Peter Pan Is A Kokiri And No One Can Tell Me Otherwise

[Malon]

A random thought crossed my head the other day while playing OoT. Is Peter Pan a Kokiri? I mean, the Kokiri were probably based off of Peter Pan, but to me, Peter Pan is a Kokiri. He never grows up, green clothes, fairy, lives in the woods (that one's kind of debated...) etc etc. Furthermore, the lost boys could be represented as skull kids. In Majora's Mask, the skull kid was ditched by his friends, the giants, leading to his freak out. This could be based off of Link's experience with one of the Kokiri being friends with the lost children, the skull kids. I don't know, but it sure seems like Peter Pan might have been a special Kokiri or something. In reality though, yeah no the Kokiri are based off of Peter Pan.

 

[VikzeLink]

Long before the Kokiri was even a thing, Link's outfit was originally based off of Peter Pan, so you're sorta close XD

 

[Reiquel]

Yeah I've always thought of Kokiri forest as Neverland, it just appears at the very beginning of the game instead of being a destination. And Zelda is a big believer!

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

you already said it but yeah, it's the other way around

 

[Dizzi]

ganon dont look like hook???

 

[thePlinko]

So I was going to eventually make a thread about this, but the Peter Pan connections are far from a coincidence.

Of course there’s the surface level connections like the Kokiri Forest being neverland as you pointed out, as well as the fact that Link was designed to look like peter pan like others have stated. Link also has a fairy companion, plays a magic flute, and even fights his shadow at some point just like Peter Pan.

But then there’s the actual thematic connections between OoT and Peter Pan. Both stories are heavily based around the conflict of childhood vs adulthood, and both prominently display adulthood as being an evil that only brings suffering. Both of them use constant subtext and symbolism to make their point. They’re so closely linked together (no pun intended) that I would go as far as to call Ocarina of Time a direct adaptation of Peter Pan. The biggest difference between the two is that in OoT, the protagonist ultimately loses the fight between childhood and adulthood.

 

[Malon]

So I was going to eventually make a thread about this, but the Peter Pan connections are far from a coincidence.

Of course there’s the surface level connections like the Kokiri Forest being neverland as you pointed out, as well as the fact that Link was designed to look like peter pan like others have stated. Link also has a fairy companion, plays a magic flute, and even fights his shadow at some point just like Peter Pan.

But then there’s the actual thematic connections between OoT and Peter Pan. Both stories are heavily based around the conflict of childhood vs adulthood, and both prominently display adulthood as being an evil that only brings suffering. Both of them use constant subtext and symbolism to make their point. They’re so closely linked together (no pun intended) that I would go as far as to call Ocarina of Time a direct adaptation of Peter Pan. The biggest difference between the two is that in OoT, the protagonist ultimately loses the fight between childhood and adulthood.

Yeah, the protagonist losing is one of the ways OoT is so depressing.

 

[Malon]

ganon dont look like hook???

lol he does a little bit.

 

[Reiquel]

Yeah, the protagonist losing is one of the ways OoT is so depressing.

But Link didn't lose his childhood permanently.

 

[thePlinko]

But Link didn't lose his childhood permanently.

Physically, no, but mentally he absolutely did. That’s what Navi flying off at the end is supposed to symbolize. After tackling each of the different obstacles of adulthood, Link can no longer safely enter the forest of his childhood again.

 

[Reiquel]

Physically, no, but mentally he absolutely did. That’s what Navi flying off at the end is supposed to symbolize. After tackling each of the different obstacles of adulthood, Link can no longer safely enter the forest of his childhood again

I can kind of see that interpretation, with him walking away from her, but let's also keep in mind the Deku Tree allowed Link to stay in the forest before assigning Navi to him, calling him the "boy without a fairy."

Where was she going to go I wonder... smack her face on the Temple of Time window just like that fence in the forest?

 

[thePlinko]

I can kind of see that interpretation, with him walking away from her, but let's also keep in mind the Deku Tree allowed Link to stay in the forest before assigning Navi to him, calling him the "boy without a fairy."

He didn’t have one because he was physically and mentally a kid already. Navi was basically his passport between the land of child and adult.