Tingle’s Maps: Triangle Islands

In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Great Sea is host to a plethora of fascinating locations to visit and explore. Areas like Windfall Island or Dragon Roost Island are large and dense, filled with characters to meet, items to collect, and most importantly, feature story progression! But other areas, such as the Triangle Islands, don’t have much in the way of exploration and in truth, can probably be explored in less than thirty seconds.

Despite their simplicity, these three locations are still extremely important to the game’s narrative. They also contribute toward making the Great Sea feel like a mysterious and exciting region to traverse.

The Triangle Islands include the Northern, Eastern, and Southern islands. Each one is a similar size and shape; that shape being a triangle, of course. The journey there involves the potential of running into a terrifying Seahat or Octorok, but these enemies are easily avoided with some careful sailing. 

In terms of interaction, the islands offer very little besides some bushes and a few blades of grass for potential rupee pickings. More important than the environment itself are the three Goddess Statues, one located on each island, that watch over the Great Sea. 

The trio of Goddess Statues await the day that a hero will place three mystical relics in their possession; those relics being Farore’s Pearl, Naryu’s Pearl, and Din’s Pearl, which are collected during the first half of Wind Waker’s story. Once the player places each of these items on the islands, a beam of light shoots out from each of the statues. The beams rapidly connect, forming a massive Triforce of light across the map. This opens the path to the game’s third official dungeon, the Tower of the Gods. 

One reason I love these islands is that they offer a glimpse of what lies under the Great Sea’s surface. Going underwater is almost nonexistent in The Wind Waker, aside from story events later on. Bringing the Tower of the Gods to the surface marks a significant change to the game world, but it also presents the player with lingering questions: What else is waiting beneath the ocean waves, patiently waiting to be unearthed?

If you know where to find them, The Wind Waker’s Triangle Islands are pretty easy to navigate using your ship, dubbed the King of Red Lions. Sadly, in real life there is no such thing as a magical, talking red boat, meaning that the journey to the real Triangle Island is a bit more difficult.

That’s right! There exists an actual island called the Triangle Island which can be found off the northwestern edge of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The ride there (not even by boat, but helicopter) is said to be difficult due to frequently uncooperative weather. But even if you manage to reach it yourself, the area is strictly off-limits to visitors.

That’s because the island is home to a massive number of bird and sea mammal species, including over 60,000 tufted puffins, according to CBC News. It’s also the second-largest nursery in the world for Steller sea lions, which Wikipedia sadly lists as a near-threatened species. For those reasons, only a select few wildlife researchers are allowed access to the island.

If only The Wind Waker’s Triangle Islands would feature friendly wildlife! For now, we’ll just have to appreciate the story progression afforded to us by these three locations.