Who is the Old Man at the end of AoL?

There's an old dude just chillin' at the end of the Great Palace in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This guy's identity has been up for debate ever since the game was released.

Who is he???

Is he the spirit of the Great Palace's architect? Is he a grand wizard hailing from the courts of Hyrule's prince from the AoL BS? Could he be the last wielder of the Triforce of Courage, an old, aging hero, another Link? Or perhaps he has no significance whatsoever and we should not worry about him.

No...we theorists must worry about him. Let's hear what you have to say on this subject and perhaps we can come closer to deducing who this strange person truly is.

Maybe he's a Minish man

Too big to be Minish...and yes, this is a hard one. That's why I brought it up

He looks pretty much exactly like the old man from the first game. Bald, long white beard, red robe. Maybe it's just that guy.

That old man has to have a bigger role. Then again Nintendo has probably laughed them off by now.

Maybe the old man is secretly the sleeping Zelda's brother trying to repent!

*gasp*

Originally Posted by Watties

That old man has to have a bigger role. Then again Nintendo has probably laughed them off by now.

He actually has a pretty big role in the BS LoZ game.

Originally Posted by Sparty

Too big to be Minish...and yes, this is a hard one. That's why I brought it up

Ezlo and Vaati appear in human-sized forms...

Originally Posted by Cukeman

Ezlo and Vaati appear in human-sized forms...

Decent points there, but Nintendo invented old man 15 some years before. Or course they keep changing everything so nothing makes any sense anymore.

Ezlo and Vaati appear in human-sized forms...

Of course! And by that logic this guy: could be a Minish as well!

Originally Posted by Table

Of course! And by that logic this guy: could be a Minish as well!

................... At least Ezlo was confirmed, and we saw him in game Minish, no sarcasm here.

^...Way to miss the entire point of my post...

Of course Ezlo and Vaati were human sized at certain points in the game. But saying that the old man is a Minish is just as evidenced as saying this guy: is a Minish...

What would making the old man at the end of AoL into a Minish prove anyway? It's about as pointless as debating where LA goes in the timeline, in my opinion, unless someone has a valid reason as to why this man MUST be a Minish.



In the official artwork...

...we see that he is simply an old Hylian (unless he is a Minish, which I doubt he is). Perhaps he was a hero that wielded the Triforce of Courage at one point? Maybe he's the one that created all the dungeons for Link to go through just to obtain this piece of the Triforce?

I always assumed he was the king or something.

But then I never paid him much attention, was to quick to get my ass kicked by dark link...

One day he shall go down!!

Originally Posted by Watties

Hard one lol.

Originally Posted by Watties

I'm a get back to you on this one.

Originally Posted by Watties

^ LOL I loved the BS Zelda's.

Originally Posted by Kael

he's Jesus

No need for any of these useless comments. Quit it.

I assume he's perhaps the last survivor of the Ancient Sages- quite possibly Rauru.

Doesn't really matter though I guess.

Good topic. A few thoughts on this:

--- The old man bears a very similar appearance to Rauru. I don’t know if we can say now that’s who he is (Depends on your timeline), but I believe he may have been an early conceptualization of Rauru – Same color garb, white facial hair, balding scalp. I think because of the Rauru similarity, he’s supposed to be a wise man, even a sage.

--- One question we also need to ask is how he can survive in the Great Palace. There’s a barrier on the place keeping living things from going in and out. That means one of two possibilities:

(1) He could be a ghost – But if he is, what use would he be “guarding” the ToC? Ghosts can’t use the Triforce. Even if he is a ghost, he’s most likely still a wise man or sage – He bears no crown or “royal” signs that he is a ghost of the Great King.
(2) His survival in the “Barrier-sealed” Great Palace could be due to use of the ToC. Either that, or perhaps the final room where you fight Dark Link is not in Hyrule. The room does go dark before the fight, so maybe that’s a hint the room has access to a “Dark Realm” that could be a number of possibilities.

In summary, my guess is that at the time AoL was made, the old man was supposed to be a wise sage chosen by the Great King, able to survive in the Great Palace because of the magical properties of the ToC.

Originally Posted by River Zora

I assume he's perhaps the last survivor of the Ancient Sages- quite possibly Rauru.

Doesn't really matter though I guess.

A Sage? Yeah, I've thought of that too. I don't think it would be Rauru...though they are kind of similar.

I heard one theorist back in the day (before WW threw us for a loop and made the timeline all convoluted) say that this wizard is probably Agahnim. Although, that was just pure speculation approaching outright fanfiction there.

He's more than likely connected to the Hyrule Royal Family, though I see no evidence to suggest that he himself is royalty. He appears to use magic, as it seems he's the one that causes Link to face off against his Shadow. So with this train of thought he's probably a Magician or Wizard of sorts. Would you guys agree to this?

The King has ties to the Minish. That's shown in MC. The Minish helped build those
(I think it was Armos) statues. The Ironknuckles in AoL were made/chosen by the King.
There's a similarity here. Just saying that if it was a Minish man, it would serve 3 purposes:

1) It would bear out the history between Minish and Hyrulean Royalty if this was a Minish
rendering service by watching over the Triforce of Courage
2) The origins of the Armos/Ironknuckles and other moving statues/armored things might
be linked together
3) It would help explain his small size

My guess is that he's a sage, who much like Impaz, had to remain in the same place until the hero arrived.

Speaking of Impa(z), I just read something about Impa in the text of the AoL manual, where she talks about her family holding the secret to obtaining the Triforce of Courage... so maybe the old man would be considered a sheikah nowadays?