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marinsawakening · 4 months

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The part where Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish is probably my favourite part in the entirety of Link's Awakening for how effectively it plays into the overarching themes and message of the story, utilizing Marin's character.

Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish because she believes this might make her wish come true. This is not interpretation, this is text. Earlier in the game, Marin states directly: "They say the 'Balled of the Wind Fish' is a song of awakening. I wonder, if the Wind Fish wakes up, will he make my wish come true?"* We also know what she wished for because of this piece of dialogue during the beach scene: "If I was a sea gull, I would fly as far as I could! I would fly to far away places and sing for many people! ...If I wish to the Wind Fish, I wonder if my dream will come true..." Although Marin refuses to tell us what her wish to the Wind Fish was, this piece of dialogue also makes that abundantly clear. Marin believes that waking the Wind Fish will allow her to fly to many places and sing to many people, like a seagull.

And she is not wrong! If you get the secret ending (obtained by not dying during the game), you see a vision of Marin change into a seagull after the Wind Fish wakes. Marin's attempt at waking the Wind Fish and her repeated assertions that waking the Wind Fish might grant her wish is, in part, clever foreshadowing for this secret ending. This is clearly part of its function.

But another, arguably more important aspect of Marin's attempt to wake the Wind Fish is that it serves as a kind of dramatic irony for the player, regardless of whether they know about the secret ending or have even finished the game: at the point of the game where Marin tries to wake the Wind Fish, you, the player, have already had Koholint's Big Secret revealed to you. Marin, on the other hand, is entirely ignorant. We know that waking the Wind Fish would make Koholint vanish, but Marin doesn't.

An isolated, surface-level reading of the situation is as follows: Marin, in her naiveté, is attempting to accomplish something that would doom her. This reading is, to a certain degree, understandable: Koholint's transient nature, and its inevitable end, is certainly sad. We can wonder whether Marin, knowing the full extent of the consequences, would have still wanted to wake the Wind Fish. That was her home, after all, and while she would like to explore the great wide somewhere, she might have been less eager to if she understood that this is only possible if her home did not exist anymore.

But ultimately, this reading is shallow and does not engage with the explicit themes present all throughout Link's Awakening. While Koholint's inevitable end is sad, yes, it is also ultimately not a tragedy. The Nightmares in the world have the aim of controlling the dream and, to accomplish it, are prolonging it unnaturally. The only people who ever protest your quest to wake the Wind Fish are those same monsters, the obvious bad guys of the story. In the end, after the Wind Fish has woken up and Koholint has vanished, we leave on a shot of Link watching the Wind Fish fly off, smiling. It is the nature of dreams to end: all throughout the game, this is made abundantly clear, spelled out in the Wind Fish's final speech, and crucially: this is not a bad thing. The bad thing is forcibly prolonging a dream, clinging to it and refusing to move past it, as the Nightmares were doing.

Engaging with the game's themes, the cynical reading holds no water. Koholint's end is no doom; its doom would be existence in perpetuity, especially if ruled by the Nightmares, as would be inevitable (they are the ones keeping the Wind Fish asleep, after all). By attempting to wake the Wind Fish, Marin is not dooming herself. In addition to all of the above, again: there is an ending where she does have her wish come true, if the Wind Fish wakes. She was correct.

So what, then, is the purpose behind this scene? If not the dramatic irony of unwittingly working towards your own doom, what does it want us to take from it?

Marin is an interesting character on Koholint. While its other residents routinely and consistently fail to comprehend even the general idea of a world beyond this island (as shown by dialogue such as "Dude! You're asking me when we started to live on this island? What do you mean by 'when?' Whoa! The concept just makes my head hurt!" by the children in Mabe Village), Marin asks questions. She's restless, as evidenced by her frequent visits to the beach, her need to know about the world beyond Koholint, and, of course, her attempt to wake the Wind Fish. Why is Marin capable of these questions, whereas most of the other residents are at best unconcerned with the outside world or, at worst, incapable of even thinking about it?

It is up to interpretation, but I posit: for the same reason the Owl is. More or less, anyway.

The Owl is perhaps the strangest part of the dream, not just more aware than the other residents, but more aware than you, as well. It acts as your guide, purposefully so; it references being 'instructed' to help you ("I was instructed to give you directions... Your next goal is north, in Goponga Swamp!!"). The reason for this becomes clear during the ending sequence, where the Owl reveals: "As part of the Wind Fish's spirit, I am the guardian of his dream world." The Owl has a much more direct connection to the Wind Fish than the other residents, which makes sense; as the dream world's guardian, it would have to be aware of its nature and its mechanics in a way none of the other residents would be.

'As part of the Wind Fish's spirit' is interesting; the most literal way to interpret this is the literal one, where the Owl is a part of the Wind Fish's spirit in a way most everyone else on the island isn't. This is supported by the mural you find in the ancient ruins that tells you Koholint's secret, which depicts the Owl immediately alongside the Wind Fish.

But it is important to note that all of Koholint is a part of the Wind Fish; its dream, if nothing else. While the Owl obviously has a different role and greater connection to the Wind Fish than the other residents, it is not unfair to assume Koholint's residents all reflect parts of the Wind Fish, as dreams often reflect parts of ourselves, as well.

The Wind Fish is being forced into a slumber for much longer than is natural by the Nightmares. Repeatedly, the Owl references the Wind Fish growing restless as you get closer and closer to waking it. Before entering the seventh dungeon, the Owl states, directly: "Go! The Wind Fish grows restless!" Upon exiting the seventh dungeon, you can find Marin on the bridge, after having attempted to wake the Wind Fish.

I say the reason Marin tried to wake the Wind Fish, as a matter of fact, the reason she wanted to leave Koholint at all, is a reflection of the Wind Fish's desires to do the same. Her role in the dream is to reflect the Wind Fish's restlessness; or perhaps, that's a fancy way of saying that this is one of her main thematic purposes in the game.

Marin is Koholint's personification. Not necessarily in-universe, but for the purposes of gameplay. It is harder for the average player to get attached to the whole of an island than it is to get attached to a singular girl, who is opinionated and likeable, with a strong personality and hopes and dreams. Without Marin, Koholint's inevitable fading would have much less emotional impact, as Marin shows us that Koholint's residents are people, and provides a microcosm of the island as a whole for us to get attached to. Marin is, effectively, Koholint's representative to the player.

As such, Marin mirrors Koholint in many ways: sweet but mischievous, a bit weird but lovingly so; her name is literally 'Marin', meaning 'marine' in at least French and probably Spanish (I don't speak Spanish and only a little bit of French) and it's one letter off in English as well. When Marin tells you not to forget her at the end of the game, this is connected to the Wind Fish's declaration at the very end, that Koholint will now only exist in memory. This demand to remember her not just meant to be taken literally; it's also meant to be taken as a declaration by the game to remember Koholint.

As such: Marin's restlessness are intended to be reflective of both Koholint and the Wind Fish. Her desire to leave the island and fly away is the Wind Fish's, and therefore, Koholint's, as Koholint is a part of the Wind Fish. The purpose of having Marin try to wake the Wind Fish is to signal to the player that the island wants to wake up; the island's representative made an attempt, and the Nightmares' monsters punished her for it. She needs you to help rescue her, like you need to rescue the island.

Having Marin attempt to wake the Wind Fish is one of the strongest moments of writing in Link's Awakening, showcasing the story's themes and overarching message in an interesting way that adds a lot of character to Marin as well and I'm very, very normal about it.

*All quoted dialogue in this post is taken from the Link's Awakening DX script on gamefaqs, which I would truly love to hyperlink in this sentence but Tumblr is refusing to let me, so it can be found here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gbc/197769-the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-dx/faqs/38914.

#'oh this'll be a short post it's gonna be a few paragraphs long I'm not writing the big marin meta'#'i can start this post at 11:30 pm and finish before midnight'#sigh. pain and suffering.#loz #marin #marin loz #my posts #long post #this does not actually cover everything i wanted to cover in the Big Marin Meta #but it's fine i can do it in pieces instead of making a singular long essay #also it's rlly scatterbrained due to me not actually intending to cover half the stuff i covered here but it's fiiinnnneeeee #Link's awakening

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