The Minish Cap: Mole Mitts

 Mole Mitts

Mole Mitts: These gloves allow Link to burrow through soft soils and dig holes into the earth. Link must explore the Fortress of the Winds to earn the mole mitts and begin his adventures in digging obsessively for rupees and hearts when he is in need.

Badgermoles are the undisputed masters of tunneling. It would be sacrilege to hunt and kill such a noble beast, but their carcasses can be harvested if shown the proper respect. With badgermole claws and leather, digging gloves can be fashioned that let the wearer almost swim through the earth.

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The bit from Avatar where the Earth Kingdom ruler just had a regular bear instead of a mystical hybrid remains one of my favorite bits from that show.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: Mirror, mirror on the wall…

 Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Mirror Shield: If Link can find his way to the Biggoron atop Veil Falls, he can offer up a small shield to the giant and receive the Mirror Shield in return once he has completed a truly valiant deed. The mirror shield blocks all projectiles and reflects back a searing beam of light. Its mirrored surface is also strong enough to deflect melee attacks easily.

A powerful seer displeased their sovereign so greatly that their spirit was cast into a mirror so their gifts might serve whoever sat the throne. After generations serving the bloodline that cursed them, the mirror can now answer questions honestly, while contriving situations that eventually cause the family to suffer dearly. If the seer was so great, could they not have seen this future and avoided it or did they perhaps choose this fate for themselves?

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This was supposed to include a sad face and a split happy/sad face, but drawing faces is still far outside of my comfort zone. Even if those faces are simplified masks. I got done enough with this item and moved on.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: A borrower’s shield.

 A borrower’s shield.

Small Shield: Link’s first shield is a simple affair given to him by Princess Zelda. He can use it to block simple attacks and deflect rocks and arrows.

Dogs, cats, and rats can bother the tall folk, but the same creatures are deadly threats to the borrow-folk. Fights between borrow-folk are almost unheard of, but many still carry shields and buckers to protect themselves from the many dangers of their diminutive world. That button missing from your shirt or cuff might be the difference between life and death to the borrow-folk you unwittingly share your home with.

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I have so much nostalgia for the stories of the Borrowers. Little people living secretly in the unused cracks of your house is the exact sort of semi-plausible fantasy every kid should enjoy. I definitely built houses and left supply caches out just in case my room had borrowers.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The chief’s hook talisman

 The chief’s hook talisman

Magical Boomerang: This magically enhanced boomerang strikes harder, travels farther, and can change direction mid-flight. Link must fuse kinstones with the Tingle Siblings to reveal the hidden location of the boomerang. 

The stories tell us that long ago the people lived on only one island because there were no other islands in the open ocean. A clever chief decided to fool their siblings into making new islands by exclaiming they had hooked the greatest fish when they had purposely hooked the ocean floor. Paddling hard, the siblings pulled up the ocean floor into island after island for the people to discover and inhabit.

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Manaiakalani is Maui’s hook in Polynesian traditions. After the existence of Moana, it is much more difficult to find sources discussing folkloric traditions instead of Disney films. 

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: Blessed Boomerang

Blessed Boomerang 

Boomerang: This boomerang stuns enemies, flips switches, and picks up distant items. Link can purchase this from Stockwell’s shop with enough rupees.

To be accepted as an adult, you must climb the big rock and throw your boomerang from its edge beneath the stars. It is considered auspicious if you can find your boomerang on your journey home. If you are fortunate enough for your boomerang to return in the dark of night, you are considered blessed by the great spirits.

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This is one of those drawings that just didn’t turn out well enough. I don’t enjoy it, but it's done and that’s good enough.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: A leprechaun’s shillelagh.

A leprechaun’s shillelagh

Cane of Pacci: The cane is found while exploring the Cave of Flames. The bolts of energy flung by the cane flip objects upside down which can be helpful when dealing with carts that need to be emptied or well-armored enemies. The cane also uses its inversion magic to turn holes into trampolines. Instead of falling into a hole, the effect of the hole is flipped and it becomes a bounce platform. 

This walking stick makes its bearer magically lucky by stealing luck away from nearby folk, leaving them to suffer more of life’s little mischiefs. It doesn’t take long for people to realize the fellow with the stick is too lucky by far and deserves some evening out. This chaotic bit of magic was woven by a leprechaun who wanted to make sure that if their shillelagh was ever taken, it would cause enough mischief to find its way back home. 

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There are plenty of magic sticks to choose from in the greater fairy tale and folk story canon, but I think the shillelagh is the perfect balance between mundane and magical that typifies fairy tales instead of general fantasy.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: Jar of Gales

 Jar of Gales

Gust Jar: This jar can be used to suck air like a vacuum or blow gusts of air. Link can use the wind to grab enemies, suck up items, push things, and sail around small watercraft. Prolonged use increases the jar's strength, so a quick push or pull might off-balance an enemy but an extended wind could yank an enemy across a room or send an object flying. The jar is earned as the dungeon item in Minish Cap’s first dungeon the Deepwood Shrine.

In a foolish rage, the north wind once destroyed a potter’s workshop by mistake. As an apology, the wind left a mote of power in the only unbroken vessel remaining. Now the potter uses the power of the wind to dry pots, turn windmills, and even sail small craft.

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While I am very aware that many of fantasy’s best ideas are lifted from myths and legends, I only recently found out that Odysseus had the old bottle of wind that probably inspired most other fantasy depictions. For the record, I did not learn this from Percy Jackson as I have never read the books and don’t trust films and TV to be too authentic.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The Sacred Blade

 

The Sacred Blade

Four Sword: Recovering the fourth and final element of Wind and infusing that power into the White Sword restores the blades true power, transforming it into the Four Sword. This blade allows Link to create three total copies of himself and has the sacred power to banish evil.

The power of the sacred blade has been sealing back a prime evil for so long that its true purpose has been all but forgotten. Weakening with every fourth draw of the blade, the four-thousand four-hundred and forty-four seals are destined to fail. Pray the hero who now takes up this blade is ready, for in their hasty defense of the light they have begun to release the dark. 

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The Four Sword is my favorite sacred blade from the Zelda timelines. The Master Sword is iconic, but it just doesn’t top the Four Sword, especially the title screen sword shown when you boot up The Minish Cap.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

The Minish Cap: The Vorpal Blade

The Minish Cap: The Vorpal Blade

White Sword with three elements: By infusing the white sword with the additional element of water, Link enhances the white sword further. With the power of earth, fire, and water the white sword is more powerful and it can summon up an additional copy of Link when slashed in a circle about a place of power. 

With a snicker-snack this blade cuts through almost anything and slays even the most fearsome beast in one stroke. What if the blade is just an ordinary blade and the scabbard magically put a lethal edge on any blade sheathed for  a night and a day? Imagine what a well placed assassins could do with a vorpal butter knife or a keen edged icicle. 

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I will always look at vorpal weapons with nostalgia. My first DnD character was a human fighter who wielded a keen vorpal mercurial greatsword and was focused solely on criting as much as possible. That fighter was dominated by an aboleth and beheaded the monk my friend was playing. 

I also looked to the vorpal blade in the Fables comic series for inspiration when thinking up this simple blade.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Minish Cap: A feline bravo’s dueling blades

A feline bravo’s dueling blades

 

 

 White Sword with two elements: Link earns this blade by infusing the element of fire into the White Sword. This blade contains the elemental power of earth and now fire. The weapon is more powerful with the new element and Link can make an additional copy of himself using the blade’s magic.

The famous fencing cat is said to have traded two of its nine lives in exchange for these blades. The cat’s reckless disregard for danger makes many think they must still have all the other seven left. The cat dodges any questions, saying, “ I have my first life and my last life and that is all I need.”

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Puss in Boots is a character I was introduced to by Shrek. I was shocked that he existed as a fairy tale and wasn’t invented whole cloth as a marketing ploy.

The dagger is marked with a 1 and the sword a 9. I was originally going to do Alpha and Omega, but that seemed too cliche. Also, omega is a pretty cool symbol, but alpha is not.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph