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OoT ending analysis.

Chevywolf30

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I just finished OoT, and something that had been bugging me really came to the front:
Zelda shouldn't have sent Link back.
Yeah, yeah, letting him have his childhood, but is that really best? He'd already been an adult for a while, so to force him with all his life experience to go through the last 7 years and get more seems unfair. Not to mention how rough his life with the Kokiri was and how he's back at square 1 there. Plus any paradoxes that might come up. The owl said in the Spirit Temple that he was a mature adult now, so I think he should have just stayed and let his childhood be a loss. To put him back where he was after his adventure really nulls the whole thing and I feel that it would be worse to send him back than for him to stay.

(Plus the fact that I ship OoT Zelink and can imagine him staying to be with her)
 

MapelSerup

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Eh, I feel like seven years of life is likely at least a good 10% in total. With everything he's sacrificed to Hyrule, I think it's completely fair for him to be sent back. I don't think sending him back nulls the whole thing.
Of course, this is a matter of opinion. I would have chosen to go back. Perhaps you would have chosen to stay.
 

Chevywolf30

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Eh, I feel like seven years of life is likely at least a good 10% in total. With everything he's sacrificed to Hyrule, I think it's completely fair for him to be sent back. I don't think sending him back nulls the whole thing.
Of course, this is a matter of opinion. I would have chosen to go back. Perhaps you would have chosen to stay.
Yes, all valid points. My issue is the psychological impact on Link. He went through this whole grand adventure just to be sent back to the beginning, and not getting to see the fruits of his labor or anything. Thats gotta be rough.
 
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thePlinko

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Yes, all valid points. My issue is the psychological impact on Link. He went through this whole grand adventure just to be sent back to the beginning, and not getting to see the fruits of his labor or anything. Thats gotta be rough.
OoT is weird with the adult thing. He was asleep for seven years so he didn't mature or anything, he still has a child's mind, it must be very confusing for him.

So Zelda was probably doing him a favour by putting his mind back in his child body.
I always figured that it his mind did mature and we see the grown adult trapped in a child’s body in MM, which explains why he’s generally more skilled in that game than young link was in OoT.

Also if 100% ok with Zeldas decision because otherwise we canonically wouldn’t get MM or WW, and by extension ST
 
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I always figured that it his mind did mature and we see the grown adult trapped in a child’s body in MM, which explains why he’s generally more skilled in that game than young link was in OoT.

I've always thought this too. Part of why I like that Link was sent back to reclaim his childhood is that he doesn't really do it. It seems like most of his childhood is spent re-saving the world of Termina. Navi, his one actual friend who isn't dead, and a representation of his childhood, leaves. He's an adult in a kid's body, and his choice to relive his childhood doesn't change the fact that he isn't a kid anymore. That's why I think the ending of OoT is great: because of that psychological UH-OH. Like, oh no Link you need therapy.
 

MapelSerup

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yeah I think link got to choose, otherwise there wouldn't be a split timeline
The split timeline is due to the fact that Link decided to go back and the destroyed Hyrule persisted on without him, not two different realities where he chose to stay in one and leave in the other.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Like others have said, he was a kid in an adult's body, it was probably better that he regained the 7 years he lost to properly mature. Zelda thinks she is giving him an opportunity to have a normal childhood but in that aspect things aren't quite the same. The Hero of Time never gets a normal childhood, it is engrained in him to be a hero and he gets forced to fall into that role again.
 
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Keep in mind sending Link back wasn't just for him to reclaim his lost childhood, it was also about saving Hyrule from Ganondorf's wrath before it started. In doing so, it ended up saving many lives, stopped Link's friends from having to become sages, ensured peace in Hyrule up until the events of Twilight Princess, and had the side benefit of allowing Link to save Skull Kid and Termina from Majora.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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Keep in mind sending Link back wasn't just for him to reclaim his lost childhood, it was also about saving Hyrule from Ganondorf's wrath before it started. In doing so, it ended up saving many lives, stopped Link's friends from having to become sages, ensured peace in Hyrule up until the events of Twilight Princess, and had the side benefit of allowing Link to save Skull Kid and Termina from Majora.
The problem is there are ramifications of the time traveling that are merely swept under the rug, so to speak. Ganondorf isn't stopped, confronting him is only delayed and burdens a different generation, which is honestly unfair.
 
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The problem is there are ramifications of the time traveling that are merely swept under the rug, so to speak. Ganondorf isn't stopped, confronting him is only delayed and burdens a different generation, which is honestly unfair.

Nothing Link and Zelda do ever seems to completely destroy Ganondorf for good. The guy is walking 'deus ex machina' who just keeps coming back to life or defying the established rules regardless of what they do. The Triforce of Power coming to save him in TP's backstory was an example of that lunacy. We know from LTTP and WW that sealing him only 'delayed and burdened a different generation' as well. Zelda had no way of knowing every single possibility that Ganon can exploit, no one could.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

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Nothing Link and Zelda do ever seems to completely destroy Ganondorf for good. The guy is walking 'deus ex machina' who just keeps coming back to life or defying the established rules regardless of what they do. The Triforce of Power coming to save him in TP's backstory was an example of that lunacy. We know from LTTP and WW that sealing him only 'delayed and burdened a different generation' as well. Zelda had no way of knowing every single possibility that Ganon can exploit, no one could.
in the backstories of both link to the past and wind waker, ganon was an unstoppable force that sealing him was the best they could do with no way to outright destroy him, plus ganon was only sealed one time respectively, so it's unclear if they thought the seals would be indefinite or if they knew they would weaken at some point [maybe you can argue in link to the past that they figured it was temporary]

at least in wind waker, ganon was taken care of for good, could've been the same in link to the past except he'd later be revived in the oracle games, that at least falls under a "no one could've predicted that" scenario
 

Mikey the Moblin

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The split timeline is due to the fact that Link decided to go back and the destroyed Hyrule persisted on without him, not two different realities where he chose to stay in one and leave in the other.
if the master sword were forced to leave him as a child in the end there would be no split timeline
actions with multiple outcomes are what causes split timelines, and if the only possible outcome is him returning as a child there's only one timeline
it makes sense for link to have chosen between leaving or staying
 

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