Sorrow is no stranger to Zelda stories. Casting shadows over all of the exploration,
puzzle solving, monster battles and rescue missions, loom big clouds of sadness that
over the course of the series has been the Zelda ingredient the writers have been slowly
directing our attention to the most. Sorrow is being written like a disease - a
virus infecting the happiness of each story world and Link, the hero of these stories,
assumes the role of the healer – burdened with flushing out the virus and restoring
healthy emotional balances to each one. More often than not, it's the supporting characters
that carry this sorrow disease and their dialogue is constantly connecting these 2 themes of
healing and sadness together, asking Link to heal their sorrows and ease their
Regrets. Titles like Majora’s Mask and Twilight Princess
go so far as to position these themes of sadness and regret into the opening dialogue, while
Wind Waker and Breath Of The Wild throw Link into broken worlds already operating in the
aftermath of destruction, easing the regrets of the characters as they awaken to fulfill
their destiny. Oracle of Ages and Seasons use flames of Sorrow
and Despair as the villain's dominant threat upon the world, but what’s important is
that all of this sorrowful dialogue is unavoidable - necessary rites of passage for story progression
and all Zelda stories carry that Zelda Sorrow Language like this. Except one. (Mood shift) Ocarina Of Time is often overlooked when it comes to discussing which
Zelda story is the saddest and this might be because Ocarina director Shigeru Miyamoto
and script director Toru Osawa don’t use that the Zelda Sorrow Language like its successors. Those recurring themes of sorrow, regret,
sadness, and even healing appear nowhere in any corner of the script. Instead,
Osawa sprinkles throughout the character dialogue this kind of off-center cryptic poetic language. Themes like:
-The clear waters surface reflects growth -Melodies that draw you into infinite darkness
-memories of younger days -the flow of time is always cruel
-being consumed by greed -childish minds turn to noble ambition In the past, these themes have been discussed
as standalone sentences, called upon in singular form to assist theories or arguments generated
among the Zelda community. But tracking this language back through Ocarina’s
entire script, begins to reveal a few continuous thematic threads that when isolated, actually
form the skeletons of not only one but two narratively complete stories of sorrow. With the bones of these 2 threads now in mind,
small details that add to the muscle of these stories begin to pop out. Miyamoto and Osawa have used everything in
the Ocarina toolbox - dialogue, locations, characters, nature, events, architecture,
mechanics and sound design - to hide away subtle clues that all point back to these
2 sorrow threads. Instead of casting obvious clouds of sadness
above the adventure through such direct sorrowful dialogue, the creative team have buried sadness
down in the subtext of the story and as we begin to uncover all of the hidden details,
it becomes clear that Ocarina Of Time is, without a doubt, the saddest Zelda story no one noticed. In order to make sense of Miyamoto and Osawa’s
2 sorrow threads, we first need to take a look at the beats that construct Ocarina Of
Time’s main adventure, and the story opens on The Great Deku Tree sending Navi the fairy
to summon Link for a meeting. Sword and shield in hand, Link is warned by
The Deku Tree of an evil spreading across the land of Hyrule and is sent to gather the
3 spiritual stones before Ganondorf does. One inside the tree, one in a cave and one
in the belly of a giant fish. Using the 3 stones and the Ocarina Of Time
given to him by Princess Zelda, Link accidently leads Ganondorf into the sacred realm and
subsequently, to the triforce, granting him one evil wish - govern Hyrule. Link sleeps for 7 years and wakes as an adult
to discover the once healthy Hyrule is now Dark Hyrule and is sent on a new quest to
destroy the curses now skulking inside Hyrule’s 5 temples. Through tackling this evil, all 5 sages are
awakened - Link’s once childhood friends now transcended to the position of Guardian
over each realm of Hyrule - forest, mountain, lake, underworld, desert. With their help, Link takes down Ganondorf
and saves Zelda and after succeeding, is sent back in time before Ganondorf hatches his
plan. This top adventure line is the face of Ocarina
and is essentially the blurb on the back of the box, complete with deadly dungeons, weapons
of great power, and time travel. So where do these 2 sorrow threads come into play? Well, they Actually begin where the entire
Ocarina narrative begins in that harrowing scene I showed in the prologue, the death of The Great Deku Tree. This scene with the Deku Tree’s death is
by far the most dense in its layered symbolism in that its meaning translates differently
depending on which 1 of Osawa’s 3 threads is being followed. On the adventure line, his death is used as
the vehicle to establish Link’s motivation - a curse spreads across Hyrule and Link witnesses
the effects first hand in the Deku Tree’s death... Off Link goes. But the first sorrow thread though specifically
requires attention paid not to why the Deku Tree died but how. Emphasis is placed heavily on the importance
of life and natural balance across Ocarina Of Time. Before his death, the Deku Tree recounts to
Link Hyrule’s creation story in detail. Three goddesses, each with their own divine
spirit of power, wisdom and courage, cultivate the land, the law, and life to uphold that
law in Hyrule. With this creation story embedded in the DNA
of Ocarina’s larger narrative, the land Of Hyrule is inaugurated not just
as a blank world serving Link’s exploration, but as a living breathing organism - almost
sentient with different moods, weather conditions and sleeping patterns. Following the creation story, the Deku Tree
goes on to speak of a wicked man of the desert who was the one to cast the death curse on
the tree and it’s here in the tension of Hyrule’s natural balance and the death curse
that Osawa’s 1st thread begins to take shape. While the characters in other Zelda stories
are the direct victims of the series’ sorrow disease, in Ocarina it is Hyrule’s nature
that has been afflicted by Ganondorf’s curse. Link is restoring a natural order tipped off-balance
and this quest for purification echoes the ethics found in the japanese home-grown religion
of Shintoism. That’s Miyamoto at the Fushimi Inari Shrine
in Southern Kyoto in Japan - Miyamoto and Osawa’s childhood hometown. While the direct influence of this Shinto
shrine can be found in Miyamoto’s Starfox series, the broader spirit of the Shinto faith
is embedded on a larger scale across his entire gameography, none more so than the Zelda series
which are always stories reverberating off the needs and rhythm of nature. Yet, no Zelda story is quite as distilled
in its use of Shintoist ethics than Ocarina Of Time and this is the first sorrow thread
- The Shinto Line. SHINTO LINE
A great love and respect for nature is the defining foundation of the Shinto religion. The minutiae of a moral compass is replaced
with harvesting a desire to remain in touch with Kami - the spiritual energy of a particular
place or a member of nature. The name Kami can be translated to ‘Gods’
or ‘Nature Spirits’ while the name Shinto literally translates to The Way Of The Gods. The fox Miyamoto addresses at the Fushimi
Inari shrine is considered a messenger of the Inari god - ‘Inari’ being the name
of the mountain the shrine sits at the base of - believed to host the god of rice, fertility
and industry. Purification is a key aspect of all ritual
activity in Shinto and it exists to reestablish order and balance between nature, humans,
and deities. Purification rituals counteract the threat
of pollution, which is considered an obstruction to the flow of life and blessing from the
kami. The anthropomorphisation or physical representation
of Kami spirits in fiction isn’t uncommon and the best visual example might be from
Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke - a film that borrows heavily from Shintoist artifacts. The biggest examples being the lives of the
boars, wolves, the Kodama, who represent the spirits of individual trees, and The Forest
Spirit, a symbol of harmony who embodies the larger Kami of the entire forest. In Mononoke, San and Ashitaka are seen as
the saviors in a world that has forgot about Kami, rhythm, nature, and consequently, ultimate
importance. Miyamoto and Osawa’s work in Ocarina Of
Time also borrow from the same shintoist framework. Different villages with their own unique races
occupy different areas of Hyrule and each race is bound elementally to their own section
of nature. Gorons to mountain and fire, Zoras to water
and Kokiri to forest. These rural kami-like races dedicate their
worship towards the greater nature spirits - the Great Deku Tree, in which, similarly
to the Forest Spirit in Mononoke, embodies the Kami of Kokiri Forest, and Lord Jabu Jabu,
the patron deity of the Zora race, thought to embody the divine spirit and protector
of the Zora ancestral lands, always sitting in some sort of altar. Jabu only grants entry when presented with
a fish offering and this concept of offering food like rice and fish is taken directly
from Shintoist practices. The beta version of this scene shows a pedestal
with an Ocarina engraved on top, suggesting that music was originally required to open
Jabu-Jabu’s mouth and this references a Shintoist ritual practice called Kagura, aka
‘god-entertainment’, which is used during festivals to appease kami spirits. In fact, music in Ocarina is the direct replacement
for these Shintoist rituals. Saria explains that music can be used to speak
to the spirits of the forest and moments exist when music and dance are used to bring happiness
to those elementally-bound occupants across Hyrule. In Ocarina, music calls down rain, splits
waterfalls, summons the sun and moon, and calls a horse to Link’s side - music here
plays the role of connecting Link directly to the rhythm of Hyrule’s nature. But Osawa and Miyamoto also achieve this connection
through other subtle design elements. The 3 dungeons Link must explore first during
his childhood phase are all environments crafted directly from the greater nature deities:
Inside the Deku Tree, Inside Jabu-Jabu’s belly, and inside Dodongo’s cavern, which
upon closer inspection is actually built from the remains of an old dinosaur with skulls
and ribcages etc. Link then purifies each dungeon - ridding
them of the infestations placed there by Ganondorf and is rewarded with one of the 3 spiritual
stones - symbols of that section of nature he’s purified - forest, mountain, water. These elemental stones are then used to open
the Door Of Time, and the sacred act of opening the sanctuary door during Shinto ceremonies
is also recreated here - music once again used to replace the concept of ritual to open
the door to the sacred realm and access to the gods. (beat) Link’s childhood phase is dedicated predominately
to connecting him with the idea of what a healthy Hyrule looks like and Osawa and Miyamoto
place such a strong emphasis on this to allow for the tragedy of what happens next hit harder. (mood shift) Shintoism largely died in the post-World War
2 era. In the aftermath of the war, most Japanese
came to believe that the hubris of Empire had led to their downfall. Lust for territory blinded their leaders to
the importance of their homeland. We see this theme of territorial conquest
playing out through both villains in Ocarina and Mononoke, Ganondorf and Lady Eboshi - whose
objectives are on the domination of the world rather than seeking to establish harmony. Eboshi plans to kill the forest spirit in
order to stop the spread of nature, making it easier for her town to conquer and prosper
in the iron-rich grounds of the area. Ganondorf, in his quest of greed to gain complete
mastery of the world, places curses upon all of Hyrule’s nature Deities and with Kami
now disregarded, nature retaliates. Kami spirits are of two minds. They can nurture and love when respected,
or they can bring destruction and disharmony when disregarded. And so while manifesting into only smaller
monsters during Link’s childhood phase with Parasitic spiders in the Deku Tree, dinosaur
infestations in the cave and electric leech-like anemone’s in Jabu Jabu’s belly, when Link
wakes after that 7 years, the effects of the curse now affect Dark Hyrule at large. Lake Hylia has been drained, Death Mountain
suffers from endless eruption, monsters cover the floor of Kokiri Forest, dark spirits are
set loose in Kakariko Village and Ganondorf’s minions gather in the desert. Shintoism also believes that upon death, souls
with unsettled disputes in life become ghosts - and so the appearance of big Poe ghosts
across Hyrule, spirits of concentrated hatred, are now an occurrence. Instead of dungeons crafted from Hyrule’s
nature, The dungeons Link must purify as an adult now have man-made qualities to their
architecture, echoing the sentiment that the world Link now occupies is built on the strength
of man instead of natural balance. At the lake bottom there is
a Water Temple used to worship the water spirits (beat) And so the Shinto Line is really a story about
the battle over the nature of Hyrule and Link is the cure - purifying the world with his
music and weapons of great power. After destroying the manifestations of the
curse in each temple, Hyrule physically begins a process of healing and the new awakened
sages reward Link with elemental medallions: Light, forest, fire, water, shadow, and spirit. With the forest now purified, a Deku Sprout
shoots up to one day grow and become the new Deku Tree. The volcano is calmed, the ice melts in Zora’s
domain, the lake refills with clear water, and the infinite darkness is destroyed in
the underworld. An element of the Shinto creation Myth is
the existence of a land of the dead called Yomi - an evil realm where the dead reside. The spirits living in Yomi are malicious and
lonely, and try to drag people down from the land of the living. At the very end, Ganondorf’s castle - the
beacon of Hyrule’s pollution - crumbles and the light sage calls upon the gods to
open the sealed door and send Ganondorf into the void of Evil Realm. Ganondorf is sent to Yomi. (beat) Conclusion: (slower and more thoughtful pace
i guess) And so Miyamoto and Osawa’s first sorrow
thread is in essence, a message about nature and the importance of striking a harmony with
it. Greed and hatred are a pollution to this natural
balance and if we do not respect it, nature will surely retaliate. Who knows what might happen to those who are
consumed by greed? SATCH END
(Mood shift) Osawa’s 3rd and final thread might be the
most important and requires attention paid to these last pieces of poetic dialogue - newborn’s
life, growth, childish minds, memories of younger days etc. These kinds of references to age and growth
are nowhere to be found in other Zelda stories but Link’s age is the focus of about 90%
of all the characters in Ocarina Of Time. Before Link enters the Sacred Realm to sleep
for that 7 years, the supporting characters make sure Link knows exactly how little the
world expects of him. Just a kid, just a little kid, fairy boy,
forest boy, kid, kid, kid, sonny, kid, fairy boy, boy, lad, son, kid, boy, kid, kid, boy,
forest boy, fairy boy, son, little kid, and kid. Seeing Link for the child that he is is a
relatively fair assessment and these references to his disposition would render unimportant
if it weren’t for the equally ferocious obsession the characters have with the idea
of Manhood. Becoming a ‘man’ is an ideology the characters,
including Link’s childhood friends, seem to consider as the highest level of honour. There’s talk of being a real man, not being
a real man without a fairy, Darunia wanting Link to prove he is a real man, Princess Ruto
telling Link he has been a terrible man to keep her waiting, and Nabooru wishing she
had kept her promise all those years ago after seeing how handsome Link had become as a man. The third thread for Link is an inward journey. It is Osawa’s exploration of the transition
from childhood to adulthood and just like the real world, it is both awkward and tragic. It’s the growing up line. GROWING UP LINE If threads one and two are about why and how
the Deku Tree died, then finding a foothold in the Growing Up Line requires an examination
into who the Deku Tree is. The children of Kokiri Forest describe The
Deku Tree as not only the guardian of the entire forest, but also their Father - claiming
that he was the one to give life to the Kokiri race as well as everything in the forest. The name KOKIRI, when translated from japanese
Kanji to English, echoes this sentiment with Ko meaning kid or child and Ki meaning tree. So here we have ‘children of the tree’
which not only aligns with themes explored on the Shinto Line, but gives the entire Forest
a childlike attitude. The layout of the forest is a playground with
ladders, ramps, treehouses, secret crawling holes and mazes. Similar to Neverland from the Peter Pan stories,
Kokiri Forest exists as this insular magical realm separate from the real world. Children never grow up here and each child
is allied with a fairy companion - the mark of a true Kokiri - and the story begins with
the Deku Tree sending Link his very first fairy companion, Navi. And so Kokiri Forest is the physical representation
of Link’s childhood and THIS is the foothold for the growing up line. Though as carefree as it appears, Kokiri Forest
isn't without sadness. Humans name Kokiri Forest the Forbidden Forest
and some children explain that those who enter from the outside without a fairy transform
into Stalfos - those skeleton monsters Link faces in future temples. We see this happen later when a man enters
the forest and falls asleep against this stump only to vanish later - leaving a Kokiri girl
to explain that he's now lost to the woods. Everybody, Stalfos. 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. Only his saw is left. Hee hee. But children cannot leave either. The Great Deku Tree said that if a Kokiri
leaves the woods, he or she will die. You're not allowed to leave the
forest! The Great Deku Tree said that if
a Kokiri leaves the woods, he or she will die! And so with no one entering as an outsider
and no one leaving as a child of the tree, we have this protective bubble around what
stands to be childhood and some of The Deku Tree’s dialogue aligns with this idea stating
that as the source of life, Kokiri Forest stands as a barrier - deterring outsiders
and maintaining order of the world - there is a purity and innocence being protected
here. But this protective bubble begins to collapse
when the father is killed. In the wake of the Deku Tree’s death, Link
is forced to exit Kokiri Forest - prematurely thrust into a world of adult responsibility. Ganondorf’s greed has ripped childhood out
from underneath Link. The Deku Sprout reveals later that Link is
actually an outsider, brought by his mother to the Deku Tree years ago seeking protection
during the great war. So Link is an outsider with a Kokiri fairy
and with this dual citizenship, can travel to and fro between childhood and the adult
world, yet not belonging to either one. Even on the outside, Link still sees the world
through the eyes of a child and Miyamoto and Osawa keep the design playful during this
entire childhood phase. The castle market is full of life with dancing
couples, dogs and playing children. The dungeons are full of magic and mystery,
Link is peeking through windows, climbing vines and playing hide and seek with castle
guards. But things turn grim after Link passes through
the appropriately named Door Of Time and plucks the Master Sword from
the pedestal. Now in an adult body in an adult world, the
bleakness of adulthood and responsibility comes at Link with everything it has - the
first reveal, the old marketplace, once bustling with colour, now cold and desolate, and its
in this moment that Osawa establishes Link and Ganondorf, who on the adventure line represent
the opposing forces of good and evil and nature vs man on the shinto line, into their designed
role of childhood vs adulthood. Ganondorf represents everything Link isn’t
and Osawa uses this storytelling device to attack the only thing Link is holding onto:
his relationships. As Link gains back ground from Ganondorf in
his purification quest on the Shinto Line, on the growing up line a slow subtraction
begins to take place. The more Hyrule gains, the more Link loses. Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Impa and Nabooru, all
friends from Link’s past eventually leave him behind. A clip of Miyamoto and Zelda producer Eiji
Aonuma mention in an interview the importance of Link leaving the 4 girls from his childhood
behind. Link must lose everything to save the world. This plays heavily on the "everything has
to come from somewhere" natural balance of Shintoism. You don't just get wood, you have to chop
down a tree. You can wash away corruption but it has to
go somewhere. In this case, the corruption is lifted off
the nature of Hyrule and onto Link himself. This is his designed role in nature. But we’re not done yet! While each sage’s relevance stems from their
race and elemental essence on the Shinto Line, on the Growing Up line, Osawa has infused
these characters with characteristics and dialogue symbolic of milestones one must navigate
during adolescence - friendship, family, romance, loyalty, and sex. Saria’s dialogue dedicated predominately
to friendship, Darunia to sworn brotherhood and family after Link saves the starving goron
race, Ruto’s character obsessed with love and marriage, Princess Zelda’s loyal bodyguard,
Impa, solely focused on Zelda’s safety, asks Link to protect Zelda in her stead, and
Nabooru, whose dialogue suggests sexual activity and comments on how handsome Link has become
as a man. And so those medallions Link collects are
also emblems of Link’s adult achievements and Link’s childhood guide, the Owl, closes
this chapter off congratulating Link on fully maturing as an adult. Childish minds turn to noble ambition. But at this point, Link has lost everything
and everyone except now as officially a man and with his childhood essence still attached
to his back, can now enter Ganondorf’s castle to kick off the final chapter and the final
fight - childhood vs adulthood. Ocarina Of Time’s code disables the ability
to defeat Ganondorf with any weapon other than the Master Sword. The growing up line requires a poetic close
to this final chapter and so it must be the the master sword, aka the essence of childhood,
which delivers the final blow to adulthood. After defeating Ganondorf and ultimately,
avenging the Deku Tree and the Forest, Zelda sends Link back in time to his childhood version. But the greatest tragedy is yet to come
With the master sword back in the pedestal, the essence of childhood now falls to Link’s
fairy companion, Navi, who remains Link’s key back into Kokiri Forest where he can live
out the rest of his childhood. But with no explanation, Osawa writes Navi
out of the story and the very last shot is Navi leaving Link behind. Link’s last connection to his childhood
is severed and if he was to return, would become a Stalfos like the man against the
stump. He is forever banished from his childhood. This Stalfos character from Twilight Princess,
aka the Hero’s Shade who speaks of easing his regrets is confirmed by the creators to
be the this Link from Ocarina Of Time. And so Miyamoto and Osawa’s 3rd thread of
sorrow is one that comes full circle. The Growing Up Line is a losing story and
though the purified world of Hyrule lives on, Link pays the ultimate price and falls
victim to what he’s really been fighting against from the beginning: the cruel flow
of Time. Time is the true villain of the story and
this kind of message about losing childhood mirrors Miyamoto’s personal ethos when it
comes to designing his games: I think that inside every adult is the heart
of a child. We just gradually convince ourselves that
we have to act more like adults. Ultimately, Ocarina Of Time is a story about
transformation and the inevitable sorrow that comes attached with it. While other Zelda stories allow the audience
to consider sorrow and despair through more direct means, Ocarina creates an indirect
sorrowful atmosphere by establishing, but then removing a world of happiness. On each line, Link loses something in the
death of The Great Deku tree: a mentor, a protector, and a father, and this gives way
to 3 types of transformation: transformation of Link as a person, transformation of the
people around him, and transformation of the world he inhabits. But its actually in Ganondorf that we find
Miyamoto and Osawa’s greatest storytelling weapon. Appropriately named King Of Theives, each
line explores the 3 things Ganondorf has stolen - The triforce, the health of Hyrule’s nature,
and what what might be the his greatest crime of all time, Link’s childhood. While that Zelda Sorrow Language may not appear
in Ocarina Of Time’s script, Link is healing sorrows and easing regrets on scales far larger
than its successors. In the end, Link is changed forever - a saviour
banished from his childhood destined to roam alone in a world that doesn’t remember him
- and all of this buried down in the subtext beneath the heroic adventures of the main
story. Ocarina Of Time is the saddest Zelda story
no one noticed.
Weirdly surprised that there are people disliking this video because they think it's "reaching." If anything it's the opposite.
It's a very well done video, but I think my problem is that none of this is really subtext at all. In fact, it's all pretty overtly conveyed within the confines of the dialogue and the top-level story design.
The focus on Nature and Childhood are very obvious thematic concepts that the game doesn't even try to hide. It quite earnestly uses them as narrative elements throughout the entire game. The corruption of nature and the subversion of time are the two most overtly referenced motifs in setting and in the story. I don't particularly see how "no one noticed" them when nearly every character in the game references the concepts in one way or another. Again, this is not to say that the video is bad, but that it drastically over-exaggerates how hidden these elements were.
I think, in the end, OOT is a beautiful game and has really wonderful themes throughout. But videos like this always remind me of how bereft the video game medium is of genuinely complex subtext. We circle back over and over trying to find deeper meaning in these fantastic games and I think sometimes we end up mistaking for deep what is actually quite direct and understandable.
Damn, the note about the Twilight Princess stalfos character being OoT link really got me. :( That means post-game child link would have tried to return to Kokiri forest, and without Navi, would have been unwelcome and eventually transformed.
This deserves far more attention. What a fantastic video. Great production values on a fantastic topic.
I've always thought that Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask are the saddest games in the Zelda series. This video explains it so much better in this video, but I've always thought that link getting sent back was a huge slap in the face, he already lost his childhood, he already confronted adulthood, he's saved the world, let him reap the benefits of a peaceful, healing, Hyrule. But no, Zelda sends him back, and Navi decides to leave for some reason.
Then you get to Majora's Mask, Link, overcome with grief, sadness, and hopelessness, Steals Epona (How else did he get her?) and searches for Navi all across the world, He eventually reaches Termina, the opening shot showing link just kind of wandering through the forest, like he's been doing this for awhile. The game happens, the moon is falling, a Skull Kid gets a really powerful mask, turns link into a Deku, and Link goes on and about saving Termina, just like Hyrule, he stops the bad guys, he kills the evil, he rescues the people and he defeats the Skullkid, he defeats Majora. Ultimately though, he fails his mission. He never finds Navi, He never reconnects with his childhood, he continues to wander the world, looking for something that he never finds. Eventually wandering the world as a spirit, still looking, regretting that he went back in time, regretting he didn't stop looking for Navi, Regretting constantly. I mean he literally ends up teaching his Successor, helping to save the world AGAIN, but still, never finishing his mission, always regretting.
Its depressing. To think that the Link I grew up with, since I was a kid, just never found happiness, his childhood, Navi, he constantly regretted. Seemingly continuing to search, just because he had already gone so far. Sometimes it makes me wonder you know? Maybe I'm just staying at my job because I've been there so long, because it's good money, maybe I just feel I'm in so deep I can't leave. Of course not, I don't constantly regret it, I don't constantly hate it, I am happy for the majority of the time. But man, if those sometimes, were the majority. I dunno, I'm just kind of rambling now, I don't nearly have the coherence the guy in the video did.
That was really touching. I never played the game but the story of going from childhood to adulthood is something I'm going through now. I've been sad for a long time for a lack of a better word and Link's story speaks to me on some level.
Really well put together and edited. I had some issues with it.
The correct way to go about deeply examining something like this is to study it and develop some ideas or theories from there. Let the evidence guide the thought process.
And while there is some really interesting theories and finds in there....some of it is a REAL stretch. The game was written in Japanese and translated later to English. Using some of the English dialogue that wasn't even written by the creators is....spurious at best.
As impressively put together as it was, it sort of reeks of somebody who had already made up their mind about their theory....and then went looking for evidence to back it up. Some of it is strong like to constant use of the word "kid" in the dialogue. Some of it is really a stretch like Ganon being sent to Yomi. Two points make a line, not a pattern. This was serious overreaching.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
That was incredibly well done.
Shit, this is good.
So glad I'm watching this with a bowl of weed.
I was definitely not expecting to see something like this today. Well worth the watch, loved every minute of it. So well done. And of course it also broke my heart.