#botw spinch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thelegendofhino · 8 months

Text

Hino analysis time

Aka why i think its strange that Hino is handled the way he is in both games (in a good way)

This ended up being a long post sorry. Tldr, hino is a unique case for how npcs were handled between botw and totk and seems to have the potential to play a larger role just in general but never does.

So i've been thinking a lot about hino (as i do) and noticed that while some npcs that arent involved with anything seem to have changed significantly between botw and totk, for example, spinch and joute, others are mostly the same, such as hino and mezer. Other npcs that stayed almost completely the same are usually ones that were involved in some sort of quest, such as magda with the flowers and loone with her love of ancient things.

Spinch is a traveling npc in botw whos defining trait is that his horse is also named spinch, however his horse is nowhere to be seen in totk (though im not sure if this is just a case of npcs horses not being predetermined) and is also not mentioned by him as he now only stays at the lakeside stable. Joute is another traveling npc in botw who says he prefers horses (or "horsies", as he says it) over people, and seems to be pretty reclusive overall, but in totk hes part of the group of people who get sick from food poisoning and doesnt mention any sort of preference towards horses, and his horse is also not seen.

Magda is still obsessed with flowers and can still supposedly hear them speak, but she doesnt attack you anymore (as far as im aware) and is involved with one of the zelda sighting side quests. Loone is still obsessed with ancient stuff but is focused now on the three leviathan skeletons, which is its own set of side quests. Mezer is another npc like this where he used to sell meat but now he does not sell meat and instead just travels, but still does have his focus on meat, and is also involved with a quest about marbled rock roast.

Hino has been studying the blood moon in both games, though in totk his focus is currently on how monsters function, hoping that something about monsters will tell him anything about why they get revived by the blood moon. His character is mostly the same, but his obsession with the moon in general seems to have grown since botw.

For example:

The first two pictures are from totk. The third picture is from botw. In totk, hino refers to the moon as "she" and "her", unless its a blood moon in which he only uses "it", while in botw he only uses "it". He also tends to focus more on the moons beauty now than he did before, with two of his moon phase comments in botw not really having much to do with the moon itself or how he personally feels about it (specifically, his full moon and cresecnt moon dialogue). But overall, his character hasnt changed too much, as his main traits are still very much focused on. With this in mind, it would make sense that he would be significant in some way, or at least directly involved in a quest, like how magda and mezer are, but he isnt.

Once you finish the zora's domain regional phenomenon quest, you can get a side quest from a zora guard named gaddison, who tells you about a monster fort on ja'abu ridge. The quest is just to clear out the fort, but she doesnt mention that there may be a hylian trapped in the fort. Despite this, nothing about the quest is focused on that fact, and the hylian does, in fact, turn out to be hino.

However, hino is also in 4 other forts in the game (there are a total of 6, but hino never goes to the one in hebra, which is also the fort that you can aid the monster control crew with), none of which are ever given any attention to the way this one side quest did. To me this is interesting because these other forts are a lot easier to access than the one in ja'abu ridge, one of the forts is not too far from lookout landing. And, if you save hino from all 5 forts before the next blood moon, he gives you a diamond as a reward (only for the first time you do it). It seems strange to be rewarded like that for something that is not a side quest or side adventure, never really given attention to, and completely optional and easy to miss. Nothing bad happens if you never save hino. He doesnt end up in the forts in any particular order. Its something most players would never find out about.

Hino can also be mentioned by the npcs who read the newspapers, bringing up how there is someone who researches the blood moon who seemed excited to check out a monster fort but that they seem like they wouldnt be able to defend themself. That is the only way you'd find out that someone is captured in a fort if you didnt get gaddisons quest (and assumed hino wouldnt just go to andifferent fort afterwards) or if you didnt just happen to come across hino yourself. From what i remember, this is the only case of an npc mentioning another npc like that, especially one that isnt involved in a questline at all.

So then, why have any focus on hino if he isnt really important to anything? In botw hes even less involed with anything going on, staying at the dueling peaks stable, but hes also the only npc that'll explain the blood moon to you, as hes the only npc who is researching it, or even cares about it at all. My assumption is that he would probably be useful for that one shrine quest that you have to wait for a blood moon to happen, and also to plan ahead to make meals with better bonuses (since the blood moon does that for some reason), but nothing more. Nobody else at the stable mentions him, no other npc mentions him, nobody talks about anyone researching the blood moon. The closest thing we have is that when sagessa is at the stable, she'll sometimes point out that most people that stay there are twins. Hino is the only one who stays at the stable constantly who doesnt have a twin. In totk, more npcs will talk about the blood moon (symin reveals how the blood moon gives you bonuses when cooking which is how i found out about that, and the captains will talk about how the blood moon revives monsters) and yet hino is nowhere to be seen (because he went and got himself captured). Now you cant really use him to determine when a blood moon is happening because he disappears after you save him, and once you save him from all 5 places he shows up in, he disappears entirely until the blood moon happens and the forts are refreshed. You can only tell if you happen to save him on a day that a blood moon will happen. Considering there are no quests where the blood moon is necessary, there probably wasnt a reason to keep hino around for the same purpose, though he does still talk about the moon phases every day like he used to.

Now, the main thing about hino that is interesting that is also fairly easy to miss in both games is that, not only is he the only one who is researching the blood moon, he is also the only npc in the ENTIRETY of both games that is affected by the blood moon. Its a little bit different in both games and ive already made posts about everything that happens to him, but basically he goes crazy and his text turns red, something that doesnt happen with anyone else in either game. It seems to be a full on physical reaction, not just him getting overly excited or agitated, but rather something that is indeed paramormal, and yet somehow partly disconnected from malice and gloom. And this is NEVER acknowledged in either game. By anyone, not even him. He'll at most say that the blood moon makes him "feel alive", but the way that he acts is a lot more... intense than just that, and to never acknowledge it fully seems to imply, to me at least, that he isnt actually fully aware of what happens to him.

But why focus on that part of him and then never do anything else with it? Why make him the only one like that? Why make him the only one who gets captured? Why make him seem like he should play a bigger part?

I dont know! And thats the frustrating part. Everything about him in totk wouldve worked as a side adventure, and yet. Nothing. It even wouldve made sense to have him in lookout landing just because he can tell when a blood moon will happen and im sure that would be very helpful for the monster control crew to be able to prep in advance. He just seems like he would have some part to play in something, but he doesnt. You just rescue him over and over again (something he himself points out) and you just get rewards over and over again without end, similar to addison who gives you similar sets of rewards every time you help him but has a point where there is nothing else to help him with. Its just so odd that thats just the way it is with him.

Even we know so little about the blood moon. Its implied that its a seperate thing from the whole demon king thing that happened, so we just have no idea why it happens and why it functions the way it does other than a great evil power can harness the blood moon to their advantage, like ganondorf did. And for some reason, not a single person in the history of hyrule for whatever amount of time that botw and totk takes place in has ever cared enough to figure anything out about it except hino, and because of that he has absolutely nothing to work with except his own observations and so nothing he tells us about the blood moon is anything we dont already know. I guess it doesnt really help that he doesnt seem to talk to people all that much, considering nobodys ever cared to help him with it either or try to find where he is. He just feels like more than just some guy with a hobby, like he can offer more to us if he was just allowed to. But hes just a really weird npc that seems otherwise normal... and hes my most favorite character in both games because of it.

#i promise im not just biased i thought very hard about this #vpost #hinoposting #legend of zelda #botw #totk #hino

3 notes · View notes