I think its funny that nobody has mentioned that in hyrule warriors when you defeat Link as any bad guy, some of the materials you get is his *boot*
Multiple boots in fact. If youre lucky, you can get like, 10
I imagine Ganondorf picking an unconscious Warriors by the scarf and shaking him, and dozens of boots fall out, and he just grabs them and leaves Warriors on the ground
Wind: I have a riddle for you. See if you can solve it.
Legend: Okay, shoot.
Wind: You're locked in a room with no doors or windows. How do you escape?
Legend: ... I don't know. How?
Wind: You take off your boot, you look at your boot. You saw your boot, so you take the saw and cut your boot in half. Then you take the two halves and put them together. The two halves make a whole and then you crawl through the hole to escape.
Like he won't take things from the rest of the chain, he has a kind of code or something, but when the chain reaches towns/villages and anything like that, Wild leaves with 10x more then he came with.
And the rest of the chain doesn't really notice. Like they question some stuff but don't put the dots together.
"how is it that Wild breaks so many weapons but seems to always have something to fight with?" Four, Sky, and Warriors question "he must have a lot of weapons on him"
"how does he make so much food when we only see him buy a few things and scavenge a little bit?" Wonder Legend, and Hyrule? "Must have a lot saved up from before we met him."
"how did he get those boots that I swear I saw on that guy over at the tavern?" Thinks Time "must have bought them off him."
Twilight is starting to piece things together but at the same time is like saying to himself "no he wouldn't do that"
The only one who kind of knows is Wind for obvious reasons but he doesn't say anything, because he ain't no snitch.
It's not until way later in the adventure that everyone starts to notice that Wild has some pretty sticky fingers and starts to think about things that happened that would only make sense if Wild was a kleptomaniac.
1. Guards asking people if they know anything about their missing weapons.
2. Ladles, Axe's, and other stuff being there one moment and gone the next.
3. Food stuff being left out with no one watching it disappearing mysteriously.
And a whole bunch of other stuff.
Once all the pieces fell together they had to confront Wild about his stealing problem.
Now whenever they go to towns/villages they have to keep wild on a rope or someone (not Wind ever) has to watch him like a toddler.
Wild leads them, one little chime of his Slate at a time, closer and closer to what feels like some kind of cosmic joke. He has always known that Hylia herself at least has a sense of humor, a kind of gentle teasing to the way that she speaks to him through her statues.
An amused tint to the way she would tell him ‘no, Link, I cannot make you ever stronger than you are now.’ A sort of fond chuckle to the way her approval would emulate out as he enthusiastically threw dragon scales into the Holy Springs.
…He’s getting off topic again. What Wild is trying to say is that he knows for a fact that the Goddess loves him, and thinks laughing at him is fun. The two facts can coexist.
People (and gods, they probably count separately from people) are complicated.
To open his eyes is to relive a memory. Water draining away and a lid opening. Staring up at the glowing lights overhead, hazy as he tries to focus. The faint tug of divinity is like a string, stretching away to someone.
He is in the shrine. He knows nothing. He knows everything. He remembers….
He remembers…
Finally, he climbs out of the basin. At least he’s got clothes this time. As opposed to…yet the memory slips away. His slate is on the pedestal, and he picks it up. It’s muscle memory to tap at the screen and summon different clothes.
Then he pauses because…how did he know to do that?
Time is repeating, circling, twisting in a loop. The air calls to him, caresses him. Home, it whispers. Part of us.
Shaking his head, he puts the slate on his belt clip and leaves the room. There’s no voice to guide him, but the sense remains. Get out.
Down an overgrown hall, up some crumbling stairs. A halo of light beckons him on and then—he is outside. He doesn’t linger, just heads for the edge of the overlook.
Hyrule is laid out before him, oh so familiar. He knows this land. Yet he doesn’t know himself.
He stands there for…well, long enough that the sun’s shifted before he turns to make his way down. There’s a multitude of things to explore, starting with the apple trees.
At some point, muscle memory has him taking the slate from his hip and tapping a glowing marker on the map. Then he dissolves into blue light.
Hateno, his mind supplies when he reappears. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give him anything else. Yet the familiarity here is stronger. Even better, the thread of divinity is so close it pulses, nearly visible. He follows it across the bridge and to a house.
The divinity is linked to a girl with blond hair, pulling weeds near the house. Both hands wrap around the stubborn plant and tug. It comes out and she falls back with an oomph. Then she looks up and sees him.
“Link?”
Link. Of course. That’s his name. How could he forget? And this is—is…
“Link? Is something wrong?”
Is it? “Who are you?”
There’s a sharpness to her gaze as she pulls herself up. Brushing her hands on her skirt, she walks over. “Link, what happened? You feel…different.” She reaches out and lays a hand on his arm.
There’s a spark—a connection—and a missing chunk slots into place. “Zelda.”
And not just Zelda, but the Calamity. The shrine. Waking up and fighting and saving the land. Living in Hateno and traveling. Being strange, yet being accepted by the land and its people.
Why hasn’t anyone written Four pulling a Vio on Dark? Four pretending to betray the Chain in order to get to Dark? Just replace Dark with Shadow and bam, you got the whole manga plot lmao