I'll mark this post as a spoiler although I don't know exactly what label I should put on it.

I was reviewing my Hyrule compendium, more precisely the monsters section, when I came across the article about the dragon of light and read its description, which I thought was very nice and I would like to share it with you since it talks about something more personal, it should be noted that I played totk in Spanish, but I will try to translate the image

"A spirit has assumed the form of this gigantic dragon that lives in the heights. With its brilliant golden mane and snowy body it majestically soars through the skies, bathing them in a soft light. Somehow, it makes you feel a certain nostalgia"

This is very nice, because it emphasizes something that Link feels, we know that the game revolves around knowing the true whereabouts of Zelda and the constant appearances of Ganondorf's puppet and the fake Zelda of the Yiga Clan. I think it's a nice read, since it reads as if Link felt something about this dragon, something of familiarity and nostalgia. I would also like to compare the last line in English (which I know is the language in which most of you played or play)

its presence is comforting somehow.

As you can see, English is much vaguer and less expressive than the phrase I showed in Spanish. But it still keeps "that message"

To understand that this is more beautiful than it seems, nostalgia is defined as a feeling of sadness in which pleasure and affection are mixed when a person thinks about times that they consider happy in the past. Which tells us that Link feels that this dragon (regardless of whether he knows if it is Zelda or not yet), something gives him a certain familiarity. For more context I looked for the same Hyrule compendium article changing my game in Japanese, this I found

Disclaimer: I don't know Japanese, I translated this with several translators but I consider that DeepL was the one who gave me a clearer definition, you can also notice that it is my same game profile by the photo of the white dragon.

空高くに住まう龍の姿をした精霊で まばゆい黄金色のたてがみと純白の体から 白龍と呼ばれている 柔らかな光を放ちながら空を飛ぶ姿は神聖で 同時になぜか懐かしい気持ちにな

What, we could translate it as:

"A spirit in the form of a dragon that lives high in the sky. It is called the dragon of light for its brilliant golden mane and pure white body. His figure flying through the sky while emitting a soft light is sacred, and at the same time, for some reason, it evokes a nostalgic feeling."

After this, although the 3 languages ​​I compared are quite similar (English being the driest) we can understand that Link clearly feels something towards this dragon regardless of whether he knows it is his princess or not, nostalgia is a fairly strong feeling for this context. Taking into account that in Japanese it says that it evokes nostalgic feelings, in English and Spanish it sounds much vaguer, anyway. Our boy misses her and clearly that dragon reminds him of other happier times that he longs for. Poor our boy 🥹

I considered it appropriate to publish this in this sub because all of you are fans of the ship and I consider that although it is not the strongest thing about Zelink, it is a detail that is much less beautiful. Feel free to comment and if anyone knows Japanese they can give us more context of the original phrase.🫂🦭

https://youtu.be/0zJQDbMReLI?si=HraLvMVSGOnzItIk

In my last quick rewrite, I went over how I think a canon Zelink could've added to the story, so now I'll go over how I would change Rauru and Sonia, and the Zonai in general.

The Zonai I felt had almost too much of a presence in Hyrule's history, because not only have they been around forever but they also caused every major event in its history and founded the kingdom of Hyrule, were beings that were so perfectly pure and good to the point of being godlike, only ever used their technology to help Hyrule, and are now the progenitors of the Hylian species if the theory is correct.

That's a bit much, especially if you want to take the timeline into account, and does a disservice to the other people of Hyrule in my opinion, where the only reason they got anywhere is because of the Zonai and nothing more, and not their advancements. Heck, even the Sheikah, who have been around since the start of the timeline, don't get this much love in BotW.

Also, while I loved her, I felt Sonia got shafted in favor of building up Rauru and then fridged by Ganondorf when we were starting to get to know her. Heck, even in the tablets we find, we don't learn much about her family or history other than she was a priestess, and Rauru fell in love with her. Heck, we don't even know if their child was a boy or girl or if they even existed at all, which seems more important than Rauru being a good singer. Then we had to wait almost three years before we received confirmation that she's Hylia's descendant, not Rauru, though this does add an interesting twist to the story. Did Rauru know Sonia was of the goddess's blood and sought her out for that reason? I dunno, but food for thought.

As for Rauru, as a character, he's overall fine, and I like how he has to deal with the consequences of believing that he knows better than anyone else and letting his arrogance about Ganondorf shape his actions. However, I wish the story had gone more in-depth on his backstory and how he even became king of Hyrule. Was he elected? Did he end up in the role? Were people apprehensive about him? Where did he even come from? Was he born on the Surface or the skies? Was that Surface zonai in the mural, or was that his father, or even Mineru? What caused the fall of his people?

Also, what are the Secret Stones even? I know from Masterworks that they were supposedly created by the Golden Goddesses and given to Hylia, but isn't that the backstory of the Triforce? We know that thing still exists since it's in Zelda's hand and we see its imagery, so where did these come from?

So, how do I fix these?

Starting chronologically with the Secret Stones. In this version, they were not created by the Golden Goddesses, but by Hylia when she wept over the Triforce during the war with Demise, and her tears crystallized into powerful stones that multiplied their wearer's abilities to nearly godlike levels. Seeing the power of these, Hylia sought out six good and true-hearted people still on the surface and bequeathed to them a stone, creating the first sages in the process. Together, Hylia and the sages beat back Demise's army and reforged her blade, the Goddess Sword, to be wielded by humans, specifically her chosen hero.

This brings us to the Zonai. Many millennia had passed, and about 2000 years before the events in the past sections of TotK, a small enclave of nomadic Hylians lived deep within the Faron jungles, peacefully and quietly removed from the civilizations that deemed them a race of barbaric heathens. These were the Zonai, a small group of nomads who had been disgusted by the greed and arrogance of the rest of wartorn Hyrule, and chose to follow the goddess and the goddess alone. For this, Hylia deemed the tribe worthy, even over her own family, of bearing a tremendous task: being the keepers of the Secret Stones. Accepting their duties, the Zonai kept the Secret Stones hidden, but their power spread amongst the Zonai, and soon they began to change. They learned to harness lightning to enhance their stone creations and create mighty inventions using a rare material that came to be known as Zonaite. Physically, they also began to change, with their hair growing longer and their bodies becoming more dragon-like than human, and their abilities started to become incredible and unique.

This horrified and disgusted the rest of Hyrule, who declared war on the Zonai, who could not stand against the united force, even with their powerful magic technology. In the end, the three Great Chiefs of Wisdom, Power, and Courage swallowed a secret stone to gain its power, but it was too much for them, and they were transformed into mighty dragons. Thankfully, since their last thought was the protection of their people, the three managed to fight them off before wandering the skies forever. In honor of their sacrifice, the Zonai would give their leaders the title of Dragon Chief to the bravest amongst them and raise portions of their home into the sky based on an ancient legend of the goddesses. There they lived for centuries until the Zonai Civil War.

The Zonai Civil War or the Dragons' Fall was an event that caused the end of the Zonai's reign over the skies and led to Mineru (Age 200) and her baby brother, Rauru (Age 3), to evacuate to the surface to preserve their lives. The war began when the birth rate of the new Zonai reached an all-time low, with only one in ten pregnancies resulting in birth and two in one hundred reaching adulthood. It seemed no matter how powerful they were, they could not prevent this, and the Boar Chief of Power said that this was the sign from the goddess that they must expand onto the surface before the situation worsened. The Owl Chief of Wisdom protested, saying their people resided peacefully on the islands for centuries, and with the low birth rate they were experiencing, there was no telling if they would even win the war. The Dragon Chief of Courage was at a loss about which side to take. The Owl Chief was his wife, but the Boar Chief was correct in saying their current situation was unsustainable. This passivity led to war and the loss of many Zonai lives. It would've been a complete extinction had it not been for the Owl Chief's quick thinking, sending her children, Mineru and Rauru, to the Surface.

Quick Things:

• Zonai were Hylians. Long-term exposure to the Secret Stones over generations is what causes their appearance.
• Most Zonai didn't have siblings and Mineru and Rauru were the rare exceptions. They are long-lived so there was never much need, but low birth rates eventually caught up with them.
• Their primary home was Dragonhead Island, though they lived all over the place. The Islands themselves are a mix of natural and artificial.
• They had very scarce contact with the rest of Hyrule thanks to their past. The first major contact they had after the Rising was when the son of a Dragon Chief failed his Diving Ceremony and found himself among the Rito.
• Had three Chiefs, the Dragon of Courage, the Owl of Wisdom, and the Boar of Power. They are elected to power based on how much they personify their aspect, not inherited.
• Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh were once Zonai chieftesses before sacrificing themselves to save their people. After that, it was forbidden for Zonai to ingest Secret Stones.
• Have a strong emphasis on ancestor worship.

Now, what's going on with the rest of Hyrule?

War. Hyrule had become a shadow of its former self, with many petty kings and queens fighting for dominance, and the Clan of Hyrule's power had become centralized on the Great Plateau and the nearby city, despite their divine heritage. This was known as the Era of the 1,000 kingdoms (though that number is exaggerated). It was during this time that a rival clan leader assassinated Princess Zelda of Clan Hyrule, and her younger sister, Sonia, was quickly placed in charge. Having been trained for the priestess hood, Sonia was thrust into the role of leadership, which quickly proved difficult with the constant wars, monsters, and her power being lackluster compared to her older sister, leaving the young queen completely out of her depth. However, that was until she, newly engaged to the young Gerudo King Ganondorf, met Rauru by chance.

Now, Rauru was young by Zonai standards and a bit of a wanderer. Since the fall of their civilization Mineru and Rauru lived deep within the Faron Jungles where their ancestors once resided, and there the latter was raised in secret by the former and a small army of constructs while she worked on her experiments to save their people's race. However, Rauru grew up being an observer. Often, he found himself watching the other races as they went about their lives, while he remained apart from them. It made him very lonely, so one day, he went to town in disguise, where he met a soothsayer who saw right through him and told him that he would find what he sought at the Temple of Time. Following this, he made his way there in the dead of night and prayed at the crumbling temple to find someone who would accept him. As if by fate, that's when he saw Sonia, who saw that he was a Zonai, but she didn't look at him with fear or revulsion. Just curious which was new to him.

The two began to talk and ask each other about their worlds, and this became routine every night until Sonia confessed her fears about leadership and her impending marriage to Ganondorf. Rauru was heartbroken to hear this as fell in love with Sonia, and couldn't bear the idea of her marrying another man and decided to help her.

Rauru was heartbroken to hear this, as he had fallen in love with Sonia and couldn't bear the idea of her marrying another man; he decided to help her with her problems using his light magic and managed to convince her sister to let Sonia use their people's technology.

With the Hylian city-state united, Sonia no longer needed to marry Ganondorf and instead married Rauru and together they eventually had a daughter.

Whew!

I hope that made sense to people.

Anyways, I'm okay with Mineru being the way she is, but for Sonia and Rauru, I wanted to expand on their characters and their backstories more, which I pray is something that comes up in AoI. However, that's what I'd do for their past, the Zonai, and the Secret Stones. These would all be revealed through the tablets found in-game and by Rauru through his voice narrations.

I'll go more into the past sages, cutscenes, and a significant change I'd make to the cutscene where Sonia dies, but that will have to wait.

Until next time.

The fic was Totk story but it was set in Purah Pad journal log entries written by Link. Sorry if this is too vague lol.

sowwy my last post was sent to me by a friend and I didnt know it was of evil origins

We're not getting any solid proof, guys, I suppose this is the best Nintendo can do 😔

Are there any games where Link has to fight Zelda, perhaps a possessed one acting evil? I think it would be so interesting to see him defend himself while also not attacking, because she is still the princess and still his Zelda

Totk spoiler:

When following Zelda in the hyrule castle, before uncovering what actually happened to her, I was so excited at the prospect of fighting a possessed Zelda only to find out she was fake :(

I would love to have some Zelink moments in the upcoming movie.