The musician brothers, Flat and Sharp, are the composers behind such magical songs as The Sun’s Song in Hyrule and The Song of Storms in Termina. But their musical prowess does not end there. There is much more to these siblings than meets the eye. The story of these two brothers, when in life, is quite interesting. There are many secrets to be revealed by hearing their tale.

The brothers in Hyrule and the ones in Termina are dead, as they only show themselves as poes. In Ocarina of Time they appear individually after Link reads each of their graves in Kakariko Village’s Graveyard.

After defeating them in combat they tell the story of their life and their death. This must be done before learning The Sun’s Song, as they will say nothing relevant after Link learns this song.

This is what the brothers have to say when spoke to separately:

• Sharp’s Speech
• Flat’s Speech

Those speeches give us a lot to think about. The pieces of text provide many leads to create valid theories on many of the subjects linked to the composer brothers. It is better to separate the quotes into smaller pieces while exploring each idea separately.

Origins

“I am one of the ghostly composer
brothers of Kakariko Village.
All the people in this village are
born to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule.
We brothers also served the Royal
Family.” – Sharp

Sharp says he and his brother are natives of Kakariko Village. While Link is a child, Kakariko Village seems to be a town in remodeling and is inhabited by very few people. It doesn’t seem that those persons are born to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule, as they never mention them and seem to be in servitude of no one. So why does he say that about them? Who Sharp may be referring to is to the previous inhabitants of Kakariko Village, the Sheikah.

Throughout the progression of the game we are told that Kakariko Village was founded by the Sheikah and therefore must have been their home. The inscriptions in one of the graves in the Kakariko Graveyard reads as follows:

“R.I.P.
Here lie the souls of those who
swore fealty to the Royal Family of Hyrule.
The Sheikah, guardians of the Royal Family
and founders of Kakariko, watch over
these spirits in their eternal slumber.”

There is also a quote from a villager that says Impa founded Kakariko Village some time ago.

“A great woman, Impa, opened up
this village to us poor folk.” – Man in Kakariko Village

Impa opened up the village to the public but, judging by the inscription on the grave, when she did this there must have been more Sheikah besides her.

Sharp, by revealing he and his brother are from Kakariko Village and were born to serve the Royal Family of Hyrule, is saying that both he and Flat were Sheikah in life. The composer brothers also seem to be older than Impa, which suggests that they lived in the Sheikah-exclusive village before it was opened to everyone. There is an erroneous belief among Zelda fans that identifies the Sheikah as a race of warriors and combatants. Although this may be true with Impa, it does not mean it was true with the rest of the Sheikah. Impa tells Link this after he defeating Bongo Bongo in the Shadow Temple:

“We Sheikah have served the
royalty of Hyrule from generation
to generation as attendants.” – Impa

The Key Word here is attendants. This can mean anything from bodyguard to a scholar. After analyzing all of this, it is evident that the composer brothers were indeed Sheikah. We also confirm that the Sheikah tribe was not composed entirely of fighters and body guards.

Royalty and Mysticism

“We brothers also served the Royal
Family, and were assigned to
study the hereditary mystic
powers of the family.
Though we never could figure out
the power of the Triforce” – Flat

Flat says that he and his elder brother, Sharp, were assigned by the Royal Family to study the powers that are passed through their lineage. This hereditary mystical device can only be the Ocarina of Time.

The Ocarina of Time is a mystical treasure passed down from generation to generation within the Hylian Royal Family. After obtaining the Ocarina of Time in the waterway outside Castle Town, the item description reads as follows:

You found the Ocarina of Time!
This is the Royal Family’s hidden
treasure which Zelda left behind.
It glows with a mystical light…

Flat says he and his brother were assigned to study the “hereditary mystic powers of the family”.
The Ocarina of Time is a hereditary artifact that has remained in the Royal family for ages. It also holds “mystical” powers which are mentioned by both the item’s description and Flat. It is undeniable that the Ocarina of Time contains some sort of power as it acts as one of the keys to open the Door of Time.

Flat also mentions the Triforce, saying they were unable to figure out it’s power. The Ocarina of Time, along with all three of the Spiritual Stones, is the artifact needed to open the Door of Time. This is why they were studying the Ocarina of Time, to open the Door of Time and study the Triforce itself.

“Our names would be a part of
Hyrule’s history if we could
complete our research!
We kept our study extremely
secret until we completed it.” – Flat

The investigation was kept a secret as it involved the Triforce. The legend of the Triforce was a secret within the Royal Family. Princess Zelda says this when Link first meets her in Ocarina of Time.

“OK then, Link…
I’m going to tell you the secret of
the Sacred Realm that has been
passed down by the Royal Family
of Hyrule.” – Princess Zelda

Connecting the dots between the secrecy of the Triforce and the mysterious power of the Hylian Royalty should not be hard now. The Royal Family has not manifested any mystical powers by themselves after all, so it is safe to assume the composer brothers were studying the Ocarina of Time to unlock the secrets of the Triforce.

The Secret Song

The melody to turn day into night and night into day has the composer brothers as its author. In Majora’s Mask, their counterparts write the Song of Storms. This is not their only work, for another song may be attributed to them as well; a song known to control the flow of time in a similar way to The Sun’s Song. It is none other than the Song of Time.

“To tell the truth, each of us
was studying a different song, one
to summon the sun and another to
summon the moon.” – Flat

Here, Flat explains how, by summoning the Moon and the Sun, they created the Sun’s Song . The composer brothers have also proven to be able to manipulate time at will with one of their songs.

“we had almost completed our
study of controlling time with the
tones of ocarinas.
Uh, I mean…
Actually, we did complete
that study!” – Sharp

That phrase makes mention of controlling time. However, day and night are not mentioned nor hinted in there. It is true it may be a reference to the Sun’s Song as well, but the brothers never mention time when speaking of the Sun’s Song directly. The Sun’s Song was created uniting individual compositions together, but this quote refers to a song in which they might have worked on together: the Song of Time.

“Ye who owns 3 Spiritual Stones
Stand with the Ocarina of Time
And play the Song of Time
That is how the inscription reads.”

That is what the inscription at the Temple of Time’s altar reads. After reading this inscription, the brothers could have assumed that they must play a special melody tied to the flow of time. Once they composed the song, thereby unlocking the power of the Ocarina of Time, they might have named the song after the title in the inscription.

The fact that they were studying the Ocarina of Time and wanted to reach the Triforce solidifies the idea of their creating the Song of Time. Somehow, they must have found out that the power of the Ocarina of Time can be triggered with a melody, and thus they composed this melody.

“We would have been famous, if
that hateful Ganondorf had not
tried to steal our results.
We could never let him reap the
fruits of our research!
That’s why we gave our lives to
protect the secret.” – Sharp

The composer brothers kept the melody a secret, showing it only to the people they served, the Royal Family. Ganondorf in his desire to reach the Sacred Realm attempted to steal the Song of Time. He was already collecting the keys to open the Door of Time as we know he visited the Great Deku Tree, the Gorons and the Zora for their spiritual stones. It is logical to believe he was after the Song of Time as well. The Sun’s Song would do him no good, so we know he wasn’t after that. The fact that Ganondorf wanted to steal their song which controlled time gives deeper evidence as to the composer of the Song of Time. Why else would Ganondorf, while still undercover, go through the trouble of killing the composer brothers if he wasn’t after something? Yes, he most certainly wanted the Song of Time.

Sharp and Flat, the Great Composer Brothers, held many more secrets than met the eye. They seem to be the composers of the only song from Ocarina of Time without a clear author: the Song of Time. Thus another mystery may be solved today, but perhaps one day we will put together the much larger puzzle that is Zelda.

By Hylian Dan

PART ONE

A few years ago, while I was replaying The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, I reached the top of Stone Tower and took another look at the strange scenery there before moving on. The gigantic pointing blood-stained hand again caught my attention. It seemed so strange, so ominous, like there was some cryptic meaning behind it that I just couldn’t place. But this time, something clicked in my mind.

I understood the significance of that pointing hand, the meaning that had always eluded me before. Now I wanted to know why it was there.

What secrets has the game been hiding all this time?

IMPORTANT NOTE:: I could give you all three hundred paragraphs outlining everything that makes this timeline work, but for your sake as well as mine, I have summerized it! Be happy…

–The Miyamoto Leak–

“Ocarina of Time is the first story, then the original Legend of Zelda, then Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and finally A Link to the Past. It’s not very clear where Link’s Awakening fits in–it could be anytime after Ocarina of Time. ”

This is the beginning, and the basis for many timeline theories. Whether Miyamoto has some hidden document that explains all, I don’t know, nor do I believe anyone else does. I shall not cast dispersion on Miyamoto’s statement. But, it cannot be ruled out that the series was very young when he made that statement, and that he didn’t have a clear mental picture of it all. We begin simply with, The Ocarina of Time.

Now, if OoT is indeed the first game. Then we know that MM (Majora’s Mask) is the obvious second. Link leaves Hyrule after defeating the King of Evil, but leaving the land that made him a hero created an imbalance in the magic of the Triforce. Without the bearer of Courage, the vassal of Power rose once again. During this time, we find the events of the Wind Waker take place. Now, the first thing that will come to you is that Tingle is featured in both WW and MM, but if this is so, then Link would have to be hundreds of years old when the events of MM took place, and survive the flood. This makes no sense, because the reasoning behind the flood was that the bearer of Courage had left, and that without him, all of Hyrule would surely die. So, Tingle’s appearance in both games can only lead to the conclusion that the original Tingle is long dead, and the WW Tingle is a descendant. The base of the Timeline:

OoT -100(‘s)ys.- WW
|
MM

So, what we had is three base games: Ocarina of Time – (immediately afterwards) – Majora’s Mask – (hundreds of years later) – Wind Waker.

Now we go back into theorizing. Some have said that Link was searching for the Skull Kid when he departed on his journey in MM, but he was not. Pull your dusty old cartridge off the shelf and play the first five minutes of the game. Right after the last of the text rolls by, you’ll hear the sound of a fairy flying, a common sound Navi makes in OoT. This indicates that Link is searching for Navi, whom departed from him in a touching cinema near the end of OoT. So, this begs the question, “Why did Majora’s Mask end without Link finding Navi?”, the answer to that is; the journey wasn’t finished yet, Link was still searching for Navi.

The Hero would return to Hyrule, and find that the Triforce wished to send him on a quest to save Holodrum, Labrynna, and Subrosia. Thus, the events of OoA and OoS take place, but Link had not forgotten his goal of finding Navi. Charged with returning home by boat, he would explore the ocean, only to end up shipwrecked on Koholint Island.

So, let’s look at what we’ve covered thus far:

Oot -100(‘s)ys.- WW
|
MM
|
OoA/Oos
|
LA

Here’s an easy part, we’ve already been told that Phantom Hourglass takes place contemporarily with Wind Waker. So, PH takes its place with WW.

Oot -100(‘s)ys.- WW – PH
|
MM
|
OoA/Oos
|
LA

It looks like a split timeline, but it’s not. The events of WW and PH take place either 100’s or 100 years after OoT, and have nothing to do with the Link’s journey to find Navi. It is imperative to note that it’s still the same universe.

So, Link ends up dead, somewhere, if he found Navi or not we do not know. Thus, Courage is passed on to a new bearer, and the Timeline picks up again. According to Miyamoto’s outdated statement, LoZ and AoL should fall in very soon, since both had very little story development, it can be said that they took place after the draining of Hyrule. So, the third Link is added to the timeline like so:

Oot -100(‘s)ys.- WW – PH LoZ – AoL
|
MM
|
OoA/Oos
|
LA

Since, Miyamoto stated that ALttP comes next, we must add it in. But, Link did not know Zelda at the beginning of that quest, and so he must be a different bearer. This fourth Link went on two quests. I say this, because the Link in TMC knows Zelda, and that only means that because it comes after ALttP, it must be the same Link. So my Timeline is nearly complete:

Oot -100(‘s)ys.- WW – PH LoZ – AoL ALttP – TMC
|
MM
|
OoA/Oos
|
LA

And we come to a difficult section, and abstract to say the least. The Four Swords and The Four Swords Adventures are completely Timeline shattering. Why? One word… Tingle. How, after hundreds of years, was Tingle still around? Once again I’ll attribute it to ancestry, it’s not the original Tingle (how did he ever get a girl?)… There is no apparent evidence that they take place before or after LoZ, but we know they take place in Hyrule, with ‘a’ Link as the main character. So, I add them at the end, as an abstract enigma to me.

Oot -100(‘s)ys.- WW – PH LoZ – AoL ALttP – TMC FS/FSA(?)
|
MM
|
OoA/Oos
|
LA

There it is! My timeline… Changed once I realized my fault (Miyamoto’s statement), but I still want to kick Zora arse!

One example would be the implicit story of the Deku Butler’s son. Upon being transformed into a Deku Scrub, Link finds a strange tree that resembles his present shape and seems to be crying. Later, Link meets the Deku Butler, who is reminded of his absent son when he sees Link’s Deku Scrub form. At the end of the game, the Deku Butler is seen crying before the strange tree. Though the game never bluntly states it, it is clear that Majora’s Mask forced Link into his Deku form by stealing the soul of the Deku Butler’s son, leaving an inanimate tree in his place.

While I was recently replaying Majora’s Mask, I noticed a number of subtle details that seemed to penetrated the mystery of the game and led me to a shocking discovery. It occurred to me that the moon might not be falling just because of the unfortunate actions of Skull Kid. As its name implies, the world of Termina evidently has been destined to end ever since the early days of its dark history. Subtle details in the game indicate that the evil acts of Termina’s people had brought about the impending apocalypse. It’s all tied to the Stone Tower.

Many people have noticed, and dismissed, the fact that the image of the sacred Triforce can be seen on the tongues of the statues that line the path to Eastern Termina. Termina doesn’t seem to have a connection to the goddesses of the Triforce, and no one seems to worship, or even know of them, so the Triforce design seems like a sort of weird joke slipped in by some random designer at Nintendo. But considering how complex and mysterious the game is, such details should not be overlooked so quickly.

Termina may not be part of the world of Hyrule, but the goddesses are most certainly not a nonentity in Termina. In Hyrule, Zelda prayed to the Goddess of Time, asking her to be there for Link. And while Link was in Termina, the Goddess of Time came to his aid again and again. This proves that the same goddesses watch over both Hyrule and Termina.

I believe that the Goddess of Time is another title for the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru. According to Ocarina of Time, Nayru created the natural laws of the universe, which should include time. Additionally, the color blue is associated with both time travel and Nayru. Majora didn’t mention Nayru by her name for the same reason Navi’s name was never mentioned: people who hadn’t played Ocarina wouldn’t be familiar with those names, and those names weren’t so vital to the story that they’d make a bunch of exposition about Ocarina’s story necessary. People who had played Ocarina should be able to understand which characters Majora was referring to, and people who hadn’t played Ocarina would still be able to appreciate the story without getting those references.

When Link finds Kaepora Gaebora in the swamp, the owl mentions that the land of Termina is destined to fade. Was that just an insignificant comment, or had Termina actually been marked for destruction long before Skull Kid found Majora’s Mask? If the goddesses are indeed watching over Termina, why does it have such a dark fate?

The answer, it seems, is that the ancient people of Termina had rejected the goddesses. The statues leading to the Stone Tower, shown licking the Triforce, are signs of blasphemy. And inside the Stone Tower, the slander against the goddesses is far more obscene and terrible.

The Triforce can be seen again, hidden on the bottom of the floating blocks Link manipulates in order to enter the temple. Each block depicts a naked creature sitting and sticking his tongue between his legs, where he is licking the Triforce.

And at the top of the Stone Tower, the temple entrance is surrounded by four rather phallic pillars. Next to one of them, there is an enormous burning hand pointing towards the heavens. This unsettling architecture seems to be sending a certain implicit message: “Screw you, goddesses!”

This of course begs the question, why would the ancient Terminians reject the goddesses? When the goddesses created Termina, they created four guardian deities to shape the corners of the world and protect its people. The Giants are similar to the Great Deku Tree: they are mystical and benevolent, they watch over races of people, and they can be overthrown by more potent beings.

Early in Termina’s history, the Giants saved the people from the chaos Skull Kid wreaked upon them. The people responded by worshipping the Giants as gods. Afterwards, perhaps, the goddesses made themselves known and offered to make a covenant with Termina through the Triforce, as they had done with Hyrule. The Triforce designs indicate that the ancient people had knowledge of the Triforce. It’s possible that the Terminians had been disgusted by the notion that some female beings could be greater than their four beloved male Giants. That could explain why they built four giant pillars representing part of the male body sticking out towards the goddesses.

But was the Stone Tower simply built as a testament of the people’s rejection of the goddesses? There are hints that imply that the tower was built for an even more twisted reason. In the first room of the Stone Tower Temple, a strange vortex is visible far overhead, concealed by the inverted pathways above. It doesn’t share the design of the portal to Twinmold’s lair, or of the glowing light that appears when Link breaks Ikana’s curse, so it seems that Nintendo placed it there intentionally, rather than letting it slip in accidentally. My theory is that the portal leads to the realm of the goddesses, and the Stone Tower was perhaps built as a stairway to the heavens, as a sort of Tower of Babel.

Deep inside the temple, Link finds the Giant’s Mask, which contains a tremendous power. It’s clearly established in the stories Anju’s Grandmother tells that the ancient people of Termina loved the Giants. If there is a significance to the Giant’s Mask, it seems as if it was created as an homage to them. Additionally, the four phallic pillars outside the temple indicate that the Terminians believed that the Giants were superior to the goddesses. These details seem to sugguest that the builders of the Stone Tower intended to invade the heavens and use the power of a Giant to slay the goddesses. Who were the wicked people who built the tower? There isn’t enough information to be sure, but consider how in the deepest room of the temple, Link finds the leader of the bloodthirsty Garo tribe waiting for him. The Garo Master also wears a mask that is shaped similarly to the Giant’s Mask.

Whether or not it’s builder intended to wage war against the goddesses, it seems pretty clear that the Stone Tower was a wicked monument, and the goddesses were obligated to act. So they flipped the universe upside down.

In order to flip the universe, Link needed to shoot a Light Arrow into the Stone Tower emblem, which the Garo Master describes as being blood-stained. The Garo Master guards the Light Arrows. Now, the Light Arrow is a divine weapon meant to smite the wicked. In Ocarina of Time, it was given to Link by Zelda herself. What would it be doing lying in the most corrupt corner of Termina?

I would guess that the goddesses sent the Light Arrows there so that they would smite the wicked.

The blood-stained emblem of the Stone Tower perhaps signifies the evil arrogance of its architects. When the Light of Justice shines upon it, it causes justice to be done to those corrupt people. The builders of the Stone Tower had been seeking the heavens. But the universe was flipped, so it seems they found a sort of hell instead. They found a desert realm.

According to the Happy Mask Salesman, the ancient tribe that first used Majora’s Mask eventually sealed the artifact away, fearing the havoc it would wreak upon them. At the end of the game, when Link is pulled through the moon into a surreal universe, it seems that that tribe was the one the Salesman referred to. Consider how that realm seems to be the polar opposite of the desert realm where Link fought Twinmold. The ancient tribe had sealed Majora’s Mask in that desert, hoping it would never be found. But it was.

The architects of the Stone Tower found Majora’s Mask. They built towers there adorned with the mask’s image, and they brought the mask back into their world. And so it seems that the goddesses punished the wicked people by allowing that destructive demon to escape into their world.

It’s worth pointing out that Majora seems to be a female demon. What better way is there for the goddesses to punish these people obsessed with their male gods than to unleash such a being? In addition to Majora’s feminine screams and dancing, the patterns on Majora’s Wrath’s body seem to resemble breasts and ovaries. It might be a coincidence, but I’ve often been weirded out by those markings.

This theory probably seems far-fetched, but there is actually evidence that practically proves that Majora’s Mask has some connection to the tower. In the first room of the Stone Tower Temple, there is a gigantic statue of a deformed face sticking its tongue out. When the temple is flipped upside down, that statue resembles Majora’s Mask. It has two enormous horns above its eyes, horns on the sides of its face, and is shaped like a heart, although the bottom is missing.

But the statue is incomplete, because the bottom part has broken off. Not only is one of the horns broken, part of the Stone Tower emblem appears on the statue. The rest of the emblem is gone.

Strangely enough the statue only has two horns on each side, while Majora’s Mask has four.

The door above that statue leads directly to the desert. The statue is essentially the gateway to the desert.

And in the desert there are monuments depicting Majora’s Mask. They show the mask with what seem to be a nose and a mouth, and only two full-sized horns on each side of the face.

The Happy Mask Salesman knows the story of the ancient tribe that had sealed Majora’s Mask away and very closely resembles the children in the moon world, who seem to represent that tribe. If he has some sort of connection to them, perhaps he sensed that their evil mask had escaped its prison and was free to wreak havoc upon some unfortunate world. He set out on a journey to find the whereabouts of the mask, and was successful. He brought it out of Termina and into Hyrule, the world favored by the goddesses. But Majora’s power was not meant to be unleashed in Hyrule, so fate led Skull Kid to steal the mask just then and bring it back to Termina, finally setting the apocalyptic events into motion.

But as modern Termina was being torn apart by the power of the mask, it seems the goddesses took pity on the world that was so desperately in need of healing. And as I see it, Link the Hero of Time also seemed to be in need of healing after the ordeal of Ocarina of Time. He was a lonely outcast desperately searching for his beloved and invaluable friend. Between being a Hylian amongst Kokiri and a child in an adult’s body, fate always seemed to set him apart from the people around him. Link’s adventure in Termina finally allowed him to overcome his loneliness and fully mature by easing the private sorrows and troubles of the people around him and receiving their heartfelt gratitude in the form of masks. As Link was being healed, he was also healing Termina so that it’s destiny could be changed.

I also believe that Link wasn’t working against the goddesses by saving the doomed world, because without the aid of the Goddess of Time he would have failed. And as the moon is cast back into the heavens, an enormous rainbow appears over all of Termina, perhaps as a sign from the goddesses that they had forgiven that world.

Though some of this speculation is probably inaccurate, I’m convinced that there are indeed more layers to the story of Majora’s Mask than the ones that most people have noticed. Bear this in mind as you play Twilight Princess in the upcoming weeks. People have generally overlooked or dismissed the Triforce markings in Termina and the images of Majora in the desert for a variety of reasons. Whether or not you believe Zelda games could have tales this complex, these sorts of details deserve serious consideration. There is always the chance that they are meant to hint at something deeper.

The Simple Reading

The relevant portion of the interview is as follows:

Q: Where does The Wind Walker fit into the overall Zelda series timeline?
Aonuma: You can think of this game as taking place over a hundred years after Ocarina of Time. You can tell this from the opening story, and there are references to things from Ocarina located throughout the game as well.
Miyamoto: Well, wait, which point does the hundred years start from?
Aonuma: From the end.
Miyamoto: No, I mean, as a child or as a . . .
Aonuma: Oh, right, let me elaborate on that. Ocarina of Time basically has two endings of sorts; one has Link as a child and the other has him as an adult. This game, The Wind Waker, takes place a hundred years after the adult Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina.
Miyamoto: This is pretty confusing for us, too. (laughs) So be careful.

At this point, I don’t want to get into a discussion of time theories or on how feasible the multiple-timeline theory is. At the moment I’m asking one question. And that question is, “What did Aonuma and Miyamoto really say?”

And to that end, I have to say that when I first read the interview, I didn’t go, “Aha! The multiple-timeline theory is correct!” I took the simple reading-that by inference Aonuma is saying that if we start it from child-Link, it’s 107 years, and if we mark it at adult-Link, it’s 100 years. It’s all very straightforward. What he’s saying is that since they mention him as an adult, then the events of Ocarina of Time are at least considered to have happened (even though he ends up back in the childhood time). In other words, his existence (in his child-self’s future) is a reference point, even though his child-self’s future is now changed to not have the bad guy taking over. But the adult-self will remember going back in the adult-self’s past and changing the timeline which would then be the adult-self’s present. I think that means that there could still be some ripple effects, but in general, we could assume that the bad guy did not take over 100 years ago and that event not happening is the start of the current chronology. Straightfoward reading? Yes. Confusing, as Miyamoto said? Absolutely. And illogical too, but so is anything having to do with history-altering time travel.

Of course, on analysis, I could see where the multiple-timeline theorists could get their ideas. But that isn’t the straightforward reading at all. To get that idea from what they were saying, you have to have many, many assumptions in your head as you’re reading it. Don’t believe me? Look at Aonuma’s first statement. Tell me, does the word “over” modify “100 years” or “takes place” (which would mean that either that the game takes place “more than” 100 years after Ocarina of Time or that it takes place over the course of 100 years, respectively)? Based on your knowledge of the game ahead of time, you assumed that “over” meant “more than.” I daresay all of us had that assumption reading it. But there are assumptions that not everyone takes for granted. These are assumptions we bring into it based on things like our culture and our theories. To say that the interview supports the multiple-timeline theory, you have to presuppose not only specific meanings to phrases like “two endings,” but you must also presuppose a certain level of argumentation related to time travel. That is to say, only by thinking about what he said and then trying to extrapolate from there through a philosophical understanding of time travel and parallel worlds can you arrive at the idea of the multiple-timeline theory. But then that’s your theory, not his.

The Limits of Language

So the point is that the interview does not automatically justify the theory. In addition to what I’ve just said, much of what they said is rather vague. In part it’s because it’s a conversation. We tend to be not that precise and tend to say things that can be easily misconstrued when crafting sentences on the fly and in person. (I’d also get into Miyamoto’s insistence on “the hundred years,” but that’s more or less another discussion). Add to that their own self-confessed confusion on the topic (all the more reason for it to come out garbled). Now add to that the fact that this is translated from Japan into a very different language produced by a very different culture (and thus way of thinking), English!

Need an example of why we can’t take Aonuma’s words and say that they support a particular theory? Have at this quote, from the same interview!

Q: Since Link gets his green clothes in the Wind Waker intro as part of the game’s history, I’m wondering: how many Links are there? This doesn’t seem to be the Link from the last two games.
Aonuma: Well, we think that the hero of the game changes with each title in the series. A new Link arises with each story, in other words. As for how many, well, that depends on how long we keep on making Zelda games. (laughs)

As reader Drakvl noted in an e-mail, “a literal interpretation of Eiji Aonuma’s words would mean that the Link in Majora’s Mask is different from that in Ocarina of Time. (I’m not even going to begin speculation on what such an interpretation means for the Oracle games!)” After all, Aonuma said “each title,” didn’t he!?

Conclusion

Don’t make too much of the interview. It doesn’t justify the multiple-timeline theory in the least. Read it like it’s supposed to be read-as something they said on the fly in a conversational manner. Take Miyamoto’s advice, and “be careful.”

One last word on timeline theories. First, the game makes explicit that Link is actually traveling time and that it’s all the same Hyrule. So the multiple-timeline theorists are directly contradicting the game for the sake of trying to come up with a continuity theory. And to be blunt, alternate timelines are a hack, somewhat of a deus ex machina. Don’t get me wrong, having a consistent universe is nice, but it is not as important as having a good story and a good game. Second, once you allow history-changing time-travel, you might as well just throw out any illusions of internal consistency. Add that to the fact that the games contradict themselves as it is, and you’ve blown any chance of making an accurate timeline to smithereens (more on that later). Sorry folks, but that’s the way it is . . .

Zelda the Child

I’m talking about the person commonly referred to as “Zelda I,” here. As a child, Zelda I has a kind of ethereal quality to her, and she apparently desires wisdom above all else. And yet despite these qualities, she certainly has many of the qualities we might expect to find in a portrayal of a child. She is full of innocence, looking at the world with bright eyed wonder. Perhaps as a result, she is very trusting. She is especially confident in herself and in the supernatural. When she receives the dream, she is sure she knows that it was meaningful, and not merely an ordinary dream. And she is sure she knows what it precisely means, despite the somewhat ambiguous imagery of the dream (of course, the fact that she has psychic powers helps). She doesn’t stop to question her conclusions, but stubbornly insists that she’s correct, no matter what others say. And if Link (the player) responds negatively to her pleas, she responds in shock before she swiftly recovers an expectant facial expression (yes, I do realize that on another, more critical level, it’s because the game must progress). Such is the great faith she puts into her insight. And unfortunately, that insight may be flawed. True, her interpretation of the dream turned out to be quite correct. But at the most basic level her “solution” ended up being the very tool for evil to gain its stranglehold on the land. Her understanding of the solution is simplistic. “We will do this and that, and viola! A snap of the fingers, and we’ve defeated evil! Smashing!”

There are two more defining characteristics of Zelda as a child-and that is her melodramatic and lofty view of the world. If a rose in her garden died, you might imagine her saying, “Alack! This was a small green sprig of life, a flower of radiance, bearing its bright petals into the face of the dawn! And now darkness has risen, and smote it! But, I, the Princess of Destiny will bring it back!” That’s certainly an exaggerated characterization, and the events in the game itself are much more serious than a rose dying, but I think you get the idea. She has the imagination of a child, but when that is coupled with the fact that she is royalty, it creates something new. She’s been raised as a dignitary, a royal person pampered and placed on a high, cushioned seat, isolated from the world below her. So on the one hand, she’s a typical royal princess, in that she’s pampered. And on the other hand she’s a typical royal princess in that she’s isolated from society (the security forces marshaled around her as but one hint of that). What would sustain her but a powerful imagination and the notion that she is the queen of the world and that she alone can truly save it? “Down to earth” she ain’t!

These characteristics are what define her relationships with other people. We never get a glimpse of her father, and yet we get the idea that he certainly loves her and wants to protect her, but that he’s so used to her confidence and melodrama that he doesn’t pay attention to her omens. Impa seems to be her sole confident, and even then, we don’t get much of an insight into their relationship beyond the professional level.

It’s her relationship with Link, then, that we know the most about, which should come as no surprise given that our meeting with her comes through the eyes of Link. The whole style of the scene in the castle, especially the music, shows us just how Link views her. It’s all very surreal, like a dream. Here he is, a boy who has only known the woods all his life, and is suddenly swept away into a high society, a mystical, lofty world far, far above him-a world that, at the same time, he can never really be part of. And hence, he ends up, at the beginning of Majora’s Mask, wandering into the forest on his horse, alone. But I digress-after all, this isn’t a character analysis of Link. The gist of the relationship between Zelda and Link is that it’s a friendship, but a very unique one. The encounter with Zelda is sort of mystical and ethereal, rather like an encounter with some alien being. Or to use Lord of the Rings as an analogy, it’s like Frodo meeting Galadriel. There’s definitely a bond there, a bond formed by destiny, through being fellow chess pieces in a grander, cosmic drama. And yet despite that bond, there is a kind of distance between them, like the distance between a pawn and a queen. In the end, they must part. In the case of Link and Zelda, they know it will essentially be the end of their contact as friends, with only the ocarina as to keep that bond of friendship, a memory of their shared part in that cosmic drama.

Zelda the Adult

And that brings us to Zelda as an adult. While Link slumbered those 7 years, untouched by the terrible things happening to the world, Zelda had to endure it all. She had to endure the separation from her once cushioned life in the castle, and had to lurk in the shadows under a new identity. She’s suffered much pain, and so she has lost her innocent view of life. She looks on things with almost a kind of bitterness, a kind of sadness at the change of the world. She now understands things much better, and tells Link with regret, “All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing . . . I was so young . . . I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it, too. Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes.” Her new outlook on life, of course, is also visible before that in her dialogue as Sheik.

And yet despite that new, sadder outlook on life, she still retains characteristics that she had as a child. Most obviously, her apparently tomboyish tendencies as a child (as told by the gossip stone, anyway) truly manifested themselves in the persona of Sheik. But even as Sheik, she speaks in melodrama, and not entirely because of the need for secrecy.

She is much wiser and much more well connected with the world. But on the other hand, there is that moment when she reveals herself as Zelda, only to be whisked away in a crystal. That act certainly wasn’t consistent with the Triforce of Wisdom, but it certainly fitted with Zelda’s personality!

She apparently has many more relationships now, but again, we only really know very much about her relationship with Link. Indeed, she’s been waiting for all her life for his return, for the part that the Hero of Time must play in the cosmic drama. Zelda and Link are friends as adults, and yet she is still above Link. It is a bond through destiny, and is therefore somewhat stilted. It is little surprise then that when all has been won, they must part, probably for the last time, and go back to their own worlds.

P.S. What about Tetra?

As everyone is aware, The Wind Waker invokes a new change in the characterization of Zelda. This time she’s not some high and lofty mystical princess that will never be part of Link’s world, but is actually more grounded in reality than Link is. Of course in part, this is because Link himself is much more naïve than his Hero of Time counterpart. But Tetra is radically different from any of the other incarnations of Zelda, and certainly deserves her own discussion. Her personality is much more interesting than that of her predecessors, and much more obvious. She’s sassy, smart, and witty, if a bit crass at times. We get to see her relationship with many people, not only with Link. And speaking of Link, Tetra and Link develop such an interesting chemistry that even if it wasn’t for certain specific hints in the game, we’d suspect that they were a little more than just friends. In any event, Tetra has such a complex character, has so many relationships with so many different characters, and has such a different relationship with Link than the previous Zelda, that a character study of Tetra really deserves its own article.

Staying in Termina

Many Zelda fans believe that Link did not and could not have returned from Termina. The primary reason they give is that Link entered Termina by falling down a chasm, and there would be no way for him to get back. But this argument is based on the assumption of a non-fantasy world where we know what would and would not work. To use the example of the Chronicles of Narnia again, there is more than one way of traveling between Earth and Narnia. It is implied that the Mask Salesman can travel between worlds. Apparently he has great magic power, as evidenced by his knowledge of the Song of Healing, and by his vanishing act at the end of the game. More clearly, the Skull Kid was obviously able to travel between the worlds, although it might be argued that Majora’s Mask is what gave him this power. So there are two reasons why it is perfectly reasonable to believe that Link could return. The first is that there may be other ways back to Hyrule, which Link would use now that he had completed the task he had agreed to do in exchange for being restored to his true form by the Mask Salesman. The second is that magic can do a lot in a fantasy world, be it through the ocarina, a mask, the gods themselves, or some other means. The game does not explain how many things happen, and nor does it need to, since it is a fantasy.

A more significant argument is that in The Wind Waker, it sounds as if the last we hear of Link is that he vanishes to a new land. Yet what would we expect? If he returned, he would settle in relative obscurity for several reasons. First, Ganon did not return until long after Link had returned. He would have done no more great deeds when he returned, and so functionally speaking, his greatness ended with his passage to Termina (indeed, we are told that he was separated from the elements that made him a hero at that point), and no more word of him would pass down many hundreds of years (see here), surviving even the Flood. Second, it is in keeping with his personality as a loner. As Majora’s Mask begins, Link is alone on Epona, deep in the Lost Woods. If he returned, and if he finished his searches for Navi at the edges of the world, he would settle in a familiar, hidden place in the forest, away from the cities and view of men. Third, even if some people managed to catch a glimpse of him, they might not truly recognize him for the hero that he is. In Ocarina of Time almost no one recognized him as a great hero. Just about the only ones that came to recognize his true nature were those with great power. In general no one sees him for who he is in either Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask until the deed is done, and even then he doesn’t get a huge fanfare like we see at the end of Star Wars Episode I.

As a side-note, that leads us to ask the question, how did he become “the legendary one” in the first place? Clearly, from those who were in the know. Whose legend is this? It’s the legend of “Zelda,” and the royal family. Zelda’s father wouldn’t believe her portents early in Ocarina of Time, much like Cassandra of Troy. Now that Hyrule is shifted back in time to the earlier period, Ganon is “no longer a threat.” Skirting aside the issue of the enormous contradictions generated by time travel, we look at it with the simplicity of Nintendo and think of the situation as it is. Is everyone suddenly going to recognize Link as a mighty hero? No. How could they? There isn’t much proof. In order for the truth to disseminate to the common people-and even the King-Zelda (and perhaps the other sages) must establish the legend as true. And to do that takes building up a reputation of wisdom, and that takes time. By that time, Link is gone. Zelda heard of how he vanished to Termina, and “no one saw him again.” Perhaps people did “see” him again, but they didn’t see him with true understanding. If they caught glimpses of him-for that is all they would get, since Link was a loner-they didn’t know he was the legendary one until they found out that the legendary one even existed in the first place. Some might say something like, “Hey, it’s that guy who saved my chicken!” But it would be a while before they would think, “Hey, it’s that time-traveling guy who saved the world!” By then Link has wandered and settled in the far reaches of Hyrule or is perhaps even dead. That is the nature of legends. In any event, there is no reason to believe that there would be any significant enough story about the Hero of Time after his return to Hyrule to survive down to the times of The Wind Waker.

Returning to Hyrule

But what does Majora’s Mask itself say? In my book, it seems fairly clear in saying that he did return to Hyrule. Granted, there is no text explicitly saying it, but the end of the game shows him on Epona in the same place where the game began. This not only makes sense in terms of storytelling, but it’s a cinematic way of explicitly telling us that he did indeed return. Not only that, but the sequences before that emphasize departure. The ending isn’t just, “By crikey, Termina is happy, nice little place, and I’m going to settle here.” It rather has a slightly sad tone, the sadness of departure. That’s because it emphasizes the “Goodbye” part, and isn’t goodbye to Hyrule. It’s, “Goodbye. I’ll likely never see you again, but we’ll be friends anyway.”

On the other hand, there may be a small something in Majora’s Mask that indicates Link stays in Termina. After saving Romani Ranch, Romani tells Link that because the poes will attack in later years, Link should stay there with their family. “And you can have Romani’s bed!” She then grins (as when she tells you “You’re cute!”) as she closes it off with the statement, “So then, it’s settled!” Since the games avoid putting words in Link’s mouth as much as possible, they sometimes use that sort of text to inform us that Link has agreed to something. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing in this case whether Romani is simply assuming Link is agreeing to it, or if the game really is trying to use that to tell us that Link will stay there after he saves the world.

So Majora’s Mask itself appears to indicate on the whole that Link did indeed return to Hyrule. But there are more reasons why it is more believable to think that Link returned. Why would Nintendo close the door on making any more games with him? It does seem that the first direction they were going for the next game was to use adult Link. Of course they later scrapped that, but the point is that it would be very uncharacteristic of Nintendo to shut the book on a hero like that. And in fact, in Nintendo’s own mind, Link did return from Termina. Before The Wind Waker, the official timeline had Link returning from Termina. That particular timeline is no longer valid, but it nevertheless shows that Nintendo thought Link returned to Hyrule. In addition to such evidence, we might also point to the context of the other games. Link could not have had descendants in Hyrule (as we know to be true) if he did not live in Hyrule (unless you suppose that his descendents were the ones who traveled back to Hyrule!).

The nature of the storytelling of Majora’s Mask, Nintendo’s own comments on the game, a bit of logic, and the weak evidence on the side of the naysayers all point to one conclusion. Link did indeed return to Hyrule, settled into relative obscurity, and did no more great deeds that would be remembered for centuries, at least in part due to the long peace.

How many years later does The Wind Waker take place?

News flash. The Wind Waker does not take place 100 years after Ocarina of Time. It actually takes place hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time. In-game text partway through the adventure tells us that. Now, you might argue that it is exactly 100 years based on the interview with Miyamoto and Aonuma a while back. But what the game says is more important than what the director says through a translator. No doubt he forgot the precise statement in the game, and simply made a generalization to demonstrate that this game takes place much later than the first one and thus has a new boy named Link. The game, however, says hundreds. Of course, that’s just what it says in the English version. No doubt it could have said “100 years” in the Japanese version, and perhaps when the game was being localized the translators changed it. If so, they realized that, cataclysmic event or not, 100 years is ridiculously short for certain things to have happened. First, history would not have become become so distorted as to be legend. Second, the language would not have changed so much that the Waker of the Winds is clueless as to what certain characters are saying when they speak in the “old tongue.”

The main point is that the game says it’s “hundreds of years,” and not “100 years.” I would think that rather than the Japanese version saying something different (and completely unrealistic), it’s most likely the case that the director simply forgot the exact phrasing and on the fly generalized by saying “100 years.”

How is the Waker of the Wind connected with the Hero of Time?

Most people believe that the Waker of the Wind (the Link in The Wind Waker) is a direct descendent of the Hero of Time (the Link in Ocarina of Time). This is what is generally believed, but it actually seems to derive from information before the release of The Wind Waker. We do know for certain that the Link in A Link to the Past is a descendent of Link in Ocarina of Time. It makes sense, based on our knowledge of how myths work, to assume that the Waker of the Wind is also the descendent of the Hero of Time. But as you play the game, you find a general emphasis on the lack of a link between the Waker of the Wind and the Hero of Time. Why would Nintendo do that? I would guess it probably comes from the same reasoning that motivated Miyamoto to make the game cel-shaded. He wanted the new game to return to the core concept of the boy in the cave, as I reminded you of last time. In the process, he wanted to make the boy as “ordinary” as possible. In fact, the boy is so “ordinary” that he is not even a descendent of the Hero of Time spoken of in the great legends.

You might object,”Well, do you have any specific examples showing the lack of a connection, Trahald?” I mentioned a “general emphasis” on the lack of a connection. Of course I could describe various parts of the game in which the Waker of the Winds is shown to be unrelated to the Hero of Time, but that would involve major spoilers. The game hasn’t been out long enough for me to start mentioning such things in my articles. However, those examples aren’t absolutely crucial, since all we really need is a certain comment by the King of Red Lions, the talking ship. At one point, he says, “The one I have brought with me [i.e. Link, who is in the ship] has no connection to the legendary one. And yet I sense great promise in the courage that this one possesses.” In other words, the only connection between the Waker of the Winds and the Hero of Time is courage.

On the other hand, what about an event that takes place at the beginning of the game? Even those of you who have never played it should know that your grandmother gives you the family shield, which looks remarkably similar to the one that the Hero of Time bore. Would this indicate that the Waker of the Winds is of the bloodline of the Hero of Time? Not necessarily. A comparison between the shield of the Hero of Time and the shield of the Waker of the Wind reveals that they are different in several significant aspects. They are not the same shield. We do know that the shield of the Hero of Time was the same as that held by the knights of that period. Perhaps, then, the Waker of the Wind is a descendant of the knights who bore shields like that held by the Hero of Time.

Others would argue that Ganon’s curse at the end of Ocarina of Time supports the idea that the Waker of the Wind is a descendant of the Hero of Time. But who does Ganon’s curse refer to? Once again, it is important to think of the game in terms of its designers, a point that I will return to again and again. A Link to the Past kept referring to the “Imprisoning War,” and that was what what prompted the design of Ocarina of Time. Since the Link found in A Link to the Past is a descendant of the Hero of Time, and the maidens in A Link to the Past are the descendants of the sages in Ocarina of Time, Nintendo intended for Ganon’s lines at the end to refer to A Link to the Past, not a game that would not even begin to be designed for several years. That’s why we can’t use Ganon’s curse as proof that the Waker of the Wind is a descendant of the Hero of Time.

What happened to the Hero of Time, anyway?

Exactly what did happen to the Hero of Time? When he returned from Termina, why didn’t he do any more great deeds? The Wind Waker doesn’t leave us hanging. It tells us that that when he was called to that other land, he was “separated from the elements that made him a hero,” especially the Triforce of Courage. When he returned, he seems to have settled into relative obscurity. Otherwise the story would not simply end with him “mysteriously disappearing.” This tells us several things. For one thing, in reference to the romance issue, it means that Nintendo didn’t intend for him to marry any of the sages (including Princess Zelda) or anyone else prominent. But that’s another story for another day.

Conclusion

The bottom line? The Wind Waker takes place hundreds of years after Ocarina of Time, not “100 years,” and the Waker of the Wind is actually not a descendant of the Hero of Time. And by the way, if you choose to send me an e-mail, please refrain from spoilers.

A Link of a Thousand Faces

One of the big arguments put forth in support of the idea of multiple Links is that the official art for the characters is different on the different games. This isn’t actually a valid argument. If you want hardcore proof, you need to look no further than The Wind Waker. However, the proof is in the form of a spoiler, so you must highlight the following space to reveal hidden text describing what I’m talking about:

Click here to look at a picture. According to the game, this is the statue of the Link that appears in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. However, the artistic depiction of the statue is not what Link is depicted as on the N64, but what he is depicted as on most other Zelda games (note the hair style especially).

Even if we did not have that bit of proof from The Wind Waker itself, that the art does not make a difference, I could safely assure you that such an argument is flawed, based on the nature of art history. If Nintendo acts as though there is only one Link and Zelda, then we should not come to the conclusion that there are really several versions of Link and Zelda simply because the art is different. You see, when it comes to actual historical art, we often find that one character in history or in myth is sometimes depicted in a myriad of ways, sometimes even by the same artist! I will not bore you with detailed examples or the reasons why, but suffice it to say, there are well-attested historical figures that have had far more variations in artistic depictions than Link ever has had. However, there are usually certain characteristics (what we call motifs) that remain the same throughout all of these pictures. In the case of Link, the green cap and tunic has not changed to any significant degree. Link’s clothes are his icon and are the most memorable visual aspect of the character. When we see that motif, we know we are looking at Link. The fact that Link himself might be a bit different here and there makes no difference.

What about the Contradictions?

The strongest argument for the multi-Link theory is that if we maintain there is only one Link, there are contradictions in the series. This would be a good reason if it was not for the title of the series. You see, a legend is considered to be a blend of myth and history. Myth typically has a great number of contradictions. Anyone who has studied, say, Norse Mythology, will quickly agree.

Clearly the mythological component of a legend will allow for contradictions in such things as whether Link has a surviving family or not, but what of the historical part of a legend? This is where the second part of the title (”of Zelda”) comes in. “In the land of Hyrule, there echoes a legend. A legend held dearly by the Royal Family that tells of a boy…” And so Majora’s Mask begins. Please notice that although this legend “echoes” (further justifying the idea that the facts about the story are not solidly known) throughout Hyrule, the legend is especially dear to the Royal Family. It is from the Royal Family of Hyrule that we receive this legend. The legend, then, has elements of history in the sense that for the Royal Family and the people of Hyrule, the events really happened. However, the details of what happened are fuzzy, since it is indeed a legend. Contradictions, whether real or imagined, have little to do with whether there is one or many heroes named Link.

Time Warp

At one point, Nintendo did maintain that there was only one Link. One of the big problems, however, was the fact that in Link to the Past, Link is not known to be a major hero. If he was indeed the same hero that vanquished Ganon in the Imprisoning War, wouldn’t everyone treat him as such? The game “acted” as though this was Link’s first adventure, as many of the Zelda games do. The missing link turned out to be a game that some people consider to be far-removed from the main series: Majora’s Mask. If you have ever read The Chronicles of Narnia, an excellent work of children’s fantasy by C.S. Lewis, you will be familiar with the idea of time distortion in parallel worlds. In the first novel in the series, the children walk through a wardrobe, finding themselves in a magical land called Narnia. They live there for many years, and grow up to become kings and queens of that land. One day, however, they decide to return to England. When they go back through the wardrobe, they find themselves children again. For all the long years of Narnia, only a small amount of time passed in England. The opposite time distortion occurs in The Last Battle. So, when Link ventured into Termina, he entered another world in which time flowed differently. When he returned, the world was aged and no one knew him any more. All things considered, Nintendo’s timeline theory made the most sense to me at that time.

The Conversion

Enter The Wind Waker. Not long ago, Nintendo’s position changed, as revealed by the comments of Eiji Aonuma. As reported by ZU, he said, “In our opinions, with the Legend of Zelda, every game has a new Link. A new hero named Link always rises to fight evil.” Obviously he didn’t mean every game literally as some people have taken it (it’s what we call hyperbole), but we do see a shift from promoting the one-Link theory to the multiple-Link theory. The director of The Wind Waker has spoken. However, at first I still found the idea to be incredibly, well, cheesy. I agreed with what IGN said about it: that it’s just a lame way of framing the battle between good and evil that takes place in each game, with Link as the reoccurring hero of good, and Ganon as the symbol of evil. Then I read some more details about how The Wind Waker opens, and I became convinced that the multiple-Link idea is actually a decent one. This game actually takes time to establish the idea of multiple Links, by recounting the events of Ocarina of Time, and then noting that Link “mysteriously vanished” (went to Termina). Now all the children of Hyrule hope to become the new hero of time and to don the green tunic that presumably identifies them as the one chosen by the Triforce of Courage. (I might speculate that since Miyamoto admitted to browsing the Zelda fan sites, this bit of the story was his response to the way the sites analyze the Zelda mythos.) I will still miss the Link that appeared in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Link, but hopefully I will become attached to this “new” Link. At last, the multiple-Link theory has firm, reasonable roots in the mythos of the series.

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Error Correction: Reader “adm0″ kindly informed me of an error I had made in my last article. He pointed out that in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children did not intend to go back to England, but rather they returned by accident. I was aware of that fact, having read the series, but because I wanted to keep the emphasis on Zelda and wanted to avoid unnecessary extraneous details, I carelessly phrased it incorrectly. Also, just to be clear, when I said that the book was the first in the Narnia series, I meant that in the sense that it was the first one that C.S. Lewis wrote, not that it was the first chronologically.