IMPORTANT! Note from the author. (Please read!)

I think I am going to take the liberty of breaking from the story for just a moment, in order to clarify a few things about this fanfiction. We are now getting quite deep into a crossover between two very complex and big universes, which each have rules that vary greatly within their own universes. As you can imagine, things can get really complicated really quickly when you try and merge the two. In the past, I have simply wrote things how I wanted, and left it up to the readers to try and figure out what parts of the Zelda and Mario universes were colliding with each other. However, since I am changing numerous things about each universe separately, and then combining the two of them to generate some crazy new product, I feel that some clarification is in order.

MARIO

First, let's talk about the Mario universe, as I believe it's the least complex of the two. Mario, Luigi, and Pauline each follow the original lore about being magically transported from the real world (Brooklyn, New York) to the Mushroom Kingdom. Pauline of course, has her Odyssey design. The rest of the Mario characters look just as they do in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, except Peach will (and has) occasionally sported some of her alternative outfits that she can be seen wearing in Odyssey. Other characters will sometimes wear different clothes, but I will invent these for the most part. Characters from the Paper Mario series (Grodus, Kammy Koopa, Crump, Mimi, O'Chunks) must be conceptualized in a 3D sense, as they are obviously not paper in this world. Expect no characters from anything beyond Super Paper Mario.

Overall, in terms of design, I tend to conceptualize the world as if it looked like how it would look in an anime -especially the fighting scenes. I think this is something that I reveal in my descriptions of characters and their reactions (comedic sweat drops, blinking hash lines, eyes concealed in shadow, etc.)

The geography of the Mushroom Kingdom, as described so far, is similar to Paper Mario for the N64, except that Toad Town is replaced with Mushroom City, which is similar in feel to New Donk City except no humans and I have invented the layout. Peach Castles interior remains quite similar as it does in Mario 64/Paper Mario 64, except for the most part I have decided whats located behind the doors. I have also given the basement to the Toad Brigade, who are a real part of the Mario Universe except with a group of characters that I invented (save for Captain Toad). I have also turned the 2F into a dormitory, and the 3F into a grand throne room. The outside of Peach Castle has the same layout as it does in Super Mario 64.

Now for personality inconsistencies (oh, what fun). To be frank, what you see is what you get. I understand that breaking a persons character can really break the immersion of a fan fiction, but Mario characters (save for Paper Mario) are notoriously silent or robotic. I need to play with them a bit in order to get anything going. For the most part, I have stayed somewhat true to their original personalities, but they're all very cheery and happy all of the time so you need to alter it a bit (i.e. giving Daisy a sassy attitude, Rosalina a lazy attitude, etc.) otherwise you just get too much of the same thing. There's no dynamic without some diversity of personality.

As for Daisy, she is of course the Princess of Sarasaland, a Kingdom which has been taken over by Grodus and the X-Nauts. (Oh, the odd amount of joy I felt when I saw on SSBU that Daisy's journey tag for Classic Mode is "Sarasaland Represent"). Since Sarasaland doesn't really have much information in terms of detailed geography, I am going to borrow the geography of a different world for it (which you might be able to guess), plus some of my own inventions.

You might argue that Pauline has deviated the most from her character (whatever that is, she's basically had no personality from 1981 - 2017), but I would argue that a smart and sexy female villain is something that lacks completely from both the Mario (and Zelda, for that matter) series, and Pauline can play the role the best (in my opinion). So that's what I am going with. She's the bad girl type. The dark hair and the eyeshadow seals the deal, no?

In sum, for the Mario Universe, it's sort of a crossover between Smash Bros. and Paper Mario, with an anime-like artstyle in order to blend the two, sprinkled with many of my own inventions.

LEGEND OF ZELDA

Now for the Zelda Universe (oh boy). Obviously Link is Breath of the Wild Link, but he is in fact travelling with Navi, who of course is the notoriously annoying companion from Ocarina of Time. How did this happen? Well, I played on the idea that BotW Link is actually from one hundred years in the past. I thought it would be a good idea to maybe have Navi conserved with him, while the rest of the fairies supposedly go extinct during the century Link and Navi are preserved. So that's why Navi is still around. Does that mean Link is actually Ocarina of Time Link, 100 years into the future? Maybe. I haven't read the time line extensively enough to determine whether or not that breaks any critical rules, but I am going with it anyway. So that's the origin of Link and Navi.

In terms of Links personality, he's a silent protagonist so I needed to create something. When you play as him in BotW, you are very free spirited, and you cause all sorts of havoc and experiment extensively (often at your own peril). You know how to get serious when the time comes, but for the most part you are messing around and being destructive. I wanted his character to reflect this. I figured a guffawing, optimistic, booze-loving and light hearted guy with bad ass abilities was the best way to go about it.

Now for the fun part: the inconsistencies between Breath of the Wilds lore, and this story. (Minor spoilers for BotW, but the game is important to this story so you kind of need to read this if you want to continue to understand the story).

First, Princess Zelda (as you will see in the next chapter) is Breath of the Wild Zelda. However, she is not the meek researcher crying about her powers not awakening yet like she is in the game. Her powers have awakened long ago, and they are deadly. There has been no calamity, either. (WHAT?). Rather, as described in Chapter 9, Princess Zelda preserved herself (and Link) while the Ganons strength was still weak enough, (very important!) so that she could get away with keeping Ganon sealed, while also preserving herself to a time period where his strength would be so strong that she would need to dedicate almost all of her strength daily on the seal. Get it? She didn't want to die of old age while Ganon was still weak. She saved herself (and Link) for when Ganon would be much stronger, which was 100 years into the future (present day in this story). It's critical that this is understood.

Finally, the last major inconsistency: The Champions are still alive. They are as they are in the game, but they are around when Link is awake (100 years into the future/present day), rather than dying in the past. Why? Because I think that they are good characters, with a lot of work put into them, and I want to use them. That's basically it. Zelda is concentrating on sealing Ganon all day, and she needs attendants. Finally, Ganon has become strong enough that he has been able to take control of the Guardians, which the Champions are out eating for breakfast all the time. Ganon also has devout followers that are anticipating his awakening. They often plan attacks on Hyrule Castle.

In sum, it's almost as if Link has awakened and the calamity is about to happen, rather than Link has awakened and the calamity has already happened.

So that's about it. I take the facts, and distort them to my leisure when I make fan fictions. That's just what I do, I find it makes for a much more interesting read. Sometimes it gets so complicated you need to stop and explain a few things, though. Finally, sorry that this wasn't a new chapter, but I really thought it would be important to clarify some things before I introduced more Zelda characters. I am hoping to update the next chapter soon.

See you all around, and thanks for reading! Also, follow me on twitter (goldwhackabump) for updates and stuff.

-gwb