Right, I’ve done a lot of thinking, and I’m still severely stumped with this one. I was out at a Games Themed Pub Quiz last night, and still don’t know how to interpret some things.
The question really bothering me is, “In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, how many Sages are there?”
We answered 6, being able to name them all. At the end of the Quiz however, the answer is 7 Sages, because Zelda herself is one. Now, I think this is completely wrong.
Having looked over it, and asked questions I have figured that I wish to stand by my original answer. There are 6 Sages: Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Rutu, Nabooru and Impa. Zelda is not a Sage because there would not be 7 Sages. Zelda has a piece of the Triforce: The Triforce of Wisdom, therefore she cannot be a Sage. It does in fact refer to her in game as The Princess of Destiny. This means to me that she is not a Sage, because who has 2 holy names? She cannot be a Sage and the Princess of Destiny. If she actually is a Sage with the Triforce, then doesnt that also make Link, and Ganondorf Sages as well, as they both have pieces?
Well, upon looking at things this way, there are more issues arisen. First is that we do not know what Zelda is the Sage of. Since she has the Triforce piece she could be either The Sage of Wisdom, or the Sage of Destiny. Or there is a final thing I had pointed out. Each of the Sages has a Temple where they are found, so this raises the point that there are in fact 7 Temples, and thus there could be 7 Sages, making Zelda the Sage of Time. If this is the case though, then why isn’t Link the Sage of Time. Well, the answer to that is the same as above, He cannot be the Sage and Hero of Time, in the same way as Zelda cannot be Sage and Princess of Destiny.
But then, there is still the 2 holy names point. It does not follow the rest of the game for Zelda to be the Princess of Destiny and the Sage of Time because this leaves her with 2 names, and also means there is a Sage and Hero of Time. If we think of it this way, it definitly strikes out the possibility for her to be the Sage of Destiny, and also gets rid of the Sage of Time theories, so we are back to her being the Sage of Wisdom. Now this is wrong on 2 levels.
1) Being a Sage at all suggests wisdom.
2) This brings Link and Gannondorf back to being Sages.
So now I’ll have a look at this idea. Obviously, I do not believe they can both be Sages as well, because Link would be Hero of Time and Sage of Courage/Time, and Ganondorf would be King of Evil and Sage of Power/Evil. Well, the idea of having a Sage of Evil is a very worrying thought, and I don’t believe it to be possible. Lets face it, the Sages are there to stop evil claiming the Triforce, so having a Sage of Evil is kinda a conflict of interests. This seems like conclusive proof to me, that They would therefore be Sages of Wisdom, Courage and Power. But again with the conflict of interest. Because Ganondorf is evil, he would not become a sage. That should mean that there would then be only the 2 sages of Zelda/Link/Ganondorf. He’s immediately suspended for being evil. But the reason he got the job is the same – you need all 3, so Zelda and Link lose it too. Therefore only 6 Sages.
Now to look at my final thought, the point of the Sages is to protect the Triforce. This means to me Watch over and Don’t Touch. In this way, surely Zelda isn’t a Sage because she has the Triforce piece. Surely that means that we are right, there are 6 Sages, and only 6.
My theory is that the Triforce Itself is the Seventh sage because it does speak in LTTP but I dont really have any evidence to back this up its just an idea