The Golden Power
is a The Legend of Zelda fanfic written by DBAnsw.
Following the aftermath of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link attempts to return to his normal life in Ordon Village only to find he's acquired a severe case of wanderlust and Ordon just isn't big enough for him anymore. After an emotional parting with Ilia and Rusl, Link takes Epona north to get some advice from Zelda, only to find that the the princess is up to her pointed ears in work trying to reconstruct Hyrule.
With no particular destination in mind, Link accepts a request to investigate suspicious military maneuvers being performed by Hyrule's neighboring country of Ghent and finds himself swept up in a conspiracy that threatens to destroy both nations. Meanwhile Zelda plots to turn Hyrule from a shattered wreck of a kingdom into the greatest superpower on the continent while also dealing with scheming nobility and courtly politics. And far to the east, the Gerudo nomads are rocked by the appearance of a new bearer of the Triforce of Power.
The Golden Power is notable for both its world-building and the manner in which it approaches the Triforce. Ghent and its host of original characters are a completely original addition to the mythos yet they slide into the setting as naturally as if they had always been there. The Triforce and what it means to be a bearer of the Triforce are also handled with an unusually epic flair; Link and Zelda are portrayed as myths walking among mortals, larger than life Exalted-like superbeings for whom the impossible is routine.
Now a Dead Fic.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Bag of Spilling: Played with. Link went around returning some of his gear to the temples between Twilight Princess and the start of the story because objects like the Master Sword and the Hero's Bow are cultural and/or religious artifacts that he thinks he has no business hanging on to now that Ganon has been defeated. He keeps his bomb bags, quiver, clawshots, and most of his other gear however.
- BFG: Link's new compound bow imported by Malo from the northern steppes is a bow and arrow equivalent. When Link tries it out on a gang of moblins his shots have a tendency to either blast his targets off their feet or overpenetrate and hit multiple targets. This trope is also given a shout out by the author, who claims the new bow was an attempt at giving Link the Heroic Fantasy equivalent of the Dirty Harry magnum.
- Brainwashing: Attempted twice. Backfired horribly on the brainwasher in Zelda's case.
- The Chessmaster: Zelda is a heroic version, if also occasionally ruthless when the situation calls for it.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: Zelda does this almost constantly. One of the benefits she gets from the Triforce of Wisdom is "multiple independent reasoning centers", meaning she can follow multiple trains of thought simultaneously and spin wheels-within-wheels plots while carrying on a conversation with her advisers.
- Expy:
- Ghent's troll population loves their voodoo and speak in thick Jamaican accents. Sound familiar?
- Bijou Blanc, despite being a sword rather than a character, possesses all the qualities of a daiklaive, such as being a peerless masterwork of a weapon from a bygone age, granting supernatural powers to its wielder, and weighing several hundred pounds until the wielder attunes themselves to it.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Principality of Ghent is fantasy France on the surface at least insofar as the local language (and the casual contempt for foreigners) is concerned.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Zelda dips into this trope from time to time; while she's usually The High Queen, she's also very pragmatic and quite ruthless when the situation calls for it, and isn't above taking political prisoners to keep her more unruly vassals from plotting against her.
- Princesses Rule: Justified. Zelda's coronation ceremony is being put off until the reconstruction of Hyrule Castle is completed, so she's stuck being a princess for a few more months.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Zelda is this in spades, but there's also Princess Jeannette leading the armies of Ghent.
- Smug Snake: David Reynalds, Earl of Ordonia. He thinks he's a Manipulative Bastard but Zelda can usually make his plans blow up in his face with minimal effort, sometimes literally.
- Tough Leader Façade: Zig-zagged. Zelda rules Hyrule during a period of political turmoil when the economy is in dire straits, the military is nearly non-existent, neighboring kingdoms are preparing to invade and ambitious nobles are vying for her favor at best and her hand in marriage at worst. Despite all of this and her disdain for politics, Zelda thrives under the workload of reestablishing Hyrule as a nation – or at least appears to. Her workaholic schedule is a means of distracting herself from the changes the Triforce of Wisdom is causing in her.
