I love good guys

(batdina, this is to your address. ~grin~)

I realized today that when I started engaging with The Legend of Zelda (TLOZ) in a fanfic kind of way, and mentioning it here, I did it with no overview or explanation, as if you all either necessarily already knew or wouldn't care to know. Please let me remedy that now! :-D

The Legend of Zelda is a Tolkien-inspired Japanese RPG video game franchise with 21 main-series games and many spin-offs since it appeared in 1986. I played the first game on a relative's console in, I think, '89. A live-action movie is coming in 2026; I'm anxious. (At least it must be better than the regretted '89 cartoon.)

The different games tell different tales. They combine puzzle-solving, combat, and exploration gameplay to unfold a story and theme. To grotesquely and unfairly oversimplify, Ocarina of Time is about nostalgia and loss and consequences; Majora's Mask is about fate and loss and meaning; Tears of the Kingdom is about community and loss and rebuilding; Twilight Princess is about identity and loss and choice; Link's Awakening is about reality and loss and truth...

The usual setting is the kingdom of Hyrule and its surrounds. The usual leads are Link, the hero, representing courage; Zelda, the princess, representing wisdom; and Ganondorf, the villain, representing power. The most important macguffins are the Master Sword, aka the sword that seals the darkness, and the Triforce, a sacred embodiment of the energy of divine creation balanced as courage, wisdom, and power. Most Hyruleans are ordinary humans, if usually with pointy ears, dividing themselves into sub-groups by region or culture. There are also several other sentient species. This universe has technology, magic, divinities, and demons.

While some of the games are direct sequels to others, most happen hundreds or even thousands of years apart, and so are both fully-functional standalone stories and intricate parts of a complex canon web. The games have not come out in chronological order. The timeline is controversial; it begins in unison, splits into three AU lines, and then those three lines eventually reunify.

The various Links, Zeldas, and Ganondorfs -- and other recurring characters -- throughout the games may or may not be reincarnations or descendants of each other even within the same timeline. All Zeldas are descendants of the goddess Hylia (Skyward Sword). We have had blonde, brunette, and red-haired Zeldas. Only one Link is known to be a descendant of another Link (Twilight Princess); we know of once that there were two Links alive at the same time (The Minish Cap). We have had blond and brunet, tall and short, child and adult Links. Every Ganondorf so far has been born to the Gerudo people, at least one century apart, with a similar build and coloring.

All* mainline TLOZ games are well-regarded in the gaming community, nominated for or winning awards as well as usually selling well. A few are universally considered masterpieces. These days, most fanficcy fans are into Breath of the Wild, its sequel Tears of the Kingdom, and their two non-mainline spin-offs, Age of Calamity and Age of Imprisonment, which wrap non-TLOZ gameplay around TLOZ story cores.

Thank you for joining me on this tour. I appreciate it! :-D

* Okay, okay, maybe not so much Tri Force Heroes, Four Swords Adventures, Spirit Tracks, and Phantom Hourglass. But I think that Spirit Tracks is underrated.

Meme picked up from senmut: From your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.

Find me at Brightknightie

1. Under what rating do you write most?
To my surprise, "General Audiences" (68) only barely edges out "Teen and up" (66). Interesting. (There are also 5 "Mature;" I remember just 2 of those off the top of my head.)

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

• Forever Knight (TV 1992) (88)
• Highlander: The Series (18)
• Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon) (8)

"The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms" will match D&DC soon. I should perhaps choose to keep them neck-and-neck.

3. Which character do you write about most?
Historically and altogether, of course it is Nick Knight (58). That's too obvious and predictable.

4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?
My most frequently-written FK pairing is Nick/Natalie, HL Duncan/Tessa, and Sailor Moon Darien/Serena. (These are not the top three overall, but listing just FK all the time feels dull and distant.)

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?
This is the question that makes this meme most interesting, as I would not have guessed, though I really should have if I'd thought it through mathematically:

• Post-Canon (27)
• Historical (24)
• Flashbacks (16)

I have not seen this lore theory anywhere, but it occurred to me within the past week or so, and, and surely -- surely! -- I'm not the first to think of it. Before Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment drops on Thursday, let me ask:

Could Rauru be a Link? That is, in the era of the founding/re-founding, could Rauru be the embodiment of the spirit of Hylia's Chosen Hero?

He's certainly done the work of Hylia's Chosen. He is courageous. He's defeated the monsters, brought peace to the surface peoples, supported (and loved and married) his era's blood descendant of Hylia who carries some fraction of her sacred power... and gave his life to bring down the Demon King in his era, passing on his wisdom and power to a future Link to finish the job in another era.

He sure looks like a Link ... in every way but being a Zonai named Rauru rather than a Hylian named Link, and not bearing Hylia's sword (or any sword; he's a magic-user). But not every Link gets that sword. And, until 2017, every Link could be renamed by the player.


(Or maybe Rauru is a male Zelda and the source of Hylia's blood in the royal line, but that's a very different and less likely lore/timeline theory.)

This is my fannish space; I rarely mention non-fannish things here. I'm going to share one now:

If you can, tomorrow, Saturday, October 18, 2025, please consider attending a peaceful, patriotic, pro-America, "No Kings Day" gathering. To easily find a grassroots local event near you, try this map: https://www.nokings.org/#map .

You don't have to do anything except show up and be present with your neighbors. Let's thwart the gaslighting and reassure each other that, indeed, we are the majority, this isn't the way things are supposed to be, and constitutional values still matter.

Thank you.

If you're planning to sign up for hlh_shortcuts '25, you have ~10 hours from when I'm writing this. I got my sign-up in this morning.

At this time, the sign-ups summary and requests list show 15 players, with 15 requests and 14 offers for the main TV series, 4 and 5 for The Raven, and 8 and 5 for the movies. (If you're into the comics, novels, cartoon, or other subsidiary properties, just say so; someone else is likely to be, too.)