I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self. -Aristotle

The Final Victory

The ending of Ocarina of Time (oh yes, by the way, this is a spoiler) is a bittersweet one. Not enough bitter to erase the fact that yes, Ganondorf is defeated, and now he will only exist in the form of a giant blue pig, and that means peace in the land of Hyrule.

But wait! All is still not well. Because, as a consequence of that whole "hero of time" gig, Link has lost his childhood. Drat! Zelda feels badly, and wants to send Link back in time, so that he can live out the rest of the teenage years. Odd choice, but hey, I guess there are no middle schools in Hyrule.

"When peace returns to Hyrule... It will be time for us to say Good-bye... Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time! Home... where you are supposed to be... the way you are supposed to be..."

Whether or not Zelda or Link have memories of their battling years is not really much explained, but, neither is the concept of time travel, so, I don't really know what happened...I don't think Zelda remembers proper, but most likely has an inkling thanks to her psychic abilities. She just seems so sad about the whole thing, so the "Good-bye" seemed to mean something final. Though the last scene of the game shows them meeting, as children, the complex web of time-travel illogic and the whole storytelling brilliance of it just always made me feel that there was a tragedy in the triumph.

There's another whole element of the ending, too, one that I always found painfully noble on the part of Zelda. This is why I love her. She admits that part of the tragedy of Hyrule, the horrible misfortune that is dealt to her homeland, and she owns up to her actions. Even the good are power hungry, sometimes, and even the wisest don't always know what the're doing. Because in video games one must save the world so regularly, it's nice to see Zelda realizing that the fate of the world ought never to rest in the hands of one person. That's her real wisdom, her coming of age and a last bit of grace.