While most of the sidequests in the Zelda series have Link help the people of Hyrule, sometimes helping a person can end up hurting another. On the bright and cheery island of Skyloft, the community is small enough that often your decisions and actions with one character will end up affecting multiple across the entire village, for better or for worse. Personally, one of my favorite things about Skyward Sword is the relationships the NPCs have with each other, especially Pipit and his mother, Mallara.
While this article focuses on Mallara, it would be incomplete without the mention of Pipit, her son. A senior to Link and Zelda’s class, Pipit is the model student of the Knight Academy and his passion for knighthood is revered by both citizen and student, often citing his voluntary night patrols as proof of his merits. While Pipit certainly does have a passion for protecting his village, he doesn’t do it purely out of the goodness of his heart.
As it turns out, part of the reason Pipit volunteers for night patrols is to make some extra cash for his family. From the small amount of dialogue available between Pipit and Mallara, it seems that their family has some money trouble and Pipit’s extra work helps ensure his family can afford to eat. Despite Pipit’s intentions, Mallara seems to have other plans for her son’s bonus paycheck. Cursed with the dangerous combination of a messy lifestyle and a hatred of cleaning, Mallara sees Pipit’s overtime paycheck as a way out of her chores. When Link enters the family house, she immediately asks Link to help out with cleaning up all the dust in her home in exchange for some “pocket money.”
After the Gust Bellows makes short work of the dust, she shows immense gratitude and rewards Link with rupees or Gratitude Crystals, allowing him to go on his merry way. However, if Link shows up later, he’ll witness an exasperated Pipit scold his mother over her immature spending of the family’s money, insisting that the money is for bread and that cleaning is something Mallara could do herself. Pipit notices Link has heard the conversation, and is obviously very embarrassed, requesting Link keep quiet about the situation. Afterward, Mallara immediately begins asking Link, once again, for help cleaning her home. Seems like Pipit’s scolding didn’t help much, unfortunately.
To be fair to Mallara, her home becomes another level of dusty. You name it: mirror, table, dresser, dishes, it’s all dusty. As bad as I feel for Pipit, this poor woman needs help. It’s not just the level of dust either, but the speed at which her home becomes dusty is unreal. Even her bed is caked in cobwebs.
I really can’t help but feel bad for finishing this quest. It’s required to get all the Gratitude Crystals, but I feel like I’m just enabling Mallara’s bad habits and straining the relationship between her and her son. Regardless of the moral implications, I do love the level of depth that interactions like these add to Skyloft and its residents.
At the end of the day, I wonder how Link feels about cleaning Mellara’s home. I guess whether or not you’re enabling a stubborn woman’s bad habits and taking her son’s hard-earned money, 20 rupees is 20 rupees.
