i named him kuhli

I was playing windwaker and I liked this guy.

First off, at least in Wind Waker alone, the kid does not steal anything (barring swiping things off monsters but seeing as those drops would happen anyway…). Sure he definitely… receives some stolen property. But he does not rob anyone. He actually stops at least one burglary in the course of the game.

The worst he does is break some pots, which every Link does. Notably though, he PAYS FOR IT WHEN ASKED. By a guy who is a full floor away, whom he could easily outrun. But he pays!

Next, this kid was raised by his sweet old grandma, and clearly is very protective of his little sister. He’s such a sweet kid his grandma is worried literally sick about his welfare while he’s away with pirates. He stops dealing with the giant curse overwhelming the ocean to help her recover. We know he cares about Aryll. That’s literally what kicks off the whole plot.

Where am I going with this? Oh right.

Even though he sails, and he hangs out with pirates, Link just. Isn’t one. He isn’t the type to raid and pillage. He’s not going to kidnap or hold for ransom. If anything, it makes me love the dynamic with Tetra even more: she’s the one who would fight dirty and jumped Ganondorf while he was distracted in the Forsaken Fortress, while Link is so ridiculously honorable he doesn’t try to fight the guy who kidnapped his sister and his friend until the other guy initiates it.

Link may say he’s a pirate, but he’s a pirate like a little kid playing pirate. He’s acting tough. In the War of Eras he literally keeps his little sister on the phone (pirate charm) the whole time. He’s a ferocious fighter, but he’s still a sweet kid. He still cares about others. That’s part of why I think Linebeck eventually warms to him, because he’s just so sincere, so honest, actually the opposite of a real pirate.

The Wind Waker

has it really been all that long? yes and also no. the lines are so blurred. the zora are birds and the kokiri are koroks and they had time to Get That Way but everywhere you look the old Hyrule, the Hero of Time himself, they're both all over the place. the deku tree is implied to be the sprout from the adult timeline but honestly who knows. the golden goddesses are statues on islands somewhere and there was a tower built to test who came after but…who and how and why? what was the tower of the gods even for? how did they know they’d need it? at what point did they accept the hero of time was never coming back so they’d probably need to train a new one? 

and oh my god, that outset island tradition. “dress your kids in green and give ‘em a sword and pray to the gods they’ll have the courage to cast down evil.” link rolls his eyes at it but he wears them to appease grandma. the revered clothes of the hero have had time to pass into “stupid traditional getup” territory. how many “failed Links” were there before Aryll’s brother? what evil could those children have possibly stricken down? the monsters in the woods?

“what became of that kingdom? none remain who know” like goddamn. say what you want about the hero’s shade in twilight princess. but at least the traumatized ghost got to meet one of his descendants and pass on his songs and his knowledge, even if that knowledge was only of war and death and combat. in the wind waker he’s a statue. an element of a legend mentioned once or twice by the last remaining holdouts of the past—holdouts who so badly want him to return, view him as the solution over all else, that they never pause to consider any other option. there are stained glass windows of the seven sages in the master sword’s chamber that are never mentioned. there is so much that is never mentioned.

nobody knows what the fuck anybody is talking about. link doesn’t know old hylian. tetra is running around the high seas (as a pirate. she and her retainers are now pirates. how did things get that way) with a piece of the damn triforce around her neck and she doesn’t know who ‘princess zelda’ even is. the juxtaposition between ganondorf, older and tired and wiser but still hell-bent on ruling hyrule even if it is a dead land full of nothing and no one, and tetra, a zelda that knows nothing, asking why he’s laughing and calling him insane. because hyrule’s dead. she has no frame of reference for his longing, or what he found so great about this sunken kingdom.

and this is framed as a good thing. the king of red lions thinks it’s better not to let either of the kids in on the loop until tetra nearly dies for lack of knowledge. daphnes nolhansen hyrule brought “the hero” back just to end ganon, and hyrule with him. was the plan always to let the sea fall in on him? maybe. i don’t know. but he rejects zelda’s plea with him to take him with them to the land that will be the new hyrule, because “it will not be hyrule. it will be your land” and that still gets me. he thinks the best thing to do with his kingdom, Hyrule, the kingdom of a whole hell of a lot of irl people’s childhoods, is for it to wash away. he wants the kids to live for the future and they do and they will and they name it hyrule anyway in his honor but he never gets to see it.