Do Ocarina of Time's Sages Die? (Legend of Zelda Theory)

[Music] for years fans have speculated on every ambiguous detail of ocarina of time's story creating theories to fill the gaps and answer the game's many mysteries could twilight princess's temple of time actually be ocarina of times temple of light is the poke collector actually the guard found in his place seven years earlier or are ocarina of time sages dead [Music] ocarina of time is a story of sacrifice bound to the threads of fate its central characters each go through their own journey each falling into the role chosen for them by destiny the most obvious sacrifice is lynx who foregoes his childhood his innocence in order to fulfill the role of the hero even after he's sent back through time to relive his lost youth he finds that although the world itself is the same as it used to be he has changed too much to settle back into ordinary life leaving hyrule behind and stumbling into his bizarre adventure in majora's mask but the sages also sacrificed their former lives for the good of hyrule every one of them drops everything their friendships their responsibilities their families to save their kingdom from tyranny and at the very end of the game while the freed people of hyrule dance and celebrate at long on ranch the sages instead have a different more somber ending to their stories in the forms of glowing wisps of energy they travel to death mountain's high peak and look out on the kingdom below the sages are happy they smile at each other and zarya takes a seat on darunia's head but there's a clear division here they're not part of hyrule's celebrations nor are they really part of hyrule anymore they've transcended into something else beings above the mortal races and they're alone the idea that ocarina of time sages are dead isn't new it's one of the game's most commonly discussed theories but it's something i hadn't fully looked into until now there's a lot of evidence in support of it but also some strong counter arguments which will run through towards the end so subscribe if you haven't already for more zelda content and let's look into the fate of ocarina of times [Music] sages [Music] the role of sage has a somewhat inconsistent definition throughout the series since ocarina of time we've seen sages devoted entirely to praying for the master sword's power to repel evil or ethereal ghostly sages who carry out the execution of ganondorf and before ocarina in a link to the past we're told that the seven maidens are the descendants of a group of sages who sealed ganon long ago regardless of their specific roles sages are always connected in some way to the sacred realm the triforce the upkeep of order and the sealing of evil and this is of course true in ocarina of time perhaps the sage's most iconic appearance ocarina of time explains that when hyrule falls into darkness a voice sounds from the sacred realm calling to those destined to awaken as sages these individuals each representing an element are called to their respective temples where they begin their new lives as the six sages the seventh sage however is instead a member of the hyrulean royal family during ocarina of time the seven sages are roru the sage of light an ancient being responsible for the construction of the temple of time and the chamber of sages long ago saria sage of forrest and link's childhood friend darunia sage of fire and the goron chief ruto sage of water and princess of the zoras impa sage of shadow and one of the only living sheikah naboru sage of spirit and a powerful gerudo warrior and zelda the seventh sage princess of hyrule and holder of the triforce of wisdom over the course of the game's story we see each sage awaken save for roru who was already aware of his role they transitioned from regular people entirely oblivious of their destiny into otherworldly beings each fully dedicated to their role and their responsibility the first modern sage to ascend is link's childhood friend saria even before the time jump sarya is loosely connected to her eventual destiny as the sage of forest she often travels to her secret spot in the heart of the sacred forest meadow just in front of the temple where she claims that if one plays the ocarina they can hear the spirits of the forest and that she feels that this place will be very important for the both of them one day at some point during link's seven-year slumber the voice from the sacred realm called out to sarya as it did to all future sages she left the safety of kakiri forest and by the time link reaches her secret spots she's nowhere to be seen after link frees the forest temple from corruption he meets with sarya in the chamber of sages a bittersweet reunion of two childhood friends however this isn't the same saria link knew she's more reserved sad almost painfully aware that her role as a sage means that she and link can't live in the same world it's not explicitly made clear if saria is dead or not here but she's obviously changed in some drastic irreversible ways since traveling alone to an abandoned mansion infested with monsters deep in the lost woods darunia our next sage is the chief of the gorons a race of living rock who dwell deep in the fiery caverns of death mountain during link's quest for the spiritual stones he becomes close friends with darunia who names him a sworn brother for slaying the monstrous king dodongo and allowing the gorons to once again feast on the rocks in dodongo's cavern darunia is passionate and fiercely protective of his people so it's no surprise that when ganondorf imprisons the gorons and threatens to feed them to their ancient adversary the subterranean lava dragon volvagia darunia takes it upon himself to slay the beast he admits that he's concerned as he doesn't have the legendary megaton hammer the weapon used long ago to seal volvagia but enters its chamber anyway with no other option by the time link enters the boss room darunia is nowhere to be seen only volvagia remains of course the chief reappears in the chamber of sages apparently surprised by his destiny as the sage of fire he doesn't mention his battle with volvagia only that he's thankful to link for helping seal the evil in the temple so like with saria it's not clear whether or not darunia is alive here but unless he was transported to the chamber of sages immediately after he entered volvagia's lair it's entirely possible that he went through with his plan to take on the lava dragon and died trying to protect his people now like zarya unable to exist in the same world as link ruto has a similar story link meets her as a child where she's become trapped in the stomach of the zora's patron deity lord jabu jabu after he rescues her she decides to marry him and gifts him the third spiritual stone as an engagement present seven years later she's found within the water temple where she explains that she was freed from the frozen zora's domain by sheik and that she's ventured to try and slay the monster found within the temple to save her people after she moves deeper into the dungeon we don't see ruto again until the chamber of sages where she mentions that she wants to offer link her eternal love but doesn't think she can now a similar line to saria's indicating a similar fate we do actually hear from her slightly earlier just before the boss fight against morpha when her voice warns ling to watch out for the water though it's just her voice possibly reaching out to link from the sacred realm next impa sage of shadow imper is of course princess zelda's attendant a powerful sheikah who long ago sealed a sinister being only known as bongo bongo within kakariko village as well when ganondorf released the phantom from its seal it traveled to the shadow temple and impa followed intent on imprisoning the dark spirits once more this plays out similarly to darunia's attempt to seal volvagia we know that impa traveled to the shadow temple to face bongo bongo but by the time link reaches the dungeon the sheikah is nowhere to be seen and the phantom shadow beast remains unsealed impa once awakened as the sage of shadow notes that she has to stay within the chamber of sages and can no longer watch over zelda as opposed to sarya ruto and darunia it can be argued that impa was fully aware of her destiny to become the sage of shadow as like zelda she's closely connected to the royal family naboru too has a mysterious story leading up to her ascension to sage of spirit she enters the spirit temple opposed to ganondorf's tyrannical rule but is captured by the witches kotake and koumei brainwashed and forced to serve him for seven years naboru acts as ganondorf's pawn stealing and looting even brainwashing people herself and is eventually encased in iron knuckle armor and forced to fight link after losing in a jewel naboru regains consciousness no longer under the control of the witches the pair decide that due to her large influence among the gerudo they'll brainwash her again and in a strange moment they blast naboru with magic which appears to disintegrate her she doesn't appear again until later where she's inexplicably found in the chamber of sages fully aware of her role unlike the other sages who all mysteriously disappear within their respective temples before reappearing in the chamber of sages we actually see nabooru attacked but it doesn't seem like kotake and koumei intend to kill her just before they cast their spells they announced that they intend to keep her brainwashed to serve ganondorf so what's this spell about why do the witches seem to vaporize nabooru rather than just forcing her back under their control if they did kill her then why talk about how useful she'd be to them if left alive seconds earlier if she was teleported away into a cell how does she then appear unbrainwashed in the chamber of sages moments later it's a strange moment one that we'll get back to later first we need to cover the final two sages roru and zelda roru the sage of light is clearly not alive in the conventional sense he's incredibly old having built the temple of time temple of light and chamber of sages in an ancient era to protect the triforce along with a group of sages long forgotten though it's debated among fans and for good reason it's confirmed in hyrule historia that kepora gabora the owl who guides link on his journey is roru taking another form to watch over hyrule and we learn from a gossip stone that this owl is known to be the reincarnation of an ancient sage supporting the idea that roru is no longer alive simply a spirit bound to the sacred realm conversely the seventh and final sage princess zelda is almost certainly alive by the end of ocarina of time obviously she's captured by ganondorf but is rescued after link defeats the king of evil atop his tower in their climactic jewel but she's not really a sage herself she's the seventh sage the leader of the group who never sets foot in the chamber of sages alongside the others who are often referred to as a group as the six sages the seventh sage seems to be more of a symbolic role a leader to connect those in the sacred realm to hyrule and to direct the power of the six so it would be fitting for the sage who remains in hyrule to be the only living member of the group before the climax of the game the six sages are seen in ganon's castle each appearing as link breaks one of the six evil barriers they each appear floating above link like spirits fading into and out of existence which could be considered evidence that they're dead or simply that they're projecting images of themselves using their power as sages ocarina of time's end credits show a celebration at lon on ranch the game's characters and races come together to dance to saria's song many around a strange multi-coloured campfire but as the music transitions into a more pensive tone we pan to two characters sat at the edge of the fields away from the festivities king zora and medo these are characters closely connected to two of the sages king zora is of course ruto's father and mido longed for sari's friendship looking up to her despite claiming to be the leader of the kakiri mido especially looks glum sat cross-legged in silence until he's startled by green sparkles falling from above he looks up as does king zora and blue sparkles join the green raining down on the pair the camera pans and we see their source bright balls of green and blue light streaking across the night sky followed by balls of red yellow and purple the sages though their peoples were saved medo and king zora both lost someone close to them even if these sages didn't actually die they're no longer a part of hyrule no longer able to interact with their loved ones so do ocarina of time sages die it certainly seems like it in some cases and it makes sense on a thematic level too the sages have to sacrifice everything their own lives to save hyrule however i don't think it's the case while the sages do leave their former lives behind i don't think they have to die to answer their destiny the five temples are doorways to the sacred realm it's from these ancient sites that a voice calls forth to awaken the sages it's not a stretch to believe that just by being within the temples at the right time the sages were transported by roru to the chamber of sages to fulfill their purpose without them having to die instead it's more of a symbolic death they can't leave this role they have to defend their temples and continue their duty as sages the title of sage has been used for many individuals throughout the zelda series including the sages of earth and wind in the wind waker individuals who explicitly have to be alive to carry out their duty with makkah and medley taking over from their deceased ancestors a link between world sages while thematically similar to ocarina of times are definitely not dead they're various individuals from across hyrule who were turned into paintings by yuga and many sages mention that they want link to hurry up with his adventure so they can return home to their people a vastly different sentiment to ocarina of time sages who appear to be trapped in their role the theory that the sages are dead is the strongest in my opinion when regarding darunia who we see enter the layer of a violent powerful dragon with a particular taste for gore on flesh without the legendary hammer used to defeat it but it's the weakest regarding naboru who is struck by kotake and koimei's magic vanishing from sight presumably teleported somewhere that the pair can come back to later as it's clear from their dialogue that they don't intend to kill her they intend to continue using her as with any zelda theory it's up to you the player to make up your own mind these games are often deliberately vague relying heavily on symbolism and cryptic hints to tell their stories personally while i love the idea that the sages die during ocarina of time i think the story works just as well with them sacrificing their former lives to become beings beyond mortals a group with the power to seal evil and defend their kingdom at the cost of losing everything and everyone they loved thanks for watching this video let me know what you guys think of this theory in the comments down below do you believe it do you not believe it let me know what you think cheers guys and i'll see you next time you

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 722,980

Keywords: Zelda

Id: XQC_uxBXHS0

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021