Was 1990-2004 the Peak era for Fantasy?

I made a prior post inspired by a BookTuber named EverymanReads where he argued for that.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2026/02/booktuber-overing-classic-fantasy-novels.html

There we were talking just in the context of Prose Novels. Looking beyond that the case becomes even stronger.

For movies we have Hook, Army of Darkness, Peter Jacksons' LOTR Adaptations and the first two Star Wars Prequels to name just the first that easily pop into my head.  For TV we had Hercules and Xena, that Sam Neill Merlin miniseries. And Urban Fantasy was largely defined by shows like Forever Knight and the Buffyverse and Charmed and Anime like Witch Hunter Robin. 

Speaking of Anime and Manga, this era had classics like Berserk and Escaflone and forgotten classics like Maze, and adaptations of some of those LNs I talked about, and most of the most defining entries of the Magical Girl Warrior subgenre as well as Battle Shonen.

But Video Games is where things were even more genre defining. It'd almost be easier to name what Video Games aren't either Fantasy or Sci-Fi in some way, the defining franchises of the medium like Mario and Sonic and Kirby and Pokémon are distinct Fantasy settings that only Gaming as a medium could come up with. 

But even if we limit ourselves to Games that feel more inline with conventional Fantasy there is still a lot.  For Zelda this period includes A Link To The Past, Link's Awakening, Ancient Stone Tablets, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Oracle Games, The Winder Waker, Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and The Minish Cap. All those genre defining JRPGs of the SNES and PlayStation that were important to prior post of this blog are this era, as well as much of the PS2 and Game Cube era. Then there's Castlevania and lots of classic Star Wars Games. 

And spinning off from that are Visual Novels like YU-NO: The Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound Of This World, Higurashi, Tsukihime and it's sequels and Fate/Stay Night. 

For Otaku media I almost want to shift it a year to be 1991-2005. I don't even know much what I'd be loosing dropping 1990, but I know I'd be gaining Fate/Hallow Ataraxia, Mai Otome, the second seasons of Nanoha and PreCure, most of the Shuffle Anime Adaptation.  Or heck maybe even 1992-2006.

Even EverymanRead's reading list doesn't include all English language fantasy novels form this era, it for examples includes no Star Wars EU novels. This era includes all the Bantam books and the first 5 years of Del Rey which includes the New Jedi Order series containing the Yuuzhan Vong War and the earliest Prequel Era novels. Maybe for Star Wars we could move the era up a year since nothing notable came out in 1990 but 2005 has Revenge of The Sith and a number of EU novels tying into it directly including the Dark Nest trilogy in the Post-Endor saga. Or with an April 91 through March 2006 timeframe we could include Timothy Zahn's Outbound Flight. 

The late 90s also includes the three Willow novels by Chris Claremont. 

Why limit myself to 15 years per era? Because it feels like that's the average for the pretty agreed upon language for talking about eras of American Superhero Comic Books.

And speaking of which the 90s and early 00s is when most of my favorite DC Comics came out as well, most of which have some degree of Fantasy in them. The Triangle Era of Post-Crisis Superman Comics begins in November of 1990. And related to the other timeframes I've mentioned, 1992-2006 is also the timeframe of the DCAU. In the Comics the first half of 2006 was Infinite Crisis, so more or less the end of the era of DC Comics I'm most Nostalgic for. 

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?

Is the name of a Winter 2021 Fantasy Anime I haven’t watched.  I recall trying to but didn’t finish even the first episode.

However I can’t stop thinking about the title.  The implication of that title is that ‘Starter Town” is functionally synonymous with being a bustling Urban Metropolis and what I recall of the first episode confirms that.

So it confuses me because these LN based Fantasy Anime are operating on a very Meta level, the title implies that because its audience would expect it to be the norm.

But my general experience with the Fantasy Genre is the opposite, the Hero’s Journey usually starts in the Boonies, from The Hobbit and LOTR starting in The Shire to Luke Skywalker growing up on a farm far from the big city on an outer rim planet to Pokémon starting in Pallet Town (which in the Games and Anime seems smaller then it’s real world inspiration) to even Zelda usually starting Link off in some obscure settlement like Kokori Forest, Outset Island or Ordon Village.

But only one of those fits all the requirements for counting as a JRPG and even it is an edge case. 

In Japan the by far most popular JRPG franchise is Dragon Quest with Dragon Quest III specifically being the main blueprint for what most of these Japanese Gamers would think of as a standard RPG formula.  And indeed that adventure does start in the Castle Town where the King lives.

Even the original Final Fantasy also has the first city you visit be the Royal Capital of a Kingdom.  And VII starts in Midgar.

In the Mairo RPGs Mario’s house seems not to be in any town but located very close to Toad Town where Peach’s Castle is located.  The Thousand Year Door starts in Rogueport, a Mos Eisley style port city.

I also notice in Anime about playing MMORPGs you usually spawn in what seems like an Urban Center so that meeting up with other players can be done conveniently.  

And I think that is why RPGs so often depart from the Tolkien set precedent.  RPGs are a kind of game where the Multiplayer form is the original and the Single Player form came later.  The Quest needs to start in a place where players from diverse backgrounds can believably happen to meet up and form a party, like the opening premise of the Anime Ningen Fushin.

The association of the Last Dungeon with the Boonies I still don't get though.

Update December 22nd 2024: Well I have watched it now.

It doesn't really confirm or deny the thesis I originally made this post for. 

The central Meta Gamer Logic Joke is that this MC comes form a late game area and so is overpowered in this early game area without realizing it because in these "boonies" the the most common monsters are stronger then early game bosses.

In a typical RPG you will reach a point where even the lowest Mooks you do battle with technically now have higher states then Bosses you fought early on.  For example in Super Mario RPG the Gu Goombas of Bowser's Keep are stronger then the Hammer Bros of Mushroom Way.  But because the player has leveled up along the way they feel just as easy to one hit KO as regular Goombas.

Update October 2025: I think I do fully get what the title is going for now. 

It's taking the common cultural perception that people who grow up in rural areas are probably tougher then city folk because they grew up in a harsher environment living a more labor intensive lifestyle.   And mapping that neatly onto those RPG conventions I talked about above. 

Tedium doesn't bother me as much as it does other Gamers

At least people who make YouTube videos about Video Games.

Take for example discourse about The Water Temple in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.  When I first discovered that online group think considered it the hardest Dungeon that made sense to me, it was the one that I remember taking the longest to figure out, but I never felt it was bad design, I always saw it as a difficult puzzle that was rewarding to figure out, I didn't need this modern genre of Zelda Dungeon Design breakdown videos to convince me it had a good design, I always knew.

What shocked me was when I learned a large part of why so many people were allegedly frustrated by The Water Temple was that they hated needing to go into the item menu every time they put the Iron Boots on or took them off.  Because that never bothered me at all, I just did it without even thinking about it all that much.

There is a limit to how much Tedium I can take however.  In Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I hate how much back tracking I have to do in Chapter 4 specifically, that is the worst part of the game as far as I'm concerned.  

But it's the only place where it really bugged me that much, in online discourse I've found out even fans of TTYD tend to criticize it as a game almost defined by excessive backtracking.  Not only does most of it in other chapters not bother me but I also genuinely love the entire General White Joke in chapter 7, it's the kind of genre self parody that I love the Mario RPGs for.

And I've noticed many other examples of this watching YouTube reviews of Video Games, the reviewer expresses annoyance at something being Tedious that doesn't bother me at all.  I don't specifically remember all of them right now but I know it's happened a lot.

But there is one more thing I want to comment on that perhaps isn't actually the same as all this but I feel is related.

YouTube Reviews of Video Games love to treat Cut Scenes not being skippable as an Unforgiveable Sin.  But to me allowing them to be skippable would be the Sin.

Number 1. I would almost certainly sometimes skip a scene by accident.

Number 2. No matter how little you value the story parts of a video game they are part of the experience for any Game that has them.  Many artists put a lot of work into making those Cut Scenes they deserve to be watched.  If you want Games to be seen as Art then you can't be upset when the Artist doesn't want you skipping over parts of their Art. 

Number 3. To those who maybe only want to skip them after they've been seen them once and don't want to see the same pre Boss Battle scene over and over and over again.  My response is Get Gud and stop losing.

Wedding Peach had an All Star writing staff

[Update December 8th: I'm now worried the entire premise of this past was based on misinformation.  Regarding Terada's perceived connection to Zelda]

Zelda is the title character for a reason.

Here's the in-game opening story description for the original NES Legend of Zelda.

LONG AGO, GANON, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, STOLE THE TRIFORCE OF POWER. PRINCESS ZELDA OF HYRULE BROKE THE TRIFORCE OF WISDOM INTO EIGHT PIECES AND HID THEM FROM GANON BEFORE SHE WAS KIDNAPPED BY GANON'S MINIONS. LINK, YOU MUST FIND THE PIECES AND SAVE ZELDA.

And here's the more detailed version in the Instruction Manuel.

A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the middle of this chaos, in a little kingdom in the land of Hyrule, a legend was being handed down from generation to generation, the legend of the 'Triforce'; golden triangles possessing mystical powers.

One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Gannon, the powerful Prince of Darkness who sought to plunge the World into fear and darkness under his rule. Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Gannon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy she found herself surrounded by Gannon’s evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? … But wait!

All was not lost. A young lad appeared. He skillfully drove off Ganon’s henchmen, and saved Impa from a fate worse than death. His name was Link. During his travels he had come across Impa and Ganon’s henchmen. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda, but Ganon was a powerful opponent. He held the Triforce of Power. And so, in order to fight off Ganon, Link had to bring the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom together to rebuild the mystical Triangle.

If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived. Can Link really destroy Ganon and save the Princess Zelda? Only your skill can answer that question. Good luck. Use the Triforce wisely.

What you'll notice is that while the player plays Link you are on a mission from Zelda, you are attempting to carry out her plan.  This is why even from the very first game in 1985 she had agency that Princess Peach Toadstool did not.  Now today Peach has become a character with as much agency as Zelda and that's great, I don't wanna a start a Catfight between Zelda Simps and Peach Simps.

In Adventure of Link this aspect of Zelda's role is gone but it's back in A Link to The Past where while you can read a backstory about both the distant and recent past, actual gameplay begins with the Player as Link responding to Zelda's call to adventure.

However in Ocarina of Time Zelda isn't who sends link on his quest and when you do get a mission from her it winds up being the McGuffin Delivery Trope which I hate when it's done for Video Games, I don't want to be told things would have been better if I did nothing.

I like every Zelda game ultimately, but the reason why I consider OoT overrated in the story department is because I care little about how much more cinematic things are like now in 3D if it lessens one of my favorites aspects of the classic games.

Skyward Sword's extreme linearity may be the opposite of the original NES Game in how you play but it was the first game (at least in the main series) since ALttP to bring back this aspect of it, Link is carrying out Zelda's plan, well you could get pedantic and say it's Hylia's plan but they are ultimately the same Entity, and Zelda proper is playing her part in getting the ball rolling.

And then Breath of The Wild is also very much back to the original premise.

Princesses can outrank Queens

 So there's a YouTube Vidoe that fully breaks down the History of the title "Prince of Wales".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_AP3Z6KvkM&pp=ygUeaGlzdG9yeSBvZiB0aGUgUHJpbmNlIG9mIFdhbGVz

And one thing I realized is this is largely the origin of the use of the English Word Prince as we know it entirely.  And one major point is when certain Welsh rulers started using the Title it was due to it's connection to the Ancient Roman Imperial title of Princeps viewed as outranking the title of King.

On the show The Tudors set well after all that history you'll notice that a King can also be called a Prince even while they are a Ruling King.  Machiavelli's book titled The Prince was always intended to be about a status equal to that of a King not inherently lesser.

Princess is the feminine form of Prince, even though we all know that we fail to think of it the same since Reissuance Germany and Italy never had any ruling Princesses, all the states called Principalities always had male rulers. 

Yet at the end of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra the Queen Cleopatra is called a Princess by her handmaiden.  This was based on a quote taken from Plutarch's biography of Marc Anthony.

When translating The Hebrew Bible into English multiple words get translated "Prince", most notably Sar, Nagyim and Nasi, but the only uses of "Princess" in the KJV are the feminine form of Sar, Sarah.  However the use of "King" in these translations is more consistent always being a form of Melek.  Yet I remember being told once that at least Assyrian Sources definitely thought of Sar as being a higher ranked title then Melek.  In fact the oldest version of "King of Kings" seems to Sar Sarrani, the Melek version came later.  And none of these Prince words are ever used in The Bible with the meaning of "Son of a King".

And yet because Princess in modern dictionaries gets defined as meaning only a Daughter of a King/Queen or Wife of a Prince, lots of Internet Nerds get all pedantic about certain Nintendo characters being called Princess when they are also clearly presented as being the ruling Monarch.  Princess Peach/Toadstool, Princess Zelda in some eras of the "Timeline", Princess Daisy.  And I think we even see it beyond Nintendo in some other Video Game Franchises like Final Fantasy.

A lot of this could be read as just making fun of Nintendo's very make it up as they go world building.  The NES Games never thought about about how the world works beyond the handful of Sprites we actually see, and then later games with more needed worldbuilding didn't want to make the female leads of these franchises subordinate to someone else.  But I also think it's a little influenced by Star Wars where Leia was still called a Princess after her Parents were dead.

But occasionally someone says this with a more serious criticism in mind, that it demeans or infantilizes these characters who are actually Queens to call them the same title we do Disney Princesses.  But I say just remember how the English word Prince originated.  I would rather not see Zelda or Peach or Daisy ever demoted to being a mere Queen.

Zelda Theory: Ocarina of Time's Forest Temple is a Martyrium

Afraid I won't be doing much for Zelda Month this year, just this idea I'd had floating around in my head for awhile.

The Forest Temple of all the OoT Temples is the most mysterious in terms of what kind of Temple it could be.  The others were built by some group in the region to serve some purpose. But the Kokiri certainly didn't build this Temple.

One thing I notice about the Forest Temple is that it has some thematic Death associations shared only with the Shadow Temple, like Stalfos showing up.

Let's look at a map of the Forest Temple, focusing on the First Floor since that gives us the best look at the overall outline.  I had to screenshot this myself since no fansites just use the official Maps anymore.

Here some Screenshots of the main Room.

Notice how the celling looks like the inside of a Dome?  I wonder how no one ever observed that before?  Also, the main room's octagonal shape. That last one without the black sidebars isn't mine but one I found before deciding to resort to making my own.

That basic lay out reminds me of a Byzantine Martyrium.  

Here is the layout of a Cathedral from Bosra Syria.

Here is the Sergius, Bacchus and Leontius Cathedral in Istanbul.

Here are the Ruins of the St Philip Church of ancient Heirapolis in Turkey.

Similar kind of Octagonal structure with a Dome.  

But in this comparison where the actual Ciborium designating the resting place under the Dome would be is the 4 Torches and the Elevator going down to the lowest level.  Perhaps the Boss room was once a Tomb?

Whose Tomb would this be?  The Royal Family were buried in Kakariko.  Maybe it was the Tomb of the First Hero?  And that's somehow connected to how his garb became the basis for how the Kokiri dress?

Zelda Age of Calanime

I still haven't played any truly recent Video Games, but I now know the main plot of what happens in Age of Calamity and I like it.

The mainline 3D Zelda games tend to have fairly Sad or Bitter Sweet endings, Link defeats the bad guy and saves the world but not all the tragedy can be erased.  A lot of Zelda fans like this, it doesn't break any of them for me by any means, it makes Zelda comparable to LOTR in a way most Japanese works of High Fantasy aren't.  Skyward Sword is the one that's kinda going overboard with it, Link has to say goodbye to Fi and then Zelda has to say goodbye to Impa TWICE.

A Link to The Past however had an unconditionally happy ending, Link uses his wish to bring back every non evil person who had died.  And that's what I prefer, doubly so for this medium where the ending is supposed to feel like something I earned after putting in all that work.

Age of Calamity is how it is partly because of technically being a Hyrule Warriors game, but the first Hyrule Warriors has this in how Lana at least is sad about what happens to Cia.

Age of Calamity plays out kind of like a Visual Novel based Anime, it's about fighting against Fate to undo a bad ending.  That makes a satisfying Gaming experience in my book.

When exactly does the Child Timeline start?

Hyrule Historia made the split timeline official, but there is still one aspect of of it that is unclear and that's how much of the Child portion of OoT still happened?

Most Zelda theorizing videos on YT seem to be operating under the assumption that on the Child Timeline none of the actual events of OoT still happened besides in Link's memories.  But I find that unlikely for a few reasons.

1. The Great Deku Tree still died, since I think it's unlikely he's simply off camera in Twilight Princess.  That should have been prevented if Link was sent back far enough to undo all of the problems Ganondorf caused.

2. Link having Epona in Majora's Mask.  A common assumption seems to be that Link's relationship with Malon had to start over from scratch, that he just shows up at the Ranch as a stranger going "you don't remember me but we had a thing in the future so can I borrow your favorite Horse?".  I really think everything up to Link first being taught Epona's song must've still happened.

3. I've also seen a common sentiment that Ganondorf's imprisonment and attempted execution in the Twilight Princess flashbacks is some Minority Report type situation where he's being punished for what he could have done but didn't actually get to.  But I really don't think that much moral ambiguity is the intent of the scene.

4. And Skull Kid remembers Link teaching him Saria's song in the Lost Woods.

Clearly a lot of Zelda fans like the pathos of Link being in a situation where no one he helped remembers him at all, especially to explain the mood of how Majora's Mask opens.  But the opening of Majora's Mask explicitly tells us this is about him missing Navi, that's the only angst necessary to explain it.

There is a recent fanmade animated project on YouTube that depicts Link as being sent back to exactly when he first pulled the Master Sword.  There is a lot of logic to that mechanically, that's when Time started being messed with so that should be the furthest you can reset it to, and if Link went back any further he'd be stuck inside a locked Room of Time.

The problem with that theory however is the ending scenes of OoT seem to show Link going right to the place he first met Zelda when her and Impa should have fled the Castle by that point.  But I suppose there are ways around that.  

And that initial opening of the Door of Time still happening perhaps best explains why the Triforce pieces still split up.

Zelda Manga follow up post

I decided one of my projects for Zelda Month 2020 should be a follow up on talking about Zelda Manga.  But also make sure you check out the Zelda post I made in October.

To be slightly more critical than I was last year, The Adventure of Link Mangas suffer from a desire to give the story proper villains.  I guess some people assume the particular villain less nature of AoL can only work for a Video Game.  But this genre has plenty of truly no villain stories like the third Pokemon movie or Frozen II or….  Ya know Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a pretty good comparison, on my most recent rewatch of the 2010 film I found myself more able to enjoy it.  But still it’s issues mostly stem from the movie wanting to give the story a villain, and it seems like adaptations of the second Zelda game fall into a similar trap.

Another thing AoL Mangas do is give the first game’s Zelda a role in the story, that I don’t consider a problem however, I’m all for Video Game adaptations giving the MC a party of sorts to interact with like the Pokemon Anime has always done.  And the weird Dynamic of having two Zelda at once by the end is worth exploring.

I now own a box set of most of the Akira Himekawa manga, I’m not sure I ever will read all of them, but I’ve started with A Link to The Past, I always knew I probably would like it, but it is different than I expected.  The Dark World bosses are all given a backstory as transformed normal people that kind of gives this whole version of ALttP’s story a Magical Girl vibe.  And Ganti is an even better character than I expected, they have me now shipping a Threesome between this Zelda, Link and Ganti.  They also draw Link as such a Bishi Anime Boy in this, I think this Manga may be an overlooked step in how Link became so popular with the Gay community.

They made some similar adaptational choices to the Nintendo Power ALttP Comic, like Link’s Dark World beast form being a Wolf rather than a Rabbit (which would also become Game canon in Twilight Princess) and the Silver Arrow coming from it’s main OC rather than the cursed fairy.  It’s also interesting to look at this particular ALttP Manga remembering it wasn't made till 2005, there is a glimpse of Gerudo Ganondorf.  But it does also draw directly on the classic Instruction Manual and really doesn’t change anything to conform to OoT's retcons.

There is one more comment I want to make about the Nintendo Power ALttP Manga.  In the game when you go to the Dark World counterpart of Sahasralah’s hut you find this shrubby looking thing that provides some interesting exposition.  You don’t need to do this to beat the game, but it’s a detail that sticks in my memory.  It’s something I would not fault an adaptation leaving out as indeed I don’t fault Himekawa for not including it, but I do love how Shoutarou Ishinomori incorporated it.

I think ALttP is by nature the best to make an interesting adaptation of, it has enough story that you don't have to constantly invent things to keep it interesting, but still enough blanks to allow writers to express their creative freedom.  And as long as the art style uses the classic instruction manual as the starting point it’ll always have my favorite kind of Zelda Aesthetic.

I decided the next Himekawa Manga to read should be Four Swords, and I’m having trouble getting into it.  It’s perfectly competent and I can easily see some fans liking it the best of them, and I do love the meta knowledge that they decided what personalities to give the four Links from watching them AI controlled in SSB Melee.  But this story is simply not to my tastes as well as their ALttP is.

I had thought the other ALttP Manga didn’t even have a fan translation I could read, but it turns out if you know where to look the Ataru Cagiva Manga does have one.  

This is the longest version and for that reason ought to be the most fleshed out.  It unlike the others changes the start of Link’s adventure so it’s no longer in response to a telepathic message from Zelda.  I like the little things the early games do to give Zelda agency, even in the 1985 original she has a certain agency that Princess Toadstool didn’t in that the player character's mission is carrinyg out a plan she laid.  And in this game while there is a lot of backstory to parse, both distant and recent past, the Game proper begins because of Link’s (and his Uncle's) reaction to Zelda’s actions.

It looks like this one has also removed Sahasrahla.  And instead of Ganti or Roam we get a Shonen style rival character.  Nonetheless it has its own strengths and is worth reading.

Interestingly there is one thing that makes the Game of A Link To The Past more like what I look to Anime for then any of the Manga versions, and that’s how at the end Link’s wish when he touches The Triforce brings back everyone who died.  These adaptations are afraid to do that, and instead make the endings more bittersweet, something the Games would start doing more and more with Ocarina of Time.

I do want to comment on the Yuu Mishouzaki Manga again.  It’s by far the most unlike the Zelda we’re used to even among other Manga that had only the NES games to work with.  But it’s interesting seeing such a radically different take.  It ought to be interesting to those Tolkien fans who wish Tolkien had more Human-Elf pairing that went the other way gender wise.  I love how the titular Zelda of this Manga knows about her mother’s affair with someone who wasn’t her father and is totally okay with it.

With Sailor Moon I talked once about how the Manga is kind of driven by a fantasy of a girl having it both ways, being a powerful heroine and a princess reduced by a Knight in shining armor at the same time.  Well, this particular Zelda Manga I think was trying the same thing.  Zelda is so powerful and bad@$$ at the beginning, but then talks at the end about how she was dreaming of Link rescuing her.  It’s an interesting duality that so far, I’ve only seen Japanese media pull off in this way.

I then decided to start the Himekawa Oracle of Seasons Manga (it’s placement in the Box Set has me assuming it’s meant to precede Ages).  Even though I’ve never played the Oracle Games I’ve always felt like they are the only post OoT games to recapture the vibe of the pre OoT games.  And that’s why I think I might enjoy their Manga.

They give this Link an origin story I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have in the games.  And as a Shadowmen nerd I can’t get over how much this first chapter reminds me of the beginning of The Three Musketeers with Link as D'artagnan.  Upon finishing it they definitely left a lot of stuff out, I know little about the Game but I do know it’s the 8-bit debut of Malon who wasn’t in this Manga.  It was pretty enjoyable.

If I decide I have more thoughts on Zelda Manga to share within the next month or so I’ll edit this post adding them here.  In the meantime I may have other Zelda topics to discuss for Zelda month.

Zelda Timeline speculation that is now long outdated

I know I'm making this Zelda post a little early, if I wind up blowing my Zelda load before November I'll just make sure to give this post additional promotion.  I simply have too much Zelda on the brain right now to post about anything else.

I'm one of those people who hated the Split timeline theory before Hyrule Historia made it official, and kind of still do.  My relationship to Timeline theorizing was always complicated however, as on some level I prefer seeing each Game as it's own universe.  None the less I'm the kind of person who also just can't resist getting into that kind of speculation, and the fully 3D games at least were definitely implying a shared universe.

I am still convinced to this day that the split timeline was not at all what anyone was thinking when they wrote Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.  The fact that in TP of all the sages they had Ganondorf kill the Water Sage was clearly meant to foreshadow things going wrong with that element in the future.  

There was always this notion that single timeline was simply "everything is the child timeline" and so they'd make arguments like "how does Adventure of Link have cities named after the OoT Sages if they were never awoken?"

1. Each of them was already at least an important person to their tribe.

2. The Sages clearly exist in TP with the same elemental symbols, so clearly they transcend timelines in some capacity.

3. And it turns out AoL is on the not at all anticipated Downfall timeline where there is no logical reason to celebrate anything the OoT characters did.  So in hindsight that argument for the split meant nothing.

I always viewed the end of OoT as the same as the perfect ending of Majora's Mask where the Goddess of Time somehow creates a timeline where Link did all of the Mask missions even though that's not actually possible.  Link gets to have his Childhood but the Sages are still Sages and Ganon was still captured.

Breath of the Wild has confirmed that TP's Ganondorf wasn't permanently killed regardless so that argument isn't valid anymore.  If I'd seen Infinity War at the time I would have made a certain reference to compare the finishing blows of WW and TP.

Another theory I always advocated before Skyward Sword retconned why Hyrule always has a Zelda was that the Sleeping Zelda of AoL was the same Zelda as OoT Zelda.  She was supposed to be the first Princess named Zelda, but her father also ruled a recently united Hyrule and in OoT Hyrule was unified at the time it's Link and Zelda were born. Her brother is missing from OoT but we never see the King either, or the Shiekah as a tribe, a lot of stuff was somehow off screen there.

A Link To The Past however remains the major problem for creating a timeline.  

Ocarina of Time was definitely made to be a prequel originally, but it was also retconning like crazy.  The real reason the Downfall timeline was needed was because that's the only way to have a Ganon with the full Triforce.  That plot hole clearly didn't concern them at the time however.

I don't mind OoT making the Sages all come from different tribes since that alleviates a certain problem this Genre often suffers from.  But it is still a retcon, in ALttP there is no ambiguity that all Seven "Wise Men" were all Hylian.  It was also heavily implied that no one before this Link ever wielded The Master Sword.

I have a lot of Nostalgia for ALttP, it is roughly tied with my Mom reading The Hobbit to me as my introduction to High Fantasy.  The game may have always been promoted as a hypothetical prequel to the NES games, but it was clearly written as a remake of the original, all of it's core elements now more fleshed out.  

And so I still prefer to envision all of the backstory that game and it's instruction manual gave us as I did when there wasn't a Zelda 64 yet, as taking place on those maps and in that art style.  And with the reason for Mandrag Ganon being a humanoid Boar being simply that that is the Darkworld form of Ganondorf Dragmire.  And that he was just the leader of a gang of thieves that were like the thieves you encounter in that game, none of this only male Gerudo or reincarnation of (basically Morgoth)'s Malice stuff.

I suppose that's how certain Star Wars fans feel, they had their own vision for what Episodes 1-III should have been that they were attached to.  But I'm not a hypocrite because I'm not offended by the existence of Zelda Prequels, I don't think they actually work as Prequels as well as the Star Wars Prequels do, but I still like each of them as their own story, as their own take on the basics of what Zelda is.  My ablity to imagine something different isn't taken away.

Maybe ALttP as the start of it's own timeline but also a prequel to the NES games can also work.  Maybe Sleeping Zelda is that Zelda and the Triforce pieces were separated after Link entrusted it to the Royal family and then left.  That still gives Zelda an offscreen brother, and makes him trusting a shady wizard even weirder after the whole Agahnim fiasco, but never underestimate the selfishness of a spoiled rich kid.

When I first played the game I actually didn't know that the Golden Sword was just another upgrade of the Master Sword.  What the Cursed Fairy said (at least how the SNES localization translated it) made it sound like a completely new sword, and the official artwork made it look like more then just the color of the blade had changed.  I also because of a friend I think used to believe it was called the Magical Sword, same as the final sword in the original.

The Legend of Zelda Mangas need more attention.

Finally, it's been a few years since I successfully did a decent Zelda post for Zelda Month.

Did you know that Zelda is the only major Nintendo property without any Anime?  Mario's had a few Pokemon's is well known and Kirby had a uniquely popular one and even Fire Emblem got a surprisingly decent 90s OVA that was even Dubbed.  It shouldn't be hard to make a good Zelda Anime, just adapt one of the many Zelda Manga and entrust it to the same people who adapt Pokemon, or perhaps Slime Incarnation.

Legally speaking the only Zelda Manga that are available in English are the Nintendo Power Link to the Past Manga by Shoutarou Ishinomori that was done like a western comic, and the many Akira Himekawa Manga.  But unofficially others can be found translated, I've read the fascinating Yuu Mishouzaki adaptation of the original game and the start of it's Adventure of Link sequel.

The Zelda Universe Youteube Channel has a motion comic of the Link's Awakening Manga, and I think they intend to do one for the Link to The Past Manga from the same author, Ataru Cagiva, eventually.  Gaijilionaire has done a series of videos where he reads the Ranmaru Mangas for the original and Adventure of Link.

I'm clearly more interested in seeing fleshed out adaptations of the classic 2D games, the fully 3D ones are like CG cartoons already.

There are a number of interesting ways that these Manga have anticipated things the games did later.  Including having characters play the Navi role, having Zelda fire the upgraded Arrows at Ganon during the final battle, and Link's dark world form being a wolf rather then a rabbit.  The character of Roam kind of anticipated the Rito, particularly as they are in BOTW.

The tendency to treat Zelda as the real Messiah figure even though Link is the action hero is anticipated as well.  Which is one of my favorite things about the franchise.

I'm not sure which would be my first pick to make into an Anime.

The Nintendo Power one would be interesting to see done as a Western Cartoon since it was in a western style, but I haven't liked any Western Fantasy cartoons in awhile so I don't know who to trust there. 

The Akira Himekawa ones are the most popular, and Ganty/Ganti would make a great modern Anime Waifu.

Ya know what I would like to see at Nerd Conventions more often?

People staging performances of Public Domain plays in Cosplay, making as many thematic and archetypal connections as they can.

For example I'd be quite amused by a performance of Richard III done by people cosplaying as Zelda characters.  Richard would be Ganon, (we already saw him take a Human-Pig like form in the Ian Mckellen film), both Elizabeths would be Zeldas and Richmond would be Link.

And more specifically for Anime conventions.  I love the episodes about a school doing an all female play (not exactly like Takarazuka because that's specifically Musical Theater) most often Romeo and Juliet.  But in a 20 minute episode of Anime we obviously don't get to see what the full production would look like.  So do it with the K-On cast for example.

This trope in Anime hasn't been limited to Shakespeare, in Strawberry Panic they debated between doing Alexandre Dumas Fils Camille or Carmen, they chose the latter.

I once attended a production of Hamlet where they had Hamlet be played by four different actors, it was a symbolic thing, he's still treated as a single character by everyone else.  Two were men and two were women.  Interestingly one of the women had all the scenes with Ophelia.  They also had a woman play Horatio.

Even doing Shaw plays could be interesting, there are a dozen different Anime versions of Joan of Arc to choose from.

Those are just my immediate ideas, try to also come up with ones even more creative.

The Legend of Zelda RPG

There have already been some Zelda fan games that are role playing games.  But these are some ideas on the subject of Zelda as an RPG I’ve had for awhile now that it’s time I shared.

One is that Final Fantasy Mystic Quest could easily be turned into a Zelda RPG with a simple patch, not even a full hack.  Just turn the MC into Link, the Dark King into Ganon and Pheobe into Zelda and the mysterious old man into the Owl.  Kylie could then be viewed as a variant of the Marin/Malon/Cremia/Romani archetype, and then Reuben could be a Goron and Tristam a Sheikah.

But more ambitious than that is the idea of doing an SNES Rom Hack/Homebrew that is basically A Link To The Past remade as an RPG with Final Fantasy elements, and with narrative influences from later Zelda games as well as various Manga adaptations of ALttP.

HP will now stand for Heart Points rather than Hit Points.  And there will now be two Magic Meters, Light Magic and Dark Magic.  Potions will be classified by colors, three can be bought in standard shops, Red Potions which recover HP, Yellow Potions recover Light Magic and Blue Potions recover Dark Magic.  There will be places you can go (mainly the Potion shop on ALttP's map) to have two potions mixed together for one potion that has the effect of both.  Creating Green Potions to recover both Magic Meters, Purple to recover HP and Dark Magic, and Orange to recover HP and Light Magic. 

But the only Item that can restore all three at once is the very expensive Lon Lon Milk.  Lon Lon Ranch will be placed on the Map in the area south of Link’s House but north of the flooded ruins.  It’s Dark World equivalent will be a Colosseum.

Mages won’t quite be the only party members who can use Magic, but they have by far the best affinity for it.  However only two characters can use both Light and Dark Magic, The Warrior/Knight and the Red Mage. 

I intend to create a party with a total of 9, but only 5 can be in battle at once.  Some of them may be found in side quests and not quite required to join your party to beat the game.

The Master Sword can only be wielded by the Warrior/Knight, but besides that all other Swords are the one weapon class everyone can use.  For example The Bow and Arrow can be used only by the Rito, Sheikah and Gerudo.  The Hammer can only be used by the Goron.  The Magic Rods and Staffs only by Mages.  One of the main differences between the Gerudo and Sheikah functionally is the Sheikah have Light Magic affinity and the Gerudo Dark magic affinity.

The Main character is Link or Linkle depending on the gender you choose, who is the Warrior/Knight class.  Zelda is the Red Mage, she is the first to join your party in the early game but the last to permanently join it.

Impa as a Sheikah will serve as the Ninja class.  She’ll be the first to permanently join your party once you reach Kakariko village.  Second will be Lana the Light Mage.

Ganti will be the name of a Gerudo who’ll join you as the party’s Thief.  Roam will be the Rito.

A Goron and Zora can also join the party, I don’t have names for them yet and am still working on what their unique features would be.

Cia is the Dark Mage.  Only three party members won’t be available till you have full access to The Dark World.  Cia, Roam, and Zelda.

In this version Ganon only has the Triforce of Power. 

The quest for the three Pendants will be replaced by a Quest for the Triforce of Courage.  The Eastern Palace will contain a relic needed to open the Desert Palace, there you obtain the key to the Tower of Hera where the Triforce of Courage is. 

For the Dark World quest the Seven Maidens are replaced with the Triforce of Wisdom being split into 8 pieces, one of which is with Zelda on Turtle Rock.  Seven of them are in versions of the Dark World Dungeons where you found the Maidens in the original game, but one you’ll have to get by winning a Gauntlet at the Colosseum.  In this version Blind will disguise himself as Zelda instead of a random Maiden.

My Life as a Shipper

I’m not sure I can accurately name this post since it’s not an attempt to comprehensively go over every ship I’ve ever shipped.  I just wanna share some things.  And this won’t exactly be chronological either.  Some of this reminiscing is about Fan Fiction I did read, but plenty is also more about stuff I imagined, that I would have written myself if I wasn’t so lazy.

It may surprise my followers (if any exist) to learn that my earliest ships were all Het, I’ve been a Yuri shipper for a long time now, but not quite from the start.  And to a certain extent I’ve never abandoned my Het shipping, I am still ultimately a Cis-Het Male after all.

Early on I did a lot of imagining myself into shows having storylines with the female characters I was attracted to.

My first real ship was shipping Dawn and Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  It’s weird looking back on that now since it’s not the kind of thing I’m likely to ship today at all.  But I have fond memories of exploring now long dead Dawn themed fan fiction sites, where I mostly got into stories about this ship but did read others.  And for context you should know I’m exactly the same age as Michelle Trachtenberg, so I wasn’t seeing Dawn as the little girl of the show, she was rather the only character I could come close to seeing myself in.  But I shipped her with Spike not because I had any attraction to James Marsters but because she canonically had a crush on Spike and so I wanted her to get what she wanted, and they did have chemistry.

The early Het Ships I shipped that I still care about are the Zelda ones interestingly enough.  I was a big Link and Malon shipper, which included Link/Marin and Link/Romani and also Link/Cremia.  I read an old Zelda Universe article called The Girl with the Red Hair: Malon + Link, which I really liked, and it still exists.
https://zeldauniverse.net/2010/11/28/the-girl-with-the-red-hair/
I think that’s a reposting however, because it’s dated to 2010 and I’m confident I’d read this before Twilight Princess came out.  Because as we were learning more about it I felt like it was confirming the theory of that article, TP Link must descend from the Hero of Time and Malon.  YouTube videos about Malon theorizing seem to be when on her as a love interest mostly just indirectly repeating that article but then adding the TP element.

The Fan Fiction I was into back then, on both the Dawn subject and the Zelda subject, included a lot of angst.  I was into scenarios about triangles and jealousy and unrequited love.  Some of them even got pretty Dark.  I think I would have become a Non-Monogamous shipper sooner if I’d simply learned of that being an option sooner.  But make no mistake, my current desire for everyone being happy in the end stories doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal of angsty triangle melodrama.  A number of Dawn fics were between seasons 5 and 6 or between episodes of season 6.  I was also interested in the idea of stories about a post Majora’s Mask Link having his dark side drawn out by the Fierce Deity Mask.

It’s hard to say where my Femslash interest truly began.  When I was into Dawn fics I read some Femslash ones about her, some with Buffy, some with Faith, possibly one with Tara.  But they weren’t what I actively shipped.

Noir was my introduction to Yuri.  I first stumbled upon that show by surfing my family's On Demand service and seeing it on Anime Network On Demand, where episode 9, the second part of a two parter, was the earliest episode currently up.  Watching that episode was the first time I ever saw 2D Girls Kiss.  And as I continued the show I got really into Chloe and her unrequited feelings for Kirika.  However it took awhile strangely for me to realize Kirika and Mireille were also canon, I still had some heteronormativity to get over.  I remember that the first time I saw the word Yuri was on Noir’s IMDB forum, someone had posted a thread called “Noir Yuri Pics” or something and I originally assumed it must mean something more specific then just lesbian.

Around then was also when I started actually reading DC Comics, and Stephanie Brown became my favorite Comic Book character, and it didn’t take long for me to start shipping her with Cassandra Cain.  But another niche Het Ship I supported was Tim Drake and Darla Aquista.  I also like Linkara supported the controversial Donna Troy and Terry Long relationship.  There was an old fansite I really liked that is now gone called Donna Troy Woman and Hero.

I’ve also engaged in some Pokemon shipping over the years.  More so game characters though, filling in the blank slate that is Leaf.  Anime wise that I like May and Dawn way more than Misty makes me pretty controversial.  My imagination always treated Lass as a single character rather than a class, a Fille Fatale who flirts with both Red and Leaf.  Basically there were little if any existing fanfics I found to serve my tastes there.  I did enjoy a series on FanFiction.Net about Leaf and Dawn.

I was also someone who’s interest in the Twilight ignited Vampire craze lead me to research the Pre-Dracula stuff, which lead to me reading and really liking Carmilla.  Because of Paul Feval that Vampire interest lead into and overlapped with my French Pulp Fiction interest which allowed me to learn about Eugenie Danglars and Louise d’Armilly.

The Vampire craze also lead me to The Vampire Diaries, where I found another of my top Het Ships, Jeremy and Anna, played by Stephen R McQueen and Malese Jow.  That ship was prominent in my early Tumblr activity.

Then came the era of Pretty Little Liars being my favorite TV show, I became a strong Sparia shipper and looked into other ships as well.

Back to Zelda.  Prior to Skyward Sword I quite liked how Nintendo was mostly avoiding making Link and Zelda a couple.  But then Hyrule Warriors comes along implying they’re always destined to fall in love and I was quite annoyed.  So I’ve always had hostility towards Link/Zelda shipping.  However the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga included in the Hyrule Historia (which I saw glimpses of before I properly got to read it) kinda won me over on it.  Though that’s technically Link and Hylia.

Zelda is one franchise where my Het Shipping is still strong.  But I have became a supporter of Zelda Femslash.  For both Skyward Sword and Hyrule Warriors I like to ship Zelda with Impa, and for Twilight Princess I like Zelda/Midna, and I see Ashe as a Lesbian on principle.  I also now support the theory that Cremia actually had feelings for Anju in Majora’s Mask.

I developed an interest in various Tolkien and Silmarillion related Femslash ships.  Like Nienor Niniel and Nellas, as well as viewing Nessa, Haleth and Tar-Telperien as Lesbians.

I started a Final Fantasy Femslash tumblr that I’ve mostly let die since my interests there are limited.  I ultimately view Terra Branford as Asexual and yet I still crave material about her and Celes.  I also strongly support Agrias and Ovelia from Final Fantasy Tactics.

Since getting much more actively into Anime starting in 2014 there are a lot of ships I’ve become supporters of, from Magical Girls to Cute Girls Doing Cute Things to the better Harems, and the occasional specifically Yuri show/OVA.  But I’ve supported some Het stuff too and even learned to appreciate Yaoi and Otokonoko.  But strangely nothing I’ve found in the last year and a half has really compelled me the way my old ships did.  Though perhaps they just need time, again I haven’t been rewatching stuff as much as I used to.

However recently learning about SaGa Frontier thanks to Yahweasel has made me a supporter of the Femslash potential it provides.

The growing Hostility towards Redemption narratives in some circles.

I already hinted at how this bugs me briefly in my last post about The Last Jedi, called Subverting Expectations is not a substitute for actual Imagination.

The "some circles" I mean right now are largely SJW ones, but not all SJWs.  But it's ironic cause long ago, before I started these BlogSpot blogs, it was mainly a Conservative thing to complain about sympathetic villains in fiction.  While people on The Left were arguing we need to reject such superficial classifications as good and evil.

So the issue tends to be that redemption narratives are often a Privilege of Cis-Het White Males.  And like my feelings on other subjects, the answer to this should be making more redemption stories for Queer and Non-White characters.  Though those narratives can become problematic when it's primarily white people leading them to the right path.  Or when redemption for a Queer villain requires rejecting their Queerness. 

Plenty of these people are not against any redemption narratives.  But feel there are certain lines you can't come back from. My concern is that making people believe there is a certain line you can't come back from, will simply become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Actions have consequences.  A redemption story should not mean it's like that character's sins never existed, or that people have to trust them now.  And just as recovering alcoholics need to stay away form alcohol, people who have a history of abusing their significant other should stay out of romantic relationships, especially with the specific people they abused in the past.  Forgiving a lover who wronged you in the past does not mean you should then start a new relationship with them.

This subject can kind of be divided into two categories.  1. Villains repenting of their sins and being forgiven by the narrative represented by the protagonist in the end before they die or something else ends their role in the narrative.  Maybe while also doing some heroic redemptive act.  2.  A Villain flat out becoming a Hero.  I'm a supporter of both, the latter is a much more difficult thing to pull off well, which is exactly what makes the former often feel lazy.

There are times when Sexism makes it seem easier for female villains to be redeemed, the High-Heel-Face Turn as TVTropes calls it. Plus the endless number of Femme Fatales who changed sides from falling in love with the Hero they were sent to seduce.  The frustrating thing is when the now more virtuous version of the character loses the cunning she had before, like what happens to Ellen Palmure in the Rocambole novels.  Also every Zelda Villianess has been pretty soft compared to the major male ones.

On the subject of Star Wars.  Some people feel in The Last Jedi specifically Kylo Ren passed the point of no return.  And I can't call that wrong in the sense that I half way feel like that's what the film was saying.  But logically I don't really buy it.  Kylo (and the First Order as a whole) do not surpass the evilness of what they did in TFA, only in TFA were there attacks on civilians (if anything Rose and Finn's actions on Craite may have endangered more civilians).  TFO's actions are wrong in TLJ only in so much as they are on the wrong side of the War.  Kylo certainly hasn't done worse then Vader in either film. Vader also killed his father-figure, and was much more directly involved when a super weapon was used to blow up an entire planet.  And that's going off only Vader's OT Sins, just what audiences were expected to forgive him for in in 1983, not including what was added by the Prequels.

And once again I have to talk about Anime.  My love of Anime has a lot to do with how often enemies are forgiven.  Because in Japan the West's simplistic Good vs Evil dichotomy has only recently become an influence.

It's frequently been a big part of the Magical Girl genre.  Sailor Moon didn't do it all the time, but Wedding Peach, and PreCure do it frequently, and so do the Darker Ones.  So Rey setting out to try and save Kylo Ren because of the good she senses in him, and then that totally back firing on her.  Feels to me like far more of a Meanspirited deconstructive slap in the face to Magical Girl convention then anything Madoka or it's imitators have done.  And Rian Johnson could have been doing that intentionally, given how I saw a blatant homage to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha episode 6 right in that very confrontation.

It's also a big thing in the Mecha Genre, where the message is often that War itself is the real villain.  And my love of the Prequels has been that I felt it was saying something similar, that The Empire was created because The Republic fought a war it shouldn't have.  When I started watching Mecha shows like Code Geass and Gundam 00, they reminded me of my love of the Prequels from day one.  So the Sequel Trilogy doesn't just bug me that it's staying stuck in the simpler OT formula.  It's the subtext that what happened between episodes VI and VII was that the First Order rose to power because the New Republic was too passive.  As an Anti-War person, that is a very problematic message to me.

I consider myself an SJW, (and also a Communist).  Maybe you want to question my status as one simply because I don't agree with TheMarySue 100% of the time.  But I've been banned from Christian Forums and Facebook groups for saying Homosexuality isn't a Sin, when I wasn't the one who brought the topic up.  The only stance I take on any major modern political issue that would be classified in modern America as a Conservative one, is not a Social Justice issue directly though it does come up on those websites, but I feel confident in saying it should not be part of the definition of what SJW means.  For the most part when I get into disagreements with other SJWs, from my POV I'm to the left of them.

I used to not be as much of an SJW as I am now.  Much of that transition happened before I even started these blogs, but since starting them I've moved to the Left on Abortion and a few other things.

It is not really relevant to mention that I'm a Universalist, this topic is about fictional narratives where characters change their moral enlightenment during their mortal life, and what real life lessens they teach.  Some of the people I'm disagreeing with here may not believe in an after life at all.  And probably would prefer Christians who reject Eternal Damnation.

The Christian value that is relevant is that you should always forgive those who wrong you, even if they never apologize.  And that you should love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  For most of my life this seemed to be the most unambiguously Liberal of all Christian Values.  It's the main area where Conservative Christians fail at being Christian, and the main area where Liberals might quote The Bible whether they're believers or not.  It saddens me that this has changed about the Left over the same time period that I've moved to the Left.

But perhaps even that second Biblical subject may not be directly relevant.  The question is, are there Biblical narratives of villains who become heroes?  Well there is Saul aka Paul, who defined himself as the Chief of all Sinners.  But perhaps a better parallel for saying that yes you can reach even Hitler level villainy and turn back would be King Manasseh of Judah.  He made the streets of Jerusalem flow red with Blood from one end to the other.  But Second Chronicles records that he did repent and turn things around before the end.  It's interesting that the compilers of II Kings chose to ignore that part of his story.  But in the New Testament I think Matthew is siding with Chronicles here, since Manasseh isn't among the bad kings he skips in his genealogy in chapter 1.

Hayao Miyazaki has clearly been an influence on Video Games.

When I covered Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind I talked about it's possible influences on Video Games.

Last night I watched 1986's Castle in The Sky., and I noticed more.  For one thing during the opening credits we see a Goddess in the sky blowing wind who looks a lot like how the Goddesses of Hyrule were depicted in the Instruction Manuel of A Link To The Past.

In fact the entire premise of Castle in The Sky could have inspired Skyloft in Skyward Sword, which was anticipated by the Sky Temple in Twilight Princess.

I also can't help but suspect Miyazaki's love of Air Ships helped inspire the popularity of Air Ships in Video Games, from Super Mario Bros. 3 to the Final Fantasy games.  The Airship idea was of course invented by Jules Verne, and the Airships in this film were more Verneian then the ones in Nausicaa.

People have commented before on Castle of Calgiostro being an influence on Spielberg for the Indiana Jones films.  This movie definitely felt like an Indy film at times.  Some people criticize how Castle of Cagliostro feels more like a Miyazaki films then a Lupin film, but this movie felt like it could have been a Lupin film.

Going the other way however, there was definitely a moment in Castle in The Sky where I went "Well Miyazaki definitely saw Empire Strikes Back".

It's a good film, I just gave it a 9 on My Anime List.

I've liked every Miyazaki film I've seen so far.  But I still doubt I'll get to all of them, for some the plots simply don't interest me.  But based on his track record so far, I'd say he's definitely worth checking out if any of those stories interest you.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

I've seen my second Miyazaki film now, and first Gibli film.

I watched the Dub, because I am an unapologetic Dub Scrub.  This Dub was dubbed by Disney so it doesn't have your typical Anime Dub cast.  Instead it has Patrick Stewart, always a treat, coincidentally I watched Logan on Thursday.

I just gave the movie a 10 out of 10 on MAL.

So during the scene where they explained the Prophecy of their expected Messiah the first thought I had about him being associated with the Color Blue was "kind of like Vishnu and his Avatars in Hinduism".  A few minutes latter I noticed "hmmm, our title character seems to be wearing Blue a lot".  Then I thought "why didn't that occur to me immediately, I'm a failure as a Feminist".

I was watching this movie because I was hoping for a Messianic Archetype with a female character type of story.  But I'm so used to being disappointed by stuff I hope will do well by it's female characters, that as soon as the people in the story assumed the Gender of their Messiah my brain got distracted for a little bit.

Now even if I watched a Sub I would probably have still needed to ask this.  But I'm wondering about the wording of the Prophecy, does the Japanese use more gender neutral pronouns here?

This movie has clearly been very influential.  It's influence on future Anime I'm sure has been talked about endlessly.  So I want to comment on other things.

First is Video Games.  I believe I'd seen this mentioned as an influence on the Final Fantasy franchise before.  The air ships, Talmecia rhymes with Palmecia, the environmental theme in general. There were even proto Chocobos. Since Breath of the Wild is still a current hot topic in Gaming, the Valley of The Wind itself looks kinda like a city visited in BotW.  And I'm pretty sure that little Fox like animal was a direct inspiration for Evee, a first generation Pokemon.

But what really took me by surprise, was when we finally saw the fully formed Giant Warrior.  First good look at it's face I went "The Anitmonitor, that's the Frakking Anti-Monitor, Marv Wolfman and Geroge Perez were while writing the single most historic Storyline in all of Western Comics, influenced by a Japanese Cartoon."  That is Awesome.

So, It's a movie I recommend.

Could the Gerudo have been based on The Gorgons?

One of the many things that excites me about Breath of The Wild is seeing the Gerudo finally being given some attention.  I have been fascinated by them for many reasons, like my general interest in Amazons as a concept.  I suggested a theory on a Zelda forum once that they might reproduce by Gynogenesis.

Here, offspring are produced by the same mechanism as in parthenogenesis, but with the requirement that the egg merely be stimulated by the presence of sperm in order to develop. However, the sperm cell does not contribute any genetic material to the offspring. Since gynogenetic species are all female, activation of their eggs requires mating with males of a closely related species for the needed stimulus.

Since we were told in OoT (in the most kid friendly way possible) that they do have sex with males to reproduce.  Yet they seek these males from totally different tribes, and their distinct ethnic features remain un-distorted, most of the time.  Rarely in a Gynogenesis species a sperm will actually contribute, that could explain characters speculated to be part Gerudo (like Telma in Twilight Princess), as well as a male being born every 100 years.

But let's get to the topic I want to discus today.

You might be thinking "aren't Gorgons ugly monsters with hair made out of snakes?".  Traditionally yes.  But Diodorus Siculus claims in his account of Myrina and the Libyan Amazons, that the Gorgons or Gorgos were another Matriarchal Tribe who Myrina encountered before reaching Egypt.  Which would seemingly place them somewhere in the Sahara Desert (Though the Geography of this account doesn't exactly hold up under scrutiny).  As a Creationist interested in this subject, I've speculated they could fit into Genesis 10 via being of the Girgashite tribe of Canaan.

Scholars who think there might be some truth to this claim, have speculated this tribe maybe worshiped a Snake Goddess and that is why they became Snake monsters.  Inside the Desert Colossus/Spirit Temple of OoT, the inner statue of the Desert Goddess has a Cobra wrapped around her.

It may be this is just a coincidence, influenced by my own personal interests, like my tendency to see Solomon's Temple in the Temple of Time.  But it's an interesting comparison to make.

The common tendency to see the Gerudo as being like Arabs could make my Feminism of Pre-Islamic Arabia post interesting to look at.  [And I have since considered reasons to relocate the geography of Myrina's story from North Africa to Arabia.]

I can't play Breath of The Wild anytime soon as I'm so far behind I still own neither Console it's playable on.  But I've been watching others play it on YouTube, and I just love the detail put into creating it's world, it's mind blowing.

I'd love to see this new kind of engine applied to a revisiting of the concept of Majora's Mask.  Bring back all 4 of the original transformation masks, plus add three more.  A Gerudo Mask, a Sheikah Mask and a Rito Mask.  And maybe this Majora's Mask sequel could star Linkle rather then Link?

Zelda Month post

I wish my mind was in more of a Zelda mode this month.  Every four years it's gonna be ruined by a damn Election, maybe I should have just written in Princess Zelda.

I haven't really commented on Breath of the Wild yet.  I'm excited for it, something that is both truly open world and fully 3D should be awesome.  I just hope they still find a way to tell a great story.

I'm disappointed that it seems we still won't get a Female Link option.  And I'm really annoyed that they added A Link Between Worlds characters to Hyrule Warriors but not Hilda.

I don't know what to think about the possible movie or Netflix series speculation that has been floating around.