Saria

[Sariashero76]

Ok,


I honestly belive that maybe Link should be with Saria instead of Zelda because shes always been there for him but hes always off saving Zelda!
Saria needs a hero in some way!

 

[Seth]

Saria never ages though, when Link is an adult it would get kind of creepy...

 

[SinkingBadges]

Saria never ages though, when Link is an adult it would get kind of creepy...

Dude, it can get far creepier if you get the same interpretation I gave it once. I remember looking at some of her dialogue and thinking the way she acts towards Link can sometimes come off as somewhat... I'm sure few people, if any, are gonna agree with this but...

Spoiler

I sort of got a motherly vibe from her when looking at it from a certain angle.

The funny part is that it's not really impossible. Even if the game doesn't specify how young Link was when he was left by himself on the forest, he must've been a little kid at most. If you look at Saria's aging the other way around, she could be older than him. And considering she was (at least according to some) the only friend he had, I don't see why she couldn't have taken him "under her wing". I mean, I know it's a weird way of looking at it, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

Oh and if anyone reading this happens to be a SariaxLink shipper, remember this is just speculation.

 

[rock]

Dude, it can get far creepier if you get the same interpretation I gave it once. I remember looking at some of her dialogue and thinking the way she acts towards Link can sometimes come off as somewhat... I'm sure few people, if any, are gonna agree with this but...

Spoiler

I sort of got a motherly vibe from her when looking at it from a certain angle.

The funny part is that it's not really impossible. Even if the game doesn't specify how young Link was when he was left by himself on the forest, he must've been a little kid at most. If you look at Saria's aging the other way around, she could be older than him. And considering she was (at least according to some) the only friend he had, I don't see why she couldn't have taken him "under her wing". I mean, I know it's a weird way of looking at it, but I find it interesting nonetheless.

Oh and if anyone reading this happens to be a SariaxLink shipper, remember this is just speculation.

If you got a motherly vibe from her, I can see that, but would go a little further to correct the term and call it babysitter. One that, over time, love can spark between, therefore granting the best of both worlds. Of course for the whole never aging thing.

Isn't there something about the Kokiri where if they leave the forest they age? Or am I getting this mixed up with something else? I just feel there's a way to have certain Kokiri age if necessary for some type of story arc, whether that be love or in my case, I'm trying to incorporate Saria as a "reincarnated being" of sorts. Because I'd want to at least first see Link and Zelda together officially, and since we all know of the hero coming around every 100 years (I attempted to tie in a reincarnation factor here), then we'd almost get this memory wipe from Link, and while the previous canon could all point signs to Zelda, Link is just so transfixed by Saria.

I'm not saying it's a bulletproof story element, but as the story requires depth in direction as well as depth in character, it's only a matter of time before there is the incorporation of interrelated tension. Link's a pimp. I feel a romantic relationship on some level should be addressed in one game or another.

 

[Seth]

Isn't there something about the Kokiri where if they leave the forest they age? Or am I getting this mixed up with something else?

It's a theory, but nothing concrete.

 

[XskywardX]

It's a theory, but nothing concrete.

I'm pretty sure that they actually said that ingame, didn't they?

 

[Djinn]

It was never stated that they age, only that they die. Which was later thought to be a myth in of itself.

The Great Deku Tree said that if a Kokiri leaves the woods, he or she will die!

They say that one Kokiri has left
the forest, but he is still
alive!

We Kokiri will die if we leave the
forest!
You're not going to try to leave
the forest, are you?!

The aging thing has been a fan speculation but cannot be backed up by developer quotes.

 

[Seth]

I'm pretty sure that they actually said that ingame, didn't they?

The Deku Tree warned the Kokiri that they couldn't leave the forest or they would die.

At the end game celebration they are clearly seen in Lon Lon Ranch.

The main theories are that the (1) Deku Tree was simply lying, (2) that he was referring to the monsters or other dangers outside or (3) that when they leave the forest a spell is broken and they thus age. I don't believe anything is explicitly stated beyond those two things but I could be wrong.

 

[SinkingBadges]

If you got a motherly vibe from her, I can see that, but would go a little further to correct the term and call it babysitter. One that, over time, love can spark between, therefore granting the best of both worlds. Of course for the whole never aging thing.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I might as well word it better. I personally don't think "babysitter" quite fits the bill though, I'd probably go more with "surrogate mother" or something like that.

Isn't there something about the Kokiri where if they leave the forest they age? Or am I getting this mixed up with something else? I just feel there's a way to have certain Kokiri age if necessary for some type of story arc, whether that be love...

I think the thing went more like they died if they left. Technicalities aside, the deal is they shouldn't leave, but I don't remember the game itself being very specific (or mentioning it at all) about that. I think Mido's appearance in the credits kinda debunked it, or it could be like Djinn said above and it probably wasn't true in the first place. To be honest, my memory may be tricking me here with the details.

For the rest of your post, here goes more personal interpretation: While I thought the relationship with Saria was more of a way to show how growing up would affect Link by making him go through the process of letting go. To put it somehow else, consider how she's probably the closest one to him during his childhood, you could almost say she represents it.

Spoiler

The line when she gives you the medallion pretty much ends their story in a bittersweet tone with:

Saria... will always be... your friend...

*note: not the exact quote

So yeah, I can't really see Link being fixated on her. But then again, with how ambiguous the darn game is on it...

 

[Random Person]

Originally the game is hinting that Link and Saria want to be more than just friends. It is heavily implied that Saria is the main love interest of our hero. She cares for him more than other Kokiri's, she's always happy to see him and always happy for him, and despite not wanting him to leave, sends Link off with a gift and a smile. These are all cliche (though very mature) female love interest things to do. However, the reason the LinkxZelda seems more concrete to people is that when Saria turns into a sage, Navi says "Saria will always be... your friend." That ellipsis is crucial, saying that she could've been something more, but now can never be. The thought of the LinkxSaria relationship is pretty much gone after that moment even though eventually Link goes back in time to a point where Saria never becomes a sage. That moment was made to banish the thought of LinkxSaria from your head. If you notice, not much more happens with Saria after this point passes. The possibility of LinkxZelda, however, continues until the end of the game and even past. Really, as a love interest, it doesn't seem like the game is pairing up Link and Zelda but just giving Zelda that atmosphere of "anybody could fall in love with her." It's Link's desperate attempts to save Zelda (with her being a princess and all) that a spark even flies between these two, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will wind up together. At the end of the game, the relationship seems more real as the princess and her knight work together to overcome their foe. Again we see cliche pairings as the brave knight generally ends up with the fair maiden. Here, Link and Zelda now must do what Link and Saria had to do, in that they must say goodbye and admit that they can never be a couple. The difference between this relationship, however, is that when Link goes back in time, he returns to Zelda... not Saria, but Zelda. There's seems to be this "needing" in Link to be there. Now eventually we know that Link warns of what will happen with Ganondorf and yadda yadda yadda, but when you saw that ending scene for the first time, is that really what came to mind? The ending scene was really pushing forward the destiny aspect that Link and Zelda belong together (not necessarily romantically, just that they belonged in each others' lives). And a relationship like that would stereotypically lead to romance. Even after OoT, in Majora's Mask, Link has memories of Zelda as he departs from Hyrule, again showing his special bond to this girl. The Legend of Zelda in itself is essentially how destiny winds up forcing these two important beings to find their way into each others' lives.

Nintendo wanted to show that Link's main love interest at the beginning of OoT was indeed Saria, but they then set the tables so that destiny would bring Zelda closer to the boy's heart.

 

[Random Person]

Let's just remind ourselves that any romantic interest in OoT is purely speculation. Link was entirely void of personality at this point hence whatever romances we decide to dream up should not be considered canon.

Many legit conclusions with literature can be labeled "just speculation" because if it were direct, it often times wouldn't be considered good literature. Many times literature hints at things to be true without truly addressing them. This is why we use cliche's and stereotypes along with the clues to help back up our "speculations." We can never truly say "I am 100% correct" but we can say "I'm sure that's what the creators were hinting at."

 

[rock]

It's a theory, but nothing concrete.

I'm pretty sure that they actually said that ingame, didn't they?

It was never stated that they age, only that they die. Which was later thought to be a myth in of itself.





The aging thing has been a fan speculation but cannot be backed up by developer quotes.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I might as well word it better. I personally don't think "babysitter" quite fits the bill though, I'd probably go more with "surrogate mother" or something like that.



I think the thing went more like they died if they left. Technicalities aside, the deal is they shouldn't leave, but I don't remember the game itself being very specific (or mentioning it at all) about that. I think Mido's appearance in the credits kinda debunked it, or it could be like Djinn said above and it probably wasn't true in the first place. To be honest, my memory may be tricking me here with the details.

For the rest of your post, here goes more personal interpretation: While I thought the relationship with Saria was more of a way to show how growing up would affect Link by making him go through the process of letting go. To put it somehow else, consider how she's probably the closest one to him during his childhood, you could almost say she represents it.

Spoiler

The line when she gives you the medallion pretty much ends their story in a bittersweet tone with:


*note: not the exact quote

So yeah, I can't really see Link being fixated on her. But then again, with how ambiguous the darn game is on it...

Thanks for all the feedback. It's enough sound evidence for me to explore the theory further, without stretching canon here, and that's good enough for me. I'd like to think that the whole leaving the forest thing resulting in death is just that aging would begin. The way I'm looking at it is that Nintendo created the Kokiri Forest to symbolize our childhood. Gohma is us realizing our destiny, and thus receiving a token to remind ourselves of such. And the second we remove ourselves from the childhood, that pure bliss state, we're exposed to the harshness of reality (the world at large), or in Link's case Death Mountain and the Zora's Domain. We can't go back from knowing what we know, only forward. And that is a huge metaphor for aging. So yeah, that's my take.

And haha, yeah the game never explicitly states anything. I could see Saria's connection to Link's childhood and the correlation with that ending. But still, surrogate mother doesn't seem like the right word either. Sounds like some people, if accepted, would wish for some Oedipus Rex-style stuff. Quite honestly, I don't really think any word is going to be a good word. Hell, people in relationships compare themselves brother/sister, father/daughter dynamics all the time when they say, "such and such, we do it to protect each other" because of some lovey dovey nonsense.

 

[Dragoncat]

I think Malon is better for him. But that's just me...

 

[bspurka]

They could never be together anyway; because, Saria becomes a sage. Her duty is to protect the forest temple and hang out with other sages and do sage things. In Oot my theory is that Link settles down with Malon, because TP Link is a direct descendant of the hero of time. TP Link starts out on a farm, maybe link from oot settled down and worked with malon to build a community around lon lon ranch

 

[Sariashero76]

I understand all of this but what about the fact that Link is lovable and is loved by at least one girl from every race? I understand that zelda is usually the one getting saved so it would make sense fdor them to be together.... But what about the the other girls in other ports? But hey id rather see him with either Malon or Saria.