History Fanfic / Exoria

As an aside, [[ShoutOut the author seems to realize that this FanFic has its own page on TV Tropes, and makes comments about it in the author's notes from time to time]].

Sadly, appears to be a DeadFic.

As an aside, [[ShoutOutthe author seems to realize that this FanFic has its own page on TV Tropes, and makes comments about it in the author's notes from time to time]].

As an aside, [[OneOfUs the author seems to realize that this FanFic has its own page on TV Tropes, and makes comments about it in the author's notes from time to time]].

* AxCrazy: Anansi's piloting crew is made up of Valentine war criminals. Couple that with how pissed they most likely are after [[spoiler: Link tries to blow up Anansi with them still inside]] and you're in for an [[IncrediblyLamePun explosive combination]].

* CoolShades with SunglassesAtNight: Link wears them as part of his Joint Intelligence uniform...even at night. Later justified when it's revealed that the shades are [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual made from an optic polarizer and cuts down on contrast, making darker things brighter and brighter things darker]].

*** Robin II's affair and consequent political fiasco also closely mirrors that of Creator/BillClinton and the scandal with Monica Lewinsky

** King Robin II, Zelda's comatose father, may be an allusion to Robin Williams, who named his daughter Zelda after the eponymous character.

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* AccidentalMarriage with NakedFirstImpression - Subtly played with. It's not the first time the Hylian Link meets the Gerudo Jessica, nor is she actually naked, but she does accidentally run into him while in the middle of frantic dressing and having nothing on her upper body but a {{Sarashi}}. Jessica's remarkably shy attitude after that causes Link to suddenly be worried about the "possible complications between Gerudo cultural perceptions on modesty, romance, and responsibility".

* BadBoss - Major Juno of Valentine, a slave-driver if there ever was one.
* BenevolentBoss - Leonore is this to Link as Director of Joint Intelligence. ''Her'' boss, Zelda, doesn't seem to like her very much, though.
* BlackAndGrayMorality - While Valent has launched a massive military invasion on two nations for no immediately evident reason, it's alluded through the [[FictionalDocument Exoria Files]] that Hyrule isn't exactly a paragon of justice and virtue either.
* TheCavalry - Link expected [[spoiler:Gerudo forces to be waiting to extract him from the operations area after the Anansi battle]]. He didn't expect [[spoiler:Jessica with a dozen infantry fighting vehicles armed with rockets prepared to blow the smithereens out of pursuing Valentine forces]].
* TheChainsOfCommanding - Leonore has to remind Zelda of this when Zelda refuses to stay in her safe room during the Valentine invasion, willing to risk being captured by attempting to re-establish contact with her military as the nation's commander-in-chief.
* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Gun]] - A throwaway joke about Impa's difficulties in pronouncing OLRER - the Office of Long-Range Electronic Reconnaissance - becomes vitally important in allowing Zelda to identify its director, Major General Morgan, when the verification of authentication codes are cast in doubt.
* ChildSoldiers - Implied with Link; considering he's only nineteen, yet shows a great deal of competence as a Joint Intelligent agent, it only seems likely that he must've started his training ''very'' early...

* CompetenceZone - Averted. While Link and Zelda - nineteen and eighteen respectively - seem to have an extremely wide range of skills for their professions despite their age, much older characters, such as Impa, Leonore, and Morgan, clearly are very good at what they do. Zelda, having inherited the kingdom at sixteen, is also portrayed realistically, showing signs of TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask (which is also lampshaded in the story).

* CoolBike - Epona. MRX-402A ULATRV "Epona", a prototype fourth-generation reconnaissance hyperbike for the Hylian army.
* CoolShades with SunglassesAtNight - Link wears them as part of his Joint Intelligence uniform...even at night. Later justified when it's revealed that the shades are [[GogglesDoSomethingUnusual made from an optic polarizer and cuts down on contrast, making darker things brighter and brighter things darker]].
* DistractedByTheSexy - Link [[BodyguardCrush is]] [[{{Bishonen}} hot]] - a fact that Zelda and Jessica realise when his [[SunglassesAtNight sunshades]] come off. Cue gawp mouths.

* DoomedHometown - Hyrule City, as well as entire Hylian and Gerudo regions, falls fairly fast to the Valentine offensive.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses - Justified and reconstructed. Although Zelda is the crown princess of Hyrule, she is also its effective sovereign, as her father has been in a coma for about two years now, and her mother has passed away. The Zelda of ''Exoria'' is also seemingly popular enough with the people, but is clearly irritated and impatient with the management of politics when no one outside her inner circle can see her.
* {{Expy}} - Link gains a sentient AI assistant named Durandara. Her name is a shout out to [[VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Durandal]], while her character and mannerisms are more akin to [[Franchise/{{Halo}} Cortana]]. Both are named after Cool Swords from [[{{PublicDomainArtifact}} French Mythology]].
* EyepatchOfPower - MICO Director Emi survived a car bomb that claimed her left eye, as well as permanently damaging her throat, leaving her with a harsh voice and an eyepatch. She runs MICO rather competently, if not ruthlessly, and her backstory indicates at a lot of field experience.
* FictionalDocument - The Exoria Files at the end of every chapter serves to elaborate and detail the world of ''Exoria''.
* FridgeLogic - Durandara lampshades this many hours after the [[spoiler:Anansi battle]], expressing surprise that it ''roared'' at them. Bonus points for her suddenly recalling this just as Link opens a fridge for food, then apologetically invoking the trope by name.
* FromBadTOWorse - Chapter Three in its entirety. Link and Zelda attempt to escape Hyrule City while attracting an increasing standard of firepower...

* FunWithAcronyms - Impa complains to Major General Morgan that she can't pronounce OLRER, which stands for Office of Long-Range Electronic Reconnaissance. Morgan responds with a bit of a TakeThat to the middle-aged Impa by joking that the office would be renamed Office of Long-Distance Electronic Reconnaissance, acronym OLDER.

* [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have]] - Director Leonore is noted to be around her fifties, but still being fairly beautiful.
* HeroicMime, TheQuietOne, TheSilentBob, TheVoiceless - Link rarely ever talks. He's shown to be able to speak in the prologue, but has yet to speak once after that. Surprisingly, he's shown to be very good at conveying his points via combination of body language and facial expressions, leading to rather interesting one-sided conversations. This is, obviously, adapting off the fact that Link never speaks in the ''Zelda'' games.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo - Juno gives this to Steven after [[spoiler:she orders Archer Two-Four, an aircraft sporting firepower equivalent to a modern-day AC-130 gunship, to unload all available ordinance on the escaping zoran vehicles in a last-ditch bid to wipe Link out. This was against protests that they had zoran allies in the area as well, and that a full-on assault from the gunship would surely wipe out ''every'' zoran in the area.]] He wasn't asking for an excuse but informs her that he'll include the remark in his report to their superiors.
* ImprobableWeaponUser - Link wields a gunsword, which is effectively a longsword that can fold back up to a silenced handgun...or vice-versa. Valentine special forces do the same.

* InfantImmortality - Subverted. Chapters Nine and Ten feature [[spoiler:a little girl trapped in a war zone. Link attempts to get her to safety, but she gets hit by a stray bullet and dies]]. The author mentions the trope by name in the author's notes, and says that AnyoneCanDie in the story, with the exception of PlotArmor.
* LadyLand - Gerudo, for obvious reasons. Unlike canon, however, there are a small number of Gerudo men aside from Ganondorf in society. Modern science has caught up, and has not only identified chromosome anomalies as the reason behind the gender ratio, but has also begun to use gene manipulation to correct this. The women in power are shown to be no more benevolent or tyrannical as leaders in other countries.
* LadyOfWar - Alexandria, a former Valentine special forces officer turned intelligence major, is still deadly with her gunsword despite now largely working a desk job, and can take on small Hylian squads by herself. May be a bit of a BloodKnight, feeling "exhilarated" from her kills, although her strong sense of soldierly conduct seems to temper that.
* TheLawOfConservationOfDetail - The author's justification towards the complaint that practically every "NPC" has a name; giving every character detail makes it more difficult for readers to figure out who's a Chekhov's Gunman, and who will be important to the plot later.

* LonersAreFreaks - Subverted. Juno tries to subtly paint Alexandria this way to Steven, as Alexandria actively turns down offers to work together because she works "faster on my own". However, Alexandria is shown to have friends with favors to call in despite her lone wolf work ethic, while Juno's idea of "working together" seems to revolve around being a [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]].
* MacrossMissileMassacre - Justified; the spider mecha firing two dozen missiles was large enough to carry them, and they travel in arcs because they're top-attack anti-tank missiles meant to hit the upper portion of tanks, where they're less well-armored.
* MeaningfulName - The title ''Exoria''; the author explains that it's from the Latin word "exorior", which roughly translates to "to rise, to come forth, to advance". The author has hinted that this is a sign that the FanFic is connected to Zelda canon somehow.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender - Averted; with the Gerudo military and the country in general being mostly female, female casualties come in ''scores''. The Valentine military seems pretty gender-balanced, so there are plenty of female deaths on their side as well. There's also [[spoiler:Lily, who is female and the only civilian to die on-screen so far]].

* MuggingTheMonster - Twice in the same chapter; trying to mug either Alexandria or the boomerang girl is ''not'' recommended.
* NeverASelfMadeWoman - Jessica has achieved the rank of major in MICO at a young age due to her family being nobility and the governing family of one of Gerudo's provinces. Many in MICO and the Gerudo military who know about this give her a hard time about it, seeing her as taking a cheap shortcut.

* NoodleIncident - Real life example: Judging by the reviews left for the fic, the author pulled an April Fool's Day joke by putting up a faux Chapter Ten completely based on humor, then pulled it off within a few days. He has noted that it's "too bad" for those who missed it, so some of us may only guess, but the reviews seem to hint at [[spoiler:cuccos and GenderBender]].

* ObstructiveBureaucrat - The Hylian Senate is implied to be a collection of this.
* OldRetainer with ParentalSubstitute - Impa, Zelda's chief of staff, has helped raised Zelda since she was born, and still provides motherly advice along with political ones for her princess.

* [[OhCrap Oh, Crap]] - An epic one at the end of Chapter Eleven. "Run"? More like ''GET OUT OF THERE, DUDE! YA GONNA DIE!''
** MassOhCrap - Occurs during the zoran gathering [[spoiler:and Link and Jessica run into Valentine Major Steven. They have their own moment when all three pull their guns out, and this triggers tension between two factions of zorans (some who support the Hylians and some who really don't want to mess with Valent). They raise their guns in response to thinking that the other side is about to blow them away.]] [[FromBadToWorse Then another one is triggered]] when [[spoiler:Major Juno decides to assault their meeting place in hopes of finding Link, which causes ''everyone'' to start shooting.]]
* Omake - With the aptly named "Omake One", a LowerDeckEpisode featuring Gerudo paratroopers participating in a military counterattack, in contrast to Link's infiltration missions in the style of VideoGame/MetalGearSolid.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname - Veteran and Driver, Link and Jessica's zoran allies. Justified in that no zorans have given their name in the story, so Link has decided to nickname their allies to make it easier to remember them. Also serves as an easier shorthand for the author, who up to the point Link decides their nicknames had to keep referring to Link's memory.
* OutrunTheFireball - After [[spoiler:severely damaging Anansi]], Link has to flee to not be caught up in the ensuing [[spoiler:energy reaction]].
* ParentalAbandonment - Zelda's father, King Robin II, is left in a coma after surviving a car accident two years before the story, and is on life support. Her mother died in a ''different'' car crash; it's no wonder why Zelda has a slight phobia towards vehicles.
* PerpetualFrowner - Director Emi. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], though; who would be always smiling if they'd had to endure the difficulties of old age coupled with severe body damage from an bomb attack ''and'' a stressing high-ranking governmental job?
* RampJump - Link does this twice on Epona. Once on a drawn drawbridge, and, before that, ''on a tree''. While ''being chased and shot at''.
* RedShirtArmy - Averted - Link has only defeated Valentine soldiers in small engagements where he had the element of surprise, and his escape from Hyrule City was made possible by the fact that he wasn't looking to fight Valentine forces as much as he was simply trying to lay low and get away. The Valentine soldiers also don't make classical cliche Mook mistakes such as crashing into each other head-on on motorbikes, and make active attempts to trick Link into a misstep.

* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship - Manee and Sira, who were also implied to be SchoolgirlLesbians. Suggested to be common and accepted in Gerudo by necessity.
* RuleOfCool - The author admitted this about Anansi
* {{Sarashi}} - Jessica wears one.
* SerialEscalation Link's fight with Anansi and his escape with Zelda.

* ShoutOut - Although Link doesn't actually say it, the author noted that, in response to Zelda's coy remark that he's horrible for putting a princess on a motorcycle ride through hell, Link's exaggerated bow sarcastically (although good-naturedly) and successfully conveyed, "Well, excuse ''me'', Princess."

* ShrinkingViolet - Sira of Gerudo's Foxtrot Company, a paratrooper. She translates her fear into survivability, though, and is one of the company's best riflewomen.
* SpiderTank - The Valentine superweapon Anansi, which bears a more then passing resemblance to Gohma.
* SuperPrototype - Again, Epona.
* TakeAThirdOption - Leonore wants Zelda to stay in her safe room during the Valentine invasion and wait for rescue teams to arrive. Zelda wants to [[HonorBeforeReason find her military and lead them as commander-in-chief, even if it means risking capture]]. They eventually reach a compromise; Zelda will go to Gerudo to cement an alliance with Ganondorf and command her forces from there.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill - Fort Garuda, as described in chapter five. It's implied that it can stand up to anything short of a nuclear strike, and is bristling with heavy artillery.

* UnflinchingWalk - Veteran [[spoiler:when fighting erupts between everyone else under Astric after Juno and part of the Valentine army show up. Link notes that, with as many bullets flying around from every conceivable angle, Veteran knows that if one's gonna find him, one's gonna find him no matter what.]]

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer - The Exoria Files state that, decades ago, Gerudo got the short straw in the distribution of metal resources in the Death Mountains, but you wouldn't reach that conclusion from the description of its capital city, Garuda.
* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask - Princess Zelda shows signs of this, which is to be expected from someone who became the leader of the country when she was sixteen. She occasionally lapses into more personal territory with her chief of staff Impa, however, and has become more open with Link.
* WouldHitAGirl - Gerudo's military and civilian population are almost entirely made up of women, and the Valentine gender-balanced military doesn't segregate or discriminate by gender. No one in the story shows any reservation in shooting them when the bullets start flying.

* {{Badass}} - And how. There is loads and loads of this; in fact, even common infantrymen (especially the Gerudo) may count, but special mention must go to the gunblade-wielding Valentine Duchess and, of course, Link.

* DistractedByTheSexy - [[{{Badass}} Link]] [[BodyguardCrush is]] [[{{Bishonen}} hot]] - a fact that Zelda and Jessica realise when his [[SunglassesAtNight sunshades]] come off. Cue gawp mouths.

** Averted after Link [[spoiler:destroys Anansi]], and Valent gets increasingly GenreSavvy. Not only have they [[spoiler:created a special investigative unit specifically tasked with tracking him down, they've implemented increased security protocols to special forces]]. When Link is put into action a second time to [[spoiler:destroy Jormungand]], his attempts at infiltration become increasing disastrous as Valentine forces catch on to almost every move he makes.

--> ''Durandara'': [[TengenToppaGurrenLagann Who the Hell do you think I am?]]

* NeverASelfMadeWoman - Jessica has achieved the rank of major in MICO at a young age due to her family being nobility and the governing family of one of Gerudo's provinces. Many in MICO and the Gerudo military who know about this give her a hard time about it, seeing her as taking a cheap shortcut. It comes without the UnfortunateImplications, however, since everyone else is female.

** [[ModernWarfare "There used to be thirty-thousand people living in Fort Regner and its township. Now, the area seemed like a ghost town."]]

* {{Expy}} - Link gains a sentient AI assistant named Durandara. Her name is a shout out to [[VideoGame/{{Marathon}} Durandal]], while her character and mannerisms are more akin to [[{{Halo}} Cortana]]. Both are named after Cool Swords from [[{{PublicDomainArtifact}} French Mythology]].

*** Robin II's affair and consequent political fiasco also closely mirrors that of BillClinton and the scandal with Monica Lewinsky

*** In Chapter 12, Epona gets TETRA navigation software. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Tetra's Trackers,]] anyone?

* OutRunTheFireBall - After [[spoiler:severely damaging Anansi]], Link has to flee to not be caught up in the ensuing [[spoiler:energy reaction]].

* [[{{Miko}} MICO]] - Gerudo's military intelligence arm, the Military Intelligence Coordination Office, is abbreviated to "MICO". The formal uniform of this mostly-women organization consists of white robes on the upper body and red robes on the lower body. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?

** Averted ''hard'' after Link [[spoiler:destroys Anansi]], and Valent gets increasingly GenreSavvy. Not only have they [[spoiler:created a special investigative unit specifically tasked with tracking him down, they've implemented increased security protocols to special forces]]. When Link is put into action a second time to [[spoiler:destroy Jormungand]], his attempts at infiltration become increasing disastrous as Valentine forces catch on to almost every move he makes.

* ItGotWorse - Chapter Three in its entirety. Link and Zelda attempt to escape Hyrule City while attracting an increasing standard of firepower...
** The end of Chapter Eleven. Link was [[spoiler:discovered in his infiltration just as he was about to sabotage Anansi, but manages to blow everything up anyway... Only to see Anansi rising from the flames, its piloting crew incredibly pissed off]].

* SerialEscalation Link's fight with Anansi and his escape with Zelda are a mixture of this and ItGotWorse.

* Omake - With the aptly named "Omake One", a LowerDeckEpisode featuring Gerudo paratroopers participating in a military counterattack, in contrast to Link's infiltration missions in the style of MetalGearSolid.

** The part where Link rides a motorcycle off a Gerudo military transport plane in Chapter Nine pulls lines directly from MetalGearSolid3.
*** As further Shout Outing to the MetalGear series, Anansi roars just like the titular bipedal tanks, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the Shagohod]].

** In Chapter 16, a Valentine officer studying damaged video recordings orders the technician to rewind the footage to [[VideoGame/MassEffect thirty-eight point five]].

** WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer - The Exoria Files state that, decades ago, Gerudo got the short straw in the distribution of metal resources in the Death Mountains, but you wouldn't reach that conclusion from the description of its capital city, Garuda.

''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5399870/1/Legend_of_Zelda_Exoria Exoria]]'', despite its strange name, is a FanFiction based on ''TheLegendOfZelda'' written by Sudentor with a single catch: The entire story is set in modern times, many centuries after any Zelda game. Zelda is the crown princess of Hyrule, a seemingly constitutional monarchy sharing a continent with two other modern superpowers, the Gerudo - led by Generalissimo Ganondorf - and Valent - which became completely isolationist seventeen years ago after a coup. The three nations are in a stalemate while maintaining a tentative peace. Link is a [[Main/ImprobableWeaponUser gunsword]]-wielding intelligence agent working for Hylian Joint Intelligence, who is reassigned to Zelda as an interim bodyguard after her original bodyguard was killed in a secret mission tasked to him by Joint Intelligence. Valent eventually launches a sudden offensive on both Hyrule and Gerudo without warning, and, in the face of overwhelming military strength, Zelda has little choice but to seek help from Ganondorf in hopes of repelling the invasion. Things take a turn for the worse when it's discovered that Valent is utilizing three [[GameBreaker overpowered superweapons]] that is effectively decimating Hylian and Gerudo defensive lines. With [[FiveRoundsRapid most conventional military options]] off the table, Link is sent to infiltrate enemy lines to sabotage and destroy these weapons.

One of the better modern adaptations of ''TheLegendOfZelda'' out there, ''Exoria'' maintains close links with traditional ''Zelda'' elements despite being set in a completely different age; Link remains mostly silent and has spoken a grand total of once throughout the story, he travels with a sentient assistant on the same vein of Navi or Midna, [[ShoutOut references are made to the games themselves]], and the story finds parallels with the game formula themselves, such as the dungeon crawls and the bosses. Despite this, the story never quite loses its [[DarkerAndEdgier dark and gritty modern feel]], and has maintained a high standard of writing.

** Various streets in downtown Hyrule City are named after plot elements of the Zelda games, including [[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina Street]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Tetra Avenue]], and [[TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle Boulevard]]. The National Mall also seems like it was pulled right out of Washington, D.C., albeit with much more trees.
*** In Chapter 12, Epona gets TETRA navigation software. [[TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Tetra's Trackers,]] anyone?