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A-L | Tropes M to Z


    #-C 
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: The bow is your most effective long-range weapon in the game. In fact, it's the only long-range weapon you can have that'll actually hurt standard enemies. Therefore, unlike previous Zelda titles, it is the very last weapon you get. The game even seems to highlight its importance as a weapon by placing it at the very top in the item select screen.
  • 15 Puzzle: In the final dungeon, there's a variation. In several places, there are consoles with these puzzles, but each piece corresponds to a specific room, and you have to move them into varying positions to be able to traverse the dungeon.
  • 20 Bear Asses: Collecting enemy drops allows you to upgrade your items, but isn't exactly necessary. That said, you'd think Monster Claws would be dropping every time you offed a Keese, but the drop rate seems to be completely random besides certain carried items increasing it.
  • 100% Completion: Way more dense than most Zelda games, and deconstructed in some ways.
    • Getting all the heart pieces and heart containers still leaves you missing two hearts, which can only be filled by using two life medals (which takes up 1/4 of your active storage space).
    • Getting every item means obtaining it and then upgrading it 1-2 times. A lot of classically useful Zelda items, like large quivers and bomb bags, will spend the game wasting away in the item check because carrying them takes up one of eight pouch spaces, and it's plenty easy to find refills for your weapon stocks in the world.
    • Also, interestingly, some of the mini games don't help at all towards getting you 100% completion: no matter what score you get on the bamboo cut or bug catch, you'll only get treasures or rupees.
    • Finally, in order to get the Hylian Shield, the game's best shield, you have to stop the Boss Rush mode only 8 rounds in; going into the final round results in you getting rupees and forcing you to start over if you want the shield.
  • Abandoned Mine: The game features the locale known as the Lanayru Mining Facility, which had been abandoned for several hundred years. The minerals that had been extracted there, Timeshift Stones, remain scattered throughout the mines and desert. When struck, these stones cause a temporal effect that sends a part of the area back in time to when it was not so abandoned.
  • Ability Depletion Penalty: The Stamina Meter is used for sprinting, climbing, spin attacks, carrying heavy items, and keeping yourself afloat in sand. Drain the meter completely and Link can't do anything but move around slowly until the circle refills, including actions that don't normally run off the meter.
  • Absurdly Dedicated Worker: The cute Aztec-looking little electric robot guys in the Lanayru Mines. It's out of use, and the robots old stones by now, but Link reactivates the time stones the robots once harvested, which causes things to return to the way they once were (in certain spots). They are proud, single-minded laborers even after all those years.
  • Academy of Adventure: Link and Zelda are students at the Skyloft Knight Academy. Zelda's father is the headmaster.
  • Accidental Misnaming: Happens in the European Spanish version of the game, when you're looking for information on Helias and talk to Horwell. He claims not to know anything about it and recommends to ask... himself.
    Howell: "I recommend you that you discuss this with instructor Howell. He is passionate about these kinds of topics."
  • Adam and Eve Plot: The game ends with Link and Zelda, rather than returning to Skyloft, deciding to remain in what would eventually become Hyrule. While it's probably safe to assume they won't be the only ones to repopulate the surface (the cloud barrier between it and Skyloft has disappeared, making it possible for anyone to come), the Adam and Eve symbolism is still very apparent.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Beedle is the only seller of the valuable Adventure Pouch, which holds your bombs, bottles, medals, etc. He sells three out of the four available Adventure Pouch upgrades, but will only sell them one at a time and the price doubles for each upgrade, starting at 300 rupees and finishing at 1200. He also denies raising the price when the second pouch upgrade is purchased.
    Beedle: "What? Me, raising prices? Never! You're obviously hallucinating.
  • After Boss Recovery: You get a heart container after each significant boss, as is tradition for the Zelda series.
  • After the End:
    • This game takes place after a demonic war resulted in the goddess Hylia moving the human population of what eventually becomes Hyrule to a safe haven in the sky. Fortunately, things get sorted out and the surface ends up thriving again sometime between this game and The Minish Cap, which is currently the first game chronologically to feature a Link native to the surface.
    • Within this game, the Lanayru Province, with its ruined factories that are fully industrial under the influence of an active Timeshift Stone, suggests that the entire Zelda franchise takes place in this. The region itself has certainly seen better days; in Link's own time period, it's a vast desert, but under the influence of Timeshift Stones, it is full of lush plant life and borders a sea, whose harbor is all but abandoned in Link's own time.
  • Air-Aided Acrobatics: Eldin Volcano features many hot steam sources that can catapult Link upwards using his sailcloth. It becomes really acrobatic in one section with three hot steam sources in a row, and no safe platform in between them.
  • Airborne Mook: Sky Octoroks, which appear exclusively in the Sky, fly through leaves attached to their tops, which they spin like propellers.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: After destroying robot Stalfos pirate Scervo, Fi says that she cannot help but admire Scervo's tenacity in keeping alive while all other robots broke down.
  • All Myths Are True: In Twilight Princess, there is a Mr. Exposition who rambles about the rumors of a civilization who lives in the clouds closest to the heavens and that the people who lived there, the Hylians, are descended from the gods themselves. This game proves both, the latter of which is a key plot point for Zelda's background: she is the goddess Hylia reincarnated in human form.
  • All the Worlds Are a Stage: The game has Sky Keep. Except for the entrance lobby and the Silent Realm rooms where you collect each piece of the Triforce, every room has the aesthetics and music of all the previous dungeons, with mixups and variations to keep them fresh (for example, the room based on Skyview Temple mixes the flora and music of the original dungeon with the architecture and atmosphere of the upper part of the Ancient Cistern, while the area of Ancient Cistern itself is based on the original dungeon's lower part and features a Boss Rush against minibosses). This dungeon lacks a boss on its own, but after completing it the endgame (which includes the final story cutscenes, a Multi-Mook Melee and the last two bosses, all of them in the overworld) starts immediately.
  • Already Done for You: Impa presses a switch in Eldin Volcano that activates a bridge so Link can pass over a lava pit.
  • Already Undone for You: Zelda manages to get all the way through the first dungeon of the game, yet all the puzzles present in that dungeon are reset by the time Link catches up. Partly justified; Zelda both has help and uses different methods from Link to traverse obstacles. Sometimes inverted when a gate or a bridge is set in a way that, because it has already been used, serves as an impassable block to Link's progress, and someone else has to solve the puzzle or open the gate in order for him to continue.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: There's one for Demise, complete with the occasional lightning strike and Floating Water.
  • Ambushing Enemy: Starting in this game, octoroks remain hidden underground and use an object on their head, usually a bush or a rock, to blend in with the environment, revealing themselves only when they emerge to take a shot at Link.
  • Anachronism Stew: The game gets really crazy with the ancient/futuristic mishmash by the time you get to the Lanayru Desert, where the futuristic parts are actually from the past.
  • Ancient Evil: The Demon King, Demise, is a sealed entity of evil stated to be the source of all monsters. He is also Ghirahim's master, whom he plans to unseal by sacrificing Zelda's soul. In the English version, Demise lays a curse on all those who would descend from the Link and Zelda of that game implying that Ganondorf (or Ganon, as the case may be) is the corporeal form of the "curse of Demise"..
  • And I Must Scream:
    • The entire Lanayru desert is littered by the time-ravaged, rusted remains of the Ancient Robots, a population of robots who used to thrive in the past, when the desert was a luscious forest filled with precious "Timeshift Stones". It's implied they may be still active, reacting with a pitiful beep when you try to communicate with them. One of them, restored to life by a "Timeshift Stone" (that "resets" his personal timeline to a point in the past) is shown to be fully aware of being living on borrowed time.
    • Lanayru himself until you heal him died a long time before Link can first meet him. So, you can only meet a rotten skull, staring at you with his empty eyesockets as you try to communicate with him.
    • The Greater-Scope Villain himself, Demise, appears first as The Imprisoned, an inhuman monster, scattered and sealed in a mystical pillar since ancient times, unable even to restore his physical appearance for ages.
    • Zelda has to seal herself for several thousands of years, sleeping to direct her energies to the seal keeping The Imprisoned in, unable to wake up on her own.
  • And That's Terrible: Finding a Rupoor is, as the game assures, "a little bit sad."
  • Animal Motifs: In previous games, the Kingdom of Hyrule in general was associated with birds, and this game hints why: The Goddess Hylia, the namesake of Hyrule, came to the mortal world on a Loftwing (huge bird) which the people of Skyloft (the proto-Hyrule) get around on. Hence the birdlike Royal Crest in chronologically subsequent games. On a more subtle level, the older and more important characters in Skyloft wear robes closely modeled on those worn by the Rito in The Wind Waker.
  • Animal Theme Naming: A number of Skyloft's citizens have bird-inspired names. Pipit and Piper are two species of birds. Fledge(ling) is a term meaning a young bird. Groose, Orielle, and Karane are similar to "Grouse"/"Goose" (and "rooster," emphasized by his pompadour being like a rooster's comb and his normal walking animation being to strut around), "Oriole", and "Crane", and Stritch is clearly "Ostrich". Instructor Owlan's name has "Owl" in it, and Sparrot and Parrow are both combinations of "Sparrow" and "Parrot", with Sparrot's name being a portmanteau of "sparrow" and "tarot" (seeing as he's a fortune teller). Knight Commander Eagus gets his name from "eagle". Combine the names Luv and Bertie and you get "lovebird". The headmaster is named after the owl from Ocarina of Time and other games. In the case of Cawlin, his name is either from "macaw" or the sound a crow makes.
  • Another Side, Another Story: During the end credits, you get to see Zelda's side of the whole situation and how she ended up where she was when you met up with her.
  • Antepiece: A large part of Lanayru Province is based on how the concept of the Timeshift Stones gradually increases its complexity and importance: The first such stone, found in Lanayru Mine, is in a hazard-free area where Link can activate it to revive some robots and use the now-functional electric minecarts, so he can quickly familiarize with how time travel works with these devices; subsequent stones have to be activated to sort bigger obstacles like quicksand, pitfalls and spiky obstuctions. By the time Link reaches the Lanayru Mining Facility, he'll deal with stones attached to magnetic carts that move when they're activated, meaning that he has to perform the corresponding actions quickly to avoid being outrun and having to repeat the process. As the game progresses and more areas of Lanayru Province are unlocked, Link will face bigger challenges like navigating through a Sand Sea by using a motorboat that turns any nearby sand into water (which also brings back enemies and hazards that no longer exist in the present, so it's by no means a harmless ordeal), using a Timeshift Orb to make the surroundings of the Pirate Stronghold regress into their past form as Link walks past them, using only one Timeshift Stone available in the Sandship (by shooting it from different angles and locations) to change everything between past and present at once, and finally transporting a normal Timeshift Stone with a cart that moves through the gigantic loop of Lanayru Gorge (filled with all sorts of enemies, pitfalls, obstructions and hazards) to take it to the remains of the Thunder Dragon to revive him.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: All areas that require the use of bombs to continue have bomb flowers placed nearby, letting Link replace the used-up bombs or progress even if he doesn't happen to have any on hand at the moment.
  • The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: Originally, Groose was just a bully and a Jerk Jock. However, when he follows Link to the surface and sees The Imprisoned nearly break free of its seal, he volunteers to keep watch over the seal and even builds a surprisingly effective bomb launcher to help Link the next few times the Imprisoned tries to escape. By the end of the game, he's a hero in his own right, and there's no trace of his former enmity with Link.
  • Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: According to Fi's description of him, Demise appears differently in each epoch and to each person who lays eyes on him, though this is an Informed Attribute as her description of this is the only hint that it is the case.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Timeshift Stones, which turns the area around it back to the state it was in the past. This includes enemies, who will revive when within range of a Timeshift Stone and then suddenly vanish back into skeletons/rubble if they stray outside it. Inexplicably, Link is exempt from these changes.note 
  • Arcadia: Skyloft is a Floating Continent version. It's an idyllic, peaceful island in which the Hylians have lived since Hylia elevated its ground from the mainland of the surface after the imprisonment of Demise.
  • Arduous Descent to Terra Firma: During the game's prologue, it is revealed that the goddess Hylia had transported the landmass sustaining the village of the Hylians (Skyloft) to the high skies as a means of protection against the reaches of the monsters that were ravaging the land. Link and Zelda have lived in Skyloft since their birth, but after the Wing Ceremony, the girl gets abducted by an evil tornado. When Link recovers his consciousness, he's guided by a spirit (Fi) to the interior of Hylia's statue, where he has to place an Ancient Tablet to dispel a part of the dense clouds beneath the floating islands so the young hero can land onto the surface and begin his quest to find his childhood friend.
  • Armor Is Useless: Link starts with normal clothes before getting his trademark tunic, which in this game clearly has chain-mail under it. This has no effect on the amount of damage taken, though it doesn't slow him down either, not that anyone would expect that.
  • Armor Meter: Shields use a meter to indicate how much more damage they can take. The final shield doesn't take damage, but still has a meter.
  • Armor of Invincibility: The Hylian Shield, which you get by completing exactly 8/12 of the Boss Rush, is completely indestructible. Even though it has a "Break Meter."
  • Arrow Cam: Though it's not used for the Arrows, but for the Beetle. Fi even encourages you to use it to scout out an area.
  • The Artifact: Both the original and the HD release were anniversary releases for the series (25th and 35th, respectively) and the game is thus chock full of references to past games. However, the Academy celebrating its 25th loses more meaning since the HD game now celebrates the 35th.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • In order to take advantage of the new control scheme, the enemy AI has become smarter and more strategic, more consistently blocking Link's attacks and require a lot more dodging, to accommodate the new controls. Even enemies like Bokoblins (a veritable Red Shirt Army in Twilight Princess, and they weren't anything special in their debut in The Wind Waker either) will stomp on your fingers if they spot you on a ledge.
    • Also goes for Skulltulas, who do their best to hide their weak backside. This is a far cry from the Skulltulas of Ocarina of Time, who simply turned around and exposed their weak undersides for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
    • Bokoblins, despite their descriptions of being not terribly intelligent, will do various things such as taking cover from lobbed bombs, running away from (or even attacking) the Beetle if you fly it near them, throwing their boulders if Link catches them at close range (so they don't drop them when Link attacks them), and so on.
    • Lizalfos defy the ease of sniping enemies from afar with your bow by blocking every shot you try to take at them from the front, even if they're not aware of your presence.
    • When a Bokoblin carrying a monster horn is slain in battle, every other Bokoblin in the area will charge over to grab it and defend the one who obtains it.
    • The Bokoblin smartness is deliberately removed when Link is forced to battle his way through an utterly absurd number of Bokoblins to reach the Big Bad before he uses Zelda to revive the Final Boss; Link can slice through dozens of them with them rarely, if ever, blocking his blows.
    • Ghirahim will catch your sword, rip it out of your hands, and use it against you if you telegraph which direction you'll be striking from (by holding your sword at the beginning point of your slash for too long) while fighting him. He also can't be damaged by Skyward Strikes, so you'll have to feint past his guard to deal damage.
  • Artificial Stupidity: As pointed out above, during the penultimate battle, Link has to fight his way through several hundred bokoblins to reach the boss, so their ability to block is almost completely removed (because if they acted like normal bokoblins this part would end up being Nintendo Hard). During the gauntlet, only minibosses and the very occasional bokoblin have the ability to block. Link can mow through bokoblins as easy as cutting grass for the most part.
  • Art Initiates Life: A Goddess Wall can generate a variety of items based on what Link draws.
  • Artistic License – Chemistry: It's never explained how rupoors cause Link to lose money or why the black ore that they're made of has such an undesirable reaction with rupees. To top it off, glittering spores will change rupoors into rupees.
  • Art-Shifted Sequel: The game sports a semi-Impressionistic look that's basically a cross between the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess art styles, featuring the cel-shading and bright colors of the former with the realistic proportions of the latter.
  • As Long as There Is Evil: The game reveals why Hyrule and the rest of the world is still plagued by evil. After being defeated by Link, Demise informs Link, that the hatred and grudge of him and the entire demon race ("Mazoku") he spawned, is always evolving and will always war with the gods' tribe, which shall haunt not only the Gods and the surface dwellers for all eternity, but also those who try to stand in the way of the demons ("Spirit of the Hero") and the descendants of Hylia's mortal bloodline ("Divine Blood").
  • Asteroids Monster: Like Twilight Princess before it, Chuchus merely split apart into smaller Chuchus when you slice through them. But watch your angle of attack — a horizontal slice will result in the smaller Chuchus landing one on top of the other and immediately recombining into their larger form.
  • As You Know: Employed verbatim, repeatedly during the earliest parts of the game, to explain the Back Story of Skyloft to the player via Link.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: The huge wave of enemies Ghirahim sends at you for the express purpose of stalling you while they die.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Punch-Out!!-styled. Tentalus, Scaldera, Moldarach, and Bilocyte all have this in their eyes.
  • Attack of the Monster Appendage: Before you fight the Medusa-Kraken-hybrid-like Tentalus in the Sandship, its tentacles attack the ship you're on, bursting through walls and such.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
    • As a recurring Easter Egg in the Zelda series, you can make the Final Boss, Demise, lose focus by whipping out the Bug Catching Net, giving you an opening to slice him up. You can even reflect his Skyward Strikes with it, a la A Link to the Past.
    • Moblins become fixated on nearby primed bombs and slowly back away from them. Because of this, you can easily run behind and attack them. If you do, they'll turn around and retaliate, forgetting about the bomb that's about to blow up behind them.
  • Award-Bait Song: The Ballad of the Goddess is not only bombastic, but also serves a a major plot point in-game to unlock an ancient gate.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Sacred Shield can automatically repair itself. That said, it costs 500 rupees, requires rarer treasures for upgrades, and even its Healing Factor can be overtaxed with enough damage.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Gondo's mother is always complaining about how she's stuck doing all her son's dirty laundry while he fixes his robot. Even after you help him complete this task, this continues, making him seem selfish. However, if you talk to Scrapper at night at Gondo's home, he'll reveal that Gondo has been building his mother an automatic washing machine.
  • Background Music Override: The underground zone of the Ancient Cistern has a theme that overrides the enemy music. This is the only dungeon theme in the game capable of doing this.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. While the Big Bad is defeated at the end as usual, he gets a parting shot in by cursing Link and Zelda to be eternally followed by an incarnation of his hatred. This is implied to be the reason future incarnations of Link and Zelda always have to contend with some great evil, meaning Demise will indirectly continue to wreak destruction on Hyrule forever.
  • Bad Present: The Lanayru Region becomes this once you start messing around with Timeshift Stones and see how lush, green, and lively it was before it became a barren desert wasteland. This is particularly jarring with the Sand Sea, which was an actual ocean before it dried up.
  • Bag of Holding: You can fit shields in your adventure pouch, a tiny sack you wear on your belt. He later pulls out a piece of fruit about three feet across, staggering under its weight.
  • Bag of Spilling: The Eldin Song of the Hero quest starts with Eldin Volcano erupting as Link descends from the sky, knocking him out and allowing the Bokoblins to steal his items. The entire quest revolves around making your way through the area while slowly regaining your items to progress.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: Ghirahim, in the first part of his duel with Link, can block Link's sword with the tips of his fingers in a distinctly Aizen-ish manner. Not only that, but he can actually snatch Link's sword out of his hands and use it against him.
  • Batman Gambit: While Zelda has her own important role to fulfill in the goddess's plan (being the mortal reincarnation of said goddess), her Damsel in Distress status was deliberately, albeit unknowingly, self-inflicted to motivate Link to take up the mantle of Chosen Hero.
  • Bat Out of Hell: Keese, which as usual comes in normal and fiery forms, but the game also premieres an electric subspecies that is found in the caves and dungeons of Lanayru Desert, as well as an undead species in Fire Sanctuary (but interestingly not the Big Boo's Haunt area of Ancient Cistern) that can inflict a temporary curse that prevents the usage of items or weapons.
  • The Battle Didn't Count: You fight Ghirahim three times— not until you kill him, but until he gets tired of fighting you.
  • Battle in the Rain: Tentalus in the Sandship, Bicolyte in the Sky, and the final battle against Demon King Demise in the past era. Except in the latter case, the storm gets weaponized.
  • Battle Strip: Ghirahim, in the second battle. Downplayed because he appears to retain some kind of skin-tight bodysuit. It's exaggerated in the third and final Ghirahim battle. Ghirahim magically removes his actual skin, revealing his true form.
  • Battle Theme Music: The game features multiple boss tracks as usual, but there's also a special case: One of the bosses, The Imprisoned, has a sophisticated Variable Mix that comes into effect depending on the situation. There's the theme for the boss simply walking, one for when the player is controlling the Groosenator, one for when the boss is close to its destination, and one for when the player is controlling the Groosenator during that dangerous proximity.
  • Beating A Dead Player: Due to a rare glitch, you can, by repeatedly attacking a dying enemy after a Fatal Blow, cause it not to disappear and become a harmless black piñata.
  • Become a Real Boy: The demon Batreaux wishes to be human since his frightening appearance, as a demon, scares the living daylights out of almost everyone within Skyloft. Give him enough Gratitude Crystals, and he succeeds, with the nice bonus of monsters disappearing from Skyloft and Remlits no longer turning hostile at night.
  • Bee-Bee Gun: Beehives can be dislodged to release a swarm of angry bees at anything underneath. Or, once you get the upgraded mechanical beetle, can be carried and dropped on any nearby enemies. Some even run in fear when they see buzzing stinging death approach.
  • Beneath the Earth: The prologue says that the demons originally came from here when they sought to obtain the Triforce.
  • BFS:
    • Koloktos wields not one, but up to six grossly oversized swords. The real fun begins once Link can steal and use them against their owner.
    • During the final fight with Ghirahim, he summons a massive broadsword that is large enough to serve as an impromptu shield, requiring you to slice it in two before landing a blow on his chest Later, Ghirahim turns into one which is used by Demise, as he is Fi's counterpart as a sword spirit.
  • Beware the Skull Base: The Pirate Stronghold, located in the Lanayru Sand Sea, was built beneath the skull of a very large creature that died long ago, and was formerly the base of a group of now-deceased pirates.
  • Big Bad: Demon Lord Ghirahim, the most active villain in the plot. He is technically The Dragon to his master whom he's trying to revive, but has a much more prominent role in the story's events, even though he's not actually the Final Boss.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: The Ancient Cistern is a mix between Down the Drain and this. Its basement floor is not only much darker than the cheery above-ground level, it's also filled with poison water and Cursed Bokoblins.
  • Big, Bulky Bomb: The Groosenator is designed to launch giant-sized bombs to stun the Imprisoned, as well as putting it down when it starts flying.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Link pulls this after getting through the third dungeon, saving Zelda and Impa from Ghirahim's ambush. It also gives you an opportunity to throw an awesome retort back in Impa's face after her harsh words towards you earlier for your lack of punctuality.
    • Groose also does this in the endgame, by catching Zelda once Demise flings her up into the air.
    • Early in the game, when Zelda pushes Link off of Skyloft to get him to practice, she quickly realizes that Link was telling the truth about not being able to sense his Loftwing and quickly calls her own Loftwing to save him.
  • Big Damn Reunion: Zig-zagged. Link spends much of the game following in Zelda's footsteps, but every time he catches up to her, they're separated again before even getting a chance to say "hello": in the Fire Sanctuary, Impa stops Zelda from speaking to Link and tells him off for letting her get captured. At the Temple of Time, Ghirahim shows up, forcing Impa and Zelda to make a hasty escape into the past while Link holds the line. They finally meet properly in the past, but Zelda isn't in the mood for a happy reunion, instead explaining how her previous incarnation manipulated Link into accepting his quest and passing on some final instructions before sealing herself away to maintain the seal on Demise. It's finally played straight when Zelda awakens after Demise is destroyed, including a heartfelt embrace and Fade to White.
  • Bigger on the Inside:
    • The Sandship ends up being a lot larger when you actually board it, compared to when you're chasing after it on Skipper's boat.
    • The interior of Sky Keep, including its eight shifting rooms, is way larger than the Isle of the Goddess that it's located within.
  • Bioluminescence Is Cool: The glow caps in the underground levels of the Skyview Temple and Ancient Cistern. Also, weirdly enough, Demise's hair.
  • Bird-Poop Gag: Guays will attempt to poop on Link's head, which will gradually drain his stamina. The droppings can be removed with a roll or Spin Attack.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Even through all the happiness of reawakening Zelda and the two protagonists settling down to start a new land, Fi and Impa's departures are sad, and Demise goes out with an As Long as There Is Evil speech, setting up for the later uprisings of monsters. Justified Trope, of course, as this is chronologically the first game in the franchise, and a completely perfect ending would mean the later games in the timeline and its eventual branches wouldn't happen.
  • Bizarrchitecture: Sky Keep, whose rooms can be moved via special tile panels like a sliding puzzle, drastically changing the layout of the dungeon.
  • Blocking Stops All Damage: The game gives Link a shield gauge that shows how much the shield can take before destruction, but his greatest shield (the unlockable Hylian Shield) is invulnerable.
  • Block Puzzle: Compared to previous Zelda games, Skyward Sword cuts down on these considerably, but they're still present in some select areas of Lanayru Desert.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Demise is finished off when Link plunges the Master Sword through his chest at the end of their battle. When he gets up and prepares to plant his sword into the ground, however, there is no visible wound.
  • Blow That Horn: Bokoblins sometimes carry horns, which they can use to summon other Bokoblins.
  • Blow You Away: The Gust Bellows work similarly to the Gust Jar above, but lack the "suck" part.
  • Body to Jewel: The Spanish translation of the game makes Evil Crystals the "petrified hearts of malicious monsters". Fittingly, the Zombie Bokoblins are the ones dropping them.
  • Bombardier Mook: Hroks are stork-like enemies that perch on trees and fly off towards Link when they spot him, staying high above his reach and regurgitating large rocks in an attempt to crush him. In the early game they're entirely impossible to harm once they get into the air — they never drop low enough for Link to reach, and can only be dealt with preemptively by dropping bombs on them when they're still roosting — but become more manageable once Link gets the bow and arrows.
  • Bond Creatures: The Loftwings to the Skyloftians. Link's bond with his rare Crimson Loftwing is said to be especially strong.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Two examples:
    • If Ghirahim had actually just killed Link when they first met rather than constantly screwing around and toying with him, his plans would have gone off without a hitch. He even acknowledges this.
    • If Demise had not agreed to a duel with Link rather than just going on to the Triforce when he had the chance, the world would be his for the taking.
  • Book Ends:
    • Meta-example: Twilight Princess was a Wii launch title, while Skyward Sword was released on the tail end of the Wii's life cycle.
    • An In-Game example as well with Ghirahim being the boss of the first and last dungeons (not counting the Sky Keep, which has no boss).
    • At the beginning of the game, Zelda sends her Loftwing to wake Link up so he won't forget to meet her before the Wing Ceremony like he promised. At the end of the game, just before the Final Boss fight, Link greets Zelda as she awakens from her self-imposed slumber to maintain the seal over Demise, just as he promised earlier.
    • The very first and very last area of the surface that you visit is the Sealed Grounds (though in the past, it's technically called Hylia's Realm according to the map).
    • The final dungeon is directly across from the game's Noob Cave.
    • The Staff Roll music begins and ends with the same sub-melody.
    • The Statue of the Goddess is the first and the last place where Link and Zelda are shown together.
    • Link and Zelda's Loftwings flying together without their riders only happens at the beginning and the end of the game.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • The slingshot, compared to the other games, where it's normally quickly replaced by the bow. Now that the bow is a Sniper Weapon obtained much later in the game, the Slingshot sees much more usage this time and its ability to stun enemies can prove valuable. You can even upgrade it to fire multiple shots.
    • Link can fully regenerate his hearts by sitting down on a chair to rest for a while. This is especially useful in Hero Mode, when there are no heart drops, but the surface is littered with stumps and stools that Link can rest on to quickly recover fully. Even some dungeons have them.
    • The Gust Bellows, which is essentially a leaf blower that's powered by magic. It does no damage to enemies and will push back only the lightest of foes a few feet away from Link when he uses it against them. Doesn't mean that it isn't incredibly useful when solving puzzles requiring a controlled force of air, however. It is also good for keeping enemies from seeing you (like when you're captured by Bokoblins on Eldin Volcano) or stunning/throwing off balance certain enemies, and can blow explosive burrs off of tightropes.
    • The Iron Shield. It's considerably cheaper than the Sacred Shield, more resilient than the Wooden Shield, and can be easily upgraded with small treasures.
  • Boss-Altering Consequence: The Bug Net is not required to beat Demise but pulling it out during the battle will cause him to temporarily stop attacking, and it can also deflect his Skyward Strike back at him.
  • Boss Arena Recovery: In some of the arenas, unfortunately not in Hero Mode or the Lightning Round.
  • Boss Banter: If you do very badly against Ghirahim, he will take your sword and chastise you for your poor technique.
  • Boss Corridor: The Earth Temple has an interesting variant of it. You ascend an empty, long corridor upwards to what looks like the boss arena... but then Ghirahim appears, locks the path to the next room and unleashes Scaldera upon you, a sentient boulder that rolls down the slope. That's right, the corridor is the boss arena.
  • Boss Dissonance: zig-zags between the two extremes during the first half. On the one hand, you have the easy Skyview Temple followed by Wake-Up Call Boss Ghirahim, and on the other, the much more difficult Earth Temple and Lanayru Mining Facility having very easy bosses. There's also, the fairly difficult first battle against The Imprisoned outside a dungeon. A Downplayed Trope in later dungeons, however: Notwithstanding Tentalus, the other bosses are generally on par with their levels of residence difficulty-wise. In fact, it's after the first half of the game when overworld bosses battles appear, further blurring the difficulty curve.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: During the Bokoblin horde battle near the end, one of the monsters Link needs to kill to lower a barrier looks like an ordinary Blue Bokoblin. However, it's much faster and more aggressive, and can take many more hits.
  • Boss Remix:
    • The first battle theme of Levias is a remix of Skyloft's theme. The second is a remix of The Sky's theme.
    • Ghirahim's battle theme is a remixed rendition of his Leitmotif, with castanets, choir, and snare-line added in for each battle.
  • Boss Room: Subverted with the Sandship. Its boss room contains nothing important, and upon entering, you are immediately forced to flee from giant tentacles that try to grab you and water rushing in through the holes they've punched in the hull. The actual boss fight against Tentalus, the owner of said tentacles, takes place on the upper deck.
  • Boss Rush: Returning from Ocarina of Time 3D in the form of the Lightning Round minigame by Thunder Dragon Lanayru. Also, Sky Keep has a variant where, leading up to the Triforce of Courage, you must pass through in three successive rooms containing strong enemies and minibosses.
  • Boss Subtitles: Present for the majority of bosses, though it's subverted when you fight The Imprisoned, which has no accompanying description other than its name (also done with Demise proper).
  • Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: If you fall off Skyloft, one of the knights will rescue you and drop you off on one of the boardwalks, lecturing you for being careless.
  • Boundareefs: The explorable part of Lanayru Sand Sea is entirely enclosed by a thin strand of rocks.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: The Hylian Shield can seem like a useless reward, since it's available very late in the game and getting it requires beating eight bosses in a row, proving you don't really need it. However, it's still useful against the Final Boss, and you can use it in another run of the Boss Rush. But then there's the reward for beating all twelve bosses, which is filling your wallet to max capacity. At this point, you probably bought everything useful ten hours ago.
  • Brats with Slingshots: Returning from Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess is the Slingshot, which Link can give use to for a longer time than in those two games due to the Bow appearing much later this time. Funnily, the weapon is given to him by an adult Kikwi, instead of a Hylian child.
  • Breakable Weapons: Shields have a durability meter, and if it runs out, they shatter and are lost entirely (the rare Hylian Shield is the exception). Also applies to Ghirahim's large claymore in the final stage of his Boss Battle (see Shielded Core Boss).
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Aside from a variety of in-game control instructions and tutorials, Fi herself will alert the player if "the batteries in your Wii Remote are nearly depleted;" this will happen surprisingly often, as Skyward Sword's extensive use of the WiiMotion Plus drains the remote's batteries more quickly than most other games.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • Ghirahim is the first boss in the series to give up a Heart Container once defeated and not die. Twice.
    • Revisiting a main boss room having sub-bosses: the first boss.
    • Revisiting main locations again having a different atmosphere and a required revisit: Faron and Eldin Provinces.
  • Breaking Out the Boss: Ghirahim's entire motivation is freeing Demise, his boss and the essentially the source of all monsters in Hyrule. Surprise surprise, he pulls it off without too much trouble.
  • Bridge Logic: Link can use bombs to fell Bokoblin sentry towers so he can bridge chasms.
  • Bring It: Link's response when confronted with Ghirahim's Bokoblin horde is to simply shoot them a Death Glare and grab the hilt of his sword.
  • Broken Bridge: Despite the fact the people of Skyloft have mastered metallurgy and manufactured many flying machines, they can't replace a simple lost propeller that turns a windmill, forcing a Chain of Deals to find it and restore it.
  • Bug Catching: The Bug Net makes a comeback, and bugs caught with it can be given to an NPC in order to improve Link's potions.
  • Building Swing:
    • Link can swing on vines and ropes to get from one place to another.
    • Later in the game, he can use the whip for this very same purpose.
  • Bullfight Boss: The Moldorms appear to be Chasing Your Tail enemies, but they also charge and will stun themselves if they charge into a wall.
  • But Now I Must Go: Fi, the spirit living within the Master Sword and your companion throughout the game, seals herself in the Master Sword in eternal sleep after the defeat of Demise. Shortly afterwards, Impa also leaves by dissolving into tiny balls of light.
  • But Thou Must!: When you go through The Gate of Time and witness Zelda sealing herself up in the past in order to prevent a great evil from escaping, she asks you to make a promise to wake her up in the future. Your three available replies are "I promise.", "I will.", and "Of course!" Justified as a negative response would be counterproductive to the plot, out of character, and a dick move.
  • Buy or Get Lost: This trope is exaggerated. Beedle constantly pedals to power his flying shop, which is accessed by ringing a bell and then climbing a ladder. If one were to leave his shop without buying anything, not only does he call them out for forcing him to put in extra leg power for nothing, he drops them out a trap door.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Even in a game where Link's home is a Floating Continent, he's not safe from the duty that destiny entrusted to him, same case with Zelda. In fact, this game reveals the reason why all Links in the franchise go through hardships to confront the forces of evil, no matter how peaceful their lives were beforehand.
  • Can't Refuse the Call Anymore: Following Zelda's abduction, this happens when Link finally makes the jump from the safety of The Sky to the desolate Surface below.
  • Cartoon Bomb: The Bombs, as usual; but of special note is that, as heavily implied in several games and made pretty explicit in this one, the Bombs Link uses are made from Bomb Flowers. Furthermore, they're harvested by Gorons; it's their 'special fruit' that only grows in the caverns they live in. Bombs are a common buyable item; the Gorons have a pretty sweet business going in a world that apparently has a lot of demolition being done by casual citizens.
  • Cassandra Truth: Shortly before Zelda has Link train for the race, Link informs her that he can't sense his Crimson Loftwing anywhere. Zelda initially thinks Link is attempting to weasel out of training. Unfortunately, she doesn't discover until shortly after shoving him off that Link was actually being honest: his Crimson Loftwing really was missing, and she quickly dives down on her own bird to save him.
  • Cataclysm Backstory: Hinted at in the game, and, by extension, the rest of the Zelda series to which it is a prequel. The cataclysm in question was invasion by demons, and before it, there was a civilization of sapient robots with technology to put modern Earth to shame. After it, the setting Medieval European Fantasy with a bit of Lost Technology scattered here and there, which then becomes the status quo for thousands of years.
  • Cat-and-Mouse Boss: Scaldera, the second dungeon boss, chases Link up and down a narrow sloping platform, invulnerable and Wreathed in Flames. Once Link hits him with a bomb, Scaldera rolls back down the slope and Link must give chase to attack its weakness.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Link does it twice; at the start of the game, and later after being separated from Zelda by a whirlwind and waking up back at the Knight Academy.
  • Catapult to Glory: The Groosenator is used to launch Link onto The Imprisoned's head in their third fight. Groose also fires Link into Faron Woods when it floods and the ordinary path is rendered impassable.
  • Catch a Falling Star: Traveling is accomplished by either leaping off one of the Floating Continents of Skyloft or catching an updraft from the surface world, then whistling for Link's Loftwing, who will swoop in out of nowhere to catch him without fail.
  • Cats Are Mean: At night, Remlits turn from adorable lemur-esque kittens to feral beasts with glowing eyes and fangs that will attack until Link fights back and scares them off. Even Instructor Owlan won't be in the room with Gaepora's pet Remlit Mia during the night. Subverted once you finish Batreaux's sidequest and help him become human; once this happens, Remlits will stop turning feral at night and remain just as harmless as they are during the day.
  • Cave Behind the Falls: While there is a waterfall, and a dungeon behind it, there is no way to walk through the flow to get to the dungeon and it is visible through the stream of water.
  • Cel Shading: Envision the Link from Twilight Princess with a cel-shaded style that is reminiscent of Impressionist paintings, and you won't be far off from what Skyward Sword looks like. Shigeru Miyamoto actually said this was necessary to make enemy actions more visible, to accommodate using MotionPlus sword controls. The style in some ways as a direct hybrid of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, since it's easy to see NPC designs that look straight out of each, and yet both look at home in the same game.
  • Celebrity Endorsement: In Japan, there were a number of commercials featuring gameplay interviews with actresses Shouko Nakagawa and Chiaki Kuriyama. In the Western hemisphere, Robin Williams and his daughter Zelda Williams — who's named after the eponymous princess — were featured in commercials and Nintendo Magazine did a couple of video interviews with Zelda Williams to count down the days until Skyward Sword's release.
  • Cerebus Call-Back: The game begins with Zelda waking up Link by having her Loftwing deliver a letter to him that brings up how much of a Sleepyhead he is. Later, when Zelda decides to go into a deep sleep in the Temple of Hylia thousands of years in the past to maintain the seal keeping Demise imprisoned, she notes that Link is the one who will have to wake her up in the present once Demise is destroyed.
  • Cerebus Retcon: The English version implies that every appearance of Ganon/Ganondorf is the result of a curse laid on the bloodlines of the hero and the goddess Hylia (aka the first Zelda) by the ancient God of Evil Demise, who was destroyed by the first Link. The curse states that an incarnation of Demise's hatred will always return to torment the hero and the princess of Hyrule; no matter what, in every one of their lifetimes and reincarnations, Link and Zelda will never know true peace.
  • Checkpoint: Winged statues within dungeons, in addition to providing a convenient place to save, are also where the game is loaded upon restarting after a Game Over or simply when the player resumes their playthrough, rather than sending Link back to the entryway of the dungeon upon turning on the game again.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • When you are allowed to wander through Skyloft for the very first time, an old man is examining a particular bird statue and laments how said statue is missing one eye. Retrieving it is how you get into the last dungeon.
    • The first time you explore the Bazaar, you may run into a broken-down robot in the repair shop, and a few characters may comment on how it used to fly below the clouds and retrieve treasures. You eventually need to repair it in order to progress on with the game.
    • Some characters will ask you to retrieve particular items that fell down beneath the clouds somewhere; items that you probably saw on your first trip through the area but just dismissed as part of the local scenery.
    • In the Sealed Temple, there is a patch of ground Groose says he wants to grow a tree in. When you discover the dragon Lanayru requires a fruit from a Tree Of Life, which cannot grow in the Lanayru Desert, you must take the sapling to the Sealed Temple and through the Gate of Time so it can be fully-grown in the present.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Some of the people you meet in Skyloft will do something important later in the game to help out Link, such as Kukiel's father fixing one of the windmills or Gondo repairing Scrapper.
  • Cherry Tapping: The game allows you to stop the Final Boss in his tracks... With your Bug-Catching Net.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: The incarnations of Link and Zelda are stated to have been very close for a long time prior to the game's events (their entire community is well aware, and one of whom, Groose, even harbors extreme jealousy over it) and there are hints of deeper feelings between the two, both in the game and in the marketing material. The end of the game doesn't state whether they choose to be a couple, but it does end with them choosing to stay together.
  • Cicadian Rhythm: There are Sand Cicadas hanging out in the Lanayru Sand Sea, usually clinging to tall, thin objects in lieu of trees.
  • City in a Bottle: Skyloft to the surface, having been lifted into the sky by the goddess to protect her people from the evil on the ground.
  • City of Gold: Averted. Gorko believes that the buildings in Skyloft are made of gold. He's wrong, but the rest of his description of the city is accurate.
  • Climax Boss:
    • The first two battles with The Imprisoned. It is a nameless threat that has been looming over Link and haunting his dreams from the very start, and battles with it close the first and second acts of the game. It's later fought a third time, but by that point the old woman watching over it makes it already clear that every resealing is only temporary and it will keep growing more and more powerful (and the third fight occurs not too long after the second, which also confirms her fears that the seals also last shorter every time). It becomes the Final Boss Demise after devouring Zelda's soul in the past era.
    • The last of the three fights against Ghirahim. He was active in impeding Link's progress and trying to kidnap Zelda, and his final, desperate fight is the last thing you need to do before facing off once and for all against the real Big Bad.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: Demise while in the form of the Imprisoned. Zelda states that while he's not as powerful in this form, he's still more than capable of razing the surface if left unchecked.
  • Clothes Make the Legend: This time, the tunic is a standard Skyloft Knight Academy uniform, though the color varies by year — upperclassmen such as Pipit have different colors, such as yellow or light green. Considering that Skyward Sword is the first playable entry in the series' in-universe chronology, and retroactively established where many of the series' recurring themes and characters (including all later incarnations of its three most important characters) came from, the game is more a story of how the clothes became the legend.
  • The Coats Are Off: Ghirahim makes his cape disintegrate before fighting Link.
  • Cognizant Limbs: Tentalus's tentacles, which keep respawning until it is defeated.
  • Collector's Edition: Bundled with a golden Wii Remote Plus. First-production-run copies of both the normal and collector's editions also came with a Zelda 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra CD.
  • Collection Sidequest: Batreaux asks Link to retrieve Gratitude Crystals so that he can turn human, which themselves are mostly earned by completing sidequests for other characters. There are also Goddess Cubes, whose activation allows Link to open treasure chests in the islands of the Sky and get various goodies (they work similarly to the Treasure Charts from The Wind Waker).
  • Colony Drop: The part of Skyloft with the Statue of the Goddess on it sinks back to the Earth, as part of the Triforce's fulfillment of Link's wish to stop the Imprisoned.
  • Colossus Climb: Levias has to be landed upon so Link can kill Bilocyte. To a certain extent, the Imprisoned features this, though it's only one of two strategies that can be used.
  • Combat Tentacles: The boss of the Sandship dungeon's main method of attack.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation:
    • A prequel chapter by the two-woman team who created most of Zelda-based manga, Akira Himekawa. It focuses on both Link when he was little and when he gets his crimson Loftwing, and on a previous Link who fought in the war mentioned in the back story.
    • There is also a webcomic, by the creators of Penny Arcade, portraying Gaepora's perspective at the beginning of the game.
  • Commonplace Rare:
    • Happens to several things due to the whole living in the sky thing, with most materials only being found on the surface, which has been wholly inaccessible before Link opens paths down that he can use.
    • The relative scarcity of the resources needed for the Scrap Shop also qualify, since the flavor text does not take into account how many you'll need versus how many an average player will gather.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: If you try to snipe Lizalfos with a long-distance weapon, they'll always block it, even if they shouldn't possibly predict it coming. Although, this only applies to assaults to the front; their backsides are fair game.
  • The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: You're told more than once that certain shields are incapable of protecting you from certaint types of attacks — namely, wooden shields are useless against fire, iron shields against electricity, and both against curses. The intention is for you to upgrade your shield as you progress into more dangerous environments, but these weaknesses are only the case if you fail to shield bash the attack in question. The game never lets on that a properly-timed defense will block any attack, regardless of which shield you're using.
  • The Computer Shall Taunt You: Lord Ghirahim can steal your sword if you are just flailing the sword around. Upon taking it he taunts the player for their poor skills.
    Heh, quite the sword you have here. But so long as you continue to telegraph your attacks like the novice you are, you'll never land a blow.
  • Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: In the present era of Lanayru Desert, all machinery has fallen in disrepair and their would-be obstacles are easy to traverse. However, when a Timeshift Stone is hit, the surrounding spacetime regresses and all the machinery is restored to their functional state, which includes electric fences that serve as security barriers. Link has to work around both states of the machinery (functional and defunct) to overcome the electirc barriers and make his way through both the warehouses that house the dials that activate the Lanayru Mining Facility, and that location itself. Later in the game, the electric fences from the past have to be dealt with at the same time as the thorny wires that have grown as of the present while Link carries a Timeshift Orb, thus employing a Toggling Setpiece Puzzle that involves both states of the machinery.
  • Continuity Nod:
  • Continuity Porn: If you're not a fan of Zelda, then you're missing an average of fifteen or more references an hour. Almost everything in this game shouts out or nods to every other continuity. If it's in this game, it most likely has a counterpart somewhere else. If it's a Boss, you're going for triple the references.
  • Continuing is Painful: If you use up potions or Fairies (or broke your shield) before losing a given Boss Battle, you don't get them back when choosing to continue — you're better off taking the Game Over and doing a hard restart from your last Save Point (and you can still skip the boss's introductory cutscenes). Also, after gaining a certain amount of heart containers, revival health will stop being enough to heal you fully, requiring you to find some way to heal if you want full health for your next attempt.
  • Contractual Boss Immunity: You can't use Skyward Strikes against the final boss, but you get something even better instead.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Though the game is a prequel to the franchise, Eiji Aonuma confirmed in an interview prior to the game's release that Ghirahim was designed with this mindset as a contrast to Ganondorf. Ganondorf wears black armor while Ghirahim wears a white suit. Ganondorf is muscular and masculine, Ghirahim is slim and feminine. Both take on transformations, but while Ganon is a hulking pig monster, Ghirahim's transformation, his true form, is still the same body type. Even their Leitmotifs sound like opposites with Ganondorf's ascending and Ghirahim's descending.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Averted at one point in Eldin Volcano, where you cannot enter the summit due to extremely high temperatures. In fact, if you enter the room prior to the summit without a later-game item, you will catch fire from the heat alone. The rest of Eldin Volcano, however, plays it straight, as the entire area should be hot enough to make Link combust, not just the summit.
  • Cool Boat: Link can control one in the Lanayru region, which he uses to get to another cool boat, the Sandship dungeon.
  • Cool Key: The Boss Keys in this game are 3-dimensional golden sculptures that have to be turned the right way with motion controls before they can be inserted into the doors. Additionally, Link's sword can be used as a key to turn some dial mechanisms in the Lanayru Desert, and Jellyf the Parella uses her coral-like head crest as a key to the Water Dragon's hall.
  • Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel: Despite being chronologically the first game in the series, the gameplay has been advanced drastically with motion controls and an updated movement code (dashing up walls, running quickly instead of rolling), making the following Links seem less than athletic in comparison. Story-wise, there's even a dungeon based around electricity.
  • Cosmic Chess Game: Hylia's plan to defeat Demise revolves around using Link and her mortal incarnation Zelda as her agents; the latter to maintain the seal Hylia created and the former to deliver the killing blow by claiming the Triforce and using it to wish for Demise's destruction. Justified in that Hylia fought Demise head-on first and managed to seal him, but was badly wounded in the process and left too weak to face him directly again. In addition, deities can't use the Triforce, hence her recruiting mortals to finish the job. It's also discussed: Zelda acknowledges the necessity of Hylia's actions while explaining all this to Link, but still condemns them as unfair and manipulative. On the other side of the coin, Ghirahim acts as Demise's agent throughout the game, making repeated attempts on Link's life and trying to capture Zelda to thwart Hylia's plans and use her soul to revive Demise.
  • Counter-Attack:
    • The game has a parrying ability used by shaking the nunchuck for Link to thrust his shield forward. Learning to parry attacks is worth it, since timing it right can stun enemies or knock their projectiles right back at them, and it doesn't wear down your shield's durability.
    • Mastering the Shield Bash's parrying ability is highly recommended to survive the final boss fight's first stage without a ton of healing and damage reduction potions; just attacking outright will take him down eventually, but you'll lose nearly all your hearts to his counter attacks in the process, while Link's counter attack strategy can prevent the boss from ever regaining the initiative until he gets serious for the second stage.
  • Critical Annoyance: The alarm that sounds off when you're low on health is back, now with the addition of Fi chiming whenever you reach low health, and providing a clearer reminder when you answer the chime.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option:
    • In Cawlin's lovequest, you can either deliver his love letter to Karane, which results in him being pushed aside by Pipit, making him run away crying and let him be depressed for the entire game or give it to a ghost in the bathroom, resulting him being harassed by that ghost who has now fallen in love with him, giving him terrible nightmares as she gently strokes his hair when he sleeps. Making it worse is that he pleads for Link to help, even though he still despises him for toying with his trust. The game does not allow you to help him, even when he actually thinks the ghost is Groose out for revenge and Groose (who is not dead) requested for you to tell both Cawlin and Strich that he is OK. Only at the ending of the game you see Cawlin and Strich meet up with Groose, meaning you somehow told them anyway. However, Cawlin is still damned for all eternity.
    • The Peatrice sidestory. You can either turn her down in a soul-crushing way, or claim to return her feelings, in which case you're probably two-timing Zelda, which Fi will mention when scanning Peatrice. Or you can avoid talking to her, making 100% Completion impossible and leaving her hanging indefinitely. No choice is really ideal.
    • To a lesser extent of "only option", breaking the chandelier in the Lumpy Pumpkin is the only way to get the Piece of Heart. The game even encourages you to do this by opening up a sidequest based around paying off your debt. This overlaps with Gameplay and Story Segregation, as Link could normally use the Beetle or the Clawshots to get the items without destroying the chandelier, but the game prevents him from using them in the Lumpy Pumpkin.
  • Culture Chop Suey: As is typical of the series, and also one of the few times Medieval European Fantasy takes up a much smaller portion of the mix. The Ancient Cistern, for one, is a Buddhist-like temple with a boss that resembles a Hindu deity but has a name (Koloktos) whose spelling implies a Greek origin as well as generally resembling a mythical Greek automaton in nature. The Earth Temple is modeled on Mongolian temples while the Fire Sanctuary has a decidedly Indian motif. Also, the Lanayru Sand Sea features many hallmarks of the 17th to 18th century Golden Age of Piracy (e.g. tricorn hats, contemporary ships and cannons). The Three Dragons look like the dragons of Japanese art and lore, even wearing stylized kimonos, and Japanese music plays in the background during their cutscenes. And the music associated with Fi, the Goddess' Statue, and the Isle of Songs have a Medieval/Renaissance-era vibe.
  • Cursed with Awesome: The Cursed Medal prevents you from opening your pouch (i.e: using your shield or potions), in exchange for making Rupees and treasures appear with greater frequency.
  • Cute Kitten: Remlits, during the day. At night, they're very aggressive.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: In combat, Link is normally an Implacable Man able to shrug off most blows. But in one cutscene where Ghirahim ambushes him and captures Zelda, he is inexplicably crippled by the attack, and is shown struggling and unable to stand or move during Ghirahim's Evil Gloating.

    D-G 
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
    • The A-button is not for rolling, but instead for running. Shaking the Nunchuk while running triggers rolling. Thankfully, running is more efficient than rolling, once the player has gotten used to it. Prior to Skyward Sword, rolling was always the fastest movement option in 3D Zelda games, followed by... walking backwards.
    • People who were used to the very basic motion controls of Twilight Princess had some difficulty adjusting to the more precise controls for Skyward Sword. Likewise, adjusting to the waggling of Twilight Princess after getting used to the 1:1 sword motions in Skyward Sword can take some time.
    • Enemies that took one mindless slash to defeat in previous games, such as Deku Babas, now require some patience to kill as you wait to see how they will open their mouth, so you can slash accordingly.
    • Another annoyance is how the items are handled. In Twilight Princess, hitting the trigger (B) will equip the item, and hitting the button again will use it, and A will put the item away. In Skyward Sword, for some items (such as the slingshot), hitting B equips the item, and A uses it, while hitting B again puts the item away. Naturally, this leads to a lot of instances of accidentally putting away an item you're trying to use, or continuing to use the item when you're trying to store it.
  • Damsel in Distress: Zig-zagged. The impetus for Link's journey to the surface is Zelda falling down through the clouds. However, when he arrives he's told that she's evaded the Big Bad's clutches and set off on a journey of her own. She is briefly captured in the second dungeon, but escapes with some help from Impa and successfully travels to the past, where she seals herself away to keep Demise imprisoned until Link destroys him in the present. After she awakens, Ghirahim kidnaps her, takes her into the past, and uses her soul to resurrect Demise; Link's only hope of saving her is to kill Demise before he can finish absorbing her soul. It should be noted that the Goddess Hylia is invoking this trope to motivate her Chosen Hero by becoming a person close to him and then being the target of Demise' minions, so the Hero would have ample reason to prove himself worthy.
  • Darker and Edgier: Played with. While this is far from the darkest entry in the franchise, the art style is more realistic and the storyline treated more seriously than in generally light-hearted games like Wind Waker or The Minish Cap, particularly during the ending sequence leading up to the Final Boss. Played literally with the final boss' weapon: a black Master Sword with a Serrated Blade of Pain.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The game features a demonic-looking bat guy named Batreaux who lives in a creepy dark house under a graveyard. It turns out he's a soft-hearted wuss who wants to befriend the local humans, but everyone's just too freaked out by him to give him the time of day; helping him turn human is one of the game's sidequests. On an interesting note, even though he himself is benevolent, his very presence seems to exude evil energies or something, as once you complete the quest and turn him human, all of the monsters that appear in Skyloft at night stop appearing and the Remlits no longer go rabid.
  • The Dark Times: The game takes place during such an era that was referenced in several previous games. The backstory also states that an even worse era, which ended when Skyloft was raised from the ground and the goddess defeated the army of demons, preceded this one.
  • Dark World: The Silent Realm, a blue-and-orange mirror of the real world into which Link must venture in order to collect magical tears while evading the Guardians. It also shows off the quality of the new movement system, since Link has no weapons or items with which to defend himself.
  • Degraded Boss: Another Moldarach (the dungeon boss of the Lanayru Mining Facility) shows up as a mini-boss while searching for the Sandship. Justified in this case since Moldarach wasn't a unique creature, just the final metamorphosis of the little Aracha scorpions you see all over the place.
  • Death Glare:
    • Link gives an epic one to the army of charging Bokoblins, at the start of The War Sequence.
    • Impa gives Link a terrifying one as he tries to follow Zelda in the Earth Spring. Thanks to her creepy red eyes, it works like a charm.
    • Ghirahim gives several at Link when he has a Villainous Breakdown.
  • Death Mountain: Eldin Volcano. It's obviously the same old Death Mountain, just a long time in the past. It's filled with lakes and streams of lava, and is hot enough that Link will need to wear protective clothing to avoid taking damage from the heat. It's mostly home to fire-themed enemies, and features multiple paths and caves blocked with rubble that must be cleared with bomb flowers.
  • Decon-Recon Switch: Of the classic Zelda storyline. Most tropes you normally see for the Zelda franchise are inverted here, but then properly fulfilled by the end of the game.
    • The game gets incredibly meta. Knock a piece of heart down from a high place, and you have to pay for everything you broke in the process. Get a letter from someone, and immediately get chastised for wanting to give it to ??? in the bathroom.
    • In this game, you get scolded for invading people's privacy every time you examine their closets/cupboards/armoires. There's one of these in almost every room in Skyloft, and you'll get scolded every time. It's almost guaranteed that the last room you'll explore is Zelda's room, which means you'll have been chastised dozens of times by that point. Only by opening up her cupboard can you get a heart piece.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Monsters in the game explode and leave a skull-shaped puff of smoke.
  • Degraded Boss: Moldarach debuts as boss in the third dungeon, and reappears as a miniboss in the Shipyard. In the case of Moldorms, one appears as a sporadic, optional enemy in a grotto from the Fire Sanctuary, but the next one is fought as a miniboss later in the same dungeon. The ones found afterwards (one in a grotto during the Stealth-Based Mission in Eldin Volcano and another in the grotto of a certain island in the Sky) are regular enemies, but another two are minibosses in the final dungeon.
  • Dem Bones: Stalfos come back, but are much more of a threat than before. There is also a four-armed version called Stalmaster encountered as a mini-boss twice.
  • Destroy The Enemys Weapon: During the final part of the third fight against Ghirahim, Link has to repeatedly hit his enemy's weapon from different angles to degrade it until it breaks so the young hero can hit his weak point.
  • Determinator:
    • Impa, who eventually becomes The Old One, stays alive for "thousands of years" in order to carry out the Goddess's commands as well as see Zelda again.
    • Link's Determinator status is particularly relevant this time around — it's the reason he's The Chosen One.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Even with the use of a walk through walls code, one cannot enter the Eldin Volcano Summit (the inner area, where the Fire Sanctuary lies) early. No matter how close you try to get to the entrance, Fi will keep telling you that you will have an insufficient amount of hearts and cannot stand the extreme temperatures and keeps sending you back.
    • In the Earth Temple, Link must ride a stone ball over lava and press two buttons to raise up a bridge. If Link takes the Eastern Path first, which is a long winding path including a bottomless pit, to reach the blocked off button on that side of the bridge, the section that rises up is big enough for Link to pass under, allowing him to get the other button right away without any backtracking.
    • Complete the Sandship generator puzzle before visiting the brig of the ship and the robot you talk to there will say something like "Oh, you've already activated the generator! So just come through the engine room and save us."
    • Also, if you go back to the reconstructed Sandship, you'll see the robots instead of monsters. They've even locked away the Technoblins.
    • Knock a Technoblin out of a Timeshift Stone's area of effect and they will immediately revert to a lifeless pile of bones. Get them within range again, and they will either get back up or die, depending on whether the last hit you dealt them was fatal.
    • If you notice early on that vines will unravel after rolling into a tree and do so to the tree closest to the Elder Kikwi, he will have you skip practicing on shooting a vine down and comment on how much "you couldn't wait."
    • All NPCs will react to certain items. Notably, the Bombs and the Gust Bellows. Just like in the N64 Zelda games, Gossip Stones react to items. One notable extension of this is, which is what makes it this trope, is that Karane has a programmed reaction to having the Gust Bellows used on her, despite it being impossible to do so as she is indoors for the rest of the game by the time you get that item.
    • At one point, Link encounters in Lanayru Desert a broken gate, and he has then to find another way to enter the Temple of Time, fight its boss, then watch one epic cutscene involving Zelda and Impa finishing activating the Gate of Time behind that broken gate. But if you're impatient, you can use an upgraded Beetle to fly over that gate and see the two of them attempting to activate that same Gate of Time, which is logically not yet open.
    • When buzzing about Faron Woods with the Hook Beetle, you may discover you can carry hornet nests with it. You may then get the devious idea of dropping the nest on a baddie. Lo and behold, they will react to the swarm of angry hornets attacking them as well.
    • One sidequest involves the player receiving mushroom spores from Parrow in order to heal Orielle's injured Loftwing. However, if you already have mushroom spores or glittering spores on you when you speak to Orielle, you can just hand her the ones that you already have. This results in a slight difference in the dialogue, and the bottle that you were supposed to have gotten during the quest (and kept afterwards) is instead given to you once the quest is finished, as a conventional reward.
    • After Link gets an upgraded drowsing ability and talking to Batreaux, Fi states she can now help Link to drowse for Gratitude Crystals. If Link has collected all of the Gratitude Crystals and then talks to Batreaux, Fi will say that, then followed up by saying essentially, "You have already collected them all. Congratulations Master."
  • Dialogue Tree: There are times when Link has two to four dialogue choices to choose from, Mass Effect-style minus the Morality system. Mostly he gets three choices; one affirmative, one negative, and one uncertain. Whatever you choose has no effect on the game though.
  • Didn't Need Those Anyway!: Koloktos's appendages. Link can remove them using the whip, but it just keeps attacking with the remaining ones. It also has the ability to reassemble them, which it does after each time Link manages to expose its weak point.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: While beating physical god level enemies is nothing new, Hylia was left crippled after her battle with Demise, and Link goes and beats him without any lasting injuries. So he did better against the God of Evil than an actual deity did.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: The motion controls allow Link to smash pots by throwing them or rolling them along the ground in addition to more traditional methods of destruction. However, at least one NPC takes offense at having her dishes smashed and makes Link pay for them.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: "The Song of the Hero" is a recognizable mix of the series' main theme.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: The second Imprisoned fight, helped by it directly following the second Ghirahim fight. Once Link reseals the monster, he finally enters the Gate of Time and meets Zelda... who then tells him that the Imprisoned can only be truly slain using the power of the Triforce. The rest of the game revolves around Link's quest to find and retrieve it.
  • Disney Villain Death: Scervo and Dreadfuse, the robot pirates, both fall to their deaths.
  • Distressed Dude: There's a sequence where Link himself is captured and must retrieve his weapons and items without being caught by enemy Mooks.
  • Divine Birds: The Loftwings are Bond Creatures whose relationship with the Skyloftians is implied to have been set up by the goddess Hylia. Statues of said birds can be found across the surface, serving as waypoints, and they are the birds in the iconic crest of future Hyrule.
  • Divine Conflict: When the Demon King, Demise and his minions invaded the surface, the goddess Hylia drove them back and sealed Demise away. Their conflict eventually continues throughout the rest of the Zelda's series, where Link must help Zelda (reincarnation of Hylia) fight the various monster armies (spawn of Demise).
  • Divine Delegation:
    • "The Old Ones" placed the ultimate power (later revealed to be the Triforce) in the care of the goddess Hylia sometime prior to the raising of Skyloft.
    • Hylia herself tasked the three dragons with watching over the surface world and relaying parts of the Song of the Hero to her Chosen Hero.
  • Do a Barrel Roll: The Loftwing can do the Spin Charge.
  • Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Link may have eradicated Demise completely by dropping the Goddess Statue island into the pit where he is sealed, but everyone forgot about Ghirahim. The time portal is still open and Ghirahim takes advantage of it by kidnapping the awakened Zelda and going back in time to revive Demise.
  • Door to Before: In this game, the overworld itself is a series of puzzles that must be overcome in order to reach any significant destination; once solved, these obstacles can be reconfigured in such a way that it's much easier to get past them when you need to go that way again. For example, there are several cliffs in the Faron Woods with round logs at the top, which can be pushed off to land at the bottom. Link can then use them to climb the cliff on subsequent visits.
  • Double-Meaning Title: In an Iwata Asks interview, the devs mentioned that in addition to "Skyward" meaning "towards the sky", they picked up from the American team that "ward" means "to defend", giving it the double meaning of "Protector of the/from the sky".
  • Double Unlock: Upgrading the Goddess Sword to the Goddess White Sword gives you spaces for four more Dowsing targets (and nothing else; that's the only benefit of the Goddess White Sword). These spaces start out empty and are useless; you need to talk to certain NPCs to fill them in (and the game gives you no indication of who these NPCs are or even what the new Dowsing targets are before you get them).
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect:
    • The Thunder Dragon will offer you the Hylian Shield if you can beat 8 of the bosses you have already fought. This is the only shield in the game that doesn't take any damage whatsoever, so it's a lot more desirable than the 2,000 Rupees that he gives you for beating all 9-12 that you can challenge. But you have to beat exactly 8 bosses. If you beat more than eight, you have to start over and quit after beating 8 to get the shield.
    • Getting over 28 points in the "Clean Cut" minigame will earn you rare treasures like Goddess Plumes and Golden Skulls. However, getting between 20 and 23 points will get you an Evil Crystal, another rare item. On the same minigame, the prize for 15-19 points is 30 Rupees. Since the game costs 10 Rupees, getting this relatively low score every few times will ensure that you'll never run out of Rupees while playing it.
  • Down the Drain: The Ancient Cistern is this in the upper areas, with pipes that enable water-based elevators when the Whip is used, and a giant, golden statue raised or lowered with the help of two side waterwheels operated from a wall-placed lever (that is manipulated by the Whip as well). The lower areas of the dungeon, meanwhile, are Big Boo's Haunt type.
  • Dowsing Device: The titular sword can act as this with the help of Fi, to locate things from keys to hearts to Zelda herself.
  • Dragons Are Divine: The three dragons Faron, Eldin, and Lanayru, who were directly tasked with protecting the surface world by the goddess Hylia, and grant Link portions of the Song of the Hero needed to give Link access to the last dungeon, where the Triforce lies.
  • Dramatic Irony: When Link inadvertently romances Peatrice, her father Peater takes note of her change in behavior and concludes that she must have an unwanted admirer harassing her. So he confronts Link with this... to ask him to get this guy off her back for him. And what does he offer Link for his help? The chance to ask out his daughter, of course!
  • Dream Intro: Begins with Link dreaming first of Fi, then of the Imprisoned, despite not knowing of either.
  • Dual Wielding: Stalfos, and the second battle against Ghirahim. Koloktos does some Hex Wielding: six scimitars with six arms.
  • Dual-World Gameplay: The Silent Realms, areas based on parts of the game world that make you go through a Stealth-Based Mission to get needed items. There's also the entire region of Lanayru, the location of the Temple of Time. There are minerals here that can create time portals to the past when Link strikes them. They usually only affect the immediate area, but Skipper's Sandship carries the most powerful one, able to stretch its effects at least as far as the horizon, effectively giving the place a true present-mode and a past-mode.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: The game can get pretty bad with this sometimes. Granted, virtually none of Skyloft's denizens know Link is risking life and limb to save the entire world each time he heads off on his Loftwing, but quite possibly the only people in the entire game that show Link anything approaching proper respect for a good portion of the play time are Fi, who acknowledges you as her master from the get-go, and Zelda's father. Everyone else gives Link no end of crap; Faron the dragon doesn't care that you killed a scorpion the size of a school bus and crossed swords with a demon lord, she still questions what the goddess was thinking choosing you, while Scrapper contrives to be a condescending Jerkass to you at any available opportunity, even though you're the reason he's operational at all. Faron is particularly bad; it's not enough that you have the Scale that's supposed to be obtainable only by the chosen hero of the Goddess, you have to prove yourself by fetching magic water for her before she'll let you into the temple containing one of the Sacred Flames. And later on, you have to learn part of a song from her; despite having gotten her scale, proving yourself worthy of entering the temple, AND getting the Flame from said temple, you have to prove yourself AGAIN before she's convinced that you're the real deal.
  • Dungeon Town: More like Dungeon Overworld. The developers have said that they were trying to address the complaints of the overworld of the 3D games being Filler, with not much to do beyond Side Quests and getting from one dungeon to the other, by adding puzzles and enemies normally found in the dungeons. Though the actual overworld, the sky, plays out more like a traditional Zelda overworld, it is much smaller and easier to traverse. The surface, though, will see you beating baddies and figuring out puzzles like any dungeon, sometimes even getting an item in the middle. Not only that, but you will return to each of the sections multiple times, each time being presented with a new challenge.
  • Dynamic Loading: The game uses small cutscenes to mask loading times in several areas. Dungeons and other parts of the game have doors separating rooms which take ~2 seconds for Link to open while the game loads the next room. Additionally, a cutscene of Link skydiving gives the game time to load the surface world.
  • Early-Bird Boss: The Skyview Temple battle with Ghirahim mixes this with Wake-Up Call Boss. When you fight Ghirahim, you only have your default 6 hearts of health and little else in equipment. You'll have to rely on your sword and shield abilities to get past the boss' defenses and know when to strike. On top of this, he can steal your only useful weapon and use it against you if you aren't careful, leaving you unable to damage him at all until you snatch it back.
  • Early Game Hell: Hero Mode, which doubles damage done to you and eliminates recovery hearts. Once you get the Heart Medal (which takes beating at least three dungeons) and start amassing more Heart Containers, the game becomes far easier, but early on it is quite easy to die to even the simplest enemies.
  • Easing into the Adventure: The game starts off with Link preparing for a Loftwing race and doing various tasks for the people of Skyloft.
  • Easter Egg: A few.
    • If you play the main theme backwards, Zelda's Lullaby/the Main Series theme plays. There's a very good reason for that.
    • The Goddess Harp always plays in-tune with the in-game music. This is only noticeable if you try to constantly play the Goddess Harp even if you don't really need to at the moment and if you're paying attention to the sounds the harp makes.
  • Easy Level Trick: The difficult second and third boss fights with The Imprisoned get more manageable if you figure out the alternate strategy, which is ignoring its annoying, hard to hit toes, and instead jumping onto its head from a higher level to pound in the Sealing Spike after stunning it with Groose's cannon.
  • An Economy Is You:
    • Lampshaded by Beedle, who will comment on not having had much business before Link started coming around.
    • Peatrice thinks Link has a crush on her simply because he's the Item Check's only customer.
  • Edge Gravity: As a fail-safe, Link won't accidentally walk off the edge of a cliff when you're in first-person view (like dowsing or using the Bow), or using an item with an over-the-shoulder perspective (like the Slingshot or Clawshot), since you usually can't see where your footing is from this viewpoint. The general movement system is very good at this. The only way to fall or jump off of a ledge is to run straight towards it.
  • Egopolis: Groose likes to name things after himself. "Grooseland", "the Groosenator", "The Legend of Groose" (though that last one's admittedly a joke)...
  • Elite Mooks: Blue Bokoblins are referred as "the truly elite of the Bokoblin family".
  • Empty Room Until the Trap: The Sandship requires visiting three Mini Dungeons in Lanayru Sand Sea to find the next main one. The final room of the second initially looks like an empty room with some sand, but after some dusting Moldarach (the final boss of the Lanayru Mining Facility) inexplicably shows up for a rematch, now as a miniboss.
  • Enemy Scan: Fi gives the most extensive information available on enemies, even "collecting more data" during boss fights to reveal new weaknesses as time goes on, in addition to offering more help if Link dies during a boss battle. She speaks without emotion, in a way stereotypical of a computer's AI, frequently using the terms "I recommend", "I predict an x% probability that ...", etc.
  • Enemy Summoner: Bokoblins use their horns to call other Bokoblins. Link can snatch them with the whip, however.
  • Equipment Upgrade: This game lets you upgrade certain dungeon items for the first time in the series's history, including the Bow and the Bug. You need to trade in-game treasures to Gondo for that.
  • Escape Rope: In dungeons, bird statues have the secondary function of returning Link to the entrance if desired.
  • Escape Sequence: The Silent Realms become this, especially if you alert the Guardians between collecting the last Tear and reaching the exit — there's no way to stop them from chasing you anymore, so you just have to run for the exit.
  • Escort Mission: Happens once at Eldin Volcano, as Link must escort Scrapper carrying a large water basin up the volcano, guarding it from enemy attacks. He also has to carry Scrapper to the Thunderhead to deliver Pumpkin Soup.
  • Eternal Engine: Lanayru Mining Facility, the third dungeon in the game, combines this with Shifting Sand Land and Tomorrowland. In the present time, the whole place fell into disuse since several years ago and is filled with sand pools; but when a Timeshift Stone is active, anything within its domain's radius will come back to an active state, including advanced gizmos like electric barriers, conveyor belts, and wind-operated platforms.
  • Eternal Equinox: It has both day and night, but you never see the transition from one to the other (since you can only change time by sleeping), so it's unknown if this is happening or not. The rest of the series takes place exclusively in daylight.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: In the Ancient Cistern and the Sky Keep, there are zombie-like Cursed Bokoblins lurking in a poisonous bog, complete with missing limbs and Zombie Gait. They're similar to the ReDeads of previous games, except they can't paralyze Link to attack and they're decidedly less gruesome.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More like Evil Cannot Comprehend Courage, but the basic idea is the same. Ghirahim is infuriated by Link continuing to meddle with his plans even after being given petty warnings, because he is only used to humans who begged for mercy or hid behind the goddess whenever he confronted them. Demise is similarly mystified, but he is instead amused and intrigued by Link's courage.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • Ghirahim to Fi. His "true form" resembles a darker, male version of Fi, and both are Equippable Allies of their Master's sword. The Master Sword in Fi's case, and the Anti-Master Sword in Ghirahim's case. It's bigger, blacker, has a serrated edge, gains power from storm clouds instead of the sky, and has an upside-down Triforce on it.
    • Demise is this to Link. Both wield similar swords which are Evil Counterparts of each other, and Link himself is essentially the one who is to counteract Demise. It is a true case of The Hero vs the Big Bad.
  • Evil Is Visceral: Koloktos' connective "liquid" pulsates like blood to the sound of a heartbeat. His heart is also his weak point and the core of the liquid.
  • Exposition Fairy: Fi, the Spock-Speaking spirit of your sword. She can give the most info of any Exposition Fairy in the series. If you can lock onto it, friend, foe, random critter or dungeon device, she has info on it. At the tap of a button she'll analyze boss moves (as well as the arenas in which you fight them) to give you strategies, provide a recap of what's happened recently, remind you of what you should do next, tell you how many times you've killed a monster in addition to your previous record when it comes to fighting that monster, has a ton of helpful rumors and hints, will provide info on your current location and how suited the items you have in your pack are to your current location/situation, keeps track of how long you've played during the current session and overall...and this is just a summary of what she can tell you when you ask.
  • Extremely Dusty Home: Pipit's house is ridiculously dusty, due to his mother being a bit of a slob and their near poverty. You can choose to help her blow away the dust with the Gust Bellows and get paid for it, but then you find out those Rupees were from Pipit's patrolling and meant to pay for food, revealing that Pipit's mother is financially irresponsible, wasting her son's money on something she should be doing herself, something he will call her out on after the fact.
  • Fade to White: The game fades to white after Zelda awakens from a thousand-year slumber and stumbles drowsily into Link's arms and holds the effect for a few seconds.
  • Fair-Play Villain: Demise is so impressed that Link is not only unafraid of him, but willing to challenge him directly, that he agrees to a duel with him to determine the fate of the world.
  • Fairy Companion: Fi fills this role, as she travels in the Master Sword, but materializes into a human-size fairy to talk.
  • Fake Longevity:
    • Zelda went into a temple and may be in danger? Go check on some Kikwis first. You need to activate two windmills to get inside the Thunderhead? Turns out a fan fell off, go rebuild a rude robot and then go down to the surface to find it. You need a song to continue on your quest, and have to fight a giant sky whale for it? Turns out Levias only has one part, go and see three dragons for the rest.
    • The third trip to Faron Woods. You've already seen—and personally assisted—the water dragon Faron once before, and this after proving your worth as the hero by completing the Silent Realm and obtaining her scale. You need a song from her, but rather than just teach it to the player, she decides that the hero's worth isn't proven enough and tasks him with swimming through her forest, which she has flooded, and retrieving seventy-six musical notes hidden throughout the area. It's a large, complex sector, and the notes are split into twelve groups and five individuals—and if you don't catch all of a specific group in one go note , you have to start again since they'll escape. It takes a while to collect all the notes scattered around the forest.
    • You have to fight a couple of bosses multiple times. The Imprisoned takes the cake, as you have to fight him three times during the story, with very little variety between the fights, and long in-fight cutscenes. And if you go for the optional Boss Rush, the three iterations count as one fight each. If you're going for 100% Completion, you will have fought this guy 5 to 8 times!
  • Fake Ultimate Mook: Those giant fish appearing in the lake and flooded woods? They charge straight at you, but can be defeated in two spiral attacks, the first one stunning them for longer than it takes for you to throw another one.
  • Falling Chandelier of Doom: The Lumpy Pumpkin has a chandelier with a Heart Piece in it. Making it fall is the only way to get it.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: There are enemies in the desert level that, if they spot Link, tuck into a shell, roll after him, and run him over. What makes it so family unfriendly is that the shell is electrocuted. If Link is hit, he goes flying and then lies on the ground, twitching and gasping horribly for a period of time. Although his heavy lightning damage sound effect sounds more like Orgasmic Combat than anything. After you defeat Ghirahim for the second time, he promises to torture Link until he deafens himself with his own screams.
  • Fan Disservice: You can enter the ceiling crawlspace to see who is taking a bath for so long at night: Headmaster Gaepora. However, this is nothing compared to the Moblins.
  • Fastball Special: When Groose can't get to his normal ammo for the Groosenator, he launches Link onto the Imprisoned instead. The Prima Strategy Guide even calls it this.
  • Fast-Forward Mechanic: You can make Link sleep in a bed either until morning or night. Time does not pass on its own, and there is no other means of passing time.
  • Feed It a Bomb:
    • The Earth Temple's boss, Scaldera, like King Dodongo, inhales large quantities of hot air so it can shoot fireballs at Link. Using bomb flowers, the dungeon's main item, while it does so will cause it to be stunned, blow off some of its rock armor, and pop its eye out so you can attack.
    • Deku Babas also lunge at bombs and eat them, which makes this one simple way to kill them.
  • Fetch Quest: Several characters have quests to retrieve missing items, usually having fallen to the surface.
  • Fiendish Fish: Craniocs are large cetacean creatures with enlarged foreheads that aim to charge at Link. They have an X mark in said foreheads, indicating that it's their weak points (Link can perform a forward charge to attack them, but it consumes a large part of his Oxygen Meter so it's risky).
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: Demise, specifically mentioning that he's created a new dimension for their duel, which is reached through a portal.
  • Final Boss Preview: Ghirahim is the first boss that Link fights. Surprisingly, Link is actually able to put up a decent fight, if only because Ghirahim never intends to kill Link in that scene and never anticipated Link fighting so hard. Subverted since he's not the Final Boss.
  • Finishing Move: The Ending Blow from Twilight Princess makes a return, although with a different mechanic (it's used by moving the Wiimote and Nunchuck downward at the same time). It's a guaranteed end for your enemies and it's required to defeat Demise at the end of the final battle.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three great dragons are based on Water (Faron), Fire (Eldin), and Thunder (Lanayru), with their colors being blue, red, and yellow respectively. This is true even though the regions are a forest, a volcano, and a desert, and the regional colors are green, red, and yellow. The volcano and desert have fire and lightning elemental enemies respectively, while almost all of the aquatic enemies are found in the forest region.
  • First Town: Skyloft, a town built upon a series of rocks floating in the sky. It also acts as a sort of Hub Level, because it is right in the center of the map and can be teleported back to any time you need.
  • Fish People: The Parella look like a cross between seahorses and jellyfish.
  • Flash Step: In his boss battles, Ghirahim teleports out of the way of projectile attacks.
  • Flight of Romance: Link and Zelda fly on their Loftwings together in the beginning of the game, with Zelda about to say something important before she gets hurtled to the surface world by a tornado.
  • Floating Continent: Link's hometown is among the floating islands that make up Skyloft. It's justified by magic in this case, as it's specifically stated in the backstory that the goddess Hylia used her magic to lift it into the sky.
  • Flunky Boss: Koloktos occasionally summons a few Zombie Bokoblins to attack Link. Moldarach will start summoning Arachas once its claws are ripped.
  • Flushing-Edge Interactivity: There's a flushable toilet in Skyloft, though Link only sits on it.
  • Foe Romance Subtext:
    • Ghirahim plays this up for all it's worth on Link. Of course, it's pretty one-way.
    • Demise mentions that Hylia was "glorious" in her true form.
  • Foregone Conclusion:
    • In a more roundabout way, this is the first time we see Fi, the spirit of the Master Sword, and this is the earliest game in the timeline. It's not hard to figure out that her last moments are right before the credits.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In an early cutscene, Zelda mentions that the sailcloth she's giving to Link is a replica of a gift the Goddess gave to her chosen hero long ago. Link, naturally, is the Goddess's chosen hero in this time, and Zelda herself is the reincarnation of said Goddess.
    • Also, anytime that you are at the Sealed Temple, you can see through the cracked doors, where there is a golden crystal. There is no acknowledgement of it, but it is later revealed that it was Zelda, sealed in sleep.
    • Look closely, and you can see that the old woman at the Sealed Temple is wearing a bracelet much like Zelda's. At the end of the game, Zelda gives one of her bracelets to Impa, who is actually the old woman's younger self. They also have the same bangs, though the old Impa's has grown so long she's rolled it up into some kind of pendulum. Additionally, she has a very faded, distorted version of Impa's facial tattoo beneath her right eye. It also becomes obvious that they're the same person when Impa says she'll stay and watch over Zelda until she awakens.
    • When you first go back in time, and Zelda reveals her true nature and back story, she says "...but I was rescued at the last moment by the old woman who lives in the Sealed Grounds." As she says this, the camera is locked on Impa.
    • Zelda is rescued from Ghirahim's clutches twice early in the game, the first time by the old woman and the second by the young Impa. When venting to Link about his frustration, Ghirahim states outright that the same person foiled him twice; this hint is dropped long before the player is likely to take notice of it.
    • Fi refers to Link as her "master." The sword in which she resides will later become the Master Sword. Along those same lines, Ghirahim always refers to Demise as his master. It turns out that he is a sword spirit and Demise's weapon, just like Fi is to Link.
    • Ghirahim constantly comments on the quality of Link's sword; by the end of the second boss battle, he shouts that Link is only victorious because of the Goddess Sword, which at the time seems petulant more than anything else. If one knows that Ghirahim is very similar to Fi, the sword that Link wields, his parting words suddenly have a whole new meaning: Ghirahim sees the Goddess Sword not as a weapon or tool, but as an equal.
    • Even an Easter Egg does it: Playing the main theme, called "Ballad of the Goddess". backwards reveals that the main melody that repeats itself is actually "Zelda's Lullaby" from A Link to the Past. Since this is Zelda's theme...
    • Fi's advice on the Aracha enemies mentions that they grow to maturity over 1000 years. Most of the places they appear, they have a daddy nearby.
    • On the Sandship, the Boss Key resembles a white octopus, with puckered tentacles. The boss is Tentalus, an octopodian sea monster of the same colors.
    • In the first two Ghirahim battles, the sounds made when successfully striking him are nothing like the fleshy or otherwise organic slashing noises heard for any of the enemies you've struck thus far. When it turns out he's a sword spirit with a similar metallic, otherworldly composition to Fi in the final fight against him, this aspect makes more sense.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Final Boss inverts this trope. Fi's scan reveals that his form is different every era based on what humanity fears at the time. A fitting trait for Demon King Demise.
  • Four Is Death: The fourth dungeon is the Ancient Cistern, a sacred location which is themed around life and death. Whereas the main floor features a vibrant design and atmosphere, the basement is a grim necropolis that features Cursed Bokoblins and deadly pools of toxic fluid.
  • Free-Sample Plot Coupon: Played straight and inverted:
    • The Ancient Tablets are necessary to gain access to the regions of the future Hyrule. The Ruby and Amber Tablets are respectively gained after beating the first two dungeons, but the Emerald Tablet is already in Fi's hands, allowing Link to go immediately to Faron Woods.
    • The Song of the Hero is divided in four parts. Levias, who tells Link about them, knows one of the parts, but won't teach him about it until after the other three are learned.
  • Fungus Humongous: There are mushrooms that are the same size as Link. If you cut them with your sword, they regenerate in seconds. You can also get a makeshift potion substitute from them.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • Though Nintendo made a patch to fix the problem on the Wii version, during the Song of the Hero quest, going to Lanayru Desert first and speaking to Golo the Goron after obtaining the Thunder Dragon's song causes the game to fail to load the quest's event flags starting on Faron Woods and Eldin Volcano properly, making the game impossible to complete until you download the patch or play the Switch version. This glitch only happens if you talk to him in Lanayru Mine, so it won't be the case if you first meet him in Lanayru Caves (which you can do by landing anywhere except the Mine).
    • Many bosses have serious potential glitches:
      • During one of the early phases of the final battle with Ghirahim, you can sometimes somehow deal him more damage than you are supposed to, killing him, and leaving you stranded in an empty closed arena.
      • Scaldera can rarely get to the top of the slope and glitch through the ground to fall into the lava, making the boss fight unwinnable, as your attacks no longer affect him.
      • The Imprisoned can phase through the ground (sometimes disappearing irreversibly from the arena but with the battle music still on), get stuck into walls, or walk through them near some spots, screwing his progress meter in the process, although it fortunately corrects his path usually.
      • Tentalus may become stuck in his damaged frame endlessly in a very obscure, yet show-stopping glitch, if he is struck by sword attacks instead of arrows, under special circumstances.
    • You'd better avoid falling off some pits in the last dungeon, or swim too near to the immerged tree roots in the Ancient Cistern if you do not want to trigger a falling infinite-loop glitch. This fall is also triggered if you swim under the bridge connecting the Captain's boat and the Sandship (although getting there in the first place is difficult enough, because it's another glitch).
    • Cruelty is apparently not a good thing to do in this game...
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • Gondo will speak of Ancient Flowers as mythical and react in astonishment when you offer him one to repair Scrapper, even if you've given him several to upgrade your equipment already.
    • Gorko (the Goron archaeologist) will never comment on you taking off to the sky in front of him, and in fact, never pieces together that you're one of those sky people he's been searching for his whole life.
    • Even if you have the True Master Sword, which supposedly only Link can wield, Ghirahim can still take it and use it against you if you replay his first battle in Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round. Possibly justified, since it's just an illusion created by the Thunder Dragon.
    • When Demise is resurrected, he gives you a break to go back to the present and stock up on items. Despite the serious situation unfolding in the past, millennia later Hyrule is exactly the same as before. It makes sense in a weird, time-travel-ey sort of way; although Link may briefly return to the present day, he will eventually return to the past and defeat Demise before he's able to take over the world, thus leaving the present ultimately unaltered.
  • Gangplank Galleon: The Sandship combines this with Shifting Sand Land and Eternal Engine. It is visited in two time periods: the present, when the area is a desert; and the distant past, when the area is an ocean and the ship's advanced technology still works.
  • Geometric Magic: The markings around the sealing spike in the Sealed Grounds are this. After each fight with the imprisoned, you have to use your sword to draw a pattern to seal it again.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: All of the battles with The Imprisoned. With each fight, he moves faster than the one before and his steps make bigger shockwaves. If he makes it to the top, it's Game Over.
  • Get Out!: Attempting to leave Beedle's store without buying anything results in him scolding you for making him pedal harder and forcefully ejecting you out with a trap door. However, you can avoid this by sleeping in his bed until morning.
  • Ghost Ship: The Sandship is not haunted, but evokes the feel of a ghost ship because of its derelict appearance and absence of any souls aboard, except for a couple of bats and a miniboss. Once he's defeated, the ship can be reverted to an earlier state via a time displacement field, bringing the crew and the monsters back to life.
  • Giant Flyer:
    • The Loftwings. Double points for their resemblance to shoebills, an already massive species of bird.
    • Levias too, easily the biggest living thing in the entire sky.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere:
    • When you enter the last room of the ship dungeon, the ship is suddenly attacked by a tentacled monster who was never mentioned that splits it in half. After you defeat it, the little robots are instantly able to patch it back together so you can still explore the level normally.
    • You'd think that Levias would have been mentioned before the point in the game where you have to go visit him, being one of the most amazing things in Skyloft and apparently the island's guardian deity. Fi does once mention him as an old legend, but that still doesn't explain why nobody else talks about him when he apparently comes around once a year.
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Groose introduces himself by doing this to Link, in front of his face. Zelda responds by doing the same.
  • Glowing Flora: Big blue bioluminescent mushrooms glimmer in the darkest corners of Skyview Temple, allowing Link to see.
  • Goddamned Bats: Acknowledged in-universe: The Zerg Rush Ghirahim sends at Link at the end. A lot of the Mooks are a One-Hit-Point Wonder, and Ghirahim explicitly says they're just supposed to buy him some time by dying on Link's sword.
  • Go for the Eye: A lot of bosses, including Scaldera, Moldarach, Tentalus, and Bilocyte-infested Levias, can only be harmed by being struck in the eye. Most possess a single one, but Moldarach has two — one in each claw, oddly enough — that Link must slash at with his sword.
  • Gonk: The Bokoblins, as well as their close cousins, the Moblins, who are not only bigger and fatter (mirroring both species' counterparts in The Wind Waker), but they have visible buttocks and pierced nipples. And an obsession with fashionable underwear.
  • Good Colors, Evil Colors: Fi, Link's Non-Human Sidekick, is cobalt blue/indigo and purple, whereas Ghirahim in his true form and Demise, both evil demons, are Red and Black and Evil All Over.
  • Good Feels Good: The description for obtaining 5 Gratitude Crystals, which can only be seen by doing side quests, almost name-drops this, "Helping people feels good!"
  • Good Morning, Crono: Link is first seen having a dream where Fi tells him that his destiny is awaiting him. Then he has a Catapult Nightmare from which he awakens to see Zelda's Loftwing.
    Zelda's letter:"I know how much you like to sleep in, so I'm guessing this letter will be your alarm clock this morning. Did I guess right?"
  • Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: The Master Sword is the good weapon, while Demise's sword Ghirahim is the evil weapon.
  • Goofy Print Underwear: Bokoblins are fond of leopard print, which Fi lampshades in her descriptions, even mentioning how undead Cursed Bokoblins hold to this strange obsession.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The Silent Realms are gearless stealth-based sections in which you must collect the 15 Sacred Tears in each while avoiding the Guardians. Among optional collectibles, the Gratitude Crystals (used to help a friendly demon become human) and Goddess Statues (which activate chests that contain treasure - a process analogous to the use of Treasure Charts in The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass) stand out.
  • Götterdämmerung: Despite the game's ending being quite the opposite, the Lanayru region certainly elicits the feel. Derelict Magitek artifacts lay rusted everywhere, though they can be temporarily brought back to life with some time-flux hijinks.
  • Grail in the Garbage: Happens often in the game, not only because the involved items do seem unimportant, but also because Link is actually unable to carry them on his own. And very fittingly, the player doesn't happen to suspect about these items until Fi's dowsing ability indicates that they are indeed important:
    • In the sacred spring behind Skyview Temple, there are several waterfalls adorning the place. One of them is spewing the Sacred Water Faron needs to heal her wounds.
    • During the search for the Key fragments through Eldin Volcano to open the Earth Temple, Link gets past a seemingly out-of-place metallic pinwheel in a crag that houses a watchtower. This pinwheel is necessary to make one of the wrecked windmills work again in Skyloft, so a podium activates and Link can play the Song of the Goddess there to gain access to the Thunderhead.
    • Also in Eldin Volcano, there is a crystal ball that adorns the entrance to the Earth Temple. A good replacement for Sparrot's crystal ball when it breaks.
    • In Lanayru Desert, there is a color wheel in a hill southeast. This is the wheel Dodoh lost while he was preparing the last details for his flight minigame.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: The two Clawshots return in this game, and unlike in Twilight Princess they're collected together after completing the Lanayru Silent Realm challenge. It can now be used to latch onto vines, though it's important to keep an eye on Link's stamina. Due to its place of obtainment, it is implied that, like the Beetle and the Gust Bellows, it's an invention by the Ancient Robots.
  • Gravity Barrier: The aptly named Cloud Barrier serves as an imprenetable border between Skyloft and the Surface. Only during story progression, Link gets the opportunity to pass through it.
  • Great Offscreen War: The game mentions an earlier conflict in which Hylia and her armies fought against armies of invading demons to keep the Triforce safe. In this case, the offscreen nature of the war is actually justified: in the early days of the war, the group from whose perspective we see were sent up into the sky on a Floating Continent with the Triforce to keep both safe and out of reach of the war.
  • Green Hill Zone: The Faron Woods. It's a luscious green forest as well as being the first area beneath the clouds that Link visits.
  • Grimy Water: The fourth dungeon, the Ancient Cistern, is a water treatment facility wherein the filtered impurities are stored in the basement, manifesting as pools of putrid purple goop that will curse Link on contact.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Groose, who helps you during the second and third Imprisoned fights.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • Defeating Demise is meant to be done by mimicking him, and using the lightning for a Skyward Strike. The thing is, right at the start of the fight, Fi tells you that in this realm, you can't use your Skyward Strike at all, so most players likely wouldn't try it in the first place. Fortunately, he's beatable without using it, though it's more difficult and takes much longer.
    • In the Earth Temple, you're required to bomb a wall in order to continue on through the temple, yet the crack in the wall blends in with the rest of the wall and is almost too small to notice. However, it's fairly easy to reason out the location of the crack by examining the map.
    • Subverted with the bombs. The game does tell you that you can refill your bomb bag by picking up a bomb flower and hitting the B button. It does not, however, tell you that you can also do this by raising your shield after picking up a bomb.

    H-L 
  • Hailfire Peaks: Every single dungeon in the game:
  • Hammerspace: Occasionally pretty obvious, like when Zelda puts away the Goddess's Harp ith no indication of where or how she could have stowed the instrument away. Lampshaded when you deliver the Life Tree Fruit to Lanayru. The scene shows Link walking up to him, nothing in hand. Then the screen cuts to a closeup of Link from the waist-up as he pulls the fruit, which is half his size, from the bottom of the screen.
  • Hamster-Wheel Power: Beedle's shop is kept aloft by Beedle's non-stop peddling, which powers its propellers and other machinery.
  • Harder Than Hard: Hero Mode removes normal heart drops and doubles enemies' attack and health. You will be thankful for the nicely placed Save Points and healing seats/stumps now.
  • Hard Mode Filler: The Skyview Temple has to be completed again some time after the first visit. And it's more difficult due to the bigger enemy population, which also means the toughest opponents (Staldra, Quadro Baba, Skulltula) are more plentiful. It culminates with a battle against three Stalfos, which requires more dexterity than the battle against only one.
  • Healing Potion: As usual in the series, red potion (this time called "Heart Potion") heals up to eight of Link's hearts. An innovation is that this potion can be improved if you infuse it with insects. In that case, it will heal Link completely.
  • Heartbeat Soundtrack: Plays when Koloktos first assembles itself. Other occurrences include the third story visit to Eldin, when a Bokoblin you're hiding from gets very close to your location, and when you're at low health during a fight with a regular enemy; one of the percussion tracks switches to a heartbeat-like rhythm.
  • Heart Container: In addition to the classic Heart Pieces and Containers that increase Link's Life Meter, there are two Life Medals that can extended it by one heart each, but only while they're equipped in the Adventure Pouch. Increasing the Pouch's space will greatly help here.
  • Heaven Above:
    • Whenever Link needs to call upon the Goddess's magical power into his sword, he aims it right into the sky. Goddess Cubes are also only found under the open sky.
    • Story-wise, the Goddess Hylia sent the last bastion of humanity into the heavens to protect from evil as the ground was consumed by darkness.
    • The association of ascension and divinity is presented in Link's battles with the Imprisoned, where that monster will rise up from underground and climb up a spiraling pathway up to a towering temple. Link must force the monster back into the ground, or else the rising evil will be high enough to destroy the power of the divine. Essentially, Link must do whatever he can to keep evil out of the sky, which becomes much more obvious once the Imprisoned learns to levitate.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Groose, starting after the first Imprisoned fight. Not only does he change from a mean-spirited bully to one of Link's staunchest allies, he even builds a rail system and uses it to help Link in the subsequent fights against the Imprisoned. Looking at Groose at the end of the game it's almost hard to believe he's the same bully that put Link's Loftwing in a cage at the beginning.
  • He Knows About Timed Hits: In Hero Mode, Link can skip stuff like learning to target.
  • Hell: The lower zone of the Ancient Cistern symbolizes Hell, contrasting the idyllic, heavenly upper zone. It's full of zombies, bones, poisoned water, it's like the underworld in every way. Link even climbs a rope to get out of it at one point, which has been used a few times to show people escaping Hell.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Although the default name chosen is "Link".
  • Heroic Mime: As per usual for the franchise, Link never speaks. This is downplayed, however, as the player is occasionally given dialogue options to which other characters will react appropriately. In addition, some cutscenes show Link's mouth moving as he explains recent events to other characters, implying that he is speaking aloud but leaving the wording of his explanations to the imagination.
  • The Hero's Journey: Link goes through the a large part of the path. He starts off in a peaceful island in the sky, unaware of the land below. The Call comes in the form of Zelda falling beneath the clouds and Fi revealing that the Goddess has chosen him. He journeys to The Land of Adventure below and Can't Refuse the Call Anymore when he fails to save Zelda in Eldin, which gets him chewed out for his weakness and shortcomings by Impa. After this comes the Road of Trials in the form of more dungeons, followed by the Night Sea Voyage through the Gate of Time, where he learns the true purpose of his quest and sets off to finish it. Then he gets a moment to breathe before being thrust into the final battle. After the Big Bad's defeat, Link's return to Skyloft is left up in the air, but now his people can come from the clouds to the world below.
  • Hidden Depths: Groose, of all people. At the beginning of the game he's basically just a bully who delights in tormenting Link, and thinks (quite wrongly) that Zelda has a crush on him. After a Heroic BSoD, he undergoes a Heel–Face Turn and becomes one of Link's staunchest allies (helping a great deal in the Imprisoned's latter two fights). He's actually quite a nice guy once he accepts his destiny is to be the Sidekick.
  • High-Altitude Battle: The boss fight against Levias and the parasite controlling him, Bilocyte. During the first phase, Link has to destroy the parasitic tentacles protruding from Levias by performing a new attack his Loftwing learned shortly prior. In the second, he has to mount Levias himself to confront directly the source of the problem.
  • Hint System: The Sheikah Stone, who tells you how to do anything from completing sidequests to fighting bosses if you're having trouble with them.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Some enemies provide ways for you to use their weapons against them. You can pick up arrows shot by Bokoblin Archers that missed their mark and shoot them back. There's also using Koloktos's BFS against it. Another optional example would be reflecting the final boss's sword beams with your Bug Net.
  • Hold the Line: A villanous example, as Ghirahim sends an horde of Bokoblins to try to hold the line against you, as he finishes casting a spell to suck Zelda's spirit out of her body and give it to his master.
  • Hollywood Skydiving: Using the Sailcloth prevents all fall damage no matter the height you fell/jumped from, though you can only use it when prompted to. Damage taken is a few hearts worth.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: The Skyward Strike is said to be made of divine power.
  • Hope Spot: Happens right after completing the final dungeon. Link succeeds in destroying Demise, Zelda wakes up, and all appears to be well. Then Ghirahim, who has been silent for the entire third act, comes Back for the Finale, kidnaps Zelda, and uses a portal you opened earlier but forgot to close to go back in time to revive Demise there. Then he pulls it a second time when you follow him—you succeed in beating him into submission, only for him to reveal that the resurrection ritual he started has continued without him. Cue Demise breaking free of his prison and absorbing Zelda's soul.
  • Horse of a Different Color: The Loftwings, giant shoebill-like birds that carry people through the skies.
  • Hub Level: The Sky operates in a similar way to Termina Field (of Majora's Mask fame). From there, Link can enter not only the three surface provinces of Hyrule (Faron Woods, Eldin Volcano and Lanayru Desert, and by extension all places that relate to them), but also several floating islands (equivalent to the sea islands in The Wind Waker). One of those islands, Skyloft, serves as the main core location of the Sky, doubling as a Hub City.
  • Human Cannonball: Once Groose has his cannon ready, he uses Link twice as a cannonball: Once to shoot him on top of the floating Imprisoned, and once so he can reach the flooded Faron Woods.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: Hylia has become an important part of Zelda lore and religion, but the name wasn't referenced until A Link to the Past introduced Lake Hylia as a geographic landmark. Even then, she only debuted as a character in this game, twenty years later.
  • I Choose to Stay: In the end, the Link and Zelda of this game's era decide to stay on the surface rather than returning to Skyloft. It's a Foregone Conclusion, considering this game's place on the series' timeline.
  • Identical Grandson: Beedle and Madame Fanadi are apparently descended from citizens of Skyloft.
  • Idiot Hair: Groose has an Idiot Pompadour. The usual implications of the trope are subverted, however; while Groose at first comes across as a dumb jock, he later proves to have a gift for construction and engineering, which he uses to build a rail-mounted catapult.
  • If My Calculations Are Correct: Fi throws out odds-of-success percentages at nearly every opportunity (almost always 85% or 90%). Usually combined with Captain Obvious.
    • Used hilariously in the first time she uses an absolute percentage. When encountering birds called Guays, Fi mentions that being hit by one of their droppings will have a 100% chance of causing you intense aggravation.
    • Also used humorously the second time she does this. In the Shipyard located in the Lanayru Sand Sea, after you beat Moldarach for the second time, Fi advises you that the chances of finding a clue to the ship's location in the sand is "extremely low". Well, "extremely low" means there's still a chance, right? Except if you still continue to search in the sand, Fi will eventually reappear and inform you that the odds of finding a clue have dropped to 0%, and she advises you to leave due to those "substantially unfavorable odds".
    • Used more dramatically in the last time she uses an absolute percentage. Just before the final boss, she tells you that you have a 0% chance to return if you cannot defeat him.
  • Implied Love Interest: Link and Zelda. More strongly implied than most games in the franchise — there's Ship Tease in almost every scene the two share — but it's never stated outright (unless you count their shared Leitmotif, "Romance"). At one point of the game they're even walking while holding hands, and in the Spanish version of the game, Zelda explicitly says that she only ever wanted to be with Link, just the two of them.
  • Improvised Lightning Rod: To effectively fight Demise, you need to use the Master Sword as a lightning rod, having been deprived of your normal Skyward Strike.
  • Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: The conveyor belts in Lanayru Mining Facility are first seen non-functional after many decades, like everything else in the dungeon. However, they operate once again when a Timeshift Stone regresses them in time, and while some are little more than a nuisance others can potentially drag Link into a bottomless pit. The conveyor belts in the Lanayru room in Sky Keep invert the trope: Their placement is very helpful for Link to shoot the eye targets one by one as they carry the Timeshift Orb from one side of the room to the other.
  • Indy Escape: Link has to evade a boulder before he can access the boss room of the Earth Temple. Turns out, the boulder is the boss.
  • Infinity -1 Sword: The Goddess Shield, the fully upgraded form of the Sacred Shield. It doesn't have the Hylian Shield's infinite durability, but it blocks all forms of damage and repairs itself over time. It also only requires you to buy the base shield and collect the upgrade materials.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: The Hylian Shield, earned by clearing enough battles in the Boss Rush: It blocks all forms of damage and can never break.
  • Informed Obscenity: The Eldin Roller bug is rolling around a ball of... "something". Anyone with a modicum of entomological knowledge can tell that it's a dung beetle and it's actually rolling around a ball of poop.
  • Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Averted for the first time in series history. Link performs maneuvers around obstacles automatically, and can run up and grab cliffs higher than he is. There are still fences that give him problems for no real reason, though.
  • Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: A Zelda staple, this one is still played straight. Dungeons are smaller and not all of them have keys, but the ones that do work this way. The antimatter part is played especially straight with the boss door keys. In this game, they are statues which you have to rotate to find the correct way to fit them into the door. This means that you actually see the key slot into the door, hear the door unlock, and then see the key disappear when the seal splits open.
  • Interclass Friendship: Even though she isn't a princess this time around, Zelda is nonetheless the daughter of Skyloft's leader and headmaster of the Knight Academy. Link, meanwhile, is a humble and Brilliant, but Lazy student who has been friends with her since childhood.
  • Interface Spoiler: Unlike in Ocarina of Time, whose Quest Status menu teased the possibility of getting the Triforce even though it wasn't possible, in this game you actually do get the Triforce this time. However, to prevent spoilers, its slot on the Quest Status screen doesn't show up until you find the first piece. And it actually replaces the slot for another MacGuffin that has long since served its purpose.
  • Interspecies Friendship: Link becomes friends with the robot-like sword spirit Fi, though it takes the latter until the end to realize it.
  • Interspecies Romance: Scrapper has nothing but snark for Link but is very, very eager to carry anything if "Mistress Fi" asks him. Since Fi takes orders from Link, it all works out.
  • In-Universe Game Clock: A variant. A day and night system is employed, but it is only triggered when Link goes to bed (any bed). NPC schedules are different, and there are enemies in Skyloft to go with them, including demonic cats. You can't fly or visit the surface at night, meaning only Skyloft, the Lumpy Pumpkin, and Beedle's Island are open to you at night, with the Lumpy Pumpkin only accessible at night by sleeping in the beds there, and Beedle's Island only accessible at night by sleeping in the Airshop's bed.
  • Inventory Management Puzzle: While most of Link's weapons, Item Crafting supplies, and Plot Coupons fit nicely in his Hyperspace Arsenal, potion-containing bottles, ammo expansions, medals with various effects, and the shield have to compete for space in the Adventure Pouch, which starts with four spaces and can be upgraded to eight. Anything that doesn't fit must be left in Skyloft at the Item Check or sold off.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: The Guardian Potion, when upgraded, makes Link immune to all attacks during its period of effect. It becomes handy during the Lightning Round minigame.
  • Ironic Echo: After completing the Earth Temple, Impa chastises Link about not coming to Zelda's aid, even stating how late he was in rescuing her from when she was kidnapped. Then, after clearing the next dungeon, Link comes to Impa's rescue just as she's under attack, allowing you to choose an option for Link's response to a shocked Impa. One of the options is "Am I late?".
  • Irony:
    • At the beginning of the game, Link and Zelda take part in a traditional ceremony, with Zelda playing the part of the Goddess and Link the part of her Chosen Hero. As it turns out, Zelda really is the Goddess, and Link is her Chosen Hero. This is reinforced later when the two reenact the same scene, this time with full knowledge of their true destiny.
    • The Ancient Robot race was the most advanced and sophisticated in the surface world, and yet it was the first to extinguish after the lush grassland and sea of Lanayru Province turned into a huge wasteland (which happened after the Thunder Dragon Lanayru died from a grave disease). From the perspective of the series as a whole, it's even more ironic since Lanayru Province eventually becomes the homeland of the Zoras, the rich source of water that fills the rivers and lakes of Hyrule, and overall a land that homages Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom.
    • Link has to seek out the Sacred Flames of the three goddesses in order to turn the Goddess Sword into the Master Sword. The flame that grants it the power to repel evil is from Din, the goddess directly associated with Ganondorf.
  • Item Amplifier: The Potion Medal triples the duration of potions while it's in your inventory.
  • Item Crafting: Link can bring collected treasures to a smith in a Skyloft bazaar to get his items upgraded, similar to Linebeck's wagon trade in Spirit Tracks. A different NPC can also improve potions using insects.
  • Item Get!: Repeatedly lampshaded:
    • When Zelda first gives Link the sailcloth, she notes how silly his behavior is. Later, when Link gets the Goddess Harp in the middle of an action scene, the item description tells you what it is, then notes, "but there's no time to admire it!"
    • And then there's when you learn the final part to the Song of Hero. The Item Get! music suddenly stops, Link has a gaping face, the description says "You learned the final part to the Song of Hero...", and then the game performs its Disney Acid Sequence. A nod to a similar moment happening in Twilight Princess.
  • It's a Wonderful Failure: Letting The Imprisoned reach the Sealed Temple has him destroying it while Granny/Future Impa cries out in despair.
  • It's Personal: Exploited. Hylia used this as part of her Batman Gambit; she purposefully made it look as if Zelda was captured and in danger (even though she wasn't) so that Link would be extra-motivated to play his part.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At first, Groose harboured a deep resentment for Link due to his close relationship with Zelda, and didn't even want to allow the pair some time alone for the Goddess Ceremony. But as the game goes on, he grows to see Link as a friend and that resentment all but disappears. When Link returns to the Sealed Temple to wake a long-time sealed Zelda from her stasis, Groose tells him Zelda is waiting for him and doesn't even try to follow. He seems to have completely come to peace with his Hopeless Suitor status, and merely wants to see his new friend and his crush happy.
  • Japanese Beetle Brothers: The game introduced a number of bugs as collectibles, which includes the "Sky Stag Beetle" (found only in Skyloft) and the "Woodland Rhino Beetle" (found only in Faron Woods), which makes it another coincidental.
  • Journey to the Sky:
    • Guld, the leader of the Mogma tribe, tells Link during the last arc of the game that he's tired of the usual lifestyle of digging underground through Eldin Volcano in search of treasure, and wishes to spend his retirement time living in a very high place to enjoy the scenic view of the sky. Link fulfills his wish by taking him (with the help of Scrapper) to Pumpkin Landing, one of the floating islands in the sky. Once there, Kina entrusts him the job of plowing the pumpkins' field (which is why Link looked for him in the first place), but he's very happy with this. When Link returns to Eldin Volcano and is asked by another Mogma what happened to Guld, he responds by saying that Guld is "in the sky"; the Mogma is saddened to hear that because he thinks Guld died and doesn't realize that Link was talking in a literal sense.
    • Inverted by Link and Zelda. They begin the game living on the floating island of Skyloft, where their people have lived for so long that the surface far below is just a myth to them. Much of the adventure consists of Link descending to different parts of the surface in search of Zelda, who was pulled down through the clouds by Ghirahim.
  • The Joys of Torturing Mooks: Sure, those Technoblins are pains to beat at times. But once you complete the Sandship, you find a group locked up in the brig. And you can kill them without any fear of them hurting you in return.
  • Jump Scare: The first encounter with a Remlit at night.
  • Justified Save Point: Most The Legend of Zelda games that have save points don't attempt to justify them, but in this game, when you save at a Bird Statue, you're "offering your prayers to the Goddess."
  • Justified Tutorial: The Sparring Hall, which while it is optional, allows the player to get used to the new motion controls, while being able to get the feel of the enemies seen in the game. They also justify the flight tutorial with two reasons: one, Link's just been gliding with his Loftwing recently (right before a ceremony which requires great control over a Loftwing); and two, said Loftwing was very recently imprisoned, and Zelda wants to make sure nothing's overly wrong.
  • Kaiju: Some of the bosses in this game fit this trope well, especially the Imprisoned.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Inverted. The only character who has a katana is Peater, who has undergone severe Badass Decay and does't use it for anything except cutting bamboo. Link carries the knightly longsword known as the Goddess Sword throughout the game and derives several magical abilities from it. It becomes the Master Sword later on.
  • Killer Rabbit: Remember those cute cat-like creatures you see in Skyloft? During the day, they are friendly, want to be carried, and follow you around. At night, they become aggressive and attack you on sight, and will continue to do so until you collect all of the Gratitude Crystals.
  • King Mook: Moldarach is a thousand-year-old Aracha who grew to monstrous size.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In a franchise that allows and even encourages wholesale pot destruction, this game manages to sneak in a bit of this. In one of Skyloft's houses lives a woman who says she's an antique collector. Break her stuff and she'll make you pay for it.
  • Last of His Kind: Link's Crimson Loftwing is implied to be the only such Loftwing alive. Before it was hatched, the Crimson subspecies was thought to be extinct.
  • The Last Straw: The small cannonball that breaks apart the Isle of the Goddess and reveals the Sky Keep acts as this.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: The game has a few oddities in relation to previous games in the series.
    • Link starts with six hearts instead of three, his dash motion is regulated by a stamina meter, and the dungeons have all their own entrance cutscenes, lack compasses (the maps retain their properties), and boss keys (replaced instead with special objects that have to be assembled correctly into the boss gates).
    • It's also the only Zelda game since the NES and SNES games where certain bosses are fought more than once, and one of the only ones along with The Adventure of Link and Majora's Mask where the Boomerang doesn't exist as an item (the Beetle serves its function instead).
    • The exploration of the overworld's areas are more puzzle-based, as in the dungeons, and the saving process relies on Bird Statues rather than a pause menu feature.
    • The elements of the three virtues and goddesses have been muddied a bit. Usually, Farore/Courage is paired with a grassy forest, and indeed, Faron Woods continues from Twilight Princess in this role...but the divine dragon actually lives in an underwater area and embodies the element of water, usually associated instead with Nayru/Wisdom. Here, Lanayru is a desert instead of the sea it once was (and indeed, would chronologically become again in the future) and its associated element is electricity. Eldin remains associated with Power and fire, however, and Breath of the Wild afterward would make Faron a jungle, restore the water theme to Lanayru, and assign electricity to the Gerudo desert region not present in this game.
    • Lastly, it's the second game (after Phantom Hourglass) to have a Real-Time Weapon Change, and the first to display an Inventory Management Puzzle for secondary items like bottles, shields, and ammunition bags. Since the game still plays functionally like the others in the series, it's still far from an Oddball in the Series, and Breath of the Wild would continue these aspects after this game.
  • Lava Pot Volcano: Eldin Volcano is a Lethal Lava Land with rivers and pools of molten rock visible everywhere.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Link's Loftwing is "special" because it's red, the implication being that it's faster than the others. Pipit, during the prologue, won the Wing Ceremony last year, but thanks his lucky stars Link's "red terror" wasn't involved.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • It's the 25th anniversary of Skyloft's Knight Academy, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Zelda franchise.
      Instructor: Today is a special day for many reasons, but it is also 25th anniversary of our fine institution.
    • Fi's talk about "a legend that will be forged by your own hand" in the intro has three referents: to Link's role in turning the Goddess Sword into the Master Sword, to Link's eventual possession of the Triforce of Courage, and to the player's use of Wii Motion Plus.
    • "Nice going, you two. You guys were totally amazing in this little adventure I like to call 'The Legend of Groose.'"
    • Fi is very frank about your health, making direct reference to your heart count as they near depletion. This could be construed as a fourth wall break, except there are heart plants strewn about the overworld, which means it's actually just leaning.
    • Ghirahim's Sword Spirit form has a dialog box change from the "normal" box to one that looks like a black version of Fi's, since it isn't made explicit he is the spirit of the Dark Master Sword until he "dies."
    • While preparing to revive Demise, Ghirahim actually hums his own leitmotif.
  • Leap of Faith: As part of an illusory puzzle in Fire Sanctuary, you must jump off a ledge into what seems like a lava pit. You have a choice of two directions to jump, and if you choose the correct way, a platform materializes as you're falling and catches you. The other way just drops you into the lava. Downplayed, as a supporting character gives you a hint that outright tells you to jump and makes it easy to figure out which direction is correct if you're paying attention to the scenery (there are frog statues on each side of the bridge you jump from; the one with its eyes closed is on the safe side). This is the only way to unlock the path to the Boss Key that leads to the dungeon's finale.
  • Lecherous Licking: Ghirahim does this to Link to up his already-through-the-roof creepiness level. And this is only their first meeting with a Overly-Long Tongue. During the sword fighting portion of the second fight, if Ghirahim lands a hit on you, he'll take a second to lick his sword clean of your blood.
  • Leitmotif: Several, in much more diverse ways this time.
    • Of course, the series' Main Theme appears once again (albeit with some arrangements) as Link's leitmotif and receives a new alternative title: Song of the Hero. The traditional version also appears during the staff roll.
    • Zelda has two themes: the Ballad of the Goddess, which she sings at the beginning, and her traditional Lullaby later on. This leitmotif is especially brilliant as the two themes are reverse versions of the other, and Zelda is both herself and the reincarnation of the Goddess. Ballad of the Goddess also serves as the game's Main Theme.
    • The Mogmas (this iteration's lava dwellers) have a jazzy theme, complete with snapping fingers.
    • The Guardians of the Silent Realm have terrifying industrial music as a leitmotif, more akin to Silent Hill.
    • Ghirahim has a piece that sounds somewhat like carnival music, played slowly by a pipe organ whenever he is having a conversation and quickly and intensely by strings during fights with him. A choir and drumline are added for the final fight. He actually hums the former, while dancing around, while preparing to sacrifice Zelda to Demise.
    • Groose has one that evolves along with his character.
    • The different vendors in the Bazaar each have their own arrangement of the overall Bazaar music, which switches instruments seamlessly without losing its place in the song as you move toward and away from each vendor.
    • The Imprisoned has a four note motif that plays when it awakens and sporadically during the battle against it. When it reveals its true form as Demise, the four note motif continues to be used, but during the final battle is played at a faster tempo.
  • Le Parkour: The dash mechanic allows for Link to run up walls and generally have much more maneuverability, at the expense of stamina.
  • Lethal Joke Item: The net you use for catching bugs will also distract Demise during the first half of the battle, and not only does it deflect the projectiles he fires in the second half, it's the only way to do so — your shield can only block them and trying to use your sword just gets yourself electrified.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Eldin Volcano, and by extension the two dungeons found within (Earth Temple and Fire Sanctuary). Strangely, while falling in lava does only one heart of damage, there's a room were Convection, Schmonvection is mentioned: your Exposition Fairy informs you that the walls are so hot you can't continue onwards without taking more damage than you have hearts (note that you can raft down the lava rivers on a floating rock without taking damage). Later this is rendered moot with earrings that protect you from heat (but not fire or lava).
  • Letting the Air out of the Band:
    • Groose's leitmotif evidently does not agree with Groose that the world below Skyloft should be named Grooseland.
    • Travelling from the top of the Ancient Cistern into the basement causes the previously airy music to drop off into more sinister tones.
  • Level Editor: The Sky Keep temple's gimmick is a puzzle involving the player using control panels to rearrange rooms that look like they could have come from previous dungeons in the game.
  • Levels Take Flight: The Sky is traveled through with Link's Loftwing, in order to reach any of the islands floating in it or the perpetual storm of the Thuderhead or to descend to any of the areas of the surface. Enemies are few and mostly airborne, such as flying Octoroks that perch on floating chunks of rock and winged, wormlike enemies.
  • Lighter and Softer: The game is in the middle between the darker styles of its predecessor Twilight Princess and successor Breath of the Wild and the lighter style of The Wind Waker, which is evident by both the visual style and the storyline. The atmosphere of the game's world is generally cheery, especially the Sky and the islands in it, and dials back from the melancholic vibe of Twilight Princess. However, the surface below features tense, frightening areas like the Silent Realms, the underground of the Ancient Cistern, and the present era of Lanayru Desert. The game ultimately veers into a darker tone after Ghirahim kidnaps Zelda and takes her to the past to revive Demise.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: Demise uses lightning as a way for making his sword like the Master Sword, which also includes using it like a Skyward Strike when fully charged. This ends up being his undoing, however, as Link can do the same.
  • Lily-Pad Platform: Many of these are found in the Ancient Cistern, some of which float in poisonous waters.
  • Limited Wardrobe: As usual, Link spends most of the game clothed in his traditional green garb, after a brief early-game romp in his Skyloft civvies. But aside from the one costume-change, Link never changes his clothes. He is even shown sleeping in his daywear, even when that involves wearing chain mail to bed.
  • Literal Surveillance Bug: The Beetle, of course. You can inspect areas with it, retrieve distant items, carry bombs and other objects after the first upgrade, and accelerate and go far with further upgrades.
  • Living Weapon: Fi is the spirit of the Goddess Sword, manifested as a young girl. The Goddess Sword eventually becomes the aforementioned Master Sword, establishing the identity of its mind. Ghirahim, The Dragon, turns out to be one as well; he's the living embodiment of Demise's sword.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading: The screen fading that signals a loading period occurs when entering the largest room of a dungeon, since these rooms are among the largest enclosed areas in the series and they have several features within.
  • Local Hangout: The Lumpy Pumpkin in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. There's even a sidequest where Link ends up working there to repay a debt. The Bazaar may also count; some side characters will buy you drinks there.
  • Lockpicking Minigame: Each dungeon except the last one leads to a boss room that can only be accessed by opening a door with a uniquely-shaped lock. The "key" that opens is a relics or figure that has to be positioned into the lock in a specific way, and the player has to move it accordingly with the Wiimote (Wii version), Joycon (Switch version when played with motion controls), or right stick (Switch version when played with buttons).
  • Lonely Piano Piece: The music heard when Impa talks about the Gate of Time, which is also heard after Link returns from the past upon witnessing Zelda beginning her centuries-long slumber, is a melancholic musical composition that represents, respectively, the importance of opening the Gate and finding the Triforce to kill the Imprisoned so Zelda can wake up in the present.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: Moldarach and Tentalus (both, incidentally, found in Lanayru Desert) are the only two bosses with no connection to Ghirahim. This extends to the minibosses located in the Lanayru Sand Sea (another Moldarach in the Shipyard and Scervo in the Sandship); the former simply happens to be on Link's way while he looks for clues about the Sandship, and the latter has usurped the Sandship itself for his own motives and was already Skipper's lifelong enemy since long before the prologue of the game.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: The game has plenty of themes, but a number of them (such as "Gate of Time", "Romance Is In The Air", and "Guardians Awaken") appear very sporadically and almost none have enough screen time to stick to the player's memory. Even "Ballad of the Goddess" is very scarce considering it's supposed to be the game's main theme. It's almost a Running Gag to the effect that Zelda is always interrupted when playing it.
  • Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: By hitting the timestones in the Lanayru Desert, you can see how an advanced Magitek civilization worked in the green lands in the past. In the present, it's a barren wasteland and all the Cute Machines are rusted piles of scrap.
  • Lost Technology: A few centuries prior to the story, there was a thriving civilization made up mostly of sapient robots (and, probably, a related civilization that made the robots), with antigravity technology, mastery of electricity, and other technology to put modern Earth to shame. The civilization vanished around the time of a war and ancient ridiculously high-tech relics show up in dungeons and as monsters for the rest of the series, a span covering literally thousands of years.
  • The Lost Woods: Faron Woods, the area that eventually becomes Kokiri Forest and Lost Woods. The main area is rather maze-like, the inhabitants are Plant People, and the Master Sword ends up resting there. However, as the game takes place hundreds of years before the other examples in the series, the area is much more open than in other games.
  • Love Confession: There are two sidequests featuring this trope:
    • If Link chooses to make Pipit hook up with Karane, the former will confess his feeling for her, which she gladly accepts. Cawlin, who was in love with Karane as well, doesn't take this well.
    • The Item Check girl, Peatrice, ends up obviously infatuated with Link as the sidequest goes on. At the end, she asks Link to come to her house at night so she can tell him something important, where she decides to confess her feelings to him. Her confession can either be reciprocated or rejected.
  • Lovecraft Lite: The ultimate Big Bad, Demise, is an Eldritch Abomination God of Evil. That said, you can kill him.
  • Love Doodles: Karane, one of the senior students at the Skyloft Knight Academy, is completely smitten with the good-hearted top student, Pipit. If Link inspects the desk in her room at the academy, he can find a book where Karane has drawn a doodle of Pipit's face with a heart below.
  • Love Theme: The game has "Romance In The Air", when Link and Zelda first talk.
  • Love Triangle: Three Type 4's happen in the game:
    • The first has Groose pining for Zelda, who is implied to be interested in Link.
    • The second has Karane and Pipit sharing mutual feelings, while Cawlin has a crush on the former. Depending on what you do with Cawlin's letter, Karane and Pipit will hook up, or the ghostly hand in the toilet will fall in love with Cawlin.
    • Lastly, there's Link, between Zelda and Peatrice. However, the game seems to establish the relationship between Link and Zelda, with the relationship with Peatrice merely serving as a sidequest where Link must humor her to get Gratitude Crystals. Zelda isn't aware of this throughout the game, and Link is told by Fi not to inform her should you decide to have Link actually return those feelings.
  • Low Culture, High Tech: The unnamed civilization in the Lanayru Desert region had built large industrial complexes that produced mining facilities, advanced ships, "Time Stones" capable of locally shifting time, and intelligent autonomous robots maintaining them all. But their unchecked expansion led to the desertification of what was once a region of lush fields and seas and the collapse of their civilization. By the time Link arrives there, he must use the Time Stones in order to shift time back to when things were still functional, and even then he must rely on the robots to work some of the more complex devices.
  • Luck-Based Mission: While not required to get anything useful, the Thrill Digger minigame is heavily luck-based, as it functions just like Minesweeper... except that with a single exception, the indicators tell you two possibilities for how many traps are around. Two blue rupees next to each other could mean they share a bomb, they share a bomb but one also has one to the side, they share two bombs...
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The game changed the shield mechanics significantly: you can put out your shield any time you have your sword out, but you have to thrust it out with proper timing to actually deflect an attack—simply holding it out prevents damage, but will still cause you to stagger and damages your shield.
  • Ludicrous Precision: Fi, the local Exposition Fairy of the game, loves to throw out percentages any time a possibility arises. Though the numbers are a lot broader than other examples of the trope, always a multiple of 5, she still gives them in uncertain situations when such probabilities should be incalculable. As with most examples of this, the suggested possibility is always the case, even though Fi gives probabilities ranging from 40% to 95% (never 100%). Apparently she's not very confident, even though she's always right. She does use an absolute one time, however: when you are about to enter Demise's realm, Fi tells you there is a 0% chance of you returning unless you are able to defeat him. The fact that she almost never uses absolutes makes it all the more chilling when she does. And more comically, the only other time she uses an absolute (100%) is when she is calculating your chances of being irritated by a crow pooping on your head.

Master, I calculate that there is a 0% chance that you will find any more tropes on this subpage. I suggest you go to the next one.

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