Brand New World
So, after Link receives the Fairy Ocarina from Saria and ventures forth into Hyrule Field, we begin to notice a subtle change in the game’s tone. During Link’s life in the Kokiri Forest, he was bullied a little for not having a fairy, which leads the player to develop a sense of individuality in Link, but in the big world of Hyrule Link’s status changes. In the Forest all the Kokiri are children, but in Hyrule there are adults.
Miyamoto once said that the inspiration of the Zelda series came from exploring the wilderness near his home as a child, and I think in OoT this evolves into a slight distrust of adults. Through Link’s eyes, we see the adults as condescending, rude, and an inhibition to the quest to save Hyrule. In the Castle in particular the adult guards frustrate and bore the player with their punctuality, their strict adherence to rules, and their distain for children. Miyamoto further divides Link from this world to relate it to us, the players, by introducing another child, Princess Zelda, who also seeks to rescue the world from the blindness of the adults to Ganondorf’s plot to overthrow Hyrule.
The relationship between Link and Zelda are odd. Don’t let the fan art and fan-fiction fool you, these two share a relationship but it is now way romantic at this juncture. Both are inquisitive, something that separates them from the rest of the Hylians, but other than a desire to protect Hyrule there is almost no personal connection. A recurring theme, that I will address later, is that through the Child Arc of the game Link develops a desire not to protect the people of Hyrule but rather Hyrule itself.
Is it self-loathing to still hate adults now that I'm nineteen?
So, to counteract the seriousness of the statements above, I will say that I hated the fetch section to grab Saria’s Song. Yes, I suppose it’s a bit of foreshadowing, but I still hate having to walk through the vastness of Hyrule Field for the sole purpose of procuring six measly notes. I will, however, state that Darunia’s dancing was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while.
God, I’m blazing through this. I seem to recall this game being a lot harder when I was younger.
