Curate, connect, and discover
I think it would be kind of interesting if the chain went on two adventures. What I mean by that is the first one would occur while most of the chain have only been through one or a few of their games. This could also be seen as a childhood friends au? The chain is pulled together when most of them are pretty young.
Time has just finished Majora’s Mask and is in full young teen angst, trauma, mode. He’s extremely mischievous and poorly adjusted. He’s only around 12 or 13 years old.
Wind has just been through the events of Wind Waker. He’s only 12 and is pretty shaken up but still pretty similar I’d say. Maybe even more hyper and desperate to prove himself.
Hyrule has just been through the events of Zelda 1. He’s quiet and jumpy. Dawn has gently been spending the past two years trying to help him adjust to a more social life but it’s been slow going. He’s extremely anxious to be around so many people. I’d say he’s around 14.
Four has only been through the events of Minish Cap so he’s not even Four yet. His age is canonically the most confusing to me but I really like the headcanons that he’s a young adult who has a baby face. In this he’d be a kid though, so maybe around 11?
Legend I can’t decide whether he’d have only been through A Link to the Past and the oracle games or if he’s been through Links Awakening by this point. I think it would be more interesting if he had just been through Link’s Awakening and is severely jaded. He’s 16. (If he had only been thru the oracle games he’d be 14 and a lot more light hearted)
Wild would have gone through the events of Botw being 17. He’d honestly just be pretty baseline with no crazy changes.
Twilight would have also just gone through Twilight Princess being 18. I think he’d be really hung up on Midna.
Sky has also just completed Skyward Sword, I think he’d also be 18? Pretty similar to canon.
Warriors was plucked halfway through his game and thrust into this adventure. He’s very stressed, worried he left his people behind when they needed him most. He becomes the group leader being the eldest at 20.
They come together, pretty much a platoon of child soldiers, defeat the evil, say teary goodbyes, and return home.
Years later they’re all shocked to be pulled into a second journey across time and get to reunite with their brothers.
This time Time is his canon Lu age of being somewhere around his early to mid thirties being much more cool and collected than the actual child nightmare he was initially. He falls easily into a leadership role. He seems to have mended many of his mental wounds despite him being prone to grumpiness. This adventure after so many years of peace is pretty triggering though.
Wind has gone through phantom hour glass and is freshly 15. He’s a little more mature now but very much so the same kid except now he’s like: “I see dead people”
Hyrule is a lot better socialized this time. He’s almost easy going and has a mischievous streak that the chain welcomes. It’s a fine change from the scared scrawny kid he was years ago. He still is exceedingly sweet and has a plethora of new talents to share. He also has crippling paranoid and a blood phobia. He’s around 18.
Four, despite being the youngest the first mission, is now a young man being in his early twenties. He doesn’t talk much about his last adventure but he’s noticeably scatterbrained. Despite that, he can think outside the box like nobody else. It’s like he can think with the power of four people! He also goes by the name four now.
Legend who has completed two more quests now is incredibly frustrated to have been yanked out of retirement/his wedding planning. Legend was able to manage a lot of healing over his last two journeys. He got engaged to the one and only Ravio who he was supposed to be working on wedding invitations with. He’s lighter now but still a grouch at times. He’s in his earlier twenties.
Wild has completed his mission from TotK and somehow his iPad can do EVEN MORE now. If lobbing bombs wasn’t enough last time, now he can crawl through walls. He is noticeably shaken in a way he wasn’t last time and has almost an unwilling clarity of the world around him. He’s 21 now.
I so sorry but I don’t think Twilight would be much different. If anyone has thoughts pls lmk. He’s been able to move on from Midna and has thrown himself into shepherd work. I think he’d be courting Ilia and would be living a good country life while getting to brag about having tea with the princess. He’s fairly okay with being on another mission.
Okay this is totally just a headcanon but I picture Sky as that guy you knew in highschool who gets married really young and starts a family right after school. Sky is stressed after getting sent on another because he’s in the middle of building a kingdom and his wife, Sun, is pregnant.
Poor Warriors. As mentioned the first journey happened for him when he was halfway through his war. Unlike many of the others, when he returned to his f ‘n c z timeline it was like no time had passed at all. For the second half of his war he met many new people and old friends. Mask (time) joined him, an older, almost grown version of Wind as his best friend and second in command, Ravio, Midna. When the war ends he’s saddened to say goodbye to dear friends once again. Warriors is whisked away to his second journey with the chain the moment his war ends. For him, it’s only been a year or less in some circumstances that he’s seen the chain. For most of them to had aged so much is jarring to him. The last time he saw them all it was him and a mostly non verbal group of children. Now it’s a group of almost all adults bar Wind, who was Warriors’ age last time he saw him. Most shocking of all is to see his baby brother all grown up and older than him.
I haven’t put much further thought into the AU but I thought the dynamic of splitting the chain up by the amount of adventures they completed would be interesting. Most of the chain also had started their journeys as children so I thought it would be a fun dynamic for them to have all met younger. Poor Warriors though, leading 6 mentally ill teenagers and children was a huge task. And now they’re all either older than him or roughly the same age. I imagine they hit the pubs hard 😭