In an earlier post, we explored the ease of scaling towers the Zelder Way: From a nearby elevated location, paraglide to a higher point on the tower to avoid enemies and other problems at the tower’s base or the approach to same.
And that worked for just about every tower that otherwise gave us problems. All except one.
We’re talking about the Dread Tower Akkala.
Sure, Woodland had its poisonous bog, and an enemy military camp; we just glided over the bog and avoided the camp before slogging through the water and electricity. Even sky-high Gerudo Tower, guarded by enemies on parapets, is easily accessible from elevated cliffs nearby. (The first time we played, we spent a lot of time and Link’s hearts trying to climb the winding parapets from a lower point.)
But then came Akkala.
Okay, it we knew it was gonna be cold, but we could remedy that with the Warm Doublet, some elixirs, or better still, the Snowquill armor.
Then there’s a Moblin – of course there is. But we could still handle that with courage and a steady arm.
Oh, wait, how cute! There’s a Blue Bokoblin dancing around a cooking pot. Why, we can just take him out with a clever Sneak Attack (um, not Itzal’s strong suit) and after, we could cook a leisurely dinner while we’re at it.
Poisonous Malice, that’s a different problem; and there’s plenty of it. Sure, you can find an eye and shoot it out, but it won’t take care of all the goo. What it will do is to cause a metal beam to fall, which you can then target with Magnesis to move around the goo and finagle it between a gap between some stairs and a ledge and then make your way like a gymnast across the beam – um, not. Seriously not. Not us.
And have we mentioned the Guardian Skywatchers?
Our Zelder Way of scaling towers didn’t account for Skywatchers. Plus, Akkala Tower is itself a high point, a citadel, if you will (and even if you won’t), and our previous Zelder strategy of finding a close, higher elevation and paragliding over wasn’t working.
So we waited, leaving this area black on our adventure map, until Itzal’s OCD couldn’t take it any longer. Well, that and the fact that we took out Windblight Ganon, freed the Divine Beast Vah Medoh, and got Revali’s Gale.
The area around Akkala Tower challenges one to find a high point from which to fly; but Revali’s Gale answers that challenge. Find a close (but safe) location, deploy Revali’s hard-earned gift, and say goodbye to Guardian Skywatchers, Moblins, Bokoblins, and balance beams over poisonous goo. Just climb the tower.
Here we arrive at an incredible thing: a post drafted by Demelza, which presently logs in at under 500 words (brevity not being Demelza’s strong suit).
Demelza rallies
Not enough to say? Fie! Faugh! Other (in)appropriate F words!
What about a co*cktail to fill the wordy void?
Enter the Aviation
For a considerable while, Demelza was entranced with the Aviation. It’s a vintage co*cktail, and we Zelders, we’re vintage. We loved the name, the mystique of it. One imagines Amelia Earheart sipping the Aviation in some quaint bar. Plus, it’s a “purty” drink, either light blue like the sky; purple; or in some (suspect) cases, pink. Finally, it cries out to be paired with something aerial, such as Revali’s Gale.
The Aviation was, at least according to Wikipedia, created by Hugo Ensslin at the Hotel Wallick in New York in the early twentieth century. (Surely it was no sooner than the flight of the Wright Brothers’ Kitty Hawk in 1903.) Allegedly, the co*cktail included gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur, and crème de violette.
A subsequent appearance of the co*cktail in the classic, Savoy co*cktail Book, eliminated the violette, which was reportedly then, and even occasionally now, not easy to find.
Now, Zelder for Elders purports to be as much about co*cktails as about the Legend of Zelda. Arguably, some might assert that we’re more versed in the former than the latter. We don’t dispute that. Indeed, we don’t care.
The fact is, we spent considerable time trying to perfect the Aviation; quite a bit more time, in fact, than we spent on Akkala Tower.
The first time, Demelza bought a liqueur reportedly made from the finest Montmorency Michigan tart cherries. She saw the Maraschino liqueur on the same shelf, but who could resist the description, the finest Montmorency cherries? It just sounded fancier.
Unfortunately, it was also red, not clear, and when mixed with the crème de violette and the lemon, turned the co*cktail a mousy shade of brown, not the purple or pink we had expected.
The second time, we used the Maraschino that the recipe in fact called for, but Itzal, who does not care for Maraschino (although he dislikes admitting it because his ex disliked it first) suggested we reverse the suggested amounts of violette and Maraschino. This time we were rewarded with a lighter shade of pale – that is, pale purple – but still we found the flavor not living up to its high-flying name. We attributed this to a now mutual dislike of the Maraschino liqueur, although we will never own up to this to Itzal’s ex, and possibly a similar distaste for the floral flavors of the violette.
At one point, Itzal, still wrangling with the controllers although long past Akkala Tower, looked over at Demelza, who was furtively drinking a co*cktail considerably less purple than his own. “What’s that?” he snapped. (He’s a right snapper, our Itzal.) “Um, I didn’t like the Aviation, so I made a Lemon Drop martini,” Demelza responded sheepishly.
Now, where does that leave us? Personally, we’re beginning to think that Harry Craddock of the Savoy Hotel was right – skip the violette – but honestly we’d also skip the Maraschino, which leaves us with gin and lemon juice, and that makes us feel like we’re living in the Prohibition Area and should be mixing up vats of it our bathtubs. Thus, we ask you, Dear Readers, to email us your favored recipes for an Aviation. To get you started, we’ll post the recipe we used and photographed here.
Will we all eventually admit Itzal’s ex to be right, that Maraschino liqueur is an abomination? Perhaps. But one thing’s for certain: We can give a high five to the finest Montmorency cherries. They’re tart and refreshing when combined with vodka and lemon. Just don’t mix them with violette.
