This is an odd topic, and while I had considered a Father’s day essay I’ve kind of bludgeoned that point into everyone’s skulls and feel it’s time for me to get back to my standard essays. I’ll be getting back to stories, lit/film analysis and also at least 1 (maybe 2) honour/philosophy essays this week.
I’ve been meaning to get into this sort of essay for some time but hadn’t found the time or assembled all the ideas for it. I know some would expect that a Zelda movie should start with the premise of either going into the events of Ocarina of Time, I’ve heard some propose Breath of the Wild and still others maybe Wind Waker or even Majora’s Mask or they’d have to go totally original with this one.
Ideally and this might sound weird I’d kind of want Irish actors and actresses hired for this story, as Zelda has always had for one thing some Christian elements (combined with Buddhist & Shintoist ones), and think that given how many Celtic elements there are it’d be best left up to an Irish cast, but the production crew would be purely Japanese. The Japanese film companies tend to be in my view the best in the world with only some in America & France able to compete with them.
That said, the biggest hurdle would be finding the unknown actors (known ones tend to be too expensive) and locations, but all that aside you’re not here to discuss the particulars of production and script-writing but here to read about the particulars of the plot.
As I despise the senseless ‘jokes’ of post-Marvel cinema John Mileus (director of Conan the Barbarian) would be great to have on hand to help advise on the project.
First off; the lead would have to be Link (duh), Zelda and of course Ganon would have to be included in the plot.
But there should be other characters, in my view it would be best to not have the stupid ‘messaging’ we see in a lot of American productions and best to focus on the quest. Preferably this would be animated and in such an event you could easily film it in Japanese and then translate it (again with Irish actors and actresses to capture the aesthetic). If not animated that raises the budget and causes this to become a different kind of project but the story can largely remain the same.
The plot would have to start a few thousand years after the story of Wind Waker, with the Hylians being still stuck in a series of different islands. They have gotten used to living and thriving on a myriad of different islands.
Link is a fisherman dreaming of adventure and of someday becoming a sailor, but his uncle forbids it. Friends with a few local men, notably a semi-criminal guy called Viktor (based off Viktor from Suikoden) they all hope to make something of themselves.
The island however is invaded by the ‘Hylian Navy’ which arrives to warn that Hylia Island’s Lord has died, due to a conspiracy that the Lord’s daughter Zelda has participated in, and that she has escaped and they need the Uncle’s help. Link’s Uncle being a former Navy-Captain.
Suspicious of Aghanim his former friend in Hylian service from thirty years ago, the Uncle agrees to go with him on the hunt for the princess, with Link tagging along against his wishes. The Uncle soon investigates and discovers that Aghanim seeks to find and sacrifice the Princess, but what he’s really looking for is her younger brother the heir to the Lordship, whom she smuggled out from the island.
Zelda for her part is tracked down by the Uncle, with the Uncle being fatally wounded and Zelda captured along with her handmaidens, only for Aghanim to take them west to the Island of Ganon (which belongs to the Cult of Ganon who seek to revive him).
Link finding his uncle is tasked to rescue the Princess, aided by Viktor steal a ship and go after Aghanim, after also commissioning with stolen treasure (stolen from one of Aghanim’s ships before it set out), a mixed crew of Gerudo & Hylian Pirates and successfully raid Ganon Island and rescue Zelda.
The trouble is that a little of her blood is indeed spilled so that Ganon is liberated from the statue he was turned into in Wind Waker, resulting in the Demon King returning if in a slightly weakened form.
Now in order for this to work, we’ll also throw a curve-ball; one of the former members of the navy/Aghanim’s crew who defected to Link’s side at the death of his uncle, and who becomes Link’s First Mate (Viktor being Quartermaster) is the first male Gerudo in 100 years (which is a thing in Zelda). He left the Gerudos’ not wanting to be a brood mare and wanting adventure on the high-seas, and to find his biological Hylian father.
He is a hot-tempered youth far less wise than Link and far more of a rule-stickler than Viktor or Link are so that we have a dynamic between the three which is always a ‘tug of war’. This Gerudo youth, let’s call him Finn in honour of the lead character from Tangled, is to be a pivotal character who reveres Zelda and dislikes how casually Link & Viktor are with her.
They set sail to gather the means by which they might attempt to seal back up Ganon, needing to raid three islands/lend assistance to three isles with temples/dungeons on them; they are Goron, Kokiri & Zora islands the last of which is the toughest and requires Link to trade in a treasure his parents left him for a blue tunic to grant him water-breathing.
Little does he know that Zelda recognizes it and has it bought back seemingly to restore it to him, but also because she realizes there’s a bigger game at play here. Wise and knowledgeable the Princess has however adjusted but poorly to life aboard the ship, at least at first she has however begun to adapt to it and the high-flying sarcastic freedom loving Link.
Near the end of the story the three baubles are assembled but instead of sealing Ganon, he overpowers them, they crack and break and the heroes must retreat from their attempted invasion of Ganon Isle, with Ganon empowered by the Triforce of Power turning westwards.
Engaged in countless rituals and schemes, that mystify his cult and followers and supporters (some of whom are Hylians), it is however Aghanim who puzzles out what it is that he has up his sleeve, that which Zelda had already figured out; Ganon intends to tear Hyrule from the bottom of the seas and recreate it in his image.
Naturally Ganon has not the power to achieve this and will require the other two pieces of the Triforce with one piece to be found with Zelda. Ganon believes the other lies with Zelda’s brother, who is also called Link (in honour of the ancient hero).
Our hero Link though takes up the Master Sword where it was laid to rest on the Isle of Hylia, with Zelda returning there to take up command and prepare for battle with Ganon’s fleets.
By this time Link having forged ties with the Gerudo and Hylian pirates of neighbouring islands, turns to them for aid, and joined by his friends is however forced to cut short his recruitment efforts short when news reaches him that Zelda has been betrayed by her brother’s tutor, who was her own growing up.
Desperate now, Link leads a small pirate armada, begins to smash through Ganon’s only for Ganon to call upon what else? But a Kraken to tear the ship apart, which it does with the likes of his crew being butchered and devoured by it, Link enraged takes the Master Sword up and slays the beast but is cast adrift into the sea whereupon hearing the victorious cries of the Prince’s tutor who has discovered aboard one of the pirate ships the legitimate heir to the Hylian throne, announces his decision to overrule Aghanim and restore the boy to Ganon.
Aghanim by this time, thoroughly disillusioned by his boss, as he had hoped to rule over the islands and maybe become a god through the Triforce finding Link on the beach of the island, provides him with a disguise and takes him aboard his ship which is due west to join Ganon west on the only scrap of land that remains of Hyrule; the Forbidden Island.
It is there that Ganon attempts to draw out the Trifroce from Zelda and ‘Prince Link’ only to discover…. no Triforce of Valour. Frustrated he butchers the tutor, even as Zelda takes pity on him and tries to plead for his life, all while shielding her baby brother.
It is at this time that Aghanim attempts to swipe the Triforce of Wisdom, showing up out of nowhere is slain for his efforts, with Link charging in and taking the fight to Ganon who realizing this is the reincarnated ‘Spirit of the Hero’ does battle, gets his butt whooped as always, is slain and has his Triforce sucked out of him.
Link for his part, takes up the three parts of the Triforce and thinking of his people, makes the wish that Hyrule be restored just as it was before it sunk (solving the housing problem) with Hyrule however remaining empty until folks come along to populate it.
In the end, Link decides to head back east to the sea, unable to bring himself to stay as he’s a free-spirit but he promises to return. Leaving behind his friend Flynn who by this time has fallen for a number of Gerudos, with Flynn taking up the position of Regent until the Prince comes of age.
Zelda for her part, invites Link to stay, he turns it down for the moment she watches him sail away with Viktor, vowing to wait for him…. the end-words onscreen should make it clear that he does indeed return, after ten years of wandering the seas, and upon his return he would build a lighthouse that would help guide other sailors, and there he’d settle down with Zelda, while her brother ruled justly and wisely, the narrator if any should be revealed to be Cia, hinting at a future story-line with her, with Cia here presented as being good, this way one can build up to her being used in a different time-line.
This would be my idea for the Adult Time-Line movie/tv series and yes there are ideas for another movie/tv series for the other two time-lines.
I decided to write this more to get this story-fanfic off my shoulders and because I have heard Nintendo intends to make a movie about the Legend of Zelda, and I’m not sure how I feel about that but either way I wonder what folks will make of this weird idea. I started here and will work my way to the other two time-lines as mentioned.
Duuuudddeee! That is so much better than anything Hollyweird can write. They'd butcher it if they tried. It would be one I wanted to see.
This is a really cool idea for a post, just the idea of making a movie from a property (I saw a great one speculated about the Angry Video Game Nerd, would be better than his own movie, probably, lol). The thing about Link being with pirates threw me off a little because it seems Link is the sort of humble, bland hero who wouldn't do that, but I'm also not a big expert on the series. Really cool stuff.