The Resentment of a Forgotten Hero Fi vs Zelda
Before any of ya'll get defensive, put down your rose-tinted glasses and hear me out. Then you can air out your grievances with me. This is prospective I have gained from reading AUs of Time's relationship with The Master sword vs Zelda. I have seen a good amount of AU's written with OoT Link being tense with Fi and not tense with Zelda. As much as AUs are fun this is a more grounded approach to the lore. FI Sending the Hero of Time into a 7-year coma so that he could be old enough to wield her. Having a mentally 6-year-old boy into a 13 year old body... however Adult link looks more akin to a 16 -17 year old.. so young link would be 9-10. (I remember someone saying that young link was 6 but that felt off... i included what I heard anyway. ) REGARDLESS.. going back and forth to your childhood and the unfamiliar world and body of the future has to mess up a good part of your mentality. Like someone getting attacked by an animal when they are young. Then being tense when that animal is near when you are an adult. This is one of the reasons why I like it when people write OoT Link begrudgingly tolerate The Master Sword. He doesn't hate the master sword to Ganondorf levels but would still prefer to keep his distance from it. In his older years he could understand that the sword absolutely needed him safe and have an able body enough to wield it. Even with his Understanded of why Fi did what she did... it still was traumatic along with his adventures. I still think he has a built-up resentment for The Master Sword. As all the AUs that I have seen and Oot Link having his resentment against the master sword I think it would be less then the one he would have against Zelda ZELDA In her regret that Fi robbed him of his childhood she sends him back in time to relive it... While that action had good intent it basically undid all of work Link did to rid Hyrule of Ganondorf. The cutscene that plays is like when you first met young Zelda.. However, Link is now a child with experience of what is to come. He reaffirms Young Zelda's gut feeling about Ganondorf being a bad person and overthrowing the king. With that they are able to convince the King to banish Ganondorf and prevent the events of his game from happening. With Ganondorf being imprisoned/sent/sealed away Zelda has no reason to become Shik. Link doesn't have a reason to pick up the master sword. so on and so forth. I believe that in the game no one, but the owl (maybe Deku sapling?) can tell that Young Link is adult Link. Leaving only Link to remember the horrors of the future that he and Young Zelda prevented. During the game as you go back and forth 7 years the people will know of Young Link and Adult Link's heroic acts. Clarifying that they would remember Young Link's heroic acts before the 7-year coma. Which is still something but to me it's like saying he peaked in Elementary school. No one knows what you did in high school because technically that didn't happen yet. Now I am NOT going to say that he wasn't proactive in trying to rebuild his legacy. He takes steps to become a knight of Hyrule. I believe that he becomes a well-respected one. (In the manga his bio dad was a knight of Hyrule so it would be neat for that to come full circle.) Then by some ceremony he gets awarded the Hero's Shade Amor set. By this time, he could tell his stories to his fellow soldiers. To the young soldiers this would be just their senior telling them tall tales and campfire stories. He was reduced to a campfire story in his own era! From what I remember of the Hero's Shade dialog in Twilight Princess is that while he accepted the role of the hero, he RESENTED that no one remembered. Adding to the resentment is that no one wanted to become his successor. That hurts more when even your own kids don't want to continue your supposed legacy or even the one you rebuilt yourself. His resentment snowballs so much that it prevents his spirit from moving on completely.
This all isn't to say that he deeply hates Zelda. He will speak highly of her since he is a knight of Hyrule. However on a personal level I see him holding a grudge against her.
HIS GREAT GRANDSON. In Twilight Princess I think something happened between Hyrule and Oot link that he seems almost apathetic to what happens to Hyrule. here is his dialog when you first meet him. "A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage." "you may be destined to become the hero of legend...but your current power would disgrace the prod green of the hero's tunic you wear." "You must use your courage to seek power...and find it you must. Only then will you become the hero for whom this world despairs." "If you do find true courage, and you wish to save Hyrule from the horrors it now faces..." "Then you will be worthy to receive the secrets I hold!" His very first dialog to us is after he knocks Link to the ground. Then he says.. Yeah, you're the next hero to be, but weak enough that you would disgrace what little legacy I did have left. Correct me if I am wrong but then he says you MUST use your COURAGE to SEEK POWER to become the hero that this world DESPAIRS! Not a hero that this world deserves but despairs!!
The term "despair" refers to the utter loss of hope. where there is a feeling of no possibility of improvement. LIKE WHAT? Is Oot link so jaded from resentment that he strait up says "Hay I want the world to fear you so much that it is hopeless to go against you." LIKE HUH? that's very heroic Oot link, very heroic. He also says "and you wish to save Hyrule." like IF you wish to save Hyrule. A OPTION. I will give him that he does have some tone shift at the very end. That id you did CHOOSE to be a good hero then he will teach you the rest of his skills. Otherwise it sounds like he is pretty okay with Hyrule's downfall. With the state that the Knights of Hyrule are in Twilight Princess? How would you feel if the Knights disregarded you enough that they regressed into cowards? Can you see what i am saying here? Now during the entire game, you can find howling stones and summon him on the map. You can go to the Hero's Shade to learn new sword skills. I belive that each time you seek him out and engage and want to learn from him slowly warms Oot Link's stoic heart. Finally allowing his resentment to ease and fade away. why? Because he finally has someone who wants to be his successor, someone who wants to learn what he has to teach. He finally has a legacy that he can be proud of. Remember when it was confirmed that these links were blood related? How HIS great grand kid (who is probably named after him.) Wants to engage with him! Will tell stories about him, REMEMBER HIM. Through TP Link Oot Link is remembered as a hero. He has a heroic legacy again. If our Hero of Twilight was to cross paths with Oot Zelda and able to put the puzzle together. I think he would also be tense around OoT Zelda. Because on the one hand she was a pretty big chunk of his resentment/regrets by sending him back in time undoing his heroic deeds. How the regrets and resentment have plagued his ancestor so much that his spirit was troubled still in TP link's era. On the other hand If she didn't send OoT Link back in time there is a possibility that he wouldn't have been born. Since Twilight Princess is part of that Child Timeline. Extra down below as I do my best to better clarify my thoughts and answer possible questions. also I need to go to bed.
