Okay so you know how Link in Ocarina of Time is this little adorable ten year old kid? And that he’s forced to grow up and is thrown into adulthood with no warning? Like No one understands the ****ing trauma this kid went through. He ****ing is thrown into this grand adventure, and he’s imprisoned by his mentor for 7 YEARS. Just fast asleep and unaware of what horrors are occurring to everyone. I mean, look at the castle town when you wake up as adult Link! Everyone is a zombie! But see that’s not even the worst of it. As it turns out, his ****ing life is a lie! He’s not a Kokiri, he’s a Hylian! He was always going to grow up, hero or not. Mido was right, it seems! Link’s a FREAK. He’s different. He probably came to terms with it but still. Mido was older and he bullied him. And in Link's mind initially, he was RIGHT. And like, imagine just waking up, finding out your life is a lie, and based on what you see in castle town, you don’t know what’s happened to everyone! Where’s Princess Zelda? Is she okay? The Castle is gone so where is she? What about Saria, your best friend who’s like your sister? Her old spot's abandoned, and the music is gone. It's like its DEAD. Ruto, who you grudgingly admit is your friend/betrothed? Darunia, your adoptive brother. Is he okay? Are his people okay? And what about Impa? Is Zelda with her? Does that mean Zelda’s okay? What if they’re both dead? And what about that little ranch girl, Malon? You only met like twice, but she was really nice, and you would have hung out with her more than you’d admit. Not only that, but Link sees what disasters have happened. The forest is GONE, and overrun by monsters. The Kokiri probably all fled and became Skull Kids in the woods because that’s what happens when you ****ING DIE in the lost woods as a Kokiri. He’s also seen the Gorons just imprisoned and most of them are probably dead because Volvagia ate them. I’d like to point out that in the manga, Volvagia was being illegally shown as a prize in something, so Link, being the good boy he is, saves the little guy and frees him, only to end up having to kill his friend. That’s pretty ****ed up, considering Link is still 10 years old both emotionally and mentally. It's non-canon, but still important in proving how harsh the decisions Link was forced to make ended up being. The Zora’s domain is frozen, Jabu Jabu’s gone, and the Zora are trapped. If he doesn’t do **** the species will die out. Then when it comes to Impa it’s not like she was OUTSTANDINGLY important to Link, but if Zelda wasn’t with her, then where the **** is she? Impa sure as hell doesn’t tell him, so IS SHE OKAY??? Does Hyrule have a good ruler that will emerge one day??? And yeah, you factor in he’s likely matured a bit by the time he meets Nabooru, but probably not even that much, considering that’s at most it’s been a few weeks since he emerged as an adult, so he’s still fairly young emotionally. Probably like 12. That’s still pretty ****ing young. This ****ing 12 year old kid has to see someone he trusts get ****ing kidnapped and agonizingly yell at him to get away to somewhere safe, only for him to realize she’s been SERVING HIS ENEMY FOR YEARS WHEN HE COMES BACK. That must have been pretty scary to see that Iron Knuckle pop open to reveal Nabooru. So you get to the end, Ganon is gone, Link goes back to his normal life and all… BUT IT DOESN’T STOP THEN. Have you ever seen Majora’s Mask? That game is dark as ****. It’s REALLY ****ING MATURE for a Zelda game. That’s what Link is IMMEDIATELY thrown into. That ****ing horror is his next journey. And hey, based on the sidequests and all the stuff there is to do in that game, who knows how ****ing long he was stuck in that three day loop! Even Link had to be stumped by some of the dungeons, forcing him to go practice more or something by rewinding time. Reliving those same days over and over for at least weeks of his own time had to have been maddening. And at the end of that all, was it really worth it? No. It wasn’t. Why? He never found Navi. At the end of Ocarina of Time, Navi leaves when Link is a child again. I know it’s just speculation, but you ever wonder why fairies disappear when they heal/revive you? Most people say that’s because they die when their purpose has been fulfilled. So just imagine that for a moment if you will. You get to the end of this You leave your life behind You don’t know if what you went through was a dream and you just fell into Zelda’s game (remember, you’re kids so her word about Ganondorf would have been hard to believe unless someone else proved it with a tale like yours) You quite possibly condemned an innocent man (Twilight Princess shows he was going to be outright executed) And your last link to all this, the last memory you have of all this Your only witness you can trade stories with Is dead Because her purpose was fulfilled. You never get to relive anything. You’ll never know if what you did WAS important. You isolate yourself from your few friends remaining and just wander the woods, hoping what you heard about fairies was wrong and that you’ll find Navi again. But you never do. And what you learn is never passed down because you isolated yourself. And it takes decades or a couple hundred years for a new hero to emerge. By this point you’re just a broken spirit You have to teach this boy. And when you do? You see Saria. You see Darunia, Ruto, Impa, Nabooru and Old Man Rauru too. And you see a little ball of light with wings. Your purpose has been fulfilled. Rest in Peace, Hero of Time. I’m sorry, but Ocarina of Time Link is SUPER important and no one gives him credit for toughing out all that misery. He's the third Link in the Zelda Timeline, and his game caused the split so he genuinely set the standard for what a hero in the series is meant to be. The others come close, but I don't think any of them have lived like OoT Link did. It's really why OoT Link is my favorite Link- he's so much wiser than the other Links, if only because of how much he went through. What do you all think? Is OoT Link not as important as the other Links?
