After leaving his house, Link’s first encounter in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is with his best friend Saria. Establishing her as Link’s friend, she immediately left a lasting impression on players. However, there is much more to her than meets the eye, as she provides a vital aspect of the game’s overarching themes.
Saria’s Role in the Forest
The ability to explore Ocarina of Time’s world is at first limited to a small clearing in Kokiri Forest, housing the Kokiri- Children who never grow up. Link, who falsely believes himself to be a Kokiri, is an outcast because he is the only one in the village lacking a fairy companion. Saria, on the other hand, is the opposite, as she is quite popular. Kokiri Village’s leader, Mido, demonstrates this by often bullying Link and trying to impress Saria. Despite this difference in social status, she is Link’s only close friend in the village.
While Saria is well-liked among the Kokiri, she is somewhat of an odd duck. She is depicted as far more mature than the other Kokiri, and she befriends even the shy Skull Kid who lives an isolated life deep in the woods. Her sense of fashion differs from her peers as well; she wears the green shoes that male Kokiri typically wear. This may depict her as being more similar to Link than one would think, as Link wears brown boots as the Kokiri girls do. Perhaps being so different is why she can befriend Link while the other children do not.
Leaving a Friend Behind
When Link leaves the forest, Saria appears to bid him farewell. She says that she always knew he would leave someday, because of how he didn’t fit in. This melancholic scene depicts the hard truth of friends being left behind as one grows older. Link does remain friends with her, but at this moment he has no idea if he’ll ever meet her again. She gives him an ocarina as a memento before he awkwardly backs up and runs away, not wanting to say goodbye to his only friend.
After skipping ahead seven years, Link discovers that his childhood friend has gone missing in the Forest Temple. Only by playing Saria’s song is he able to convince Mido that he and Saria are friends and that he needs to go look for her. He meets with the mysterious Sheik in the Sacred Forest Meadow; Saria’s favorite place to play her ocarina. Sheik speaks of how the flow of time is cruel, yet speaks fondly of the memories of one’s past. Link may not fit in at Kokiri Village (especially after growing up), but his friendship with Saria is something he will always treasure.
When Link rescues Saria from the Forest Temple, he discovers that she is the Forest Sage. From then on, she remains within the Sacred Realm, providing her power to the forest to ward off monsters. In a twist of fate, Saria was also unable to stay in Kokiri Village. She knew that Link would one day leave the forest because he was different, and she did the same. She was always more mature than the other Kokiri, and her destiny was to grow up and take on a new responsibility, just as Link did.
What Makes Saria Special
The Sage of the Forest may seem to be a simple, one-note character, but she has strong ties to Ocarina of Time’s themes of reaching adulthood. She represents nostalgia, while also embodying the responsibility to create a better future. These ideas are everything that makes Ocarina of Time’s story a classic that has resonated with old and new gamers alike. The girl who befriended the boy without a fairy remains a testament to everything great about the game.
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