SCENE IN THE SKY, Was Link madly in LOVE??

I think it's mostly due to the fact that Saria is a Kokiri, an eternal child, and a relationship between her and Link would be like paedophilia on multiple levels (Link looks older than Saria, but Saria is probably much older than Link). Zelda, at least, is the same species as him, and has a similar rate of growth.

Zelda's kind of a special case: In the end the other six exist clearly in a non-corporeal form...not so for Zelda. She's still firmly in the land of the living and calls her power without becoming it, unlike the other six.
A quick look at the "elements" of Hyrule also show something: she doesn't have her own post, unlike them. ( Platforms in the Sacred Realm, Symbols on the Arbiter's Grounds ) I'd suggest her element is Time if any, but she still seems to be a special case.

I also take how the game treated her into account: it doesn't eliminate her as an interest unlike it did for Saria and Ruto. ( They flat out told you it wouldn't work for them, where with Zelda they encouraged it. )

I see OOT Link as a parallel to the superhero Captain Marvel. Its about a boy who says SHAZAMM!! and he becomes a full grown superhero but he is still a child at heart. Anyway..I'm not sure if Link and Zelda were mentally the same age. I don't recall Zelda being in a state of limbo as Link was. I figured growing up as a Sheikah while Link was in limbo, Zelda would be light years ahead of Link mentally wise. But I guess the manga has an odd explanation for this. As to why I don't know. I mean whats the point in Impa locking away Zelda's consciousness?? Kind of weird if you ask me.

Going by just the game, the scene in the sky still felt more of a mature young woman interracting with a sweet innocent child IMO. And as Gilderpilot stated, Link being sort of a hollow shell in the game is probably the most contributing factor as to why Link seemed to me as more of a child trapped in a mans body, but still able to do great things with his given physical advantages. Hence OOT Link = Captain Marvel parallel.

I have some questions that are sort of off topic, but its cool since its my thread. In relating to the sages that Saami previously referenced. Weren't they restored to their physical forms during the ending credits on Death Mountain?? Therefore if Link had remained in the AT, he could have THEORETICALLY hooked up with Ruto, Nabooru, or Saria right??

I'm not sure if they were restored to their physical forms. I always got the impression that they were merely there "in spirit", I suppose you could say. Sort of like how Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin appeared to Luke at the end of Return of the Jedi. I could be completely wrong on the matter, but that's the way the ending has always felt to me.

True..thats a plausible possibility. But I guess since Link was ultimately sent back to the Child Timeline anyway, its completely irrelevant.

I don't understand why you keep bringing up the sexual thing- love doesn't mean that Link has to want to do Zelda in order to prove that it's romantic. Love and sex do not equal each other. You don't love a person because you want to have sex with them.

That being said, Link's a unique person as it is. He has the pure heart of a child, with the body and experiances of an adult. Is he innocent in many aspects? Sure, he is. That doesn't mean he's incapable of romantically loving someone. He stands in the middle; he's neither fully child or adult, but something of both.

If you consider the manga, Zelda too went through something similar. Her child consiousness was put to sleep while the Sheik persona was created to protect her from Ganondorf. So in a sense, Zelda too was locked away for seven years much the same way that Link was.

Zelda as a Sage has been shown to be quite different from the other Sages. While the others are confined to the Temples, she is not. She has no outpost the way the others do; she's not even given a specific element the way the others are, and has no temple to guard. She's simply referred to as the Seventh Sage who is destined to lead the rest. Being that she's the only heir to the Hyrule Throne, it wouldn't do for her to be taken away leaving the country without a leader or heirs. She appears to be the only Sage who can continue to live in the outside world.

Saria, Nabooru, and Ruto all eliminate themselves as potential love interests for Link, as they have to do their duty as Sages. Saria can never grow up physically, and cannot leave the Temple, hence the sadness in her words to Link when she says "Saria will always be. . . your friend." Ruto says that she wants to pledge her eternal love to him, but that she cannot offer that now because of her duty, and his. Nabooru expresses regret on not being able to keep whatever promise she intended toward Link since he had become such a handsome man. They are bound to the Temples and cannot leave. The scene of them on top of Death Mountain is like the Star Wars thing, I agree, showing how they continue to watch over the world. They also appear inside Ganon's Castle after you break the barriers, but they seem to be there more spiritually than physically.

As for the scene in the sky. How this can be seen as a mother child deal is beyond me. Link has the pure heart of a child, but that does not make him any less of an adult due to what he has seen and experienced.

I never said that sex is the only thing for romance to happen. Its just part of it. If it wasn't children would never be born. I accept the Manga as an alternate reality with Link having a personality like a normal teenager and the strange concept of Zelda's mind being locked away for some reason. It seems that this was used to eliminate the mental gap between Link and Zelda that seemed prevelant in the game, in reference to Link being in a state of arrested development for 7 years while Zelda matured normally.

As for the in game OOT Link, there was nothing in the scene in the sky that suggested Link was in love with Zelda. IMO It seemed more like a mature young woman (Zelda) interracting with a sweet & innocent child (Link). Link's actions were more inclined to be like a polite and obedient child entrusting Zelda as a responsible adult with his fate in giving back the ocarina.

IMO most normal male heterosexual teenagers would have at least expressed some type of romantic desire to remain with a beautiful princess. But Link did the polar opposite and more than willingly chose to go back to being an annoying looking pint sized forest child. I reference the obvious disappointment in Zelda's face when he made that decision, which makes me believe to this day that Link DID have a choice to remain with Zelda in the Adult Timeline IMO. Hence in game OOT Link will always be immortalized as the sweet & pure hearted eternal virgin innocently floating away back to the Child Timeline.

You're implying though that the sexual feelings have to be there in order for Link to love Zelda. If you fall in love with someone, those feelings will follow. But sex is NOT necissary for romantic love.

I don't see what's strange about Zelda's consiousness being sealed away. By taking on another identity, she was very well protected from Ganondorf, just as much so as Link was when he was sealed in the sacred realm.

You keep calling Link a sweet, innocent, virgin child. That contrasts sharply with the image I have of him. Was his heart essentially simple, pure, and childlike? Sure it was, that's part of what made him so special. But there's a big difference between having a pure heart and being a child- Link was both child and adult at the same time which makes him extremely unique. By the end of the game after all he's gone through, you can't really think of him as a child, though you can't really think of him as an adult either. And being a virgin- I'm not even going to touch that because it simply doesn't matter whether Link ever had sex or not in his life- it wouldn't affect who he is as a character. The way Link acts towards Zelda does not in any way seem like a child to a mother in that scene. He listens to her; expresses great regret and reluctance to leave when he returns the ocarina to her. His hand lingers on it, and she places her hand over his, her expression completely sorrowful as she tries to explain that they have to say goodbye. Zelda doesn't speak down to him- she talks to him as an equal, as she always has.

While before he was a child in an adult's body, once he's sent back he's an adult in a child's. That frustration is clear in MM; he remembers what it was like to be an adult and struggles with the changes that had wrote on his world. There's a wonderful essay around here somewhere comparing MM Anju/Kafei with Link/Zelda, and it makes quite a bit of sense. I suggest reading it if you already haven't. It talks about how the curse that falls on Kafie is eeriely similar to the fate Link has to endure after OoT, an adult in a child's body.

I agree with you on most of your points, but its just me having angst as a Zelda game player after all that hard work to beat Ganon and Link doesn't get the girl the way I wanted him too. I've never read the Manga so the whole Zelda's mind being sealed away seems to imply that Zelda was not herself as Sheik. Whereas in the actual game it seems to suggest that Zelda was herself as Sheik.

I've read the Anju/Kafei article and I admit its well written on how it parallels the possibility of LinkxZelda in the theoretical future Child Timeline. But you should read the scene in the sky article in ZU forums where it generally states that Link as a pure and innocent being was not having a romantic moment when he paused in giving the ocarina back.

It goes on to suggest that the pause was more of Link's reflection on the adventure he had been through and the relevance the ocarina had to aid him in his quest. Its highly unlikely Link was having romantic feelings for someone he barely even knew and plus after fighting Ganon and to be floating in the sky all of a sudden. Well...it would be very awkward to just have romantic feelings out of the blue in such an awkward situation. Anyway..the article is in the ZU forums and can explain this point in more detail better than I can.

I've come across this "Link barely knows Zelda!" argument before and I don't pay it much heed. I think the best way to tell how well he knows each person is to really listen to how they talk to him. With Zelda, there's a certain amount of intimacy that suggests a deeper bond, regardless of how much time we see them together on screen. It's perfectly believable that he could have been in love with her.
As for this "platonic and introspective" view that Trahald ( the original writer of the article on ZU ) takes for the scene...that's one interpretation you can take. But he really doesn't eliminate it from being ALSO romantic.

Just because the ending is somewhat angsty and tragic shouldn't deter from the real true romantic feelings that they have. To me it's again Link and Zelda being their selfless selves- though they love each other, they have always served other people first, and that is why they cannot be together. But at the same time the ending also gives hope when child Link and Zelda meet again. I was sad at first that Link couldn't be with Zelda in the future, but that only made the relationship all the more special and lovely, and he still had a chance with her in the past, so it's not like the relationship is doomed.

I don't think that's what it was meant to imply- simply that Zelda's memories regarding herself as a princess were sealed away; her core self remained pretty much the same. Sheik and Zelda were always very similar to me in game and manga. Wise, helpful, and always dedicated to helping defeat Ganondorf by aiding Link.

I don't pay much attention to the 'Link barely knows Zelda' agrument either. I agree, how they talk and react to each other is a much better indicator of how well they know each other. Besides, the same arguement can be applied to Malon as well depending on how often you go to the farm. You don't even need to use Epona at all in the game so communication with Malon can pretty much be cut off after she gives you the egg as a child and you use it to wake up Talon.

Just went and read the article that meantions the sky meeting, and I'm chuckling a little bit actually. Comparing the Ring of Power from LotR to the Ocarina of Time is quite the stretch. For one thing, the Ring was useful but it's power was addictive and warping. The Ocarina had no such warping addictive powers, so to compare giving up the Ring to giving up the Ocarina is not a good example. Giving up something with addictive powers is quite different than giving up a powerful item given by someone Link thinks highly of whether it's friendship or romance. Particularly as we see in MM that the ocarina of time is described as being full of memories of times with Princess Zelda, it's more logical to think that giving up the ocarina is in essence giving up her and that link to the adult version of her.

I agree: I always loved that he returned when he could have just walked away. I thought that spoke volumes about the strength and potential of their relationship...the feeling I got was "a fresh start".

Nicely put. When this player watched that part, that was exactly how I felt...and where I saw the sadness coming from. I found it hard to be sad as Hyrule celebrated, but saying goodbye to Zelda was what made it hurt.
I can't take the Ocarina as being as platonic as Trahald would like to have us believe, especially not after what MM had to say about it.

Yeah..its easy to believe that Link had some type of purely innocent emotional attachment to Zelda in the scene in the sky. I think the article was just trying to imply that Link was not in love with Zelda in terms of physical attraction of "lets get married and have babies together right now" type of romance. IMO if Link were to fall in love with Zelda in that type of special intimacy it would have to be as ADULTS in the Child Timeline.

My question is WHY couldn't Link stay with Zelda?? The game seems to suggest that she was obviously giving him a choice if I remember correctly and it never really explains as to why Link couldn't stay with Zelda. The vague "When peace returns to Hyrule it would be time for us to say goodbye" after the fact that Link obeys Zelda in giving the ocarina back puzzles me to this day. Thoughts anyone??

There are several reasons that I can think of for why Zelda sends Link back. First and formost, sending him back and closing the door of time makes it so Ganondorf's plot never happens in the past essentially- he never becomes the Evil King. But the main reason I believe is for Link himself; he lost seven years of his life, and though he may not care- I don't think there's any indication whether this bothers Link himself, but it certainly weighs heavily on Zelda's mind. She's trying to give him back what was taken from him in the only way she can.

True..I kind of felt that Link probably needed those 7 years back so he can be matured normally for a possible LinkxZelda to realistically happen in the Child Timeline. Now that I think about it, Link staying in the Adult Timeline as a child in a mans body would have been a very strange and awkward existence for him. More than likely Link would have had a very hard time socially adapting not just in the Castle but just socially in general. In other words I agree with you when you put it in that prespective.