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Trials of the Runes
Link goes across the Great Plateau to uncover the treasures hidden within the four shrines, at the behest of the old man whose behavior is as eccentric as it is supportive.Tropes:
- Ambushing Enemy: The rotted machines that attack Link at first look no different than the other rotted machines he had been harvesting parts from. The first one nearly kills him.
- Beware the Skull Base: Link finds a camp of Bokoblins living inside of a giant skull.
- Bridge Logic: Link uses a fell tree as a makeshift bridge. He nearly slips off it, and it falls down the gorge barely a minute later, nearly taking Link with it.
- Cyber Cyclops:
- In Oman Au Shrine, Link encounters a small three-legged one-eyed thing that looks similar to pottery.
- Link encounters a rotted machine in the Eastern Abbey, described as having the same kind of glowing eye, and it immediately tries to kill him the moment it spots him.
- Disappears into Light: The monks from this point onwards are always described as vanishing into light when Link solves their shrines and fulfills their purpose.
- Foreshadowing:
- Link teleports to the top of the Great Plateau Tower right after the old man reveals the teleportation feature of the Sheikah Slate. Somehow, he arrives at the tower's top before Link.
- The Cyber Cyclops Link fights in the Eastern Abbey is described in its death throes as releasing magenta and black energy, and Link even recognizes it as a larger version of the small machine he fought in the first shrine, notices that the color of the energy is the same as that of Calamity Ganon's spectral clouds, and finally that the Tron Lines of this thing were the same color as the glowing color of the columns surrounding Hyrule Castle.
- The old man notes that Link has "never ceased to impress or scare" him, which the narration points out is odd.
- Link notices that there is still a slot for another rune after getting the fourth one.
- The old man mentions how towns and settlements across the land are built near shrines, supposedly for luck.
- Freeze Ray: Cryonis can create a perfectly stable column of ice that will never melt. Link uses it for shielding and climbing purposes.
- Hard Light: It's unclear if the Remote Bombs are this, but their explosions are described as being made of magical energy without any flames.
- I Never Told You My Name: The old man man addresses Link by name twice, even though Link never said it to him. The first time, Link doesn't notice, but the second time, he does.
- Lampshade Hanging: Link comments on the idiocy of Bokoblins, since they had explosive barrels with a lantern hanging close by.
- Macguffin: Link has to retrieve four of them from the various shrines across the Great Plateau. They're the Spirit Orbs of the Sheikah Monks.
- Moving the Goalposts: At first, the old man asks for just the treasure from the Oman Au Shrine, but then asks for the other three after he gets the first one.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: The Sheikah Monks are described as looking like mummies in meditation.
- One-Hit Kill: Link destroys the Cyber Cyclops by reflecting its beam attack back into its eye. He does this again with the second one he encounters.
- Selective Magnetism: Magnesis works on a single magnetic metallic object at a time.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Link fights numerous monsters and solves two shrines in one day. It ends up exhausting Link so much that he falls asleep on the old man's shoulder.
- Link takes a canteen of water with him on his journeys. Unlike gaming Link, this version of Link needs food and water to keep functioning.
- Climbing up the cliff is not as easy as game!Link makes it look. It's not just stamina he has to worry about, he also needs to worry about his hands slipping and rocks breaking. He nearly dies climbing up the cliff when he nearly slips.
- Telepathy: Link notes that the Sheikah Monks aren't speaking with any voices, as there is no echo through the shrines when he finds them. That, and those that have a visible mouth, they're not moving them.4
- Throw Down the Bomblet: As Remote Bombs are a rune for the Sheikah Slate, Link has infinitely many of them, and carries them with him at all times.
- Time Stands Still: Stasis freezes anything in place for a limited time, and striking frozen objects will accumulate kinetic energy until it either ends on its own or Link ends it himself.
- Warp Whistle: The Sheikah Slate allows Link to teleport himself to the activated shrines or Sheikah Tower at will.
- Wham Shot: The old man continues being cryptic, and then suddenly turns turquoise and vanishes in a cloud of ethereal flames.
