Best NPC Quotes Ever

The Legend of Zelda franchise is one of the most rich and varied series in video games. The basic plot of save the Princess may stay the same, but the themes and events differ (even if only slightly) between instalments. It goes without saying, then, that such a diverse series has a plethora of quotable soundbites to choose from. Here are what I consider to be the best of the poignant and meaningful ones.

“My country lay within a vast desert. When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing… Death. But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose.”
~ Ganondorf, The Wind Waker

This quote is one of the only ones to shine a sympathetic light upon the franchise’s main antagonist, and it does it quite well. Ganondorf’s from what’s essentially a barren wasteland, and as the only man born every hundred years, he probably hasn’t had that well-adjusted an upbringing. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this stolen diary entry is the gospel truth, but you can sort of understand why he wanted to change the world, when all he ruled over was a bit poo.

All sympathising with evil despots aside, Princess Zelda raises a good point here:

“Shadow and Light are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other.”
~ Princess Zelda the Umpteenth, Twilight Princess

Here, Zelda raises the poignant fact that good and evil are co-dependent. It can be a difficult thing to explain why it’s necessary to have both good and evil (especially when Link keeps shoving that sword in evil-doers’ heads), but to simplify it even further than Zelda already has, consider these lines, courtesy of Patrick Wolf: “If you never lose, How you gonna know when you’ve won? If it’s never dark, how you gonna know the sun when it shines?”

Yet another quote from Zelda that raises the question of what exactly separates good from evil is from the King of Hyrule:

“I have lived regretting the past. And I have faced those regrets. If only I could do things over again… Not a day of my life has gone by without my thoughts returning to my kingdom of old. I have lived bound to Hyrule. In that sense, I was the same as Ganondorf.”
~ King Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, The Wind Waker

Here, Daphnes realises that that which he has done all his life– using the Triforce to preserve Hyrule and stop it from changing– was just as wrong as Ganondorf seeking the Triforce to forcibly change Hyrule. It’s an important thing to remember in the process of trying to stop wrong-doing, that you don’t end up doing wrong yourself.

Then again, even if you don’t do evil, are you necessarily doing good?

“The right thing…what is it? I wonder…if you do the right thing…does it make…everybody…happy?”
~ Child on the Moon wearing Gyorg’s mask, Majora’s Mask

Again, a character raises a point about the continuing Good vs. Evil debate, asking what it means to do good. Even if you think it’s a good action you’re taking, it won’t be seen that way by everyone.

And to finish the wisdom-filled thought provoking Zelda quotes, we have this:

“Whenever there is a meeting, a parting shall follow. But that parting needs not last forever. Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short while… that is up to you.”
~ Happy Mask Salesman, Majora’s Mask

Well isn’t that nice? He may seem a bit crazy and weird, but he sure has some wonderful insight into the nature of friendship. Whatever the context of this line, it’s essentially saying that how and when people interact with you depends on you. So go ahead and text that old friend you’ve not seen in a while, and I’ll go on to the more silly Zelda quotes.

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