Daily Debate: Would Link Be Able to Stick to the Most Common New Year’s Resolutions?
Posted on January 12 2021 by Alexis S. Anderson
With almost two weeks of 2021 under our belts, it’s possible a lot of us who made resolutions have already broken them (or haven’t set out to accomplish them yet!). And while we don’t always get a perfect read on Link’s personality, I wonder whether he would join those of us who have already fallen short of their self-improvement goals. We know that Link is prone to being sleepy, quiet, and generally crafty. So how well would he fair when it comes to popular New Year’s resolutions like getting more sleep, being more social, or learning new things?
Get More Sleep: Our lazy Link might do really well with this depending on what adventures await him in 2021. It seems that when the fate of the world isn’t threatened, Link tends to get lots of sleep. But, who knows if following the events of his adventures he gets more serious about protecting Hyrule on the regular. If he is training to become a knight or working as Zelda’s personal bodyguard, he might find himself with a wonky sleep schedule. (And if Breath of the Wild comes out this year it’s probable the poor thing will hardly get any shut-eye.)
Be More Social: Link is not the most social guy. There’s little evidence that Link spends much time with people his own age in most games, save for his friendships with Saria and Marin (both bittersweetly short-lived). Most of his social engagements are either with mentors, employers, or companions who need his help. Unless it’s during leisure time, I don’t think it meets this goal. But, Link could make it up by carving out more time for friends to play fun mini-games. So, the prognosis isn’t great but he might pull it off if he really sets his mind to it.
Travel More / Learn Something New: Our favorite adventurer has got these in the bag. He travels all over the map, but usually sticks to the land of Hyrule, so if he has the time I think Epona would gladly help him branch out further. And Link would probably be so bored if he wasn’t acquiring some new skill every now and then, especially since he’s such a fast learner.
Break His Smartphone Addiction: This one really only applies to Breath of the Wild Link with his Sheikah Slate. And I don’t think he could break it! He uses that slate all the time to index his items, warp, take photos, keep track of tasks, navigate, and do all sorts of others actions that help him traverse the land. I think Link is as dependent on that slate as most of us are on our phones. That said, if he did gather the strength to go off-the-grid, he’d figure out how to rough it!
Save Money: It’s hard to say on this one. Outside of the context of his adventure, Link may not need as much money. But, he also might not be making as much money. This also depends on the game, but I think he could do it seeing that post-adventure he wouldn’t need to be buying so many bombs, arrows, and the like.
Reduce Stress: Depending on what lifestyle he’s living after his adventures, he may be just as stressed as ever. But Link can sometimes be a good example of taking time for oneself actually, given his penchant for fishing and jamming at Milk Bars. So I think regardless of what he’s up to, Link would likely keep this resolution no matter how life-or-death his other tasks.
Link would do a better job sticking to most of these than I probably could, which speaks to why he’s the hero of legend and I am just a humble fan. Hopefully, despite the strange state of affairs we’re in, most of us are able to accomplish whatever goals we set out for ourselves this year. And hopefully by the end of 2021 we can safely join Link in resolving to travel and be more social.
And just for fun, if I had to guess what resolutions our Triforce bearers might actually make, I’d wager: Link would resolve to think before he leaps sword-first into life threatening situations, Zelda would strive toward striking a better work-life balance between Princess duties and personal interests, and Ganondorf would probably try to get even more shredded in anticipation of future scraps with do-gooders.
Do you agree with my projections of Link’s ability to stick with these common resolutions (and are there any I missed)? What do you think our legendary triad’s personal resolutions would be? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Alexis S. Anderson is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon who joined the writing team in November, 2014. She has a JD from the UCLA School of Law and is pursuing a career in Entertainment and Intellectual Property Law. She grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with her parents, twin brother, and family shih-tzu.
