WMG / The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Concerning the Story

What truly happened in the "Hero Defeated" timeline.

Ocarina of Time is where the Legend of Zelda timeline became splintered. The "Adult Timeline" follows what happened to Hyrule after Zelda sent back the Hero of Time back to before the two of them met. The "Child Timeline" follows what happens then, with Zelda and Link devising another plan to stop Ganondorf, one that doesn't involve opening the door to the Sacred Realm. However, there is a third timeline, which follows what happens if Link loses the fight against Ganon... but how can they be? Since that doesn't involve any use of time travel... And how did Ganon get all three Triforce pieces in that timeline anyway? And why was Link sealed away for seven years after pulling the Master Sword? Because he was too young? Perhaps, but why seven years? The Hero of Wind wielded the Master Sword at twelve. Perhaps, what truly happened is this:

What we didn't get to see is that when Link pulled the Master Sword the first time, it didn't seal him away in the Sacred Realm. Instead, Ganondorf revealed himself after Link took the Master Sword and the two did battle. Link fought valiantly, but he was still too young and inexperienced to win. Ganon defeated him and claimed the Triforce of Power and Courage then. However, the Triforce of Wisdom still went to Zelda. As Sheik, she reunited the six sages during the following years while Hyrule descended into darkness. She then used her own Triforce of Wisdom as bait to lure Ganondorf into the Sacred Realm. Ganon obtained the complete Triforce and wished to conquer the world. The Triforce granted his wish and transformed the Sacred Realm into the Dark World, giving him an entire world's worth of loyal monsters. However, from the World of Light, the seven sages sealed the Sacred Realm then, trapping Ganon.

Hyrule was saved from the time being, but Zelda's heart was heavy with grief and guilt. She had foolishly sent a child to his death. She knew she had to fix it somehow, even though she knew she herself would never see it: using the Ocarina of Time and the Master Sword, she sent Rauru back in time to when Link pulled the Master Sword from the Temple of Time and instructed him to protect him for seven years, until a time where he would be strong enough to fight Ganon.

The reason the well got sealed up during the seven year sleep

Some kid went in there sometime after Child Link went to sleep and saw the horrors within. After escaping and telling people about it, the well got sealed up.

• Could it be the kid from the graveyard? The one who had an obsession with the morbid, and when we next see him he's (possibly) the insane Poe collector... Entering the well finally broke him?
  • I was under the impression that the Poe collector was the same guy as that castle guard from 7 years prior (he was in the same room, and if you pestered him at the right time he'd mention he was a paranormal enthusiast). On the other hand, that still doesn't quite explain that kid's whereabouts... Maybe the well was sealed because he went in, but he DIDN'T come out. Then someone went in looking for him, and...
• That actually makes sense in a really creepy way when you consider that the little boy doesn't have an adult counterpart despite almost everyone else having one...
  • There's always Dead Hand

The events of the game actually represent the last of several attempts by Zelda to stop Ganondorf.

• Zelda was essentially doing an In-Universe version of Save Scumming. She'd meet Link, ask him to help save Hyrule, and then, when Ganondorf ultimately defeated him, use the Ocarina's power to reverse the flow of time and try again. However, the continuous use of this power came with a side effect: She couldn't access all of her memories from the previous timeline, limiting her knowledge of how events would play out. Of all of her attempts, this was the only one to succeed.

Supporting evidence: When she first meets Link, she experiences a feeling of Deja Vu and says that Link's name sounds familiar. Maybe that's because she's already heard it before and simply couldn't remember. Also, her "prophetic dream" about someone coming out of the forest to save Hyrule could be a buried memory instead. Ditto for Link's dream about running into Ganondorf at the beginning of the game.

• And to explain why Link is not under the same limitation as Zelda was, Link probably does lose his memories when using the Song of Time in Majora's Mask, but someone outside the regular flow of time is guiding, specifically we the players.

More supporting evidence: It is stated in Hyrule Historia that the timeline was actually split into three, not two. One for the Adult timeline (which led to The Wind Waker), one for the Child Timeline (Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess), and the final one is one that nobody suspected, which was a timeline where the Hero failed, producing A Link to the Past. This third timeline was probably caused by a prior failed attempt that Zelda rewinded (or at least one of them).

The origin of the Song of Storms

One of the oft-referenced paradoxes in Ocarina of Time is the existence of the Song of Storms, since Link learns the song in the future, then travels back in time to teach it to Guru-Guru, the man that taught it to him. However, the song is playing in the windmill before Link plays it, and it's clear that Guru-Guru is the one playing it. What's more, Majora's Mask (which is either in a parallel universe, or just another country) establishes that Flat composed the song. The only issue is that when Link plays it on his magic ocarina, it has an effect that Guru-Guru's playing doesn't — which causes him to obsess over the song in the future.So the obvious solution is that the Song of Storms already existed before Link even left the forest. No paradox here.

Link didn't cause a paradox with the Song of Storms.

So everyone knows about Link learning a song from a guy who only knows it because Link taught him it and it just goes in circles. However, I propose that... wait for it... it wasn't Link that screwed up the windmill with the Song of Storms, it was some other kid entirely. Who? Well, that's not important. After learning the song in the future, Link goes back and plays it before this mystery kid.

Before you complain that Guru-Guru says something along the lines of "Grr, you played the Ocarina again didn't you?", keep in mind the man isn't exactly calm and is possibly just making assumptions.

The Downfall timeline is a result of a failed attempt at stopping Ganon

When Link wakes up in the Temple of Time after seven years, Rauru says that the Master Sword could only be wielded by the Hero of Time, and Link wasn't ready to be when he first pulled it. However, other games (The Wind Waker, for example) show that other heroes were able to wield it as children. While this might seem contradictory, Raoru only stated this Link wasn't ready.

One possible explanation is that the sword originally did allow Link to wield it, but being young and inexperienced was unable to use it to its full potential. Somewhere along the way, he came close to death, at which point either the sword, the ocarina, or Raoru pulled Link back to the point where he pulled the Master Sword from its pedestal and sealed him away. This would create a third timeline that seemingly has Link die, or at least be defeated and never return. It also removes the hypothetical scenario of the player dying while playing the game, since there are plenty of people who beat it without getting a Game Over.

Another possibility: additional, minor actions had bigger impact than they first seem

For example, certain action — draining the well, for example — seem to be predestined, since they're like that the first time you go through as an adult when you have to go back in time to do them as a child later, creating a Stable Time Loop. However, other action performed as a child don't have an effect in the Adult Timeline until performed by the player - planting beans, uncovering chests, etc. So, going forward in time to a location where a bean hasn't been planted just shows a bare patch of dirt until returning to the past and planting it.

One specific location has this happen no matter how much forethought and planning the player has to prevent it. One chest in the Spirit Temple must be uncovered as a child and opened as an adult; it's simply not there as an adult until the puzzle that makes it appear is completed as a child. This means that at least one time during the course of gameplay, the player has to go to the past and change things, creating a new future for something as seemingly inconsequential as a chest appearing. The entire Downfall Timeline could, therefore, simply be for want of a chest.

Why didn't anyone except Zelda at Hyrule Castle realize that Ganondorf was commiting crimes throughout Hyrule before he kills the King?

Because he never left the castle to actually commit the crimes. Rather, PHANTOM GANON was the one who cursed the Great Deku Tree, blocked off Dodongo's Cavern, and infested Jabu-Jabu with Barinade. It's no secret that Ganondorf has skill in black magic, so it wouldn't be that far-fetched to assume he could have gone into the Lost Woods/Forest Temple, gathered a ton of wandering souls and created Phantom Ganon, then left to Hyrule to "pledge his allegiance" while his phantom did his dirty work. Additionally, Ganondorf could have also held back his black magic while at Hyrule Castle, thus convincing the King he's on the up and up, while also making Zelda, the Gorons, and the Zoras appear to be crying wolf if they tell the King that Ganondorf is causing trouble. After all, how could Ganondorf be causing evil if he's still in the castle, and his Gerudos aren't causing any trouble? It would be seen as immensely far-fetched for Ganondorf to somehow be in two places at once.

The Child Timeline and Adult Timeline form parallel narrative arcs.

Analysing the game in terms of story structure, both the Child Timeline and the Adult Timeline form parallel arcs that culminate in the Spirit Temple.

1. As a child, Link begins his epic quest in Kokiri Forest, by lifting the curse cast on the Great Deku Tree (forest motif).

2. Then, he moves through Kakariko Village and the Gorons, until he beats Dodongo's Cavern at the foot of Death Mountain. Despite the name, the cavern still has pools of lava in its main section, as well as in the center of King Dodongo's boss area. (fire motif)

3. Later, Link visits Zora's Domain and releases their fish deity, Jabu Jabu, from a parasitic aquatic lifeform named Barinade, a sea anemone (water motif).

Later, Link begins the Adult portion of his quest:

1. The first dungeon Link may visit is Forest Temple, an abandoned manor-like building deep within Sacred Forest Meadow (forest motif).

2. Next, Link fights his way through the Fire Temple, a temple that is located inside Death Mountain Crater. As a "Fire" Temple, its perils involve fire pits and lava pools (fire motif).

3. Finally, Link passes through the Water Temple, a structure hidden under the water of Lake Hylia. Also, its boss is an amoeba-like enemy - amoebas also being parasitc beings in Real Life that live in freshwater and bodies of water, like ponds and lakes (water motif).

Past this midpoint, Bottom of the Well can be completed at any time between Forest Temple and Shadow Temple, but, for the sake of this argument, it is being placed here:

4. Link goes back in time and ventures into the bottom of Kakariko Village's Well. To his surprise, after the water recedes, a dark picture of Hyrule and Kakariko's past is alluded to, with zombies, a green miasma, and what appears to be torture chambers loaded with execution devices (death/underworld motif).

4. As part of Adult Link's quest, he goes to Karariko Village's graveyard, where lies the entrance to the somber Shadow Temple. Like the Bottom of the Well, the Shadow Temple features torture devices and all assortments of death traps, again alluding to Hyrule's sordid past (death/underworld motif).

Finally, both the Child and the Adult timelines quests converge at the Spirit Temple:

5. The Spirit Temple "requires" a first exploration with Child Link, getting the treasure on one of the hands of the external hands of the goddess statue and travelling forward in time.

5. As Adult Link, our young hero vanquishes Twinrova and releases the last Sage.

It could be argued that the motif of the Spirit Temple is sands of time, considering its location (The Desert Colossus), and as a pun, considering the gameplay mechanic of going forward and back through time.

The placement of the Ice Cavern is the only thing that does not fit well with the proposed parallelisms.

Concerning Link

The game is the origin of a Merlin-or-Gandalf-like wizard

Not much to explain here. A Hylian raised in a Hidden Elf Village, saving the whole kingdom and learning a bunch of magic spells and skills along the way. In the kingdom of decades later, if the young hero is now an old one, he could certainly remain as a white-bearded bastion of hope and the ways of magic. Even if he's the king too!

• The Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess IS Link from OoT.

OoT Link is stuck in an endless time-loop in the Adult Timeline.

At the end of OoT, Zelda sends Link back in time to live the skipped seven years of his childhood, leading to Majora's Mask. However, she doesn't know that she sent him back after Majora's Mask. So after every time Link defeats Ganondorf, Link is sent back in time to continuously live through MM. This leads to him disappearing and the events of Wind Waker.

• It seems more likely that him being sent back in time simply created a branch in the timeline where he lived out his life as normal, while the Adult Timeline continued on — but without him, because he's in a separate reality.

The Link and Zelda from Ocarina of Time are twins.

We know from the Great Deku Sprout that Link's mother was a Hylian who fled to the Kokiri forest under unpleasant circumstances. Based on what little we see of her, she seems to have been a noble of some sort (why else would someone have been gunning specifically for her and her family?) The King of Hyrule has a couple of offscreen "appearances", but the Queen isn't even mentioned. Link and Zelda are around the same age, and both have blond hair and blue eyes in a world that, if you look closely, seems to be populated by people with every possible eye/hair color combination but blond hair and blue eyes. They also seem to have a telepathic connection of some sort (Zelda's dreams, and the vision that teaches Link the Song of Time) before they wound up with two pieces of the Triforce embedded in their hands. We also know that there was a long and bloody war between the Gerudo and the Hylians prior to the game's story. And wartime is when a nation's rulers are at the greatest risk; everyone knows that when you cut off the head the body dies. Conclusion: The Royal Family of Hyrule came under attack by assassins, and the Queen was forced to flee along with her son. For whatever reason, she didn't bring her daughter or husband. (Perhaps they were separated in the confusion? Or maybe they needed to have both a ruler and a clear successor to the throne to prevent total anarchy, and the Queen went into hiding with one of the two heirs in case the King and Zelda didn't make it...) Anyway, she wound up in the Kokiri forest, died of illness, injuries, or just plain exhaustion, and Link was raised by the Kokiri to become the green-clad hero we all know and love.

• The King stays behind to lead during war. Zelda goes into hiding with Impa. The Queen takes Link (who as the male would have been primary heir even if Zelda was actually older). The split betters the chance one heir would survive should something go wrong during the escape.
• Word of God confirms that pointy ears are a sign of the royal family of Hyrule. Can you think of a certain Hero of Time with pointy ears?
  • Gonna have to call foul on that, or at least ask for a source. A quick check in Ocarina of Time shows that everybody and their brother has pointed ears. All the Kokiri, all the Hylians, Impa, Malon, Talon, Ingo, Link, Zelda. . . Even Ganondorf gets in on the elfy-ears action, post-seven-year Time Skip. Link and Zelda have have a whole lotta siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins if that were the case, is all I'm saying.
• You left out the part about Link's name being familiar to Zelda even though this is the first pair and it was the first time they met.
  • Cue thirteen years later.
• When Impa teaches the song Zelda's Lullaby to Link, she says that "this song is only taught to members of the royal family."
  • That could just be Impa letting Link know that he's special/privileged, and also, a hint that the other races (i.e. Gorons and Zoras) will accept him more easily as a messenger of the Royal Family.
• Definitely Jossed by Word of God. Several publications show that Link's father was actually a Knight of Hyrule, which does still indicate his family being nobility, but also Zelda's mother passed away when she was a child, while Link's mother died when he was an infant after delivering him to the Great Deku Tree.
• Link's mother is never shown in canon materials and the narration by the Deku Tree doesn't say her family was specifically targeted; it said she escaped a burning settlement, which any ordinary person could have done.

Link's mother actually meant to take him to the Forest Temple when he was a baby

When Link was a baby, there was a great war. Whether she was the queen and Link is really Zelda's brother or she was the wife of a knight fighting in the war, she knew of a hidden stronghold deep within the Lost Woods, likely meant as a protected retreat for the Royal Family. However she was injured during her flight and either became lost in the woods or was too weak to make it that far and stumbled upon the Great Deku Tree instead, asking him to care for her child before succumbing to her wounds. The mansion in the forest may have been attacked damaged in the war despite its distant and protected location or only suffered from seventeen years of neglect, despite the Kokiri adopting the building, already built beside a sacred site, as their temple. Following Gandondorf's takeover of Hyrule and the Sacred Realm, Ganondorf's dark magic twisted the place, leading to the leading to the ghosts and other creatures dwelling there when Link goes to clear the temple as an adult.

Link had an older brother

Hyrule Historia claims that the Link seen in A Link to the Past was descended from the Knight of Hyrule that bore the Crest of Courage. But how is that possible in the timeline that was brought about by the Hero of Time dying, presumably before he could father a child? Simple: he is a collateral descendent rather than a lineal descendent. Link's brother, who was likely two or three years older, was probably separated from the rest of the family in the same sequence of events that saw his father killed and his mother taking flight with her newborn son. Not knowing that anyone in his family had survived, he probably grew up as normally as a war orphan could be expected to. When Ganondorf took over, Link's brother, no longer being able to live normally as he would in the child timeline, at some point joined the remnants of the Knights of Hyrule, who had been acting as a resistance movement. His fate then depends on the timeline. In the adult timeline, he never needed to engage in the final battle, and was able to peacefully raise a family that eventually resulted in the Links seen in The Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks. In the decline timeline, the Hero of Time's death made it necessary for him to join his fellow knights in the final battle to protect the sages, leaving behind at least one child that produced the Links seen in the earlier games. With no lineal descendants in the adult and decline timelines to inherit the Hero of Time's destiny, his collateral descendants took up the mantle instead.

• Definitely intriguing. The only other possibility is if there was another hero to bear the Triforce of Courage during the Imprisoning War, which seem very likely given that at least one other game (Minish Cap) mentions a yet-unseen Hero - the Hero of Men.
  • Except the Hero of Time's death resulted in Ganon gaining the complete Triforce. Even if there was someone else who could have received it, they did not.

Link was intended to be an adult from the beginning

This may not be 100% on the topic of Ocarina of Time but it is on topic to The Legend of Zelda and has to do with OoT as well.It's possible that Link either is or was originally intended to be an adult from the very beginning, possibly being designed as a child as a mere last-minute decision. It is likely that in making Link an adult at first they decided to have designs of him as a child as well, ultimately leaving Link as a child. Think about it, even in the first Legend of Zelda, you go into the cave and the old man just gives you a sword. What adult in their right mind would give a kid a sword? Not to mention the child knowing how to use it instantly let alone be able to swing it the way he does. How about having the lung capacity and perfect finger coordination to play an Ocarina? With that in mind, this is only a few reasons why Link may have originally been intended to be an adult(Until he reaches OoT and beyond that it is back and forth). What are your thoughts? Is a bit of information missing that could debunk this?

• Being an adult doesn't make you any better at using a sword or playing an ocarina. And Link's age wasn't obvious based on his sprite in the first game — if Nintendo had wanted to make him an adult, they could've just told everyone "he's an adult".

Zelda and Link are siblings

Or at least related. I know I'm going to invoke a Fandom-Enraging Misconception for this, but it's a perfectly reasonable thought.

Link actually does marry Ruto after going back to the past.

Since she isn't awakened as a sage or if she is, she doesn't in time, Link really has no choice to but to fulfill his promise to Ruto. That and no one lets him get a word in edgewise to protest it.

• Sorry, but Ganondorf kills the Sage of Water. She would have to awaken as the Water Sage no matter what, apparently.
  • What evidence do you have that he kills her in the Child Timeline? When could he have?
  • You see him kill a Water Sage in a flashback in Twilight Princess. Presumably that was Ruto's predecessor. Though the fact that the Water Sage is still missing from the group by the time of TP may mean that Ruto, or any other replacement, was never awakened as a Sage.
• There is no longer any promise to Ruto in the Child Timeline. Why not? Because he was sent back, basically, to the first time he met Zelda, which was before he ever met Ruto or obtained the Zora's Sapphire. While he does know Ruto, she wouldn't know him (side note: you do, as I recall, see the Sages in the final scene, and they're adults... so apparently, they're capable of moving between timelines).

Concerning Navi

Navi is trapped on an infinite time-loop

From the beginning Navi is conveniently aware of the names of your enemies and their weaknesses, as well as showing you any place of interest inside a dungeon, etc. But how did she came up with this knowledge? Well, she's trapped in a time-loop of course. At the beginning of Majora's Mask we learn that Navi disappeared after Link returned to his childhood. What if she went further back in time? Specifically to the time at which OoT begins. That would explain not only her knowledge but also the reason why Link didn't have a fairy before that moment, because Navi didn't exist until that point.

• This theory is supported by the fact that when Navi leaves Link in the end, the general direction she travels in is toward a spot that would later be a secret entrance to the Temple of Time in TP.

Navi died in the end.

Because Link stopped being connected to her. Usually this happens when a Kokiri dies. Her connection to Link was unique and sustained by a geas created by the Deku Tree. Once the world was saved, it wasn't needed and she left Charlotte's Web-style, so Link wouldn't have to see her die.

Navi is actually Fi

The reason she left at the end of the game is the same as in Skyward sword... Because the job was done and the Master Sword needed to be laid to rest again.

• Along with her adventure with S.S. Link and the time she spent resting her way of speech became more human, she took the form of a fairy to help OoT Link fulfill his destiny rather than just a ball of light, or her real form, because it was a form he would trust (Which explains why she looks like fairy but can't heal him like other fairies, she's not a real one).
• The reason why she appeared before Link got the Master Sword was because she was summoned by the Deku Tree to lead him to the Master Sword which was required to defeat Ganondorf.
• If that's the case, why didn't Fi come clean about this after Ganondorf's defeat? By keeping up the ruse, she accidentally led Link to go on a long, possibly fatal journey to find "Navi" again when her real form was right where he left her the whole time.

Navi is the goddess of the Pole Star.

The name "Navi" is, in fact, short for her true name: Navigatoria. She isn't actually a fairy, that is just a form she took.

Navi is the player

Link is only playable after she shows up, and she leaves in the last scene. She's the one telling him to jump, attack, etc.

Concerning Zelda and Sheik

Sheik came from a Sheikah Mask

Warning: some spoilers may be unmarked! (and for those of you who wanna see the spoilers, you can just highlight the text with your mouse and cursor)

• In the game Majora's Mask, which is the direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, Link uses various magical masks to transform himself into different beings. Each mask was created when a member of the race it represented was killed, and the Song of Healing was played. The Goron Mask came from a great Goron named Darmani; the Zora Mask came from Mikau, the guitarist of a Zoran rock band called Indigo-Go; and the Deku Scrub Mask was implied to come from the unnamed son of a butler at the Deku Scrub Palace. Whatever form Link is in, he still maintains certain key traits of his original form (mainly the green tunic and his trademark hat).
  • Now, let’s think about the Sheikah. Princess Zelda's nanny, Impa, is a Sheikah, and apparently the last of her tribe. Impa has red eyes, and, although she doesn't look very old, and seems to still be in very good physical shape, white hair. Since the Sheikah tribe never actually appears in the game, it is possible that this coloration is — was — typical of the Sheikah people.
    • As this Wild Mass Guesser mentioned before, in Majora's Mask, Link still looks somewhat like himself in any form. So Sheik, being Zelda in disguise, would maintain his (her) blond hair.
• Also, about Zelda’s disguise as Sheik: the Sheikah, judging from Impa’s getup, wear very skintight clothing, probably to help them sneak around better (kind of like ninjas). Being a tribe based on Shadows, going unnoticed would be very important for spying.
  • So, if Zelda was simply dressed as a Sheikah man, wouldn’t her physical characteristics as a woman show through a skintight suit? I think so.
• Conclusion: Sheik was once an actual Sheikah warrior. He was killed in battle, and, as a desperate attempt to save him, Impa sealed his soul into a mask.

Zelda wasn't as useless as she seemed

This one hit me just recently. Remember what she said about how she needed Link to occupy Ganondorf while she and the sages seal him in the Sacred Realm? Well, Ganondorf is quite the Implacable Man, so it's likely that any spell to seal him away would take a lot of time and energy. What do you think she was doing that whole time the evil pig man had her trapped in that crystal, and when Link was fighting him as Ganon? So why did it still take so long? Because when Ganondorf went down the first time, she either mistakenly took him for dead, or she was unable to concentrate due to a bad case of Castle to the head. Hell, even her getting caught may have had some benefits. Remember. Ganondorf kept her imprisoned the entire time he had that first round with Link. He might have great power, but something like that could have divided his focus just a wee bit. And that's my two cents.

Concerning the Sages

The Sage of Light is Zelda's father, not the owl.

Look at the Sage of Light, then look at Zelda's father in Skyward Sword.

• Jossed on at least one count: Hyrule Historia states that the owl and the sage are one and the same. Her father in Skyward Sword is specifically designed to look similar to Rauru. It is possible that he is her father and the King of Hyrule, but that seems unlikely as he is already a sage when Link is a child while all the others have to be awakened to their cause.

Ganondorf’s attempt to take the Triforce may have incidentally created a time-transcending connection between himself and the Triforce of Power

This is based off of the fact that Ganondorf is explicitly shown with the Triforce of Power in his possession during the events of Twilight Princess. But yet, he is never stated to have visited the Sacred Realm at any point prior to his arrest and inevitable execution, neither of which happen in the Adult and Downfall Timelines. (Especially since the Temple of Time is stated to be the only known entrance to the Sacred Realm, and Ganondorf was actively trying to get the keys needed to enter the Sacred Realm early in Ocarina of time.) In addition, even though Ganondorf (or rather Ganon, as he would be known in events following A Link to the Past) is dead before the events of A Link Between Worlds, the Triforce of Power is stated to have “slipped into his possession and sealed away with him” during the events of the game in question.

• One possibility is that the moment Ganondorf received the Triforce of Power in the Child Timeline is the same moment in the Adult Timeline that he the Triforce fragmented. Time may splinter, but there is only one Triforce.

Princess Ruto was telling the truth about routinely going inside Jabu Jabu's Innards

The Sages are all dead

This is never stated outright, but heavily implied. Think about it. All of them disappear at some point before you face the boss. All of them Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. This is most telling when Saria says she'll always be with you, and during the end credits when the sages are watching over the party at Lon Lon. They don't join; they just hang out for a while, exchange a few sentimental glances, and then sparkle off into the distance. Fridge Horror Tear Jerker for me.

• ...except they don't sparkle off into the distance. The cutscene fades to black before the Sages actually go anywhere, so they could just as easily have come back.
• But when you think about it... Darunia entered Volvagia's boss room before you had a chance to. And then when you finally get there, Darunia is nowhere to be found...
• You can talk to Saria all throughout the Forest Temple. Kotake and Koume teleported Nabooru away, they didn't kill her, and their Twinrova form is used in the Oracle games as well, so Nabooru wasn't a component of it. Plus, the only reason the sages weren't awoken immediately was because Ganondorf cursed the temples and they couldn't awaken as sages until the boss monsters were killed and they could hear the call. Saria was sad because the sages had to live in the Sacred Realm, at least until they had to seal Ganondorf into it, at which point it may have been to dangerous for them to stay in it.
  • You can talk to Saria, but never see her again, until you enter the Chamber of the Sages. As mentioned above, Darunia runs headlong into the boss room...with no trace of him when YOU manage to get in there. Likewise, Ruto bolts ahead of you with no way of defending herself into a dangerous temple. And one assumes Nabooru is teleported, but that magical blast could just as easily be fatal. In addition, look at the ending dance party. Everyone is dancing, and having a blast, except for two. Mido and the Zora King. Of the sages, only three had anyone close to them that would be so deeply impacted by death. Saria, Ruto and Impa. Impa's passing would likely be mourned by Zelda later, when she was no longer occupied with rebuilding her razed kingdom. Darmani's son is too young to truly comprehend death, and Nabooru would likely come from a tribe where death is an accepted reality (if she wasn't branded a traitor outright.) This leaves only Mido and Zora King to be the ones who understand the situation, and are understandably mourning their losses.
• (Spoiler Alert) However, in Twilight Princess, the sages do not have physical bodies, they are just spirits, and one of the sages actually dies. Ganondorf lashes out at the sage of water and he just dissapears, never to be seen again.
  • We're not talking about the TP sages. And whether or not they're one in the same as OoT's sages is a whole other debate.
    • According to WoG the sages from OoT were just physical bodies the sages took through some sort of reincarnation thing, don't ask me why. And they are the same sages, just not quite the same "people". Ruto, Saria and the rest were basically vessels containing the sages until their awakening.
• Would like to point out that in the original beta of the game (and in the manga, which by WoG is canon, like Volvagia) you originally found Impa's bones in the acid around the bongo drum at the end of the Shadow Temple.
  • Source? All of the mangas are non-canon if I remember correctly.
• What about a Link Between Worlds? It's confirmed that the sages of that game are descendants of the sages of this game. Wouldn't that mean they had to be alive?
  • That doesn't necessarily mean they survived. Darunia already has a confirmed child who could continue his bloodline. Kokiri never physically age beyond the equivalent of a human child at roughly 8-10 years old, so we don't know how old Saria actually is or even how Kokiri reproduce (their evolution into the Koroks later in the timeline could imply that Kokiri biology is closer to plants than to humans). Rauru and Impa both look old enough to not only have off-screen children, but possibly even grandchildren. Nabooru's exact age is never hinted at, but she's already an adult when Link is still a child, so certainly old enough that she could have off-screen children somewhere. Ruto is the only Sage other than Darunia who has a family member appear on-screen with King Zora being her father and is most likely the youngest Sage (and thus, the one with perhaps the strongest argument to not have any off-screen children).
• A case for them not dying: in the 3DS version's credits (this troper has only played 3DS so I don't know if it's in the original version's credits or not), the Sages are seen hanging out on Death Mountain, looking completely fine. This troper believes it means they survived and got to return to Hyrule.
  • That is on the original as well. But that doesn't prove anything. They could as well be watching over Hyrule as spirits, only interacting with themselves and no one else. As people already stated, it's heavily implied they are dead due to their circumstances: you can talk to Saria during the Forest Temple, but it's always the same message and it goes more along the lines of Gameplay and Story Segregation since you could do that as soon as you leave the Temple of Time (implying Saria WAS alive but was killed while you were heading to the temple - notice you don't get to actually MEET her there until the very end), Darunia, Ruto and Impa rushed headlong into the temple (and Daruna even entered the boss room), while the spell that Twinrova used on Nabooru may as well be fatal and they were planning to revive her as a zombie or something else.
• I'm the original author of this theory from back in 2005/2006 and I'm amazed it's still here. Even the "Think about it" line is still there, which is pretty funny. I can't really prove it was me though, but that's not important. I just wanted to say that these days I believe that some of the sages might've died (like Darunia) and some were still alive by the time they were made sages. If they were dead, they were just brought back to life for the sage ascension. Once they became sages, they were removed from Hyrule and put into the Chamber of Sages, where they must remain to perform their sagely duties. It seems that they are unable to exist (at least not for very long) in Hyrule and they can't interact with anyone aside from Link (and possibly other wielders of the Triforce). Effectively, as far as the non-sages are concerned, the same as if they died, though perhaps they aren't technically dead. That's just how I see it.

Darunia is a female Goron

The gorons have no gender differences and all address each other with male pronouns regardless of gender. And that would make only one male sage among the seven: the old man you first encountered at the Light Temple!

• That could work, except for the part where Darunia expresses himself as a male ("We are brothers") and the part were the Goron named after you asks you to rescue his Dad.
  • Maybe in the Goron language the word "brother" is a term referring to anyone (reminiscent of words like "ellos" in Spanish referring to a group of mixed men and women).
  • I always figured that Gorons have the same gender-thingy going on as Discworld dwarves, where both male and female dwarves look and act masculine. That, or they're all masculine hermaphrodites.
  • I always thought of them reproducing asexually like single-celled organisms. Maybe like with one of the scale-like things on their backs falling off and growing into a new Goron.
• The series treats Gorons as a Single-Gender Race. The only female Gorons are in the non-canon manga. Given that every Goron with a child has thus far been treated like a Truly Single Parent, I see no reason to assume there is a reason to doubt it. They're probably like Namekians. Some concept art from Twilight Princess seems to back this up but is apocryphal at best.

Six of the original seven sages died to become them.

Think for a moment about where each one was when Link "awakened" them. Saria ran unarmed into a monster-infested temple, with her last heard words being desperate cries for help. Darunia challenges Volvagia without the one weapon that could defeat him, and is never seen after entering Volvagia's chamber. Ruto immediately rushed into the Water Temple. Impa chased an undead monster into a mass grave. Nabooru took a direct hit from Koume and Kotake. Rauru was never shown out of the Sacred Realm in the first place. Notice how the only time you see these people after these events are when they appear in the not exactly material Sacred Realm, and notice that several of them regret not being able to fulfill promises such as marriage (Ruto) or... er, other activities (Nabooru). Why? Because they're dead. However, this isn't true of the Wind and Earth Sages in The Wind Waker.

• With the way their last scenes (in reality) were portrayed, it seemed like this was heavily implied, if not outright stated.
  • But Twinrova outright said they still had use for Nabooru, they just teleported her.
    • No, they had a use for her and bound her into a magic circle. Link kills Nabooru in the Iron Knuckle fight, but Twinrova bound her soul into the floor so she couldn't become a Sage. Killing Twinrova freed her spirit.
    • What spirit? We see her body well alive.
    • Ah, but then she is spirited away, and the next time you see her, she's in the Temple of Time, just like the rest of the sages.
    • Uh, no. Twinrova had planned on brainwashing her again, and there's no point if she's dead.
    • Downfall Timeline gives us the obvious conclusion: All seven sages have Bloodlines, and far from all had procreated at this point. They didn't die.
    • It is still possible that they died, but were resurrected as sages. Thus, they would continue to live long enough to sire children (or in the case of Darunia, additional children) which would inherit the sages' power.

There were already seven sages at the start of Ocarina of Time, but Ganondorf killed them.

They existed as the ethereal beings seen in Twilight Princess. During his rise to power, Ganondorf kills all of them. Since only the sages could seal him away, it only makes sense to do so. This is also why six new sages must be awakened in the future. Once Ganon is defeated and sealed away, the new sages live on in the future timeline. Back in the new timeline created once Link goes back in time permanently, he and Zelda warn the king of Ganondorf's treachery and the Gerudo is arrested, meaning the original sages are never killed. This is why they are the ones who attempt to execute him in Twilight Princess' flashback and not Saria, Darunia, Ruto, etc.

Kaepora Gaebora is really Rauru, the Light Sage

Repeated many times. It makes sense, though, doesn't it? Every other sage was someone that Link met as a child. The only character from Link's childhood left completely unaccounted for during his adulthood is Kaepora Gaebora; hence the speculation that they are one and the same. And Kaepoera Gaebora never does appear when Link is an adult, does he? After your initial trip to the Temple of Time, he only appears once more—in the Desert Colossus, when you return to the Spirit Temple as a child. (Right before you meet Nabooru the first time.)

• Furthermore, one of the Sheikah rocks near the Forest Temple states that Kaepoera may be the reincarnation of a Sage...
• I say no, since at no point does Rauru ask, "Did you get all of that?"
  • Actually... When you first enter the Chamber of Sages, and Rauru explains to you how seven years of Ganonrule have passed and how you must now go to cleanse the five temples, he ends that exposition scene by asking something akin to "Do you understand what your destiny is?". If you answer with "No"... he repeats it. Totally pulled a Kaepora Gaebora there.
  • Well, a minor correction: Kaepora Gaebora does appear in the Desert Colossus, but while Link was an adult. He's perched up on a nearby tree during the cutscene of Link playing the Requiem of Spirit with Sheik. That said, this is his only appearance during the adult portion of the game.
    • This is pretty doubtful, Kaepora pretty much says 'I didn't believe you exist' on the last meeting, why would he say this when Rauru should know he's already gotten his hand on the Master Sword and time travelled?
    • Because Kaepora meets Child!Link in the past. When he does, it's the final confirmation for him that "the boy who could travel through time," isn't a myth. He gives Link his last advice as the owl, then leaves to await their next meeting, seven years later. From the time-traveling Link's perspective, the last meeting with Kaepora happens long after he meets Rauru. From Kaepora/Rauru's perspective, however, he doesn't meet Adult!Link as Rauru until after all of his meetings with Link as Kaepora.
• It seems more likely (and possibly implied) that Kaepora Gaebora is some sort of agent for Rauru in Hyrule, rather than outright being him. Rather like a benign version of Aghanim.
• Confirmed in the Hyrule Historia.

Rauru is Link's father

The other five sages in Ocarina of Time are all people from Link's past. Theoretically, Rauru should be someone that Link knew when he was younger, too. All we know of Link is that he is actually a Hylian, not a Kokiri, and that he arrived in the Kokiri Forest as a baby with his already gravely wounded mother. His father, on the other hand, is completely unknown. Although, based on how old Rauru looks, maybe grandfather is more likely...

• To tie it in with the WMG of Link and Zelda being siblings, compare Rauru with King Daphnes in WW; Rauru might have been the King of Hyrule.
  • Actually, the king is alive (but just offscreen) when Link meets Zelda. The manga has him killed in Ganondorf's coup.
• Or it could also be that Rauru is Kaepora Gaebora, whom Link just happened to know as a child.

Sages have two lives. Their mortal life and their (semi-)immortal life

Going with the theory that the sages are dead. It's possible that most of them are dead (execpt Nabooru) but it is not a requirement to become a sage.

My theory is that sages have two lives. The first is their mortal life. In this life, they live just like any other person, and are only required to perform sage duties when needed. Their second life is their "immortal" life. After their mortal bodies die, they gain new bodies that can live forever, the catch being is that they can't return to their normal life, and are sages 24/7. Of course they're not completely immortal, and can be killed with enough power (i.e. an attack from Ganondorf) and when this happens they need to be replaced.

I also believe the same rules apply to the Sages of Earth and Wind. By the time Ganon gets to them, they have already entered their "immortal" life, but were killed again and had to be replaced.

Nabooru's mother was the previous Gerudo chieftain

It's established that when there isn 't a king to lead them, the Gerudos are led by an hereditary chieftain. Nabooru is referred by the Gerduos as their leader and the carpenters refer to the Gerduos as "Nabooru's gang of thieves". She is also Ganondorf's second-in-command but it's never explained how she came to power. Maybe her mother was the former chieftain and was training Nabooru to succeed her, but Ganondorf's birth sidelined that, so Nabooru was made his second-in-command as the person who would have led the Gerudos had there been no king.

Concerning Malon

Malon was going to be the Sage of Spirit

This just hit me before posting. Consider: Nabooru isn't met until it's time to enter the Temple; the Gerudo Mask reminds Talon of Malon's mother (who is theorized to have been Gerudo because of this line), and all the other Sages are met before you open the Door of Time, except Rauru, who's first met the instant Child Link pulls the Master Sword from the pedestal. (unless he's Kaepora Gaebora). It's plausible that Malon was going to be the Sage of Spirit, awakening as a Gerudo over the timeskip. Bonus points for being part of Link's harem along with Zelda, Saria, Ruto, and Nabooru.

• However, save for the red hair, she doesn't look like a Gerudo at all. It's possible that it was planned that she was going to be but was changed into a Marin expy later on. Or, perhaps Gerudo children look like Hylians until they're about in their early twenties or so? But that's its own WMG...

Malon will become Link's wife.

All the other "love interests" become sages (possibly dead, but anyway no longer real), and Zelda is probably Link's sister anyway. She is the only compatible female left, and there is definitely a spark there. Link has to have children to have descendants, which become the future Links from other games.

• Of the three timelines, two (Adult and Defeated) are left without a Link, and the sages aren't awakened in the Child Timeline. On the other hand, the next game in the Child Timeline is Twilight Princess, which features a Link that's grown up as a ranch-hand...
  • The Links are unrelated by blood, this confirmed by The Wind Waker, because the King of Red Lions states that Link isn't related to the Hero of Time.
    • Yes, but the "Hero's Shade" (OoT Link) make an offhand remark about the skills being passed through their bloodline, implying OoT/TP Link are related. This is confirmed in Hyrule Historia (p. 118).
  • To add to this, TP Link is not royalty, so that rules out Zelda; he's not part Zora, which rules out Ruto; Saria is both a forever child and stated herself that "she will always be [Link's] friend", so no-go there for obvious reasons; and he's not part Gerudo, so that rules out Nabooru. Since it's canonically confirmed that TP Link is OoT Link's descendant, Link obviously got with a girl. Given the Childhood Marriage Promise via Talon, Malon is the only other ship tease option. Adding to this, TP Link happens to be a rancher, rides a horse he named Epona, and knows Epona's Song... passed down through the family, perhaps?
    • That doesn't mean he married Malon; maybe he himself passed down the name Epona and the song.
  • To be fair, to be a descendant of someone does not require that person to be directly descended from the ancestor. TP Link could have been a child of someone from OoT Link's extended family. Not to totally shoot down the theory — I think it's good, but to introduce other possibilities.
  • There's no possible way Link has any other immediate family members, since most games in the series often depicts Link as an only child and tends to have a Parental Substitute. As far as this game is concerned, Link's mother was only mentioned in passing while nothing else is known about any other family member. It's not too difficult to think that Link may have his own set of adventures as a fully-grown adult and got with Malon at some point.
  • Link seemed to own Epona as of Majora's Mask, so another Link owning a similar horse with the same name wouldn't automatically connect him to Malon. And the horse grass plays Epona's Song automatically - Link specifically doesn't have to know it. (Otherwise, he wouldn't need the horse call from Ilia to call Epona whenever he wanted.) Also, the only eligible love interest? You're forgetting the Cucco-chasing girl in Castle Town in Ocarina of Time. Link could've ended up with her, as well.

Malon's mother is a Gerudo

I know it's been mentioned before, but I have evidence. Have you ever noticed how around Lon Lon Ranch there's a strange looking sign with a half moon and star? And then you go visit Gerudo Valley/Fortress and see the place adorned with that very same sign (in the original anyway)? If I had to guess why she's not in the game, it might be because when Malon was born and didn't look like a Gerudo, her mom got pissed and left to join the other Gerudos. Which leads me to believe...

Nabooru's second-in-command is Malon's mother

Not only does she look very different from the other gerudos, but she seems to look like she's a bit older as well. Maybe it's because she's a mom and didn't tell anyone. She probably left for at least a year and came back once she had Malon. She's the only unique gerudo we see, other than Nabooru, so it wouldn't be too farfetched.

• Her different appearance could just be a sign of her being the second-in-command of their base or a way to make her look unique.

Talon and Malon are distant descendants of Rauru

This one is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me.

While genetic differences can occur throughout the generations, if you look and Talon and Rauru side-by-side, they bear some resemblance. They both have the same eyes, very similar beard and hair styles and similar facial features (bar the nose, chin and ears). Thus, I believe that Rauru is a distant ancestor of Talon and, by extension, Malon.

This would also mean that either Malon or Talon is a candidate for the new Sage of Light if Rauru hadn't stayed alive in the Sacred Realm, which is consistent with the way that Link meets the other six as children.

Malanya from Breath of the Wild is Malon's distant future incarnation

There are a few references and bits of trivia associated with Malanya that call back to Malon beyond a general association with horses, chiefly his theme (a remixed version of Epona's Song, taught to the player by Malon) and his name (generally similar in English, but identical in Japanese — they're, they're both called Maron). The theory here is that, after Malon eventually dies after the events of Ocarina, her spirit remained to watch over her old ranch and her horses. She eventually enters local folklore as a protector spirit of horses, and as years and centuries pass people take to leaving offerings for her and asking for her help with taming, caring for or finding lost equines. Over time, this allows her spirit to become a full-fledged god of horses, long after the events of Ocarina are otherwise forgotten.

Of course there's the small hitch that Malon is a girl and Malanya is by all appearances male, but a lot can happen over multiple millennia and several transcensions of one's state of existence.

Concerning Fado

Fado will be given a bigger role in OoT 3DS

Maybe references to her wind sage status, giving her a bigger part than just dialogue and giving you a saw, giving her almost all of her original scenes minus wind sage ones, making her the wind sage, etc.

• Except OoT Fado is different from Fado the Wind Sage. Wind Waker Fado is male. Sorry.
  • Fado was meant to be the wind sage in Ocarina of Time, that's what I meant.
• Either way, Jossed

Fado in Ocarina of Time is not a Kokiri

Most Kokiri have orange hair. Link, a Hylian, has blonde hair. Saria has green hair, but she is the Sage of Forest, thereby setting her apart. The only "pure" Kokiri who doesn't have orange hair is Fado. It is possible, therefore, that she is not a Kokiri. This is further supported by her role in the Biggoron's Sword sidequest.

• But the other Fado does also have blonde her and is outright stated to have been the last Kokiri...
  • But WW Fado was also a Sage.
• How is she still a kid though? A ghost?
  • She's still the wind sage.

Fado, rather than being a Creepy Child, actually suffered a Break the Cutie watching Grog becoming a Stalfos.

Let's take a look at the laugh she gives us; it's hesitant and shaky so rather than giving a malicious laugh, it's actually the shaking laughter of someone who just saw a traumatic event. Her asking Link if he's going to become one too is just her wondering if she's going to suffer the same ordeal all over again.

Fado still is the Wind Sage

It's been speculated, maybe even confirmed, that she was the sage of a Wind Temple before being Demoted to Extra just before the game's release. She has a unique model, unique dialogue, and she disappears randomly at one point in the game to never be discussed of again. She discovered she was a wind sage or went to live as a wind sage. However, you weren't let on the action for some reason.

Fado and Mido are twins

It's speculated they're siblings, but maybe they were born at the same time?

Fado dies around the seven year period

Now she's a ghost Creepy Child. Her personality does seem less peppy than before.

Fado isn't just a creepy girl or a ghost

Well, she's creepy, but not out of cruelty or a lack of empathy. How does she know he was there? I mean, yeah, she stumbled upon him, but what if there is more to it? What if she had visited him a few times or watched him as he slept (which is a little creepy, but still)? Not having much contact with the outside world, she is curious as to what it is like. She grows a bond with this boy... then he turns into a Stalfos right in front of her eyes. (Perhaps with a brief bit of remaining humanity, he spares her and runs off, as somehow I doubt an unarmed little girl can kill a Stalfos). He may have even given her the saw, but she (due to trauma) couldn't hold onto it. She watched her friend turn into a Stalfos and is now traumatized! Now she waits until she changes (of course she won't be a Stalfos, but at this point she doesn't really care...) That's right, this entire time we’ve been calling a deeply troubled and hurt girl creepy — how does that make you feel?

• Rather perturbed, considering her creepy laughing throughout the conversation.
  • What could possibly be so condemning as a little bit of nervous laughter?
• Are you suggesting that Fado is the first Kokiri to be transformed into a Korok?
• She wasn't unarmed... she had a saw.

Concerning Ganondorf

Ganondorf: The Ultimate Wallmaster

Wallmasters are creatures that hang from the ceiling waiting for the most opportune moment to pounce on Link. Ganondorf is no different. For the entirety of the game up until Link is about to head to his castle to confront him he's been hiding. Where? On the ceiling of the Temple of Time. Anything hiding up there would be covered in shadow, just as Ganondorf would be. This theory operates on the idea that Ganondorf is not omniscient and doesn't know where Link is all the time, so it would make sense for him to simply wait for someone (in this case, Link) to open the Door of Time for him (which he would have a perfect view of from the ceiling) and then do the signature wallmaster pounce maneuver. Note that Ganondorf is all of a sudden right there when you open the Door of Time an draw the Master Sword.That was not the actual Ganondorf Link sees chasing after Zelda and Impa, that was Ganondorf's phantom duplicate (the boss of the Forest Temple). The real one was right there, right over Link's nose. Also note how Ganondorf never appears in person from the point you beat the Forest Temple to the point Link must enter his castle. Ganondorf was once again waiting on the ceiling of the Temple of Time because he had a feeling you would return there for something important and Zelda reveals herself as Sheik, which was a bonus.

In the Adult timeline, Ganon can never actually be sealed away by the power of the sages.

Behold my reasoning: The six sages represent the six races of Hyrule, correct? Light = Hylian, Forest = Kokiri, Fire = Goron, Water = Zora, Spirit = Gerudo, and Shadow = Sheikah. Oh wait. The Sheikah are all dead. Impa is referred to as the "last of the Sheikah". And if the reasoning of this very wiki is to be believed, upon ascending to her position as the sage of the Shadow Temple, Impa did shuffle off this mortal coil. The only other "Sheikah" in Hyrule is — oh wait, Sheik is Zelda, meaning Sheik is a Hylian, and therefore does not qualify. The six races each maintained one temple in order to keep Ganon sealed away. Therefore, the power of those temples would have to come from those very races. The Sheikah, being vitally challenged, can no longer provide the spiritual mumbo-jumbo to power their seal. QED, by sealing Ganon away a la sages, you've sealed him with a faulty seal. No wonder he breaks out again! Nice job breaking it, Sheikah.

• Who says they need to be alive...?
  • Who says they're not alive in the first place but just in hiding because of their low numbers?
• Hmm... that is true. So then, the Shadow seal is supported by Sheikah spirits?

Concerning Twinrova

Koume and Kotake must stay together to be as powerful as they are.

• No real explanation as the title is self-explanatory, however, it would explain why they battle Link together instead of one at a time. It isn't Tactical Suicide Boss, they just need to be close to each other to be able to use powerful magic, as well as why their Majora's Mask counterparts aren't nearly as powerful, with each running one part of the business, they lose a lot of power (thankfully, it is for Termina's best...)

Twinrova took Nabooru's body.

It has been noticed (by Gamechap of all people) that Twinrova looks like a giant mutated version of Nabooru combined with Koume and Kotake. This could either be because they're Gerudos, or a more horrific answer, they took Nabooru's body so they could use their Double Dynamite form.

Link, having no other choice, and also perhaps not knowing this was the case, destroyed Twinrova and in turn, Nabooru's body, killing her in the process, if she wasn't dead already. If we go by the 'the sages died to become sages' theory, this could possibly be applicable. She was witnessed as being alive before Twinrova attacked her after Link broke the first spell on her.

However, she was killed, and her body was destroyed, and she realized her role as a sage.

• Except for the fact that Koume and Kotake, as mentioned above both assume the same form in the Oracle games, no Nabooru required. That fact may just very well make this theory Jossed.

Twinrova was once a storyteller.

Twinrova used illusory magic to help tell her stories. When interest in her stories gradually faded, she started learning more potent magics to try and keep people interested/immersed in them, which eventually lead to lethal fire and ice spells. Koume and Kotake are rather over-the-top and hammy, and Ganondorf, who they raised as their surrogate child, picked up this habit from them.

Koume and Kotake are the Greater Scope Villains/Dragons-in-chief the whole time.

This has some ties with the Skyward Sword ending, so beware of spoilers of both games. In the ending of Skyward Sword, we learn that Demise will come back to curse to Hyrule for generations. It is pretty clear he is the evil spirit behind Ganon in the centuries to come, and Ganondorf is the mortal he chose as a vessel. Though Ganondorf may not be the one who originally planned to sell his soul to an evil god in exchange for power. Koume and Kotake, being centuries years old witches, may have accumulated long lost knowledge of witchcraft and about Demise himself, and endend up communicating whith him from the Master Sword, in which he remains sealed. The witches' plan is to bring back the evil god they worship back in Hyrule, and to do so, they offer the most powerful person they have at hand: Ganondorf, the only gerudo male and king. To do so, the witches manage to adopt a young Ganondorf (they may have even assassinated his parents behind the shadows.), and they start to mentor him, teaching him in the arts of witchcraft and making him gradually interested in the power of the Triforce and the Sacred Realm, knowing that Demise is contained there and waiting to possess him. In fact, the witches' plan worked: Link opened the Sacred Realm, Demise escaped his imprisonment, possessed Ganondorf and conquered Hyrule turning it in the cursed land it was long time ago. The whole interest of Koume and Kotake in supporting Ganondorf is so their plan of resurrecting their god succeeds.

Twinrova is Ganondorf's mother

Koume and Kotake are Ganondorf's surrogate mothers, but only because Twinovra counts as a separate person, whom the sisters formed to make Ganondorf.

Koume and Kotake were brainwashed

After their battle with Link, the twins both gain one halo each and ascend to the beyond—apparently they go to Heaven (or the verse's equivalent) after they're defeated, despite setting Ganondorf up as a god and presumably aiding him in his schemes.

Unless they did absolutely nothing wrong to begin with they were brainwashed by Ganondorf before he left to conquer Hyrule. While they're powerful, Ganondorf cursed two guardian spirits and infested the Goron's mines with ancient monsters, before he ever stepped foot in the Sacred Realm. Why not start his quest for world domination at home—especially if the witches weren't very supportive of his plans to usher in a dark age.

Not only would Koume and Kotake have been programmed to brainwash any Gerudo who tried to interfere—like Nabooru—with Ganondorf's plans, they also served the purpose of preventing the next Sage of Spirit from hearing the awakening voice, as described by the Sheikah's Legend of Temples.

And then their final battle: Link breaks their bonds to them mortal realm and effectively frees them from the curse.

Twinrova is a corrupted Great Fairy

She's got the floating giant woman with crazy hair thing going like the other great fairies. And Majora's Mask shows that great fairies can be split into smaller forms.

• On that note, in-game lore says the twin witches (Koume and Kotake) raised Ganondorf. Maybe Twinrova is a sort of patron fairy of the Gerudo, or Ganondorf's Fairy Godmother?

Concerning Other Characters

The Marathon Man is a Time Lord.

How else can he consistently beat you in the race, even if you stop time to win the race in 0:00 seconds?!

The Marathon Man is a Stealth Mentor to Link.

He's created by the gods to be a living embodiment of the idea that You Can't Fight Fate, and a warning to Link that even with the ability to control time itself in his hands, he can't solve every problem he comes across with it and should accept responsibility and make due with what he can in spite of the consequences or mistakes he makes (i.e. unwittingly letting Ganondorf get into the Sacred Realm, the sages having to give up their normal lives to help him in his quest, the timeline being split in three with the outcome of the Ganon battle, etc.).

The Poe Collector is the guard from the same lookout station in the Child Link period

Not only do they stand at the exact location, but also both enjoy chaos. The guard says he wishes things were more chaotic while the Poe Collector is very happy that Hyrule is now in chaos. Moreover, the robes the Poe Collector wears bear the Triforce symbol, indicating that he was once involved with the Royal Family prior to Ganon's overtake of Hyrule.

• Basically confirmed when you return to the past and talk to the guy, and he reveals he's a bit of a ghost enthusiast. (In the remake, at least — I don't 100% remember if this was in the original, but given that not many lines were changed/added, it probably was.)
  • It was in the original version, and you don't have to return to the past for him to say that, it just has to be night-time. He'll say that anytime in the game you visit him as long as it's night-time.

Alternatively, the Poe Collector is the kid Link sells the Spooky Mask to.

Note that he does not appear at all in the adult Link period, both of them carry a stick, both like scary things, and the kid wanted to be "heart-pounding". Also, the Spooky Mask resembles a ReDead, which populate Hyrule Castle Town.

• Very unlikely. The Poe Collector refers to Link as a young man. The kid at the graveyard is clearly a few years younger than Link.

The Gerudo captured the carpenters in order to use them for procreation

The Gerudo only have one male child every 100 years. In fitting with their overall Amazon theme, they would naturally kidnap men in order to procreate. Makes you have second thoughts about Link's "rescue" mission...although admittedly, the Gerudo would probably would kill them afterwards, just like the original Amazons.

• Well, I think one of the Gossip stones says that the Gerudo go into Hyrule to "get boyfriends"... So this is pretty darn plausible of a WMG...
  • Even more than just plausible, wear the Gerudo Mask around Castle Town and talk to the men. They freak out like you are there to abduct them.
    • Going by the stereotypical actions and (especially in the original Japanese) feminine mannerisms of the carpenters, the Gerudo might have found the men "less than willing" to cooperate, if not ideal specimens. Considering how a pretty face like Link is thrown into a special walled off cell on his own might mean that his fate might have laid...

The King of Hyrule in this game is King Harkinian.

• Just like in Wand of Gamelon, he ignores all of his daughter's warnings, stupidly trusts someone who ends up betraying him, and almost dooms Hyrule. He probably thought he could bring the physical Triforce of Courage to protect him.

Elite Gerudo have trained to get the Lens of Truth ability naturally.

One of the NPCs mentions that normally it requires strenuous training of the "mind's eye" to see the truth, but the original owner of the Lens could do it differently. It's possible that high-level Gerudo have trained this way, which explains why there are puzzles in the Training Ground and on the way to the Spirit Temple that require the Lens of Truth. This is supported by some evidence that in beta versions of the game in which the medallions were usable items, the Spirit Medallion had the effect of the Lens of Truth, meaning that Nabooru gave you that power. And if this also applies to the Gerudo pirates in Termina, it also explains why some of them can see you even when you're wearing the Stone Mask.

The Great Fairies are actually 4th wall observing Fair Folk

They're helping Link because they'd prefer not have an evil menace worse than themselves around, but they also want to have some fun while they're at it, which is why they scare the crap out of him and the players.

The Know-It-All Brothers forged the Kokiri Sword

They have an advertisement for themselves next to the chest it's kept in, after all, and it seems like most of the other Kokiri didn't know where it was.

Young Punk Guy is half Zora

It's the reason his model looks so different from other Hylians, and the reason we don't see his mom, and the source of his angst. He's caught between two worlds and doesn't fit in either. Cucco Lady is her half-sister.

Dampé is a descendant of Batreaux

I mean, let's look at the similarities. Batreaux retains an ugly, demon-like appearance even after becoming human. Dampé, likewise, is apparently human but has a distinctively ugly, almost unhuman-looking face. Also, they both live on the fringes of society, next to a graveyard.

Gerudo with natural talent in magic and/or a great amount of magical potential have greenish skin

Normally, I'd say that Ganondorf, Koume and Kotake have their unusual skin tones from being related, but the witches are the king's surrogate mothers.

Ruto acts the way she does due to issues with her mother dying

She comes across as bratty (and even as an adult as well to a lesser extent) but it's just her pushing people away without meaning to due to losing her mother. It doesn't matter how rich and powerful you are, it's going to have an impact on you, especiallly if you're someone who is sensitive and emotional, and as much as she tries to hide it, she's someone who cares very deeply about others and a traumatic experience can turn a sensitive soul into a Broken Bird in a heartbeat. Notice how much she warms up to Link and even attaches to him, wanting to marry him. People often treat her like The Scrappy but fail to look at her backstory.

The punk in the adult timeline hasn't died/turned into a Stalfos when you try to bring him the Odd Potion

Rather, he straight up left for somewhere. Something that probably happened was that while he was waiting for Link, he got scared off by something; given he's in the same location where you find the Skull Kid, it's possible he accidentally saw him for the first time and then ran for the hills, having never seen such a strange and potentially threatening thing in his life. This could also explain why there's a saw where he was, likely having dropped it by accident. And given what he said about people (having called them disgusting), he might've finally decided to live like a hermit somewhere remote and safe, unwilling to reintegrate into society (and Link is just one "Mr. Nice Guy" out of everyone in the world), which is why we never see him again. Fado only thinks he became a Stalfos because that's what she believes, but the Kokiri were very much able to leave the forest to celebrate in the ending, meaning there's no guarantee that her claim is correct either.

• Alternatively, he ran away to Termina and started a new life in the Cucco Shack, where people are treating him much better and thus he lost his depressed outlook on the world. If this were the case, it would've occurred either way since Termina is visited by child Link, so perhaps the difference between the two timelines is that Ganondorf's rule in the adult timeline caused some complications that delayed the punk's plans by several years.

Concerning Enemies and Bosses

ReDead behavior

When the player kills a ReDead where there are other ReDeads around, the others will gather towards the fallen one and crouch down. This could mean they are doing one of two things:

• Mourning.
• Devouring.

The ReDeads aren't Ganondorf's minions. Instead, they're the creations of the Royal Family of Hyrule, and their purpose may be to defend the remains of wealthy powerful people.

Some facts to support this theory are the fact that they're referred to as "restless souls" and "living dead". Their masks are carved from coffinwood, and are based on Haniwa, an ancient Japanese funeral ornament placed outside graves to protect the dead. They're first found in the Royal Family's Tomb, and the inscription describing the Sun's Song was built long before the events of the game. In addition, when they die, they don't disappear into smoke like Ganondorf's minions do; instead, they just collapse limply and fade from existence.

All Iron Knuckles are mind-controlled Gerudos

This page shows that prior to the 3DS remake every Iron Knuckle had a Gerudo head under the mask. It seems Nabooru isn't the first Gerudo to suffer this fate.

• They had to create an Iron Knuckle model that had Nabooru underneath, so they just recycled the boss model for every Iron Knuckle in the game.
• Jossed, by Miyamoto's word. They even made it so only Nabooru's has her face under it in the remake.

Volvagia wasn't at full power when we fought it.

It was likely just resurrected by Ganondorf and not fully recovered. Besides: What God (Volvagia is called a God in the Japanese version of Adventure of Link) would be such an easy boss?

• Actually, the Japanese don't take being a god that seriously. One Touhou Project game had two gods as stage 1 bosses.

Volvagia was the guardian of Death Mountain and wasn't always evil.

(Inspired by this video) It's possible that the dragon was an ancient protector of the mountain and its habitants much like Jabu-Jabu for the Zora and the Great Deku Tree for the Kokiri. Like the volcano itself, the dragon could be volatile and aggressive but was ultimately benevolent. As for why the Gorons viewed it as an evil monster, it's likely that they weren't the original inhabitants of Death Mountain given that games taking place before this one depict them as scattered and nomadic and the architecture of the fire temple is noticeably different from the mines made by the Gorons, indicating that a different civilization used lived there but mysteriously disappeared. The Goron either weren't aware of Volvagia's unpredictable nature and assumed it was a monster or Volvagia grew angry with them for mining into the mountain and desecrating the home of the people it once cared for and attacked. When Ganon resurrected Volvagia he either corrupted it or the dragon was acting of its own will and wanted revenge on the Goron people.

• This is particularly notable in light of Volvagia's depictions in later reference materials, such as the Hyrule Historia and the Encyclopedia. When discussing the three guardian spirits in The Wind Waker, the Historia describes the Deku Tree in that game as being descended from the one in Ocarina, Jabun as being descended from Lord Jabu-Jabu — and the dragon Valoo as being descended from Volvagia. The Encyclopedia likewise groups it with the Deku Tree and Jabu-Jabu, and describes it as being "the spirit of Death Mountain".

Concerning Other Things

In Master Quest, Ganondorf fed Jabu-Jabu with cows to spread mad cow disease

And then the sickness got so bad it spawned electric jellyfish plus the boss. Even worse yet, said cows merged with his internal skin to become animal switches to make Link feel bad and lose all his confidence to continue his quest just to open a measly door. Yes, Ganondorf thought about everything.

Alternatively, the cows were the same cows "Them" stole from Romani Ranch and accidentally put them in Jabu-Jabu with Romani as well. Romani was so traumatized by this event that she later escaped from the fish's belly and changed her name to Malon to live a new life

Darn aliens are now messing the storyline by going back in time.

Farore's Wind, Din's Fire, and Nayru's Love are the cut powers of the Forest, Fire, and Water Medallions

For those not in the know, a beta screenshot had the Forest Medallion equipped to a C button, implying it could be used as an item, possibly as a neat spell. Obviously, that didn't make it into the final game, but it's entirely plausible that some of those powers were partly implemented before the concept was cut. Since game programmers hate to waste code, they decided to work what they had into separate items, becoming the fairy spells currently in the game.

Why those Medallions specifically? It seems thematically appropriate.

• It's also theorized that the Spirit Medallion became the Lens of Truth.
  • That fits, because even though you complete the Spirit Temple last, there are several in-game instances in which Spirit is listed before Shadow. And since you need the Lens of Truth in both temples, maybe this was a change that was made late in development...
  • The Light Medallion could be the Mask of Truth.
  • Then what's the Shadow Medallion? My money's on the Ocarina.
  • According to the 1997 beta, both Light and Shadow Medallion can either illuminate or darken places respectively.
• Further evidence that could support this: the entrance room for the Shadow Temple involves a torch puzzle that requires the use of Din's Fire. However, the platform Link must stand on to be properly placed for this spell has an image of the Fire Medallion on it, even though nothing else about the room seems linked to the Fire Temple in any way. Given the developers' tendency to plant visual clues to the solution of a puzzle, it's likely that the medallion image was placed there so the player knew which item/spell to use. Therefore it could be assumed that the image wasn't removed when the medallion-as-spell idea was scrapped, but that the solution spell itself remained in the form of Din's Fire.
• According to this, the medallions actually functioned as the Warp Whistle of the game.
• Why does it have to be the Medallions? Forest, Fire and Water are also the themes for the Child Link dungeons (Great Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern, Jabu-Jabu's Belly). It would be much more consistent to have those three spells correspond to the Kokiri's Emerald, the Goron's Ruby and the Zora's Sapphire, rather than just having three other medallions with (as far as we know) no power.
• Semi-confirmed. In the leaked 1997 build of the game, the Wind (Forest) and Fire medallion didnserve the purpose of Farore's Wind and Din's Fire respectively. The Ice (Water) Medallion is an ice spell instead. None of the others possess the ability that became Nayru's Love.

Location, Location, Location

In between Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, there was a Great Flood, which turned Hyrule into the Great Sea. Although most of it was underwater, many of the islands and locations seem to be remnants of the drowned kingdom. (And as for how those places became islands instead of staying underwater — the Goddesses raised them up.)

• The Gerudo Fortress = The Forsaken Fortress
• Castle Town = Windfall Island
  • The architecture on the island seems to resemble a castle. The resemblance to Kakariko Village is due to the residents of Kakariko moving to Windfall and rebuilding their homes. Eventually, the sub-cultures/architecture of the people from Castle Town and Kakariko Village merged, and they created Windfall.
• Death Mountain = Dragon Roost Island (and Fire Mountain)
  • In Twilight Princess, it's implied that the Gorons don't need to breathe, and can stay underwater indefinitely. So most of them may have felt no need to evacuate to higher ground when the Flood came. (The three travelling merchants — all clearly Gorons — located on Greatfish Isle, Bomb Island, and Mother and Child Isles remain on the surface for business purposes.) So the Gorons stayed in Goron City.
    • The Zoras, on the other hand, despite being highly adapted to aquatic environments, weren't so lucky. Although they seem at home in the water with their fins and gills, their humanoid bodies imply that they aren't meant to be in the water all the time.
    • In real life, most fish are meant to be in either saltwater or freshwater; only a few, like bull sharks, can swim and breathe in both. Some of the Zoras, by praying to the Goddess Nayru, were able to adapt quickly to the saltwater environment, and settled on Greatfish Isle until it was destroyed and they all disappeared. To thank Her, they created Nayru’s Pearl, which housed some of power of the Goddess Herself. They also hatched, nurtured and raised Lord Jabun, the offspring of the demi-god Lord Jabu-Jabu, to watch over them as the new living Water Spirit.
    • The other Zoras travelled north to the top of Death Mountain, and turned to the Goddess Din for aid. In answer to their prayers, She gave them avian features (beaks, feathers, wings) to protect them from the scorching heat, and entrusted a dragon egg to them. This egg held the single surviving offspring of the dragon Volvagia, who was slain by the Hero of Time. When the egg hatched, Din deemed the newborn dragon to be Lord Valoo, the living Sky Spirit. The Zoras, no longer being Zoras, began to call themselves Ritos, in memory of Ruto, the Princess (and later Queen) of the Zoras in ancient times.
    • Although the Ritos had wings, their wings were not big or strong enough to enable flight. So Din instructed Valoo to give each adult Rito one of his scales (which grew back easily). These scales triggered a magical "growth spurt" that caused a Rito’s wings to grow big enough to allow flight. Eventually, it became customary for young Ritos to visit Valoo and receive their wings when they came of age. To thank the Goddess for Her kindness, the Ritos created Din's Pearl, which housed some of the power of the Goddess Herself.
• Kokiri Village and the Lost Woods = The Forest Haven and the Forbidden Woods
  • When the Great Flood came, the Kokiri were completely unprepared. They were afraid to leave their forest, and couldn’t bear to abandon their guardian, the Great Deku Tree. The Deku Tree, who had just reached his juvenile stage of growth, prayed to the Goddess Farore for aid.
    • The Goddess answered by taking away the burden of the human forms the Kokiri took on. They shed their mimicked humanoid features and became what they had always been underneath: the Koroks.
    • The Kokiri, despite their mammalian appearance, had always been sentient plant-people. Instead of blood, they had chlorophyll keeping them alive. When they became the Koroks, they became lightweight enough to use the leaves that the Great Deku Tree shed as makeshift "wings".
    • To thank the Goddess for Her kindness, the Koroks created Farore’s Pearl, which housed some of the power of the Goddess Herself.
  • The Forbidden Woods may also be the former Kokiri village. Remember the two or three cabins containig treasure chests ? They basically look like empty Kokiri houses. The Forest Haven may be just the Deku tree's alcove; the Kokiri may have had to take refuge there becauce it was the only protected place.
    Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes.
    —The Great Deku to Link, when the Koroks reveal themselves.

The Forest Temple is actually the Temple of Time from Twilight Princess

Think about it — it's in the depths of the Lost Woods, it's an overgrown, ruined building, and we already know that the Master Sword has resided in the Lost Woods at least at one other time (A Link to the Past). Given that Twilight Princess appears to have you taken back to the past to obtain the sword, this would suggest that it is the original resting place of the sword, and that it was moved to the Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time more recently. Note the twisting corridors in the Forest Temple, similar to those seen when travelling to Termina — this suggests that the Forest Temple actually links to another realm, likely the Sacred Realm. Indeed, it is plausible that the Sacred Realm is connected to all of the Temples, as those are the places that the evil emanated from when Ganondorf got the Triforce of Power. Note that what would become the Forest Temple in Twilight Princess is actually the Great Deku Tree, so they are not the same temple.

• Except for the fact the Temple of Time in Twilight Princess (not the dungeon that shares its name) is virtually identical to how it appears in Ocarina of Time. In addition, there's ruins in the Sacred Grove that suggest there was civilization before the formation of the Sacred Grove seen in Twilight Princess. If anything, it's more plausible that the Hyrule Castle Town in Ocarina of Time is the Sacred Grove in Twilight Princess. Which is supported by the fact that the Sealed Temple, which is confirmed by Hyrule Historia to be the Temple of Time in Ocarina of Time, shares its layout with the Temple of Time in question, and the fact that Skyward Sword's ending suggests the Master Sword never moved.

About the nature of the six temples.

The fire, water and forest temples are dedicated to Din, Nayru and Farore. The light and shadow temples are dedicated to Hylia and Demise. The first three deities are gone and the last two are dead, yet they can still be recognized in races, magical forces and lesser gods. The shadow temple was built with respect for Demise's divinity but with contempt for his actions, while the spirit temple is the architectural equivalent of The Red Mage.

• I always had the headcanon that all the temples had a secondary use besides being, well, temples.
  • The Forest Temple seems to be some manner of manor, perhaps a vacation castle for the royal family. The place where you fight against Phantom Ganon is quite evidently a museum, so they probably collected art there. Since it was in a sacred meadow, the spirits of the forest started to populate it after it went into decadence.
  • The Fire Temple was explicitely made to house Volvagia.
  • The Water Temple was quite clearly some manner of water treatment plant, and is position in the heart of the biggest body of water allowed it to control the flows in Hyrule (magic probably was used, to). The place where you fight against Morpha was the center.
  • The Temple of Time strikes me as the one that was used as a regular church. Unlike the rest that were exclusively on sacred places and hard to reach, people actually went here to pray.
  • The Shadow Temple is widely believed to have been a mausoleum or a torture chamber. There is A LOT of information to lead to this. The Sheikah were in service of the royal family, so here is probably where they took the enemies of the realm. It became a temple as a way to honor the fighting tradition of the Sheikah, as well as to house the vengeful spirits of the tortured and condemmed (which would eventually became Bongo Bongo). As for the idea of it being dedicaded to Demise...could be, in a way, perhaps he was at some point revered as a god of death, specially by people such as the Sheikah, which dealt with death constantly.
  • The Spirit Temple wasn't dedicated to a particular deity, but rather to the spirits of the desert. The Gerudo seem to have a highly idiosincrasic culture in Hyrule, so they probably uphold different deities (probably the woman of the great statue). They probably had some manner of Egyptian-like animism in which they worshipped their deceased.

The Pedestal of Time contains a timeshift stone.

This timeshift stone is very potent and affects the entirety of Hyrule. When the Master Sword is removed, the timeshift stone is deactivated, and Link is sent back into the present. When the Master Sword is returned to the pedestal, the timeshift stone is reactivated, and Link is sent back to the past. The way that Link ages and un-ages during this process is through sage magic, which is why he has to go to the Sacred Realm each time.

The Ocarina of Time itself is a carved and hollowed out timeshift stone.

Related to the above. The Hyrule Historia compares the glow that the two emit, but stops there. At the same time, the Ocarina is the same color as the stones. This is likely not a coincidence.

• Given the heavy nudge in that direction from the book, it's most likely the case.

There is no such race as the Kokiri.

When Link was told that he was a Hylian and not a Kokiri this was both true and misleading. The truth is there is no such race as the Kokiri; they're all Hylians. Their infinite youth is not an inherent trait of their race. Rather, living in the enchanted Kokiri Forest has the effect of infusing Hylians with fairy traits. The evidence of this is Skull Kid, who went too far into the forest and became a spirit being. Kokiri Village is in the perfect sweet spot where you get immortality while still retaining your normal appearance. This is also why the Kokiri are told they will die if they leave the forest village. They won't die instantly, which is what they believe, but rather they will become mortal again the same way Link did.

• Or perhaps, it's the fairies in combination with the forest that do it. In the forest with their fairies, the Kokiri appear to fade in as you get close to them. In the ending sequence when they are outside the forest, they don't have this fade in and don't have their fairies either. It would also explain several things: why they don't appear more often; how the Maidens and Sages of LTTP and LBW, respectively, are descendants from the original sages (Gully and his parents wear clothes that resembles the Kokiri garb notably, with Gully outright looking like a Kokiri); the reason why they would "die" if they left the forest (they would grow old and die); and notably, the Kokiri (and Link himself) were inspired by Peter Pan, who was known to go to a place where he never had to grow up (along with other "Lost" children, known as the Lost Boys, though girls work, too). However, going deeper into the forest wouldn't cause them to become Skull Kids, but getting lost and staying within the forest too long. Having a fairy with them protects them from getting lost and becoming Skull Kids.

Under the Literary Agent Hypothesis interpretation, this is the one Zelda story where that does not hold true; Ocarina of Time reflects true historical events.

For the simple reason that countries tend not to make up stories involving their humiliating defeat; even in legends with a basis in fact, they tend to gloss over things that reflect badly on them. But it's also notable that the tone of the story is noticeably bleaker and more depressing than other Zelda stories, with the heroes being utter failures for most of the plot and a villain who actually wins. In contrast to her normal portrayal as a perfect and wise saint, Zelda is an overambitious child who leads her country to ruin. And far from being an inspiring role model, this Link is a confused, traumatized individual who falls much closer to Orphan's Ordeal than the typical Conveniently an Orphan. It's possible that these elements could provide some moral/normative storytelling purpose, but it's a lot muddier than most other stories, especially since everything after Majora's Mask takes on a much different tone. It's clear that some legend of the Hero of Time was passed down, but it probably wasn't the one we see in the game, at least not exactly.

Alternatively...

Under the Literary Agent Hypothesis interpretation, everything is fiction.

Prior to The Wind Waker, the intention seemed to be that the timeline Link returned to was the "true" timeline. From a historical perspective, everything that happened during the Time Travel would be unprovable... so what if it never happened at all? What if the real historical events were just the events of the child timeline (Ganondorf is stopped some other way, Bad Future never happens), and the storytellers made up the Time Travel component from whole cloth? That would allow them to shoehorn in their own morals, via Scare 'Em Straight in this case. This would explain the clumsiness of the Diabolus ex Machina, Nabooru's portrayal as a Noble Savage, and the rather interesting undertone of "don't mess with the Triforce, ever" — a concept that the religious authorities might have incentive to perpetuate.

This is seemingly Jossed by The Wind Waker and Hyrule Historia, which state that the Time Travel component really happened, but assuming that wasn't always supposed to be the case, this could have been an intended reading at one point.

The Master Quest version for 3DS is the real canon prequel to Link to the Past

Going by the fact that Kakariko Village has shifted from one side of Hyrule Castle to the other between games (yes, I know Chaos Architecture is a thing, but it struck me as (moderately) strange), and the way the 3DS version of Master Quest flips the screen horizontally. Plus, considering the added difficulty of the bosses, it may or may not fit better with the "Hero Defeated" timeline.

Zoras are a species of human

Unlike the previous games, Zora here aren't monstrous in any way but very humanlike, enough so that Ruto borders on Ambiguously Human as does the rest of her race. Her breasts aren't Non-Mammalian Mammaries, they're breasts. A lot of the developments are certainly plausible from a biological perspective (albeit super unlikely). Zoras seem to be amphibious, but what if like whales and dolphins, they've learned to hold their breath for a really long time? Species of mammals that spend a lot of time swimming adapt accordingly (notice how polar bears can hold their breath so much longer than grizzly bears, polar bears are basically the Zora of bears), and this applies to primates, too. Look at monkeys and apes that swim, look at humans that swim. If this takes place over a period of centuries, people who can hold their breath for longer and longer will be selected for (as we know, populations evolve, not people), and the blue skin could come from adaptations related to staying in the water for so long. As for the eggs? They're not eggs at all, they just evolved so that the amniotic sac always comes out with the baby (happens sometimes in the real world with humans). So basically, OOT Zora may be "fish people" but they're not fish, they're mammals, primates, apes, humans.

The Ocarina of Time remake will be quite different from the original in more then a few elements.

Take a look at the Pokémon remakes for example. Word of God is that this won't be a simple rehash of OoT for the 3DS either. I'm expecting the two unknown sages to be revealed.

• Unknown sages? I thought Fado and Laruto were the sages from that time.
  • Laruto? You're thinking of The Wind Waker, unless they introduce a Laruto in OoT.
    • No, what I mean is, I thought Laruto and Fado were the sages circa OoT, then they died later on, then Medli and Makar become the sages during Wind Waker.
    • Wrong Fado. We're talking about the Kokiri girl.
• Jossed. The 3DS remake simply updated graphics, modified some in-game models, and otherwise just tweaked and optimized what was already there.

The Ocarina of Time remake for 3DS will feature the blue fairy found in the game, as well as the secret area found under the ice of Zora's Domain

And thus fulfilling how Ocarina of Time should have been to begin with, and making all of us who wonder what those were meant for squee with delight.

• Add Fado as a sage and the Wind Temple.
• Jossed.

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