Detail Diatribe: The Anime That Inspired Wind Waker

[@SirAsdf]

"Made in a Fugue State" should really be this channel's tagline at this point.

[@chrisc1140]

At that moment I knew it'd be a great video

[@im_bored_hi_]

Can’t wait to finish watching this so I can start using it as background noise while sewing or writing without worrying about missing things

[@Nooneishere21]

Samee I'll use this audio while I'm making bracelets or cleaning

[@DookongTotoro33]

Me while painting my model kits and miniatures 😂

[@thehuntersburrow7453]

Best background for writing

[@DookongTotoro33]

@@thehuntersburrow7453I can say as a writer that’s so true

[@zaq12777]

I'll be exploring the lands between to this now.

[@Desert_paige]

I took my partner to see Laputa in theaters a year ago and they turned to me and said "so that's why you turned out the way you did" and as someone who's favorite Zelda game has always been Wind Waker, I cannot wait to listen to this on repeat.

[@AlphaoftheDeluge]

A more charitable explanation for why Nintendo refused to cite Future Boy Conan could be that they didn't want to spoil Wind Waker's story. The Great Sea being the result of Hyrule being flooded, with the islands being former mountaintops and the ruins of Hyrule found underwater, is a MAJOR plot twist about halfway through the game. Prior to this, there is barely even a hint of Hyrule being down there or of a worldwide flood having taken place. It's pretty common knowledge today, but that first dive below the ocean's surface was *mind-blowing* for players when the game first released. Nintendo might have feared that, if they said that this anime inspired them, it would tip people off to that big twist.

[@DaDunge]

Also it's only the first act of 5 and a bit at the end that is story wise similar. Yes the setting is similar but Windwaker did more with that and really the flooded world by divine grace is more biblical flood.

[@spritemon98]

I wish I played it because that's pretty much what happened in one piece

[@cjkelly7536]

​@@spritemon98I'm sorry, it happened in WHAT

[@spritemon98]

@@cjkelly7536 spoilers

[@Namelessfornow34]

​@@spritemon98bit late for the spoiler warning my dude

[@adityasingh6487]

I feel like Red's head is perpetually 27% Miyazaki by volume

[@gamewatch6861]

Just like Blue's head is 45% dome.

[@rickyn3023]

27 by volume, at least 30 by mass. Miyazaki is a pound for pound champ

[@SirAsdf]

And the other 73% is filled up with Last Airbender and ReBoot references.

[@unironicallylikesranger7122]

@@SirAsdfnah, a lot of that is superman too

[@thanetothefalseking332]

@@gamewatch6861 45% dome, 45% Venice, 28% Machiavelli, & 20% Miscellaneous

[@JoeGrzzly]

Wind Waker Ganondorf was and continues to be the most fleshed out version of the character we've seen. Even with how cool and effective the Tears Ganondorf was, he's still just "RAAH! i'M eVul! I mUst RuLe!" and he's almost always been like that, especially back in Ocarina. Wind Waker Ganondorf missed his home, the world he knew. Sure he wants to rule it, but he could easily rule the New Sea. It's a specific character choice to have him yearn for the home he used to have. And the poetic way he allegorizes the harsh desert winds as death, so that when the Hero of Winds delivers the final blow, Ganondorf's last words are "The Wind, it is blowing." gives a level of depth you don't get when Link slays Pig Monster Ganons. Wind Waker's true gift was taking Ganon the monster, and making Ganondorf the human.

[@StoryTeller796]

Even the Evil one could've had a more fleshed-out motivation. I don't know how, maybe the Goddess of the Triforce of Power doesn't want her successor to be constantly forced to be evil because of a curse on the Triforce of Courage and is slowly trying to, through the Gerudo, get through Ganondorf. That is one idea, that Ganondorf is slowly starting to become more than a curse and is gaining sentience and will soon, with the help of Link and Zelda and everyone else, break the curse? Then again, if the Curse is broken that means no more Legend of Zelda games and I wonder if Nintendo would just like to say no to that because Zelda is just that much of a cash cow.

[@ASpaceOstrich]

@@StoryTeller796 A good version of Ganondorf who has to struggle with the fact that he is cursed to be a monster is something I think a Zelda game could explore. Even if its in the form of a villain who is only a villain because everyone treated him like he would become one. But a genuine protagonist Ganondorf would be interesting.

[@AndiLang8146]

I once read a TOTK fic where Link travels to the past instead of Zelda, and forms a friendship of sorts with Ganondorf, who on his part has a chip in his shoulder the size of Vah Naboris due to particular issues with coming off as weak, something that his two older sisters (the Twinrova from Ocarina of Time) delight in taunting him about. He winds up pressing Link for details about the future and is enraged to find that the Gerudo are being led by a child, even moreso that Link failed to stop a certain Calamity - with the dramatic irony that Ganondorf can't imagine for one second that he himself is the Calamity. Link doesn't know how to tell him without making things worse.

[@StoryTeller796]

@@AndiLang8146 Honestly, I would like to read that, but A) it sounds like a pain to find and B) I kind of want to stick to reading my gender affirming fanfic rather than switch off to something else I don't know if I'm even going to relate or like.

[@AndiLang8146]

@@StoryTeller796 Okay?

[@wigglespeedturbo6324]

Miyazaki's proposed game that he would like to create from 1992 is literally Papers Please, a 2013 game that is widely regarded as excellent. It isn't fun, but it is amazing.

[@Duiker36]

For a fun version, check out Lil Guardsman (2023).

[@nerdywolverine8640]

isn't fun?? ig if you're not an enjoyer of that type of gameplay. if you like learning and applying rules for minutiae and memorizing things and spot-the-difference in a readable aesthetically pleasing setting with stakes for failure that don't affect your actual life it's very fun.

[@afuregu]

​@@nerdywolverine8640I'm pretty sure it's in reference to the dour tone...

[@joshneeter7399]

Not seeing it mentioned yet, but as soon as you mentioned "psychic connection with seagulls" I remembered that IS in Wind Waker! Kinda! There's a very weird little mechanic where an early game item from the bait shop is a pear that, if you put it on your head, summons a seagull and lets you psychically inhabit its body to fly around and get a bird's eye view of the islands. It even has Link doing a little esper pose and a trippy sound effect if I remember right. It's the sort of thing that's not an exact fit but it's SO out of place in a Zelda game that it being an homage actually makes more sense

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Miyazki built his work by exploring the ruins. Now his work _is_ the ruins.

[@henrypaleveda7760]

well i wouldn't say that his works are in ruins or are a ruin of themselves.

[@JaelinBezel]

I don’t follow

[@Cuddlebear6285]

​@@JaelinBezelThey're saying that his work heavily focuses on ruins being explored. Now that he is the inspiration to basically everything under the sun, HE'S the ruins being explored. The analogy isn't quite perfect, but that's what they meant.

[@kalinkessler5759]

@@Cuddlebear6285thank you, I would be completely lost

[@StoryTeller796]

@@Cuddlebear6285 Yeah it isn't, but it sure sounds nice.

[@GeneralOlde]

8:31 it’s worth noting that in both instances the main character is able to restore the dragon to their original form because of their memories of their original identities. Chihiro remembers Haku’s name, turning him back into a boy. Link uses the time power Zelda entrusted to him to restore her to her original form because he remembers her so well, effectively answering Breath of the Wild’s ending where Zelda asked him, “Do you still remember me?” The other anime that had a huge influence on Wind Waker was Little Prince and the Eitht Headed Dragon (1963). Its character design and art style heavily influenced Wind Waker.

[@spritemon98]

Kinda wish she kept a few dragon features

[@GollyJolly]

Wind Waker was also inspired by Animal Treasure Island

[@GeneralOlde]

@@GollyJolly Definitely. The water effects in Wind Waker, particularly when the characters are sailing, are straight out of Animal Treasure Island.

[@Sonnance]

One of the most interesting things about WW’s Ganon is that he *is* OoT’s Ganondorf. We get to see a Ganondorf humbled by defeat, left to his thoughts for centuries, and how that affected him as a person. He’s changed a lot since OoT, but in the end he’s still himself, and so he still fails once more. (Something that’s especially fascinating since we can contrast him to his alternate-self in TP, who is also OoT’s Dorf, but who was made to take a different path in life.) And that’s a really unique type of storytelling that’s only really possible in series like Zelda, whose entries are simultaneously connected *and* self-contained.

[@burnin8able]

I appreciate that even the pinnacle of the industry greats still have OC character concepts that they rotate in their mind 24/7 and can't stop putting into all their stuff, like Miyazaki and his short haired ass-kicking heroine archetype

[@Ntlcstr]

Fun fact a lot of Miyazakis heroines are based on his mom personality wise she had spinal tuberculosis so she was bed bond his whole childhood but she still ruled the whole house and was great and kind mom to her kids. Its also why in Ponyo all the old ladies got a chance to walk again even just for a short while

[@ASquared544]

After watching Castle in the Sky: “Huh, Zelda makes a lot more sense now.” “Huh, Aurora makes a lot more sense now.” “Huh, Skies of Arcadia makes a lot more sense now.” “Huh, Chrono Trigger makes a lot more sense now.” *”Huh-“*

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

"Huh, Final Fantasy III makes a lot more sense now" "Huh, Dragon Quest VII makes a lot more sense now" "Huh, Trails of Innocence makes a lot more sense now"

[@matthewmuir8884]

I saw Castle in the Sky for the first time back in January of this year. I knew going in how much it inspired Wind Waker, and it was a lot of fun to see the film that set the mold for the "so far after the fall of a civilization that everyone's moved on and those trying to revive it are the villains" subgenre.

[@fluffybluedrgn2706]

Exactly!! I think these are one of my fav generes in general. The whole we belong to the earth and to the earth we must return, no matter how much technology we have sentiment

[@matthewmuir8884]

@@fluffybluedrgn2706 Interestingly, while that was the theme of Castle in the Sky, Wind Waker's theme was rather different. In Castle in the Sky, the people abandoned the castle because they realized that they had literally detached themselves from the Earth and from those below them. Meanwhile, with Wind Waker, Hyrule's downfall came because everyone waited for a chosen hero to appear and defeat Ganondorf, leading to no one stepping up to actually be the hero. They're both good themes, and their respective stories do a good job exploring them.

[@TerryGShaw]

@@matthewmuir8884 I think it was Mark Hamill's first ever voice role b4 he got to be the voice of the Joker in Batman.

[@matthewmuir8884]

@@TerryGShaw It wasn't; while the movie itself was made in 1986, the English dub of Castle in the Sky is from 2003, long after he voiced The Joker in the Batman animated series.

[@matthewmuir8884]

@@TerryGShaw Also, Mark Hamill's actual first ever voice role was the show _Jeannie_ in 1973; thirteen years before the original Japanese release of Castle in the Sky, and thirty years before the English dub of Castle in the Sky.

[@LordSusaga]

As a fan of an obscure game, it is my duty to recommend an additional Laputa-style cake in the form of Skies of Arcadia. It's a final fantasy-esque game that starts with a girl getting chased by the empire for her connection to a lost superweapon, then working with air pirates to stop them from using the weapon. The twist is that you're already in the sky, and nobody knows how to get to the surface without dying horribly. It's a game I played and felt incredible nostalgia for, despite never playing it before in my life.

[@kaistephens2694]

FUCKING. YES. YES. YES. ABSOLUTELY. IF ONLY SEGA WOULD REMAKE IT.

[@nicholas209]

Oh hell yeah! Skies of Arcadia on the Gamecube was one of my favorite childhood games.

[@TorvusVae]

that game is sooo good

[@Artista_Frustrado]

i hope the current AGES initiative includes a Skies of Arcadia revival

[@owenhoover2955]

I watched all of JelloApocalypse' Skies playthrough and I FULLY AGREE

[@isaaclee1416]

LOVE these video game detail diatribes! People don’t connect video games to other forms of media nearly enough. One lil thing, y’all talk about Miyamoto like he’s making the shots in LoZ, but it’s been Eiji Aonuma making major calls in the series since Windwaker! Miyamoto definitely has veto power considering LoZ is his baby, but he’s too busy building theme parks. The sitter has become the master!!

[@Vasrevenge]

I don't know if someone else already said it, but 'Nadia : the secret of blue water' is based on a concept and character created by Hayao Miyazaki, even though the show is directed by Hideaki Anno (*cough cough* Evangelion *cough cough* ). So the 'Myiazaki's island world' timeline gets even more fun : Future Boy Conan(1978) => Laputa, Castle in the Sky (1986) => Nadia, the Secret of blue water (1990)

[@Vinemaple]

Not only that, but Anno worked for Miyazaki on Naushicaa: Valley of the Wind. Specifically, he did the animation for the reawakened giant death robot that decomposes into goo.

[@AndrewDederer]

Nadia is the completion of a very Jules-Vernesc story Miyazaki did a treatment of for NHK back just before choosing to make Conan. NHK handed it off to Gainax to get it made 10 years later. Meantime, Miyazaki borrowed several bits from it (especially the girl with the McGuffin Jewel) for Laputa. Both were made after Anno had worked for Miyazaki.

[@billywarren007]

Blue, the judge of all things confirmed

[@avalon1007]

Red, you touched on an important point that I feel very strongly about: "I don't need something to be original, I just need it to be good" - 58.45 (I don't clip anything sorry friends) I adore the How To Train Your Dragon franchise in general (the modern-times setting one isn't good, I think its called New Realms or something like that). The movies and tv shows are not an original idea. They are a "Boy meets Dog" adventure. But they are incredibly well thought out, have loveable characters, are incredible to watch, and are generally very creative, and that makes them great. I've seen plenty of Boy meets Dog, but HTTYD does it far better than most other franchises.

[@Duiker36]

I like that you took the effort to pin down the exact timestamp, and then used a period instead of a colon so that no one could click on it. Good job.

[@avalon1007]

@@Duiker36 I aim to please

[@LuneWatcher]

58:45 here, if this saves you a few seconds

[@DParkerNunya]

Hearing that Castle in the Sky is Red's favorite Ghibli film is so validating. I know it's not the best Ghibli film, but oh my god is it at the center of my heart.

[@phastinemoon]

It’s a toss up between Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service (Although, technically, Princess Mononoke is my ultimate favorite, but I can’t watch that movie with my nephew)

[@Kagomai15]

Yet! He'll get older! ❤​@@phastinemoon

[@quinnleavitt4105]

The first time I saw castle in the sky I thought it was really good but not one of my favorites but there's really some magic about it and coming back to it again this year really puts it in a special place in my heart. It's one of the best Ghibli films for a sense of wonder and adventure and I love it.

[@rue8929]

Same! Castle in the Sky was my first Ghibli movie and to this day is my favorite. It's got a certain kind of magic and wonder in it that no other Ghibli has managed to recreate for me.

[@AndiLang8146]

I have different Ghibli go-tos depending on my mood. Castle in the Sky is for when I want to feel inspired. Kiki's Delivery Service is for when I don't know where I'm at. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is for when I want to experience wonder. My Neighbor Totoro is for when I feel nostalgic. Princess Mononoke is for when I just want to feel.

[@matthewmuir8884]

One comparison I find really interesting is the strong thematic reasons that the various works give for why the old civilization fell and should not be revived: I don't know about Future Boy Conan, but I know how, in Castle in the Sky, the people abandoned the castle because they realized that they had literally detached themselves from the Earth and from those they saw as beneath them. Musca exhibits this exact same character flaw because he's deliberately completely alone, and one man cannot revive a kingdom. In Wind Waker, Hyrule fell because the people kept waiting for a chosen hero to appear to defeat Ganondorf, so no one took up the mantle. The King of Hyrule exhibits this flaw as, even after being reawakened due to Ganondorf escaping, he just waits outside the Foresaken Fortress for a hero to appear. The Link in this game, meanwhile, isn't chosen; he confronts the Helmaroc King and Ganondorf because they abducted his sister. He chooses to take up the mantle.

[@metrux321]

I think the two cakes is a good fit for this thought process, because when something is just plagiarized... you don't feel like that. You feel kinda dirty, bummed out, like "Well, it was just the same again..." While with those adaptations, and inspirations, you can get the same feel, but it doesn't feel the same, it feels like seeing it again for the first time.

[@jessejones7251]

I love this method of artistic inspiration/adaptation/whatever because it's basically the way humans have iterated on stories since time immemorial. Folk tales, myths, etc were all changed gradually by individuals over decades and centuries in pre-copyright societies. It's something we've mostly lost and it feels cool to rediscover it

[@maxmillianwiegel1643]

I like to think of Ghibli as a “serene whimsy.”

[@SirGrimly]

Originality comes not from the ideas one has, but from the ways in which they implement those ideas into their story.

[@michaelkaduck1915]

I think there's something to be said in children's media from decades ago, and how it stands to be much more emotionally mature than most stuff geared towards adults. In both Miyazaki's early work, and in games like The Wind Waker, the fact that they manage to teach kids serious lessons in a way that is gentle, yet still impacts them, is admirable. In the case of Wind Waker, especially with its gorgeous art style, and its ending...it comes together perfectly. The King choosing to sacrifice himself, and the world he failed, is a poignant message that only becomes more important with time. He understood fully he couldn't make up for the world the new generation lived in, and let go of it for their sake. Unlike Ganondorf, who obsessed over reclaiming his glory days he felt he hadn't fulfilled. And like Miyazaki's vision of a world post-calamity still managing to have good people and joy and life, the Great Sea is full of it.

[@jackielinde7568]

The difference between an adaptation and plagiarism is the difference between "What would Romeo and Juliette look like if told through the eyes of a dog" versus, "Let's do Romeo and Juliette, but so people don't know we're doing Romeo and Juliette, we're making everybody dogs."

[@christiancasaverdepertica1802]

Okay, but the "romeo and juliette but [blank]" stories are nearly their own category at this point, and some of them are actually interesting with rhe concepts they use

[@jackielinde7568]

@@christiancasaverdepertica1802 I think you missed the point. Both could be described as "Romeo and Juliette, but as Dogs", but one actually explores the theme where the other is just an excuse to do Romeo and Juliette without putting any creative work in.

[@kamikazelemming1552]

Lion King 2 did their "Romeo and Juliet, but with..." film really well, where instead of Romeo (Kovu) being head-over-heels for Juliet (Kiara), he is actually sent in to assassinate Juliet's father (Simba).

[@HaakonTheRayquaza]

the best example I can think of about "this inspired everything that came afterwards" is; Berserk changed the Dark Fantasy genre forever and inspired gothic series like Dark Souls and Elden Ring

[@JaelinBezel]

And Dragon Age?

[@CykeMonkey]

I mean, Berserk actually takes a lot from Devilman and Violence Jack.

[@christiancasaverdepertica1802]

​@@CykeMonkey Something can take inspiration and still be an inspiration

[@CykeMonkey]

@@christiancasaverdepertica1802 well, yeah, but it's also a bit disingenuous to go "well, Berserk inspired this," when you actually mean "Berserk inspired this, but in Japan, the genre was inspired by Devilman." It takes away credit from other creators that deserve recognition

[@christianholbrook2686]

@@JaelinBezel I think the greatest inspiration for Dragon Age, especially origins, would be A Song of Ice and Fire. Especially the idea of treachery from within weakening a kingdom against an unstoppable horde of monsters.

[@flintlocke1344]

Hearing you talk about Miyazaki’s proto-Nausicaa’s made me think about Summer Wars and how it’s basically a remake of Digimon: Our War Game

[@AcenMasterX]

Yeah, and with them being from the same animation studio, it's like, "Now let's try that again without being chained to a licensed property."

[@josephperez2004]

I loved Summer Wars, especially the fact it explored both aspects, good and bad, that a digitally connected world can have. You get the bad when Love Machine starts wreaking real world havoc due to stealing accounts that belong to government workers and using their job credentials to cause chaos on infrastructure, until Granny Sakae goes old school and starts home phone dialing all her contacts from her long life to get people to stop panicking and coordinating to control things. And you get to see the good when Natsuke manages to convince Love Machine to gamble with its stolen accounts against the family's collective accounts. They literally only have enough accounts to try this once and cannot afford to lose a round. And they do lose. But then people watching from all over the world step up, seeing this single Japanese family risking everything to stop an apocalyptic level virus, offering their accounts to the family to get them back into the challenge.

[@kamikazelemming1552]

To this day, I consider Summer Wars to be the best of Hosoda's films. Everything about it is just so good.

[@horseenthusiast9903]

I'm glad I'm not alone in the "All Studio Ghibli movies are great but only a small number rewired my brain chemistry" camp! I didn't get to watch any of them as a little kid (my parents didn't know the movies existed so I just never got to see them), but I watched Princess Mononoke in middle school, and oh man. It was amazing. It felt like the kid gloves came off for that movie and the themes of nature got the chance to be just as brutal and beautiful and sublime as they are in life, and I was so there for it. On a broader note, I really appreciated the conversation about inspiration and adaptation. It's something I've thought about a lot over the years, particularly regarding the art that I make. I think that so long as you ensure things rhyme with your inspiration rather than repeat the whole verse, so to speak, you're on the right track. Leaving your fingerprints on a work and leaving new space for the next artists to be inspired is crucial.

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

I feel like one of the few _open_ Windwaker fans. I dig the art/animation. Fun telling of "The Zelda Epic." Actual lore dumps. And when all of your silent protagonists sound the same, WW gives the most life. You can't not at least chuckle when you do the spin too long and make Link dizzy.

[@JayEyedWolf]

Windwaker is such a whimsical delight, honestly. How can you not feel joy when you shoot a cyclone frog in the butt a bunch of times, or hear Link's "AH dja dja dja" when he slips on ice? The art is so versatile; cute, yes, but the way they make Ganondorf feel like a threat, the boss designs... it all HITS. It's where we got the Rito (even if "the fish evolved into birds when the world flooded" is powerfully silly). So many of the islands have such brilliant designs! I won't pretend it's a perfect game-- it has several tedious bits-- but it has so much HEART and so much of it is of course Nintendo-polished. The traversal and combat mechanics are some of my favorites in the series, and the dungeons are brilliantly varied and vertical. Sorry I forgot where I was going with this I just wanted you to know you're not alone in your Windwaker appreciation. It's a good game!!! *Edited because KZbin apparently uses emdashes to put strikethroughs and it did NOT like me trying to use them??? Who the fuck uses '-' for strikethrough instead of '~~'?!

[@deparinge]

Are there unopen WW fans?

[@elius1548]

All of this talk on adaptations is super interesting to me as an artist. My artform is music, and what I do more than anything is string orchestra arrangements of preexisting music. The questions I ask are things like “is it possible to display the grandeur of Duel of the Fates with just strings?” or “how do I make Tressa’s theme, which is designed to be played on a loop, have a strong and satisfying finale” Most often, the question I ask myself when arranging is “what makes this piece sound so fantastic to me” being able to breakdown, rearrange, trim, and add to a piece of music I love gives me a greater appreciation for the piece, and a greater understanding of music as a whole. A good adaptation is not about the changes you do or do not make to the original, it’s about what you can appreciate about it and how you can learn from it

[@MinamotoKensuke]

I think a big part of the plagiarism vs. inspiration debate is the concept of "intellectual property". IP frames ideas as a thing you buy and sell and it's designed to benefit capital holders more than creatives. So it incentivizes people to want to "steal" ideas instead of contemplate them, and it incentivizes people to want to guard their "property" instead of spread their ideas.

[@RmsOceanic]

The chief Laputa-Breath of the Wild homage that always struck with me is the Temple of Time. The piano music played there feels so strongly like the piano piece at the beginning of Laputa's opening sequence, even without the context of nostalgia for the Temple of Time theme.

[@soranuareane]

"Miyazaki finds himself in an awful lot of artistic family trees." That's the most elegant way I've heard that said.

[@connormclernon26]

The big lesson I think should be taken from the Wind Waker is "The past must not cannibalize the future." The Old King and Ganondorf were so deeply rooted in the world of the past, in Hyrule that they were both loathe to let go. But where Ganondorf was consumed by his obsession with what was, the Old King realized that the past is the past, and the future needs to be allowed to grow and flourish. As for Zelda no longer being tan, I see that as the King trying to force archetypes on to a generation that no longer fit them.

[@michaelkaduck1915]

Yes. That's why I love Wind Waker as my favorite Zelda story. It has the most emotionally mature theme of moving on from the past. The finale is the culmination of that: It's not a perfect solution, but there has to eventually be a stop to the cycle. Hyrule has become nothing more than a grand parasite of temptation and obsession with 'The Good Old Days". The King's sacrifice of himself and Hyrule is probably the greatest sacrifice that could be made.

[@DaDunge]

Yes. Windwaker is not without it's own theme. And the theme is letting go. Just as the theme of ocarina of time is growing up.

[@DaDunge]

​@@michaelkaduck1915God I love that moment.

[@metarcee2483]

I always thought Zelda was wearing makeup in that scene.

[@rmsgrey]

@@michaelkaduck1915 And then there's not one but two sequels, playing out variations on the cycle. Okay, Bellum and the realm of the Ocean King are different enough that they might earn a pass (it's much more of a Link's Awakening anyway) but if someone swapped Malladus out for Ganon, would anyone notice?

[@BiblicFurby]

Fascinating to learn that the way I write my dnd games has been 100% inspired by something I've never seen, but have seen and played derivations of.

[@popogeejo]

I only learned of Future Boy Conan because it featured in Keep your hands off of Eizouken, an anime about loving animation. The studio went through special efforts to get clips of Conan so evidently a lot of people consider it an important influence.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

Oh, right! That's where I heard of it!

[@qwertyman1511]

I recently watched a GDC talk called "An Apology for Roger Ebert" which also explicitly outlines the conflict between cinematic art and the design of videogames. You can really tell they are both experiencing the distinction, that movies (and art as envisioned by the romantics) is very intentional and specific (this word and no other, in this place and no other), where as videogames have to give up intentionality and specificity to allow player interaction.

[@mattt5970]

Zeltik: here's some references in one Zelda game pointing back to this other Zelda game, and my fan theory on this character. OSP: here's the progenitor idea of an entire Zelda game A beautiful matchup

[@jroden06]

That was an incredibly poignant walk through of the differences between homage and plagiarism. So much of the reception also comes down to how much effort the author puts into making the inspired work its own level of cool. Authors can't be lazy about this and phone it in, you really have to analyze why certain parts of a work are cool enough to motivate and inspire.

[@dlazaro4102]

"...I don't care how originall something is, I care about how good it is!" - new favorite Red quote.

[@Sovreign071]

Ugh. The one thing I hate about Ghibli is their inability to NOT copyright strike anything that showcases their content! Such as the video you linked. Honestly, it's almost as if they DON'T want people discussing their work! Eyes Unclouded by Hate, but not stupidity.

[@stevejakab274]

Nintendo does the same thing. Hey, there's another thing they copied!

[@AviRox1154]

Wind Waker has held a special place in my heart for years, I'm so glad y'all are talking about it! It might just be tied with Majora's Mask for my favorite Zelda title.

[@etheric_dissonance]

the beyond ghibli mention made me so happy! i'm a longtime fan of that channel and it does NOT get enough love.

[@thetruerift]

The reason that Nintendo doesn't talk too much about their inspirations is partly because they themselves are *notoriously* litigious about their own IPs, so they may not want to admit they borrow ideas from elsewhere so they don't undermine their own actions.

[@eyesofthecervino3366]

Exactly what I was thinking. It's not unlike Disney being built on adaptations of public domain stories, and then turning around and slamming the door shut for everyone else. It's like they all know full well art would be so much better off if we let more people at these ideas, but that doesn't stop them from dragonishly clamping down on anything they can claim for themselves, regardless of what inspiration they've benefited from.

[@purpleshutin]

Oh boy, another detail diatribe about a game I've never played that I'm going to watch over and over again

[@nicobane]

Sorry to be the guy that fact checks and stuff and I'm sure others have pointed it out but it really goes even further back than what you point out in this video. Takahata's first directed film Horas no daibouken is essentially the blueprint for the entirety of the zelda series and very clearly a design blueprint for the ww art style. Miya obv also worked on it but ultimately it's a product of Takahata as well as 2 other works he directed I feel also deeply run in the blood of zelda: Pandako panda and doubutsu takarajima (animal treasure island). Animal treasure island is very clearly THE biggest inspiration on windwaker, from the the concept of a boy riding a boat through a huge colorful sea, to a spunky tomboy pirate girl. It even has a big evil pig guy as the villian. I understand miyazaki is the star child of ghibli (and even of pre ghibli toei works like conan and nausicaa) but i think it's important to clarify that it is in fact not just miyazaki that shaped this style and this industry. he just happens to be the person that's still an active name today. Yasuo Otsuka and Takahata have as much (if not more) influence over what we understand as ghibli styles. This isn't even mentioning the fact that the character designer for most classic iconic nintendo characters (yoichi kotabe) was a toei animator at the time of horas. I'd recommend looking into both the works of takahata and otsuka pre-ghibli to get a sense of what miya-san will basically frame his entire career and cinematic lineage around, to the point that even last year's Boy and the Heron is still deeply connected to those early toei works that were so instrumental to him, ghibli as a whole and all works that were inspired by them. ...Tezuka too but that's a whole lot more stuff that I'm not even gonna pretend I'm prepared to talk about. Needless to say Tezuka's first manga was also a treasure island adventure so yknow. layers upon layers.

[@annekeener4119]

I love your points about adaptation and inspiration. I hate when people dismiss a popular movie/book/franchise with “well this just rips off X earlier movie”. The two might have similar inspirations or one inspired the other. You just have two cakes now, one that you might like a lot better, but now there are two cakes instead of one. Likewise the point about homage vs. plagiarism. Homage is taking something someone else did and giving it your own spin. Someone paying homage will happily cite the inspiration and give them credit. Plagiarism is taking someone else’s ideas and presenting them as your own. Someone plagiarizing will only reluctantly credit the originator if at all. I wonder if Nintendo never credited Future Boy Conan as the inspiration of Wind Waker because they were afraid of being accused of plagiarism when it came as an homage, but not crediting makes it look even more like plagiarism even though it isn’t.

[@cormacbyrne2210]

The Legend of Zelda has such a beautiful aesthetical vision, it's no surprise that Ghibli has influenced the games. Still, it's nice to hear the deep dive on the subject. Thank you, OSP.

[@strawbearie9469]

this is probably pretty obvious, but the part about Miyazaki’s bad guys being people who cling to the weapons of the past rather than looking to the future and living in harmony is very interesting given Japan’s history in the first half of the 20th century, especially since Japan completely refuses to admit what they did wrong

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

It's a theme that we see coming back in recent years (Symphogear being the big one), which is also quite interesting in itself

[@kemokage]

Diana Wynne Jones actually really liked Miyazaki’s version of Howl’s Moving Castle and respected that he came at it from a different angle.

[@creeperx3sssboom347]

Oh hey, a Detail Diatribe on my birthday about Zelda? Hell yeah!

[@arandomqueerfanpeep7655]

Happy birthday!

[@RedWizrobe]

Happy birthday! 🎉 🎂

[@fangchinghungproductions]

Happy birthdayyy 🎉

[@starmaker75]

I admit I love the "civilization has become more tune/aware in nature after the post apocalypse" trope, we should see more of it. Unrelated but it slightly cracks me up that hayao miyazaki help work on lupin the third part 1 and castle of Castro given lupin himself is a bit of the opposite of a studio Ghibli protagonist. Also he helps Lupin be less of pervert because what he does in the manga is......ooof

[@almessasorrow4950]

90s anime typically had a Shinto focus(good example is DBZ, bleach, alita, akira and ghibli) Lupin doesn't have a Shinto focus so Miyazaki tried to give it one(Focus on the consequences on nature) it didn't stick, because it's a comedy, and lupin is in it mostly for fun, not for gain. In short, the reason lupin didn't fit the ghibli mold is because lupin characters aren't going against nature in any way(or at least it's rare) instead they're going with it. Where 90s anime is Shinto vs villain's, lupin rarely is. Lupin is Shinto vs Shinto, showing that the view isn't perfect.

[@starmaker75]

​​@@almessasorrow4950and I will said lupin is the someone similar to bugs Bunny, Loki and monkey king. In fact he is a monkey king exp, but he takes more of the trickster side and even at times the more dark side of monkey king character rather than the strength and feats compare other exps.

[@DaDunge]

That's not really the theme of windwaker. In fact in windwaker you see technological progress after they let go of the divine magic that Hyrule was obsessed with.

[@TerryGShaw]

The Castle of Cagliostro help saved Disney Animation when they made the Great Mouse Detective with battle in the Clock Tower.

[@spritemon98]

Castle of cagliostro

[@LuperisNone]

I am cursed to endlessly repeat "Let me give you a diatribe!" in my head, when watching these videos now.

[@KINGBADASS100]

Another anime that greatly shaped the visual look of Wind Waker certainly is “The Little Prince & The Eight Headed Dragon”. It was an old (first released in 1963) animated film from Toei Animation that retold the ancient legend of the storm god Susanoo & his battle against the eight headed serpent Yamato No Orochi. The movie had a very distinct modernist art style that favoured bold, geometric minimalist designs which directly inspired not just Wind Waker but also Genndy Tartakovsky on Samurai Jack & Tom Moore on Cartoon Saloon!

[@bray2964]

Well, thanks for telling me about the show that inspired the overarching narrative of one of my favourite pieces of media ever! I had no idea there were so many connections between Future Boy Conan and One Piece!

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

It's literally your favorite (japanese) artist's favorite anime. For example, there's another comment here about how the Eizouken anime adaptation directly references it (and it's Masaaki Yuasa's love letter to the entire medium)

[@evanbrooks1926]

In Laputa, muska lightly taps the crystal before picking it up after the fortress is destroyed. In totk Zelda lightly taps the secret stone before picking it up in the intro

[@xenofirescholar]

To be fair to the Aonuma answer referenced a few times, the phrasing of the question (or at least of the translation) mentions the art style as being the reason for the question. The answer given is also regarding the style (likely meaning art style specifically) not being inspired from a specific person, so it might have been a misinterpretation of the question. While the question ask what inspired the team during development in general, the mention of the art style might make it seem like the question is specifically about the art style, not mentioning what inspired the setting and plot when talking about what inspired the art style was not necessarily disingenuous. I don't know if this apply to the phrasing of the question and answers in Japanese, but leaving out Miyazaki/Ghibli as inspiration for the plot and setting might not have been on purpose (since the art style is clearly different).

[@gloomyscribbles]

I was literally JUST thinking about how LoZ had a huge ghibli feel to it and then my favorite youtube duo posts a detail diatribe on the exact topic!

[@stevendorries]

Holy crap the summary of Future Boy Conan made my jaw drop as Red told the story of Windwaker

[@Emily-tv1iz]

Part of the Conan to Wind Waker threads to me read as someone saw the anime and went "what if Zelda took place in a word like this one?" and then it just *spiraled* from there. It screams inspiration more so than "filed the serial numbers off"

[@GargoyleDragon]

Hayao Miyazaki did the same thing with Howl’s Moving Castle. Original story: here’s a love story about truly listening to your partner. Ghibli interpretation: a love story about surviving through time and strife. Both good, but won’t satisfy fans of the other.

[@robinsanford5682]

Which is why I hated the anime. I read the book as a kid, and seeing the story suddenly have a war that never happened made me so angry. Even more confusing, another book in the series with Howl’s Moving Castle is called Castle in the Sky.

[@allyli1718]

@@robinsanford5682I feel like the book is so easy to understand, it’s a beautiful story. And Miyazaki’s version left all my friends confused and I had to explain it to them bc he was too dang focused on the war to actually tell the story. Smhh

[@jellycrab]

Could you maybe do a video on the Amazigh mythology? I've seen and loved your stuff on mythology and since I'm Algerian and part of the Amazigh tribe myself I'd like to here someone talk about it in the mainstream!

[@bernadettemontembault665]

The part at the end about reading the classics and seing where all the modern tropes or sensibilities came from really echoed something that happened recently. Here in France we just got a big budget adaptation of the count of Monte-Cristo, a huuuuuuge classic of our literature which i believe has influenced authors far and wide throughout the world, and when i saw the film (which from what i could gather is a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel) i thought "wow... so that guy's basically Batman right ?" And so many of the techniques he uses the aesthetics the ruses and such are so obviously staples or blueprints for staples of the detective and to a lesser extent superhero media today that it was really interesting and inspiring to see. I don't know if the film is getting an international release but i highly recommend watching it if you can, or reading the original novel which inspired so much else

[@cameronpearce5943]

Proud to say I watched Future Boy Conan back in highschool on KZbin back in like… 2014-16? Absolutely required watching for everyone whoes wanted a Ghibli TV series. It’s brilliant and how they should have done Earthsea in my opinion (Still love Goro’s movie though)

[@ruthieweber2623]

This is a very good video, as with all your Detail Diatribes, and you bring up some very good points regarding inspiration and adaptation and how that interacts with storytelling. And I understand that you deeply stress that the correlations are not supposed to be a negative, especially with the mention of plagiarism existing because people disrespect the work versus inspiration, which adores the work, *and* your emphasis that the story is not what defines Wind Waker. However, throughout this, I feel that the off-the-cuff style of these videos leads to moments where it does come off as really accusatory through jokes and especially the emphasis you put on that interview. You use that interview explicitly as an example of Nintendo being coy, of them not admitting they were inspired by this work. Yet, as other comments point out, the question was explicitly talking about the game’s *style*, which was A. a discussion point earlier in the interview because it was a big discussion at the time, and B. something that doesn’t make reference to the narrative of the game, which is specifically the point you are making - that the narratives are similar and they’re hiding it. Additionally, there’s the notion that Miyamoto was being a bit less coy about his inspirations in that interview, but you will see in a Nintendo Power interview in 2005 that Aonuma is fully willing to state that Miyazaki’s works are an inspiration of his. Nintendo is definitely a lot more secretive about their development process and inspirations than other game developers, especially with them scrubbing away interviews, but this video is framing that as an act of shame. That they are taking something from somewhere else and monetizing it as the next entry in their beloved series, and that aspect of monetization is exactly what defines that argument about plagiarism versus inspiration. You mention how the inclusion of a large evil bird was their replacement for the boat because that specific bird hadn’t been in a previous game, and while that’s technically true, it’s very much inspired from previously established things. The Helmaroc King is a variation of A Link to the Past’s Helmasaur King, which was a lizard, and both of them require the player to smash their mask to pieces. Additionally, Link’s Awakening had the Roc’s Feather, which let you jump gaps, and it had the Evil Eagle boss, which was summoned by another villain to deal with Link. I think I’m less irked by your opinions per say, since you say at every opportunity that this is not meant to be accusatory, that it’s not negative, that it’s natural, and I’m more hesitant about what people are going to take away from this. Like I love all of your discussions here about inspiration. It’s very thought-provoking. But with part of the ending conclusion being “Nintendo learned how to better take inspiration” feels… dismissive? As though the Wind Waker doesn’t really have any of its own merits outside of it being a video game. And I guess a lot of what does make it feel unique and impressive can be tied to that video game perspective on immersion, but I can’t help but feel Wind Waker’s been dirtied by the framing here. Again, when we’re playing with topics like this I guess I view phrasing as very important, and when you talk about it without a script, it’s easy to keep slipping into the “easiest” way to discuss it, which is that accusatory angle. Long ramble, but I do love these videos, and this one really does make me think. But I just had to comment my feelings about it to get it out of my system.

[@Mal_Ah_Key]

Good to see someone finally made this video and it wasn't a reductive takedown I love both Conan and Wind Waker and the similarities were exciting to discover. Wind Waker, Grandia and Megaman Legends are all Laputa/Future Boy Conan homages and are some of my favourite all time games that stand on their own artistically and thematically beyond just their format as interactive versions of another piece of media. Frankly it's more depressing seeing "Ghibli" be reduced to a cottage core Aesthetic to be typed thoughtlessly into an AI image generator.

[@Di_DAM_Booknerd]

Yay a new vid!💙💙💙

[@doodledrew7039]

There is a big bird in zelda prior to Wind Waker, the "evil eagle" in links awakening, plus reference to the mythological Roc in form of the Roc's feather and cape in several games. Which eventually went on to inform the name of King Helmaroc and the Kargarocs.

[@J4R0N4BL3]

It's a shame the Beyond Ghibli's Breath of the Wild video has been copyright claimed

[@DaDunge]

Ghibli loves to do copyright strikes.

[@DragonbIaze052]

@@DaDunge I think Nintendo's considerably more litigious.

[@kevinr.9733]

​@@DragonbIaze052It's a Ghibli claim that took the video down, at least where I am currently. (If I remember, I'll check again when I get home.) Nintendo has at least glanced in the general direction of a "fair use" doctrine.

[@DragonbIaze052]

@@kevinr.9733 I don't think the company who shut down a major Smash tournament, copyright strikes Twitch streamers for playing their games, forced Gary's Mod to remove all Nintendo-related content, cancelled streams of the Splatoon 2 finals, and is in the process of scrubbing every Nintendo emulator of the face of the Earth should be given credit for their understanding of fair use.

[@kevinr.9733]

@@DragonbIaze052 Hence "glanced in the direction of". At least they've allowed people to make gameplay videos on KZbin. Yes, they are very protective of their IP and don't want people using it in ways they don't intend (the justification for most of the things you listed), but you're not going to be forced off this platform for just showing footage from a Nintendo game in its proper context. And the point stands: *Ghibli claimed the video in question.* Nintendo was happy to let well enough alone.

[@elijahguttman9289]

YEEEEEEESSSSS! A whole video on Ghibli! I'm stoked!

[@kingsdayinfirmi]

HELL YES! RIGHT AS MY WORK STARTED! NOW I HAVE NO QUESTION ON WHAT I NEED MY BACKGROUND NOISE TO BE!

[@LordOmnit]

My takeaway was that inside every creative and critic there are two wolves: one says copying is plagiarism and evil, the other says that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[@Radien]

I find it a little peculiar that Aonuma was the one saying “we had no inspirations” while Miyamoto was the one to step in and say “actually, we do watch anime...” It kinda messes up my narrative that Nintendo has collective trauma over that one time in the 80s when Universal sued them over Donkey Kong, came close to tanking Nintendo, but then lost and subsequently lost their rights to King Kong to the public domain. Miyamoto was there for that. Aonuma, I believe, was not. But perhaps working at Nintendo, Aonuma picked up some of that company culture, while Miyamoto the eternal wide-eyed wonderboy couldn't help but acknowledge this one actual creative influence.

[@inertiastar]

(Spoiler warning for BOTW and TOTK)I just thought of this as I watch it, so I hope it isn't commonly discussed, but a Miazakian interpretation of the story of botw and totk works fairly well: The great calamity being a metaphor for the atomic bomb and how it corrupts the world with radiation (the guardians) and how the fallout lasts for many years (the guardians again). Totk would represent how there were two bombs, showing war never finishes and radiation sickness (the evil malice/gloom that infects link throughout the game.

[@Rixec2]

Very fascinating to see just how deep a rabbit hole can go in allowing stories to thrive over time, how they're always changing for each new generation.

[@Skip6235]

I finally watched Castle in the Sky last night, and it was fascinating to see all the things that had been influenced by it. But the one I haven’t heard people mention before is Halo. Very aesthetically similar with ancient technology with lush environment on the top and then wire floating technology underneath and a super weapon inside.

[@Mylacelium]

I'm so happy that Red adores Laputa: Castle in the Sky as much as she does, because that's like my 2nd favourite movie of all time, it does absolutely everything I love. Hearing people talk with an endless passion about things you also love is one of the greatest things in life!

[@crimsen4]

37:04 they did make that game, it's called 'papers please' and it's actually pretty good

[@existents6989]

The amount of times I've had to pause a Detail Diatribe for a month to watch the subject spoiler-free is too many times to count at this point (ie. God of War, Andor, and now this anime). Thank you Red and Blue for continually fucking up my content schedule with incredible suggestions❤❤

[@okaminodin4321]

Kind of a non-sequitur, but by hearing u talk about Legend of Zelda I just had the idea that I really want to see a Zelda game where for once Ganondorf, being conscious about the legends and how he's destined to be "the bad guy" and fight Link, actually decides to say "yeah no fuck that I'm gonna be the goodest guy" and you spend most of the game with Link and Ganondorf as co-protagonists, being bros and interacting a lot just to reach a point where they have such a fundamental disagreement that they end up having to fight each other and they both hate it. I'm sorry, I just really love drama, and "two best friends end up having to fight each other for their ideals" is one of my favorite tropes XD

[@thrillhouse_vanhouten]

I'm really, really glad you made this episode. I've been closely studying Future Boy Conan ever since I watched it in 2021, and have seen its influences pop up EVERYWHERE in Miyazaki's work, as well as Zelda games in general ever since. Who'd have thought that an obscure anime from 1978 would be the best show I watched in 2021-2024

[@aquamarinerose5405]

I know it's not relevant to the Zelda talk, but I find it hilarious that Miyazaki wanted to make a video game about you being a conscientious objector in World War 2, when... That's just Papers Please.

[@XxYamiNoEnzeruxX]

and that's just any book by George Orwell lmao

[@MrFlippy3]

This shared Gilgamesh giggle 14:23 was very wholesome.

[@rpgqueen8737]

truth time, i've also never heard of either the book or the anime series that Wind Waker may or may not have been inspired by, BUT! some of the elements that were mentioned (group of people trying to make the best of their situation and live in harmony with nature, bad dude wants to bring back the past and can only do so with the aide of this one special girl, etc.) reminded me of another anime film that didn't get alot of love when it first came out so it kinda flew under the radar, and it's called "Origin: Spirits of the Past". if you've never heard of it or haven't seen it, check it out, its pretty good, imho

[@emeraldparmesan6431]

Well damn that video was phenomenal. Clearly I’ve slept on this channel for too long. Time to binge!

[@Jikkuryuu]

I wonder how Miyazaki would feel about "Papers Please." Or "Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter," where you're expected to hit the story-mechanic gameover and NG+ at least once before winning.

[@Hondavid.]

In 3rd grade while on Summer Vacation at my grandparents' house in rural japan, i was browsing youtube and watched fragments of conan back when full episodes were uploaded in 3-4 parts in 8-10 minute segments, and I've never actually watched everything and understood the story but it brings me joy for people learning about it and connecting it with later Ghibli works cause it's cool af

[@beowulfshaeffer8444]

THANK YOU! :P I would like to point out, though, that the koroks are just the Zelda universe version of kodama (tree yokai). Many, many creatures in Zelda and Ghibli really are a zeitgeist thing because they're pulled straight from Japanese folk lore and/or the most popular European fairy tales and Lovecraft stories in Japan at the time that these guys were young. But, seriously thank you for pointing out all these connections. I've gotta re-watch these movies now :)

[@galenwilds3273]

This reminds me of how people accused Eragon of just being a straight rip of Star Wars, forgetting that Star Wars "borrowed" heavily from Kurosawa movies, which in turn were initially just "Shakespeare but in japan." I'm sure Christopher Paolini would be honored to know he can trace his story's lineage back to The Bard Himself.

[@kurathchibicrystalkitty5146]

Castle in the Sky is one of my top five favourite Ghibli movies, and I absolutely love the 'Ghibli aesthetic' that BotW and TotK have. This is a huge treat, and it makes me so happy that you guys get to talk about stuff you love.

[@kurathchibicrystalkitty5146]

Also, an idea for a future video: the perils of adapting books to movies/shows, specifically with Earthsea as an example. Or maybe I just have so many pent-up feelings about how bad that mini-series is, and how disappointing the Ghibli movie is, that I want someone to rant about it? 😅

[@soup4219]

i personally think its interesting that two men named miyazaki both had such a profound influence on the fields they work in in almost polar opposite directions

[@wongo453]

YESSS!!! PEOPLE REMEMBERING WIND WAKER EXISTS

[@AeonKnigh432]

Nobody forgot

[@deparinge]

I feel like the omg x mentioned meme tends to get overused for overly popular things but this really takes the cake lol. People still talk about WW all the time. It's a popular game in a popular franchise.

[@wongo453]

@@deparinge its a meme? also i only know like 3 people who talk about windwaker still. and 2 of them are just clowning the art style

[@deparinge]

@@wongo453 Wow I thought people stopped complaining about the art style over a decade ago

[@wongo453]

@@deparinge ikr? i think the art style is great and makes the killing ganondorf scene funnier then it wo8ld be normally

[@markwinnington1426]

I loved the show as a kid - Future Boy Conan, shown on French TV in the late '80s, though I never saw the ending - and I'm so glad you guys finally found out about it. I really liked those seaplanes that Industria uses...

[@GooTheMighty]

Also, I’m a huge fan of how much Castle in the Sky lifted from Nausicaa, MANGA. Seriously, anyone who love Ghibli, and hasn’t read the Nausicaa manga, OWES it to themselves to read it. Just realizing that the robots are the god-warriors reincarnated in metal is so cool!!

[@8-bitsarda747]

If you two love Castle in the Sky as much as you do, you should check out the Trails in the Sky games. Those two games (I know there's third, it's not part of the same story arc, so we're not counting it) take a good bit of inspiration from it. Especially the last dungeon in the Sky 2, which is just Laputa. You know what, while you're at it, just check out the entirety of Falcom's Trails series, it's all so good. But preferably in release order, because those games follow a consistent timeline from game to game. And they're all different kinds of stories too. Trails in the Sky is a coming of age story. Zero and Azure are games I haven't played yet, though knowing what I do about the protagonist, I would guess they're a mystery story. And Trails of Cold Steel (my favorite one) is equal parts high school slice of life, FMA style political conspiracies and intrigue, and mecha anime.

[@thedontpanic]

Yes, yes, yes! I played the first Trails in the Sky last year and loved it so much, then I watched Castle in the Sky like a month later by sheer coincidence, and so much clicked! (I really need to get back into the Trails series, I think I'll do it soon) Even right down to one of main melodies of the game lifted straight from the film, it's very intentional even if the references aren't in the entire plot to the degree of Wind Waker, you can really see the bones from Castle in the Sky here and there. If you love long JRPGs with some of the best worldbuilding ever, it's so great. Some of the most effectively written NPCs in games, to be specific. They all have their own little lives going on that grow and change along with the story as long as you pay a little attention to them.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

Oh, you're right! Castle in the Sky really influenced my taste in... everything, didn't it?

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

​@@thedontpanicSpending hours talking to absolutely everyone after any events is my favorite part of the game, by far.

[@ThePCguy17]

This whole originality discussion reminds me of fanfiction. The point of that isn't to be original, it's to be a remix...but the actually interesting stuff takes the tropes from fanon and canon and creates something that feels completely original. Like, it clearly isn't because where the inspirations came from is part of the medium, it's what puts the FAN in fanfiction. But you can still have a very new and different story, even if it's taking place in the same universe and happening to the same characters. Or hell, set the actual story in a different time frame and setting that's only tangentially connected to the original but still uses enough familiar stuff that you'd have to either pay royalties or just admit that it's fanfiction and thus "not a real story." I've spent a decent amount of time getting a Bachelor's Degree and learning that just because it's "not a real story," that doesn't mean it's not totally it's own thing and just as worthy of academic study as any original fiction that was more fastidious about burying its influences deep under several layers of obfuscation. I mean, hell, you can have plenty of fun just retelling blow-for-blow a story from a different medium because of how the stylistic differences between visual media, video games, and strictly written media allow completely different information to be communicated or the same information but in completely different ways. Hell, you can spot something in a movie that's _really_ difficult to notice in a movie which is nevertheless pretty important and then decide to write out that scene in novel form and highlight that thing that's difficult to _see_ but really easy for an author to tell you about in an engaging fashion. Or even just point out something in your fanfiction that went unmentioned in the original work that is nevertheless a lot more important than you see fans in the community actually realizing. The end result ends up being a more full understanding of whatever the original, as long as you've done it right. There's an interesting Harry Potter fic where there's five versions of Harry going through the same story with very few differences other than their own actions, and they can all communicate with each other to try and figure out how to survive the craziness that is Harry Potter's life. And as an end result you end up thinking completely differently even about the usual fanfiction formula of "what if it went differently" while also using the Harry's perspective that's closest to the canon timeline to think about just how simple it would have been some of the time for things to go _way_ better for everyone involved than Rowling's version. And since it's fanfiction you don't have to worry about that usual legal issue of, "oh am I stealing this?" because you just ARE stealing it, you don't care, and neither does anyone else.

[@1337Diamos]

I love your detail diatribes. It's easily my most favourite format on here. Educate me on weird things, senpais.

[@Blondiej1]

Honestly, I love this. I just got my old GameCube set up last week, so now I’m going to go play Wind Waker for the first time in years. Then I’m going to watch some Studio Ghibli movies. Loved the diatribe!