Shout Out / Zelda's Honor

• The Nevachrean army comes off strikingly similar to the Imperial Order from the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, even right down to them invading Hyrule from the south.
  • The basic premise of the hero (Link) traveling south to the heart of Nevachrea with a fellow enemy/antagonist (the Gerudo) is similar to Richard heading to the heart of the Imperial Order with Nicci in Faith of the Fallen from the Sword of Truth series.
• The Nevachrean ability to revive even after death, regardless of how they were killed, is a reference to how people react to dying while within the Perished Lands in the The Dwarves series of books. It doesn't matter how little is left of the corpse, they will always reanimate.
• The banter between Impa and Link about his appearance can count as a Shout-Out to Other Stock Phrases. Impa even calls him out on this when he attempts to try it again at the end of Act 2.

Impa: "Link, it is good to see you. You look like Din's forge."
Link: "You should see the other guy!"

—Impa and Link discussing how torn up he looks after having been captured.

• The sword fighting scene between Malon and Link in Chapter 10 was directly inspired by the stable scene between Alejandro Murieta (Zorro) and Elena de le Vega from The Mask of Zorro.
• The conversation between King Zora and Link in Chapter 12 has a small one-liner that mirrors almost word for word from a line Boromir says in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Link: "We have to assume every soldier in that horde can come back from the dead, no matter how many times we kill them. Not with ten thousand Zoras could you do this; it is folly."

—Link trying to convince the Zora king to evacuate their domain

• The battle for Kakariko village in Act 1 plays out quite similarly to how Helm's Deep turned out in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, even down to the fact of being overrun towards the end. The addition of the trebuchets on the overlooking hills is probably an additional reference to the battle of Minas Tirith.
• In Chapter 16, when Link is captured, Naar explains to him in a nature quite similar to how Bane speaks to Batman in The Dark Knight Rises about getting his permission first before dying.

Naar: "Only then, do you have my permission to die."

—Naar telling Link how its going to play out.

• Both Chapter 19 and Chapter 34 have similar titles: Enter the Gerudo and Enter the Cyn'Taak. A reference to Bruce Lee's famous film, Enter the Dragon.
• Chapter 20's title, Practical Medicine, is a direct reference to the Final Fantasy IX fanfic of the same name. It helped that Dark Flame Wolf is a fan of that story as well.
• The formality of Ganondorf serving tea to his guests seems like a trivial formality in Chapter 23, but in actuality it references a very common courtesy and custom in many Middle Eastern countries; where the host would take care of their guests with either food or drink, even participating in small talk before actual business was conducted.
• The scene starting Chapter 24 with Sora and Link was inspired by a scene between Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo. Although the situations were vastly different, the concept of having Sora buzz in Link's face was directly written from that moment.

Sora: "Do you forgive me? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you?"

—Sora asking mock forgiveness from Link.

• Kiera ripping out and eating Saria's intestines in Chapter 27 is a homage to the classic zombie cliche of them always going for the stomach.
• Although a tenuous connection, one could argue the transformation of Saria in Chapter 27 is a reference to Collette from Tales of Symphonia; right down to the rainbow, glowing, see-thru wings. Likewise, like Collette, another object had to fuse with her being (Sora to Saria) for this to even occur.
• The coined nickname for Ruto as Naar's "Dark Mistress" is taken directly from Sword of Truth where Nicci is called exactly the same. The way people treat her is about the same too.
• The Cyn'Taak's basic inspiration came from the Daedroth, specifically the design used in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
  • The name Cyn'Taak actually comes from the name of another lizard like race found in Dust: An Elysian Tail, however it is more of a debauched spelling of it.
• Chapter 36's title, Flight From the Dark, was in reference to the first book in the series of the popular Lone Wolf series. The setup is also the same where the heroes are escaping a hopeless situation in the dark of night.
• Kafei is almost a direct copy of Jet from Avatar: The Last Airbender; right down to his hook swords and posse of young kids who live in the woods and fighting an enemy they shouldn't be.
  • Ashley is also an Expy of Longshot from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • The entire Kafei sequence is played out quite similarly to how it was presented in Avatar: The Last Airbender show.
• The backstory behind Ashley's inability to talk is quite similar in nature to Guy Cecil from Tales of the Abyss, right down to the mountain of corpses stacked on top of him and set ablaze.
• A small 'blink and you'll miss it' conversation between Kafei and Toby plays off almost word for word from a conversation between Simba and Scar from The Lion King.

Kafei: "Indeed. This little bugger snuck his way into the town all by himself without us knowing one night! He evaded the Nevachrean guards and mapped the entire place out on this parchment! He is my favorite spy!"
Toby: "Ha! I’m your only spy!"
Kafei: "All the more reason for me to be protective! "
—>—Kafei bantering back with Toby.

• Part of the conversation between Kafei and Zelda in Chapter 41 is taken almost word for word from Return of the Jedi between Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

Kafei: "If you plan on keeping her, then you have to name it, right?"
Zelda: "Xavier."
Kafei: "Really? Why that?"
Zelda: "It was the middle name of my grandmother."
Kafei: "What do you remember about her?"
Zelda: "Just a little bit. She died when I was very young."
Kafei: "Is that all you remember about her?"
Zelda: "Just images really, feelings. She was very beautiful. Kind, but sad. Why are you asking me this?"
Kafei: "I have no memory of my grandmother, nor of my mother."

—Kafei and Zelda discussing the reasoning behind Xavier's naming.

• This exchange between Kafei and Link in Chapter 43, The Crossroads, draws inspiration from the conversation at the end of Ender's Game, where Ender finds out he was deceived in winning a battle that he assumed was a simulation.

Kafei: "Do we not achieve victory by killing them before they kill us? Is that not winning?"
Link: "No. It's how we win that matters."

—Heated exchange between Kafei and Link.

• In Chapter 45, Ganondorf references his own dialogue spoken in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Ganondorf: "When the sun rises into the sky, a punishing wind sears these lands, causing any unprotected soul to perish. When the moon climbs in the dark of night, a frigid gale pierces our homes and kills the unwary. No matter when it comes, the wind carries the same thing...death."

—Ganondorf explaining to Saria why they can't have fertile fields and calm weather in the desert.

• To infiltrate Glaun'rung, Link and company are stuffed into empty beer barrels and are smuggled into the city by a ferrier of goods; quite similar in nature to Bard and the dwarves in The Hobbit.
• The drowning of Zelda by Impa to see visions of her past life with demons and other horrific visions is a reference to how John Constantine drowns Angela Dodson in the film Constantine so that she may see the demons in their everyday world.
• The empty husk of Francis' youngest daughter Lily, and the concept of Barrachas being a demon inside of a husk of human flesh, innards long since sucked out, is a direct reference to the cockroach and his disguise and how he'd kill people to steal their bodies in Men in Black.
• The battle cries of Link when he starts lobbing off heads and limbs from the Talamir and Timner abomination sounds strikingly similar (with some words changed/substituted) to Samwise Gamgee's battle cries in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' when fighting Orcs in Mordor.

Link: "That is for punching Malon and getting us captured so many cycles ago! That's for letting Barrachas escape with Zelda! And that's for my own damn comfort!"

—Each sentence said inbetween swings at the abomination.

• The Hunger demon is described in quite similar detail to how a Hunger demon looks like in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
• Navi's first true appearance and the very first words out of her mouth is a firm Shout-Out to the exact phrases most people ridicule her over and are most irritated by.

Navi: "Hey! Listen!"

—Is said to Link to keep him awake and conscious.

• In Act 3, Zelda's father, the king, is introduced and ironically shares the same name of Harkinian as the king found in The Legend Of Zelda C Di Games. Thankfully, the personality is far different than the one from the games, so it is a in-name only reference.
• In Act 1, Link teases Zelda and Malon that he can name horses better and proceeds to suggest the name Appa; fast forward to Act 3 where that is the actual name of Ganondorf's steed and it turns into a Brick Joke. The reference is from Avatar: The Last Airbender with Appa being Aang's sky bison.
• Chapter 59, By Dawn's Early Light, is a vague reference to the film of the same name. In the movie, B-52 crews have to act fast in the early hours of the morning to escape their base/home and leave on a mission to strike the enemy; just as they are taking off, their base is destroyed. In like fashion, Link and company have to leave Glaun'rung in the early hours of the morning on a mission, and a few chapters later, the inn is destroyed by Kotake and Koume.
• The two spotted horses' names that belonged to Francis Gorman are references to two different games. Fado is from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Tellah is from Final Fantasy IV.
• Chapter 64, Going in Circles, has Link and company going in circles in a maze of rocks and dirt; much like Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins in Amon Hen at the start of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
  • The attack by Skulltulas in the same location is also a reference to a similar scene with Shelob in The Return of the King.
• In Chapter 65, a conversation between Malon and Giana plays out almost word for word from a scene between the two sisters, Anna and Elsa, in Disney's Frozen.

Malon: "What do you want Giana? Go back to sleep."
Giana: "I just can't! The sky's awake! So I'm awake! So we have to play!"
Malon: "Go play by yourself!"
Giana: "Do you want to build a snowman?"
Malon: "Build a what? What are you talking about?"

—Giana trying her best to wake up her sister in the dead of night.

• Chapter 66's title, Charlie Foxtrot, is a reference to the military slang which actually stands for cluster fuck which means a messy, bad situation. Basically everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong.
• The scene in Chapter 67 where Saria is cutting webbed bodies down to find both Zelda and Nabooru is very reminiscent of the Flies and Spiders scene in The Hobbit where Bilbo Baggins has to cut down the webbed bodies of his dwarven friends from their spider captivity. In both cases, the smallest character is the one who saves them all.
• Chapter 71 is titled The Child is Gone which is in direct reference to a song by Fiona Apple. To drive the point home further, right after Malon loses her son, the very next paragraph in chapter 72 is basically ripped word for word from that song.

Description: ''"The shouting rang dull in her ears; she wanted nothing more than their absence this night. The shade from her canvas had been stripped away and all that was left was the white. All she wanted was to sink into the shadows that echoed inside of her without a light to illuminate the darkness. She felt like a different person, from the roots of her soul came a sinister coercion; she ran her hand over the strange inversion, a vacancy that just did not belong. The child was gone.

—The first paragraph of Chapter 72.

• The inspiration for the Defiler demon came from the face huggers from the film, Alien. Supported by the fact that once they get down inside of you, they lay their egg which becomes a new Defiler demon which can Chest Burster out and infect another victim.
• Whenever the Defiler demon chooses to present itself to its potential victim, the host body always makes a reference to the scars on its cheeks that start at the crease of the mouth. The wording is phrased in such a way that it is reminiscent to how the Joker from The Dark Knight begins his story on how he got them.

Thanan: "Would you like to know how I got these scars?"

—Thanan revealing himself to Link while he's drunk.

• Chapter 74's title, Sins of the Father, is in reference to the trope Sins of Our Fathers; where the retribution is played out on the descendents of the person(s) that had done the actual wrong. King Harkinian goes to describe in detail to Link just this exact situation as to why Nevachrea is invading Hyrule now.
  • Small, subtle reference to Zedd from Sword of Truth when he says the old wizard's classic curse word:

King Harkinian: "Bags boy!"

—Said in frustration that Link is being so formal with him.

• In Chapter 76, during Zelda's vision of her past life, a heated exchange is held between her and Demise. The entire scene is lifted directly from the The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword manga found in Hyrule Historia. Even her conversation afterwards with her fallen champion, Link, was lifted from that same manga.
  • After her vision, Zelda sexually assaults Link but is then brought out of it. The funny exchange afterwards references a modified common tagline Link always used to say to Zelda in the cartoon version of The Legend of Zelda:

Link: "Well, excuse me Goddess!"

—Link rebuking Zelda on her behavior.

• Chapter 77's title, Deep Breath Before the Plunge, is a reference to a one-off line Gandalf says to Pippin in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the night before the battle of Minas Tirith.
• Chapter 80's title is a reference to one of Dark Flame Wolf's own works, The Enemy Within is a custom Descent mission of her own creation. Both titles allude to the fact that there are traitors amongst the good guys.
• In chapter 82, Link is facing off against Thanan and it is revealed that a Defiler demon is within Thanan and has revealed itself to them. Link spouts off a line with one modification directly from Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 4 in the final battle with Osmund Saddler.

Link: "Demons. Guess after this, there will be one less to worry about."

—Link insulting Thanan at his true form.

• The death of Impa is a clear Expy of the scene where Bane breaks Batman's back in Knightfall; right down to where Argonim is in the role of Bane.
• When Link is forced into playing 'igra na letalnyj isxod' or the Game of Death, it plays out quite similarly to Richard Rahl being forced into Ja'La in Sword of Truth series and then trouncing the competition in much the same fashion. In both accounts, they were captured or enslaved by the enemy before being forced to play the game.
• In Chapter 89, the aerial fight scene between Saria and Josclyn/Thanan was inspired by the Neo and Agent Smith fight scene in The Matrix Revolutions.
• Although modified to fit that situation at hand, Naar's speech in the Temple of Time about his wrath towards Hyrule follows quite similarly to the one Saavedro gives Atrus in Myst III: Exile.

Naar: "They tied me to a post. They raped and burned my family in front of me. They took everything I had. My wife! My little girl!"

—Naar raging at Link for the injustices done to him.

• The final battle between Nabooru and Apolloni has the latter saying a rather obscure quote from the children's film Alpha and Omega.

Apolloni: "I will gouge out your eyes and shove them so far down your throat that you'll be able to see my sword slice through your innards!"

—Apolloni boasting cruelly.

• Malon's furious and shocking killing of Argonim was inspired by Kahlen Amnell's Con Dar rage killing of Demmin Nass in the Sword of Truth series.
• In the epilogue, the middle scene involving the banishment of Ganon was taken directly from the scene at Arbiter's Grounds in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, but modified slightly to fit the story.
• The final line of the story, in the epilogue, we are treated to an agonizing cliffhanger of Malon not revealing the name of her child. This concept of leaving readers hanging was directly inspired by Tales of Symphonia and how it left players hanging on what the new world tree would be named.
  • Author inject: Although not officially stated in the fanfic itself, Dark Flame Wolf has secretly decided the name to be Navi.

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