Woah...I have been Perceived

Sanzako mentioned liking humour/crack and the boys being silly with game mechanics soo item sillies here we gooo.

Link was on his way back to Hyrule after OoS/OoA when the storm struck him down and he fell into the Windfish’s dream. Zelda was expecting him back within a certain timeframe, and was pretty distressed when he never showed on time. Her relief was immense when he was found adrift on some flotsam.

OKAY so.. idk what the general consensus is if Legend actually died after being struck by lightning or was in some sort of stasis below the sea while stuck in the Windfish’s dream, but I like to think the lighting did actually kill him, and the Windfish brought him back as thanks 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

ik it’s not actually the Windfish in PH, but I’d like to think the whale and him are the same. Or at least the same kind of entity! And just like in PH, time moves differently outside of the dream then inside, so Legend was there for months, but in reality barely a week had passed.

When he initially gets back to Hyrule, he’s taken to the infirmary in the castle, much to his chagrin. And while yes, he was severely dehydrated, sunburnt, and injured from the shipwreck, it soon became apparent to the healers that the worst of his injuries weren’t physical. He was moved to some guest chambers in the castle so Impa and Zelda could keep an eye on him while he recovered.

Immediately following his recovery from the ocean, Link was very spacey. He was extremely depressed, as someone in his situation would be, and was having trouble discerning if he truly was in reality or was still dreaming. He’d occasionally dissociate fully, but would mostly be aware, if not in a state of derealization.

He would refuse to sleep for days at a time, and would often find himself delirious, which did not help his derealization. He found that playing the Ballad of the Windfish helped ground him in reality, as it never woke him up. He developed insomnia, due to Koholint, and even during LU he has bouts of extreme anxiety about sleeping.

I like to think that constant adventuring, especially when being hunted down as a child, doesn’t lend itself well to keeping a healthy eating schedule. Legend never really ate well, and is pretty scrawny for it, but in his depression after Koholint would rarely eat at all, but he definitely has always had some sort of unspecified eating disorder going on. He’s very thin, and while he’s eating enough to not be skeletal by the time of LU, he’s definitely just skin and wiry muscle.

Even though it was bleak initially, Link did get better. Unbeknownst to him, and not told to him until he began insisting on going back to his home, his uncle had passed while Legend had been in Labrynna & Holodrum. He left the castle anyways, home to an empty house and an overgrown orchard (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`).

Due to his depression, he didn’t exactly take care of himself well and was unconcerned about appearances. His hair had grown considerably during his time in the castle and he hadn’t bothered to cut it even after returning to the orchard.

Something that was really pivotal in getting Link back on his feet was his apprenticeship at the blacksmith. It gave him a reason to get out of bed, make efforts to take care of himself, and stay grounded in reality.

He did eventually cut his hair after Zelda mentioned it once while visiting. rip

Honestly, the whole meeting 8 other Heroes who share your same soul in an adventure across time probably sounds pretty unrealistic. For a while at the beginning of his adventure, he struggled with truly believing it was real, even if he played the Ballad of the Windfish and didn’t wake up back in his bed at home.