How Link Heals?

[Zora the Greek]

I remember even as an 8 year old playing Zelda 1, finding the concept of a thing called a "heart container" oddly unsettling.

 

[Devdadou]

I imagine it as he has his heart containers in which he keeps his enemies hearts and although not shown when he takes damage he eats some and when he runs out he dies.

In BotW however they are just kept as a familiar health gauge as Link eats food now. It is likely to appease the vegetarian fans so Link can do a vegetarian run without eating actual hearts.

I'm vegetarian but I always thought taht the heart was some magic energy of life as well like red potion ^^ never think about actual meat because it is a video game so all is permited ^^

 

[Dio]

I'm vegetarian but I always thought taht the heart was some magic energy of life as well like red potion ^^ never think about actual meat because it is a video game so all is permited ^^

Because of the variety of different foods available if you get Breath of the wild you should actually be able do a vegetarian playthrough this time.

 

[Guest-3]

He steals the souls of his foes and EATS them. *nomnom*

 

[linebyline]

I always figured the heart containers were actual items Link obtained, which increased his capacity to take damage. I would say that they were containers for potion or something, but Link refills them by doing normal video-game healing activities (like eating and drinking restorative foods, drinks, or medicines) so I have to conclude that they simply increasing his resilience as long as he carries them.

I like to think they also serve as indicators of his current health, as if Link could look at the heart containers in his inventory and they'd look more or less like the hearts in the game's HUD. I have no support for this, though; it's pure headcanon.

I tend to think the hearts themselves are also physical items Link obtains and, uh, uses...somehow. I can speculate that they're containers of red potion, in the same way that the magic jars/decanters can be thought of as containers for green potion. Maybe they're the raw ingredients used to make red potion. Or perhaps they're not related to red potion at all, and just little magical items that restore health.

Support for the idea that hearts are real items comes from the fact that you can buy them in shops. In A Link Between Worlds, there's one shopkeeper who even talks about them, saying that the neighboring merchant is cheating customers by charging them for something they could easily pick up off the ground for free.

The problem with that is the way people can spontaneously cause them to appear via romantic or affectionate gestures. Then again, they're not the only things treated as physical objects but created from people's feelings: Force Gems (the Spirit Tracks variety) and Gratitude Crystals have similar origins. (A weaker parallel is the way that fairies and spirits can materialize objects, like the Light Spirits creating Zelda's bow and Light Arrows at the end of Twilight Princess, or giving Link his traditional clothing earlier in the same game.)

I wonder how [Yeto and Yeta] would react if they cared about Link's actions in this scene. He litteraly stole the representation of their love...

I doubt they'd care. I think Yeto would say the true representation of their love was in his eyes, or something. Even if they did take notice, I figure they'd probably be more than willing to let Link take them as rewards for helping with the soup quest and that whole "transformed into a monster" thing.

Besides, the hearts are apparently really easy to make.

 

[Devon Thurgood]

I SOLVED THE MYSTERY!
Link obtains hearts from cutting tall grass.
Pokémon are known to hide in tall grass.

 

[ELDYLO]

Maybe Heart containers make a protective shield around Link and the hearts of his enemy's are it's power source.

 

[NintendoCN]

He just absorbs them instantly,the potions and drinks have healing properties, and sitting is like resting at an inn in an RPG you regain all your health if given some time.

 

[TattooArtist]

Although this can simply be explained by "video game logic" we are video game theorists, we don't take that for an answer. So throughout playing the zelda games I have always wondered how link heals by running into a heart. My theory is that link, is able to heal by absorbing the life force from fallen enemies. The hearts simply represent the life force. Link is able to store as much life force as he has containers for them like heart containers. This is also why grass drops hearts as well, it may not have a heart but it has life force. This means red potions also contain life force.

I feel like his companion heals him because they can't exactly die. Such as Fi, Midna and the traditional fairy. :fi: