Second favorite all time joke

had a dream last night that the boots of the royal guard outfit from botw were thigh high stiletto boots

Someone draw this

@breannasfluff ask and you shall receive. Please ignore that this is super late, I only just saw the post

This concept haunted me and I had to draw it. This is the product of several sleepless hours, and also my first time drawing link so I hope it doesn't look jank and I just can't see it lol. I definitely learned some stuff while painting this and I probably wouldn't do it the same way, but oh well. That's what art is for.

Also the quality is so crunchy. Why, tumblr.

Ruminations on the King of Owls

Suddenly, after Tears of the Kingdom the appearance of owls throughout the franchise has been re-contextualized. Rauru, the first King of Hyrule, was also called the King of Owls, so we should reconsider the Owl as a symbol for the King of Hyrule. In addition, we also know Rauru’s power as the Sage of Light was to eliminate evil. Then there’s also the fact that the ruins found in Faron (which might be older than the Zonai) also used the Owl as a symbol for Wisdom.

The first notable appearance of an Owl was the Owl from Link’s Awakening, and it was just part of the dream of the Windfish, but it did impart wisdom to the Hero and guided him a few times to help uncover the truth, so it does represent Wisdom. You could say that the Windfish itself is passing on wisdom to Link via the Owl, and if Link hadn’t defeated the Nightmare, they’d both be trapped in never-ending slumber until the end of their days.

The most famous appearance of an owl is of course, Kaepora Gaebora from Ocarina of Time. People were convinced that KG was an extension of Rauru from Ocarina of Time, but it just as likely that KG is the spirit of the first King of Hyrule himself. The ancient tablets found in Tears of the Kingdom tells us that King Rauru did have a sense of humor, which aligns well with KG’s strange behavior. (Better than OoT Rauru.) But for that to be true, we’d have to accept  that King Rauru took some time to play as an owl in OoT in the middle of waiting for the timeline to reach the events of TotK.

Alternatively, KG could be another Sage of Light / King of Hyrule (neither OoT Rauru or TotK Rauru) that chose to help guide the Hero of Time.

(Maybe its one that died during the Hyrule Civil War right before OoT. Maybe he's Link's father! Oh, wait, it's supposed to be an ANCIENT Sage, nevermind.)

KG also appears in Majora Mask where he’s clearly a different Owl than the one from OoT, and only helps out the hero a few times in his journey. In both games, he still representing wisdom.

However, I have to mention Link’s shield in Majora’s Mask. The first shield that he carries is adorned with the image of an Owl. So very strange, I never thought Link was so fond of KG, but when you think of it as a symbol of the King of Hyrule it makes sense. Link did save the Kingdom in OoT, (essentially eliminating evil)  it is likely the Zelda’s father awarded Link with that specific shield.

(Suddenly, the MM shield is a lot cooler.)

In Twilight Princess, not only were there Owl Statues hiding special runes from the City in the Sky (How that relates to the Zonai is a theory for another time), but you should also notice that the Hero’s Shade is wearing a set of armor that has an owl for a chest plate. It could mean that this former knight was a personal guard for the King of Hyrule. Or this is the official armor of the Knights of Hyrule.

Finally, I want to take a brief aside to talk about the Zonai’s third eye and the Sheikah’s “Eye of Shadow.” I had considered that maybe the Sheikah had adopted the third eye as their symbol because it was (in a way) King Rauru’s symbol, and he died protecting Hyrule. But, considering that the Sheikah likely predate the arrival of the Zonai, this is likely not the case.

It is more likely that the Sheikah eye is “the Eye of the Gods” and the fact that Zonai have three eyes is just a coincidence.

TotK Zonai and Sheikah Headcannon

Hey! I'll be spit-balling here so excuse me if it's a bit jambled.

My personal headcannon is the Zonai were a powerful tribe that existed alongside the Sheikah tribe. Zonai were described as powerful and barbaric, while the Sheikah were described as very intelligent. Maybe the differences in beliefs and values caused the two to fight? Power vs. wisdom has been a very common theme in the series. Since the Sheikah had the support of the royal family and goddess Hylia, they may have been able to force Zonai into undesirable terrain. The areas inhabited by Hyrluians and Sheikah were towards the middle of Hyrule in BOTW, so it is possible the Zonai had to travel around the middle to avoid conflicting with the Sheikah. This could explain why their architecture can be found in the corners, Faron, and the dark area near the lost woods. However, there are suggestions that the Zonai and Sheikah collaborated, with many Shrines being found in Zonai-built architecture. This could be the two tribes coming together after seeing visions of the future, or it could be the Sheikah building Shrines after the Zonai had lost power/died out. In addition, it looks like they came together to sealed gannon in the temple. There is very little information about the Zonai, so maybe the Royal family was purposefully hiding information about them. They could be tied to a massacre that the Royal family wants the rest of Hyrule to forget.

I have another theory that the mysterious figure shown in the trailer is the Goddess that the Zonai, Twili, and Gerudo worshipped. This Goddess could have given these tribes access to 'dark' magical knowledge. Since this Goddess was unfamiliar to the Hylians, they may have labeled her as inherently evil. In addition, most of the tribes who worshiped her came into conflict with Hylians at one point. I don't think she will be a villain in TotK. I think she (or her reincarnation/chosen one) will serve as a guide to Zelda and Link.

I think it would be fun to have a character who has narrative parallels similar to Zelda be the reincarnation of the other goddess. I imagine her as a former member of the Yiga Clan who's father is Sheikah and mother was a deserted Gerudo warrior who joined the Yiga Clan. She learnt ancient and forbidden forms of magic and knowledge from her parents, but once the tribe fell apart, went to explore the ruins in the Faron region and discover herself. Her personality would be rambunctious, curious, and intelligent, like a trickster. Her personality/journey could serve as a contrast to Zelda's, came from an evil tribe, dark magic came very naturally to her, was allowed to research ancient technology from a young age, confident and rambunctious, etc. She could help Zelda and Link to learn about the various ruins and unfamiliar magic. Her and Zelda could be seen to represent the dragon circle seen in the trailer.

I tried drawing her but gerudo and sheikah fashion DO NOT mesh well so her design turned out bad >< I'll try redesigning her later

Another rambly post about shit that I barely ever post about

So look, call me Influenced or having Zelda brainrot, but seeing characters like Rauru (and his equally hot sister) and their designs has made me feral but has also made me like really want to give my own characters more animalistic designs? I mean they DO live in a fantasy universe! And I wanna do more than give Idris elven ears. He needs… more than that! I’ve also been revising huge parts of my story and the lore and I think a design upgrade is also necessary?

The script in the trailer i could clearly read thus far. i didn't grab anything from far distances nor from the swirly spell on Ganon cus theyre very hard to see (and the swirl moves too much to know whats a word)

the zonai are the new sheikah mysterious ass tribe who rarely if ever show up but they are involved in e v e r y t h i n g

Looks like another eye motif? But maybe Zonai? And used in similar ways as the Sheikah and Yiga sigils? Maybe the Zonai were related to Ancient Sheikah?

Back in 2017, back when I was a baby artist, I drew something to celebrate the release of Breath of the Wild, the most recent and groundbreaking Zelda Game. Well, with Tears of the Kingdom fast approaching, I decided to re-draw it. Paying tribute to the first 3D Zelda game, Ocarina of Time, I celebrate the new game.

i am Deep in zelda brain rot rn and have been thinkin about my characters from the botw days and wanted to draw em again...

in the first photo are Grise and Altair, accidental Korok companion and grumpy Sheikah warrior (who got kind of a significant redesign) respectively; in the second photo we've got Sen and Noro.. i just really think the Zonai are neat and wanted to design one :'3 and my Zora priestess gal got a new outfit/armor deal.

i definitely want to draw more of these guys, i just needed to punch out some quick little references, with Sen being brand new and the others not being drawn in like 5 years lmao

if nintendo doesn't follow up on these fucking masks i swear to god i'm gonna start throwing rocks at them

going feral ripping things apart thinking about zonai twili connections and how that plays into my personal headcanons

Okay so I love “the ancient civilization that lived here before us was far more advanced than us” as a trope but what I don’t see explored very often is “why were they wiped out and why haven’t we caught up to them yet?”. When I think about nuclear radiation, there’s a good chance that that’s what will reduce human civilizations to post-apocalyptic film. There’s a lot of things that could do that, but what makes radiation unique is that we’ve put out deliberate warnings and failsafes to ensure that those post-apocalyptic societies don’t recreate it. And we did it in the most cryptic way possible, with monoliths and weird poetry and stuff. What I’m getting at is that we are the ancient civilization leaving behind strange artifacts in this scenario, and knowing the reasons we’re trying to prevent future tragedies makes the situation more interesting. When I see fantasy settings with similarly ancient technology, I want to know what happened to stop its continuation and more importantly what happened to stop its reinvention.

On the one hand (ha) I love the Zonai their tech and designs are so cool somewhat similar to the Sheikah but different enough that they feel distinct

But on the other hand where did the Sheikah tech go?? The shrines and the guardians and the divine beasts are all gone like yeah maybe the shrines all disappeared below ground and maybe the towers were repurposed into the sky view towers (which now brings up the question of why did they need to move them)

But the guardians? No decayed corpses still scattered around hyrule? Not all traces of the calamity are gone there’s still village ruins around but these were always a living reminder of the calamity and yeah they would be all deactivated now but I’d like to see at least a few deactivated ones still around

(Maybe there are some and I just haven’t found them yet since I’ve only finished the first temple)

And the divine beasts! In the herba sky islands there was bits of Vah medoh’s theme and I was really hoping to see it again. I’ve said this before but I do love the wind temple and the musical references to Vah medoh but the divine beasts were The Dungeons(tm) in botw. Couldn’t they be like sitting at their locations like when you finish the dungeons in botw but deactivated since the champions’ spirits probably moved on. Just a visual reminder that the divine beasts were a thing that impacted this world and not something to be ignored in bowt’s direct sequel in favor of the next cool thing

Maybe the guardian corpses were all gathered up and thrown into the big chasm surrounding hyrule but the divine beasts should definitely still be around. Or at least there should be some explanation for why they aren’t

It just feels weird how the Sheikah were such a big focus on botw and now there’s no trace of them and everything’s about the zonai. Like did the Zonai and Sheikah ever interact and share tech? I get that these similarities were likely because Nintendo wanted to keep botw’s distinct aesthetics and magitech and still make totk different enough from botw but may I have an in-universe reason pretty please??

(Hopefully there will be more to learn about the Sheikah as I’m still not very far in the game)

How funny that the Zelda narrative team is teasing us with a ton of ageless pictographs, because it’s such a handy way of conveying information without any context to timeline. I am absolutely sure the teams working on the game are gleefully reading fan speculation and cackling at the community engagement. Rightly so. The hype is real.

Bunch of Tears of the Kingdom speculation under the cut.

The Great Conspiracy of Hylia's Ancient Magic Wielders Who Ascended Into The Sky

1) Humans under the protection of the goddess Hylia advanced their civilization using powerful magic.

2) Because of the invasion of the demon king, the surviving humans were saved by the goddess by being sent skyward above the clouds.

3) Thousands of years later, and following the defeat of the demon king, the mortal incarnation of Hylia and her chosen hero return to the surface to protect the Triforce. Many others follow suit.

4) Humanity begins to progress once more, spreading across the world. Many groups begin to develop in their own way. One such group arises around the descendants of Hylia, calling themselves the “Hylians”.

5) Another group, proficient in magic, use their connection with the winds to lift their civilization into the sky. They maintain contact with their earthbound kin for many years thereafter. These sky folk go by the name “The Tribe of Winds”.

6) Eventually, a rivalry ensues over control of the sacred land of Hylia itself, and the golden prize kept there. Many lives are lost as the fires of war rage on. Among the combatants are some of the sorcerers, who use their powers to subjugate the sacred land.

7) The gods themselves intervene, dispatching the spirits of light to seal away the magic power those individuals had mastered; chase them out of the land of Hyrule; and banish them into the shadow world of infinite Twilight. These poor souls transform under the endless golden half-light into the Twili race.

8) The remaining sky dwellers lose contact with the surface world over the intervening years, essentially disappearing from the historical record. The remnants of their ancient civilization—sophisticated and numerous—become a mystery to the people of Hyrule.

Possible Zonai OC?

Maybe?

I'm not sure he's still a work in progress and it's my first time ever trying to draw a Zonai. The Zelda hyperfixation is real right now.

Some Notes:

- The name I have for him currently is Vuramu.

- His occupation is in the culinary field, cooking, baking, ect. Loves trying new recipes.

- Pretty sure he's gonna be gay, and is so bad at flirting that he compensates by gifting baked goods to his crush instead.

- Probably got his ear bitten off by a monster.

My little architecture brain is going wild for the new Totk gameplay video ahhhhhh!!! The trees that are mostly likely Ginkgo trees, the beautiful wooden fencing, the tapered stone temples, the Japanese rock/zen garden imagery (makes me think about how interesting the new green spiral stones appear)

Even Constructs are made so intricately and with a gorgeous green stone, and you can tell how beloved the constructs are to their creators because the rangers have linked stone chains/earrings on the side of its face (which would take a lot of hand carving from the zonai to achieve since they aren’t metal links)

I love global, pre-industrial architecture and building techniques so much!! BOTW even blessed us with thatched roofs,,, I can’t wait to see what else they’re hiding from us, I’m going to be so annoying about all the architecture

hmm so what kind of fucks me up about totk is that all of the ancient sheikah technology goes poof! you know, the technology that the sheikah were like. persecuted for.

and purah - our main sheikah quest giver - doesn't... invent. she makes the purah pad at some point but. off screen. we never see her inventing or creating or working with the zonai tech. there's robbie! he gets to upgrade the pad. thats. it. he can't even fix his own balloon though link has to do it for him!! (nor can impa but she's never been presented as an inventor so i'll let that slide.) and josha is merely investigating, not inventing.

you know who do invent though?

the yiga clan.

you know. the guys who got were once sheikah, specifically persecuted by the royals because they refused to leave the tech behind once it was a "threat" to the royal family. you spend a solid portion of the game attacking their depths hideouts for their schematics, you see them creating the designs in the hideout if you infiltrate, the boss battles with kohga centre around him using technology.

idk it seems kind of uncomfortable to rewrite history and actually haha no! what sheikah technology? what persecution? the royal founders of hyrule are perfect divine godlike beings :) all of this technology actually is from the culture of the king of hyrule :) so it's all okay :) don't worry about it :) just beat up the silly banana people :)

Btw I really fucking love all of the tribe/clan esque groups in Zelda-

The Sheikah have always been so fucking cool, from the more ninja-vibes they gave off in earlier games to the more traditional and/or high tech vibes they have now. Idk bro I’m just a sucker for neat dudes with air reed motifs and funky tech that’s made by an Elvis impersonator and a harajuku liker who anti-aging product makers HATE!! …Also maybe I really like when characters are almost exactly like humans (or hylians, in this case.) but with a particular feature that’s different,, (it’s the white hair and gold eyes in this case.)

The Yiga are deadass just creatures. Absolute bizarre eyeball things in a bizarre eyeball cult that worships Ganon except it’s highly likely that not all of them know what they’re doing because they’re stupid dumb idiots who blindly follow their leader who is also a stupid dumb idiot (and had a weirdly good character arc in Aoc out of nowhere? Which was 100% welcome btw.) Funny banana dudes I hope they explode /aff

And lastly, I’ve been suffering with intense Zonai brainrot. Sky bunny-goat-llama-dragon furries that are just complete mysteries for the most part? Yes please absolutely- Oh and also they were apparently unreasonably cunty, which I appreciate greatly,,,,, (I know what I said. Have you SEEN any of the clothing sets from their time and people + the two Zonai characters we’ve seen?) Oh and also skrimblo robots are involved too, which is an absolute plus. Very much food for the fursona makers, 10/10.