Endings: LOZ and dolphin-sitting
Feb. 18th, 2007 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideBefore you say, "OMG, how can you even put a video game in the same entry with the departure of a living thing that you loved!" well, try to keep in mind that A) Ariel, for as much as I always called her "my dolphin", was never actually mine and I didn't actually get to interact with her too much, and B) seriously, I've been playing Legend of Zelda sine the first game came out. Dude, that's a LONG time. Twenty years or so. And that this is the game I've been waiting for since they started teasing us with trailers for it back in '01 or maybe even '00, before cheating us with WindWaker and then making us wait all this time. So Twilight Princess has a special place in my blog, and the ending of it is significant for me.
Thoughts: Well, it was a terrific game. For this moment, it doesn't feel as all-encompasing as Ocarina of Time did, but it did fill a void and I guess technically was a superior game. It was really frustrating in some parts, and there are definitely parts I am so NOT looking forward to repeating, like for instance the city in the sky or whatever the hell it was. I loathed that temple-like thing. The runaway cart through Hyrule field early in the game. Ugh. And Dark Horseman Ganon, oh man, that was the hardest boss in the whole thing, harder than the Water Temple boss. The easiest boss battle was actually the last Ganon one. He played just like a Darknut and I took the slightest bit of damage while cheesing him to death with a backslash. Ganon's death always has an odd sort of beauty in all of the games. It's always creepy, subtle and significant. This time was no different.
The ending was decent for a Zelda game, and I specify "for a Zelda game" because they don't go as all-out with their wrap-ups as, like Final Fantasy for instance. It was a 15 or so minute ending, but that was mostly just scenes of fields I spent the last month riding around in, with credits over it. The kids went home and that was nice but totally expected. They didn't wrap up at all about Renado or Telma (an unrealistic part of me wanted her to thwack him in the head or something. He started out as one of my favorites, then became one of my least favorites.) They didn't wrap up about the little detail of Link being a werewolf for godsakes.
Zelda was beautiful, but OMG Link / Midna! :P I loved Link's :-O look when he saw her at the end.
I wonder if I could download all the cut-scenes and do a music video. For that matter, I wonder what people would think if I poked my head back into the fandom for a second to whip out one more LOZ fanfic. I'm not sure I have it in me, (though it looks like Link went back to work, is my guess, and also can no longer change into a werewolf but now knows that animals talk and does he still sort of understand them? Does he want to? Or can he totally not at all? Does he miss Midna, what's Zelda doing at the Castle, are her parents alive? How does she explain this to the Hylians? Does she remember being possessed by Ganon, does that still keep her awake at night? Does Link visit the group at Telma's bar? Did Zelda thank them? Are they like knights or something now? What's Ashei up to these days? What's Midna up to? This is the first game where it seems everyone pretty much knows that Link saved the world, what must that be like?) but I guess that a handful of people would smile about it if I did it. Ahh, fandom. Ahh, LOZ, how you leave so much open to the players' interpretation. Ahhh, how I do not need distractions from the book I'm supposed to be working on. >_>
Anyway, no less significant today was my last day with Ariel. It was cold, not as cold as last week but oddly it felt colder. It only started to drop below 30 after 5 or so, and then the snow started to come down like mad. Still, I was wearing long-johns under my jeans, two pairs of socks under my boots--with hand-warmers in them--two thermal shirts, two fleece sweaters and a coat, and I was still freezing. Ariel was in a fine mood today, she sped around, breached, leapt, twirled, did head-stands and everything. She spent a lot of time biting her toys, bumping them into each other, diving with them, and generally being a character. I might have mentioned that last week she looked right at me for the first time, and that was weird, because she's never really looked at people around the outside of the tank before. (The girl who was in the tank with her was surprised by it when she saw her do it.) Today she looked at me quite a bit. Then I did two things I wasn't supposed to do, because we were never to interact with her from outside of the tank. (But dude, they were also supposed to let me swim with her--it's why most of us signed on in the first place, not to stand outside in the cold writing everytime she took a crap.) She was hanging around really close to me and just staring, rolling onto her side and really eyeballing me. Then she'd nudge her yellow skip disk a little and still look at me. The first naughty thing I did was to reach in and take the disk to see if she'd take it from me. She didn't seem to be interested in that. Finally, I took off my glove and just reached down and pet her, which is actually the first time I've touched her. (I've touched dolphins before, but never her.) She wiggled like it tickled, then she just went back to playing with her toy. I watched her for a few more minutes, thanked her for teaching me so much about dolphins, then said goodbye and took my leave of her.
I did get a video of her with her eyes open, watching me, and I got some caps from that video. They're small. And although I did take some pictures of her after this, they all came out dark, so for my purposes, these are my last pictures of Ariel:
Now she's off to the Gulfarium, where she will be a show dolphin. It's that or death; people are the only thing she knows, she thrives on the attention, and she'd never survive in the wild. She's going to be a great show-girl. Good luck, Ariel!
Thoughts: Well, it was a terrific game. For this moment, it doesn't feel as all-encompasing as Ocarina of Time did, but it did fill a void and I guess technically was a superior game. It was really frustrating in some parts, and there are definitely parts I am so NOT looking forward to repeating, like for instance the city in the sky or whatever the hell it was. I loathed that temple-like thing. The runaway cart through Hyrule field early in the game. Ugh. And Dark Horseman Ganon, oh man, that was the hardest boss in the whole thing, harder than the Water Temple boss. The easiest boss battle was actually the last Ganon one. He played just like a Darknut and I took the slightest bit of damage while cheesing him to death with a backslash. Ganon's death always has an odd sort of beauty in all of the games. It's always creepy, subtle and significant. This time was no different.
The ending was decent for a Zelda game, and I specify "for a Zelda game" because they don't go as all-out with their wrap-ups as, like Final Fantasy for instance. It was a 15 or so minute ending, but that was mostly just scenes of fields I spent the last month riding around in, with credits over it. The kids went home and that was nice but totally expected. They didn't wrap up at all about Renado or Telma (an unrealistic part of me wanted her to thwack him in the head or something. He started out as one of my favorites, then became one of my least favorites.) They didn't wrap up about the little detail of Link being a werewolf for godsakes.
Zelda was beautiful, but OMG Link / Midna! :P I loved Link's :-O look when he saw her at the end.
I wonder if I could download all the cut-scenes and do a music video. For that matter, I wonder what people would think if I poked my head back into the fandom for a second to whip out one more LOZ fanfic. I'm not sure I have it in me, (though it looks like Link went back to work, is my guess, and also can no longer change into a werewolf but now knows that animals talk and does he still sort of understand them? Does he want to? Or can he totally not at all? Does he miss Midna, what's Zelda doing at the Castle, are her parents alive? How does she explain this to the Hylians? Does she remember being possessed by Ganon, does that still keep her awake at night? Does Link visit the group at Telma's bar? Did Zelda thank them? Are they like knights or something now? What's Ashei up to these days? What's Midna up to? This is the first game where it seems everyone pretty much knows that Link saved the world, what must that be like?) but I guess that a handful of people would smile about it if I did it. Ahh, fandom. Ahh, LOZ, how you leave so much open to the players' interpretation. Ahhh, how I do not need distractions from the book I'm supposed to be working on. >_>
Anyway, no less significant today was my last day with Ariel. It was cold, not as cold as last week but oddly it felt colder. It only started to drop below 30 after 5 or so, and then the snow started to come down like mad. Still, I was wearing long-johns under my jeans, two pairs of socks under my boots--with hand-warmers in them--two thermal shirts, two fleece sweaters and a coat, and I was still freezing. Ariel was in a fine mood today, she sped around, breached, leapt, twirled, did head-stands and everything. She spent a lot of time biting her toys, bumping them into each other, diving with them, and generally being a character. I might have mentioned that last week she looked right at me for the first time, and that was weird, because she's never really looked at people around the outside of the tank before. (The girl who was in the tank with her was surprised by it when she saw her do it.) Today she looked at me quite a bit. Then I did two things I wasn't supposed to do, because we were never to interact with her from outside of the tank. (But dude, they were also supposed to let me swim with her--it's why most of us signed on in the first place, not to stand outside in the cold writing everytime she took a crap.) She was hanging around really close to me and just staring, rolling onto her side and really eyeballing me. Then she'd nudge her yellow skip disk a little and still look at me. The first naughty thing I did was to reach in and take the disk to see if she'd take it from me. She didn't seem to be interested in that. Finally, I took off my glove and just reached down and pet her, which is actually the first time I've touched her. (I've touched dolphins before, but never her.) She wiggled like it tickled, then she just went back to playing with her toy. I watched her for a few more minutes, thanked her for teaching me so much about dolphins, then said goodbye and took my leave of her.
I did get a video of her with her eyes open, watching me, and I got some caps from that video. They're small. And although I did take some pictures of her after this, they all came out dark, so for my purposes, these are my last pictures of Ariel:
Now she's off to the Gulfarium, where she will be a show dolphin. It's that or death; people are the only thing she knows, she thrives on the attention, and she'd never survive in the wild. She's going to be a great show-girl. Good luck, Ariel!
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-19 08:13 am (UTC)That's one thing I love and hate about Zelda games. There's usually a 'soft' conclusion (not really word I'm going for, but only thing fried brain comes up with). So many ends that could be tied up, like what happend to Link's fangirls, and do they hold monthly meetings? (and where can I sign up?) I also still want to smack Midna for the last act of hers, that thing she did with her tear. She's too frickin' noble for her own good; that's Link's realm, not hers. ;p
no subject
Date: 2007-02-19 03:36 pm (UTC)Yeah, that bugged me, too. "Haha, you'll never find the shards now, sucker!"
I've also come to the conclusion that the look on Link's face when he sees Midna really is: "Holy crap. She rode me!" *dies laughing*
no subject
Date: 2007-02-19 05:59 pm (UTC)"Holy crap. She rode me!" *dies laughing*</>
You know he liked it. ;D One of these days I'm going to sit down and butcher her in the form of fanart.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-19 08:00 pm (UTC)