That ending has me feeling a mix of happiness and sadness.
I'm sad that the story is over but I'm happy that the characters that survived had happy lives and that Palo was able to find peace in the end.
It honestly doesn't feel like I've been following this story for a couple of years, it was just that immersive of a world. You are truly a gifted writer and I'm so glad that as a reader I was able to go on this journey with you, so thank you for writing this. It's been an honour and a privilege.

I was going to start this review by saying I'm still here, still reading, still enjoying very very much, but instead I have to start with: GEEZ, CALM DOWN PALO!

Anyways, boy, it has been WAY too long since I left a review. I am so sorry about that. But just in recent memory: I LOVED getting to spend some time with the Zora and their amazing waterclock, Ravio and Saria were fantastic and I adored both of them and their true-to-game yet wonderfully unique character, and it's also been really fun getting to watch Talm blossom into her own for the last little bit. And also Aelina is a joy, and I love that Palo has a soft spot for her.

I am starting to worry about Palo. He's a very dark personality and he's been without sleep, level-headed company, or his addictive substances for the last little while, and uhhhh it looks like he's starting to snap.

Thank you so much for this read, your worldbuilding and characters are so fantastic (I never thought I could be so invested in scenes with literally nothing but OCs but I AM)! I can't wait to read the rest!

well the cycle is demais not the godesses he curst Link's soul and the Gades disendets and the only reason way Gan has the power is because he stold it and manech to kip it and the reason wy Link and Zelda somtimes kip thers Nitendo dos not explain the rison wy it stay broken only that Link returnd whit the pice in his hand and aperrently did not notis for some time but the story was ejoyable to the verry end

This was awesome. One of the best stories I’ve read. Published or not.

Wow. Wow wow wow. The story is over now but has left us with many more to imagine in our minds. Dude, please publish this. Please. Could we have a spin off story of the Zoras? Going to reread and reread and reread... thank you for this masterpiece. Discovered it before Covid-19 hit. Getting up each morning and checking for updates has been such a fun escape when I find a new chapter posted. Looking forward to more of your work

ahhhhh this was such an amazin story. After all the ups and downs and cliffhangers it finally comes to an end. It was very good and I’m looking forward to your next story

(Just wanted to mention that I noticed you haven't marked it as complete. Not sure if it's deliberate, but I thought I'd mention it in case.)

This has been a wild ride, and I can safely say it was worth it. It's definitely one of favourite Zelda fics now and I can't thank you enough for writing this masterpiece!

I really didn't like the last bit you did for the ending. I mean, think about it from Palo's perspective. Imagine being tortured by an evil demon god for 20 years that each feel like an eternity in a time dilated hell rule and finally waking up, but you only get just 2 or 3 minutes of friendly explanation by your village elder in the afterlife about where it seems like you're somewhat forgiven and things are ok. Then, she goes on to talk about the future. At first it seems to you like it's the good part and that everyone's living happily after, which they sort of are. Then she gets talks about how apparently Impa's not sure about even keeping the Triforce around is worth it with implications that her daughter wouldn't be able to use the Triforce of Power or something, although I guess the plan is technically to hide it in the silent realm where it would still at least potentially be retrievable by future generations, assuming the later Zeldas can even find it and are told where it is.I thought that was dark enough, but then Merel decided to go full grimdark and tell Palo that she thought the whole planet is doomed to inevitably fall into the darkness whence it came and everything that ever lived on it will be forgotten forever. Like...imagine hearing that after you just got out of hell. .Man. Seriously, that's gotta hurt, or at least it would if he still remembered anything. It seems pretty unfair that even when he doesn't even remember who he is yet, she still decided to lay Expositions of Despair on him while saying that it's fine since he's not alone. It just seemed out of place since she seems to have lost interest in her anger over his necromancy.

I got confused initially at the part of the chapter where Zelda came into focus again as a young adult because you didn't use Zelda's name right away and the context made it seem like Talm had a daughter, but it seems Zelda has been adopted as Link and Impa's daughter while still bearing the official royalty title and all that, with the both of them living in the castle as well, and that all seems good to me. It was a little charming to see how Zelda and her nameless sister were so close. It does seem like Merel is right to say Palo has indeed messed things up quite badly and nothing is really that much better for the world as a result, though. Zelda's still going to be the one who's queen, and he doesn't have a literal 'World Doomed if I Die" style of magical bloodline like Zelda's seems to be. Not that it's bad for Zelda's to be like that, it was a plot point in skyward sword in botw and I just like Zelda as a character along with the reincarnation ideas Skyward Sword brought up with her and link. The thing I really wonder about is whether or not Link and Impa have tried seeing if anyone else is able to use their pieces. Like, the Faronian Uprising people who worked with the Dekus and all and Link are still friends, and he's going to die eventually. By the way, he totally should've visited Ravio and the uprising in a shown scene since they were some of the most reliable allies in the story and were still really likable characters to boot, not to mention that he needed to go back there to visit Saria and let her know they won. Anyway, as it's been 20 years and Link only has one child, a daughter who's probably going to wield either the Power piece or none due to being more similar to Impa or something and the Courage piece mayyyybe being a Faronian bloodline slightly tied piece due to the whole reincarnation hints and the possibility that the Link reincarnations or people tied to the Courage piece like the Wolf Hero are generally tied to that same ethnic group, i really really wonder if he tried handing it over to one of the many young guys there who wished they could've been the here during the past 20 years in the story. Like a sort of test of worthiness, think like with the Master Sword in the games, where if anyone first does some series of trials to prove they have a heroic heart or something, and then attempts to wield the Triforce of Courage and succeeds, they now are allowed to use it. Earlier on it didn't seem like the triforce pieces were in any danger of fading, what with how the Wisdom piece remained just fine for a good while after Garona's death, but i guess that wasn't a truly vast number of years. So perhaps the triforce pieces do need some effort to be maintained and kept from fading away unless they are put into the silent realm, in which case it would be very fortunate if Link had found some worthy successor Courage piece wielder. Best case scenario:A few years later in the story, maybe Link finds a young man who can do that, and Impa and Link's daughter proves able to use the Triforce of Power. After all, the wolf god did seem to say someone will come along to replace Link and that his friends will meet this person and see Link's likeness in him. Or, they just go visit Nabru whose training school has found a young and worthy Power wielder. Then after some training is complete, Zelda, Link and Impa gather together. Hands are shaken and glow with the golden sparks, and soon a ceremony is prepared.

Zelda walks down some fancy royal carpet towards a mysterious box while a lot of important people watch. She was still a little girl at heart in some ways. She couldn't just do it the simple way after they'd made everything ready. It had to be like this. She opens the mysterious treasure chest and leans in to grab something within...
watch?vxygTWd7tYdY

And then with a joyful flourish, she raises the golden orb of the complete Triforce above her head in all its radiant splendor! DododoDOOOH!

It would be great if there had been a comedic moment like that, although it would be too comedic for this story if a literal wish on the triforce was given that kind of context. But, in all seriousness, i do think a wish scene to restore the Master Sword and Fi along with it would still have been much more appropriate as the ending of this story than a weird grimdark nihilism speech by a ghost of all people, as they tried so hard to gather that sword and the Triforce together and unite the nations which had its individual pieces. It seems like an inevitability that the Triforce will be used if they are reasonable, either in their generation or the next, it would just be such a tragic waste for them to not try to use it or restore it after all that hard work to get it together again. I mean, i can always imagine it as something they could maybe do in the future of this story, so that keeps it fun to think about. But it still feels like a big waste that you made the story end with even a ghost being totally disinterested in the future. Like, why?...What happened to earlier parts like the Lost Woods chapters where Link promised to Saria to defeat Ganondorf and fix everything for the Great Deku Tree and the other spirits so she and the forest didn't die out?...It could've been an emotional moment if he had finally returned there to talk to Saria and tell her of all that had happened. I'm sure she would have been really happy, even knowing all the horrible things Link had been through. Maybe it would be tragic if what had happened with Palo necromantically resurrecting Link had somehow made it so the Triforce was too weakened and it was too late to save the Deku Tree himself and also her, but at least a chance of them getting to speak again could have been so emotional and good, or possibly planting the seed of a new Deku Tree. Maybe she could even live long enough to hear about the Triforce finally being put back in one piece...I mean, she and the Deku Tree could also potentially end up just being immortal again as they seemingly once were after Link defeating Ganondorf fixes everything, and that would be fine too. But you get the idea. I also feel like Link should've met the Wolf Hero in the pre-afterlife plane he reached rather than just the wolf god spirit. He already met him once before, but it would've been a more relatable figure to talk to instead of just the wolf god, and it would fit the whole theme of legacies and bloodlines and inheriting the role of past heroes. Maybe he could have even seen the ghost of Zelda's sibling, the girl in the window who died and he never got to speak to before. It would be nice in its own way since they'd tried so hard to save her earlier but ultimately failed to even see her ghost. Maybe she could thank him for trying so hard along with Impa and the others to keep Zelda safe, that would have provided nice closure, and she or the Wolf Hero also could've served another narrative role as a bystander to the necromancy situation. They could have been shocked and horrified at seeing Palo suddenly break in with Majora-empowered dark magic to pull Link out of the afterlife. Both Zelda's sibling and the wolf hero are less important to me on a narrative level than Saria, but it would still have been nice to have them show up. Of course, I already did like the wolf hero's scene where he appeared as a ghost to Link once a lot already and still think it was very good, especially how Navi helped him deliver the Triforce of Courage. However, the fact that Link didn't even talk to Saria again as far as we know or see whether or not the Great Deku Tree and her managed to survive because of what he'd done is more critical to me and seems like such a huge missed opportunity. It would have been really good. Furthermore, it is not just that it could have been an emotional and moving scene. Saria and the Deku Tree surviving could maybe even make a difference in improving things rather than only being satisfying on a personal emotional level. For example, Saria and any new Kokiri that get lost in the woods could keep track of history and memorize everything so it's never forgotten. Maybe Zelda could make a mini conspiracy of occasionally telling them what is going on so that they can remember it, being immortal and all, although I guess it wouldn't be certain to work for multiple generations without someone being stupid and leaking the existence of the Kokiri, so idk. Inb4 the Kokiri take over the entire planet one day by spreading the seeds of the Great Deku Tree all over so that one day there are countless forests inhabited by all knowing 100s of years old super intelligent kokiris. Like the immortal Elves in Lord of the Rings who are immortal as long as they are in their home lands lol. Jk. It would still be very nice on its own just to see the Kokiri surviving and being able to come back in some form regardless of how it specifically works in what they do and all. However, it would be potentially fitting if the extinction of the Sheikah lead to an attempt to make a new group inheriting the role of the Sheikah in at least some ways. In that sense, it also would have been sort of fitting if Impa had tried to build a new Sheikah style organization protecting the royal family even if the race is now extinct and unfortunately unrestorable, although I guess she was in a position whWell, i'm going on too long about this, the point is it would have been nice to see Saria again since she was such a memorable character from OoT and it was so sad to see her and the Deku Tree seemingly forgotten or deemed narratively unimportant by the end of the story. It also seems like it probably doesn't make sense for any adults to be Kokiri as it would probably go against the main religion and count as an exploit attempt to try to give someone immortality, even if they were limited in where they could live. And of course nobody knows the lost woods officially had Kokiri or anything and any possible situation which could lead to that being revealed would definitely be bad.

Now, back to the main topic i was getting at, the possibility that Zelda Link and Impa could try to complete the Triforce and make a wish to appease the goddesses' wrath. I can't help but try to think about it. Imagine a probably 27 year old Zelda( at this theoretical scenario's time point which would be a few years later than this ending where Zelda is probably 24 or 23), an aged Link , and a similarily aged Impa are gathered in Zelda's castle to use it after a few years of training with their respective pieces and preparation of their 've assembled the full triforce and the three golden triangles floating magically in midair, not having dealt any feared divine punishment on them just yet. Zelda's thoughts as the main character of the scenario would be something like:She's done nothing wrong, and Link's mysterious corrupt resurrection by 'the deadseer' was not her fault. She was just a child in the war, and as a now mature adult with a baby daughter of her own at this point, she is ready to do her best to appease the goddesses' anger. A hilt sits on an ornate pedestal, glowing a faint blue as the three gather around it, their hands held up to control the floating god light that radiates pressure on their very spirits as if it were a blinding sun, or the eye of a god poised ready for judgement. The TLDR of this scenario would be that Zelda Link and Impa are the candidates who wield it rather than their successors who they've trained or given birth to for a reason. Zelda makes sure to tell Link and Impa just what she's getting them into, that she plans to risk their lives and her own. She knows that if the goddesses truly choose to punish them, the lot of them may all be destroyed along with the palace's throne room in some radiant burst of the Triforce's energy or something. However, she doesn't think the goddesses are so mercilessly cruel that they would also want them to risk their children/disciples and possibly destroy any hope of there being future wielders, and thus in Impa and Link's case they've trained either Impa's daughter or a disciple of Nabru to wield the Power piece and Link has trained a Faronian or anyone else capable of wielding his piece who was a worthy successor to that god light. I mean it's also possible that the Power user could be anyone of any race who was strong enough as that would fit Nabru's whole phrase that 'Legacies and bloodlines don't mean shit', if you wanted, but it would feel inappropriate for them to not even bother to try to find someone who can use it. Finally, they connect to the Triforce and try to invoke its power on the object of their choosing, the single knife remaining of the Master Sword along with all the gathered remaining shards. Zelda would maybe fear invoking divine wrath for yet again attempting a ressurection as the impossible to remember necromancer once had, or would just have an instinctive fear if she remembers too little for even knowing there was one. Despite not being able to hear her, after being given the explanation as best he can through sign language or other means, he would encourage her and say that this might be the sword spirit's last chance at revival. She'd think something along the lines of Fi being not truly dead and decide that all they would ask for would be restoring and rejuvenating the spirit within the knife, and in the end, after a super scary use of godly magical power with the sword glowing all bright blue and all that, the whole sword would be restored. After all, Fi is a spirit sacred to the goddesses and isn't quite dead and would not exactly be resurrected by such a move. I feel like it could definitely happen that a Triforce wish could create sacred metal out of energy alone, and if even the Triforce can't do that, that's pretty unfortunate. Even if it could not, though, it could always simply restore the magical power to the single knife that remains an intact piece of the sword, focusing Fi's spirit there. Even if it became a smaller and weaker weapon as a result, the Master Sword could still technically kill enemies like Ganondorf in the right situation as long as it had the magical power that let it pierce the aura barrier sorts of defenses people like him have. Then there could be a little timeskip, and a few days later Zelda's daughter would come back from whatever non-castle location she'd been safely kept away in during that time. Zelda's way of thinking about that would just be that even the goddesses could be limited in how they could inflict their punishments with the Triforce, so putting their successors near a weapon of incredible destruction wasn't exactly the brightest idea, and could even be perceived as them putting their own ambitions over their children's livelihoods. Rather than doing something insane like Ganondorf's apparent goal of gaining immortality just like TP Ganondorf or still arrogantly wishing for Zelda to gain a power like seeing the spirits of those that had not passed on, they would basically be partially forgiven for Palo's crimes, although Link might lose his sensations in his Triforce wielding hand and arm in the process of the ritual as a sort of additional divine punishment. Finally, when Zelda's daughter inherited the Triforce of Wisdom as a young adult one day, maybe she'd get a chance to hold the Master Sword and a miracle would happen. Fi's spirit would appear to her from the sword and speak, and she'd gain the spiritual power to speak to Fi and to dead spirits in just the way a deadseer could, inheriting the will of Palo and the Sheikah even now that they are extinct, showing that the goddesses had bestowed a kind of mercy on them. Essentially, by not wishing for what they wanted directly and showing the willingness to let the Sheikah's most precious unique ability die off with the race, they would end up getting what they wanted in the long run. Another less religious interpretation some royal people could make as they don't know about the necromancy, would be that the wish to restore the master sword rejuvenated all three pieces of the triforce as their godly energies empowered one another, leading to the triforce of wisdom gaining a new ability, much like the fabled ability some past Zelda ancestors had supposedly once had to speak to spirits. This could also help with the situation you explained earlier of how the spirits were suffering from what Ganondorf had done and perhaps the wish would improve matters more generally, or Zelda's daughter could help them in other ways. That would kind of seem nice and tie into how BOTW spun the Zelda bloodline as having a spiritual connection innate ability. As for being able to speak to Fi, that could lead into a whole new plot line. Zelda could talk to Fi's spirit and gradually learn all she could about the ancient past and the true history of her royal bloodline, right back to Zelda I and maybe even pieces of the truth about Hylia and the goddesses. Maybe Fi could only remember so many details of her past, but it could lead to a new adventure as the pieces of knowledge she knows lead to evidence trails providing more. I strongly feel that this story could fit into one totally consistent perfect picture explaining everything within its past, including even the origin stories of the goddesses, and that's something I always liked about this story. Anyway, as for the Fi Memory Restoration Quest, the Temple of Time seems like it would be a good place to start. It even had a fancy magical illusion designed to protect a piece of the Master Sword, so maybe there is a spirit there that Zelda could find with her new pseudo deadseer like powers and learn from, or Fi could regain some memories upon reaching that location. It would be much like how Link pieced together his memories in Breath of the Wild by visiting certain locations important to those memories. Of course, any kind of quest like that might be doomed to fail due to too much lost records, and it would probably be really unfitting if such a thing was in the same story as the already behemothly large Legacies and Bloodlines, so it would be fine if it was just open ended and left a mystery how things would go. And even

Wow. What a journey this has been. Much thanks for your amazing and diligent work. On the theme of being remembered, I'm sure I'll never forget this absolute beast until the day I'm either dead or senile..

. . -
Amazing, I love it. So bittersweet yet beautiful.
As soon as I found out it was finished, I rushed to read all of the last chapters I had been ignoring for months. And I'm not disappointed. A truly wonderful story.

Wow. Thank you so much for all your efforts with writing, publishing and dreaming up this epic tale. Your updates have always made me incredibly excited, so I’m definitely going to miss them. I’ll have to start reading from the beginning again and read it as a whole unit. Enjoyed every chapter immensely, thank you again for Legacies and Bloodlines.

Oh my God. It's finished. I can't believe it's finished. I've been following this story for nearly a year and a half. I can't imagine how the fans who've been following it since the beginning feel, or how *you* feel.

Yes, it is indeed a monster of a story, but that's okay. I enjoyed every moment of it. When I wasn't stressed out my mind, that is. LOL.

The whole thing has been such an incredibly unique take on the LoZ world. And you are an absolutely amazing writer. The feelings, and emotions, the trepidation, the tension, the sprinkles of brilliant humour, the epic battles, the utter destruction of entire lands, the way you describe magic, the almost poetic manner in which you set nearly every scene. I've laughed, cried, shouted out loud, even cringed in fear upon seeing update notifications in my inbox XD.

I still can hardly believe that this epic tale is over. D:

Wonderful, wonderful job.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
*deep breath*
AAAAAHAHHHHH!
It's over. Closure has been had. So why do I feel so unsatisfied?!
Oh yeah. It's because it's so bittersweet. What really got me was how Link and the gang mostly got the happily ever after with complications ending...except for Palo who spent twenty something years getting the Golden Experience Requiem treatment from a primordial force of darkness to the point that he's been stripped of everything that makes him himself. No one even remembers him too, which makes it even worse.
Necromancers man. They always get the Fate Worse Than Death when they finally die.
At least he has Merel.
This was a really good story and I'm glad to have read it. Thanks for writing it.

Well. Hot damn, this has been an amazing read. Kinda sad to see it finally end, but as the saying goes, all good things much come to an end.

Palo is one of the best charaters that i love in you storry pleas tell me that after paing the toald of Link's revible he will reincarnet as one of Link's kids thant for your storry I will be happy to see hoe you end it oh and tell me what happens wen they faind out of the undeath king of Ordom and how tings end ther to or I jut s need to read it again it will be a delaigth