ptsd or anxiety when interacting with the knights of the Chain at first, or the ones where he has to explain why he avoids Castletown in his Hyrule are always such good reads!

But my favorite way that the knights' curse is put into use is when the knights of the Chain get affected by it when entering Legend's Hyrule! I was thinking about this today, and I had a few thoughts on it.

Okay, so- most "Chain gets affected by Agahnim's curse" fics have the unaffected Links figure out how to undo the curse, or they're one-shots for Whumptober or something, and don't have a proper conclusion to what happens. That's all well and dandy, but what if they can't figure out how to undo the curse the first time around? What if Legend had to avoid getting arrested or murdered by his mind controlled brothers until the next portal comes for them? What if the curse can't follow them through the portal?

What if the Chain as a while actively dreads going to Legend's Hyrule because half of them lose control of their thoughts and/or their actions upon exiting the portal, and the other half has to keep Legend safe, without losing track of where the knights are so they won't be separated by the next portal?

Wars would never get to have a real conversation with Ravio, because Legend wouldn't lead amind controlled knight to his place of residence, OR want to risk his roommate's safety. Wars would only get to learn about Ravio being the same one he knew from the war from stories that Wind tells after they leave the era.

Wars' traitor trauma gets a new flavor, and now he dreams of becoming the traitor to his brothers at the drop of a hat, just because an evil wizard from half a decade ago said some magic words.

Sky is usually written as one of the main people Legend can go to with his fears. He is a safe person. He is his ancestor, for Hylia's sake! But, not about this. Now, when Legend had nightmares about knights, it includes Sky's face among the glares and Fi among the blades wielded against him. And Sky gates the fact that all the power and anger that he works so hard to control, to use only to protect his loved ones, is used to hurt them.

Wild, Four, and Time are iffy. I don't know if Four and Time were ever knighted in canon. I suppose it depends on Four's age, and who's working the story. But Wild was a knight. And even if he doesn't remember a lot of it, the magic doesn't discriminate. He may have been knighted to protect the royal family, but Agahnim's curse makes him attack a prince for also being the hero.

The Chain have to take measures when going through portals when Legend's Time has even a slight chance of being on the other side. It's a careful balance. Everyone must be armed to be ready for a potential fight on the other side, but no one wants Legend to come through a portal and be met with Wild's unlimited bombs.

The obvious answer is to edit the buddy system. Legend never goes through a portal with a knight, and his duo go through the portal first, hide out of sight if possible, and if the next pair (only one knight buddied with a non-knight) comes through and the knight acts normal, Legend comes out, and they continue like normal. But if the second pair comes through, and the knight is cursed, Legend and his buddy have a head start to get running.