Why Did No One Believe Zelda's Prophesy?

[Castle]

There's one glaring issue I take with Ocarina of Time. If Princess Zelda is commonly known as "the child of prophesy" and Princesses of the royal family named Zelda are historically known to have divinations, then why is it that no one believes Zelda when she says Ganondorf is going to betray Hyrule?

It makes absolutely no sense that her father, the King, wouldn't believe her. It is apparently common knowledge throughout Hyrule that any ordinary Hylian can "hear the voices of the gods" because of their long ears. A myth or superstition or bit of folklore or good ol Hylian master race nationalism perhaps? But if any old Hylian is capable of it, why not Zelda who is apparently gifted with precognition by divine right?

There are three possibilities I can think of.

One, is that the king was under a curse or enchantment and effectively under the control of Ganondorf. Ordinarily Zelda's father would have given credence to what she says, even going so far as to take his daughter's divinations seriously, but as Ganondorf's puppet he was made to dismiss them. This wouldn't be the first time Ganon has taken control over his subjects and minions via magical enchantment.

The second possibility is that all the stuff about Princesses of the Royal Family having precognitive abilities and premonitions is myth and folklore. Whenever it's mentioned, it appears to be taken literally. But it is actually difficult to discern within context. The guy who talks about Hylians being able to hear the voices of the gods because of their long ears could just be gossiping. Or it's a belief he holds but is not a commonly held belief in Hyrule. The Deku tree takes it literally, but as a primordial being he probably knows better. It could be that princesses of the royal family did and do in fact have precognitive abilities, but by the time of the Era of the Hero of Time they hadn't been witnessed or known of for ages so the fact got relegated to legend and folklore. If the divinations come from the gods, then it could be that the gods once designated the crown princesses as their official spokeswomen, but haven't taken a direct interest in Hyrule in a long time until the situation with Ganondorf got too dire for them to ignore.

The third possibility is that diplomacy between Hyrule and Ganondorf may have been of some significant unstated dire importance that the King of Hyrule was aware of but Zelda was not. The king may have even known full well that Ganondorf intended to betray him, but for whatever reason he couldn't call off the proposed alliance lest he risk putting Hyrule in jeopardy. He dismissed his daughter so as not to concern her. After all, what business do children have involving themselves in affairs of state?

I like this last possibility the most because it would really play strongly into the themes of the story and make it all the more tragic since Zelda's innocent well intentioned meddling would have been the reason Ganondorf took over. That's the way it is anyway, but consider that if the king expected Ganondorf's betrayal and took measures to prevent it, but then Link and Zelda went and accomplished Ganondorf's objective for him, the best laid plans of the king would have been undone by a couple of dumb kids (and Impa!) and since it's presumed that the king is murdered during the coup, this would make Zelda responsible for her father's death!

This also takes into question the matter of the Sheikah. As custodians of the royal family, where were they during all this? If Zelda's divinations aren't just folklore, the the Sheikah should have been all over protecting the king and Hyrule behind the scenes. Impa had inside knowledge of what was going on, and she was directly assisting Link and Zelda on Link's quest. If the Sheikah knew that Ganondorf posed a threat to Hyrule, then why would their chief agent be helping some kids meddle in affairs of state with the purpose of undermining the king? There is, of course, some question as to whether or not the Sheikah other than Impa exist in Ocarina of Time. My head cannon says that they do. They're just hiding in good ninja fashion and making people think they're long gone.

But this implicates Impa. As a Sheikah, if she knew about Ganondorf's betrayal then she was either a rogue Sheikah seeking to betray the royal family and Hyrule which would make no sense given that she is revealed as a sage who ultimately takes an active part in ending Ganondorf's reign of terror, or she was working on behalf of the Sheikah to orchestrate the royal family's downfall and Ganondorf's rise to power with the intention of restoring Zelda to the throne eventually anyway. But to what end? This would mean the Sheikah have some serious Hyrule Illuminati stuff going on. Could the Sheikah have foreseen some purpose to giving Ganondorf the Triforce of Power and turning him into Ganon, thus instigating the long history of Hyrule's ongoing conflict with Ganon? It could also simply be that Impa is the last of the Sheikah and she independently made a severe error in judgement.

 

[DragonEleven]

Prophecies are typically depicted as being rather vague, requiring some degree of interpretation to determine their true meaning.
The same appears to be true of Zelda's prophetic dreams... in them she only saw dark clouds that represented the evil threatening Hyrule... she interpreted that as representing Ganondorf, but she had no evidence to back that up.
I think they would have still believed that the prophecy was true... they just may not have agreed with her interpretation of it... Ganondorf had sworn his allegiance to the king after all, and Zelda was still rather young, so probably wan't overly experienced at interpreting prophecies.

 

[Dio]

I tend to think that the King of Hyrule just despatately didn't want to have another war and had convinced himself that confronting Ganondorf would ruin all his efforts or convinced himself that Ganondorf wanted peace too and therefore didn't want to hear anyone suggest otherwise.

He was the one that united the Humans, Zora's and Gorons under one banner and was likely a very proud man. Meaning any suggestions made to him that his efforts were to be undone or that he hadn't created true peace would have been dismissed. Even by his own daughter. He would have scoffed at the suggestion. I expect he was simply too proud for his own good and he ended up paying for it.

Of course because of this Zelda took things into her own hands and ended up paving the way for Ganondorf to enter the sacred realm and the King ended up dead with his kingdom in ruins.

 

[DragonEleven]

I tend to think that the King of Hyrule just despatately didn't want to have another war and had convinced himself that confronting Ganondorf would ruin all his efforts or convinced himself that Ganondorf wanted peace too and therefore didn't want to hear anyone suggest otherwise.

I doubt he thought they would go to war... there's no mention of the Gerudo having been involved in the civil war that took place prior to OoT, and there's no evidence of ill will between the two races that implies they had ever been at war before... the Gerudo were just reclusive thieves... they looked scary, but were hardly a threat.
From the King's perspective, there was no real reason for him not to trust Ganondorf.

 

[Dio]

I doubt he thought they would go to war... there's no mention of the Gerudo having been involved in the civil war that took place prior to OoT, and there's no evidence of ill will between the two races that implies they had ever been at war before... the Gerudo were just reclusive thieves... they looked scary, but were hardly a threat.
From the King's perspective, there was no real reason for him not to trust Ganondorf.

There is indeed implication that the Gerudo were involved. In Hyrule Historia it is mentioned Ganondorf 'once again' swears fealty to the King of Hyrule. Which implies that he was loyal before the war and fought against the king during.

Since Ganondorf is King of The Gerudo if he was not on the King's side during the war it was highly unlikely his people were.

 

[Dizzi]

Prophecies usually depend on whos interpreting them, like theres one where the baby will kill his dad so dad leaves him on a mountain, babys raised and meets daddy as a stranger and daddy offends him or somethinng and gets killed by baby....

 

[YIGAhim]

Because she is a little girl... Among all of these other reasons

 

[Castle]

Perhaps the simplest explanations make the most sense.

... I still prefer my conspiracy theories

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

Because she's a ten year-old girl with an active imagination?

 

[DragonEleven]

There is indeed implication that the Gerudo were involved. In Hyrule Historia it is mentioned Ganondorf 'once again' swears fealty to the King of Hyrule. Which implies that he was loyal before the war and fought against the king during.

Since Ganondorf is King of The Gerudo if he was not on the King's side during the war it was highly unlikely his people were.

The Gerudo had basically shut themselves off from the outside world, only venturing out to steal or find a husband... even when Ganondorf took over Hyrule the vast majority of them kept themselves shut away in the Gerudo's Fortress... their behaviour is defensive, not offensive... so it seems more likely that they had simply turned their backs on Hyrule during the civil war, refusing to take sides in order to avoid the conflict.

The fact that it was a civil war also implies that the fighting was primarily within the Hyrule kingdom itself, so would have mostly been between different factions of Hylians... the other races of Hyrule are not actually part of the Hyrule kingdom, as they follow their own leaders, and are simply allies of the Hyrule kingdom, so their involvement would have been optional. This also fits with the mention that the war ended when the King of Hyrule unified the kingdom... yet it is implied that Ganondorf did not swear his loyalty until some time later.

 

[Castle]

Thread's getting a bit off topic with its socio-political musings of Hylian demographics.

While I often lament the lack of narrative exposition and world building in the Zelda series, instances like these are fun because we get to let our minds go bonkers theorizing narratives and behind-the-scenes plotlines to our hearts content. Theorizing wouldn't have become such a major Zelda fandom pastime otherwise.

Another thing I like about it is that the plot of Ocarina of Time never leaves Link's perspective. We see everything he sees. After all he is our "link" to the adventure, it would make sense that we should follow him exclusively. But this means that there could be elements to the story that Link doesn't see. And given Ocarina's narrative themes of childhood and maturity, and the hubris of Link and Zelda trying to save the world only to unwittingly condemn it, it is fitting that any implications that could be taking place surrounding Ganondorf's scheming and the King of Hyrule's diplomatic efforts, as well as whatever the Sheikah may have been up to during all this remain unknown to us as such happenings would be taking place beyond Link's awareness. As Link, we take the form of a child, complete with the limited world view that affords us.

Another interesting element to consider, is that Darunia laments that his people the Gorons have been in distress but his "brother" the King of Hyrule has yet to render aid. Darunia is furious that the King would send a mere child after all. Of course, it wasn't the King who sent Link, it was Zelda via royal decree. But Darunia had no way of knowing this.

Why would the King ignore the plight of one of his staunchest allies? The Gorons were in a desperate situation and if the King care at all about their alliance, why would he leave them to starve? While a general theme of incompetence and complacency is present among Hylian society in Ocarina of Time (many of the NPCs exhibit carelessness and ignorance) there is nothing to suggest that the King of Hyrule is incompetent. After all, isn't this supposed to be the same guy who forged the alliance between the Gorons, Zora and Hyrule after they all fought against each other in a brutal conflict just a few years prior to the events of Ocarina of Time? It makes no sense that the King would risk his alliance with the Gorons or just leave them all to starve to death after including them in the alliance in the first place.

What else was going on here? Was there a diplomatic reason the King couldn't immediately address the issue with the Gorons? Was he somehow indisposed? Was Ganondorf working to ensure that word of the Goron's plight never reached the king?

 

[Castle]

Here's a thought. I'm about to say something I never thought I would ever utter... out loud... to myself... or in writing... or in my head....

Alright... here goes...

Suppose *blerk* the timeline is true....

No really. Bear with me here.

If the Sheikah knew Ganondorf was bad news and Impa conspired to help Link and Zelda on their doomed quest knowing it would fail, then could it be that the Sheikah intended to create the timeline split? They would've had to of known that Link was too young to wield the master sword and that he would have been locked in time until he was older. Banking on Link's success, they would have known that his eventual return would have split the timeline and presumably (assuming the inane three-way split is still dumb but also happens to be impossibly true) Link's death would result in another alternate timeline (or an alternate timeline anyway if we're eschewing [nintendo logic] and being reasonable with quantum theory)...

Haven't people often questioned Zelda's motivation for sending Link back to his childhood, thus altering that branch of the timeline? Did the Sheikah convince her to do that? Or was she in on it? That would have been the only way to continue both branches of the timeline with Ganondorf defeated.

Did the Sheikah conspire to split time by leading Link on his doomed errand? What purpose could this possibly serve? It is an awfully big gamble, considering that if Link failed Hyrule in both timelines would be under Ganon's dominion.

 

[YIGAhim]

Here's a thought. I'm about to say something I never thought I would ever utter... out loud... to myself... or in writing... or in my head....

Alright... here goes...

Suppose *blerk* the timeline is true....

No really. Bear with me here.

If the Sheikah knew Ganondorf was bad news and Impa conspired to help Link and Zelda on their doomed quest knowing it would fail, then could it be that the Sheikah intended to create the timeline split? They would've had to of known that Link was too young to wield the master sword and that he would have been locked in time until he was older. Banking on Link's success, they would have known that his eventual return would have split the timeline and presumably (assuming the inane three-way split is still dumb but also happens to be impossibly true) Link's death would result in another alternate timeline (or an alternate timeline anyway if we're eschewing [nintendo logic] and being reasonable with quantum theory)...

Haven't people often questioned Zelda's motivation for sending Link back to his childhood, thus altering that branch of the timeline? Did the Sheikah convince her to do that? Or was she in on it? That would have been the only way to continue both branches of the timeline with Ganondorf defeated.

Did the Sheikah conspire to split time by leading Link on his doomed errand? What purpose could this possibly serve? It is an awfully big gamble, considering that if Link failed Hyrule in both timelines would be under Ganon's dominion.

I don't think there is enough evidence to prove this, but I like the idea