The Punk Guy from OoT - what was his medicine for?

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

This is probably one of the oldest questions debated over OoT - what was the punk guy's medicine for? I'm not going to go in depth since generally long articles in this section never get read so I'm going to propose my two theories on what the medicine may have been for very briefly.

The idea that came to my mind was that he was simply sick which is why he didn't take the forest mushroom to the potion hag in Kakariko village himself. It is hard to make that call though because there are no real signs that he is sick, in fact he looks exactly the same as he does when Link meets him 7 years prior (as a child).

My second theory is that the medicine would keep the punk guy from becoming a stalfos so that he could stay in the lost woods without worrying about turning into one. We learn in the game that he doesn't like people, I'm sure many of us who played OoT remember this quote, “People are disgusting. My own mother and father are disgusting. You must be disgusting too!” I imagine a person who doesn't like people would want to be alone, and the Lost Woods certainly is a place to avoid people (even the Kokiri seem to stay out of the Lost Woods for the most part, and Hylians never really enter the forest ever it seems).

The first theory is so simple that I think most people would want to choose it. I personally like the second theory though since it doesn't seem to far-fetched. What do you all think though? Which of the two theories do you like? Do you have any theories of your own on the matter, if so please share.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

Well he doesn't look very healthy, maybe he had gone into the forest because that's the only place those mushrooms grow to make his medicine? I mean you only ever find those mushrooms in the lost woods and their equivalents as far as I know. That's my take. I felt really sorry for him, with the way he was talking it seems like he's lived a very hard life, maybe due to the way he looks and maybe because he's frail and sickly. I wished I coulda hauled his butt on epona and gotten him outta there.

 

[Dio]

From what I can tell most of the OOT Hyrule residents are taking something.
A 'shroom 'medicine'? I know exactly why he wants that.

 

[Farore's Chosen]

From what I can tell most of the OOT Hyrule residents are taking something.
A 'shroom 'medicine'? I know exactly why he wants that.

Lol

 

[DekuNut]

He had a saw with him, so it's likely he was gathering something. He does look sickly, but I'd think it's because he doesn't take care of himself, believing himself to be disgusting anyways.

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

I always thought the medicine was a treatment for his mental illness, particularly depression, since the punk guy has lost faith in the people he thought he could trust. So maybe the Odd Potion is like the equivalent of a modern antidepressant or something like that.

 

[Link Floyd]

This is a bit depressing, but maybe that "medicine" was actually something he took to kill himself? We never see him again as adult Link after giving him the "medicine", so he could've passed away in the Lost Woods after taking it.

I do like the theories mentioned above, which are probably more likely than the one that I came up with in this post.

 

[DekuNut]

But don't you give the meds to a Kokiri after he's alreay passed? Or am I misremembering it?

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

This is a bit depressing, but maybe that "medicine" was actually something he took to kill himself? We never see him again as adult Link after giving him the "medicine", so he could've passed away in the Lost Woods after taking it.

I do like the theories mentioned above, which are probably more likely than the one that I came up with in this post.

You never give him the medicine in the game, when you return to the spot he was sitting a kokiri girl tells Link that the punk guy turned into a stalfos. We will never really know what the medicine is for, the punk guy js gone and it seems the potion hag isn't talking.

From what I can tell most of the OOT Hyrule residents are taking something.
A 'shroom 'medicine'? I know exactly why he wants that.

Link: Hey guys wanna go to Termina with me?

 

[Kingwobbly]

Well, in MM you use the mask of scents to get similar mushrooms to make blue potion, so it might be the same kind of thing.

 

[Salem]

The old potion lady when she gives you the medicine to give to that guy she says something like "this is the strongest medicine I made but there's no cure for being a fool" so because of this, I assume he needs the medicine because of a bad choice he made, something he shouldn't have done, but he did anyway.

 

[SavageWizzrobe]

Well, in MM you use the mask of scents to get similar mushrooms to make blue potion, so it might be the same kind of thing.

It's funny that you mention this, since the Potion Shop Lady in OoT starts selling Blue Potions only after you give her the Odd Mushroom.

 

[Beauts]

The old potion lady when she gives you the medicine to give to that guy she says something like "this is the strongest medicine I made but there's no cure for being a fool"

This is an interesting quote from the game. I always thought it was some sort of anti-depressant because the guy is clearly unhappy, even during the child years. But if you speak to him as a child wearing the Bunny Hood, Gerudo or Keaton masks he says he's actually a good guy. His aversion seems to be to people, and in particular to his parents, the carpenter being his father. The witch in the potion shop however is his grandmother, and Anju is his sister and he mentions neither of these people as being disgusting. But he goes to the forest for whatever reason, to get this mushroom to make the potion that I guess will help him. As has been said, the blue potion is only available after this so it's fair to assume this is what it's for. Given that he's extremely skinny and unhealthy looking and the blue potion restores health and power, perhaps he really was just unwell. But the quote about there being no cure for a fool suggests that the real problem lies deeper.

When you take care of the pocket cucco for Anju, she says that she'll give you a rare cucco that belonged to her brother and that he'd stopped crowing since her brother had left. This shows that Grog (the punk guy) obviously cared for animals, as has been evidenced already by his liking of the animal masks. Later on Anju also says "my brother must've been very lonely"- I don't know what this could mean, other than another reference to the fact he was unpopular for some reason. Let's connect this back to what his father, the carpenter says, about his son- he behaves ashamed of him saying he just sits around all day and is lazy. If the guy was never seen as good enough for his father, or seemed to receive any other kindnesses- he would probably be extremely unhappy. For all we know, he was mistreated because of this too, as Anju seems to be completely fine, however both share a love of cuccos. When he sees Link has tamed Cojiro he concludes he must be a nice guy and seems shocked at the revelation- and then trusts Link to take the odd mushroom back to the potion lady.

Interestingly, when you get the potion from the old lady, she says it won't work on a monster. As we know from Fado, Grog becomes a stalfos. Perhaps Grog just intended to travel and find out what would make him happy or something- but got physically weak when he reached the Lost Woods, probably because he doesn't have a fairy protecting him from the magic which turns you into a stalfos. So I would still be inclined, therefore, to go with the first conclusion that Grog was depressed and unhappy. But the potion could easily have been for the reason that he was weakened because of his travels into territory he wasn't supposed to enter. All he leaves behind is his father's saw- which shows he might have been intending to do something, maybe even to go to the Forest Temple to stop the terrible things that had been happening- he seemed to have good intentions, whatever he was up to.

 

[Salem]

@Beauts I'm sorry I don't think I can do your epic response justice But I'll try my best.

I agree with what you said, the punk probably had daddy issues or something, he and his sister liked Cuccos, but what I find strange about that is they barely acknowledge each other. Grog never says "you got Cojiro form my sis? Cool, how's she doing?"

About him having his father's saw, I find it interesting that Grog keeps it despite the fact that in child Link's time the father thinks his son is useless or something, I wonder if he kept the saw because he wanted to prove himself or something, and that potion might have helped him do that?

 

[Retro Ganon]

@Beauts That's a hell of a synopsis you put together there, I believe you may be on to something.

The old potion lady when she gives you the medicine to give to that guy she says something like "this is the strongest medicine I made but there's no cure for being a fool" so because of this, I assume he needs the medicine because of a bad choice he made, something he shouldn't have done, but he did anyway.

Given what we know about him, he certainly is a depressed person. People that have darkened minds tend to make bad choices, this particular scene in OoT has always been a weird yet vivid memory. I think in conjecture of Beanuts and Spiritual Mask Salesman's two theories, they might both be right!

I always figured he turned into a Skull kid or Stalfos. When using the shroom-made Magic Powder from ALttP, it turns its victims into Cukeman (an old variation of the modern termed Chu - which thanks to TWW, is a conveniently used ingredient for potions we've seen throughout the series. It almost seems poetically sick, that the guy really couldn't be cured because he would turn into a monster regardless. The Kokiri girl that takes it from you will always be creepy to me...