Shouldn't It Stand To Reason?

Friday, May 10, 2019 ~ 3

Shouldn’t It Stand To Reason?

Having cleaned out the Lockup, it was back to the tall chamber with the Moblin....

The Shaft.

It seemed to be directly below Princess Zelda’s Study and bedchamber.

Bracing beams supported the dark stonework for.... what must have been several stories overhead. Drainage came in from somewhere in a waterfall. A number of grates were set into the floor for this; the torrent sluiced in and gurgled away beneath them. One part of the stone wall stuck out like a barrel, all round—tubular more like, bound in by more beams and struts. I could just spy the Moblin on the other side of one of these supports. Malice glopped onto the walls and floor behind him....

But first.... there was a hidden bombable wall.... and that led to....

The West Passage?

I followed it into a rougher-cut tunnel; no bricks. There was a pool down here.... and.... moldy rotten Guardians lined up as if they were growing out of the walls, what—what—? Augh, they were dead, thankfully, but.... Ugh. The sight was.... It was like those robots from Castle in the Sky, all growing, all moldering.... only.... What did it mean? Hadn’t the Guardians come from those five Pillars somehow? Or had they been buried like fossils in the soil? Is this where the Royal Family had unearthed some of them? Er, had had some of them unearthed....? And so close to the passages they walked.... How.... creepy....

I proceeded cautiously until, Oh, I saw as I got closer—the pool was a hot spring.

And there were three little pools before three little statues on the other side of it.

Hard boiled eggs bobbed in each pool except the middle one.

I dropped an egg into that one, and it boiled. The Korok appeared.

Hadn’t seen that trick before.

Noice.

I soothed myself in the spring. Seven or eight hearts back up to full. It was a welcome respite.

Continuing along the dark passage, I encountered some Keese, but.... nothing else.

A minecart track led its way out of the passage, but.... there was no minecart.

I guessed this was as far as I could go.

Okay then.... back to the Shaft....

I turned to start back, but—

NO. I was probably not going to come this way again. Just go! I told myself. The rest of the passage didn’t extend that far, judging by the map....

I climbed outside! With nothing else for it I crawled along the bare bleak stone beside the anchored minecart track until I got into the other tunnel. More Keese. Frost Pebblits? Easy enough....

I walked a little further to what seemed to finally be the end of the passage.... and.... Okay, it was just another outside entrance guarded by a Flyer.

Due diligence done, it was time to go back.

I took the Goron Minecart this time. Heh, hadn’t done that in a while.... and had never dared do it in the Castle! But, as I’d already cleaned out the passageway.... why not!

I had seen these tracks from far away across the moat before. Many times. How they arced around the great bald patches of stone surrounding the castle’s lower foundations. I could never see myself actually riding them, but now.... I wondered what it looked like from afar....

Back to the Shaft.

I killed the Moblin, and was able to have a proper look around the tall, tall space.... There was so much Malice in the way, how was I supposed to—

Ah, I see. The drainage waterfall was clear. I cast Cryonis on it a few times to make my own stairs up until I could reach that ladder.... And the ladder went up.... And where did this little passage lead?

But I stopped. What was this place? It looked like a little study or something. No. A little table more for like reception or something like it. Book-keeping of some kind. Recording. A little bookshelf.... once-ornate hangings like those in the Guards’ Chamber....

What or who passed through here? Market-goods on their way to the royal kitchen? Smithed wares for the soldiers? Visitors’ registry? A cleaning service? There was no way to know.

Something was lurking on the other side of an explodable wall. Something with 288 hit points. What could it be....?

The noises it issued made it out to be a lizard.

I killed it.

Oh, the Master Sword was running low on energy.

....

What about that shield?

What about the shield?

I wondered....

....

It was only a little alcove where the Lizalfos had been hiding; not really anywhere else to go. Okay what was that lizard guarding.... what was this.... treasure chest....

Oagh!

It’s a Shard of Dinraal’s Fang!

What in the heck! These are amazing! Will I find more? I DON’T KNOW! 8D

Onward!

I sniffed around and zeroed in on the only thing left I could find to mess with in the little record-keeping room.... a switch.

I flicked it.

WHAT! It activated an updraft back out in the Shaft!

I went and took it.... and oh it took me up high.... Twice as high as that first little record-keeping room.... to yet another room above, near the top. One passage from this new room led away outside, and another looked like it connected back to that corridor off which the giant circular staircase stemmed!

I checked the outside first.... and found that I could access a stairway that went back up toward the Outer Track—the area below Princes Zelda’s study and bedchamber.

I’d been around there already though.... Back inside. I would go back through the inner corridors.

There were horns and globs of Malice everywhere....

NO. Wait....

There was another passage, up near Zelda’s Chamber, that I could see on my map. An inside-corridor not connected with anything else, only accessible from the outside, right there. I’d go get that first.

And I did, and....

Oh, it was Princess Zelda’s room. Two layers. I forgot.

All right....

Back down then, to the Outer Track. I followed it clockwise, bending round to the north side of the castle.

-

Blast these log-notes.... blast my procrastination in finessing them.... Look I’ve been chasing the following paragraph all over and around the document for MONTHS because I could not remember when I first encountered its described architecture. What Castle-visit it had been.... Actually I think I had been going counter-clockwise at the time....

“I scooted around the bulky obstruction to continue, and there was a strange, sheltering overhang, pillared about the road from the living stone, familiar from a dizzy dream I had had before.... But I could only go so far before there were Guardians again, didn’t want to go that way....”

Yes it . . . . must have been an earlier visit.... with how I reacted to the Guardians.... drat.

Rest in peace here on page 600, Dizzy-Dream Pillar Paragraph.

-

Now I passed through the sheltering stone pillars going the other way, rounding the gentle bend to the right, until I came to a Guardian embedded high up in a bleachy hill of rockfall and rubble on the right side of the road, spilling from some higher level of the castle grounds.

I killed it where it stuck out from the rocks at an odd angle; its Ancient bits and spoils came tumbling down, scattering over the landslide.

Across the road from where the Guardian had been—or what remained of the road beneath the rubble—I could see a dark passageway leading into a small hill. A brief consultation of my map let me know that this was one of the passageways into the Library.

! Then that Guardian.... It must have been the one I had seen back when I had come up out of the Library for the first time. The one that had frightened me back inside.

I’d stood my ground well enough this time.

Yes the “bulky obstruction” must have been that landslide outside the Library.... must’ve been heading counter-clockwise....

With the Guardian dead I was free to explore a bit further now. The mound housing the entrance to the Library was straight-sided, and tiered, with a little copse of dead pine trees at its humble crown. It must have been lovely once.

Up on top of the hill over the Library entrance was another chest....

Naydra’s Scale. Very nice.

I looked back. From this vantage point I had a better view of the rubbleslide; it really was massive and it covered the outer track. But.... above....

I wondered if I could scale that cliff. The one the Dizzy Pillars were carved from; the one with the sheltering overhang. It seemed to go right up to the back of the Sanctum. The back of the Castle. The back of the Sanctum....

On went my Climber’s Gear, and though it came to a close call with my stamina, I found that I could. Scale the cliff.

The air turned blustery with Malice.

Globs of Malice everywhere so thick....

This was the uppermost Earth. Everything above here was man-laid brick and stone.

Is there.... Is there....

It would stand to reason....

There must be a Shrine somewhere....

I peeked a little bit into the architecture.

Sanctum flashed on the screen....

I saw a large empty space.... looked like a boss room....

NOPE! NOpe. Nope noep noep I ran back out of there.... climbed around a bit, looked around...  [[Do you see how nervous I was? Never mind the spelling errors—I forgot to add the wonted fourth dot in my ellipsis!]]

But....

I wondered....

I.... WONDERED....

A big, flat empty space....

I....

....

Wondered.

Climbing again, on up into the brickwork, and I came upon.... What?

That little round crosscut of a tree-trunk, with a leaf-shaped pointer on it.

A Korok Race.

Even here.

I stepped on it. It targeted a nearby spire of the upper Castle architecture.

“You’re joking!” I hollered.

But I did it. Running off the edge and sailing over the sky.

“Bloody Koroks!”

Got him.

Okay this is really frightening, I thought. Couldn’t the Guardians see me from here? I felt so exposed on the spire top out in the open. But nothing targeted me.

I could go back down.... maybe....

The front door to the Castle Very Proper was just below me if I dropped.

But.... NO. I was NOT doing that yet. I was going back around to the back!

I paraglided back onto the level I’d been on, climbed around on the brickwork a bit more.... and....

This.

A window into the architecture.

This might have been the selfsame window I saw before. The one with a ladder inside it, leading down into a hole in the floor.

I crept inside.

No cinematics started; nothing jumped out at me.

I took the ladder down.

This was uncomfortably too far inside.... quieter, closer, and full of that unsettlement of when you’re out of the wind and in the den of the beast....

But when I reached the bottom of the ladder, there was too much Malice blocking the way further inward. But two other passageways stood open to the air on either side; I could walk instead around the encompassing ledgewalk. The cross-section of the castle was so narrow now.... It seemed there were three similar ladderways just like this one, inside similar buttress-like towers, leading back up.

This wasn’t a walkway I had been on before.... I could glance in windows here....

THERE IS SOMETHING IN THERE.

OH GOSH.

WHY.

Tentacles—what?

I GET BACK DOWN TO THAT FLAT SPOT!

OKAY I’M BACK WHERE I STARTED WHEN I’D SCALED THIS BLOODY CLIFF.

“NOOOO I DON’T WANNA DO IT!” I hollered to no one.

I’ll.... I’LL SAVE IT FIRST. OH GOSH.

I crept closer to a broad opening to the inside.

NO THERE IS A BIG EYEBALL UP THERE OH GOSH

WHERE IS THE LAST SHRINE?

WHERE IS IT?

IS IT IN HERE?

THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT THERE FEELS LIKE TOO MUCH DANGER.

I CAN’T EVEN GRAMMAR ANYMORE.

DEVIANTART THUMBNAILS.

I felt more comfortable perusing the art because I’d gotten past most of the spoilers, but—

HOW DO I KNOW?

OH GOSH WHAT IS IN THAT ROOM?

I DON’T WANNA DO IT.

I’M JUST LOOKING FOR A SHRINE.

IS IT IN HERE?

SHOULDN’T IT STAND TO REASON?

SHOULDN’T

IT

STAND

TO

REASON?

ASDFGHJKL;

Two more steps.

....

Black out.

....

That’s not a shrine.

....

Things.... started.... happening.....

NOPE! C8

I’M CHECKIN’ OUT OF THIS GAME.

WIIU MENU PLEASE!

Running

Evening of Monday, May 6, 2019

Running

Scoured Giant’s Forest, skirted the Ancient Stump, looked into Coliseum, checked the crevice below Owa Daim’s shrine, flossed Hemaar’s Descent, ran the cliffs to the Illumeni Plateau.... Have not tried the Castle’s front door yet....

I scoured the road—the road!—from the Tabantha Great Bridge to the Gisa Crater, slaying two Guardian Flyers and a Talus. Nothing.

I searched high and low in the hills between Rito Village and the Hebra Mountains. Nothing. I combed the feet of the Akkala Falls near Tarrey Town. Nothing.

I raked the land in a bird’s-eye paraglide from the Lanayru Tower standing above the wetlands all the way across the Zodobon Highlands, to the Stone bearing Ruto’s Name, donning my Dark Ensemble at the last stretch out of some strange desperation.

How to draw out the final shrines....

I became hungry again and rewatched the Zelda’s Awakening cinematic.

Ahhh. I finally have a visual on Link’s saviors....

Now I can do faithful artistic justice....

It is past my bedtime....

I think.... Pepp’s.... will do....

*

And then I got on DeviantArt instead of going to bed like I should have, and searched out all the epic Zelda art I could find from which I had previously forbidden myself.

Oh sweet cathartic amazement and wonderfulness.

I was high as a kite.

The Mirror in the Music

Monday, January 7, 2019

The Mirror in the Music

I logged onto DeviantArt for the first time in a while, and found in my notifications a relatively new journal entry from the group Hyrule-Legends. It was entitled: “Sound Director Hajime Wakai on Zelda BoTW Music”. Posted Saturday, January 5.

Well that was.... just gourmet serendipity. For I was still full of the sweeping, rushing, desperate music from Vah Medoh. Those strings....

User MajorasMasks posted in the entry:

I recently read an interview about an underrated aspect of Breath of the Wild: its music and sound direction. I know some people complained about them, but I think they are top notch just like the rest of the game.

Among other things, in the interview Hajime Wakai explains why BotW doesn't have the canonical overworld music:
"When a composer makes a piece of music he has a plan and idea of how he wants to player to feel, but if this insistence is too strong it can have an effect on the actual game. We would end up forcing a feeling of intensity onto players. The music would be all stirring and dramatic, but then the player would think: ‘hold on a minute, all I did was throw away a mushroom…’"

You can find the complete interview on Nintendo Everything.  

The link led to url: https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://nintendoeverything.com/breath-of-the-wild-composers-on-changing-up-zeldas-music-formula-and-more/

And that was the entire entry.

An underrated aspect of Breath of the Wild? The music?

I have to admit, I just wouldn’t have known. I’ve refrained from searching out what the internet has had to say about it all this time.

But now.... with four Divine Beasts finally under my belt.... I felt no dread for many spoilers. Hence my sudden interest in trolling the art site for . . . . whatever I might find.

And lo! THIS JOURNAL.

. . . . . . .

I could contain myself no longer. I commented on MajorasMasks’ Hyrule-Legends journal entry:

I saw this journal in my inbox a few days ago. But now I'm coming back to comment on it because.... Well, I played a bit of Breath of the Wild last night. It is still my first playthrough. BECAUSE OF REASONS please no spoilers.

But last night I defeated my fourth and final Divine Beast, and.... Man, MAN, there has been something incredibly special about the music I hear in those Divine Beasts. And it has grown and shaped and arced over the course of all my adventures. The music I've heard in those places has been the telling of the entire tale; it's Good versus Evil; it's triumphing over the Darkness; it's the rising of the Light, and the striving after Hope.

Am I the only one who has heard this?

What was the music like inside your first Divine Beast? Did it start open, and neutral? But turn dark and affronted and malicious when you started activating pedestals?

Was your second Divine Beast the same?

And when you came to your third, was the Darkness waiting for you this time? Was the music already poisoned when you set foot in that place? And once you started going through the pedestals, did a spear of hope pierce through the sound, to turn the chords into something better? Something brighter? Did the influence of your Hero pull the soundtrack back from the abyss and make it shine?

And when you came to your fourth, and the heated, hot, angry poison met your incursion again, and you started activating the pedestals....

Did the Song turn to the most desperate struggle of goodness and hope that you had yet encountered?

Has this been the experience of ANY one else?
I must know.

Whoever was in charge of the sound, whoever engineered the music for those critical struggles....

That man is a Poet.

And then, some time later, my second comment:

Also I just read the article and ugh.... it's like FINDING YOUR PEOPLE.

MajorasMasks and I had a good following conversation, though he did—he?—*—she, it’s a she—

WE HAD A GOOD following conversation, though she did tell me, in response to my music-mapping, “I think that depends on which order you play the Divine Beasts...”

For with my own playthrough—Elephant, Lizard, Camel, Bird—I had been utterly convinced that there was more at play in generating those Divine Beast soundtracks. The arc was just too perfect, the progression too meaningful. The music had to have been designed to play in that order, regardless of which animal you chose first and which you chose last. It was the Legend’s Echo.

But then.... as of this writing (Evening of Tuesday, January 15, 2019).... I still have not delved too deeply into the Breath of the Wild circles of the internet. Maybe the music is set in that storytelling order I heard, and people have already talked about this. Or maybe each Divine Beast does indeed have its own set soundtrack, and other players have been taken through other musical journey arcs, stemming from all the permutations of play-order for which the game can allow.

I’ll go find out some day, but....

Not today.

I think for now.... I’d just as soon leave it a mystery. And keep riding those striving, striving strings in my heart.

“Hey Dad.”

“Yeah?”

“You saw me doing the Bird?” For he’d stopped to watch a bit here and there. “Do you remember the music?”

He had also.... doubtless.... observed me fangirling all about the music myself as I paraglided around solving the puzzles.

But his eyes lit up to remember. Had he been struck himself, or had it been a contagion from my own reaction? “Yeah,” he smiled.

“What did you think of it?” I probed as excitedly as if it had been a blockbuster film.

“It sounded like....” he slowly maneuvered a hand palm-downward into the air, “kind of a flight-music kind of thing.”

Well that tickled my whimsy all right!

Heh, and was that likewise possibly influenced by the nature of the Beast?

Or was it the Pilot in him talking?