Hidden Details: Bad Breath (Patreon)

Yahaha! You found me!

Two weeks ago, I finished The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It was the end of a personal journey through the entire Zelda franchise which I embarked on to properly prepare myself for Breath of the Wild. Now, two years after Breath of the Wild's release, I've finally taken my first few steps in the desolated wildernis of open-world Hyrule! And I'm loving it so far. As a matter of fact, I think this is the most fun I've had with any Zelda game yet. And that's a pretty bold statement, considering I've loved each and every one of those games.

Anyway, I'm playing Master Mode (hard mode, basically) and as I wrote in the comic description: my "Legendary Hero" died a few minutes after stepping out of the Shrine of Resurrection. This was the first of many instances where I thought: this is a great game to make comics about. I thought this moment was especially funny after the Old Man explained that Link was a champion 100 years ago. He was mortally wounded in the fight with Ganon and he was put in the Shrine of Resurrection to rest for 100 years and recover from his wounds. Once he awakens, it's his destiny to take on Ganon once again and rid the world from evil. And what does he actually do when he wakes up? He walks up to a Bokoblin in his undies and gets himself killed all over again. That is very funny to me. I referenced this hilarious situation in the bonus panel by the way.

I hope this comic does well, because there are many more comics to be made about my cocky/stupid Link!

Anyway, I'll get to revealing some hidden details.

First of all: in every panel, you can see a little Triforce in the bottom left corner. This little Triforce is actually in the game and it indicates that you're playing Master Mode!

The fact that I'm playing Master Mode is actually pretty important to this comic because the White-Maned Lynel (the lion horse monster) doesn't appear on the Great Plateau (the starting area) in normal mode. I think. So I made sure everyone would know I'm playing Master Mode, haha.

You see that little green guy in the bottom left corner of the first panel? That's a Korok. You can find 900 (NINE. HUNDRED.) of these guys throughout Hyrule in Breath of the Wild (I'm on 420 right when I'm writing this 😎) and they're hidden in all sorts of places. There's even one in the bathtub you emerge from after sleeping for 100 years when you start the game. So I depicted the little Korok to be sleeping next to Link in the blue goo. He's this comic's secondary character.

And it takes him only one panel to utter his famous catchphrase: "Yahaha! (You found me!)". Also, I'd like to point out that this Korok is, in fact, the correct design since they all look slightly different. I did some research to make sure I had the right Korok in mind when I drew this:

Also, in the second panel, you can get a taste of my sophisticated and intellectual sense of humor:

In the next panel, I throw the idea of a correct, lore-friendly comic out of the window and I put up a huge poster/checklist with icons for every previous Zelda game:

There are some references and jokes hidden in this poster. Let's see...

First row:

- The first row basically consists of images of Link or important artifacts from the games. From left to right, they are: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening (the Wind Fish' egg), Ocarina of the Time, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons (the Rod of Seasons), Oracle of Ages (the Harp of Ages).

Second row:

- The second row is where the jokes start. The first icon in this row depicts the Wind Waker. But instead of Toon Link's regular face, I used a scene you see very briefly in the game, when Link is about to be launched by a cannon. That scene made my laugh out loud when I played it, so it's a little tribute to a treasured memory. The second icon in this row is from the Minish Cap (Ezlo). The third icon is Malo, a character from Twilight Princess. Malo looks like a baby but acts like a businessman/entrepreneur and I love that little asshole. So I preferred to draw him over Wolf Link or Midna as Twilight Princess' representation. The fourth icon is Linebeck, from Phantom Hourglass. Same as with Malo, I thought Linebeck was the star of Phantom Hourglass, and I really hope we'll see him again some time. The fifth panel is Engineer Link, as he appeared in Spirit Tracks. And the last icon in this row is Groose from Skyward Sword. Again: great character. Hope we haven't seen the last of him. Even a new incarnation of him (just like Link, Zelda and Impa) would be cool.

Third row:

- It's true that I haven't played Four Swords Adventures or Tri Force Heroes (bottom left), because I don't have any friends to play it with. Don't get me wrong, I have... at least three friends, but I don't think they'd like to play old Zelda games with me;

- The ugly Zelda and ugly Link next to them are from the CDi Zelda games. Those really don't count. They're horribly ugly and they're NOT canon. But they make for some great meme material!

In the fifth panel, you can see the Korok looking shocked once he realizes what he's standing on. You can also see part of the Lynel's massive tongue.

Right after that, in the sixth panel, you can see the little Korok running away, once screaming part of his iconic phrase.

In this panel, you can also see the Lynel has brought some cutlery to eat his meal with. If you glance over this panel quickly, you might not notice anything out of the ordinary, but both of those pieces of equipment are actual weapons in the game. The fork is a Farmer's Pitchfork and the knife is the one and only Master Sword. Apparently, this Lynel was powerful enough to pull the legendary sword from the pedestal. And if you've ever tried to fight a Lynel you'd agree.

Also, this little line (Guess it must rain here often) is a cheeky reference to the rain in Breath of the Wild, which must be the most frustrating rain in any game I've ever played. As you probably know, you climb A LOT in Breath of the Wild. Especially while hunting Koroks, like I am. When it's raining, climbing becomes almost impossible. I've been stuck in a drizzle on a ledge of some mountain for an eternity numerous times now because I didn't want to quick travel because I'd lose my position and progress while scaling the mountain. Most of the time, I just go do something else and hope the rain has stopped when I get back.

When I was drawing this panel, I realized this point of view must be almost the exact same as the Old Man's point of view at the very beginning of the game. He's chilling by the fire to the right of the shrine's exit, a little bit downhill. So I decided to draw him as well.

Which reminds me to point out some things about the backgrounds in this comic!

The joy of having a Switch lying next to you while drawing a comic about a Switch game is that you can immediately look up references in case you don't know how to draw a specific scene or landscape. I did that multiple times while making this comic, which is why the backgrounds look so similar to the actual game. I have been able to salvage two screenshots I made and used to make this comic:

You'll notice the shape of the hills and stuff is exactly the same as in the screenshots. Consider this an exclusive look into the process of making comics like these. Everyone who's not a Patron just thinks I'm super talented and can draw these landscapes and backgrounds from memory, but you know better now! I just copy them from screenshots!

There are some details in the bonus panel as well. You can see Mr. Korok resetting the countdown to Link's awakening and the Old Man refilling the tub for another hundred years of waiting. You can also see the Farmer's Pitchfork sticking out of Link's mangled body.

And that's it. Let me close this blog in the same style as I opened it!

Buh-bye!