The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess / Tropes K - Z

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K-P

• Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: The shops have varying selections, but everything that is sold has the same price regardless of where you buy it... with three exceptions: the Gorons who set up shop in Castle Town, who sell Red Potion, Lantern Oil, and Arrows at a ten-Rupee markup from the standard (they call it "regional pricing"); the other shop before it becomes a branch of Malo Mart, which sells a good selection of things, but at a higher price than even the last wallet upgrade can hold; and Malo Market Castle Town, which has the same selection at half the standard price. However, you drop some serious Rupees making these discounts available...
• Karmic Twist Ending: The Snowpeak Ruins arc has one for Yeta. She found a shard of the Mirror of Twilight and admired its beauty and her own reflected in it, but bad things started to happen and she took ill. When she feels well enough to take Link to the room so he can take away the shard, she gets drawn to it again with vanity and its magic transforms her into a monster. After she is defeated, her husband Yeto tells her that their love for each other is more important and that true beauty is in each other's eyes.
• Keep It Foreign:
  • In the Japanese and English versions, the round sources of luminous energy found in the Palace of Twilight are called Sols (Sol means Sun in Latin and several Romance languages, including Spanish). In the Spanish version, they're renamed Taiyo (Sun in Japanese).
  • The "Hylian" language is just English flipped backwards (most obvious in Kakariko and its big "lɘtoH" sign).
• King Mook: King Bulblin, along with his steed, Lord Bulbo. Other examples include that giant version of the Twilight Kargaroks with trumpet bells for heads that you have to fly up Zora's River on, Diababa (a giant Deku Baba), Twilit Bloat the Shadow Insect Queen, Armogohma (a Giant Spider in a spider filled area), Stallord (biggest Stalfos in any game, and the player only sees him from the waist up) and Argorok (once again Kargarok). Even a boss who came from a corrupted good character, Blizzeta, takes the form of an enemy (Freezard). And then there's Ganon, whose One-Winged Angel form resembles a Bulbo.
• Kneel Before Frodo: In the final battle, Princess Zelda turns to Link, a simple goat herder, and bows to him as she asks him to save her kingdom.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Lord Bulblin eventually realizes that he can't beat Link. He explains he always fights for the strongest side (with the implication that Link is now that strongest side), before he hands Link a key and leaves. Particularly surprising, as the character had been the definition of a Recurring Boss up until that point.
• Lady and Knight: Compared to previous games, Link is the knight to a princess other than Zelda (Midna who's closer to Dark Lady, at least at first), who even lampshades it once. Also an example of Royals Who Actually Do Something, as she is a very competent Dark Lady.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • In Kakariko Village when you're refilling the Vessel of Light.
    Midna: Anyway, what's with having to light candles to get to the basement?! Not very subtle, is it...
  • In the Oocca Shop, the shopkeeper asks herself why she filled her store with things that other Oocca can't or won't use.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A positive example. If Link helps the fatigued Goron outside of Castle Town by delivering hot spring water to him, the elder Goron in Kakariko Village will be so thankful that he'll drop the price of Malo's buyout from 2000 rupees to 200.
• Last Grasp at Life: If Link falls into lava or quicksand, he'll sink down into it, with just his hand reaching up before he respawns.
• Last Villain Stand: After the Twilight has been purged from Hyrule and is unlikely to return, Zelda has been freed, and Hyrule Castle destroyed, Ganondorf does it twice, first on horseback and then on foot.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • The Zelda trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl give away most of the twists in the game.
  • The HD rerelease's box art gives away Ganondorf's presence and Midna's true form.
• Laughing Mad: Zant, while breaking down over the course of the battle against him.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Death by falling into lava uses the same animation for drowning in quicksand. You can also fish in the lava (you won't catch anything, of course), indicating that the game simply thinks of it as retextured water with an added contact penalty. Falling into lava with the Zora Armor leads to a One-Hit Kill.
• Lava Pot Volcano: Death Mountain, where the crater itself forms a central part of the Goron Mines in the form of a series of platforms and bridges arranged over the lake of molten rock at the mountain's top.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During an early cutscene, Midna hums a bar from her own theme song.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Done by Renado, Gor Coron, and the others once Ilia's memories have been restored. They all leave the room to give her and Link a moment alone (though Talo has to be yanked away from the window, by Beth).
• Left the Background Music On: The Postman hums the Item Get! theme when he hands you the mail. Also, one of Midna's random selections of gibberish includes her humming a few bars of her own leitmotif.
• Leitmotif:
  • The main theme (used for "Midna's Lament" appears in all of the overworld music and, of course, the pieces relating to Midna specifically.
  • The overworld theme could be considered Link's theme as well. Especially since, if you listen closely, you can hear a variation on the original game's overworld theme in it.
  • Zelda has Zelda's Lullaby, Midna has Midna's theme, the Oocca species has Ooccoo's theme...
  • Zant and the Twilight Realm has one. It's the BGM for Twilight-covered Hyrule.
• Lethal Joke Item: The final Arena-style sword battle with Ganondorf can be made ridiculously easy by using your fishing rod as one of these. The fishing rod has no practical use in battle, since you normally use it only for fishing, but if you pull it out, Ganondorf will stand and stare at the line while you wave it around, completely confused as to why you're doing this during a life-or-death battle. You can then quickly whip out your sword and slash at him while he's caught unawares... rinse and repeat, because he never catches on.
• Lethal Lava Land: Goron Mines, with the addition of some electromagnetism thanks to the machinery present, which makes use of the Iron Boots. There is also a lava-heated cavern near Eldin Bridge, and once again the Iron Boots will be required.
• Level in Reverse: Has a variation where different ports of the game are this to each other. The game was originally developed for the GameCube before Nintendo decided to also release it for the Wii and incorporate motion controls, which they felt was natural for things like swinging Link's sword. The problem was, however, that most people would want to make the motions with their right hand, and that Link was traditionally left handed. They couldn't just flip Link's model, since that would interfere with animations, level design, etc. which they didn't have time to redo, so instead they just flipped the geometry of the entire game to make Link right-handed in the Wii version. The HD Updated Re-release for the Wii U uses the original Gamecube orientation for its normal difficulty setting, and the mirrored Wii orientation for Hero Mode.
• Light Is Good: The Light Spirits of the four springs, who aid you and who keep the land peaceful.
• Light Is Not Good: The Sword of the Six Sages is a purely white sword once utilized by the Sages, when it was actually good. That is until Ganondorf seizes the sword for himself and it becomes his signature weapon for the game, still being a pure white blade in heavy contrast to Ganondorf's dark ensemble. Ironically, he also promises to "blot out the light forever" with this white sword before his final duel with Link.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: In the Forest Temple, Link must defeat a baboon mini-boss by targeting his oversized bright-red ass.
• Live Item: The game has Ooccoo, which can be used to warp out of certain dungeons. The game even says something to the effect of "You can treat her just like an item!" There's also the Bomblings, which are insect-like things that run forward and explode when they hit something.
• Living Statue: The Dominion Rod lets Link bring certain statues in Temple of Time and Hyrule Field (and more situationally in other places) to life and control them.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: Though the game was designed to avert this trope (like in The Wind Waker, only the miniboss and boss rooms in dungeons require being loaded separately), it is still lampshaded by the Fortune Teller in Castle Town. She talks about how the fortunes often have to load before they play.
• Local Hangout: Telma's Bar, located in Hyrule Castle Town, is a pub where The Resistance hangs out and plans. During the second half of the game, it's there where Link can get hints on where to go next when looking for the fragments of the Mirror of Twilight.
• Locked Out of the Fight: The third phase of the final boss fight has Link and Zelda on horseback chasing after Ganondorf. Once he falls, barriers pop up separating Link from Zelda, and he has to fight him alone.
• Lonely Piano Piece: "Midna's Lament" is all sad piano notes. It's actually a variation on the Hyrule Field theme and Midna's theme.
• The Lost Woods:
  • The Faron Woods, the game's first major area, are very peaceful and serene until the dark forces of the Twilight Realm corrupt them. Afterwards, the forest teems with goblins, bats, and carnivorous plants. Several areas consist of gloomy, winding hollows and tunnels while a large section is filled with dense fog, and in some spots Link must navigate up, down and across the trees themselves. The area's dungeon, the Forest Temple, takes place within the cavernous interiors of the forest's largest trees.
  • There's also the Sacred Grove, where you follow a Skull Kid from Ocarina of Time to find the Master Sword in a clearing similar to the one in A Link to the Past, and also very reminiscent of (and structurally identical to) the Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time, for good reason.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The game repositions the shield button so that it only activates while targeting an enemy, but also lets you gain a Shield Bash move to stun the enemy and leave them open to attack.
• MacGuffin: The Fused Shadows, throughout the entire game. The first three dungeons are about trying to reclaim them, only for Zant to steal them away right after you finish Lakebed Temple. The next half of the game is then spent collecting another set of MacGuffins specifically to enable you to travel to the Twilight Realm and reclaim the Fused Shadows.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: Zelda-fans (especially Ocarina of Time veterans) will be wary when the plot seems to draw to a close 3 dungeons in. But Zant still manages to shock players by ambushing Link the very instant he warps out of the third dungeon and stealing the Plot Coupons.
• Machete Mayhem: Rusl carries a machete across his lower back later in the game, although his main weapon is a longsword.
• Mad Marble Maze: The minigame Rollgoal in the boat rental shop. In each level, you have to guide the marble ball across a thin path; you'll lose if the ball falls off. Beating every level allows you to use the frog lure for fishing.
• Made of Iron:
  • Ganondorf is one. In the final battle, damaging him only serves to make him more vulnerable to the Ending Blow; unless you use that, you can literally keep hacking away at him forever and he just... won't... die.
  • King Bulblin survives falling off a cliff, twice, and getting cut up by Link's sword.
• Magic Mirror: The Mirror of Twilight can create a gateway to the Twilight Realm, and its pieces serve as the second major set of Plot Coupons after it gets shattered.
• Magic Music: While the game doesn't have an instrument per se, Link can blow (or howl in wolf form) on grass whistles to summon Epona or birds, and late in the game gets a whistle that can also call Epona. And in his wolf form, Link can also howl at Howling Stones to summon the Golden Wolf/Hero's Spirit and learn new moves from him.
• Magic Wand: The Dominion Rod is a scepter that allows Link to control statues by throwing animating magic into the hollow spaces in them.
• Magitek: In spite of its magical properties, the Dominion Rod is described as being a piece of ancient Oocca technology.
• Make an Example of Them: Zant executes the Zora queen when he shrouds the Lanayru Province in twilight. This later sets up a subplot when her son, Ralis, falls ill on his way to Castle Town to get help.
• The Man Behind the Man: When Zant appears after the third dungeon, he states that he got his power from a god. After the fourth dungeon, said "god" is revealed by the Sages to be Ganondorf.
• Man-Eating Plant: Besides Deku Babas and Baba Serpents, the enormous Twilit Parasite Diababa appears as the boss of the Forest Temple.
• Marathon Boss:
  • Zant, due to being a Final-Exam Boss. He teleports himself alongside Link and Midna to different parts of Hyrule, namely battlefields where previous bosses and minibosses were fought beforehand. After five phases, you have to fight him in a lengthy one-one-one sword duel in the southern yard outside Hyrule Castle.
  • Ganondorf. After going through a gruelling route to the top of Hyrule Castle, with three Darknuts to face, including one right by the entrance to the boss room, you have to go up against Ganondorf himself. First, he possesses Zelda, as a Tennis Boss with a nasty habit of stabbing you and using light magic to fry the floor around you. Then, he turns into the giant beast, Ganon, who you either have to be good at shooting in the crystal above his eyes or use the Wolf Link form with Midna to wrestle to the ground before going for his belly. Then he goes riding across Hyrule Field and you have to keep him directly ahead of you so Zelda can stun him with Light Arrows, all while dodging his summoned ghost riders and avoiding his occasional opportunistic attacks, and THEN you finally face off in a brutal one-on-one swordfight.
• Marathon Level: City in the Sky is the longest dungeon in the game, as Link has to explore two large sides of it, effectively encasing the entire city as a big dungeon. The game also has the 50-floor Cave of Ordeals, but unlike the Savage Labyrinth it's completely optional.
• Match In A Bombshack: While hunting for twilight bugs in Kakariko Village, one of the places to look is in a bomb shack. However, upon entering, there are no bugs to be found. Upon bringing a flaming stick into the shack and lighting a fireplace, the bugs jump out, having been set aflame by the stick, and lighting all of the explosives. Upon this happening, Midna is quick to leave. Staying inside the shack when it explodes results in a Non-Standard Game Over. Exiting results in the bugs being killed and their tears of light available to be collected, but the shack is destroyed, forcing Barnes the owner into having to start fresh with bomb making. It's later subverted, where bringing out a lantern or other open flame in Barnes' restored shop immediately triggers the ceiling sprinklers and a warning from Barnes.
• Matchstick Weapon: During the segments where Link is trapped in wolf form and is unable to use his lantern, he can carry burning sticks in his mouth. These are useful for lighting torches and smoking out Twilit Bugs.
• Meaningful Name: Midna (phonetically based on midnight), who's obviously associated with darkness and shadow (but is a deuteragonist).
• Memetic Mutation: Invoked in-universe, with the Malo Mart dance. By the end of the game, there's a scene in Hyrule Castle Town's central square of many townspeople doing the dance.
• Merged Reality: This is Zant's and Ganondorf's ultimate goal; to combine the Light World and Twilight Realm into single "Dark World" for him to rule.
• Meta Guy: Malo lampshades Link's Instant Expert skill at archery, among other things.
• Metal Detector Puzzle: One of the keys in Snowpeak Ruins is buried in the snow and it simply cannot be dug up until Link finds the Compass.
• Metal Slime: The Rare Chu. It spawns extremely rarely and almost always with other Chus. These other Chus will also combine with each other and take on the more common Chu's color. However, the Rare Chu jelly that it drops once it's defeated has the same effect as the Great Fairy's Tears (fully heals you while doubling your attack for a short time).
• Militaries Are Useless: The guards of Hyrule cower in fear over the sight of a wolf walking around in Castle Town. Some will even run away when you do your spin attack. Before that, a group of them ran away in fear from the prospect of escorting Telma, Ralis, and Ilia across Hyrule Field.
• Mind over Matter:
  • Midna's levitation and telekinetic powers are vague but powerful. Aside from her floating around constantly, she can also float objects after targeting them, albeit with some difficulty. Strangely enough, this doesn't seem as size-limited compared to most telekinesis powers since she mostly seems to use this on very large objects — her levitation feats include a wooden bridge, a massive rock, a significant chunk of a large stone bridge, and a ridiculously oversized cannon. It can also be inferred that she can use this or a related power to a limited extent on living things, such as helping Link jump and pounce when he in wolf form.
  • Zant also displays strong telekinesis such as when pulling around and pinning Midna in the air at Lanayru Spring, although based on what he says, that wasn't Twili magic like Midna's powers.
• Mind Screw: The scene in Lanayru's cave in Lakebed Temple where Link is supposed to learn what happens when the powers of the Fused Shadows are abused. It ends with an army of giggling clones of Link's best friend Ilia, falling from the sky. And that's just how it ends.
• Mini-Boss: During the game's first Story Arc (the quest for the Fused Shadows), minibosses appear both in the dungeons and in the overworld.^note The former have Ook, Dangoro and Deku Toad respectively; the latter has King Bulblin twice, a duo between a Kargaroc and a Bokoblin, the Twilit Bloat and the Skull Kid After the Master Sword is found and the quest for the Mirror of Twilight begins, only the dungeons have minibosses (the exception is a rematch against King Bulblin in the fortress leading to Arbiter's Grounds). In terms of music, the game gives many minibosses their own battle themes, a trend that was briefly seen in The Wind Waker (with Phantom Ganon playing a special theme, the other dungeon minibosses playing another theme and the sea minibosses playing yet another one) but is further developed here. Some minibosses do still adhere to one standard miniboss music, and two of them (Darknut and Aeralfos) are degraded to regular (yet still powerful) enemies later.
• Mini-Dungeon: The Bulblins' fortress in Gerudo Desert, immediately preceding the Arbiter's Grounds. At the end of it, a Mini-Boss (King Bulblin) is fought.
• Mole Monster: Moldorms are wormlike creatures that live in the sand of the Gerudo Desert and in quicksand pits in the Arbiter's Grounds, where they move around beneath the surface and periodically jump out to attack Link.
• A Molten Date with Death: Lava in this game is confined to only the second dungeon, Goron Mines. While Link can fall on the lava but be A-okay afterwards, in stark contrast to other titles, falling on it will yield frighteningly realistic results, as Link will yell in pain and slowly sink into the molten liquid while trying to get out and holding out an arm. And don't even try to jump into the lava with the Zora Armor put on - it's an instant death. Contrast the previous and next 3D games, where Link merely roasts his rump and jumps in pain...
• Money for Nothing: Zigzagged:
  • While several items and sidequests are expensive, there are still so many Rupees laying around that the player is left with a full wallet several times and a lot of items can be obtained by cutting grass, breaking pots, opening chests, and killing enemies. The Magic Armor, however, runs on Rupees, so when you get it, having a full wallet can still be useful even after everything else of value is bought.
  • What makes the original version the top contender is that if the player finds a chest containing a purple (50) or orange (100) rupee and has no room for it, then Link puts it back and closes the chest. If one wanted 100% Completion, then one would have to make room in Link's wallet by purchasing items or using the Magic Armor to drain rupees and then opening the chest. Fortunately, this is fixed in the HD version, where Link doesn't return Rupees to their chests even if his wallet is full; the wallet capacities in general are also bigger, which alleviates a lot of the problem.
  • Maintaining a full wallet is slightly easier at first but much more difficult later due to the increase in wallet sizes in the HD version. A third, absolutely massive wallet^note Just shy of 10,000 also makes getting it full somewhat difficult. However, if you manage to get it maxed out, your Magic Armor suddenly becomes way more effective — especially during the second run of the Cave of Ordeals. That said, by the time you get it, you'll have gotten most of the large Rupees from the main game. You either need to go out of your way to find large stashes, or grind through enemies and mini-games to fill it up.
• Money Sink: The game has several money sinks. There is the sidequest where you donate 1000 rupees to repair a bridge and then 2000 rupees (can be reduced to 200 by completing a different sidequest) to open a shop. There is also an old man who you can give 30 or 50 rupees every time you talk to him. Donate 1000 in total and he'll reward you with an heart piece. And then there is the magic armor which costs almost 600 rupees and consumes rupees when you wear it, but makes you immune for damage.
• Monochrome Past: The game has this effect in the Temple of Time entry hall, since Link can only access it by entering a gate that takes him back in time.
• Monster and the Maiden: Midna (and Zelda, to a lesser extent) with Link. Midna is a Twili, a member of a race from the Realm of Twilight, who is proficient in Twili Shadow Magic and very much knows more than she lets on. Link spends quite a bit of time as a Hylian, but the dynamic is more apparent when Link is in his wolf form, as Midna rides around on his back, gives him orders, and generally corrals him around Hyrule to recover the Fused Shadows for her own ends. Following a near-death experience and a good helping of Character Development, it becomes much closer to a partnership between them, with a heaping dose of Ship Tease as well.
• Monster Knight: King Bulblin. The first time, he fights like a brute by just running down targets with his steed. However, he later dons a pair of bucklers to block Link's sword strikes and eventually faces off against Link in two one-on-one duels. Unlike many examples, he admits defeat honorably and disavows Ganon's service, becoming the Trope Namer for I Fight for the Strongest Side! in his sole line of dialogue.
• Mood Whiplash: After the foreboding buildup to, and menacing and gruesome fight with, the Twilit Bloat to restore light to Lake Hylia, and the subsequent Light Spirit scene with Lanayru quickly turning into a history lesson featuring extremely unsettling and/or creepy imagery, you walk back outside the spring to Lake Hylia and get one of the most peaceful songs in the game.
• Morphic Resonance: Link retains his blue eyes and earrings in his wolf form.
• Mordor: The Twilight Realm is perpetually covered in bleak light and dark clouds. Besides that and the creepy architecture, though, it's actually a pretty nice place.
• Muggle in Mage Custody: An ordinary Farm Boy Link becomes a servant of the magical imp Midna. She treats him condescendingly at first, but warms up to him later on.
• Multi-Mook Melee: The Cave of Ordeals is a 50-floor location that operates in the same way as its spiritual predecessor, the Savage Labyrinth from The Wind Waker: You enter a floor, defeat all enemies present, then descend to the following floor, defeat its enemies, and repeat. But it's completely optional and, in order to access every floor, the main items of all dungeons up to and including City in the Sky must be collected. Completing every ten floors will release fairies in one of the Spirit Springs in Hyrule, and completing all of them will net Link unlimited supplies of Great Fairy's Tears. To clear the 50th floor, Link has to fight three (four in later visits) Darknuts at once, which is the hardest challenge in the game. The Wii U remake adds in the Cave of Shadows, which works similarly, except that Link is forced to stay in wolf form.
• Multi-Platform: The game was developed for the GameCube, but the game was delayed to the point where Nintendo realized they could release it on the Wii at the same time and have a launch game for that system. This succeeded, as the combined sales of both versions have made it the second best-selling game in the series.^note The two versions of Twilight Princess have one very noticeable difference: they're mirrored. In previous titles, Link wielded his sword with his left-hand, which was carried over to the GameCube version, but because more people are right-handed than left-, Nintendo flipped the Wii version to make it easier for people to control. That means they flipped the entire game, so maps have to be flipped if you want to use them between versions.
• Multi-Stage Battle: Against Zant. In every phase, he teleports himself alongside Link and Midna to a specific place where a boss or miniboss was fought beforehand.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • When you first arrive at the Hidden Village, your goal is to slaughter the Bulblins inside. This sequence is accompanied by spaghetti-western Shout-Out music, camera angles, and dialogue. But this isn't what we're talking about. This trope comes in during a later sequence in the same town, using the same music, angles, and dialogue, as you befriend kittens.
  • GOAT IN! whenever you successfully get a goat herded into the barn. Similarly, FISH ON! whenever you successfully hook a fish.
  • The mansion of the Yeti who are perfectly willing to give you a piece of the Plot Coupon is treated just like any other dungeon within the game, complete with a boss fight at the end.
• Musical Nod: Quite a few, mostly from Ocarina of Time. (Exceptions will be noted.) In chronological order of first instance...
  • Link calls Epona by playing Epona's Song.
  • Zelda's Lullaby is, of course, the theme song that plays when Link and Midna meet Zelda for the first time. It is also the tune that Link howls to unlock the way to the Master Sword later on.
  • Possessed Zelda's battle theme open with a rearrangement of the riff that opened Ganondorf's battle theme in Ocarina of Time, and incorporates a Dark Reprise of Zelda's Lullaby.
  • The Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past plays in the flashback scene where Zelda surrenders to Zant. It plays again at the end of the game when Link enters Hyrule Castle proper.
  • The howling stone on the path from Kakariko Village to Death Mountain plays the Song of Healing from Majora's Mask.
  • Death Mountain's theme plays a Dark Reprise of the music that plays in Goron City from Ocarina of Time.
  • The howling stone at Zora's River plays the Requiem of Spirit.
  • Rutela's theme is the Seranade of Water.
  • The howling stone outside of the Sacred Grove plays the Prelude of Light.
  • The Skull Kid's theme is Saria's Song.
  • The music in the first two chambers of the Temple of Time is the original rendition of the Song of Time.
  • When Ganondorf breaks from his chains after his failed execution, the music is a rendition of the tune that plays in Ocarina of Time while Ganon's Castle is crumbling down.
• Musical Pastiche: The fourth and fifth Howling Stone songs are counter-melodies to the title themes from A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker, respectively, while the last one combines the melody of the Light Spirit theme with the harmony of the Hyrule Field theme.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Ganondorf's final words are a promise to Link and Zelda that his death will not change anything, reassuring them that he will ensure that the history of light and shadow will be written in the blood of his enemies. All of this was conceivably working under the premise that one day he expected his Triforce of Power would revive him from the dead despite his defeat at Link's hand. Ganondorf's Triforce of Power symbol on his right hand then powers down and disappears from his hand entirely, thus ceasing his life for the rest of the game.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Implied to be Lanayru's reaction to blasting Midna while aiming at Zant, as the spirit immediately teleports her to the relative safety of the nighttime outside.
• Mystical Cave: Unlike the other three Light Spirits, whose fountains can be found in outdoor areas, the Light Spirit Lanayru dwells in a cavern within Lake Hylia.
• Mythology Gag:
  • A Goron in town at one point says "It's a secret to everybody,"◊ borrowing a famous line from The Legend of Zelda.
  • The cowl on Zelda's black robe, which covers the lower portion of her face, is speculated to be a shout-out to Sheik's face mask in Ocarina of Time. The robe is also embroidered or tooled with an image of the Sheikah eye. Additionally, the gown she wears beneath the robe is embroidered with a pattern of harps around the skirt — harps which are identical to the one Sheik played.
  • The Temple of Time's entrance hall is quite similar to the one in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (the music is identical) and a certain cliff at Lake Hylia resembles the coastline of Outset Island from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker a lot, even including a similarly placed lookout.
  • The boathouse for the Fishing Minigame has posters of the owner's family with various fish, along with one black-and-white photo of the owner of the Fishing Hole from Ocarina of Time. If Link examines the photo, Hena will speculate that he may be her ancestor, then scratch her back in the exact same manner as he always did. She also regards her brother as a "cheater" for using a sinking lure to catch his fish.
  • The dungeon passage that Link and Midna use to escape from Hyrule Castle is similar to the one used by Link and Zelda in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Also, Hyrule Castle proper uses the music from that game.
  • Continuing the A Link to the Past nods, the Temple of Time is in ruins in the Lost Woods, en route to the state it is in that game: reduced to the Master Sword's pedestal. ^note However, Twilight Princess and A Link to the Past aren't actually in the same timeline, and this game is instead followed by The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.
  • A more ironic one, but the music from Ocarina that plays when you escape Ganon's Castle plays when Ganondorf himself attempts to escape.
  • The Hidden Village is a Ghost Town with a single inhabitant remaining, much like Old Kasuto from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
  • An incredibly subtle one, but Ooccoo's name happens to be the exact hexadecimal representation of the green color of Link's Kokiri Tunic in Ocarina (a common misconception is that it's the color of Link's tunic in the original game), which is 00CC00.
• Narrative Shapeshifting: After the first segment in Hyrule Castle, Midna briefly shapeshifts into screaming images of Ilia and Colin to get Link to help her.
• Near Victory Fanfare: Whenever Link starts whailing at a boss' weak point, the musical score briefly becomes an extremely triumphant arrangement of the game's main theme. This even works for Blizzeta, despite her not being attacked during a stunned moment: In her case, when she's close to being defeated, Variable Mix comes into play so her theme incorporates the upper-hand fanfare.
• Neck Snap: At the end of the game, Zant apparently becomes disillusioned with Ganon, knowing that he's not a god after all, and snaps his own neck killing both himself and Ganon.
• Nerf: Red Potions in most Zelda games would fully heal Link, but by this game the potions only restores a handful of hearts while Blue Potions became the max heal item (likely because of the removal of the magic meter, as having both potions would be redundant otherwise). Milk was also nerfed in this game by only restoring 3 hearts instead of 5.
• New Skill as Reward: The Hero's Shade appears in the form of a golden wolf at various locations on the overworld, giving Link a description of a place where he can find a stone. When in wolf form, howling the melody produced by the stone leads Link to a dimension where the Shade teaches him a new sword technique.
• New Weapon Target Range: Once you get the Spinner in the sixth dungeon, the door locks, and you need to use the spinner to navigate the grooves in the walls allowing you to reach the exit.
• New World Tease: The passage to the Snow Province is unlocked as soon as you remove the Twilight from Zora's Domain, but an impenetrable blizzard prevents you from proceeding past the first screen until you complete a Chain of Deals assigned during the Mirror of Twilight quest arc.
• Nice Day, Deadly Night: During the day, Hyrule Field has enemies that can be seen from a long way off. Come night, they're replaced by skeletal hellhounds who endlessly respawn near the player and attack in packs.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Sages pulled a good one when they failed to destroy Ganondorf and then exiled him to the Twilit Realm out of desperation. Of special note is the fact that two realms were put in imminent danger, instead of just Hyrule. Link just winds up having to clean up the mess.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: At one point in an attempt to stop Link once and for all, Zant drives a shard imbued with his power into Link's forehead, locking him into wolf form. Soon after, Wolf Link and Midna happen upon the Master Sword, its power driving the shard out of Link's body and returning him to normal form. Midna then realizes the shard itself, now separate from Link, allows Link to morph in and out of wolf form at will by touching it, an ability which becomes integral to the downfall of Zant and his superior, Ganondorf. Thanks, Zant!
• Nightmare Sequence: There's one induced by Lanayru. It serves as exposition about the origin of the Fused Shadows. The images shown are very surreal.
• Night of the Living Mooks: In addition to bringing back classic undead enemies like Poes (which are now part of a Collection Sidequest) and Stalfos, the game introduces Undead Rats in Arbiter's Grounds, which can only be seen when Link is using his honed senses in wolf form. When the rats start cornering his body (as well as Midna's, much to her disgust), he can perform a spin attack to dispatch them.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Averted in the case of Bomb Arrows. The boat minigame at Lake Hylia (where you shoot giant pots with arrows) takes this into account.
• No Bulk Discounts: Barnes from Kakariko Village sells his bombs by lots of 30, claiming you get a discount that way.
• Nocturnal Mooks: Certain beasts only show up at night in Hyrule Field.
• No Entrance: The Gerudo Desert is accessible only via Oocca cannon, and once inside, can only be exited by warping away. Although Auru does mention that there was a road there that's been cut off.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • The store kept by a bird has this: you can just fill your lantern/bottle, but if you walk out, it yells at you and once you come back, it attacks you. Fortunately, you can stop him by putting even just one Rupee in the box (but then he calls you a cheapskate when you leave), and get on his good side again by putting in a rupee without buying anything.
  • Attempting to roll jump the ball over a close gap in the rollgoal game will make Hena accuse you of cheating and have to restart the stage.
• No-Gear Level: The Twilight segments where Link becomes a wolf, rendering him unable to use weapons or items (the first time even involves you being captured and imprisoned). However, you can still fight about as well as you could in human form.
• No Hero Discount: Chudley's Fine Goods and Fancy Trinkets Emporium. Only the rich members of Hyrule town can afford to shop there, which unfortunately doesn't include you — the minimum price for the goods sold there is higher than the amount Link can carry in his wallet. Only by completing a side quest later in the game will Malo take over the shop, and the prices will drop drastically.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Particularly jarring here, where Ilia is clearly a love interest for Link, and yet after the scene in which Ilia regains her memory, the camera pans down to show the kids (Malo, Talo, and Beth) looking in through the window at Link and Ilia, who are simply staring at each other.
• No Kill like Overkill: The HD remake includes the Colossal Wallet, which holds a grand total of 9999 Rupees. Setting aside the fact that the other wallets have already had their Rupee caps boosted from 300, 600, 1000 to 500, 1000, 2000, the Colossal Wallet is enough to wear the Magic Armor (which eats Rupees at a rate of 2 per second) for an hour straight, and take a few hits from Darknuts while you're at it.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: There are non-lethal lethal poisonous swamp gas, as well as pits and lava. It's especially odd considering that Midna's dialogue early in the Goron Mines implies that lava will kill you instantly. Interestingly, if you're wearing the Zora Armor or the Iron Boots, lava will cause an instant Game Over. Why you'd be wearing that in a place with lava is anyone's guess, but there you go.
• Non-Standard Game Over: You accidentally set fire to Barnes' bomb storehouse as you look for Tears of Light in Kakariko Village, and if you fail to Outrun the Fireball in time you're treated to a short cutscene of the building exploding around you and a Game Over screen. Similar situations occur if you fail to extinguish the flames on Prince Ralis' carriage quickly enough or jump off the burning Great Bridge of Hylia in time.
• Noob Cave: The first Lantern Cavern, located on the way to the Forest Temple. Followed by the sewers underneath the castle, though the latter has more dangerous enemies that are capable of damaging Wolf Link in the water, where he cannot fight back.
• No One Could Survive That!: During a cutscene, it is shown that Ganondorf has a huge sword STABBED THROUGH HIS GUT. He goes on to kill a sage, making them panic, as they didn't know he had the Triforce of Power. They were expecting the sword to be fatal, but he survives through an almost literal Deus Ex Machina.
• No Ontological Inertia: When you go through the time portal that bridges the present era with the Temple of Time from the past, the Dominion Rod instantly goes from being a great artifact full of magic to a useless trinket that needs to be reactivated.
• No Peripheral Vision: Deku Toad in Lakebed Temple. It, at least, has the benefit of dropping tadpoles on you from the ceiling and Midna prodding you to check it out.
• Nostalgia Level: The Temple of Time can be entered through its door, having its entrance hall identical in layout to the one it had in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, right down to the background music. The dungeon part averts the trope, since the Temple of Time had no dungeon segments in Ocarina of Time.
• Not Completely Useless: The Fishing Rod that you get at the very beginning of the game can be used to distract the final boss, leaving him vulnerable to Link's attacks.
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: The Temple of Time has eight floors, being the tallest dungeon in the game (along with the City in the Sky, which has five floors and three basements, for a total of eight as well). However, it's the most linear dungeon due to the straightforward path between the entrance and the top area where the missing statue is. All Link has to do after reaching there is escort the statue back to the first floor with the help of the Dominion Rod, and the only detour he needs to make is in the sixth floor, when he has to reach and explore the lone room that houses the Boss Key.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?:
  • For ten rupees, the fortune teller Madame Fanadi will consult her Crystal Ball on one of two topics: Career (where to go next) or Love (heart piece locations).
  • Midna (who literally shadows you) is also happy to chime in with some snarkiness whenever you tap the "Z" (up on the + Control Pad for the Wii version) button.
• NPC Roadblock: The "line of NPCs" variety gets its use when a strangely cohesive queue for water blocks South Hyrule Field during the period when Castle Town is shrouded in twilight.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: This is the backstory of the game. The Big Bad's representative invades Hyrule and slaughters anybody who gets in his way en route to Princess Zelda. When he finally reaches her, he gives her an ultimatum she can't possibly fight — surrender the kingdom or watch your people be massacred. She's already seen that her people can't stand up to the power he's brought with him, and drops her rapier in a gesture of submission.
• Official Couple: Rusl and Uli have been Happily Married since long before the game's events begin, and they're also expecting a baby (who is born as of the game's credits). Uniquely among examples from the 3D Zelda games, this is the only instance that doesn't have any Hopeless Suitor in-between.
• Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The final scene of the game's ending shows Ilia at the entrance of Ordon Village, watching as Link rides off in the direction of the Faron Woods.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Midna does this when Zant forces Lanayru to hit her full force with pure light, mortally wounding her, and when she sees that the Mirror of Twilight has been broken.
  • Ganondorf has this reaction when the Triforce of Power abandons him.
• Ominous Floating Castle: The Palace of Twilight floats alone in the void that is the Twilight Realm.
• Ominous Latin Chanting:
  • The boss theme of Beast Ganon features chanting in form of "Enyaaa" all the time.
  • The intro music has Gregorian-type chanting.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Blizzeta's theme takes the boss music from Fyrus and remixes it in this fashion for the second phase of the battle.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • The Ending Blow, capable of instantly killing any enemy that lays knocked down on the floor. This also works against most bosses. You need to use it to finish off Ganondorf.
  • The Mortal Draw, which requires you to have your sword in its sheath and not lock-on to an enemy. Tap A once an enemy draws near, and any non-Darknut/non-boss enemy close to you who isn't defending right that second will be instantly killed. Darkhammer, meanwhile, is the only Mini-Boss who can succumb to Mortal Draw, as well as the Jump Strike, as his weak point is his tail.
  • As Wolf Link, you can use a Charge Attack by virtue of having Midna with you in which she spreads an energy field. After the field is fully formed, any enemies within it will be run through in rapid succession by Link once you release the button, unless there are physical barriers blocking some opponents.
  • A lesser-known example which can apply to you, is if you get hit by your own cannonball in the Snowpeak Ruins. Unless you have a fairy or are wearing the Magic Armor, it's an instant Game Over.
• One of These Doors Is Not Like the Other: Link has to navigate the Sacred Grove by following the Skull Kid and keeping tabs on where his light can be spotted.
• One-Time Dungeon: The sewers and rooftops of Hyrule Castle. You can only explore these sections at two different points during the game, namely when Link first enters the Twilight, and again after clearing Lakebed Temple.
• One to Million to One:
  • The mini-boss Deathsword (who, as the name suggests, appears to be a lich wielding a large sword) of Arbiter's Grounds disintegrates into a massive swarm of scarabs after being defeated.
  • Armogohma, a truly spectacular and terrifying Giant Spider. After you beat her the first time, she disintegrates into an eye with legs and a swarm of smaller spiders, which you have to fight off while going for the eye.
• One-Woman Wail: During nighttime, the Hyrule Field music changes to a slower and more melancholy version featuring a lone woman singing the theme.
• One-Winged Angel: Yeta and Ganondorf have different forms when you fight them. Midna even has a different form when she unlocks her full power with the Fused Shadow, and looks quite a lot like an Eldritch Abomination.
• Opening the Sandbox: The game lets you out into Hyrule Field once you've freed Ordon and Faron Province from the Twilight curse and completed the first dungeon. However, true to form, the game doesn't truly open the sandbox until you drive back all the Twilight and later get the Master Sword.
• Optional Stealth: To reach the Arbiter's Grounds, Link must pass through a Bulblin base, a mini-fortress/guard station. If he approaches during the day, the lookouts will spot him the moment he enters the area, and call for reinforcements.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Link is cursed to take the form of a non-anthropomorphic wolf while in the Twilight Realm.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: As soon as you reach the Hidden Village for the first time, the game puts you right into a Spaghetti Western (or a light-gun FPS, depending how you play it).
• Out of the Inferno: The Final Boss gets one of these in the finale, only there it's more of an Out Of The Exploding Hyrule Castle.
• The Overworld: The game features the a large, detailed overworld; featuring varied terrain, scores of enemies, and secret grottos. In fact, it's so massive that the game gives you Epona early on; otherwise, getting around can take a while.
• Oxygen Meter: The game has a blue bar that appears whenever Link is sunken underwater with the Iron Boots. Once again, wearing the Zora Armor will allow him to swim for as long as he wants.
• Painful Transformation:
  • Link's initial wolf transformation seems to be a dual homage to the transformation scenes in Majora's Mask and the transformation in An American Werewolf in London, but after that, no further cutscenes of that nature occur.
  • Midna's first transformation with the Fused Shadows has her being thrown around and screaming painfully.
• Pants-Free: Averted, for the first time in the entire series; unlike previous installments, in which Link was either bare-legged or wearing tights, Twilight Princess definitely gives him pants.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Princess Agitha carries one when out bug collecting.
• Past Victim Showcase: Ganondorf holds up Midna's broken helmet to demonstrate that he just defeated her — just before shattering it.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • In an interesting variant of the burnable Wooden Shield mechanic, the Ordon Shield that you get in the beginning of the game is one of-a-kind; a different kind of Wooden Shield is the only replacement for a burnt Ordon Shield.
  • The first letter Ooccoo sends to you can be missed permanently if her warping ability is used in the first dungeon. The second is lost if the ability is not used until the completion of the Temple of Time.
  • The final Hidden Skill, should you reject the Hero's Shade's offer to teach you his Final Skill (The Great Spin Attack). He will go nuts and kick you out of his realm, and you will no longer be able to interact with the corresponding Howling Stone for the remainder of the game, unless you load a previous save file.
• Perpetual Storm: A stormy rain begins when Midna is mortally injured. The storm won't stop until you take Midna to Zelda.
• Personal Space Invader: The game has giant, invisible rats that attach to you and slow you down. Some people mistook it for a bug in the game... until they used their wolf-form's Sense power.
• Pivotal Boss: Stallord, due to its size, attacks Link from the central spot of the battlefield and doesn't move from there. During the second phase, its head does move, as it's the only part of its body left.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: Whenever Link is killed in the game, his breath will be suddenly cut off as the camera pans to his body collapsing to the ground and tragic music plays. Bonus points whenever he dies in wolf form, since Midna will appear over his body and sigh.
• Playing with Fire: Darbus, due to the corrupting power of the Fused Shadow, becomes Fyrus and is capable of attacking while having his body soaked in fire. He can also unleash a powerful fire wave that covers most of the boss room.
• Plot Coupon: Four Fused Shadows, then the four fragments of the Mirror of Twilight. The Fused Shadows are initially collected so Midna can confront Zant; when that doesn't work (Zant even ends up taking them away from her), she and Link have to retrieve all fragments of the Mirror to repair it and access the Twilight Real, defeat Zant, and then use the Fused Shadows to destroy the barrier protecting Hyrule Castle.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: Some items become nigh-useless once their plot function is fulfilled. The Dominion Rod, the Spinner and the Ball and Chain have no real functions once you get the last of the items and areas they unlock apart from getting some chests (the Ball and Chain can at least still function as a slow but powerful weapon in combat and it also destroys rocks, saving you on Bombs). The second Clawshot fares a little better, as it's used in the two dungeons following its home location... but those also happen to be the last in the game, and it's still not very used in the overworld (this is rectified in Skyward Sword).
• Plot-Triggering Death: The game's events originated when Zant usurped the throne Midna was meant to inherit after the passing of the previous king of the Twilight Realm.
• Plot Tunnel: Each time you enter the twilight, Midna delights in reminding you that you're stuck there until you find a portal you can use to leave. In the case of Lanayru Province, doing so involves a lengthy process of circumnavigating Hyrule Field, jumping down into Lake Hylia, using a bird to fly upriver, and then climbing to the tippity-top of Zora's Domain. And even when you do find a portal, you're still trapped as a wolf until you restore the light spirit of whichever province you entered, leaving little else that can be done in the meantime anyway.
• Point of No Return: Happens once you enter the boss room in Hyrule Castle. Upon defeating the Dark Beast Ganon form, Midna teleports both you and Zelda back to Hyrule Field. You could try going elsewhere, except there are 2 problems here: Ganondorf defeated Midna, so you can no longer warp, and Ganondorf blocked the entrance ways to other locations via Twilight walls. Looks like you've got no choice but to defeat him.
• Poison Mushroom: Purple Chus, which leave behind Purple Chu Jelly when killed. Other types of Chu Jelly are very useful, either restoring a good amount of health or as a Lantern Oil substitute, so Purple Jelly should have a good effect too, right? Wrong, they have a random effect: while they can heal a random amount of Hearts, they can also hurt you, even taking you down to a quarter of a Heart. The Nasty Soup, which can be gotten where you get the Lantern, has the same effect. The main purposes of Purple Chus are to make you fight a Chu without getting anything good out of it, or to have them in the same area as useful Chus, forcing you to kill the useful ones and grab their jelly before the purple ones absorb them and take away their useful qualities.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: Midna kills Zant and makes him explode. Even she is horrified by how easily she dealt with him using just a fraction of her ancestors' power.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain:
  • Defeated Deku Likes rapidly burst apart in puffs of smoke, starting at the base of their stems and progressing towards their heads.
  • After being slain, Morpheel explodes body segment by body segment into clouds of Twilight particles.
• Power Crystal: The shadow crystal that Zant implanted into Link’s head gives Link the ability to transform into a wolf at will after obtaining the Master Sword.
• The Power of Hate: Ganondorf states that he regained his power by feeding on the hatred of the Twili, implying that he bonded with Zant to feed on his hatred for the world.
• The Power of Love: After you defeat Yeta and she returns to normal, nothing interesting happens. But then her husband comes and after a heartwarming speech, he plows through you, they hug, and hearts began to pop from them (which can actually heal you), and the last is a Heart Container.
• Power Up Letdown:
  • The Spinner from the Arbiter's Grounds would be an awesome item if it retained its speed on the ground like it does on rails. Instead, it only carries Link a short distance before slowing to a crawl, and its attack has both low range and deals scratch damage. At least it's still somewhat useful throughout the game, but a huge letdown compared to how well it works during the boss battle of the Arbiter's Grounds.
  • The Dominion Rod is a contender for one of the most useless items in Zelda history. Its description makes it sound great, being a rod that can bring statues to life. In reality, all it basically lets you do outside the Temple of Time once Shad powers it back up again is move six obstacles — eight if you also take on the Cave of Ordeals in its entirety — throughout the entire rest of the game out of the way, and once that's done it has no more use at all.
  • The Horse Call. In theory, it would be great: a portable horse grass that you could use to call Epona anywhere in the game. Unfortunately, you don't get it until you're almost through the entire game and by then you can just use Midna to warp almost anywhere, with Link's wolf form being almost if not as fast as the horse to fill the gaps. Adding insult to injury is the fact that you actually receive the item earlier in the Hidden Village, but at that point it is called Ilia's Charm and can't be used until you show it to her again.
  • The powered up Master Sword obtained in lieu of a dungeon item from the Palace of Twilight is only marginally useful as it's able to one-punch Twilit Enemies (Which are non-threats as the unpowered sword can kill them in one or two hits already) and clearing out Shadow Crystal Fog (Like using the Lantern to clear poison fog). The power up doesn't work outside of the Palace of Shadow, which makes it nothing more than a form of dungeon key.
  • In addition to the weak dungeon items, the HD version also added Miiverse stamps. They're effectively emojis that can be used in your Miiverse posts, so within the game itself they are completely useless. They were placed in existing chests, replacing consumable items that would have been found in older versions, so it can be rather disappointing and even frustrating to work for a chest only to get a reward that doesn't help at all In-Universe — even considering money isn't worth much in the game, at least finding rupees was situationally useful and helped out in the early game. It's become even worse after Miiverse has been shut down, as the stamps now serve no purpose whatsoever.
• Power-Up Motif: A triumphant remix of Link's leitmotif plays when a boss is stunned and their weakness is exposed. Zant overrides this with his own crazy themes, however.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Like in The Wind Waker, the Gale Boomerang can hit up to five targets at the same time. However, it also has eolic properties, thanks to the blessing of the Fairy of Winds.
• Precious Puppies:
  • There's a puppy in Ordon Village that does nothing more than happily follow Link around, and whom the player can pick up and hold just like the cats.
  • There's a few in Castle Town, including one outside the STAR game tent that Link can play fetch with.
• Precursors: The Oocca are suggested to be the Precursors of the Hylians — as one Adventurer Archaeologist tells us, the goddesses may have made the Oocca first, then the Oocca made the Hylians before retreating to the City in the Sky. This is a slightly inaccurate interpretation in the English version: The Japanese text states they helped the Hylians create a society, rather than literally creating them.
• Pre-Final Boss: Ganondorf first uses Zelda's possessed body to fight Link before directly confronting him immediately after.
• Prehensile Hair: Midna can shape her ponytail into a hand to manipulate things and to kill Zant.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: The Hero's Shade is the Link from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.
• Princesses Rule: While this is averted for Zelda herself, as supplementary material reveals she was about to be crowned queen before the Twilight invasion happened, Midna, the titular Twilight Princess, plays this straight.
• Prison Episode: The prison Link is trapped into after turning into a wolf, located in Hyrule Castle. With the help of Midna, he eventually escapes.
• Proactive Boss:
  • The City in the Sky is guarded by a giant wyvern, who at one point smashes through a stone bridge leading further inside (fortunately, there are alternate methods of crossing involving hookshots and helicopter plants). The actual battle takes place on the highest rooftop of the city.
  • While the Skull Kid periodically sends puppet fighters after you, he also inverts the trope by opening up other sections of the dungeon when he goes through them.
• Product Delivery Ordeal: During the sidequest involving Malo's plan to purchase the price-abusive emporium from Hyrule Castle, Link is tasked to bring a barrel of hot spring water to a lethargic Goron who ran out of strength after repairing the bridge connecting Hyrule Field with the west entrance to Hyrule's Castle Town. The problem is that the water needs to be hot (making this a Timed Mission), the barrel will fall down and break if Link is hit by any enemy, and Link cannot attack them because his hands are full due to the size and weight of the barrel. The most common enemies are Leevers, which have a tendency to pop up frequently in Hyrule Field. This delivery is necessary so the Goron can replenish his strength, bring additional hot spring water on his own, and reunite funds that greatly reduce the price to buy the emporium.
• Prolonged Prologue: You spend the first few hours learning your controls as Link and Wolf Link. You don't have any idea of what's going on until the end of the segment, and you're not free to explore the overworld until after the first major dungeon. Even then, the amount of places you can explore is limited since most of the world is still covered in Twilight, which isn't fully dealt with until after the third dungeon.
• Prolonged Video Game Sequel: Twilight Princess has the same amount of dungeons as Ocarina of Time (nine), but the main quest is overall longer due to the exploration of the Twilight segments, the horse track battles, bigger landscapes, the dungeons themselves being longer and more maze-like, and other factors. In fact, prior to the game's release, Nintendo had advertised it by highlighting the longer campaign as one of the two major selling points, along with the Darker and Edgier story.
• Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: The first boss is a Deku Baba mutated until its mouth can easily swallow you whole, leeching off a particularly gigantic tree.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Zant keeps a calm facade at first, but acts like this when it's broken by your arrival at the Palace of Twilight.
• Punny Name: The inn in Karakiko Village, located in Eldin Province, is named "Elde Inn".
• Purple Is Powerful: Zelda mixes this trope with Graceful Ladies Like Purple, as the bodice of her distinctive gown is a rich purple color. This particular incarnation of Zelda is a bit older than some of the others, and is shown to have unusual powers.

Q-T

• Quad Damage: The Fairy Tears and Rare Chu Jelly double Link's attack power, but only for a few seconds.
• Quicksand Sucks: The Arbiter's Grounds has quicksand, including the instant-death type, as a frequent and dangerous obstacle. While some areas can be crossed while sinking slowly, wearing the metal boots is instant death.
• Racing Minigame: After completing the Snowpeak Ruins, Yeto and Yeta will offer to race you down the mountain you boarded down to get there the first time, with the mansion being the finish line.
• Railing Kill:
  • There can be several of these during the Old West style shootout at the ghost town.
  • Before you get the bow, Archer Bulblins can be struck with the Slingshot to make them fall off ledges.
• Rasputinian Death: Ganondorf provides one of the greatest examples yet. The Triforce of Power has been keeping him alive since the events following Link's final return to the past in Ocarina of Time — during which he was stabbed through with a light-powered greatsword and imprisoned in the Twilight Realm. Then he breaks out and confronts Link, who savages his Dark Beast Ganon form. Then he comes back as some sort of energy spirit, only to face Midna empowered by the Fused Shadows — and apparently survives, only to be shot through with light arrows by Zelda. Then he gets stabbed through the chest by the Master Sword, and then gets back up looking like he's about to rip Link a new one when the Triforce of Power abandons him, finally killing him. And even then, he doesn't fall over; he just stands there. Made of Iron indeed.
• Rated M for Manly: The game features more realistic graphics, violence and monsters than previous Zelda games, has the highest content ratings out of the canon games (and highest period tied with Hyrule Warriors), and features manlier-than-usual incarnations of Link and Ganondorf.
• Real-Time Weapon Change: The HD remaster on Wii U allows you to change object with the Gamepad without interrupting the game.
• Rearing Horse: Epona does this pose in a couple of the cut scenes after Link fights an epic battle. In the Wii version, she either does this or backs up in gameplay, depending on how much you move the joystick on the nunchuck.
• Real Is Brown: Especially compared to its immediate predecessors, which were bright and colorful. There is certainly color to be had, but much of it is washed out, and the bloom effect is on maximum, particularly during the Twilight Realm segments of the game. The HD remake on Wii U cuts back on the sepia considerably and returns to a color palette more like that of Ocarina. Aside from looking better in general, it makes the contrast between Twilight and non-Twilight areas much more significant.
• Recurring Boss: King Bulblin, an overworld Mini-Boss. You have four encounters with the hulking brute throughout the game. The first two are horseback battles, while the last two are on foot. After he is beaten the final time, he decides that he admires anyone tough enough to defeat him so consistently, and he simply hands you a key and walks off.
• Recurring Element: Link shares many story beats with the Link from Ocarina and Majora's Mask, at times bordering on Generation Xerox or Internal Homage on the part of the creators. He physically meets that Link as The Hero's Shade.
  • Link starts in a tree house in a wooded area south of Castle Town.
  • The first three dungeons are Forest, Fire, and Water themed.
    • In the pre-Forest up to Fire dungeon setpieces, there's a character named Colin who fulfills Young Link's arc in Ocarina. He is bullied and ostracized by the other kids, but finds his courage and eventually takes up the sword and shield. Also in the Forest Dungeon, Link has to rescue monkeys as in Majora's Mask.
    • The Fire Dungeon sees Link stopping to open closed rooms with Gorons in them. In a bit of a reversal, instead of the Gorons being in prison, they are instead holding keys to let Link challenge the boss they sealed within.
    • After being abducted, the girl that's good with horses (Romani in MM, Ilia here) loses her memories. She also gives Link a means to summon Epona from anywhere (Romani teaching him Epona's Song and Ilia telling him about the horseshoe grass and later giving him a charm he can use anywhere, both of which automatically play Epona's Song).
    • The pre-water dungeon setpieces include a dried-up Lake Hylia, and Zora's Domain frozen over. Unlike in Ocarina, you actually get to thaw the Zoras out this time.
  • After completing the water dungeon, Link has an encounter with the main villain (Ganondorf/Zant) that sets off a series of events where Zelda goes missing for the rest of the plot (being chased into hiding by Ganon/disappearing after giving her power to Midna), a dark entity takes up the cause of directing Link where to go (Sheik/the revived Midna), and Link retrieves the Master Sword in preparation for the next series of dungeons. And though it's unknown at what point she would've appeared, Sheik was fully redesigned for this game as well, which went to good use in the Super Smash Bros. series.
  • The next series of dungeons include desert, ice, light, wind, and darkness for themes.
    • The desert dungeon is located in the Gerudo Desert. The Arbiter's Grounds may even literally be the Spirit Temple, renovated and repurposed after the 100-year Time Skip, seeing as there are statues of the familiar sand goddess.
    • While Ocarina had the Forest and Water Temples in the second arc, their Medallion designs are left over from scrapped potential Wind and Ice Temples, which are included in Twilight Princess. Also, though the light dungeon seems to replace the Ocarina second arc's fire dungeon, both share the characteristic of being very tall, with the treasure item being in the highest floor and the boss room being down on the first.
  • Ganondorf takes over Hyrule Castle, and positions himself at the very top for the final battle. In a reversal, the battle starts with Ganon and ends with human Ganondorf rather than the other way around in Ocarina.
  • Zelda summons the Light Arrows, though, as in Wind Waker, she uses them herself.
  • There are other minor similarities, such as the encounter with a Skull Kid in the Lost Woods, protecting a wagon from being attacked by bandits, or the complete Fused Shadow bearing a resemblance to Majora's Mask itself.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Shadow Beasts have red tron lines instead of the blue green that the rest of the Twili have.
• Red Herring: In an early cutscene, Midna mockingly calls Zelda "Twilight Princess". The Reveal that Midna is the actual Twilight Princess comes halfway through the game. If no mention of the title had been made before that, it would have been a very obvious Spoiler Title for that reveal.
• Red Shirt Army: As usual, Hyrule's guards prove less than effective in combat.
• Reduced-Downtime Features: From this game onward, the games have been moving away from the traditional Mana Meter. This is best exemplified by The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds which tied all previously resource-consuming items (wands, bow, bombs) to a regenerating "stamina meter", eliminating the need to leave a dungeon to replenish/farm items.
• Reduced to Dust: After defeating Beast Ganon, Midna teleports Link and Zelda away before transforming into some kind of demonic glowing octopus-thing again with the Fused Shadow. We then cut to Link and Zelda in the field, watching explosions rocking the castle. Then Ganondorf shows up on horseback, holding the Fused Shadow that Midna had been using as a hat the whole game.... and it is crumbled in his fist. Cue the second phase of the boss battle.
• Required Secondary Powers: Unlike most versions of Link, this one doesn't need metal arm bracers to manipulate heavy objects (he wrangles goats as his day job, so he already has the muscle for it). He does, however, need to use the Iron Boots to anchor his feet.
• Rescue Romance: The initial reason you start your adventure is to go rescue the mayor's daughter who pretty clearly likes Link already. Link does meet Zelda and Midna, but he has almost no interaction with Zelda at all, nor do either he or Midna ever show explicit romantic feelings for each other.
• La Résistance: The Adventurers' Guild, also simply called "the Group." They're the only people in Hyrule (apart from Link and Zelda) to figure out that something's not right and try to stop it. They also help you get to the realms where the Twilight Mirror shards are and show up at Hyrule Castle to clear away some enemies.
• Ret-Canon: Ganondorf uses two of his non-canon Super Smash Bros. Melee moves in the game: he uses a choke variation of Warlock Punch to kill the Sage of Water (which became the basis for Flame Choke, another one of his Smash moves), and uses a move similar to his forward smash as part of a sword combo during the final battle. And the Sword Duel with him involves him using the Thrust Kick he uses as his Forward-Tilt.
• Retcon: In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it's stated that the Golden Goddesses created only Hyrule. Twilight Princess expands upon this by showing that they created the world itself.
• Reviving Enemy:
  • The Shadow Beasts Link regularly fights do not revive by themselves, but if Link is facing more than one, the last monster will emit a paralyzing shriek that revives its fallen comrades if Link cannot defeat them simultaneously.
  • Stalfos need to be finished off by blowing up their bodies with bombs to stop them from reanimating (this is usually only needed to clear rooms that don't open doors or spawn chests until all the enemies within are defeated, since the games make use of Respawning Enemies).
• Rewarding Vandalism:
  • The game lampshades the tendency for players to smash jars to find what's inside by having one shopkeeper note that some people like to smash jars. If you bump into the walls to try to get the jars on her shelf to fall, she'll kick you out and won't let you back in until you apologize.
  • There is also an old man who will berate you if you smash a pumpkin near him.
  • The game has a minor tweak on the Die, Chair, Die! pattern: a few barrels, usually located around goblins, are marked with a big white X and apparently contain gunpowder (they explode when disturbed, which causes damage if you're standing too close).
  • Part of the final stretch of battles in the game has the boss running around smashing pillars in the room that also leave behind power-ups.
• Ring Menu: The items menu is ring-shaped and can become relatively crowded as the player acquires more items. The items take up less space as they are added, which keeps the ultimate number of items a secret.
• Ring Out: There's a sumo minigame in which you have to push your Goron opponent out of bounds to win.
• Ring-Out Boss: Dangoro in the Goron Mines requires you to throw him off the side three times.
• Roaming Enemy: Argorok, the seventh boss, is seen several times before actually being fought in City in the Sky: first when he flies through and destroys a bridge, after which he can be seen flying around the dungeon's highest tower (which is where he's fought).
• Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Link does this repeatedly — first to save the children kidnapped from his home village, then later to save the dying Midna, then later still to save the possessed Zelda.
• Roaring Rapids: The rafting minigame in Zora's River, where you need to shoot targets and steer your boat (one or the other), losing points as you slam into things.
• Rocket Jump: You can do a bomb jump by dropping a bomb and powering up one of your jumping techniques. If you time it just right, you can reach various ledges you weren't meant to walk on. Most of the time falling out of bounds though as the ground isn't completely solid up there.
• Rod And Reel Repurposed: You can use a fishing rod to distract a boss in the middle of the fight (he stares stupefied at the lure). This is likely a nod to the fact that in two previous games, an inventory item was usable against bosses to deflect their attack.
• Rule of Three:
  • The Boss Key in Goron Mines is divided into three fragments, each guarded by a Goron guardian. Assembling all three fragments is the only way to open the boss room.
  • In the Snowpeak Ruins, Yeta incorrectly guesses the location of the bedroom key twice before getting it right on the third try. The first two times, Link inexplicably finds food items in the treasure chests, which he puts in Yeto's soup.
  • The quest to retrieve the missing three shards of the Mirror of Twilight.
• Rump Roast: When thrown into the lava during his Mini-Boss fight, Dangoro leaps every time he touches it. Even the ongoing Battle Theme Music lends itself to a Variable Mix to contribute to the comedy of the scene.
• Russian Roulette: Gameplay-wise, purple Chu jelly. More often than not, it takes away one heart, but if you're willing to take the gamble, it can restore one or all of your hearts, or drain your health down to one-quarter of a heart. This is also true for Coro's soup.
• The Sacred Darkness: This theme is further explored in this game, with events such as the Blade of Evil's Bane being blessed by the gods of the Dark World plus the realization that the Twilight Realm is not evil, only corrupted by Zant's and Ganondorf's machinations.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Despite being rated T, the game is only marginally more violent than its spiritual predecessor, Ocarina of Time, and there are very few depictions of animated blood in the game. There's also the scene with the half-naked Great Fairy in the Cave of Ordeals, but it wasn't addressed by the ESRB when they rated the game.
• Same Plot Sequel: The game serves as one to Ocarina of Time, which was a deliberate return to form after the initially-divisive reception of the more experimental previous games. Link is raised in the forest of southern Hyrule, where he is friends mainly with children. After meeting an Exposition Fairy, he embarks on his journey and obtains three Plot Coupons from dungeons: one in the forest, one in Death Mountain (passing through Kakariko Village and befriending the Goron chief along the way), and one in Zora's Domain (helping the Zora royalty along the way). He also has to navigate the Skull Kid-populated Lost Woods by following the sound of Saria's Song in order to find the Sacred Grove. After Princess Zelda disappears due to the Big Bad's actions, Link acquires the Master Sword from a temple and now has to acquire more Plot Coupons from even more dungeons, including one in Gerudo Desert. Finally, he goes to Hyrule Castle and ascends the tower to face Ganondorf, who assumes the demon Beast Ganon form during one phase of the battle. The Exposition Fairy leaves, Zelda and Link say goodbye, and Link returns to his old life (before soon embarking on a new journey).
• Sampling:
  • A self-sampling variation. Zant's battle music samples the music of whichever boss he's imitating in his multi-stage fight.
  • Beast Ganon's theme, which samples a Russian Orthodox chant called "A Mercy of Peace". Specifically, this part. The pitch of the sample is often played around with as well.
• Sand Is Water: The fourth dungeon, Arbiter's Grounds, not only features sinking sand but has sand whirlpools that act as sinkholes.
• Sand Worm: The game sizes down its Moldorms to a more reasonable size and populates the Gerudo Desert and the quicksand pits in the Arbiter's Ground with them. They leap out of the sand like fishes to attack Link, and must be pulled out with the Clawshot to be defeated.
• Say It with Hearts: Link's fangirls in Hyrule Castle Town have hearts in their dialogue box whenever Link talks to them. In fact, while they're swooning over him, they'll drop three actual hearts to replenish Link's health.
  Fangirls: EEEEEEK! It's HIM! ♥♥♥
• Scary Stinging Swarm: Link can knock down beehives to get larvae to use as fishing bait, but doing this (or even just coming close to them) will anger the bees (named hornets in-game) and send them out to attack him.
• Scenery Porn: The game's environments are brilliantly rendered, with a great emphasis on scale. Major landmarks such as Hyrule Castle or Death Mountain are visible from a considerable distance, with swaths of terrain surrounding them. The former deserves special mention, being visible from almost◊ any◊ point◊ in the overworld, and which looks even better up close◊. This also holds true for the Bridge of Eldin in sunset, as seen in the game's opening.
• Schizo Tech: The Goron Mines dungeon is notably industrialized compared to most other things in the game. It even contains electromagnets on cranes.
• Schmuck Bait: Subverted. The bomb shop in Kakariko Village has warnings plastered everywhere that lit lanterns are forbidden. Once Barnes reopens the bomb shop, go up to the second floor and put the warnings to the test. Barnes activates a sprinkler system on your head, soaking you and extinguishing the lantern immediately. Trying the same thing in the house of bomb supplies is necessary to kill three Dark Insects during the Twilight ordeal, though, and yes, the house blows up. You will die if you're dumb enough to not GTFO before the explosion.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Mirror of Twilight. The interlopers failed to conquer the Sacred Realm. The light spirits sealed away their magic into the Fused Shadows, and the invaders were chased across Hyrule into the Gerudo Desert, where they were then banished to the Twilight Realm by the Goddesses. When they passed through the mirror, all their anger and hatred left them. Bathed in Twilight in a new world, with their own unseen light spirits, they became gentle and docile. The mirror, however, still exists as a gateway, and breaking it into shards (as opposed to destroying it completely) is not something you want to do.
• Sealed Evil in Another World: The Twili people who inhabit the Twilight Realm are descended from a tribe of sorcerers who were banished from the Light World when they attempted to take control of the power of the gods. Over the ages they adapted to survive and built their own kingdom in the alternate dimension. Eons later, the villainous Ganondorf is sentenced to execution by Hyrule's sages, but when he miraculously survives and attacks the sages they resort to trapping him in the Twilight Realm. There, he poses as a god and tempts the jealousy of the dejected Twili noble Zant, convincing him to usurp the Twili throne and invade the Light World in revenge for the Twili's exile, thus giving Ganondorf the means to escape.
• Second Hour Superpower: The game introduces Link's wolf transformation right after the player has finished the tutorial missions, but the ability to transform is only unlocked after the first three dungeons.
• Secret Art: Wolf Link can find a golden wolf spirit, which is actually an ancient warrior, who teaches him various forgotten sword techniques which greatly boost his effectiveness.
• Secret Underground Passage: After completing Lakebed Temple, Link uses a series of secret passages leading from Hyrule Castle Town into Hyrule Castle itself.
• See the Invisible: When in wolf form, Link can use his senses to find invisible objects, including trails of scents used to find plot-related people. It's also the only way to defeat Poes, who are otherwise intangible.
• Selective Magnetism: There are large sections of magnetic wall and ceiling Link can stick to with the iron boots. This is only when he's wearing them, not when they're packed away, which he can easily do with a quick hop even when currently stuck to a surface. Keep in mind that Link runs around with a large metal shield on his back. Though the shield could be a non-ferromagnetic metal (and probably is, since The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword suggests it's Made of Indestructium), the same is not likely to true of the vast arsenal he keeps tucked away behind the shield.
• Sequential Boss: The game does this for every boss except the second, in some cases even tricking you (and Link) into thinking the battle is over. In the majority of cases, the first phase is about merely weakening the boss's defenses with the item you found in the dungeon, while in the second phase you use that item in conjunction with the sword to incapacitate the boss and deal actual damage.
  • Played for laughs with Armogohma, where Link does his usual flourish while sheathing the Master Sword before realizing that the fight isn't over yet and whose second form is merely its eyeball on a tiny spider body, which runs away from you and dies very easily (all while a sillier version of the first phase's boss music plays).
  • Zant himself is a Final-Exam Boss with minor variations (namely, that he mimicks the behavior of some bosses and minibosses, and that he warps Link into a previous location at the start of a new phase).
  • Ganondorf's battle consists of a fight with Puppet Zelda, then Beast Ganon, then Ganondorf on a horse, and finally Ganondorf himself in a Sword Fight. And all of this takes place in direct succession of one-another.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Midna briefly transforms into the likenesses of the recently kidnapped Colin and Ilia in order to remind Link that he has a personal motivation to fight back against Zant and the Twilight. Oddly, this is the only time she displays shapeshifting powers.
• Shapeshifting Heals Wounds: Subverted: After Ganondorf transforms into the monstrous boar Ganon, the scar on his humanoid body's chest is not only still visible but even bigger (running along the boar's entire underbelly), serving as the Weak Point for Link to tear into once Ganon has been knocked prone.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Midna. "Am I so beautiful that you've no words left?"
• Shield Bash: Link can learn it as one of the Hidden Skill techniques, and involves slamming your shield into an opponent, stunning them. It can later be used in combination with another devastating move, the Helm Splitter, that allows you to jump up over your opponent and cleave their skull in half.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: The game has Lizalfos and Aeralfos, who must be stunned or shields destroyed in order to kill them, and Darknuts, who are defeated via superior swordsmanship or by taking out their outer armor with bomb arrows.
• Shifting Sand Land: The game has the Gerudo Desert (luckily, no quicksand or mazes here) followed by the Arbiter's Grounds, a sand-filled Temple of Doom with many quicksand pits that must be waded through, other times crossed with the magnetic Spinner. Switches or objects are sometimes buried in the sand as well, requiring you to dig them out in wolf form.
• Shirtless Scene: Link takes sumo lessons. And he's standing shirtless with a fat man.
• Shock and Awe: The bugs that stole the sacred light from the guardian spirits attack with electricity, and their Queen employs the most powerful version of said attacks. There's also Princess Zelda, who is possessed by Ganondorf and proceeds to attack Link by throwing electrical bolts at him during battle.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: Dr. Borville amassed one from Telma's bar, and showing it to him is how you get him to spill the beans about an item that's important to retrieving Ilia's memory.
• Shoe Shine, Mister?: Paying the shoeshine boy is necessary to enter the fancy store.
• Shoot the Bullet: This can happen when firing at a Bulblin or Bokoblin archer; two arrows colliding head-on will knock each other out of the air.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Jovani. After you finally collect all 60 Poe Souls to break his curse, his girlfriend turns out to have met someone else, driving Jovani to drown his sorrows at the bar.
• Shoplift and Die: There is a parrot who attacks Link if he doesn't pay for his wares in a tiny box. However, since it doesn't do much damage (and you can down a red potion before leaving the stall), the bird isn't very persuasive. And it certainly doesn't help that Link can underpay (to the tune of a single Rupee) and the bird will only respond to this by calling him a cheapskate, sans divebombing. Of course, if you want, you can pay a little extra in the box (or pay anything without buying), prompting the parrot to call Link a "generous young man".
• Shout-Out:
  • There's bartender Telma and her cat Louise.
  • The Hidden Village shoot-out level features a locale and music reminiscent of Spaghetti Western films like the Dollars Trilogy. Specifically, the music is similar to the theme from For a Few Dollars More.
  • Fyer, the owner of the cannon-ride in Lake Hylia, has a Bullet Bill from Super Mario Bros. tattooed on his arm.
  • Argorok's battlefield has a Poké Ball image on the ground.
  • Fyrus looks a hell of a lot like a Balrog when he ignites, just without the horns or wings. Hell, his weakpoint even looks like the Eye of Sauron!
  • The complete Fused Shadow was supposedly inspired by pottery from the Shang Dynasty, but it also happens to look a lot like the helmets worn by Thulsa Doom and his lieutenants in Conan the Barbarian (1982) (see here), with Rexor's even having similar spiral patterns as decoration. One could say it's a mere coincidence, but Ganondorf hoisting the helmet over his head looking very similar to Thulsa Doom doing the same as well as the E3 trailer's use of "Riders of Doom" makes it clear that someone at Nintendo was quite well aware of the film.
• Show, Don't Tell: In-universe: Sure, Lanayru could just tell Link that long ago people, in their greed, fought each other over control of the Sacred Realm. But the spirit decides to show him, too. With a vision of Link and his childhood friend stabbing each other to death. The warning is much more memorable that way.
• Shown Their Work: The descriptions of the male and female golden snails note that they might actually be of the other gender. Snails are hermaphrodites, so this is technically correct.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Zant claims that he should have been the rightful ruler of the Twili instead of Midna and her "useless, do-nothing royal family". One ass-kicking at the hands of Link later, Midna tells Zant that the reason the Twili didn't go along with him was because they knew he was a power-hungry psychopath.
• Simple Score of Sadness: "Midna's Lament" plays when Midna is mortally wounded. It's a sad remix of the main theme.
• A Sinister Clue: Interestingly, though Ganondorf is already a villain to begin with, the game's Wii version and Hero Mode in the Wii U version have him, traditionally right-handed, turned left-handed. This is because of the control scheme of the Wii, and since the deadline of the game was getting close, the developers couldn't simply make Link right-handed and leave the rest of the version intact, so they decided to simply mirror it, thus turning most characters left-handed, including Ganondorf.
• Sinister Scythe: The Poes attack with Scythes, giving the already ghostly enemies more of a Grim Reaper vibe.
• Sizable Snowflakes: Big, sparkly snowflakes hover in the Snowpeak Ruins bedroom when Blizzeta, the boss, freezes it over.
• Sliding Scale of Content Density vs. Width: The game's overworld is larger than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but smaller than The Wind Waker.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Snowpeak, an area of high mountains full of icy bats and white wolves, with water so cold that it freezes Link and makes him respawn with lost health (and if he's wearing the Zora Armor, which is vulnerable to ice, it kills him instantly). However, the two Yetis you meet are peaceful allies who cook you food and race you down the mountain on snowboards made of ice. The local dungeon, Snowpeak Ruins, is filled with puzzles revolving around sliding blocks on icy floors and breaking up masses of ice that block off passages; its native enemies, in addition to the same as the ones found outside, are mostly a variety of animated masses of ice.
• Slow-Motion Drop: There's an early Flash Back where Princess Zelda, having just heard Zant's "surrender or die" ultimatum, drops her sword in slow motion, signifying her capitulation.
• Smashing Survival:
  • The game doesn't indicate it, but rapidly hitting buttons/waggling the Wii Remote allows you to break free of a ReDead's paralyzing shriek just before it can slam you with its BFS.
  • Locking blades with Ganondorf also requires you to repeatedly tap the action button, but at least the game gives an onscreen prompt for that one.
• Sniping Mission:
  • To get the Hawkeye, a useful item that is a scope for your bow, you need to shoot targets in Kakariko Village. For the last challenge, you need to nail a pole on top of a guard tower from the other side of the village. Without the Hawkeye. The game is nice to you by giving you a different view to show where the arrow went.
  • This is one of the strategies to take out the invaders in the Hidden Village. Most of them can be taken out at a distance before they see you.
• Soft Water:
  • While crossing the bridge over Lake Hylia for the first time. Wolf Link finds himself trapped between two advancing walls of flame and must jump off the bridge to escape. While he falls a considerable distance, he is unharmed because he lands in the small amount of water still remaining in the lake.
  • To access the last dungeon, you need to shoot yourself into the sky with a cannon. Sure enough, you land in a small pool of water, but at least then you wouldn't be travelling that fast since you slow down when you came up. The real problem is, to get back on earth, you need to use another cannon that shoots you up even higher, with Lake Hylia being the Soft Water.
• Soul Jar: Ganondorf and Zant are each other's soul jars. After Ganondorf "houses [his] power" in Zant, you can't kill one without killing the other. Zant's neck snaps by itself as soon as Ganondorf dies.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The standard Battle Theme Music of the game interrupts the Midna's Lament theme during the sequence after the third dungeon when enemies appear, jarring with the desperate mood of the moment.
• Speaking Simlish:
  • Midna's speech is actually scrambled English. Unscramble it, and it forms coherent (and surprisingly relevant) sentences: "Have you made up your mind?", "I'll take you there with my power.", "What do you think happened to those who tried to rule with sacred magic?", "I'll be watching.", and "I guess you aren't stupid.".
  • Shad does this in the scene where the Sky Cannon is discovered, uttering an incantation.
• Spider Swarm: The Temple of Time dungeon is infested with tiny baby spiders watched over by four-legged spiders. After defeating the Giant Spider Armoghoma, it drops to the floor, surrounded by a swarm of the tiny spiders.
• Spin Attack:
  • The final Hidden Skill is a stronger version of the Spin Attack, known as the Great Spin. It requires Link to be at full health to perform it.
  • Zant has this among his arsenal of random attacks. If the spin goes for too long, he'll remain dizzy, giving Link a good chance to attack him with his sword.
• Spirit Advisor: The Hero's Shade teaches Link special sword techniques.
• Spoiler Cover: Both the American and Japanese covers of the Wii U remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess shows both Ganondorf, who hijacks Zant toward the end, and Midna's true form (the latter was also on promotional art for the original release).
• Spoiler Opening: An illustration in the instruction manual (which happens to be the same one used at the top of this article) reveals Midna's true form.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Almost everything that gets focus in the plot was invented for this game, i.e. the Light Spirits, the Twili, Midna... The Triforce is present, but never mentioned by name, and the Master Sword is just sort of there. In fact, the game could probably be called The Legend of Midna without any real issues. Zelda is in it for 15 minutes tops, and she sure isn't the one who gets the character development.
• Stab the Sky: Link does this pose upon acquisition of the Master Sword, signifying the fact that he managed to get it.
• Stalactite Spite: In Snowpeak Ruins, there are stalactites that not only ambush you, but also turn into Chilfos on landing.
• Starfish Aliens: The Oocca are a bizarre race of beings with small chicken-like bodies, egg-shaped heads with Uncanny Valley-ish human faces, and chest feathers that look like Multiboobage. And the babies appear to be flying eggs with human faces. They're highly intelligent—they created the City in the Sky, advanced technology like the Sky Cannon and the Dominion Rod, their own Starfish Language, and apparently even the entire country of Hyrule. They're said to be closer to the gods than the Hylians themselves.
• Starfish Language: The Oocca's language (called Sky Writing). Sky Writing is so old and forgotten that Cunning Linguist Shad is apparently the only person in the entire country who understands it.
• Stationary Boss:
  • Diababa is stationary (but has a very long reach), due to being a plant rooted to its spot.
  • Morpheel is stationary in its first phase, because most of its body its half-buried in the lakebottom mud, before deciding to get up and actually fight.
• Stationary Enemy: The large Freezards of the Icepeak Ruins are rooted to their spots, only rotating around their axes to aim their icy breath at you.
• Stealth-Based Mission:
  • In both Old Kakariko and the Arbiter's Grounds bulblin camp, since there's virtually no penalties for being spotted (aside from getting shot at and rushed), they tend to play out more as a western shoot-out and The War Sequence, respectively. Also, nighttime makes it harder for them to see you.
  • Two moments that involve Wolf Link: In both, you're stuck in wolf form and you have to get past a bar filled with people via tightropes and catwalks without falling or breaking/knocking down the many, many pots up there. Failure means being kicked out of the bar and you have to start all over again. There's also Ordon, again as Wolf Link, where if Rusl sees you he attacks you with a torch (though he doesn't move fast due to his injury).
• Stealthy Mook:
  • Poes are only visible at night, and even then, only their lantern is visible. Using the wolf's senses reveals that they're holding the lantern with their feet, and a very, very big scythe with their hands. They cannot be attacked unless you're a wolf and using your senses, but they can attack you no matter what you're doing.
  • Ghost Rats aren't visible normally, their presence only revealed when Midna starts twitching and brushing herself off and Link (in either form) starts walking slowly. Using wolf senses reveals that you are swarming with the things, sure to raise any first-timer's heart rate.
• Steam Vent Obstacle: The game not only has a few around Death Mountain, but while it's enveloped in twilight, a Goron even laments that the appearance of one particular fumarole makes the path "impassable". The Iron Boots let you walk right through it.
• Step One: Escape: While the first part of the game serves as an extended tutorial for Link in his human form, the first thing he needs to do once he wakes up in a cell as a wolf is to dig his way out (also serving to get the player to learn how wolf senses and digging work). Escaping the castle teaches the other mechanics of wolf form, such as tightropes, jumping, and combat.
• Stock Beehive: An odd example. Link can knock round, papery hives from trees and retrieve bee larvae to use as bait... but the adults are specifically identified as hornets.
• Stuff Blowing Up: A bug you smoke out sets a fire in a bomb storage building. The results are... predictable.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: In the Arbiter's Grounds, you'll come to a pitch-dark room with a large sword in the center that is bound by several ropes with seals attached to them. You'll find that you cannot make any further progress until you cut one of the ropes, which destroys the seal that was placed upon the sword and releases the phantom that lives inside it, starting a mini-boss fight.
• Suit Up of Destiny: Like in Wind Waker, Link begins the game without his trademark green tunic and hat. When he returns to his human form for the first time, he is revealed to be the Chosen One and gets a Mundane Made Awesome Moment when he is shown in the Hero's Clothes.
• Sumo Wrestling: Death Mountain has a sumo wrestling mini-game. It's a sport of honor for the Gorons of the era; Link has to best the acting leader, Gor Coron, to be allowed into the second dungeon. Bo, the mayor of Ordon Village, teaches him the sport in advance (and gives him a pair of Iron Boots to put him on even footing with the rock-men).
• Super-Senses: As a wolf, Link gains heightened senses that allow him to follow scent trails, find objects underground, and see in the dark. They also enable him to see the physical forms of spirits and ghosts.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Apparently a trait of Gorons. A Goron child at the hot springs has challenged himself to hold his breath under the surface for as long as he can, but remarks he feels no urgency to breathe. A minor side quest allows you to free a Goron from within the stone slab you used to melt the ice from Zora's Domain, but the Goron remains underwater after you free him, showing no signs of suffocating underwater and even doing a full dialog if you were to talk to him afterwards. In fact, he seems to like it there.
• Swallow the Key: The Big Baba in the Forest Temple does this to prevent Link from freeing a monkey locked in its cage. Link defeats the head, then needs to use a Bombling to destroy the bud in order to retrieve the key.
• Swarm of Rats: The game has invisible ghostly rat swarms in the Arbiter's Grounds. The only indication that they're on you is that you suddenly start moving slowly (and in wolf form, Midna gets all jittery). Use the wolf's senses and you'll suddenly see that you're covered in the things, though fortunately a good Spin Attack will clear them away.
• Swiss-Army Tears: Tears of Light, the Great Fairy's tears that Link can drink to heal him and increase his strength, and the solidified magic tear which Midna uses to shatter the Mirror of Twilight, thus ensuring that no one from the Twilight Realm will ever again do what Zant did. All of the examples are most likely justified, as they're probably magical in nature, and the last one was foreshadowed.
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Master Sword, yet again. The Ordon Sword also qualifies, since Midna won't let you back into the Twilight-covered Faron Woods until you acquire it and a shield.
• Sword Plant: Link briefly puts the Master Sword back to its pedestal in order to gain entrance to the Temple of Time. During battle, enemies who lay knocked down in the floor can be finished instantly this way, by using the Ending Blow skill. This technique is also necessary to kill Ganondorf in the last battle.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: In the sumo mini-game, Grab beats Slap, Slap beats Evade, and Evade beats Grab.
• Tactical Suicide Boss:
  • If Stallord's head would bother to fly above the arena's highest Spinner tracks, Link would be unable to reach him.
  • If Blizzeta remained in the air during the second phase of her fight, she would remain out of reach of Link's Ball and Chain, and could just crush him with ice blocks.
• Take It to the Bridge: The Bridge of Eldin is where Link engages in a mounted duel with King Bulblin. Their second battle takes place in the Great Bridge of Hylia.
• Talking Animal: While in wolf form, you can talk to almost any animal; your horse Epona in particular says barely anything aside from that she "hates Link's wolf form and wishes he'd turn back soon".
• Teaser Equipment: The shop at Castle Town sells bombs, arrows, and other mundane items for thousands of rupees and more than you can carry with both wallet upgrades — the exact same gear can be bought elsewhere for 1% of the cost, or found on monsters roaming town. Once you give enough money to Malo, he buys out the shop, which reduces the cost of items immensely, and puts the price of the Magic Armor within your rupee capacity.
• Technicolor Death: Though the Final Boss doesn't do this, all other bosses (and enemies) explode upon dying into little Twilight fragments.
• Teleport Spam: Zant has this property. He uses attacks that wouldn't be troublesome, except that he always uses them after teleporting right behind you. And it becomes more and more frantic as the fight progresses: He starts off without even using Teleport Spam, but by teleporting himself and Link to previous boss arenas to replicate those boss' tactics (and weaknesses). The spam begins when Zant attempts his own crude fighting style and starts off teleporting fairly liberally, which allows Link to usually get a hit in before Zant vanishes. By the end of the fight, Zant is on full-on Villainous Breakdown, wildly swinging his sword and warping away before Link can react.
• Tennis Boss: Link's fight with Puppet Zelda involves striking her orbs back.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The background of the logo has Wolf Link, which Link transforms into while within areas trapped in Twilight, and behind Wolf Link is the completed Fused Shadow, the main MacGuffin of the first half of the game that Link and Midna need to collect in order to battle the Twilight Realm's current ruler Zant.
• Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: The game does this with its main overworld theme, and to some extent its dungeon and boss themes.
• Theme Music Power-Up: Link gets one of these whenever he gets in the position to actually hurt the boss.
• Theme Music Withholding: The game offers a small sample of it in the overworld theme, then interweaves it with the main Twilight Princess theme in a brief jingle after Link inherits the Master Sword. A triumphant, full reprisal of it later appears in the end credits.
• These Questions Three...: Getting one of the Pieces of Heart requires solving three ice-physics block puzzles in a row.
• A Thicket of Spears: In a cutscene depicting the fall of Hyrule Castle, Princess Zelda's knights are shown presenting a rather ragged wall of pikes to Zant's twilight beasts during their Last Stand. They're rapidly overpowered anyway, and Zelda, wielding a two-handed sword behind them, surrenders to avoid further bloodshed.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: With the exception of the bow, all dungeon items have minimal combat use at best, and they have very little use in the overworld (with Hyrule Field usually offering only one or two places to use each tool), but they're still crucial to tackle the dungeons where they're found. Even the Boomerang and Clawshot, two items that were previously useful for stunning enemies, have their stunning functions removed in this game, leading to this.
• Threesome Subtext: The game has it between Link, Zelda and Midna. Unlike in most games, there isn't much of an emotional connection between Link and Zelda (the latter of whom is absent for most of the game, having seemingly given her life to save Midna's after the Water Temple), but in the game's finale they both stand united out of their mutual strong feelings toward Midna.
• The Three Trials: Instead of an intended test, Midna instructs Link to collect the three Fused Shadows, which were placed by Zant in dungeons and entrusted to monstrous creatures, so in practice it works the same way as in other Zelda games.
• Threshold Guardians: Midna serves as this in her first appearances, and the statues in the Sacred Grove are a more literal version.
• Thriving Ghost Town: There are several Thriving Ghost Town locations as well as several not-so-thriving towns which are nearly deserted. Castle Town, however, includes many random passersby who will ignore you. You can interact with them... if watching them scream, cower, and brandish weapons at Link's wolf form counts as interaction.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Darknuts throw their huge swords at you before unsheathing a much lighter one. The first time it happens during a cut-scene, so you automatically dodge it; but all other times you have to dodge out of the way yourself.
• Throw the Mook at Them: Diababa is regularly invincible to anything Link does to it when in its final phase. However, Ook swings in during the action of the boss fight for you to blow the Bomblings he carries into its face. Justified in that it had no control over the Bomblings being present, and that Ook provides them in a way that benefits you.
• Tide Level: The Lakebed Temple's main mechanic is redirecting the flow of water to different areas of the temple to power waterwheels and other mechanisms to progress.
• Tightrope Walking: Averted in that your human form can't move on ropes. Your wolf form is perfectly able to do so, do a jumping 180 on the spot, and even leap off as if he were on solid ground rather than a swaying rope no thicker than his leg.
• Title Drop: Played with when Midna addresses Zelda as the Twilight Princess, teasing her about her kingdom being plunged in darkness; in fact, Midna is the real Twilight Princess.
• Token Heroic Orc: Kargaroks are mostly just hostile, animalistic monsters. The exception is a single friendly one who carries Wolf Link around during Plumm's flying minigame.
• Took a Level in Badass: Colin when he saves Beth from a group of stampeding Bullbos. By the end of the game, he's packing his own sword as he single-handedly escorts his friends back home safely across monster-infested Hyrule Field.
• Tongue Trauma: The Deku Toad miniboss' Weak Point is located on the tip of its tongue, and can be hit with sword, arrows, bombs, arrows with bombs...
• Too Awesome to Use: You are rewarded with a bottle of Fairy Tears for collecting 20 Poe Souls. These not only refill Link's health completely, but they increase his attack power temporarily as well (unfortunately, only for 10 seconds at best). However, in order to get more than just the one, you have to take Link on a quest through the "Cave of Ordeals". But again, they are refillable and free afterward, and beating the entire Cave lets you refill on Fairy Tears in 5 different areas in Hyrule. Rare Chu Jelly does the same thing, but good luck getting them in a crush of ChuChu or finding where they spawn.
• Touch the Intangible: Several ghostly enemies are normally invisible and intangible, and can only be seen and attacked while Link is in his wolf form.
• Tourism-Derailing Event: Prior to the events of the game, Kakariko Village not only was a thriving place to live in, but also a popular destination for visitors, having a tall building hosting an inn that included a hot spring pool for guests and (as advertised by a sign) a culinary service of continental breakfast for only 100 Rupees. Unfortunately, after Zant began invading Hyrule, not only was the inn and the rest of the village ravaged, but many people were turned into Shadow Beasts. By the time Link manages to help Eldin restore his powers and remove the Twilight Realm's influence, Kakariko became a Ghost Town with only some survivors left, and the inn is left in disrepair. After completion of Goron Mines, it slowly regains its popularity, being visited by two friendly Gorons (a father and his son) as well as resided by some of the Ordon children.
• Training Dummy: Link shows off his sword skills to the village children using a conveniently placed scarecrow outside his house. This is really a tutorial for the player.
• Transformation Conventions: The Twilight Realm transforms Link into a far more noble and combat-worthy wolf. Because the Triforce glows on Link's hand right before he transforms, we can assume that the Triforce intentionally caused this transformation to both protect Link and enable him to complete his quest.
• Transformation Trinket: Halfway through the game, Midna notes that the combination of the Master Sword and the shadow crystal Zant embedded in Link's forehead to keep him in wolf form effectively gives the player the ability to shape shift at will — however, Midna guards the crystal and retains the final say on whether or not she'll allow the player to do so (such as if other people are nearby). In the original game, you have to speak to Midna to change form, but the HD remaster allows you to tap a button instead to make the mechanic more efficient.
• Tree Trunk Tour: The Forest Temple is located within a network of large hollow spaces in the trunks of several immense trees connected by a number of bridges. Beating involves navigating several long drops, finding your way through winding passages, and rescuing monkeys that will help you find your way around while battling swarms of giant insects, giant spiders, bats, carnivorous plants and goblins that live within the wooden caverns.
• Triumphant Reprise:
  • The normally ominous Hyrule Castle theme gets one when the Resistance pull a Big Damn Heroes moment and storm the castle.
  • Lock swords with Ganondorf. His normally ominous and imposing theme will flatten, as if left speechless, before taking on a progressively more heroic and triumphant tone as you overcome him, ending in a very pleasing climax when you throw him off, before the theme returns to normal.
• Troll Bridge: Link must joust a King Bublin on The Eldin Bridge, and later again in the Great Bridge of Hylia, on horseback.
• Tron Lines: The Twili people and their magic have several glowing lines across them.
• Troperiffic: It was intentionally designed to be highly similar to Ocarina of Time, as the developers knew they would have to significantly change the formula for the next game.

U-Z

• Uncanny Valley: Ooccoo's vaguely human face on a bird body gives her that effect. Her son is even worse, as he is merely a flying head. Judging by Link's expression when finding Ooccoo, you can tell it was intentional.
• Uncommon Time: "Talo's Rescue" is in 7/4 but with one bar of 3/4 before the song repeats.
• Undead Fossils: Stallord, Twilit Fossil, is the fossilized skeleton of a giant draconic beast reanimated by Zant's magic in an attempt to kill Link.
• Under the Sea: Lake Hylia, in which swimming is made possible by way of the Zora Armor (to freely swim underwater and do so with unlimited oxygen) and the Iron Boots. Beneath it is the Lakebed Temple, in which Link has to transport water from one room to another by rotating the large staircase present in the central hall. The boss is Morpheel, which is located at the absolute bottom of the dungeon (and all of Hyrule in the game).
• Undying Loyalty: Epona is Link’s loyal stead and will come to his aid when he needs her. Early on when Ilia takes Epona to the spring to heal her injuries, Epona chose Link over Ilia much to the latter’s disappointment. If Link were to summon her in his wolf form, she will come running to his location and will still recognize him. She even urges him to return to his real form so that she can ride him again.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay:
  • In the City in the Sky, at one point Link enters a bottomless room guarded by two Lizalfos. Simply take two steps forward into the room (after the door locks behind you) and both leap to their doom while trying to come after you.
  • Another example is the second jousting match with King Bulblin. The first time, you rode Epona past his boar and swung your sword to knock him off, a la a proper joust. The second time you face him, he's wearing armor on his sides that protects him from sword swings. How do you properly joust him this time? Who said anything about jousting? Just pull out your bow and shoot him a few times in the chest.
  • At one point you run into a snow drift that blocks your way while following a scent. There's nowhere to climb over it and none of your items seem to help. Just dash into it and the snow collapses.
  • In Gerudo Desert, Link needs to go through the Bulbin's hideout to reach Arbiter's Grounds and the Mirror Chamber. If he approaches during the day, he'll be spotted instantly, but if he waits until night, he can sneak through the base and pick them off since they can't see him until he gets close enough.
• Unfinished Business: The Hero's Shade, the ghost of a past hero who was unable to pass on because of his regret of not teaching his skills to a worthy successor. As with the previous example, Link can heal his soul, this time by learning his teachings. For extra Irony, the Hero's Shade is revealed in Hyrule Historia to be the Hero of Time, the same Link who healed all those souls in Majora's Mask.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: If you press B while rolling with your sword out, you roll into a stab. One of the Hidden Skills taught by the Shade actually has you roll around the target before jumping up and slashing him from behind.
• Unstable Equilibrium: A minigame has you try to collect colored items worth different amount of points while flying. The kicker is that for each consecutive item of the same color you collect, its point value doubles, to a maximum of ten times. In short, every consecutive item you collect until you hit the cap is worth more than all the previous ones combined. You can win quite easily if you miss several red items, but if you collect a single other item during the middle part of the game you're screwed.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Averted with the boomerang and the ball and chain. You can also pick up arrows fired by Bulbin archers once they've burned out.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Generally averted, as there are only a few human characters that don't freak out in terror at the sight of Wolf Link, and Midna does not allow you to transform in areas where other NPCs will see him. But you're otherwise free to transform in front of animals, monsters, or bosses, who simply don't care. The animals in particular tend to think wolf Link is rather cool — a squirrel in Ordon specifically says that Link smells "like the trees of Ordon" (while one of the ranch's Cuccos tells him that "You stink like the guy from the ranch").
• Useless Item: Green Chu Jelly in the Wii and HD versions, which can only be obtained if a Blue and Yellow Chu combine, which can only happen in the Cave of Ordeals. It was most likely left in by mistake from when the game had a magic meter, and not only has no effect, but doesn't even have a description in the original version. The Wii U HD version adds text stating it has no effect.
• Useless Useful Spell:
  • The Bomblings. What they work best for (hitting far away or otherwise hard to reach targets) could be handled much more easily and quickly by just combining regular bombs with arrows for exploding arrows.
  • The Dominion Rod is the most useless of the dungeon items. It is only used in the Temple of Time and is used for exactly one more thing afterwards (after going through a long quest to get the thing working outside the Temple of Time). However, when it is used, it can pack some serious damage to enemies thanks to the living Armos, but it only really works inside the Temple of Time because the statues outside of it cannot attack.
• Variable-Length Chain: In the Wii edition, in one region of the Arbiter's Grounds, a chain which you pull out of the wall visibly grows as needed: you can see links popping into existence on the wall end of the chain. It's presumably a level layout error rather than really this trope, though.
• Variable Mix:
  • The Hyrule Field theme changes whenever you stand still, mount Epona, fight enemies, or when the sun goes down.
  • The music to Hyrule Castle Town varies depending on which area you're in.
  • The music for the Twilight Realm changes depending on whether you're inside or outside. The indoor version is much more sinister than the more relaxing outdoor version.
  • During the horseback battles with King Bulblin, a frantic brass rhythm is added to the music when you get close to him.
  • Zant's battle theme has six variations, depending on what phase you're in. What changes are the speed, which gets faster as you get to each later phase, the mixed in song, as he is his own Boss Rush, fighting similar to previous bosses, and the main, common theme gets added to as you go through the fight. His final phase plays the music extremely fast and contains music from all of the previous phases.
  • Most of Hyrule Castle plays a hollow, low-key variation of the classic theme, with a few notes of Ganon's leitmotif appearing near the end. Once you enter the main keep, a very sinister bassline is added to the tune, and the further you make your way up, the more Ganon's theme begins to encroach on the original music until it's finally been completely swallowed up and only his leitmotif remains.
• Varying Tactics Boss: King Bulblin is fought four times:
  • The first battle takes place on a plain, riding after him on his boar as he summons Moblins to his aid. Then the battle shifts to a narrow bridge where both charge at each other (he's defeated by hitting him until he falls off).
  • The second battle also takes place on a bridge, but this time he's learned from the last bout and has two huge shields covering his arms. Fortunately, by this point you've acquired the Hero's Bow, and so you need to shoot him between the shields.
  • The third battle takes place on foot in a Moblin stable with Bulblin wielding a giant axe, announcing his presence by smashing it into a giant boar so you can't escape. After beating him, the stable catches fire, and you need to ride the boar to break out.
  • The final battle is in Hyrule Castle and is a standard sword fight. Upon losing, he reveals that he can talk, gives you a key, and names the trope for "I Fight for the Strongest Side!".
• Verbal Tic:
  • Ashei ends most of her sentences with "...yeah?" regardless of whether they actually qualify as questions.
  • Shad's liberal use of Britishisms like "I say" and "old boy."
  • The yetis do this with "uh."
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Hyrule Castle is visited twice during the game's first half, but it can only be explored in full once the diamond-shaped barrier protecting it is destroyed by Midna with the help of the Fused Shadows. The Castle, barrier and all, is visible almost anywhere in the overworld. Bits of the final battle take place outside the castle as well.
• Victorious Chorus: The Item Get! theme plays has a chorus backing it up.
• Victory Fakeout: The fight against Armogohma plays with this in that all that's left of the boss when you defeat him is a small piece that runs away.
• Victory Pose:
  • Link gets a particularly epic one of these after winning the joust on the burning Bridge of Eldin against King Bulblin. Epona rears up on her hind legs and Link raises his sword while flames dance behind him. He also uses a minor one if he sheathes his sword right after killing any somewhat powerful enemy, or if the killing blow was any of the Secret Techniques (such as Mortal Draw). Absolutely useless, unless you're preparing for another Mortal Draw, but it looks cool.
  • The cutscenes that happen just after beating a boss typically have Link sheathing his sword with an elaborate flourish. This is lampshaded in one dungeon, when it turns out that the boss isn't dead yet. You can also do this during regular gameplay, by sheathing your sword after landing a killing blow on an enemy.
• Victorious Chorus: The game added a choir to the iconic Item Get! theme, heard when Link gets a major item.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Minor example; when you must return to Ordon Village to get the Iron Boots, you don't have to tell anyone other than Mayor Bo that their kids are OK, but hearing their relieved reactions feels too damn good not to do it.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Cuccos can be attacked as in previous games, this time without the retaliatory Cucco Death Squad; however, if the Ball and Chain is used, Link won't be changed into a Cucco temporarily as punishment for hurting the poor bird.
  • Running around the Hyrule Castle Town as Wolf Link will scare the crap out of the townspeople as they flee in terror while screaming. If you go to the town square in this form, you'll cause the castle guards to appear, but they are deathly afraid of you and trying to attack them will make them drop items like hearts, arrows, and rupees as they run away screaming.
  • When Faron Province is wreathed in Twilight, Link can take some merchandise from Trill's Shop without having to pay anything or even being called out for stealing.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: There's a stand in Faron Woods with jugs to fill your potions and you choose how many rupees to put into the box. If you give less than what they cost, such as only one, the bird will simply berate you but give none and the bird will attack you when you return. Conversely, you can actually pay more than what an item is worth, or even for nothing at all, though all you get for doing that is some warm gratitude from a hard-working bird.
• Video Game Tools: The Spinner is largely a movement tool, allowing you to climb certain walls and boost your speed quickly, but its "burst" move can be used to attack enemies. Even the humble Empty Bottle can be used to reflect certain attacks!
• Viewers Are Goldfish: It seems like Nintendo thought players would be incapable of remembering the values of the different colored rupees, since every time you turn the game on, the first time you pick up any given color of rupee except green, the game will act like it's your first one of that color ever and tell you the value of it. However, it's actually the game that has the memory of a goldfish. There was a bit of code accidentally left out of the game that caused the flags for the rupee messages to not save when the game did, so when you turn the game off, it "forgets" that it ever told you what the rupees were worth, and does so again. It's possible to hack your save file to add the missing code and fix the problem, and it's fixed in the Wii U Updated Re-release as well.
• Villain-Possessed Bystander: Happens twice in the story. Fire boss Fyrus, who is actually Goron Patriarch Darbus; and ice boss Blizzeta, who is a calmed yeti woman named Yeta. Both keep helping you after their defeat.
• Villainous Breakdown: Zant gets hit by this one very hard. In an interesting variation, however, a flashback shows that he was crazy from the get-go, and that it's only because he has what he wanted that he keeps a calm facade. When Midna and Link fight through all his defenses and are facing him in his own throne room, he loses it.
• The Virus: Barnes implies that this is how the Shadow Beasts operate: when the people of Kakariko went to save a woman being attacked by one, she was nowhere to be found and there were instead two of the monsters. It's not mentioned again, though, until the Palace of Twilight.
• Visible Odor: While Wolf Link's senses are activated, he can also "see" smells as clouds, allowing him to follow the trace of their sources. Link can only do the process with one scent at a time, however, so he has to discard the previous smell when he has to follow a new one.
• Volcanic Veins: The boss of the Goron Mines, Fyrus, has lava stripes on top of his body.
• Wall Crawl:
  • Link can climb on walls covered in ivy, and everywhere (walls, ceilings, a madly bouncing platform floating in lava...) magnetic with the Iron Boots.
  • For an enemy example, the Dodongo is able to do this, thanks to it essentially being a giant fire-breathing gecko. They tend to be the ones to get in your way while navigating the aforementioned magnetic areas.
• Warp Whistle: A set of portals positioned throughout the world serve as handy rapid-transit. Midna can carry Link through them, but only in his wolf form. Each one appears along with an Inescapable Ambush of shadow creatures.
• The War Sequence:
  • The prelude to the Arbiter's Grounds dungeon is a one-man assault against an army occupying fortified positions. There's also a horseback fight against an infinite number of boar-riding moblins and finally you go sniper-style to take out the moblin home base.
  • Another time, you have to kill all the mooks in the Hidden Village before you can advance.
• Waterfront Boss Battle: The Twilight Bloat is fought in Lake Hylia, where it alternates between flying and rapidly swimming in the water while trying to ram into the floating raft on which Wolf Link is standing, and can only be attacked in the moment where it rises above the raft.
• Water-Geyser Volley: There's a slightly more realistic version than usual where the geyser holds up a bridge instead of Link himself. There are also several geysers in Death Mountain that hurt you if you're near them.
• Waterlogged Warzone: The battle against the Deku Toad is in a huge cavern with a thin layer of water, allowing its tadpoles to swim towards you.
• Weakened by the Light: Hyrule's light is not only painful for Twili, but (at least in Midna's case, although she was cursed at the time) fatal.
• Weak to Fire: Link becomes weak to both fire and ice when wearing the Zora Armor. If he's hit by fire and/or ice attacks or falls in lava or freezing water while wearing the armor, he will lose up to 10 hearts.
• Weaponized Offspring: The Deku Toad is first seen when tadpoles drop from the ceiling and attack you (it repeats this tactic later on).
• Weapon Jr.: Link (17 years old in this game) shows off his aiming skills with a slingshot, and his sword skills with a wooden sword.
• Weirdness Censor: Inverted. Unlike in previous games, where nobody seems to notice that Link can use magic or change forms right in front of them, everyone notices him here and panics. Midna simply won't allow Link to transform in front of anyone.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Link always makes a face at Midna and even growls at her as a wolf. It crosses into Vitriolic Best Buds later in the game.
• We Meet Again: Zant drops a variant of the "for the last time" version right before he reawakens the boss Stallord.
  Zant: You still live... How antonishing. No wonder some call you "hero". But this is truly a bittersweet reunion... Truly! For I fear this is the last time I will see you alive!
• Wham Episode: The game has an extra dose of shock just when you think the series is getting predictable. It's more of a surprise in how it came about rather than its presence, because everyone knows Zelda games have more than three dungeons! Not 60 seconds after you collect the final Fused Shadow, Zant appears, curbstomps Link and Lanayru, takes the Fused Shadows, curses Link to so that he's permanently stuck as a wolf, AND gravely injures Midna. On top of that, taking Midna to Princess Zelda to heal her results in Zelda giving up her body (and apparently her life) in a Heroic Sacrifice without Midna's consent. Now you set out to find the series' favorite Deus ex Machina, the Master Sword, in order to lift your curse!
• Wham Line:
  • When Midna calls Zant out for abusing their tribe's magic in the cutscene after the Lakebed Temple, he reveals that his power is NOT their ancestor's magic.
    Zant: How dare you?! Are you implying my power is... our old magic? Now THAT is a joke! This is power is granted to me by my god! It is the magic of the King of Twilight, and you WILL respect it!
  • Later, after completing the Arbiter's Grounds, the Sages offer another one, revealing exactly who this god is.
    Sages: His name is...Ganondorf.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Telma has some fascination with Link's eyes, as she lets Ilia know.

  Telma: This swordsman of ours has great eyes, honey. They're proud and wild... like a feral beast.

• What Happened to the Mouse?: Outside of Barnes' story about the fate of the shopkeeper, it's never made clear what happened to the other residents of Kakariko Village, and none of the three surviving residents seem particularly concerned.
• What the Hell, Player?:
  • The fishing hole girl will get mad at you if you go around rolling into things in her hut. If you do it enough times, she'll kick you out of the building, and the next time you go back in, she'll make you apologize.
  • And the shop bird who you can steal from (fill a bottle with health potion/lantern oil and walk out without putting any rupees in the moneybox). He calls you a thief and attacks you if you try to return (though you can quiet him by putting money in). Also if you put less than 10 rupees in, he remarks "That's a little on the skimpy side..." and as you leave, says to "pay like you're supposed to next time, cheapskate."
  • Though this situation can actually be avoided, and the trope subverted, if you visit after leaving a dungeon with Ooccoo. You're free to visit the store and fill up your lantern and bottles and then use Ooccoo Jr. to teleport back. The bird won't even question it when you come back later.
  • Destroying pumpkins in Ordon village prompts one townsperson to scold you "Hey! Don't waste food!"
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: During the credits, we learn that Prince Ralis, now king, rules the Zora with the spirit of his mother Rutela watching over him. The children leave Kakariko and return to Ordon. Uli has had her baby. Shad, satisfied that his research on the Oocca is finished, turns his attention to an archaeological study of the ruins of the Temple of Time, aided by Ashei and Auru. And Link leaves Ordon Village.
• Where It All Began: The game proper begins in Hyrule Castle's dungeons where you meet Midna, and the final dungeon takes you through the rest of the castle.
• White Wolves Are Special: The Hero's Shade, who tutors you in Difficult But Awesome sword moves, takes the form of a gold-and-white (but mostly gold) wolf while in Hyrule.
• The Wild West: The game mixes up this setting with the usual Zelda high-fantasy theme; Link starts the game as a ranch hand, Karariko Village was designed with a Native American aesthetic in mind (complete with the appropriate music), a Spaghetti Western style escort mission, and the Hidden Village resembles a Spaghetti Western ghost town (again, complete with the appropriate music), and a shoot-out in the Hidden Village (with Spaghetti Western-inspired camera angles) using bow-wielding Bulblins in place of bandits with guns.
• Wind Is Green: The Forest Temple features several wind elements, which might be a consequence of this very trope. The Gale Boomerang, found in this dungeon, shows luminous green leaves within the produced tornado when it's being used.
• Wise Serpent: The Light Spirit Lanayru takes the form of a giant snake, and it's they who tells Link about the origins of the Fused Shadow and the dangers of misusing them.
• Wolfpack Boss: The last gauntlet in the Cave of Ordeals is a trio (quartet in later visits) of Darknuts who know nothing of Mook Chivalry; one Darknut is challenging, so fighting three of them at once is bar none the toughest fight in the game.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: As noted above under Chekhov's Boomerang, the wrangling skills Link has learned from his work with the goats come in handy on two occasions during the adventure (one of which occurs when he's not even in human form, at that).
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The game has you gather three MacGuffins that will help defeat the Big Bad, only for said Big Bad to teleport in behind you right after getting the last piece and stealing them all.
• You Have Researched Breathing: It takes the instruction of an ancient hero's spirit to teach Link how to nudge his shield into enemies.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • Link appears to be about 20 or 21, but, as in Skyward Sword, he's really 17.
  • Shad is 17, too, and Coro is 16, though they all look to be well into their twenties.
• You No Take Candle: The Yeti speak this way, presumably because they never interacted with the other races enough to become fluent in Hylian.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Congratulations! You've restored all the Light Spirits, banished the Twilight from Hyrule, and recovered those three thingies Midna was looking for so you can match the power of — wait a minute, did Zant just throw them all away? And nearly kill Midna with light? And Link's trapped in his wolf form again?
• You Shouldn't Know This Already:
  • When Link first fights multiple Shadow Beasts at once, Midna would note that if one of the Shadow Beasts survives, it can revive the others. She'll then teach you the technique involving her in order to kill them all at once. Should you have used the Spin Attack before she does this (another technique that allows Link to attack multiple enemies at a time, and a technique he already knows by the time you get to this point of the game), one of them is guaranteed to survive the attack just so that Midna could teach you her technique anyway.
  • You have to learn the Hidden Skills from the Hero's Shade to use them, even if you know the timing and button inputs from previous runs.
• Zero-Effort Boss: Armogohma's a pretty easy boss to begin with in the Temple of Time, with her only offense being a laser that does not-too-great damage and spawning a bunch of weak spiders. Then, when you finally kill her, you have to face her terrifying second form... her eye falling out and turning into a little spider that dies in one hit from a sword. It's mostly worth it for the look on Link's face.

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