The 5 Things The Legend Of Zelda (Ocarina Of Time) Taught Me About Life

We all have those video games that bring back some fond nostalgia. But for some of us, some pixels taught us more than we ever imagined.

After Christmas, my husband and I came back from our hometown in Indiana, and there was one object I refused to let us leave behind — his N64.

There was no better machine to encapsulate my childhood. Sure, I played tons of sports and spent a great amount of time outside exploring, but all of my indoor time was split between the world of books and the world of video games — all of those games being on the N64. Not only did I love those games, Jon seemed to have most of the ones I remembered — Super Mario 64, Golden Eye, and others. But one seemed to be missing: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time (often abbreviated as OOT). OOT was single-handedly the greatest N64 game I had ever played (right over StarFox), and it was where my love of other games, character design, and Nintendo Power most definitely came from.

If you're unfamiliar with the franchise — I'm not going to say shame on you, but I do recommend you give it a go sometime — here's the basic premise so that you can follow along:

OOT is set in the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, the setting of most Zelda games. Hyrule Field serves as the central hub connected to several outlying areas. Most of these areas are populated by the races of Hyrule: Hylians, Kokiri, Gorons, Zoras, Gerudos, and Sheikah.

The game opens as the fairy Navi tries to awaken Link, our hero (not Zelda, the game's title is actually the name of the Princess — surprising, no?) from a nightmare. In the nightmare, Link witnesses a stormy night and a man in black armor on horseback chasing after a girl on a white horse, the man in black armor being Ganondorf, an evil king, and the girl is our Zelda, the princess. Basically, Link finds out that Ganondorf seeks to conquer the land of Hyrule by finding and utilizing the Triforce, a holy relic left by the goddesses who created the world. The Triforce is located in the Sacred Realm, a realm that can only be activated by possessing 3 spiritual stones, and the Triforce gives its holder god-like power — hence why our baddie wants it. Therefore, the message becomes clear: get those 3 stones, locate the Triforce before Ganondorf, and save Hyrule. With stones to collect and an entire time stream to deviate, though, his journey takes a lot longer than you'd think. But those are the basics.

Well, then again, what you really need to know is what this game did for me. That sounds selfish, but hey, you read the title, didn't you?

So, hey, LISTEN!

1. Not All Winners Look Like "Winners," They Have To Learn And Grow

When Link is first called as "the savior of Hyrule," he's ten years old (debatable, I know). In short, he's just a kid — a kid who was told he's supposed to save the entire world. Did I mention Link looks like a total dweeb?

A dweeb who's totally shocked most of the time, usually landing on his butt, and at this point, is only armed with: a stick, a shield, a slingshot, and an instrument shaped like a potato. He looks nothing like the title that's been bestowed upon him. And you know — that's totally okay. Because over the course of the game, Link grows — literally. And he goes from a scared kid with a musical potato, to this:

giphy.gif

LOOK AT THAT GUY. He’s got a HORSE. And a SWORD. And a grappling hook — because reasons (and yes, I understand that this photo was taken from the new 3DS version of OOT, but do you know how hard it is to find a decent N64 gif of older Link [hint: hard]).

But really. Link’s seriously grown into his destiny — he’s learned how to overcome his fears, know when to fight, and he’s still got that potato thing, but he knows how to use it now — even to the point where he can control time and space. If you ask me, this guy didn’t look like much of a winner before, but certainly looks like one now. Link showed me that if I grew up learning and working as hard as I could, I’d surprise everyone — even myself — and grow into the role I was meant to have.

2. Gain the Courage to Overcome Your Fears

I can remember when I had just started playing OOT, I was captivated. I didn't leave my console for a moment, and I began to tear through the first stage of gameplay. I was in the living room, hunched over my controller, all the lights turned out, and I had just made it to the end of the first level — only to find that the boss looked like this:

gohma-o.gif

I had been afraid of spiders for most of my young life, so you could only imagine what happened when THIS THING dropped out of ceiling. I remember screaming, hiding, and effectively letting the thing trample me, or suck out my insides (or whatever it was I feared a normal spider could do to me at that time) and my poor Link character died. And this happened several times. I would walk into the dark boss chamber, hear the “skit, skit, skit” of Gohma coming from the ceiling, she would drop down, and terror would ensue.

But I remember after having my young ass kicked more times than I’d like to admit, I told myself, “You’re never going to experience the rest of the game if you let this stupid spider stop you.” And so I summed up what little courage I had, walked into that chamber, and after a bit of rolling and flinging of Deku seeds (with the lights on this time), Gohma collapsed onto the ground. I had done it, I had won.

I feel like life can be that way sometimes. A person has a single fear, and that dictates most of what their life entails. They don’t explore outside the box or stand up to the things that have made them feel small for years, and they end up stuck on the very first level. But sometimes, we just have to tell ourselves that there is a whole world outside what we know, and we’ll never reach it without sucking it up and standing up to whatever is in our way: whether it’s jealousy, insecurity, or a big-ass spider. So, take heart — be courageous, believe in yourself, and kick that thing’s ass.

3. Getting Lost Is When the Magic Happens

There's a section of the world dubbed "The Lost Woods" and it's named very aptly. If you take a wrong turn, you are transported right back to the beginning of the forest. And at first, it was beyond frustrating. I tried to find some sort of hint, some sort of way to get around it, but it just had to end up with a lot of trial and error. And it's because of that mindset of trial and error, I got to see a lot of cool, hidden parts of The Lost Woods, complete with a lot of really spiffy bonus items.

But my real-life Lost Woods was college. I felt really awkward in high school, but I held onto the idea that I would go to college and become a minister. But when I actually got to college, I started to learn that although theology is still important to me, it wasn't the career for me. I proceeded to change my major not once, not twice, but three times before I found a place where I felt like I really belonged and was happy. And that in-between? Scary. as. hell. I got lost and felt like I was being haunted by what the rest of my life might look like. It was exhausting. Kind of like…

tumblr_ly0tioiapo1qbzf0vo1_500.gif

Yeah…kind of like that.

But in getting lost, I ended up taking some pretty awesome classes (I now know how to develop photo film and read Ancient Greek), figuring out that I was a better writer than I thought, and finding some of the best friends I ever could’ve asked for. All in all, I’m glad I got lost, because if I hadn’t, who knows if I ever would’ve found myself?

4. Helping Others Builds Your Life Force (Literally)

In OOT, there are a lot of mini-quests, and I mean a lot. Now some of them are slingshot games and bombchu bowling, but others are actually helping other people. In one mini-quest, you help a woman find her dog. In another, you help another woman recover her lost cuccos. Sometimes, these mini-quests are fun — sometimes, they make you want to blow your brains out.

fn1fv.gif

I should also mention that you totally don’t have to do these tasks to win the game, they’re completely optional. So if you don’t feel like rounding up cuccos until you’re near exhaustion, you don’t have to. But once you manage to finish whatever task is asked of you, not only do you get a reward (usually one that builds up your stamina, or amount of heart containers), but you also build up a pretty good relationship with the people you help, too — usually one that will help you out later in the game. During college, I joined a co-ed fraternity that was purely service-oriented, and every weekend we’d either go help out at a homeless shelter or go rake leaves for a nice couple (for the sake of divulgence, let’s call them the Millers). I specifically remember how fun raking leaves was, even though sometimes the amount leaves would seem never-ending. But, once we were finished, we’d come inside and the Millers would sit down with us. Mr. Miller’s wife would always bake us fresh loaves of banana nut bread and make us coffee or tea, and then we’d just spend a little while talking. I didn’t have to join the fraternity, I didn’t have to rake leaves a few weekends a month — but I’ll say that I’m really glad I did. Not only did I get some literal nourishment out of the deal, but the Millers and our fraternity definitely filled our proverbial heart containers every time we went over.

So when you get the chance to volunteer, take it. You never know what might happen.

5. Just Because You’re a Princess Doesn’t Mean You Have to Act Like One

Okay, so a bit of a spoiler here, but I do need to divulge a bit more of the plot for this next one. Remember how I said Link gains the ability to go forward in time? Well, once Link collects the 3 stones I mentioned earlier and accesses the Sacred Realm, he finds the Master Sword, and upon drawing it from the Pedestal of Time, is sealed away for seven years. Once this happens, Ganondorf sees his chance, raids the Sacred Realm, and steals the Triforce. But due to his evil intentions, the Triforce splits into three pieces, leaving only the Triforce of Power in his possession. So, even though he doesn't technically have the whole thing, the guy is still able to cast Hyrule into a state of major clusterfuck.

images-1.jpg

This can’t be good.

So while our hero is a time-cicle and the land is ravaged by a power-hungry villain, what becomes of our princess? After all, the game’s named after her, she’d better do something. But what would one expect her to do, be forced into marriage to Ganondorf?

HELLZ NAW.

She disguises herself as a male Sheikah known as Sheik (and I know that some fans also believe that Zelda has the ability to transform her sex, which can bring about a completely different, deeper conversation. For the sake of this listicle, though, I’m just going to stick to the pronoun “she”). But she doesn’t just hide from Ganondorf, she spies on the guy. Sheik even tries to help a race whose domain has been cursed. She manages to rescue another princess from beneath thick sheets of ice. Namely, she becomes a total badass, with a totally badass lyre.

tumblr_mg4ui5nlwn1rnpiioo1_500.gif

Who run the world? Sheik. Sheik does.

Zelda proved to me that even if your name tag comes with a lot of stereotypes, you don’t have to fall into them. Zelda is a strong-willed princess willing to put her looks aside and do whatever is necessary to save her kingdom. She has a sense of community, and she doesn’t wait around to be rescued like other princesses before her.

tumblr_mbwfi4cmt11qj6jppo1_r1_500.gif

I won’t name names.

And when Link is finally released, Sheik doesn’t just disappear — she sticks around to help out Link, giving him advice and eventually helping him reach the final battle with Ganondorf. In short, Zelda is awesome, and no one should ever limit themselves because of their social class, status, or other thing that might be keeping them trapped in a stereotype. You don’t have to be a Peach, friends, be a Sheik.

I honestly could go on and on about how much this game means to me, but at the end of the day, that’s all it is — a game on a system. Zelda isn’t perfect (I mean, I still don’t understand how breaking and entering + pot smashing = profit), but OOT taught me tons of other stuff too, from interacting with people who are different than you, to persistence — really, the list goes on.

But then again, that could be said about a lot of inspiring items — a book is just a collection of words, a film is just a collection of scenes, and Zelda is just a bunch of pixels in the right place at the right time — but complete with that all-consuming theme: connection. We feel the fear, sadness, or joy that a main character does and we get to celebrate with them. It’s all part of the human experience and comes in many different forms.

And for me, it comes through a little fairy boy from the forest, and I’m more than proud to admit it.