Emma was in the middle of a date with her bed when a tremendous shake startled her awake.
She opened her eyes and found herself and her bed atop a tower glowing orange.
Wait, why does this tower look familiar?
Meanwhile,
a blond boy, looking a little worse for wear after being electrocuted all over, used his astonishing arm strength to climb to the top of the tower.
Emma: ...
Link: ...
Emma: Oh my goodness, my precious son!
Link: ??!
When Emma played the game, she was an emotionless tool for clearing the main story. After finishing the main quest and rescuing the princess, all she did every day was hunt, pick fruit, and run around. When she got bored, she'd ride her motorcycle to beat up Lynels, farm Guardians, and mess with the Yiga Clan.
She felt no real attachment to Princess Zelda or Mipha, the everyone's-wife character, and she couldn't relate to Link at all either. She was always calling him her son and her little one, turning The Legend of Zelda into a miracle story about Link (?).
That is, until she inexplicably ended up in Hyrule.
Faced with Link, a quiet, helpful young man covered in scars;
with the Four Champions, who had died a hundred years ago but still upheld their duty to protect Hyrule;
with Zelda, who had sealed Ganon away all alone for a hundred years;
she could no longer stand apart from everything.
And so...
Emma: Come on, let Mom show you how to speedrun this in half an hour!
Link: ...Sigh. (rubs his forehead)
"You really are a great hero, but great heroes in stories often meet tragic ends."
So Mom won't allow it! Isn't it better to be a lovable scoundrel?
Reader's guide:
1. The author has only played Breath of the Wild and hasn't played the earlier games, so Link's characterization may be out of character.
2. The story begins just after Link leaves the Great Plateau. He's still a good-natured hero and doesn't know much about the world yet. The Divine Beast order is Water, Fire, Wind, then Lightning.
3. The female lead has no romantic pairing and raises Link like her son, turning him into Hyrule's lovable scoundrel.
I couldn't be bothered to rescue the princess, so I collected all the side quests, memories, and Korok seeds. I was touched by lots of little details, so I wrote this story out of love for the game. As for Link's romantic pairing, it depends on who he likes, not who the player likes.
I open the towers in my preferred order: starting with the Dueling Peaks Tower and working right, then heading to the two in the bottom-right and going to Eventide Island. After that, I circle around in the order of the Divine Beasts, and finally open the one right in the middle for Ganon.
Making a pledge: I'll start this story once I've finished Tears of the Kingdom ( ).
Theme: Duty and faith