The Mystery of The Wind Waker’s “Frightening Fishmen”

hey have you ever seen what I call the frightening fishmen check this out the other day I was out at Sea on a cruise and without thinking much about it I tossed some leftover bait out on the waves and you will never guess what happened this fishy looking thing popped up on the surface but it was no ordinary fish it had this weird human looking smile on its face and it just gobbled up the bait the ocean is so very vast many mysterious things that we've yet to even dream of lie sleeping beneath its waves swimming near every island in the Wind Waker great sea is a Fishman one of a mysterious group of talking fish they're quite an important part of the game in return for allpurpose bait they'll fill in a square on Link's sea chart and offer advice about the nearby Island but there's a mystery here there are multiple times where the fish men's strange history is alluded to pieces of a puzzle that make the player Wonder just what or who these talking fish actually are as with most of the Wind wakers characters we can find some clarification in the fish men's figurine description in the Nintendo Gallery it reads apparently these fish were aided Long Ago by the king of Red Lions which is which is why they're now willing to offer link valuable information unfortunately much of their information is Off the Mark so immediately the mystery deepens the reason they offer link hints and advice is because they are indebted to the king of Red Lions Link's boat of course the king of Red Lions is revealed to be king dhes nohansen Hyrule the last ruler of the Kingdom that was destroyed and forgotten during the great flood the king of Red Lions is possessed by the spirit of the Old King and this is what animates it at the end of the game when King dfas's Spirits remains to drown with Hyrule the boat appears lifeless and still though the fish men's trophy mentions that they were aided by the king of Red Lions long ago we don't know how long ago this was it appears that the fishmen are unaware of the boat's true identity the first fish man link encounters will say to the king of Red Lions Hoy you there you kingly Red Lion guy that's it I've repaid my debt so they don't refer to him as the king or as king daphnes or even as the king of Red Lions but as kingly red lion guy Which is far more informal than you'd expect this is consistent with the original Japanese too where the fish man refers to him as old man in the red lion or something akin to that the Japanese vers version does not even use the Ki for King that appears elsewhere in the king of Red Lion's name so even in this original translation it seems unlikely that the fishmen know his true identity regardless whoever they are or were they owe a debt to the king of Red Lions for something he helped them with long ago now they swim around the great sea listening to rumors and gathering information some of which they'll give to link in return for bait they're shown to be exceptionally knowledgeable they're even aware of the existence of deities like cyclos the god of wind and the great fairies it seems like the fishmen were appointed to this task by the king of Red Lions the first time one of them fills in link sea charts he does it for free in order to clear his debt but every subsequent time costs bait whatever the king did for the fishmen in the past it seems that he arranged for them to help Link in order to repay him the king of Red Lions is shown to use the fishmen for their information outside of this too when link exits the wind Temple he finds his boat midc conversation with one of them who tells him about the lack of monsters at The faken Fortress the fishermen's gossip is often unreliable like how they refer to the Triforce as the Triumph Forks a set of magical utensils but they give off the impression that they know more than they let on the fish man near the Tower of the Gods says that he performs a fish fortune on link and accurately predicts that he will have to repeatedly return to this location so right now the fishmen are looking pretty strange their sentient speaking fish who know secrets about the great sea and who owe a debt to hyrule's Old King but let's get stranger the fish man found near Rock Spire Island reminisces about the Windfall Island Lighthouse which by this point is inactive he claims that he used to gaze at it with dear Gillian what does that mean well Gillian can be found on Windfall Island running the cafe bar she's not too important but her figurine description is interesting it notes that she once had a boyfriend but that info is top secret this is all the dialogue in the game we have regarding this bizarre relationship but yes it seems that Gillian's top secret boyfriend was one of the fishmen it's made even stranger then that loot the owner of the boating course mini game is found in the cafe at night warning link about the dangers of the frightening fishmen loot describes a more Sinister side to the fishmen he warns link that even if you see a shadow underwater that you think think looks like a fish whatever you do don't throw out baits for it okay because if you do one of the dreaded fishmen might appear and pull you underwater with him we know that loot had a firsthand encounter with a Fishman probably while he was traveling between Windfall Island and the boating course this experience scared him to the point where it's mentioned in his figurine description as his one fear strangely in the English release translated here as merman it seems unlikely that loot actually saw people dragged underwater by a Fishman this reads more like a sailor's tale an embellishment meant to scare link it would be odd for fishmen to be gazing at lighthouses with girls one minute and drowning Sailors the next but it does contextualize them as part of this world strange fish with human faces are known phenomena to Sailors across the Great Sea luk describes the humanlike features they have noses and even pointed ears like those of the hens their figurines oddly notes that for many long years they have suffered from stiff necks but none of them know how to cure it fishmen will even have link perform quite violent acupuncture for relief from their body aches it's a strange trait for them to have but one that would make sense if the fishmen didn't always look like this there are a few possible explanations for the fish men's Oddities the first would be that the fishmen evolved from the Zora the race of humanoid fish who were loyal to the king during Ocarina of Time while we know that the wind wakers reto tribe evolved from the Zora this doesn't mean that the fishmen couldn't have as well the reto only earn their wings once they're given a scale by Valu the sky spirit so perhaps this was something of a false or forced change and the fishmen represent a more natural split Evolution from the Zora the king of Hyrule has close connections to the Zora and it isn't a stretch at all that he might have aided them long ago a deed for which the fishmen remain in his debt and we've even seen relationships between the Zora and hens like how Princess Ruto proposes to link with the Zora's Sapphire so this could help explain the Gillian connection too but aside from those surface level observations there's nothing definitively tying the fishmen to the Zora while it's possible that they represent another branch of Zora Evolution this isn't a very tidy answer the reto are closely linked with their ancestors medley uses the Zora's Crest as her symbol and her lineage and blood connections to the Zora Sage laruto are important parts of her character for me it would devalue the reto somewhat if the Zora had other more aquatic descendants swimming around in the Wind Waker world it is of course possible that the fishmen are just something else a new race of sentient talking fish people who were helped Long Ago by the king of Hyrule and nothing more this of course makes sense but it doesn't answer any of the Mysteries why hint at this secret past and secret identity if there's nothing to it the last possibility and my favorite answer is that the fishmen were once hen men either transformed or evolved through magical means for a new life on the great sea this would explain their name fish men their distinctly human faces like their noses and ears their ability to talk and use a brush to draw maps and even their neck pain I don't think that Gillian's top secret boyfriend was a human the implic ation seems to be that she did indeed have a relationship with a Fishman hence the secrecy so if the fishmen were once high in men it must have been long ago perhaps they were once Sailors who died at Sea whose Spirits were born again or maybe they were even once hens from ancient Hyrule itself the kingdom below the waves we don't know how old the fishmen are or if they even age at all their figurines note that they were helped by the king long ago and that they've suffered from stiff necks for many long years which could mean just years decades or even all the way back to the time of hyrule's fall during the great flood the fishmen might be what has become of some denisons of the Old Kingdom regular men hen soldiers or perhaps even the shika the loyal Servants of the royal family the shika have mysteriously vanished by the time of the Wind Waker only their Creations remain and their symbol is seen in the Forsaken Fortress if they now live on as the fishmen their old identity mostly forgotten it's quite poetic that they now serve a similar purpose to gossip Stones maybe the debt the fishmen owe the king of Hyrule was for saving them from a watery grave the king could have helped some of his subjects avoid drowning and ensured they lived on in new bodies in the Great Sea in return the fishmen serve the king of Red Lions by being guides to him and Link in this new world payment for an old debt they no longer fully remember yet continue to honor but what do you think it's unlikely that we'll ever get a true answer to the mystery of the fishmen do you think they could have been ancient hens the evolution of the Zora or something else entirely let me know in the comments cheers guys and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Zeltik

Views: 87,169

Keywords: Zelda

Id: yIFBL3FYQ8U

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2024