Shadsie
Sage of Tales
Just something I thought of while looking at complaints about the Theory section in the shoutbox. I actually am not sure if this is a theory-proper or just speculation, but it is a theme I've been using in my fan fiction for a long time.
A friend of mine turned me onto the idea that Link, the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time, specifically, cannot read.
Her reasoning (and mine, since I've adopted the theory) is that the Kokiri children seem to be more interested in playing than in learning. They live in the forest freely and pretty much only want to play games all the time. They're also forest spirits that don't have much need for most of the skills of civilization. Now, they do have signs in their forest, but if you notice, they have fairies around them all the time. I think a case can be made for the fairies reading for them and helping them to make their signs (or for them knowing how to read a few simple words, but they still use fairies to assist them).
If you notice, throughout the game, whenever Link looks at a sign and targets it to read it, Navi targets it and seems to be the one reading it for him (her use as a target-system). It makes sense to me, furthermore, because Navi reads *all* the signs, including those presumably written in Goron, Zora and Gerudo, hinting at a her being a polyglot or just having a magical ability to understand any writing to read it back to Link.
The same thing happens with Tatl in Majora's Mask. She reads the signs in Termina for Link - which is a simple explanation for his being able to understand the signs littering a foreign country instantly.
It's not like he will not eventually learn to read. I find the idea of Zelda teaching him the skill to be very sweet. Maybe I really latched onto my friend's idea because I do consider reading to be a kind of "magical" ability. (In one of my original novels I have one character teaching another "this magic").
This theory ONLY applies to the Hero of Time, however. Other Links clearly do read. Link's house in Twilight Princess, for instance, is *full* of books. Likewise, Link in Wind Waker targets and reads signs himself (probably all written in standard Hylian of his era).
A friend of mine turned me onto the idea that Link, the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time, specifically, cannot read.
Her reasoning (and mine, since I've adopted the theory) is that the Kokiri children seem to be more interested in playing than in learning. They live in the forest freely and pretty much only want to play games all the time. They're also forest spirits that don't have much need for most of the skills of civilization. Now, they do have signs in their forest, but if you notice, they have fairies around them all the time. I think a case can be made for the fairies reading for them and helping them to make their signs (or for them knowing how to read a few simple words, but they still use fairies to assist them).
If you notice, throughout the game, whenever Link looks at a sign and targets it to read it, Navi targets it and seems to be the one reading it for him (her use as a target-system). It makes sense to me, furthermore, because Navi reads *all* the signs, including those presumably written in Goron, Zora and Gerudo, hinting at a her being a polyglot or just having a magical ability to understand any writing to read it back to Link.
The same thing happens with Tatl in Majora's Mask. She reads the signs in Termina for Link - which is a simple explanation for his being able to understand the signs littering a foreign country instantly.
It's not like he will not eventually learn to read. I find the idea of Zelda teaching him the skill to be very sweet. Maybe I really latched onto my friend's idea because I do consider reading to be a kind of "magical" ability. (In one of my original novels I have one character teaching another "this magic").
This theory ONLY applies to the Hero of Time, however. Other Links clearly do read. Link's house in Twilight Princess, for instance, is *full* of books. Likewise, Link in Wind Waker targets and reads signs himself (probably all written in standard Hylian of his era).
. I like that, it's quite sweet that Link needs everything read out for him by a fairy, even when he's 17.
