Um, maybe that's how the romances always came off to me, but I have yet to see a canon Zelda game where I would actually believe the romance to happen and not be shoved into my face for 30 minutes and then conveniently forgotten when the plot begins. It's not like Nintendo is doing a good job at setting Link and Zelda up as a romantic couple other than "They're in love, now go crawl through dungeons, fight monsters and solve puzzles".
- "I have yet to see a canon Zelda game where I would actually believe the romance to happen and not be shoved into my face for 30 minutes and then conveniently forgotten when the plot begins."
Have yiou ever played Twilight Princess? 'cuz Nintendo portrayed Link and Ilia's relationship in convincing fashion. And it stayed relevant throughout the game, complete with its own sidequest, about 2/3 through.
I wouldn't mind failure so much, if I didn't fail so much.
Ahahahaha, yeah I TOTALLY believed Link and Ilia had a thing going. You know, with all the TIME those two spent together.
Also, aside from her having no memory for majority of the game, I have to find her, bring Ralis to Kakariko and then Ilia is pretty much forgotten for the plot again. Until that stupid plot tumor cause I totally need to get her memories back. (She had more personality when she was amnesiac)
So no, that was not convincing for me.
- "Ahahahaha, yeah I TOTALLY believed Link and Ilia had a thing going. You know, with all the TIME those two spent together."
Despite the time they spent together at the beginning of the game, or all the times different characters noticed how close they were, and how much she mattered to Link, or how she even said she'd wait for him?
There was no need for them to spend their screentime being lovey-dovey, when the game made it fairly obvious that they were an item - complete with Cor Goron and the others giving them a moment alone.
Besides, your original point was:
- There hadn't been a romantic subplot in any Zelda game that wasn't forgotten once the plot begins.
- My counterpoint was, there was at least one instance where that wasn't the case, since the romantic subplot between Link and Ilia remained relevant throughout the adventure.
I'll agree to disagree about it not being portrayed convincingly.
I wouldn't mind failure so much, if I didn't fail so much.
As said, I am TOLD they are in love but I am not shown anything that makes me believe it. It's an Informed Attribute for me. I don't believe there is a romance unless it's portrayed in a way that I can see it with my eyes.
There's a fine balance, of course, between "showing romance properly" and "now you're just shoving them into my face" (which HW, and TP, did) and because of that, I'd rather they kept romance out of the way as much as possible in Zelda games. Especially considering the implied love interest (Zelda or Ilia) are always so boring.
I saw more romance build up that was believeable between Link and Peatrice, the item check girl, in Skyward Sword.
Nonsense. If you walk into a restaurant and see a couple seated together, talking and laughing with each other, and them sometimes holding hands, would you doubt that they're an item? Just because you don't see every moment of this relationship doesn't mean it's not legitimate.
Furthermore, I'd say there's one very important difference: it's not that important in TP.
It doesn't really matter one way or the other if Illa and Link are just friends or more than that. What matters is that they're close. She clearly cares about him to some extent. And he cares about her too.
The Show, Don't Tell rule is not about always showing everything. It's about showing what's important. If Link has a thing with a background character, you don't need to shove it in my face, because it's not vital to the story. It's flavor and backstory. There are more important things going on.
However, when you're writing a story where the relationship between two characters is genuinely important, like this fanfic, that's when you really need to show it. Even more importantly, you need to not show how incompatible the two people are at every turn (which is what this fanfic does). Say what you will about Link and Illa, but you have to admit that, while there may not be a smoking gun, it still remains a possibility.
The Link and Zelda in this story never, ever seem even the slightest bit compatible, personality-wise.
Furthermore, I'd say there's one very important difference: it's not that important in TP.
That's the issue! If I'm supposed to believe that a romance is so genuine that it's basically the (if not one of the) biggest traits of a character, the romance needs to be a focal point! What is Ilia's personality? Well she seems pretty loving towards horses. Is a bit of a hothead. And her feelings for Link are obviously the bigger part. The first two are shown in one short scene, the last in another short scene and then forgotten until the long scene that I cannot skip. In-between, there's nothing. So when the big scene rolls around, I don't care about the two as any kind of closeness. (Same issue with FF VIII, where the romance tries to be a focal point but quickly fails)
I personally don't even care about Link and Zelda. If I were to say who I ship Link with, it'd either be Ghirahi, Peatrice from Skyward or Agitha.
And you do know that you don't necessarily need to like someone's personality to be compatible, right? Personalities are not THE thing for compatibility.
Um, no. Supporting characters do not need to be a focal point or have more than one trait. That's why they're supporting characters. And, as you yourself points out, Illa doesn't get enough screen time to merit being a main character. Therefore, her primary characteristic also doesn't merit having much screen time. She exists and she's there to provide whatever characterization we need for Link, but that's it.
Link has a quirky girlfriend. Just like Link has some children he plays with all the time. Just like Link has a horse. But you don't need to spend hours and hours establishing and building these elements; a few scenes here and there is sufficient. You have Link playing with the children at the beginning. You have Link and Illa's meeting at the pond. Etc. They're supporting elements meant to integrate Link into the world, to say that there are parts of it that he really cares about.
That's Illa's purpose. It's one-dimensional, but that's fine. She's a supporting character, and she's not what the story of Twilight Princess is all about.
Taking FFVIII as a comparison, the relationship between Squall and Riona is actually really important to that story. Therefore, if the writers fail to pull it off, then their story fundamentally no longer works.
Whereas if you don't buy that Link is deeply in love with Illa... so what? You spend at most a minute or two of cutscene on it over the course of the game, and that's all.
In TP, if you don't by Link/Illa, it's like a fart; it's unpleasant, but it passes quickly enough and you forget about it. In FFVIII, if you don't buy Squall/Riona... the story dies on its arse.
You seem to have a specific bugbear about romantic relationships, where they must be fully and completely justified, no matter how insignificant it is to the story. My problem is with unconvincing relationships where the relationship is a significant element of the plot.
Like in this fanfic. The first 1/3rd of it is basically about Link and Zelda. And throughout all of that time, nothing the writer does ever convinces me that these people are in any way compatible, complementary, or even functional as a pair of people.
That's 30% of the story. You cannot have 30% of the story fail and still have a functioning story.
- "If I'm supposed to believe that a romance is so genuine that it's basically the (if not one of the) biggest traits of a character, the romance needs to be a focal point!"
It was a focal point, unless you meant to say: 'needs to be the focal point'.
In which case, no, that wasn't going to happen, because the focal point of the narrative and the game itself, was saving the two realms. Hence, why Link and Ilia's relationship was relegated to being a subplot, which received a fair amount of attention.
- "What is Ilia's personality?"
She's the cute girl Link grew up with, who likes to spend her time in the forest, or helping people in need. In a nutshell.
- "Well she seems pretty loving towards horses."
There was only one in the village.
- "Is a bit of a hothead."
She only blew up once in the entire game, which she apologized for, once Collin explained what'd happened. That hardly says she's a hothead.
I wouldn't mind failure so much, if I didn't fail so much.
Am I the only one who thinks that Link/Zelda was borderline canon in Skyward Sword? I'ms surprised when people talk about chemistry between characters and don't mention that game. I don't know, it looked pretty obvious.
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Never think anything through. Including fanfics.
That's the moral of this story: people who think things through are always wrong. Link in this story always does the right thing by blindly doing whatever comes to mind. This never leads to any negative consequences for him. Whereas anyone else who suggests thinking about doing things is ultimately proven to be either cowardly or simply wrong. Yes, even the Keeper of Knowledge is shown to be completely useless because of her desire to actually think before acting.
The silliness of the Aesop isn't the worst part. But it is an appropriate Aesop, since clearly the author didn't think things through either.
The setting is non-canonical, as the fic was written well before the Zelda timeline was ironed out. That isn't the problem; it's that the events of the story contradict themselves if you think about them.
The premise is that, when Zelda sent Link back in time, his memories were erased, thus resetting himself to his 10-year-old form. But all the sages still remember these future events. Furthermore, Link also doesn't remember the escapades of his younger self, which somehow also did not happen (yet the sages remember them).
Time travel is completely abused here. When Link was sent back in time, either the next 7 years didn't happen or happened in an alternate timeline. Yet this game treats it as though they both did and did not happen. The Sages+Zelda remember those events, but they also remember the new version of the next 7 years.
Timey-Wimey indeed.
The plot also pulls out erased memories in order to create an absurd backstory for Link. For example, his parents: this fic makes him about 8-10 when they died, but he doesn't remember them because someone erased them from his memory.
But the biggest failing is the end. Link is killed and then comes back to life. Why? Remember the aesop: you're not supposed to think about things here. My guess is that he choose to be a hero. Which was not the point of the story. That stopped being an element 1/3rd of the way in (at most).
I also don't get this version of Link and Zelda's romantic relationship. The writer simply declares them to be in love, but they spend too little time together for us to really see it. No, instead we spend that time with new people like Hunter, Neesha, and so forth.