Linked Universe Sideblog

Shadow Link (as in, Four’s in particular) is still trapped within the hero’s shadow after the events of the four swords manga. This means he hears things from time to time. Especially regarding a plan from the Forces of Evil™️. He learns that this whole timeline jumping thing is really a trap to wear down the heroes, until eventually they will be caught off guard and killed all at once.

Shadow’s not taking that shit, but he knows that he’s no hero. He can’t even speak. But then, on the night of a Blood Moon in Wild’s Hyrule, Shadow begins to rematerialize. He believes that he will not be trusted by the chain, but knows he has to warn them. So: he does what he’s best at, playing the villain.

He emerges and taunts the heroes, trying to bait them into feeling the need to hunt him down once he leaves. But it… doesn’t work. He leaves and they don’t give chase. This won’t do if he needs to bait them into finding the bad guy before he finds them. So, a few nights later, he does what any logical person would do: grabs a spare piece of cloth, sneaks in in the middle of the night, and steals the master sword.

Think about it, they are the springs of power, wisdom, and courage. Hylia doesn’t represent those elements, the golden goddesses do. Of course she couldn’t answer Zelda’s prayers at the springs, those were not her vessels to answer through.

The Golden Goddesses stay out of mortal matters such as that. Their job is to maintain balance. They would not answer Zelda because it is not their job to do so.

In both BOTW and TOTK the statues are connected to their dragons as well. And though they can sense the statue in the forgotten temple, it’s never said they are the same being.

It would make sense, for, after thousands of years myth to be confused with fact. The hero of the sky visited these springs to find Hylia. Along the line that became him praying there.

The statues that connect to hylia are the ones built in towns and cities. Made with love by people she protects. Those are the ones she quietly answers prayers at. Coincidentally, before the calamity, Zelda felt a bit closer to unlocking her power whenever she was within a city.

Every person on Koholint island is merely a sleeping god having taken a different form. Each are limbs of the Wind Fish playing out varying roles for all eternity. One moment they are in the midst of a revolution, the next they are holding a festival for the ages, then they are acting as if they are in a children’s cartoon; teaching lessons to an unknown viewer. The only constant is that there is none. Existence is fluid. No one is anyone and anyone is everyone.

But then, something unexpected. A boy arrives on the island, and everything freezes. He perceives the dream, and it stays as it is. There are only a few characters in this dream, the island is small here, and the boy has no idea. Those characters are suddenly no longer just characters, they’re people that someone else interacts with. They’re no longer bound to a script.

Over the months of the boy’s existence, the people gain their own free will, their own thoughts. They are no longer just figments of a God’s imagination. They are still bound to it, but it is not all they are. Marin is one of those newly borne people, still not aware she was ever anything but. She loves her Hero, and she’d do anything for her.

…and then the Wind Fish wakes up. And all of those people are wiped from the lid of a dreamer’s eye. Except, just before Marin is destroyed with everyone else, she is pulled onto a battlefield. The people who first perceive her see another warrior. She must be one, otherwise she wouldn’t have been pulled through time. Just like that, Marin is able to fight like she’d been training for years. But she hadn’t… right?

Throughout the war, it becomes obvious. Marin is what others perceive her to be. If she is thought to be a monster, she will be crueler, have sharper teeth and nails. If she is to be a performer, she gains the grace of a dancer and the voice of an angel. Marin shifts with the people around her, but few things stay constant. She’s a red-haired young woman, she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and she loves her hero.

There’s another side to this too. When Marin is not perceived: not heard, not smelled, not seen, not felt, not tasted; she begins to unravel. Slowly, reversibly, but dangerously. This was first discovered when she got trapped in a keep during the War. When she was found, her flesh was falling off of her in ribbons, yet there was not a single sign of battle.

Marin doesn’t know what she is, not really. She doesn’t want to be this way. It was never something she asked for. Her friends are kind. They have made efforts to know her in multiple aspects, influencing her as little as they can. They’re kind enough to act undisturbed when she does something not quite natural. But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s still not human.

They say fuck it and pretend to be villains. They can bait the Links into heading away from Ghirahim’s danger, they have an excuse to routinely check up on them, and they’re honestly all dramatic at heart.

Shadow plays himself, out for revenge against Four and Especially Vio. Meanwhile the other 8 have elaborate costumes and disguises with cartoonish henchman roles they play to perfection. They fight well enough to seem like they’re trying, but never actually hurt any of the chain.

On the battlefield Linkle would target the leader with terrifying accuracy while Midna took out the smaller forces in waves, and Marin flawlessly switched between the two.

Off the battlefield, they could read fucking anyone like a book. They will look at you and know your greatest insecurities and fears in an instant. Do not fuck with them, they’re scary.

In the B-Team AU, even though they’ve all forged new connections and close friends, they still come back to each other for comfort. Something about fighting together for months on end creates bonds like nothing else.

At some point during the downfall timeline, Ganon became just another word for Evil. This progressed onto BOTW, making Calamity Ganon “Evil Calamity”.

On the opposite side of the spectrum: after Skyward Sword, Link became a very common name that was associated with virtue. Think Jesus Christ having Jesus, Josh, Christian, Christina, etc. No one really thinks their Link’s going to be the one with the hero’s spirit.

Rito is just the Hylian word for bird person: it applies to both the Zora who evolved into bird-people and the bird-people who lived alongside Zora.

The evolution of Hylian as a language was relatively stagnant. Accents changed, grammar shifted, and words were added and removed, but they act more like different dialects than whole other languages. If you put someone from the Era of the Sky and the Era of the Wild together, they’d be able to hold a conversation with few issues.

Hylian started as a lingua franca between a Hyrulean trade language and Zonai. It eventually evolved to include Goron, Zora, and Rito elements as well.

Gerudo and Sheikah languages both branched off of Hylian.

The original Gerudo were Hylians who fled the kingdom to build their own, and their language eventually changed to reflect the harsher desert climate