Back at it again with more Zelda theorizing
So, I’ve been pondering a few lore questions lately.
First question: What could Mido have done to get a Zelda II town named after him?
If the towns are all named after Sages, then somehow Mido must have become a Sage. I’d speculate that perhaps Mido became a fighter after the Adult and Downfall endings of Ocarina of Time, like Link, and eventually ascended to Sagehood much like his friend Saria did.
Also, speaking of Zelda II; Who is Kasuto?
He must be a sage, as per the logic with Mido. In fact, it’s confirmed by the Hyrule Encyclopedia that Kasuto is an "unseen sage" in the series. Now at first, I thought Kasuto might have been hiding in plain sight as the Sage guarding the Triforce of Courage at the end of Zelda II, but there's no evidence for that. After some consideration, though, I have another contender in mind: King Zora from Ocarina of Time. Perhaps he, like Mido, was involved in the Imprisoning War, and became a Sage some time afterward. Maybe that's what their ending cutscene of Ocarina of Time could be hinting at (note how they both specifically can see the lights of the six awakened Sages flying overhead while no one else seems to notice, and how the ascendance of their loved ones- Saria and Ruto- seem to have affected them deeply.) Perhaps in reflection of Saria’s and Ruto’s heroism, they might have followed in their footsteps to Sagehood.
Now, is there any real evidence of these ideas? What elements could Mido and King Zora represent as Sages? To infer this, let's switch over to the Wind Waker.
Sages in the Wind Waker
Incidentally, the two Sage spirits Link meets were- get this- a Kokiri and a Zora.
The Kokiri Wind Sage is named Fado- a name which belongs to three different characters in the series- which is undoubtedly a Kokiri name.
The Zora Earth Sage is named Laruto. Compare this name to Kasuto- note that not only are the names completely alike in syllables and vowels, but K is one letter away from L, and S is one letter away from R. This seems to imply some close linguistic connection between the names, which would imply that Kasuto might very much have been a Zora.
What to make of this evidence?
Let’s review: if all the towns in Zelda II are named after Sages, then in the Downfall timeline, Mido and Kasuto (let’s assume him as the Zora King) might have played a heroic role in the Imprisoning War, or some later conflict, and eventually answered calls to Sagehood. In the Adult Timeline’s Wind Waker, Fado was the Sage of Wind, and Laruto the Sage of Earth. The idea I’m getting at here is that of a lineage of Wind and Earth Sages- Wind taken up by Mido, and passed on to Fado, and Earth taken up by Kasuto (The Zora King) and passed on to Laruto. How and when this would have happened is unclear, but we can speculate.
Speculation (Adult Timeline)
Perhaps Mido and Kasuto (assumedly the Zora King), having heard of Link’s success and being motivated by Saria and Ruto, took up Sagehood in two new temples. Perhaps their roles were more specific than that of the core Seven Sages of Ocarina of Time- managing the Master Sword’s power, and maybe the creation of the Hookshot and Mirror Shield found in The Wind Waker’s Wind and Earth temples respectively. They would do this to replace some specific pieces of equipment that Link would have taken back in time with him at the end of OoT. (Related, I would suggest checking out Bandit Games' theory on two different Master Swords existing here, as it’s an excellent theory and my thought of Sage-replaced items from OoT in TWW grew from that.)
(Note the strong color-theming cohesion of platinum and blue in the Wind Waker versions of these items, distinct from their Ocarina of Time counterparts, and the fact that the Sages of Wind and Earth are connected to all three.)
I would suspect that Mido’s and Kasuto’s ultimate fate would have been found in the gods-willed flooding of Hyrule after the spirit of the Hero did not reincarnate to stop Ganon’s return in the Adult timeline. Before then, however, Mido and Kasuto would have trained Fado and Laruto to be their replacements to guard the above-water entrances to their respective temples.
Speculation (Downfall Timeline)
Wind and Earth were elements of Sages apparently not awakened during the events of Ocarina of Time, A Link to the Past and onward; perhaps this is because there was as of then no functional need for more than seven Sages, until some time after the Imprisoning War had concluded. Those two who would eventually answer the call and ascend to Sagehood, Mido and Kasuto, would have stayed unseen until they were needed. They likely earned a name for themselves already during the Imprisoning War, before they would have ascended, but eventually they would answer their spiritual calls and become known as Sages, and thus have even more precedent for having towns named after them in Zelda II. As to when the building and founding of these towns would have happened: perhaps in the backstory of Zelda II, when the king of Hyrule who ruled using the Triforce was in power.
Concluding thoughts and speculations
I think what happened development-side was as thus: in Zelda II, Nintendo bestowed the names of Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, Nabooru, Mido, and Kasuto to the towns of Western and Eastern Hyrule. Note that there are seven of these names. Jump to ALttP, where we have mention of the ‘Seven Wise Men’ (retconned to be renamed the Seven Sages in the GBA port to better align with the lore of Ocarina of Time). Maybe Nintendo had thought of matching up the seven town names with these Seven Wise Men as sort of unspoken secret names. Then, Ocarina of Time was made as both a backstory to A Link to the Past, and eventually a retcon that split into the Adult and Child timelines, leaving A Link to the Past to be the start of the official Downfall Timeline. In Ocarina, we get the Seven Sages officially named. Mido and Kasuto are left as not being sages, at least on screen, though the ending cutscene of Mido and King Zora sitting together in the credits might hint otherwise. Wind Waker’s two Sage spirits of Wind and Earth, the Kokiri Fado and Zora Laruto, could be seen as confirmations to that idea placed in The Wind Waker, the implication being that these Sages were the successors to Mido and Kasuto.
Credits:
BanditGames- His video on Mido was what got my thoughts flowing on this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NVeA5_pu5Fk
