The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Jay Zilla 2830: Exactly how did some of the temples in Oo T come to fruition?
    • Raven Grave: Well, the Gorons just started mining, the Kokiri hired Edgar Allen Poe as their architect, the Zoras are actually really good at picking locks, the Gerudo...actually, as temples go, the Spirit Temple sort of makes sense...and the Sheikah are a bunch of sadistic bastards who probably got off on making people run through the stuff of nightmares. Or, we go with option B, where we all make ourselves believe that in fact, the temples were all magically altered by Ganondorf in order to keep Link from awakening the sages. Personally, after the Water Temple and the Shadow Temple, I'd much rather prefer to think that a Magnificent Bastard Big Bad was responsible for that madness rather than the respective races that they represent.
      • Let's look at a quote from our favorite Sage of Light.

Rauru: His evil power radiated from the temples, and in seven short years, it it transformed Hyrule into a world of monsters.

    • This troper got the impression that the temples were all previously used frequently for worship (or, in the case of the Shadow Temple, burial). It was not until Ganon came to power that they became so dangerous. Saria did sound shocked that the Forest Temple was full of monsters.
      • I don't have the link, but there was a thing on GameFAQs where some people were Fridge Logicing on this. They had some pretty good ideas.
      • You mean this link?
    • Fridge Logic once you've played Skyward Sword. All the temples and dungeons were left behind by the goddess Hylia in a Xanatos Gambit to train multiple incarnations of Link until Demise's(and by extension, Ganon's) evil was permanently extinguished.
    • I've just added a WMG speculating that the Forest Temple, in particular, is the same as the Temple of Time from Twilight Princess. More generally, it seems as though the temples are points at which Hyrule and the Sacred Realm are connected, thus explaining why evil emanated from them once Ganondorf got the Triforce of Power. It seems reasonable to speculate that the temples are actually designed to be challenges to begin with, to ensure that those who are not worthy cannot connect to the Sacred Realm. And with each temple assigned a different race to protect them (Light = Hylians, Forest = Kokiri, Fire = Gorons, Water = Zora, Shadow = Sheikah, Spirit = Gerudo), it is almost as though each temple is intended to provide an access path for the appropriately worthy sage of that race to access the Sacred Realm. This is also why each sage goes directly from their temple to the Chamber of Sages.
      • This also implies that the Temple of Time is merely the designation given to the temple at which the Master Sword resides, thus why the Temple of Light is the Temple of Time in Ocarina, but the Temple of Time is the Forest Temple in Twilight Princess.
  • In Ocarina of Time, why didn't Biggoron destroy Ganon's Castle and kick Ganondorf's ass while Link was asleep? The guy is enormous; surely he would have had the destructive power to do all that. Instead he just sits on a mountain and... makes swords?
    • Gorons in general are described as gentle giants, peace-loving creatures who would sooner be working in the mines and eating rocks than crushing skulls.
      • And even so, Ganondorf was starving them. Very few of them could even move very well.
      • Until Twilight Princess made them Proud Warrior Race Guys.
      • Since it takes place after OOT, presumably they've smartened up. Note, though, that even in OOT they did have at least their own legendary hero.
    • Because Ganondorf isn't vulnerable to mere physical force. Biggoron could stomp on him all day, but Ganondorf would just jump up and give some very unpleasant payback with his magic. Only stuff like Light Arrows, the Master Sword, or other sources of sacred magic have a chance of even inconveniencing big G.
    • Because if there's anything Majora's Mask taught us, it's that when tough guys who aren't Link try to take on the Big Bad, it only ends in sorrow. Also, death.
    • Besides, one was stuck in a cave and the other had eye problems that wouldn't be fixed if you skipped the trading side quest.
      • Actually, he says (at least in the remake) that the eruption of Death Mountain is what hurt his eyes, so he should have been fine during the Time Skip.
        • Didn't Death Mountain erupt while Child Link was on his way up to meet the first Great Fairy? Maybe his eyes were hurt way back then?
  • What happened to the Gerudo? They appeared in Ocarina of Time and then...poof, they're almost completely gone. Did they die out? Did they simply assimilate entirely into Hylian society after Ganondorf was dethroned? If so, why do they appear in Four Swords, which takes place after games where they are apparently extinct?
    • In Twilight Princess, some think Telma looks related to the Gerudo.
    • I once heard a very plausible theory: The nation, that was banned into the twilight realm and became the twili are, in fact, the post-Ocarina-of-time Gerudos plus some allied (male) hylian dessert-robbers. Well, of course, afterwards, they had no other choice, but to interbreed. If you look at Midna`s "human" form, you'll find some similarities to the Gerudos from Ocarina of time and Majoras Mask, especially to the Gerudo leaders of this two games.
      • By this troper's interpretation, the "dark Interlopers" were banished long before the events of Ocarina of Time, which means they wouldn't be Gerudo.
        • Nope. It is explicit that Ocarina of Time is chronologically the first game. The Zelda timeline is uncertain, but Link to the Past definitely comes after, not before.
          • Nyet. The ancestors of the Twili were specifically stated to have been banished after a series of wars fought over the Sacred Realm, and presumably the Triforce, for creating the Fused Shadows. Presumably, that was also when the first Temple of Time was built and the Master Sword was forged to keep people out of the Sacred Realm and away from the Triforce. Ergo, before Ocarina of Time. Besides, Minish Cap must precede the Imprisoning War, which means that it precedes Ocarina of Time, under the interpretation that Ocarina of Time is the Imprisoning War.
          • Exactly. Also, the newest game, Skyward Sword is confirmed to take place before Oo T. Whether or not it'll include elements from TP is unknown.
            • It doesn't. But many things got retconned or a better excuse for it would be, the true story, since most of these are stories passed down through the generations, which retellings can be distorted over many years(anyone ever play telephone?) It's implied in Skyward Sword that the Sealed Temple may become the Temple of Time from Oo T, but there is also a Temple of Time in the Lanayru Desert, and geographically that Temple seems to match Oo T's Temple of Time better. Also, there are many theories as to who the dark interlopers were, but their attack was before Ocarina of Time. Perhaps the dark interlopers were the cause of the Hyrulean Civil War, one result of which was Oo T Link being entrusted to the Kokiri.
    • On a related subject, if the Gerudo only produce one male every 100 years, how do they reproduce in the interim? The obvious answer is that they kidnap Hylian men to use as studs--which handily explains why they locked up the carpenter's sons and don't do anything to Link other than re-capture him no matter how many times he escapes--but that's a pretty disturbing concept for an E-rated game. Also in that case, how would they maintain themselves as a distinct ethnic group?
      • Magical biology. Males are Hylians, females are Gerudo. At any rate, we've got an almost-confirmation of the larger theory in-game. If you're wearing the Gerudo mask, someone in Castle Town comments that it looks like his mother.
        • Too many female Hylians for that.
          • It seems to work Hylian male + Gerudo female = Gerudo daughters, Hylian sons. However, Hylian male + Hylian female = Hylian daughters and sons.
            • Well, it does work in chickens...
            • The Hylian/Gerudo species uses a ZW sex determination scheme (males are homozygous ZZ, females heterozygous ZW). The gene that determines Gerudo-ism is on the W chromosome (so males don't get it), and is dominant in Gerudo females, recessive in Hylian females. A male Gerudo thus arises from a very rare genetic disorder, rare enough that it only happens about once a century in the entire population.
      • If you wear the Gerudo Mask and talk to Talon in Ocarina of Time, he mentions that he reminds him of Malon's mother. In any case, some Zelda theorizers think that appearance equals race in Zelda- i.e., since Malon didn't have any Gerudo characteristics, she was returned, so on and so forth.
    • One of the Gossip Stones: "They say that Gerudos sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends."
    • Alternatively, male Gerudo just live for a very long time and can have a succession of wives. Roughly once every hundred years, the man has a son, who becomes king after he dies. Presumably Ganondorf' parents died shortly after he was born, leaving him to be raised by Twinrova, and Nabooru led the Gerudo as an interim ruler while Ganondorf was too young for the position.
    • Another possibility about the "all female" aspect of the Gerudos is that Gerudos can only have female children: no boy is ever born from a gerudo mother except once per century, therefore making the gerudos outcasts no matter where they went (because if a gerudo population integrated itself in another community, mixed marriage would have the consequences of "killing" the male gender, because every one with ONE gerudo ancestor would be fated to be a women with their characteristics). A personal wild mass guessing is that the gerudos had wandered for a very long time before Hyrule accepted them as part of their very multi-ethnic nation in OOT, before Ganon went and screwed everything, forcing the gerudos into exile once again.
    • One thing that I'd like to point out is that in OOT, there are no humans and everybody has pointed ears. That is, other than the Gerudo. The Gerudo had human ears (if you look at later games, Ganondorf has distinctly nonhuman ears, though). Gerudo and Hylians create a mixed breed that has normal Hylian eye colors, Hylian pale skin, and rounded ears--humans. The Gerudo race slowly fades out as they feed into the human species.
      • I think you mean "Hyrulians." That's the canon term for the non-Hylian race.
        • ...Did no one else notice this? Hylians, + GeRudo = Hy-Rulians?
        • Hm. I always thought it was Hyruleans. At any rate, the term refers to people from Hyrule, not a race.
      • Umm, what? The word "human" appears numerous times since either Majora's Mask or Wind Waker. I've only heard Hyrulian or Hyrulean as an adjective for the actual kingdom.
      • Maybe Gerudoes reproduce asexually?
    • Well, some Gerudos do show up in Majoras Mask too. Although those are different ones, and it doesn't answer the mating argument that's sprung up. But if Link (and apparently the Happy Mask Salesman) can get back and forth from Termina and Hyrule, maybe later Gerudos (if any besides the Four Swords ones ever show up) could use finding away between Termina and Hyrule as a Hand Wave? Though this is kind of getting into Wild Mass Guessing territory...
  • Okay, here's one. In Ocarina of Time, why does putting the Master Sword back in its pedestal cause Link to travel back in time? When its pulled out it doesn't teleport him directly to the future, rather it was explained that the sword simply put him into a coma until he was big enough to use it properly. So what gives?
    • Destiny. A Wizard Did It. It was required by the plot. Basically, that's about all that needs to be said. And who's to say that a magical, coma-inducing sword wouldn't be able to age and de-age you at will?
    • Pulling out the sword the first time knocked him out. Every subsequent time he was very clearly teleported instantly to the future--he was still in the process of pulling the sword out.
    • I always took it as less of a coma than having his mind being temporarily de-activated or removed, and sent to his future self. Each time he pulled or replaced the master sword, it would just send him to the earliest point that he had space in his head for his own mind after the seven years or after being born, respectively.
    • This troper believes that it only knocked him out for seven years the first time he pulled it from the pedestal. Once the timeline was created, it was possible for Link to flit between the past and future. However, even he's not capable of just ripping 7 years through space-time before the timeline even exists. Of course, Zelda and the Sages' attempts to give him back his missing years resulted in the (canon as of 2012) dual timelines, which reinforces Link's role as the Hero of Time (and that people who aren't Link shouldn't mess around with time travel.)
    • I've seen it as this: The magic requires one who is able to at least wield the weapon Keep in mind that the sword is almost as tall as Child Link is! As such, time is (for all intents and purposes) frozen at the pedestal as he pulls out the Master Sword. When he puts it back into the pedestal, he is granted the chance to go back to his childhood as compensation.
      • Additionally, even if it wasn't presupposed/compensation, the Sage of Light most likely realized after Link got brought to the future that he would undeniably be required to go between the two times. That or either Link or Zelda talked with him about the need to go back in time. The first time Link put the sword back, he opened the Sacred Realm, talked to the Sage, and had set the ability on command. Of course if Link were left with the Master Sword when he couldn't carry it then...Ganondorf holding the only weapon that can finally kill him is not good for ANYONE.
    • Kind of related...if Link spends 7 years in a coma-like state, how does his body find nourishment and what happens to his bodily functions?
      • Recall that it's, you know, a magical coma in a magical land, and he's watched over by a magical sage serving a magical sword.
      • What bodily functions?
  • Here's something that's really bugging me. WHY did Navi leave in the first place?
    • You know what's a better question to ask? Why would you bother to go and find that annoying pest.
    • The Kokiri don't grow up, so they never lose their fairies. Navi, the poor girl, gets assigned to the non-Kokiri kid, and doesn't know what to do with herself after he grows up to be a fairy. She might have thought she was done.
    • Remember why the Great Deku Tree assigned her to Link: because he was about to be tapped as the hero of an epic adventure, and would need a guide. Once the adventure is over, he doesn't need her anymore. On her end, it may not be comfortable for her to stay outside the forest without a dedicated task.
    • Only Kokiri get dedicated fairy companions. Link was only given one to help him on his quest. Quest ends, Link no longer needs Navi, ergo Navi leaves. I'm more bugged by the idea that he starts Majora's Mask looking for her, and yet never does. Would it have killed Nintendo to add an epilogue where he does (and actually getting back to Hyrule would be nice, too).
      • I thought he was looking for the skull kid he played Saria's Song with, and that the Skull Kid in each game is the same one.
        • Unlikely. Right after the "precious friend" text box, the sound of a flying fairy plays.
    • Link's the only one who remembers the dark future with Ganondorf in charge. The magic Zelda used to send him back let him keep his memories of that dark time - and of developing a close friendship with Navi - didn't let Navi keep her memories. Navi thinks things are okay and that Link will be better off without her. Link... disagrees.
    • I have a different take on the question than those who answered previously. Not "Why did Navi leave Link?" but "Why did Navi Go Away?" If she left, it implies that she went somewhere. If she just died... Why does Link think he'll find her on this plane of existence?
    • Who ever said he was looking for Navi? The game only says he was looking for a lost friend, it never said who. The game takes on a tone as if it were speaking of events yet to come, meaning the quest could be one about to begin. Link is going through the forest but doesn't appear to have any real direction or urgency. When Epona is stolen, however? That motivates him to move, and move fast. Also, at the end of the game, Link hasn't found Navi, yet the story is over. How would that make sense if this was no more than a detour, essentially making the entire game a sidequest? Link wasn't going after Navi, he was looking for his faithful companion and friend, Epona. Once he found her, he still had to fulfill his promise to the salesman.
      • Excuse me, but the hints that he's looking for Navi are OVERWHELMING. First, the game text says, he was looking for someone who went through the whole previous adventure with him, which only applies to Navi. Second, the bell which plays a split second before the first cut-scene is obviously a fairy. That's BEFORE Tatl and Tael make their entrance, you mind. Third, when Tatl teams up with Link, he comments that he's staring at her like something was stuck in her face. Tatl is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for Navi, so it's everything but far-fetched that she reminds Link of her, which explains the staring he she actually meant something to him.
      • So, to recap - Link noticed Tatl was a fairy, just one who spoke a lot crasser and was a lot ruder than Navi. If I thought all the fairy's were passive and friendly creatures, and one practically swore at me, I'd stare too. Plus, the bell was either Tatl or Tael spying on Link from the trees. As for a friend who went through everything with him, remember that the adventure didn't really begin until Link became an adult, and he got Epona. Besides, him looking for Navi doesn't explain why he gives up looking for her at the end.
        • Whoever says he gives up looking for her? All we know is that Link's drawing skills haven't improved during the year timeskip.
      • He's got Epona with him in the beginning, when this is told. He's sitting on her freakin' back! Who else should he be lookin for? Santa Claus? Also, it is never said that he stopped looking for Navi, we just don't get to see him reach his goal. Did we see Tetra and Toon Link reach their original goal (a new mainland to settle on) in the end of Phantom Hourglass? No! Because that was not the point of the game, just how it started. Same applies to Majoras Mask.
      • I already said, the text speaks of a journey about to begin. Epona is with him, and when Skull Kid steals her, it begins. Also, killing Ganon actually has something to do with a new mainland, and isn't a full game of a complete irrelevance of their end goal, to the point where they have spent some 20 hours accomplishing nothing toward what they set out for and what the text said was the games purpose.
      • ...Ganon? Did we two play the same Phantom Hourglass? And, uhm, no, sorry, that's not how the text in the beginning went. This is the exact text: In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend held dearly by the royal family that tells of a boy who, after batteling evil and saving Hyrule, crept away from the land that had made him a legends. Done with the battles he once wages across time, he embarked on a journey. A secret an personal journey. A journey in search for a beloved and invaluable friend, with whom he parted ways when he finally fullfilled his heroic destiny and took his place among legends... * fairy ring* (BEFORE the screen fades in, you mind) This does NOT sound like what you just said. This comes even closer to searching for Saria than to searching for Epona (With whom he did NOT part, once he fullfilled his destiny.) Sorry, but your explanation doesn't fit and all the evidence goes towards Navi. Case closed.
    • He was definitely looking for Navi. For whatever reason, she left and he was desperate to find her. You know who else has had their friends leave? Skull Kid. And when he sees that even though they left, the giants still cared about Skull Kid, he decided that he didn't need to find her and returned to Zelda who, like Link has now, had faith that her friend would return one day.
    • Probably Navi had found another fairy to play with and lost Link. Or the simple fact that either one had just gotten lost in the Lost Woods. Maybe Link fell asleep and woke up while Navi was busy exploring. I myself prefer that Link fell asleep, Navi looked around, Link woke up and got lost looking for Navi, and Navi went back to the Deku Tree to wait for Link. Then, after Link saved the day again and found Navi safe and sound, Link let Navi watch over either another Kokiri or Saria.
      • Also, for this idea: there are two fairies in Termina and one looks like Navi. So there must be a Hyrule counterpart to the other fairy. So, perhaps, Navi found this Hyrule counterpart and just wandered off with them while Link was doing something else (sleeping, wandering, etc).
    • Someone mentioned that Link starred at Tatl because she was identical, (the alt-verse counterpart) to Navi. I just wanted to chime in here and say I agree with it, but also had always assumed that the implication was Link finding and befriending Tatl "counted" as him finding Navi. After all, Navi only came to him to help him solve an epic quest. In a sense, she comes to him again in the form of Tatl to do the same in the Majora's Mask world. I can understand why this wouldn't be emotionally satisfying to a lot of people, but I had always assumed that's what the idea was.
    • A point that hasn't been mentioned: at the end of Oo T, Navi is likely to have gone back to the forest... which explains Link being in the forest at the beginning of MM.
    • "The mystery begins a mere three months after Link's triumph over Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time. Now downtrodden, Link guides Epona through a sombre fog in search of his faithful fairy friend Navi." - Source
  • There is a giant glass window in the temple of time, why doesn't Ganon/Link just go in through that rather then jump through a bunch of hoops?
    • Because that window doesn't lead to the Sacred Realm, it leads to a tower containing the Rod of Command, which is, frankly, for all intents and purposes useless.
    • What about the sunlight that streams in through the window? That suggests a lack of a tower on that window. I believe that the "tower" is really the Temple of Light (hence all the Light Medallion symbols everywhere). As for the original question. All the hurdles must be jumped to make the portal appear. Breaking the window before that would result in... a broken window leading outside.
      • Yeah, given the freakyness exhibited by the Door of Time in TP, the simple-looking little chapel Link enters in OoT is probably brimming with Alien Geometries.
    • As the Temple of Time is left completely untouched in an otherwise devastated Hyrule Castle Town years after Ganondorf conquered and razed it to the ground, one might conclude that the temple (including the window) is much sturdier than it looks.
      • I would posit that the Good Magic is too strong for an evil force to overcome.
    • They're not the same Temple of Time. You might be able to get away with lakes, forests, and deserts moving, but barring cataclysmic events mountains are pretty much stationary. The same is true with the movement of the sun. Using Death Mountain and the cardinal compass defined by the sun, the two Temples of Time simply aren't anywhere near each other. If anything, the Temple of Time in Twilight Princess should be closer to the Hidden Village, not down south in the middle of the forest.
      • I'm pretty sure he was talking about Temple of Time as Child Link vs. Temple of Time as Adult Link, not Oo T Temple of Time vs. TP Temple of Time.
      • I'm gonna have to go with the Alien Geometries idea above. Say you went out through one of the windows at the top of the Master Sword Chamber (as Navi does at the end of the game). You would end up outside. But then, if you tried entering the temple through the corresponding window from outside, you would end up in a room the same size and shape as the Master Sword Chamber... but with no Master Sword, Door of Time or Spiritual Stone pedestal to be seen. Just a normal monastery built out of marble. Exit out the front door, you're outside. Go in through the front door, and you have the Temple of Time as seen in the game. Confused yet?
  • In Ocarina of Time, Link is basically put to sleep for seven years. He wakes up, and is immediately able to carry hundred-pound hammers, do back flips, and generally kick ass. How is it that seven years without food or exercise had no adverse effect on his health?
    • It was a magical sleep. Plus, we know Rauru was clothing him (see the earrings that weren't there before?), so he may have also been feeding him.
    • Which brings up the comical image of Rauru treating Link like a doll.
      • And to me, it brings up Nightmare Fuel. Rauru has been stripping Young Link naked, who knows how often. And he's a priest. There cannot be any good implications to that.
      • Oh my god.... Link: "Why do I have a cuckoo-shaped tattoo on my butt?" Rauru: "Because I was bored."
    • Ahem. At the OP: Link was able to do back flips before he matured.
  • Why was the Marathon Guy even in Ocarina of Time? Just to frustrate players?
    • Yes.
    • To fulfill a meaningless side quest.
    • He probably was supposed to have a purpose, but they were forced to scrap it and just left his race as a "beat your own record" thing.
    • I found him kind of fun to chase as Rabbit Link.
  • Why is it that when you're in Hyrule Field looking for a Running Man, the skeletons at night still attack you, but never come anywhere near the Running Man if he is nearby, or resting?
    • Maybe they tried, but he was too quick for them so they stopped bothering.
      • Link can run faster than the running man, but maybe they (like other enemies) only want to kill Link.
    • Maybe he's a force to be considered dangerous.
    • Maybe he's dead and his ghost is running around for all eternity and Link is the only one who can communicate with him to help him move on to the great beyond by giving him one more chance to run a race.
    • He's the Marathon Man - the monsters tried to chase him down but he was always one second ahead of them.
  • In Ocarina of Time during the Biggoron's Sword sidequest where you go to the carpenter's son in the Lost Woods...seriously, was I the only one worried about that poor kid? He gets turned into a Stalfos. And his father never even acknowledges his disappearance! That was the most inadvertently creepy and depressing part of the game for me. The amount of unanswered questions there (why did he have to get the mushroom for the old woman at the Potion Shop? Why did he need the potion in the first place? Why...?)
    • Uhmm... Rule Of Creepy? (Seriously, someone should make that trope!) Maybe Shigeru Miyamoto just wanted to foreshadow what Link was going to have to live through AFTER Ocarina of time... Cue "Majora's Mask".
      • It actually doesn't follow that Link had that waiting for him. Link was protected by the Goddesses and the Deku tree. I mean if you could stay in the Lost Woods for days on end in-game with no ill effects, why would you be affected by a few more?
    • Yeah, all throughout the 3D Zelda games, it seems like some of the designers have really been itching to introduce some horror elements to the series. Especially with the mask system in Ikana, the whole thing with the music box and the well made me think that pretty late in the design cycle a REAL undead soul mask with a fourth Link transformation got cut from the game. I suspect that early concepts for Ikana Castle and the Stone Towers were much, MUCH darker.
    • Then they had to add the Kokiri girl Fado, who is waiting for Link when he comes into the Lost Woods with the medicine. She must really dislike adults, judging from the chilling lines she gives him.
      • This Troper always had the theory that Fado was the one responsible for the stuff that happened to people who enter the Lost Woods. The only reason she doesn't do anything to Link is because he's an old friend
    • He was dying and needed medicine fast. He gave you a mushroom which he found while poaching so he could stay alive (he looks really weak when you meet him), but by the time Link gets back to the woods, he's already either dead or turned into a stalfos. Maybe the lost woods (which turns people into stalfos) was what was making him weak.
    • The game has a relatively quiet underlying hint of bigotry being a giant problem. However I would bet that the Carpenter's Son was being trained by the Old Hag. The Carpenter would know of the job and might even have expected his son to be gone for a while at a time. The potion itself was probably because he was sick, yet was the only one able to make the trip.
      • What you are forgetting is that the poacher is the carpenter and the potion hags son...
    • I remember(at least in Ocarina of Time 3D) that the Kokiri girl waiting for you there says that he left, so that he wouldn't become a Stalfos, meaning he got out before he could become one.
  • More Ocarina of Time JBM. So, the Land of Hyrule has a monster problem, especially with Stalchildren popping out of the ground whenever it's night, and Peahats flying around during the day. Cue seven years later. Ganondorf has corrupted Hyrule, dominated all the temples, turned Hyrule Castle into his own domain, completely ruined Castle Town... and there are no Stalchildren or Peahats in Hyrule, and the only 'monsters' are ghosts that run away from you. Strange, aside from specific locations, Hyrule seems NICER under Ganondorf's rule...
    • Probably explained through Ganondorf's backstory, that he's telling in Wind Waker: The reason he became evil in first place was, that seeing his Gerudo amazon-warriors die like flies in their desert, because of the lack of water turned him insane, especially after he caught a glimpse of the beauty of Hyrule. So, to make life more fair, he decided that EVERYBODY should suffer like his women in the desert by making everything like his dessert. Are there Stalchildren in Gerudo desert? Nope.
      • The entire world is dessert? Niiiiiiiiiice.
      • Oops. Typo. My bad.... And now, I have to imagine some Gerudo women, drowning in Mouse au chocolate... well, THAT'S nice! XD
        • Gerudo+ dessert+ Zelda+ All Men Are Perverts: Official Zelda Women's Jello Wrestling game. Fanart please!
    • Having monstrous skeleton rising up out of the ground at night hinders travel throughout your kingdom and thus inhibits trade and proper functioning. Purging them is simply a smart idea if you want your kingdom to function properly. Ganondorf may be evil, but he's a solid administrator.
      • But Hyrule Castle Town (the capital) is full of zombies! How is that good administration?
        • Now that's just plain vitalist. Dead people have rights too!
    • Maybe Gandonorf's just channeling all the necromantic energies into his own projects?
    • It's not nicer for the Gorons who are gonna be fed to the dragon. Or the Kokiri who have to hide from monsters attacking them. Or the Zoras who are frozen. I just think the monsters went to other places. The Stalchildren might have 'crossed over' since evil has finally taken over, which is what they wanted and they could rest now that their goal/desire was reached. The Peahats might have died since the water from Zora's Domain was too cold for them?
    • Either that, or Ganondorf just likes the field the most and wants it to stay pretty?
    • Stalchildren and Peahats were both races of living creatures who weren't loyal to Ganondorf. Ganondorf was in full Omnicidal Maniac swing after taking over, so he probably wiped them out For the Evulz.
  • In Oo T, the Ocarina of Time does next to nothing other than be a prettier Ocarina. And yet in MM, it let's you travel time. And what does Link do with the Fairy Ocarina after he gets the Ocarina of Time, anyway?
    • "Next to nothing"? Did you forget that it's the key to opening the Temple of Time? Or how Zelda uses it to send Link back at the end of the game?
    • The "whatever happened to Saria's ocarina?" question was asked many times but never answered. The Manga offers the explanation, that it was stolen by Ganondorf (who, somehow, confused it with the Ocarina of time) and latter smashed by him in rage.
    • It's a MacGuffin, dude. You might as well ask what the point of the Master Sword is when the Giant's Knife is better.
      • It sparkles? (Sometimes)
      • ..Giant's Knife is useless, what are talking about?
        • Probably talking about the Biggoron's Sword. And what do you MEAN the Ocarina of Time is useless? Did you NEVER use it to teleport between dungeons? Did you never use it to change day to night/night to day? Did you not notice how many times you need to play Zelda's Lullaby? Or even the very mundane power of being able to summon Epona from far, far away? Useless? Hardly.
    • The thing that bugs this troper about the question of where Saria's ocarina went is the unspoken certainty that the fairy ocarina went anywhere. Is it not possible that Link just hung on to it without using it again because the ocarina of time had more powerful magic? You may as well ask why Lon Lon Milk doesn't go sour if you take it into the future.
    • I think what the OP means is that the Ocarina in MM allows you to actually go back in time, but in Oot it has no such time-travelling powers, because THAT just bugs me...
      • Probably the fact that Termina is a parallel world to Hyrule where magic is more amplified allowed the ocarina's power to be amplified as well in the same way the masks that were just for fun in Hyrule became magical runes of sorts in Termina capable of several different effects. The manga's explanation also wouldn't necessarily be farfetched even in the games since, while it's not as fleshed out or obvious as the manga portrays, recall that Ganondorf was well aware you were working with Zelda, that Zelda tossed an object he rightfully guessed was the ocarina of time, and that he confronted you right after she tossed it (but before you could retrieve it in the moat). He assumes you have it and when you stand your ground instead of curl up in the fetal position at his presence, he blasts you with magic. Perhaps at this time you were stunned (maybe before you fell?), he was incredibly quick (or caused you to be stunned otherwise) and lifted the Fairy Ocarina off of you before leaving and hoped to goddesses you don't glance at your inventory before picking up the ocarina of time in the moat to blow this theory out of the water? (The only thing stopping this is the fact you still have the fairy ocarina after confronting Ganondorf and before you get the ocarina of time by which point the fairy ocarina disappears, but hey, I tried...)
    • Nothing really happens to the fairy ocarina. Link just gets rid of it, just like he did with the hookshot when he got the longshot or the giant's knife when he got the Biggeron's sword.
    • Link just got rid of the Fairy Ocarina. Or put it in his bag as a memento but never needed to use it. The Ocarina of Time, however, is required for the Temple of Time because of the Sage magic it has. The reason (aside from necessity of the plot) for the new abilities from the music itself would probably be the direct source of the magic is shifted upon entering the new land; like how the simple masks acquired magical abilities. And also there's no need to use the Ocarina for time-travel in Oo T even if you could.
    • If you go back in time and warp to the Sacred Forest Meadow using the Minuet of Forest, you can see Saria playing the Fairy Ocarina, so it is to be assumed that a fairy, possibly Navi, returned the Fairy Ocarina to Saria once Link got the Ocarina of Time.
      • Actually, the FIRST time you travel to the Sacred Grove is before you gain the Ocarina of Time as you need Saria's Song to cheer Darunia up. This is before you even gain the second Spiritual Stone. She (and you) still have the Fairy Ocarina. Saria just either got a new one or had multiples to begin with. Link just simply holds on to it. Maybe he stored it in his house?
  • In Oo T, how does that cow at the top of Death Mountain survive for 7 years in a tiny cave with 4 bushes? For the matter, how did it even get in there, since that hole looks much too small for it to fall through, and how would a cow get past the falling rocks or the vine-covered cliffs anyway? Also, when you win the jumping race at Lon Lon ranch and win a cow, how does it get up a LADDER and end up in your house?
    • A fairy did it.
    • I always figured a teleporting mail-crate system. They drop it in an open space with nothing alive on the floor under it, in the house of the recipient, unless you specify that it needs to be in the yard and you can pick it up.
    • Cows are secretly ninjas.
    • Bushes grow a lot faster in Hyrule than in our world. Remember all the places in Oo T where you chop down shrubs and they grow right back?
  • Where on earth are Sheik's ears? That's one thing that stumps both sides of the gender wars - if s/he's just Zelda, then Zelda has long pointed ears and thus Sheik should too. But if s/he's a Sheikah, then Impa has long pointed ears as well, and thus so should Sheik! Unless s/he's just tucking them in to those head bandages and/or cowl? (Which seems... impractical.) ...Or is actually a Gerudo dressed as a Sheikah?
    • The question where Sheik's Hylian ears are is a good one... I guess they are under his/her hair. Probably. Or (s)he's constantly frowning, causing them to hang down (in some media, the ears of the Hylians also indicate their emotional state... not that those media were canon).
    • Probably just keeps them tucked under her ears/bandages, bending them so they are pressed against her head, maybe using a headband or a clip or something to keep them in place. A little uncomfortable, surely, but necessary for the sake of deception.
      • Why is that a necessary deception? Sheikah have long ears the same as Hylians - just look at Impa! Whether a Hylian in disguise as a Sheikah or an actual Sheikah, Sheik should have long ears.
        • The ears are most likely under both the bandages and the hair. It is both an aesthetic and functional approach. As to the "necessary deception", the game speaks for itself. Unless you want Ganondorf/Ganon to succeed in destroying the world.
      • He's trying to be more aerodynamic. That matters when you're being a ninja and stalking young men.
  • At the end of Ocarina of Time, Ganon is beaten in the 'future', then Zelda sends link back into the 'present', to live those seven years he missed.... which will still be under Ganon's tyrannical rule, won't they? Back in kid-Links time, Ganon still has the triforce, and won't be beaten for another seven years.
    • Twilight Princess hints, that Ganondorf was exposed by somebody, before he could start his 7 years of evil rule. Zelda probably sent Link back to, like, 20 minutes before Hyrule castle was taken over, so he could go and warn the king. Why she didn't just send him back to do this right after he first woke up in the first place is another question, but I guess not even Zelda herself really grasps the Mind Screw that is Time Travel in The Legend of Zelda.
      • If Zelda had sent Link back in time right then, Ganondorf would still be in power in the future timeline, which is bad. Zelda keeps Link around just long enough for him to cleanse Hyrule of evil, and then sends him back to create a new timeline in which Ganondorf never enters the Sacred Realm to begin with.
    • The end of Ocarina of Time shows you when Link went back to: Right when he met Zelda for the first time. You know, when Ganondorf was right there, and could have easily been captured by the Hyrulean guards.
    • That makes alot of sense. Since Link knows the future, he can tell Zelda about the things Ganondorf has done in pursuit of the Triforce. Killing one Guardian deity, trying to kill another, and attempting to starve the Gorons. Zelda then tells her father, or at least convinces him to send messengers to the Gorons and Zora, who will confirm Ganondorf's treacherous actions. With actual proof, that yes, the guy from the Desert who is supposedly swearing fealty to you is in fact, a bad man, the King will get a clue and promptly have him arrested. The Gerudo will conveniently not be around to help (Nabooru's influence) and voila. No evil pig man problems until the era of Twilight Princess.
      • See, my problem with the whole "Link went to the future and saw what happened, so he was able to go back in time and expose Ganondorf before it happened" really bugs me. If all Link needed to do was tell someone that Ganondorf was an evil man, there would have been no reason to wake the sages and seal him away. In fact, there was enough proof in the present that he was an evil man because of all the stuff he was doing (Killing the Deku Tree, attempting to kill Jabu, starving the Gorons). The way I see it, when Ganondorf was sealed away by the sages, he was sealed away through all of time... the power of the sages transcended that of the very flow of time and basically removed Ganondorf from ALL of time in a "void" of sorts. So when Link returns to his child state, Ganondorf isn't there because he's been removed from time altogether. It's as if he never existed.
        • This is almost similar to my take on the ending: With Ganondorf sealed, and the Ocarina of Time back to Zelda's hands, Zelda reverts time seven years backwards so that Link and Zelda can relive their childhood in peace; and Ganondorf being sealed in the Sacred Realm would also mean that he is also sealed from time and space, which combined with Zelda's time reversal, means that Ganondorf is Ret-Gone from the child timeline. However, just like he did in the Toon Link timeline, he would also break free in the Child timeline sometime in the future, leading to the events of Twilight Princess. Especially because if the Ganondorf exposing theory is proven true, then WHY did it take too long between the execution and the events of Twilight Princess? Also because the sages who tried to execute him don't seem to be same ones from Ocarina (who either returned to being unawakened, or somehow retain their memories from the events of Ocarina), so they can't be from the same time.
    • Him being Ret-Gone could explain the Gerudo's disappearance from future games, too.
        • The Deku Tree can't be linked to Ganon. The Goron Mountain was generally off-limits. And you think a king would go check on a giant fish? Of course showing the Ocarina of Time, playing the melodies, and other such actions would undeniably lead to him being shown reliable. Yet the evidences from other games (albeit being chronologically later) demonstrate that temporally, Ganondorf is removed from time around the beginning of the quest. Or at least Ganon, who was arguably behind the bulk of Ganondorf's evil-ness (if not directly his Triforce).
        • Actually, I find your reasoning to be a little lacking. this states that Hyrule was unified after a civil war. The King of Hyrule struck an alliance with the Zora tribe, so Jabu-Jabu would at least be known of. Since Link's mother took him to the Kokiri Forest and entrusted him to the Deku Tree, it isn't a stretch to say there was some alliance there as well. Also, Ganondorf is specifically stated to have cursed the Deku Tree, sooo, yeah... it could be linked to him.
    • Okay, if that part at the end was really when they first met again, and if we assume Ganondorf-without-triforce can be harmed by something other than the mastersword (which can't be drawn without warping 7 years), it makes sorta sense. Although it'll still be difficult to convince the king (his daughter was warning him even before that he was evil, and the King didn't listen. Now they have to talk to him about it again, and get him to look for this proof), and raises the question on why they didn't try that the first time around, like after getting the second stone. But at least it's gone from 'plot-hole' to 'needing some weird reasoning' in my book, so it's a plus.
      • The only thing I can think of as good solid proof is Courage. But if that's the case, then the sages shouldn't have been caught off-guard when Dark Lord Ganondorf revealed Power.
      • Eh, they could've, given he was supposedly dead and all.
    • My biggest problem is this: So it's assumed, and commonly accepted that Ganondorf was exposed and thus thrown in prison. 1) Zelda had been warning her father for quite some time, and he didn't listen to her, so why is he suddenly going to listen to Link? 2) Ganondorf is causing all sorts of problems with the rest of Hyrule by killing the Deku Tree, starving the Gorons, and harming Jabu-Jabu. According the Zelda Wiki the Hyrulean Civil War (the war referenced by the Deku Sprout when talking to Link about his origins) Hyrule has been unified, and an Alliance has been struck between the Zoras and the Hylian King. So how can the king allow Ganondorf to pledge allegiance to him in the first place? 3) If all that needed to be done to "seal Ganondorf away" was expose him as a child, then the whole second half of Ocarina of Time with adult Link is pointless! If anything, Sheik had to show Link what Ganondorf did the Hyrule in seven years, send him back in time (by putting the Master Sword back) and then go expose Ganondorf. Done. End of game. There is no point to the Adult Timeline.
      • By the time Link is sent forward in time, it's too late to really stop Ganondorf as a child: The king is dead, and Zelda's been driven into hiding. That's how you get the Ocarina of Time, remember? It's only after Ganon's defeated and sealed away in the adult timeline that Zelda can expose herself long enough to send Link back to a time when he could help.
        As for the king listening to Link in the child timeline, it may be that he was unaware of Ganondorf's involvement with the Zora, Kokiri, and Goron's problems, and exposing that connection is what made him take action. Or, alternatively, Link gave the king the exact date, time, and method of Ganondorf's assault on Hyrule Castle, meaning instead of catching the King unawares and killing him and driving the princess into hiding, Ganondorf rode in to find himself surrounded by the whole army waiting for him.
      • This raises an interesting point with a WMG further down. At what point did Link reappear as a child at the end of the game? In order for Ganondorf to have been exposed at all, Zelda would have had to send him back at the time before the Door of Time was even open, as Link didn't open the door until after Ganondorf started running around. It still raises the point as to why, when Sheik first saw Link, she didn't reveal herself as Zelda, send him back with the Ocarina of Time (as in the end of the game) and have to prevent all of that messing around. My only reasoning behind that is that Zelda wasn't fully awakened and needed the help of the other sages to fully realize her ability to transport something through time... but then that's never stated or really hinted at.
      • It wasn't safe for Zelda to send Link back before then. Look at what happens when Zelda does reveal herself. Link is right there, in the Temple of Time, which by all rights should be as safe a place in Hyrule as you could find. When Zelda throws off the disguise, Ganondorf kidnaps her immediately--and he makes note that he's been keeping an eye on Link specifically to lead him to Zelda. If Zelda had exposed herself as soon as Link popped into the future, that's exactly what would have happened.
        So even if going back in time did undo all of Ganondorf's shenanigans, you still had to neutralize him in the future in order to go back and fix things.
      • Neither of them knew that Ganondorf was capable of capturing Zelda had she exposed herself. This is apparent when Zelda drops her disguise to give Link the Light Arrows. Why would they think any differently had she tried to convince Link that he needed to go back in time to expose Ganondorf?
      • Zelda was clearly concerned about being captured by Ganondorf by virtue of the fact she felt it necessary to come to Link in disguise. She probably just thought at that moment that they were reasonably safe. All the Sages had been awakened and given Link their power, so Zelda decided it was time to come out of hiding and strike. She just didn't realize how quickly Ganondorf would be able to act. The point remains that Future!Ganondorf was an obstacle to setting right what had gone wrong, and had to be dealt with.
      • There is the Triforce of Courage, the Ocarina of Time, the three Stones, and the melodies. There's also that the Zora king was kinda sad at his daughter's running away. The Deku Tree is inaccessible by most people. And Goron mountain was off limits. We also have that Link could provide a date for the invasion and hence the king could prepare. And dropping the name of the Sages isn't a bad thing, either.
      • It's not "pointless". The timeline splits in two, remember? Traveling back without defeating future Ganandorf only saves one world, the one in which Link is a child, while leaving the world in which the bad future has already happened to suffer under an evil tyrant. Link needs to save that world by killing Ganandorf, THEN go back and prevent the other world from ever going bad in the first place.
    • I had always presumed Ganondorf kept his memories of the future, due to the Sacred Realm being described as timeless. Therefore, Link walks in to warn the King of Ganondorf and Ganondorf immediately tries to kill the kid so his plans can't be foiled, and Zelda for good measure. Alternatively, plot trinkets help quite a lot.
    • But the only reason Ganondorf got the Triforce in the first place was because Link opened the way to it, but was put to sleep by the Master Sword due to not being old enough to be the Hero of Time. If Link hadn't went to get the Triforce, then Ganondorf couldn't retrieve it. Thus, when Link went back, he couldn't take over Hyrule.
  • You know what bugs me? I wish, more than anything, that someone had thought to just make Sheik visibly female from the beginning. It would have undone all the unfortunate implications that came with the Zelda/sheik debate. No Yaoi fangirls pretending they are two different characters. Also, Miyamoto had the right idea in regards to making Zelda more than a damsel in distress, but it wasn't taken far enough, hence she becomes a damsel in distress, which people absolutely hate. This leads to the disconnect between her alter ego, and her true self. If Sheik had looked like a girl from the beginning, and helped out in the final battle a little more, think of all the troubles, all the arguments that could have been rightfully beaten into the ground before they even started. Sure, it would have buggered the Temple of Time reveal, but that's a small price to pay in my opinion.
    • You really wish what was (in it's time) a excellent plot twist in what is widely considered one of the best games of all time had been ruined just to stifle some arguments in the then-future/now-present fanon? Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!.
    • It is a great twist. It was the first time Zelda stepped out of her previous role. And even if Nintendo could of done more, it led to the awesome battles of Wind waker, Twilight Princess, and (even though I haven't got to that part yet) Spirit Tracks. It probably bugs me so much because I really hate Yaoi. Your right about it probably not being worth it, but in my defence, this is the "It just bugs me section." This is why its here.
    • Stating that Shiek was a female in game wouldn't have ruined the reveal at all, remember most gamers didn't even know there was a twist, so why suspect anything? Would YOU automatically think that delicate princess Zelda could possibly be a disguised stealth warrior (with different eye and skin color) completely out of the blue, just cause she's female? That would be like thinking that Nabooru was for some reason a disguised Zelda ...because she's a girl ...It's a great twist, and would have been no less surprising whether Sheik was stated to be male or female (but having her male has some Unfortunate Implications...)
      • "Would YOU automatically think..." yes. Yes I would. Because of the law of conservation of detail and the fact that Zelda was a prominent blond female who was unaccounted for, as well as knowledge that secret identity reveal twists are a common event in fiction. The tan and the red eyes helped hide her identity a bit, but the lion's share of the illusion was created by depicting Sheik as a male, such that many people would never even consider the possibility that "he" was Zelda until it was sprung on them from nowhere.
      • To cement that point, I was one of many people who instantly guessed Tetra, from the very moment you see her hanging unconscious from a tree branch, was Zelda. Tan, blonde hair, different clothes, and it didn't matter.
      • While, of course, it's more obvious in hindsight, assuming immediately that Tetra is Zelda just because she's a blond female is like saying that Aryll must be Zelda (and you even see her first thing in Wind Waker!). Yes, making Sheik look more guy-ish helped, but having her look more feminine wouldn't have been that blatant either... I mean, come on, a good chunk of the supporting cast in this game was composed of females anyway!
    • I agree with the plot twist bit; but if you ask me, it would have been better if Sheik looked more ambiguous (due to the fandom's current reaction, they might have regretted making her look too masculine), Navi lampshaded the sudden voice change during the Bongo Bongo scene (some people tend to ignore that during their pro-male side debates), and Sheik actually unmasked herself in front of Link (it wasn't possible in the original due to the N64's limitations; besides, isn't it obvious why she was covering her face in the first place?). Let's hope they address all these issues in the remake. We don't want Miyamoto to Troll us with "No reveal for you, so keep fighting", do we? Also, there's the issue of Zelda's role after the reveal, which add more to Sheik's Unfortunate Implications, that they also need to address for the remake.
  • How is so hard to spell "Sheik"? Sheik. That seems like an easy way to remember it.
    • Blame it on childhood mnemonics and the spelling habits they engrain on our psyches. I before e except after C unless sounding like ay as in neighbor or way. No "c", and no ay sound, so people automatically put i before e.
    • Sure, if you want to put that kind of effort to remembering it, that's an easy way to do it. But then, among all hard to spell fictional names, why would I choose that particular one and not all the others? To me, pretty much anything involving mnemonics or spelling is dreadfully boring, which is the exact opposite of what I am looking for when playing or discussing a game. I put up with that kind of thing often enough whenever my teachers decide regurgitation is a good substitute for understanding. I am not willing to memorize every other fictional noun I often misspell; it would be a dreadful process and it would produce no real benefits (no, producing one arbitrary string of symbols which is extremely similar to the other one in an context in which there is little chance of confusion and confusion would carry little consequences is NOT a real benefit).
  • At the end of Ocarina of Time, the Kokiri are seen dancing in Hyrule Field around a bonfire. I thought they weren't able to leave the forest?
    • That was a lie to prevent them from leaving the forest.
    • Or maybe the Deku sprout decided that it would be good for them to start leaving the forest if they wanted. At the very least he felt it wasn't cool to let the kids miss the bitching party.
    • Maybe they brought the Deku Sprout with them in a pot.
    • Probably they were granted the ability to leave, on occasion. Keep in mind that (supposedly) no kokiri could leave and so they couldn't tell anyone anything about what was happening. It's not unreasonable to lift that "curse".
    • I always thought they could physically leave the forest with no real consequence in and of itself. However, what kept them from doing so was the Stalchildren and Peahats that live just outside the entrance to the forest.
    • My take on it is that the kokiri are sprites, called into existence by the deku tree (this is stated in game) and sustained by his will and the magic of the forest. So if the deku tree is willing to let them leave the forest for the party, then they're fine, but if they try to leave at some other time against the will of the Deku tree, they die.
    • If they leave the forest, they'll die... eventually. I like the theory that perhaps staying in the forest (or merely being close to the Deku Tree) is what grants them immortality, and that if they leave, they'll actually age, or at the very least no longer be immortal. I don't recall anyone saying that the Kokiri die immediately upon leaving the forest.
    • Maybe it wasn't literal. It could be that the Deku Tree, in his wisdom, knew that Kokiri wouldn't have the survival know-how, even with fairy partners, and physical endurance and fitness to survive in the outside world. So, his statement was both a white lie and an exxagerated truth; the Kokiri would die, but only due to the harsh environment and/or monsters killing them. Possibly also (though I'm dangerously close to WMG here) done to keep the forest populated with the creatures that sustain it with their own life energy and so on.
  • You'll all think I'm a might crazy for this one. Hell, I think I'm a little crazy for this one, but I just going to say it. Navi.........bashing bugs me. Now first off, I acknowledge that there were times when she did annoy me, but I never had the massive hate for her that so many seemed to have. I think what really happened is that people started cracking the anti Navi jokes, others found it funny so they joined in, and it all just snowballed. In other words, while she can be genuinely annoying, it's really that many just enjoy mocking her, plus she's an easy target. Want your fanfic or fanart to get lots of views: just bash Navi. There have been people on this very wiki who have brought up the exaggerated nature of the all the Navi hate out there. She may not be the greatest character in all of Zelda history, but remember that for better or worse, there would be no Midna without Navi.
    • You've pretty much described the thought process behind every Scrappy ever. None of them are nearly as bad as you'd think from the hate they get here and other places. People just have a tendency to latch onto things like this.
    • That's true. Although I won't defend Tingle. Don't care enough to hate him, but won't defend him.
    • "Hey! Hey! Hey listen! Hey Hey Hey Listen! Listen! Hey!" "WHAT?!?!?" "I think you should head in the direction that you were already heading in". That's why we don't like Navi.
      • I've played through the game at least 3 times, and I've never encountered rapid fire "Hey" before. I think it does get exaggerated exponentially.
    • Well yes, that was genuinely annoying, I'm just saying that it's still greatly exaggerated, although if Nintendo had integrated her into the game a little better, and given her an actual personality, instead of just being a game mechanic that yapped when you weren't in the mood to listen, maybe things would be different.
    • Navi becomes exponentially more annoying after you've already beat the game and know what's going on. She can be surprisingly helpful to those first-time players who really don't know where they're going.
    • The thing with the Scrappy is that they are (generally) not as bad to newcomers as the Hatedom makes them out to be. Navi (as is usual with the Scrappy), however, gets exponentially more annoying as you progress once she is not necessary to you. And when you finish or play through multiple times, the rate of annoyance is much faster.
    • "There would be no Midna without Navi." I'll take the slightly annoying fairy over the offensively annoying midget any day.
  • How in the name of all that is good, holy, sacred, and beloved of Yevon did Impa manage to make it through the Shadow Temple without the Hover Boots?
    • Ninja jumping ability.
      • Who do you think taught Sheik how to ninja jump?
    • The same way Darunia entered the boss room for Volvagia without a boss key...... she probably just knows a back way in. It would be nice if they let Link in on it.
      • Also, you can hear the door unlocking as he walks through it. Presumably, Darunia locked it again to keep Volvagia from getting out in case he got eaten. Which he probably did, being dumb enough to not take the Megaton Hammer along.
      • Better question: How the hell did Darunia get over by the boss door? The guy's a giant ass rock with (from what we saw in Majora's Mask) little to no jump height.
      • He walked, then he climbed. He's a Goron, Lava is like a hot bath to them, and he probably punched in his own hand and footholds.
    • That bitch...suddenly, I strongly approve of the fact that Bongo Bongo probably killed her.
      • Wait wha?, look, there's a difference between being slapped by someone who just wants to call Impa out on that (not opening the boss door?) and being slapped by friggin Bongo-Bongo.
  • Most Zelda Dungeons, but gained prominence (To this troper anyways) when the crossroads of "A 3D Zelda" and "Actually naming dungeons" met in Ocarina of time. The first three I get. By their nature, they needn't be easy to navigate, though exploring a fish's belly raises interesting questions...but the balance of the dungeons raise major Fridge Logic. They are Temples. TEMPLES. You know, places for people to go to worship? Who the hell do they expect to worship in these places, Cirque Du Soleil? SHEESH!
    • Its Indiana Jones style temples, with a bunch of traps and such to protect the treasure within. Presumably the worshippers stay around the entryway, except for the highly trained priests, the Sages.
      • Note that for most of the temples, it's a pretty straightforward run from the entrance to the Boss Room, which is presumably where they'd do most of their worshipping. The huge number of traps and the locked doors in the temples are probably a defense mechanism that's triggered when the Sages are in the hearts of the temples, or maybe when an evil presence shows up.
    • The Forest temple is a ruined mansion-type building overrun by plants, those are horrendous to navigate even when intact, plus the actual layout is quite navigable. The Fire temple is built into a volcano, so it's understandable for it to be labyrinthine, a lot of the rooms do appear to be natural caverns too. The water temple is just a bitch, though it does appear to be the source of lake Hylia, so an ersatz temple could have been built around the source, though it still is quite poorly designed. The Shadow temple appears to be some description of torture facility, due to what can be read on the walls and the nature of some rooms, making it unlikely to be used for worship anyway, but understandable as to why it's difficult to navigate, it's one of the most linear temples anyway. It also could be noted that a winding trapped 'temple' would be much more difficult to escape from. The Spirit temple is probably the only true temple, plus its really quite easy to enter rooms of worship--the room with the large statue. In fact the layouts, apart from the water temple, are all very logical, even for temples. Add in some traps and puzzles to prevent people from infiltrating the temple and stealing... presumably the medallions etc. and add in some monsters which have either entered the temples themselves or were planted there by the architects and hey presto you've god a collection of potentially misnomered temples!
      • Right. Besides, the only reason the temples appear to be laid out weird is because Link has to run around looking for keys'n'shit.
    • Or y'know, it's just a game and temples without puzzles would be pretty dull.
    • Here's a (non-snarky) thought: The only temple we see as a child is the Spirit Temple (the somewhat normal one). How do we know that before Ganondorf's takeover they weren't more normal (as in less traps/pits, better lighting, unlocked doors) and his minions just fucked with them?
      • I like it. It would make sense for him to alter the places where the artifacts that could be used to kill him are stored, so that any pesky heroes would be more likely to meet a grizzly fate. Going by that logic, could the whole "item you need to beat the boss/temple is stored inside" be a sort of counter-attack? After all, in WW, the ghosts of the previous incumbent sages do help you out. By that logic, could the ghosts of the sages of the OOT temples be placing all those keys/items/refils around the temples?
    • The Dungeons (the first three areas: Tree, Cavern, Fish) are actually simple enough based on what they are. The logic behind them is generally "Need this item to proceed" and most of the time is not that unreasonable.
  • Minor point, but in OOT, how were the carpenters able to tell Link how many of their buddies were still locked up, as he was releasing them? Are even schlub carpenters telepathic in Hyrule?
    • Carpenter senses, tingling!
    • Perhaps they overheard the guards walking by, panicking over "yet another one" escaping thanks to your efforts.
    • Perhaps Link "says" how many he has already saved?
  • In Ocarina of Time Ganondorf tries to take the Triforce, but he is not balanced enough and the Triforce splits into wisdom, power, and courage. My question is why does he spend the rest of the game and other games trying to find the pieces to put it back together? Wouldn't it just break again as soon as he tries to use it?
    • No, I don't think so; he definitely gets at least one other piece several times later on. I think that was just a one-off protection on the Triforce as it stood on its formal pedestal in the Sacred Realm; it hasn't actually been returned since by an authority trying to protect it, so the protection has yet to be revived.
    • This is explained in the game: When you first touch the Triforce in the Sacred Realm, if you're not balanced, you get the piece that applies most to you. Then, once you have your piece, you can go and search out the other two pieces to gain your wish and ultimate power.
  • So, to what moment precisely was Link sent after Ocarina of Time ended? Was it just before touching the Master Sword?
    • I believe the implication is right before you meet Zelda for the first time.
      • No good. The door was already open. It had to have been sometime after Link finished collecting and inserting the three stones. Which is good, because otherwise he'd just have ended up having to re-rescue the Gorons and Zora again. Plus, being sent to the later time would allow him to get corroboration from the two kings, rather than having to rely on the word of an anonymous boy.
        • No, the very first time you meet her the door is still shut, two of the spiritual stones needed to open it aren't even obtained yet.
      • Uh, you mean Zelda get corroboration (cooroperation) from the two kings?
      • Problem being, by the time you open the Door of Time the king is dead and Zelda is long gone, i.e. not where she was when you first meet her. I'm sure Link wouldn't mind running through Dodongo's Cavern and Jabu Jabu's Belly again, and as for how he gets out of the Temple of Time...Zelda.
      • This raises an interesting point, because, as the story goes, Ganondorf was exposed and captured before he started off and killing stuff, so at the very latest, he would have had to appear before Link helped the Zoras, which, at that time the door was locked. I agree with the above posting saying that Zelda influenced his return to allow for the door to remain open until he left.
      • I always figured that the Temple of Time exists outside of the flow of time, so when Link opens the Door of Time, the Door is opened. Forever. Link is sent back to the time of his first visit to Castle Town. The Sacred Realm is now exposed and the Triforce vulnerable, but Ganondorf doesn't know that, and before he realizes it he's imprisoned and waiting to be executed. This can also explain (somewhat) how he obtained the Triforce of Power in the middle of his execution: the Seal on the Sacred Realm was already broken.
      • Actually, if you pay close attention to the sequence at the end, the Door of Time (behind which sits the Master Sword) is open when Link returns to the past and Navi takes off, and closes behind him after he leaves the sword behind, which seems to indicate Zelda probably did something in the future to allow the door to be open at a time before Link had to get the stones and all, otherwise he would have been trapped behind the Door of Time altogether since you need Zelda's Lullaby and the Ocarina of Time to open it even if you have the stones. Zelda HAD the Ocarina, and could manipulate time to send Link back to his childhood. Why couldn't she have manipulated the door to be open so Link could escape from that chamber after restoring the sword to its pedestal so he could go stop Ganondorf from starting the whole mess over again? So yeah, he arrives at some point before Ganondorf begins his attack. Probably the same point where he first met Zelda to begin with, since he seems to know what's about to happen, but she seems simultaneously clueless, yet reacts as if she almost knows him- presumably from her dreams, which she mentions before the split in timelines, about a boy in green coming from the forest to stop a great evil- though she doesn't entirely look as if she recognizes him.
  • Ocarina of Time: Fully-grown chickens hatch from eggs. I'm sorry, but not even "the miracle of life" is a good enough excuse for this.
  • Ganondorf is the King of the Gerudo, right? So why doesn't he, you know, king them around? Even though it's implied that Nabooru rebelling against him is out of the ordinary, none of the other ones seem particularly interested in conquering Hyrule for him. In fact, they might not even know that the world outside their village is any different than it was seven years before Link showed up. Ganondorf doesn't order them to raid Kokiri Forest, doesn't have them occupy the far more habitable Castle Town after it's taken. He just kind of forgets about them.
    • Doesn't answer your bug, but I love the phrase King them around. I don't know why. I just do.
    • Even if their laws state so, they might not accept Ganondorf as their king. And at the beginning of OOT, Ganondorf has secretly caused problems, so he can afterwards appear in the name of the king and offer his help. This way, he can demand the stones as payment while still not being regarded as a criminal. This was his plan until Link came along and foiled his plans. Unfortunately, Link opened the gate himself and all efforts went down the drain.
      • He probably doesn't "king them around" because he doesn't think they'd be very useful for his major plans. He likely can't use them as an army to take over Hyrule because he just doesn't have the numbers, and his own magical abilities far outweigh the kind of power he'd get from even the Gerudo's elite.
    • I always got the idea that Wind Waker kind of answered this. Before the final battle, he expresses how unfair he thinks the gods are by putting him and his people in the dry, dead desert. He is more concerned finding a land where his people can live and prosper instead of living in the apparent Hell-hole that is the desert.
    • Given how the Gerudo seem to genuinely value Link's strength and skill, they came across more as noble thieves than outright evil. This troper doubts that they would go along with Ganondorf if he tried to order them to conquer Hyrule, and might turn against him.
    • Perhaps Ganondorf, because of his excessive greed, doesn't want the Gerudos to know of his plans and doesn't want to share the triforce with anyone.
  • Not to be insensitive (or start a flame war, for that matter), but why would Muslims consider Islamic-sounding chanting in the Fire Temple to be offensive? Is it just because the Temples give off an "evil" vibe? The Gerudo symbol thing is at least a bit more understandable, given the Gerudo's role in the game and the area they occupy...
    • It wasn't Muslim sounding, it was part of their prayer.
      • I agree. Would you find it comfortable if a temple's music was "The Nicene Creed" or "The Holy Prayer" repeated over and over again in soft, subtle chant-like voices? In a temple with lava? I can see why some may find this offensive, as it has Unfortunate Implications.
      • Unfortunate Implications pretty much sums it up. The temple is basically a prison, after all.
      • OP: Well yeah. I mean, I'm a fan of Ominous Latin Chanting (and am Catholic), but that may be a level removed...I'd suspected the reason had to deal with the evilness of the temples, which makes sense.
    • Also, I kind of imagine it was probably an internal Nintendo CYA squad rather than actual Muslims that raised a stink over it.
    • The Koran bans music; Sufi dhikrs, general Islamic nasheeds, the call to prayer, the text of the Koran in recitation, etc. are reckoned as non-music, and are never to be used as entertainment. Marcel Khalife got into hot water (read: capital sacrilege trial, fortunately acquitted) over this one... The 'censored' printings of Ocarina of Time also had Ganon spitting green blood rather than red, so the Sufi chant removal was probably the legal team at work. (Sidenote: the 'Islamic' star and crescent dates back to Carthage or earlier, and was first adopted as an insignia by the Ottomans; the Persians use symbols of their own, while the Arabs and Pashtuns tend to prefer Islamic calligraphy.)
  • So... in Ocarina of Time, it was a secret to everybody that Link was really a Hylian and not a Kokiri. How much of a secret was it really? Presumably Mido didn't know, but Saria seemed to suspect it. And if it hadn't been for Ganondorf, Link would have found out anyway in a few years once he started to go through puberty. So, why didn't the Deku Tree tell him the truth before dying? And were there Kokiri around from the time he was brought there who would know?
    • This sort of bugged me too. I mean, the Kokiri have been around since forever, surely you'd think they'd remember a baby being brought to the village some years ago and growing with them. And surely Link himself would remember growing all these years among kids who always seemed to be older than him but never seemed to age.
    • We don't know exactly how the Kokiri grow. They might just spring up, already looking like 10-year-olds, or they might have started as babies out of pods, or seeds, or something. If that's the case, the Deku tree could've easily made it look like that was the case with Link. Alternatively, maybe Saria was his caretaker specifically, and she's the only one who suspects because she knows more details about him growing up than the others did.
    • My guess is that they grow like hyrulians until they hit a certain age (about 10-ish) then stop growing. It could have just been perfect timing for Link to be brought to the Deku tree while the Kokiri had just been born.
      • This makes a good deal of sense. And if all the Kokiri weren't born at the exact same time, that would make it even easier for Link to blend in with them, as the Kokiri would be used to seeing new babies spring up occasionally.
    • To protect him from the war-torn world outside the forest at his mother's request.
    • To disguise the Hero of Time as a Kokiri and protect him until it was time to fulfill his role as The Chosen One.
    • If Mido picks on his for having a fairy, imagine what he'd say if he was an "out" Hylian.
  • Does the Magic Bean guy never drink water?
  • What happened to the kid in the graveyard? In the future, it's mentioned that he never came home one day - and that's all you ever hear of it. Was that just meant to be depressing? Something left in for a subplot? An explanation for not making a new model for him?
    • Just a guess, but: The kid hangs out in a graveyard. Ganondorf makes a ton of (respawning) minions, including Redeads, Stalfos and Gibdos. Where would they come from?
    • Not really helpful, but: WAT. I only just now realized he isn't in the future...who said he never came home one day?
      • I forget exactly who it was, but if memory serves one of the NPCs near the house he used to live in tells you his mother moved out and the shop moved in after he disappeared.
    • If you talk to Dampé and the scientist at Lake Hylia, they both tell you that the Spooky Mask was carved from someone's coffin. Since you give that to the kid, and he hangs out around Redeads so much...
    • There's a common theory that the boy grew up to become the cloaked ghost hunter, based on how the ghost hunter waves his stick about.
      • Which is interesting, when you consider that the ghost hunter tells Link that he wishes he had his good looks, while the little boy laments his cute, nonthreatening face.
  • Okay, so a sword that a giant Goron can make in four days (if I remember correctly) is more powerful than the Master Sword against everything except against Ganondorf. Why is this sword not blessed into a new Master Sword by the sages after OOT? If it was, the old Master Sword would be almost useless next to it, and all enemies could be mowed down way faster by any new heros that show up. In fact, since they only take four days to make, why doesn't Big Goron make an armory's worth, and have the sages bless them each so that Hyrule has a ton of them? I think Hyrule could have been safe for a while longer.
    • We'll probably find out in Skyward Sword; I suspect the Master Sword-making process is quite a bit more complex than a simple chant and probably needs an intensely magical sword to begin with, rather than an especially sharp and heavy one like Biggoron's blades.
      • Still doesn't explain why he doesn't make a ton of them, maybe slightly modified so a human could hold it with a shield.
      • Hyrule doesn't believe in armies. I'm pretty sure their pantless guards are only around for formality's sake.
        • "Slightly modified" so one could wield a shield as well would require the Biggoron Sword to be longsword-sized and thus deal regular-longsword damage. Just because it's more damaging doesn't make it an ideal weapon in the long run, since future Links might not be strong enough to wield a giant greatsword, nor is fighting with a weapon that size always practical. The Master Sword is what it is in part because it was forged by the gods, and in part because longswords/arming swords/whatever the technical term may be are the ideal tradeoff between reach, damage, technique, etc. for maximum versatility and thus maximum ability to kill the hell out of the forces of evil.
      • I just thought that Biggoron was a great forger, and that the sword is so big because he designed it for Gorons, but is also really high quality. Come to think of it, if Gorons make the best swords, why isn't there a Goron army? Imagine facing a Goron with a Biggoron sword.
        • And that, my friend, is why the Forces of Evil always tamper with the Gorons' food supply or effectively assassinate key decision-makers rather than making a head-on attack like they do with Hylians.
      • The Biggoron Sword has a serious drawback, though - it's heavy enough to require a dual grip, which leaves it's wielder incapable of using a shield at the same time. Considering how many enemies in-universe can exploit Link's open guard, it makes sense that the Master Sword would a blade that could be wielded one-handed.
  • Fado in Ocarina of Time. What is her problem? It makes me wonder if she was still the horrid Creepy Child she is in the original storyline..
    • Are we talking about that Kokiri who sits on the shop's roof? She wasn't that creepy, was she? Apart from sitting on a roof...
      • "That guy isn't here anymore. Anybody who comes into the forest will be lost. Everybody will become a Stalfos. Everybody, Stalfos. So, he's not here anymore."
      • *Shudder* Wait, what's this about an original storyline?
      • She was the one who stood on top of a post at the end of a bridge that connected to another post which connected via bridge to the roof of... I wanna say Saria's house, but I'm not sure. Anyway, she's just gone through seven years of at least two of her friends being missing, the Great Deku Tree being dead (and one of the aforementioned friends speculated as being at fault), and the overrun of the village by Deku Babas and Deku Scrubs. Also, it seems she's possibly witnessed the transformations of which she speaks. Maybe she's going mad... or at least has developed a dark sense of humor.
    • The beta was different. She was apparently the Wind Sage before Saria replaced her and they loosely changed her temple to a forest theme. Before the current story, the story was somewhat different too.
      • Would you mind sharing your source? The beta version seems very interesting.
    • Go ask a beta team, or someone who knows a lot about the beta. Or try the wiki for a basic lowdown.
  • In Ocarina of Time, when we first see Ganondorf, he is "swearing his allegiance to the King of Hyrule." So we can assume the king thinks Ganondorf is an alright guy... Why then, is he allowed to run around killing the Deku Tree, starving the Gorons, and trying to kill Jabu-Jabu? It's not like it was a secret to anyone that Ganondorf was the one behind all of it.
    • It's pretty much one of those "you can't prove anything" scenarios, and one of the more subtle aspects of Hyrule at this point is that the various races are still fragmented. Thus, the Hylian king would take the word of a kneeling Gerudo over that of a stout, hammy Goron, a somewhat absent-minded Zora, and a largely isolationist...tree.
      • Besides, it seems like the Hylians and Kokiri don't have too much contact with each other- there's no mention of the outside world in the forest, and they can't leave for Castle Town. It doesn't excuse the Gorons and the Zora, but it's possible the king doesn't actually know about the Deku Tree, and the Zora issue seems to be a very recent one. And the Gorons can't actually prove that it was Ganondorf. Hell, for all we know, he could be there that day in the castle to give his side of the story.
    • This offers some interesting information. It does state that presumably, the Zora tribe and the King of Hyrule formed an alliance. It also states that all the races are unified under the Hyrulean Banner, so they aren't as "fragmented" and isolated as we may think. I will accept that an offered theory (read: not exactly canon) from the page states that Ganondorf fought with the King during the civil war, so showing Ganondorf offer his allegiance to the King is not unexpected. However, it still bugs me that as these other events were going on (especially if the king had an alliance with the Zoras) that no one thought to mention it to the king.
      • Perhaps Ganondorf subtly cut off the king from contact with those races. Or perhaps he only made Jabu Jabu ill not long before. Ruto couldn't have been stuck in that stomach for very long...
  • Something I'm more curious than bothered of are the keatons. In Oo T, Keaton (singular) is a famous mascot kids admire in the same way many some of us admire Bugs Bunny, and thus they have a mask kids adore. Termina seems somewhat the same in the respect that the masks also exist to give to children (Kafei, for instance, got his as a child from the Curiosity Shop Owner, who is surprised Kafei could keep it in such good shape for so long), but then we also have Keaton (plural now) appear as a species who exist all over the place, just hidden. MM is the only time we see Keaton in person, and every other time we see keatons in the zeldaverse were in different times and vastly different appearances from the yellow pika-ninetales-thing from Oo T and MM. So was Oo T's Keaton part of the keaton race in MM who travelled from Termina, or just a mascot coined up? Or was it one of those cases it tries to pretend to be an imaginary friend to adults and only appear to children due to their inherent good natures (and possibly because kids are more likely to wear the mask and thus are treated as if they're trying to trick the foxes into thinking they're one of their own like they think Link does if he wears it while meeting them)?
    • I think it's possible that the Happy Mask Salesman, being one of the very few people to have been to both Hyrule and Termina, introduced the Keaton to Hyrulian kids through his masks. Considering Hyrule probably doesn't have television or even comic books, the masks are the only way they could know about it, assuming there aren't any Hyrulian keaton.
    • I always took it to mean that Keatons were a part of traditional folklore, but got overshadowed by a single heavily commercialized example in pop culture, like Genie from Aladdin. It just so happens that, in this case, the folkloric original is REAL in some distant land (Termina.)
  • The laughable lack of balance among the Triforce pieces themselves. The Triforce of Power gives you massive magical abilities (or maybe just enhances magical abilities that you already possess, since Ganondorf already had his fair share of magic stank on), to the point that you can defeat ancient guardians and literally reshape the world in your image. You become immune to all weapons, aside from a very small number of highly enchanted swords and arrows. You might also get... immortality? Or the ability to pass your Triforce piece to your other selves in alternate timelines? The Triforce of Wisdom gives you the ability to... ah... open heavy doors very slowly with a fabulous pink light. Oh! Oh! And you can sometimes, very briefly, hold down a large monster. But you can't put out flames made by the Triforce of Power. You can't defend yourself against the Triforce of Power in any way. Nor does the Triforce of Wisdom give you the... er... wisdom to defeat the Triforce of Power. You don't gain any secret or forgotten knowledge of any kind. And then, hoo boy, there's the Triforce of Courage. Apparently, all this thing does is give you brain damage and make you think that you're the only one who can "save the world." I'd like to say that it enhances your physical or magical abilities, but none of the items or spells that Link finds explicitly rely on the Triforce of Courage at all! He's just a Badass Normal who slowly acquires various magical googaws that seemingly anyone could pick up. I can't even honestly say that the Triforce of Courage makes you immune to fear, because, hell, Link was plinking 25-foot spiders in the eye with a slingshot made out of a twig when he was just a six-year-old orphan living alone in a tree hut, days/weeks/months before he even knew that the Triforce existed! I don't think even the energy of a god can make you more fearless than that.
    • Seeing as how the wielder of the Triforce of Power still ended up being defeated by the other supposedly weak 2/3rds it therefore doesn't seem like it's all that powerful, or you underestimate the abilities of Wisdom and Courage.
    • Not to mention, it says right in the name that Ganondorf's piece is the one that gives you power. If each piece of the Triforce gave its wielder godly...power, giving them separate names wouldn't make any sense. In any case, Ganondorf is shown to have a sizable amount of power before claiming the Triforce, Curb Stomping you in your first encounter and generally messing Hyrule up. The Triforce of Power merely enhanced that to insanely powerful degrees. As for Link and Zelda, while it takes courage to fight off a giant one-eyed spider, by the end Link is facing off against, well, the bearer of the Triforce of Power. That takes a special kind of courage, one could say. Zelda, meanwhile, may make a couple Too Dumb to Live decisions over the course of the story, but she seems to know the most about the Triforce and cosmic law, and ultimately awakens as the Seventh Sage, proceeding to seal Ganon away until the events of Wind Waker, so she's not lacking in the Wisdom department under that light. Point being, leave the power to the bearer of Power.
    • My take on it was always that the Triforce doesn't GIVE you skills, bar maybe the Triforce of Power, it's that the skills make you worthy of wielding the Triforce. Zelda's capable of seeing through Ganondorf's ruse at age TEN, and she comes up with a fairly decent plan to stop him. The Deku Tree even asks Link if he has courage enough to do this, and he accepts, similar to how Link in Wind Waker accepts whatever it takes to save his sister. As for Ganondorf, he gets the Triforce piece after killing the king and taking his throne. Arguably, he could already be the most powerful in the area.
    • Both wisdom and courage are all about humility, so naturally the triforce reflecting either wouldn't give the user any more magic than was needed. Power, on the other hand, tends to attract A God Am I type mentality, so it's magic would be very impressive but not very calculated.
    • I always assumed that the Courage, at least, conferred a passive defensive bonus instead of Power's "here, have even more magical power than you already had". After all, here we have Ganondorf, the King of Evil who could blow away the entire Kingdom of Hyrule before he got the Triforce of Power, and yet he doesn't crush Link like a bug the moment he enters Ganon's castle. Why? Because the bearer of Courage has some measure of protection against Triforce-powered douchebaggery!
  • Deep C - This troper has noticed that despite having all of these powers of the Sages and being an Action Girl when disguised as Sheik, she acts as a damsel in distress when you're escaping the castle and fighting Ganon. Wouldn't this be a case of the Distress Ball?
    • ...Sheik was an Action Girl?
      • Well, whatever she did during all those seven years, we didn't get to see it unfortunately. But with Impa at her side, she must have learned to defend herself, most likely.
      • She did manage to free Ruto from the ice cavern, plus tried to fight off Bongo Bongo (both she and Link got curbstomped the first time around though). Plus being able to get to the outside of all of the temples (one of which is in the middle of a desert, one in a volcano and one in a forest), wasn't too much of a Distress Ball and more of an Offscreen Moment of Awesome in my opinion.
      • Link can do those things because he's the most Badass warrior in all the world. A person can be tough but not able to fight off small armies by themself. It's not that Zelda is weak for not taking on a twenty foot tall magical monster, it's that Link is the literally the only person in all the world who even can take these guys on.
  • Okay I'm probably going to sound like a complete ass with this question but bear with me...it's been a while. Anyway, Why did Link have to stay with his soul locked in the Temple of Time for seven years in the first place? Rauru states that Link was "not old enough" to embark on his quest, but why couldn't Link have just stuck around for seven years? (Because we know Ganon declares war and takes over Hyrule during that time.) Why risk opening the sacred realm and all that jazz when he could have just kicked Ganondorf's ass before he rose to power, plus he would have been older and more skilled than before.
    • Link was still only a 10-year-old kid, who couldn't have wielded the Master Sword to even fight Ganondorf. He was sealed until he could.
    • I understand that, but why did he have to be frozen until he could? Why couldn't he just stay around in order to prevent Ganondorf from attacking during those seven years?
      • How? Ten-year-old Link couldn't have stopped Ganondorf. That's why he was frozen. Notice what a stellar job Link did of fighting him when he saw Ganondorf coming out of Hyrule Castle. He was frozen, basically, for safe keeping. Link being out and about for seven years means Link is in danger for seven years, especially if Ganondorf decides to tie up that little loose end himself.
      • I think that troper means, why wasn't Link allowed to actually be conscious and grow up normally. Yes, he still wouldn't have been able to stop Ganondorf until he was the "right age," but you'd think that if the Master Sword wanted him to grow up, that it wouldn't force him to essentially be a ten-year-old in an older body. Rauru could have given him some training or at least some information or something during the passing seven years.
  • Link's green adult tunic is still called a "Kokiri tunic." If the Kokiri never age, then how come their tunics come in adult sizes?
    • That means it's a Kokiri style tunic, not that it's a tunic that was actually warn by a Kokiri.
    • I read somewhere that the tunic was designed to fit all sizes, even though the Kokiri technically wouldn't need something like that.
  • A minor complaint, but it bugs me nonetheless. The Golden Gauntlets allow Link to lift a massive stone pillar that's easily four or five times his size and throw it over his shoulder, several feet behind him, no less, with little effort. So why does he still need two hands to hold the Biggoron's Sword?
    • he doesn't need two hands to hold the Biggoron's Sword (when idle he holds it with one hand occasionally). It is also not about the weight, but the technique: a broadsword (like the Master Sword) is designed to be swung with one hand; a great sword (like the Biggoron's Sword)is designed to be held and swung with two hands. using 1 hand on a two handed sword loses a lot of it's control and power.
      • But the only reason for that loss of control and power is because normal humans aren't strong enough to properly wield a two-handed sword with one hand. If Link can lift those colossal stone pillars, I dare say he's strong enough to swing the Biggoron sword one-handed without losing control or power.
        • Using a shield with a sword that large would be difficult. It's not a matter of strength, but the area needed to swing the sword. A shield would hinder the swing.
  • On the QUEST STATUS menu panel. I am convinced that the Spirit Temple should have been completed before the Shadow Temple. there are 2 things on this panel that suggest this: the order of the medallions going clockwise goes Light, Forest, Fire, Water, SPIRIT, SHADOW; then there are the order of the songs: Minuet, Bolero, Serenade, REQUIEM, NOCTURN, Prelude (which is the last song which is also bothersome).
    • The Spirit temple can be completed before entering the Shadow Temple. You can use the Longshot to cross the river of sand by hitting a box and the lens of truth, needed for the ghost guide, can be obtained before technically entering the Shadow Temple. It is strange that the order of medallions and songs don't correspond to the order of temples the game encourages you on, perhaps the developers thought that a linear progression flew in the face of having to travel backwards through time, so they messed around with the order of the songs and medallions to encourage players to go explore the game and see if they can finish the temples in different orders. Every play through I've done I find myself doing the Spirit Temple before the Shadow temple, the Mirror Shield is too cool.
      • Umm, the lens of truth is found in the Bottom of the Well
      • And the Bottom of the Well isn't technically a part of the Shadow Temple. You can get the Lens of Truth right after the Forest Temple if you want.
    • Supposedly, based on an old beta of the game, the medallions were supposed to be useable in some capacity rather than just markers that you got to a certain point in the game. The Spirit Medallion originally had the same effect as the Lens of Truth, and therefore, it seems like it was originally inteded to be cleared before the Shadow Temple. It's likely the ghost guide thing came after the temples were re-ordered, in that case.
  • Why does the color of the final gerudo guards clothes change color to whatever color your clothes are?
    • Nintendo probably just set her clothing pattern to be the same color as whatever color tunic Link had on. No idea why, although they may have simply ran out of space and didn't have room to make a new texture for her clothes.
    • Ephraim 225 suspects it's a Shout-Out to the first Zelda game, in which the color of Zelda's dress changed depending on what ring you were wearing. (Red ring results in a red dress, blue ring results in a pink dress, no ring results in the rare green dress)
    • With all the Good Bad Bugs and Easter Eggs that were preserved in the 3DS remake, I was sad to find that they forgot this one.
  • So, the Kokiri are immortal, right? So why do they tease and ostracize Link for not having a fairy, refuse to let him leave the forest, and don't recognize him when he's an adult when they surely must have seen him be taken in by the Great Deku Tree and live out his life up to that point? They had to have known he wasn't really a Kokiri.
    • Well, I doubt the Kokiri knew how their normal "life circle" looks like. If the Deku Tree said that Link is a new Kokiri which needs to fully grow up first, nobody would have said much. Most people do not question their deity, especially not (eternal) children.
    • And as far as we know, the Kokiri have never seen an adult before. They don't age, and they never leave the forest; the only aging creature they'd know about is the Deku Tree. So it's very likely that they'd never make the connection that old Link would be young Link, since as far as they're concerned, a person's looks never change.
      • At least some people from outside must have seen the Kokiri before, because Malon and another NPC in the market recognize Link as being from the forest.
  • Two IJB Ms, since one is very minor. First one: am I the only one to whom the designation "fairy boy" given to Link by Malon has a certain, well, racist sound to it? Second one: don't wish to sound like a hater, but I don't understand why Sheik is so popular. To me, at least, she doesn't do much in the game. She teaches you warp songs, which are slightly handy, but nothing more (with the sole exception of the Spirit Temple). In Kakariko she's getting her ass kicked by Bongo-Bongo. The sole important thing she did was saving Ruto from the Zora Domain. Heck, Navi is by far more useful than Sheik.
    • For the first one: Yeah, it's just you. As for the second: Sheik looks like a ninja, and geeks adore ninjas. Besides, Bongo-Bongo kicked Link's ass right afterward; it's kinda hard to put up a decent fight against a malevolent invisible spirit.
    • I think the reason Sheik is very popular is for very different reasons...
    • Another point on Sheik is, a lot of fans see her as awesome because she managed to evade Ganondorf for seven years. Yes, we don't actually get to see whatever she was doing, but hey, it's something.
  • One of the gossip stones (the one behind the Deku Tree) tells you "One Kokiri has left the forest, but he's still alive!" Since we know that Link is not a Kokiri, who could this Kokiri be?
    • Perhaps the stone didn't know?
    • They're Gossip stones. Not Omniscience stones. They repeat what they've heard, they don't know everything.
  • Why is there a boomerang in a chest in Lord Jabu-Jabu's stomach? By all accounts, this makes no sense.
    • He swallowed it.
    • Fine, by why does he have a map of his own stomach inside him?
      • Drawn by a previous person he swallowed, and left there for future swallowing victims.
    • I believe Brawl in the Family answered this one.
  • Why is everybody complaining about the Water Temple? It still is the second best dungeon of the entire game (the Spirit Temple is the best, of course); Eiji Aonuma never needed to apologize for anything! And, while we're at it, why is noone complaining about the unbelievably boring, tedious and ugly Shadow Temple? Always hated it, still do.
    • Oh, we must have all been mistaken. You say that it's the 2nd best dungeon in the game, and that has suddenly swayed everyone's opinions. /endsarcasm. Just because you like the Water Temple doesn't mean that everyone should. A lot of us just disliked it due to the tedious Iron Boot swapping (fixed in the remake, luckily) and water rising/lowering puzzles. If you like it, that's fine, but it seems that a majority of the players don't. And a lot of us really enjoyed the Shadow Temple as well. Opinions are opinions, and just because you disagree with someone's doesn't mean that they're wrong.
    • Having just finished a playthrough, I'll share my opinion: The Water Temple is incredibly *irritating* because it's the most nonlinear of all the dungeons. You can *frequently* find yourself locked out after a 'difficult' passage, only to have to backtrack. Backtracking is annoying because of the aforementioned shifts in waterlevel, etc. Some of the keys are very well hidden, yes---in a slap your forehead kind of way, because 'oh, really? they wanted me to look there? REALLY?" It's the only dungeon in the game where you can see many locked doors at once, which can be confusing, and it's the only dungeon where if you want to just keep ploughing ahead you frequently require having two keys at once because there's a locked door *behind locked doors*. It's still a fabulous level, and I personally find myself thinking of it as one of the best ones sometimes---but thank god the game didn't keep going in that direction. Shadow and Spirit temples are great fun and totally linear. (By the way, some of us love the atmosphere of the Shadow Temple...used to scare me as a kid.)
  • Why the hell are there moving platforms inside Lord Jabu-Jabu? Really? What biological purpose do they serve?
    • Moving semidigested food around?
  • In the ending, how is it that Mido has left the wood? Why is King Zora so amazingly large?
    • All the Kokiris can leave the woods in the ending, it seems. King Zora looks the same size he always was, just larger in comparison to Mido by his side.
    • As for how Mido (and the rest of the Kokiri, for that matter) are out of the forest, it's been speculated above that either a) they've always been able to leave, and were made to believe they can't for their own protection, or b) the Deku Tree made an exception and decided to allow them out of the forest just this once.
  • So... how is Anju, the girl who can't even touch her own cuckoos because she's allergic to them, juggling three of them in the ending?
    • Her allergy was psychosomatic?
      • Could be pocket cuccos, too.
    • Her allergy was a curse placed by Ganondorf. Cuccos are one of the few things that can harm him, and plus are immortal. He thus preemptively tried to stop anybody from raising an army of those to storm his castle. (Also, the real reason Ingo wanted to gift Epona to Ganondorf is because she's immune to cuccos. He wanted to breed a battallion of steeds to fight against a possible cucco invasion)
    • At the party, one of the Kokiri brought along a strange plant from deep in the Lost Woods. When mixed with Red Potion, it creates Benadryl.
  • So by the end of the game Link get's the golden gauntlets, which lets him toss a giant rock away with very little effort, but he has just as much trouble moving regular blocks as before. How does that make any sense? he should be able to moonwalk while holding the block with one hand. And this next question may be more of an "in hindsight" kind of thing, but does Sheik seem a bit more feminine in the 3D version. Just going by the eyes and her figure, it seems... different from the 64 version, is it just me?
    • The Gold Gauntlets only apply to lifting and throwing, and doesn't account for the friction of pulling a block along the ground?
      • The gauntlets strengthen Link's arms, but when pushing a block along like that his legs would be doing all the work.
    • I have a similar question. When Link gets the Silver Gauntlets, he can lift Silver Boulders, but with some difficulty. When he has the Golden Gauntlets, he still lifts the Silver Boulders with some difficulty. Shouldn't he be able to lift them effortlessly with the stronger gauntlets?
  • Who exactly -is- the owl? He shows up at random, gives you some advice or tells you what to do, maybe flies you somewhere, and then just disappears. In the middle of the Spirit Temple, you see him for the final time and he doesn't give any explanation for why he's been following you for seven years.. Or is there some explanation I missed during the game?
    • The game never outright explains who/what the Owl is (aside from giving his name), and Word of God is silent on the matter. The favored speculation is that he's some incarnation of Rauru.
    • There's a spiritual stone in game that states Kaepora Gaebora is rumored to be the reincarnation of an ancient sage. Whether that's Rauru or another is left to the imagination.
  • In the Spirit Temple in Master Quest, to get one chest you have to hit a switch as Adult Link to get it to appear. However it appears in a Young Link-only part of the temple. So you have to go back to seven years before the switch was even hit to open the chest. And it's actually there.
  • A very minor one. I find it odd that Link would just HAPPEN to find a Left-Handed boomerang. Most of those things are made for rightys.
    • It's a magic boomerang. How else could it take out flaming bats without burning up itself?
    • Okay, you'll have to pardon my ignorance here, but...what exactly is the difference between a right-handed boomerang and a left-handed one? To be perfectly honest, I didn't know that there was anything to boomerangs beyond "you throw them and they come back".
  • It's in the way that the wood in formed. When thrown, the leading edge is sanded to create a wedge, allowing the boomerang to spin properly. Depending on if the person is left or right handed, a different side will be sanded.
  • So I was replaying today and I realized: The Gorons eat rocks. They live on a mountain. How exactly are they starving? Because from what they were saying, apparently it was just the "tastiest/top sirloin" rocks that Ganon blocked with that boulder and monster. Otherwise there were rocks pretty much everywhere.
    • One of the Gorons in the village remarks that the rocks in the cavern are SO tasty that they've become spoiled and can't eat anything else. Maybe it's like how people can't process milk in cultures that don't use it in their food? Rocktose intolerance?
  • Navi is a fairy, so why doesn't she just restore Link's life when it runs out?
    • She's not that kind of fairy.
    • For you see, when encountering an enemy she gives you a tip on how to beat it, and hints when encountering puzzles. She point out weaknesses and special places where scarecrows can pop up. In whole, Her powers consist of knowledge of all of hylia. Whereas the other fairies heal link and let him wander the land once again, Navi let him truly see and feel the world with tidbits of wisdom. Also, her powers drain very little off her own energy; the other fairies use all their strength to revive Link, and must imediately afterwards return to their sacred spring/pond to regain energy. Because Navi never does this, she is with Link throughout the whole journey, and he never has to feel truly alone.
  • Isn't the sadness of Link leaving home for the first time and saying goodbye to Saria kind of undercut with the fact that he's required to come back before very next dungeon? Not to say a player's reaction to it should change, but it seems a bit misleading. Not only can you return any time, but you have to very shortly. On top of that, thanks to Saria's Song he can talk to her at any time, even after she becomes a Sage. I'm sure this is simply just because something didn't quite sink in for me just yet, so feel free to point out exactly what it is so I can appreciate that bit of Ocarina of Time better. It deserves it.
    • Well, if you're looking for a more...heartfelt explanation, for Link, Nothing Is the Same Anymore. As far as he knows, he's a Kokiri leaving the forest, which is unheard of, after watching the guardian deity die in front of him, and now he's on a mission to meet the princess to save Hyrule. It's a lot to process, and Saria's goodbye just cements that in an instant, the world Link knew got turned on its head.
    • A sneakier answer is that you technically don't have to return to Kokiri Forest to learn Saria's Song, as the Lost Woods are reachable from Goron City, leaving Link's goodbye intact.
      • But you need Saria's Song to persuade the Goron chief to give you the Goron Bracelet. Which you need to get into Dodongo's Cavern (or whatever it was called. Been a while.)
    • But you'd need to find her in the Lost Woods. There is a way to work around never going back to the village proper. Go into Lost Woods via Goron City and follow the music to Saria. Learn the song, then carefully make your way back to where the Goron City entrance is and voila!
  • Why does Zelda's autograph replace the Cucco you woke Talon up with? Does Zelda quietly trade you the letter for the bird? And if so, what does she do with it?
  • Why does everyone assume Zelda spent the entire 7 years disguised as a man? I mean, the second she's Zelda again, she's kidnapped easy-peasy. Evading Ganondorf is easy: he's not looking for a Sheikah man after all. Playing a harp and doing fancy flips does not a badass make.
    • To answer the first question: Um...because she says in the game that she spent the time disguised? As for the rest...how does any of that relate to the question? Are you just trying to say you don't think Sheik is badass?
      • I think it's because the person who made the question is using the old "didn't see it, didn't happen" fallacy to imply the Sheik didn't do anything besides hiding during all those seven years.
  • Related to the above, why do fans assume people who think Sheik is a man are just yaoi fangirls? No matter how you look at Sheik (especially his official art), there's no mistaking he's a man. Compared to the slender and very-feminine Zelda. Is just guessing that Sheik and Zelda are two different people such a bad thing? Not all man-Sheik supporters are yaoi fangirls, after all... A non-canon idea never hurt anyone.
    • Nobody's denying that Zelda was disguised as a man. And it's not about "guessing that Sheik and Zelda are two different people." It's about people relentlessly insisting, after the reveal, that Zelda had to have made herself completely into a man, penis and all, because Het Is Ew and yaoi is so hawt to them. They eschew the simple answer (Zelda used magic to change her appearance for disguise purposes) in favor of something more complicated and illogical (Zelda used magic to change completely into a man so that fanfic isn't totally baseless).
      It's like if people were insisting that, because Sherlock Holmes dressed as a woman as a disguise in Game of Shadows, he must have become a woman, because that way they could say he has sex with Watson.
      • However suggesting that Sheik and Zelda are different people unfortunately means robbing Zelda of her hard-earned efforts she made to survive during all those seven years. But the fangirls don't seem to care, as long as they have their "bishounen" Sheik. Trust me, I'm saying this from experience.
  • When Link rescues Ruto from Jabu-Jabu's belly and tells her about the letter, she denies ever writing one. So, if she isn't lying, who the hell wrote it?
    • Ganondorf wrote it to lure Link into Jabu-Jabu, apparently. Consider that Gerudo Desert is upstream of Lake Hylia, where the letter is found.[1]
  • So, which Water Temple is canon?
    • Um, what Water Temple? The Oo T Water Temple is canon. The MM Water Temple is in a completely different world.
  • Why the hell can't Adult Link use the boomerang?
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