Reflecting on Ocarina of Time: Facing the Mistakes of Your Past

One of the chief strengths of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the contrast it makes between the worlds of childhood and adulthood. From a gameplay perspective there are differences in the inventory Link can utilize and the locations he can reach, as well as changes in the world and the characters around him.

On a thematic level, perhaps the game’s starkest contrast is that of childhood as a time of innocent and ignorant mistakes, compared to adulthood as a time of responsibility to face the consequences of our past actions.

Having been thrust seven years into the future, Link doesn’t have an opportunity to naturally mature over time. Thus it is that as he explores a world shaped by his childhood actions, Link comes to learn of the need to face his past, and especially, his mistakes.

On his initial quest to obtain the three Spiritual Stones, the naïve young Link goes along with anything just to obtain the items he seeks. After agreeing to be “Sworn Brothers” with Darunia for the Goron’s Ruby the game highlights Link’s ignorance with the text: “you don’t know what he means… but you’ve collected two Spiritual Stones.”

Similarly, to obtain the Zora’s Sapphire from Princess Ruto the innocent Link agrees to marry her. Ruto was gifted the jewel from her mother and told to entrust it only to the man who would be her husband, as a sort of “engagement ring.” The game again highlights Link’s ignorance: “you don’t know what she’s talking about, but you’ve finally collected all three Spiritual Stones.”

Seven years in the future Link faces the ramifications of these actions. When he ascends Death Mountain he finds a young Goron who shares his name. Due to what Link had done for Darunia in Dodongo’s Cavern seven years ago and their relationship as “Sworn Brothers,” Darunia had named his son after Link as a tribute.

Within the Fire Temple Darunia expresses his desire “to have a man-to-man talk” with Link, but the current predicament of the Goron Tribe doesn’t allow for it. On Death Mountain Link sees the impact of his actions in the past, and the significance of the relationship he naïvely entered, as well as the affect of his seven-year absence.

In the future Link also comes face-to-face with Ruto, who has been waiting seven years for her fiancée to reappear. The young Link had innocently agreed to marry the Princess, who also happened to be a different species. Ruto “never forgot the vows” that Link made with her.

Snooping around Zora’s Domain after these “vows” are made, a Zora informs Link that he has become Ruto’s infatuation; that he is “all Princess Ruto will talk about lately.” In the future she tells Link “you’re a terrible man to have kept me waiting for these seven long years.”

Just as the imprisonment of the Goron Tribe and Darunia’s role as a sage allowed Link to weasel out of facing his responsibilities, so too does Ruto’s role as a sage allow Link to evade rectifying his past mistakes.

Another example of Link’s childhood innocence comes from when he blindly agrees to get the Silver Gauntlets for Nabooru when all she promises is to “do something great” for him. What that something is exactly is left up to the player’s imagination, but in the future Nabooru states “If only I knew you would become such a handsome man… I should have kept the promise I made back then…”

It is Nabooru’s role as a sage that prevents her from delivering on her promise, but had she been able to, what would the young Link have received in the future?

In Darunia, Ruto and Nabooru, Link comes face-to-face with his past, but on none of the occasions does he have to rectify the situations. On all three occasions the characters’ role as a sage overrides the immediate need to address the issues of the past. However, Link cannot run from his biggest mistake of all.

The prime error of Link as a child was made alongside Princess Zelda. It was the two young children thinking they could thwart the evil of Ganondorf by obtaining the Triforce before him. Their miscalculation saw Link opening the door to the Sacred Realm before being sealed within, thus allowing the King of Evil to walk in and take the Triforce uncontested.

The world Link observes in the future is one completely shaped by this ultimate mistake. He witnesses destroyed towns infested with redeads and citizens who have fled their homes and even perished. The Princess of Hyrule is in-hiding as evil permeates the land and Ganondorf sits atop his tower, ruling with tyranny.

Link witnesses the consequences of his mistake as his home of Kokiri Forest is infested with monsters. He sees the Gorons tormented by Volvagia, the ranch owners driven from their livelihood, Kakariko Village burnt by Bongo Bongo, and the Zoras frozen beneath ice as Lake Hylia, the land’s water supply, is depleted.

Indeed, the adult portion of Ocarina of Time is wholly focused on Link reverting the consequences of his childhood folly. Defeating Ganondorf is not only Link facing his past, but also facing his further mistake of leading Ganondorf to Princess Zelda in the future.

While Zelda and Link share this blunder, there is a key difference between the two. Whereas Link struggles with his role as an adult, having never grown-up over time, Zelda had lived to see her mistake progress into Ganondorf’s oppressive rule. She knew that maturity was about addressing the past, as she succinctly narrates:

“All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing… I was so young…I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it, too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes…”

Adulthood is the time to make up for our mistakes, to face the choices and actions of our past. To live with the consequences and if possible to find the solutions.

Often we want to run away, to shirk the responsibility as Link often did. Ocarina of Time concludes with a fairy-tale-ending, with the notion that we can go back and do things over again. Link goes back in time and prevents Ganondorf from ever entering the Sacred Realm, rectifying his mistake before it ever happens.

For me and you, though, there is no going back. You cannot return to what you perceive as “where you are supposed to be” and “the way you are supposed to be” before your slip-ups. We cannot regain the time we’ve lost due to our failings, but we can face the responsibility instead of running from it.

Just as it was for Link, the world and people around us in adulthood are shaped by the actions of our childhood and of our past. We witness a world full of the repercussions from our childhood choices and we need to deal with that.

Adulthood is a serious world shaped by the triumphs and failures of our past. Perhaps Ocarina of Time’s most significant message is that life is about continuously coming to terms with what we did when we were younger.

Ocarina of Time makes the distinction between childhood as a time of mistakes, and adulthood as the time of rectification. Our past choices and actions shape our present and life is about confronting that, not running away from responsibility.

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This article was originally released at our sister-site GenGAME on June 24 2013 and cross-promoted here at Zelda Dungeon. You can view the article’s original release by following this link.