Headscratchers / The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

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Chancellor in charge

• How exactly was the Chancellor able to boss around both the guards and Princess Zelda? Isn't she the ruler? In one early level, you have to sneak her out from her own castle because he has her guards keeping her inside. How? They're pretty clearly not hypnotized, so shouldn't her authority overrule his?
  • Notice how she's the "princess" rather than "queen" despite the fact that her parents aren't even hinted at? That's not just for tradition. It means she's not been officially crowned yet, therefore she doesn't have her full authority. Until Zelda comes of age, she's basically relegated to ceremonial duties. Cole, as Chancellor and royal adviser, is the guy with all the practical power for the moment, which is why she couldn't directly act against him.
  • That's odd. Considering at the end she does the "paperwork"...
  • 1) Paperwork does not equate to actual authority to remove trusted officials. 2) This is after Cole is removed from power (and life). 3) She has Teacher alongside her.
  • You could also argue that Hyrule could've had a parliament in the form of Cole as well.

Paying for cargo

• For all those people who want Link to fetch ice, Cuccos, fish, wood or what-have-you for them, why is it Link that has to pay for the cargo? What kind of business plan is that, where the freight pays for the transport instead of the client?
  • Some NPCs actually treat Force Gems as tangible rewards for Link's service to them, going so far as to say "This is for you" or "Here, I want you to have this." And it's possible the vendors of different cargo are actually offering Link discounts off their regular prices in exchange for his help.
  • It should also be noted that once you've completed the Force Gem quests, every subsequent delivery of cargo is paid for based on what you deliver, and does turn a profit if you do a good job. Also, the first force gem you find was generated as part of a story quest, and was explained to Link then. Every subsequent delivery Link bought without being payed for was likely a string of deliberate goodwill gestures on his part intended to repair and reboot the tracks as much as possible.

Anjean fighting

• How did Anjean fight Byrne, if she's riding a wheel-chair?
  • Her being in a wheelchair does nothing to affect her magical potency. And if Byrne is willing to take her threat of battle completely seriously, she has to have some ability that can be used to match his own.
  • Also, it's possible that Anjean is only using her wheelchair to play up her "frail old mystic" schtick.
  • Also also, it's not like she actually won that fight; the best outcome that resulted was a stalemate, and Anjean tells you straight-up that she wasn't strong enough to best him.

One passenger

• Why is Link only allowed one passenger at a time when he has a passenger car with enough seating for several of them?
  • For ease of programming and gameplay. The developers probably didn't want to have to create a way to keep track of how many passengers you were currently holding, where each one was going, how happy each of them was, and so on. Players having to keep track of all of that would have made the escort missions even more troublesome than they already are. From an in-universe perspective, Link's primary duty isn't running a passenger line, and he doesn't have a set schedule or a map of where he's coming and going. He just offers people rides as they request them — if someone needs a lift to Whittleton or Papuchia Village, for example, they probably don't want to sit and wait for Link to drop some other passenger off at Goron Village or, worse, the Ocean Temple. It's not each passenger forcing Link to reserve an entire train car for them; it's Link saying, "I have a passenger that needs to be taken somewhere else first," and the next passenger saying, "OK, I'll just wait at home until you're done with that."
  • Another thing that makes sense is that they all know there's danger on the tracks, so taking more passengers would not only mean risking more lives, but makes warding off pirates much harder.

Interim ruler

• Who ran Hyrule when the only three people known to do anything administrative went AWOL?
  • As far as everyone in the kingdom knows, the same three people who usually handle everything administrative. Before going out to look for Zelda in secret, Teacher tells you he doesn't want to cause a panic by telling everyone that the princess and chancellor have both disappeared. He probably left an order for the castle staff to continue their normal operations, and that if anything goes wrong, he along with the princess and the chancellor will take care of it. (Even if in reality, it's just him taking care of it.) Since there are long gaps of time in between each ride you give to Teacher, it's easy to assume that he goes back to the castle every so often to check up on things.

Installing phantoms

• Exactly who thought that installing Phantoms was a good idea? Given that The Wind Waker Link was the only person in New Hyrule to ever deal with them and how much they did to him, I sincerely doubt that he would readily recommend them.
  • If you're implying it was anyone human who installed the Phantoms, the tower and the Spirit Tracks were built long before they arrived in New Hyrule. And the Phantoms in the Temple of the Ocean King were only evil because they were made by an evil monster; if Link did put in a word about them to anyone, the spirits would have decided that beings so impenetrable would be perfect for guarding the important location where a demon king was imprisoned, so long as they remained on the side of good. And Anjean definitely doesn't hint at there being any problems with them before, so up until Cole entered the picture, they seem to have been doing their jobs suitably.

New train tracks

• Why didn't anybody consider building some new, non-magical train tracks to replace the disappearing ones? The problem did seem to have been going on for a good while before the game started.
  • That would be a rather large job requiring coordination between Mayscore and the Gorons for wood and iron which can't be transported because the tracks have disappeared...
    • Also, the Gorons can't even get their iron, since the eruptions near their home are keeping them from mining it.
  • Developers' notes and concept art also reveal to us that the trains used in New Hyrule don't have an external power source — rather, they run using energy they get from the Spirit Tracks, sort of like a subway system. If anyone wanted to get a new rail system put together, they wouldn't just have to build new tracks but also find something else to use for fuel and then figure out how to incorporate it into the trains they have, or else build new trains.

Train complaints

• Does New Hyrule have the pickiest train passengers in history or do they simply not recognize that it's sort of difficult to follow all traffic signals while under tank attack?
  • No, they expect you to stop the train while you're dealing with enemy attacks, which doesn't get you any backlash from passengers and doesn't risk you missing any of the signals. The fact that the train is in motion when the engineer clearly isn't paying attention to driving it would be an understandable cause for complaint.

Cole respected

• How was Chancellor Cole able to fool all of Hyrule of his intentions for years?
  • The same way Ganondorf and Aginham did. Hyrulean politicians have suffered from thousands of years of not being able to notice that sort of thing, so why start now?
  • Hyrule isn't the only country to suffer from Evil Chancellor-itis.
  • True, but you have to wonder why Cole didn't use any magic to conceal the giant demon horns of doom, instead opting for the suspicious gravity-defying top hats.
  • Because he's eccentric and doesn't understand human fashion, like wizards and muggles.
  • In addition to what's already been said, keep in mind that when Link first encounters Cole, he's about 95% finished with the phase of his plan that involves posing as a human. For all we know, he could have been much better at being discreet about his plans up to the point where it didn't matter anymore. Also, if you think about it, Cole very well may have wanted Zelda to realize that something wasn't right about him, so that she would try to take matters into her own hands and leave the castle, making it much easier for him to capture her body.
  • Besides, what does Cole openly do at any point that would show him as being Obviously Evil? Prior to the reveal, his most nefarious act is to snicker under his breath about how Link's train will be useless before long; other than that, he's just shown to be a smug, condescending jerk. It's clear that no one in the castle likes him, but they don't have reason to think he's a literal demon.

Trading Post broken bridge

• Why does the Spirit Track leading past the Trading Post require you to get the bridge fixed, while all the other ones that go over water provide their own support? (And if it's just because there was loose wood covering the track, why would you need a professional bridge builder to move it out of the way?)
  • To the first question, because the Spirit Tracks running over the bridge don't have their own support. As to the second, because Linebeck is interested in getting the bridge fixed, too, and he's the one who intended to foot the bill. It's way cheaper to have the bridge inspected and repaired from the get-go than it would be to first clear off the tracks and let Link through and then start the repairs.

Spiders

• What do the spiders in the forest hang from?
  • Overhanging branches from trees just above the camera's field of vision, probably.

Ghost photo

• At the very end of the game, how did Zelda get a photograph of herself in ghost-form flying alongside Link's train? I mean, only Link could see her in ghost-form, so I highly doubt a photograph would get around that.
  • You sure about that? Ghosts showing up in photographs is a fairly common thing in media.

Invisible passengers

• When Anjean and Byrne are in your passenger car, shouldn't they be visible when they transport people around? By proxy, does that mean that Link can't take anymore passengers but gets to for our sake? Do they entertain the passengers? And what would Teacher's reaction be seeing the "Sage" of the Tower out and about?
  • Regarding there being more than one passenger, see one of the above folders. As for the reactions they'd get from other passengers, no, there's no reason why they'd want to entertain them, and their appearances aren't any more startling than a giant orange creature made of rock or a human-faced penguin with antlers. I don't think anyone would look at Anjean and Byrne and think them worth more than a sideways glance.

Firing the cannon

• Who fires the cannon? Link's busy up working the engine so it can't be him.
  • There's probably a button or something up there where Link is that can aim and fire the cannon. That or Zelda did it.

Whip and birds

• The hookshot whip target bars on those birds. Who put them there? Why? And how come the birds don't get freaked out by a ten year-old flinging a whip with a snake head at their throats?
  • The Papuchians probably use the birds to get around their village, maybe. They don't freak out because they're used to it.

Unguarded train

• A relatively minor one, I admit, but still...notice when you're in a town, Link's train is just sitting on the tracks, left unguarded. There is only one set of tracks; no cut-off for other trains to pass. Especially noticeable is Hyrule Castle, which can have a Phantom Train pass by. So, what? Whenever the Spirit Train isn't moving, Phantom Trains don't move either?
  • Considering that damage done to your train is repaired at each station, it stands to reason there's a lot more to them than "singular platform that sits right up against the tracks". There's probably several platforms that different trains can pull up to whose tracks are barred off from the regular ones that the enemy trains use.

Dark Ore

• The Dark Ore. Melts in sunlight, okay, sure. So why don't they just put a tarp over it?
  • Where do you suppose Link would get one of those?

Tetra stained-glass

• Why is the stained-glass window of Tetra depicting her in her young age? Why aren't there any pieces of art depicting her as an adult? For that matter, how come no one seems to acknowledge Link's status as the Hero of Winds? You know, that guy that saved the entire Great Sea from Ganon's rule? There's not even a statue of the guy anywhere to be seen.
  • While he did save Tetra in the previous two games, there's no indication that the Hero of Winds had any special involvement in the founding of New Hyrule, beyond being just another member of her pirate crew. We don't even know if he lived long enough to see it, seeing as Anjean never mentions meeting him. His past deeds could easily warrant the guards dressing in green in his honor, but wouldn't necessitate a giant statue being erected to commemorate him.
  • As for the lack of depictions of Tetra when she's older, that's just conservation of detail, same as why the castle halls are all empty and devoid of any decorations or furniture. Tetra's most recognizable when she's at the age when players encountered her in the previous two games, so that's how she's going to look when portrayed in this one.

Other trains

• The first time you go out in your train, there's three other trains riding about which you have to avoid hitting, which suggests that there's at least three other engineers around. And then once you reach Castle Town... that's it. The trains vanish for the rest of the game, and everyone acts as if Link is the only person who can even use trains anymore (except Alfonzo, but he doesn't go out much). So what happened to the other three trains and their engineers?
  • It's explained by Ferrus that most people are too afraid to go out travelling with the tracks disappearing and monsters mucking about. None of the passenger trains we're shown appear to have cannons, after all.

Age of the country

• Just how old is this land? The flute was given to Zelda by her grandmother, and just about every character is maybe two generations away from Phantom Hourglass. And yet in less than a hundred years people manage to forget the whole Sealed Evil in a Can thing?
  • The "hundred years" thing was apparently a mistranslation; it seems that they actually meant to say hundreds of years. Also, the whole backstory with Malladus is implied to take place long before Tetra's people set foot in New Hyrule.
  • Its canonical-ness is up for debate, but the Hyrule Encyclopedia provides some details that help clear up the confusion. According to it, the only inhabitants of the land at the time the spirits departed after sealing Malladus were the Lokomo, who are described as consisting of many people rather than the six sages and Byrne seen in-game. The New Hyruleans don't know anything about the sealing of the Demon King because they weren't there when it happened, due to arriving later — the most they have to go on is what the Lokomo might have told them.

Tower turntable

• Usually when you are in the Spirit Tower you tell Anjean which way you want to go, and she'll spin the turntable around to face the proper direction. Okay, that makes sense. Then Anjean becomes occupied elsewhere, and suddenly Zelda can spin the train around. Um, how? Unless occupying a Phantom's body, Zelda is utterly intangible and unable to even cast a spell.
  • How are you so sure she can't cast spells when she didn't try to do so at any point in the game, or that Anjean was the one operating the turntable before her? It seems it'd be pretty useless if you needed a spellcaster there in order to use it. The turntable can probably operate on its own by sensing where each train needs to go somehow, and Link being asked by Anjean and Zelda where he'd like to go is just for the player's convenience.
  • Long forgotten or no, Zelda still has the sacred magic of her family line in her very soul. She likely slowly became aware of her powers as the game went on and had enough of a grasp on them to manipulate the Tower's turntable by the point it was needed. By the time of the final battle, she clearly understands her divine magic enough to initiate rituals to weaken Malladus himself, so operating a train turntable would be trivial in comparison.

Sacred power

• If the sacred power of Zelda's bloodline would render Malladus unstoppable, why does he choose to attack with a laser that does a mere 0.5 hearts of damage?
  • Three reasons. One is that Malladus is trying to use the laser to slow Zelda down, which it does significantly, not to attack Link. The other is that Malladus was said to be unstoppable in a "The spirits can't seal him away again" kind of way, not just a generic "He's so powerful now!" kind of way. And the third is that he hadn't fully adapted to Zelda's body yet anyway, since he was ultimately able to be purged with the Bow of Light. As Anjean states, he needed to complete the resurrection process fully before he could really take over the body and harness its sacred power, but he couldn't because Link and Zelda got there to confront him too soon.

Seeing ghost

• Is there any logical reasoning as to why Link and no one else can see Zelda's spirit?
  • We're supposed to assume it's because they have some sort of fated connection, or something similar. You know, with Link being the fated hero who's gonna go on this adventure with her and save New Hyrule. Not the most logical explanation, but it's at least something.
  • Apparently, according to Hyrule Historia, in the backstory to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword there is implied to be an ancient, spiritual connection between the spirit of the Hero (the original Hero of Hylia) and the line of Zelda (who is Hylia reborn as a human). So this may have something to do with it.
  • Except that "spirit of the Hero" no longer existed in the Adult branch of the timeline; at the end of Ocarina of Time, Zelda sent Link back to his childhood, banishing him from her branch and leaving him (and his spirit) nonexistent and unable to return. The spirit that Zelda in Spirit Tracks is interacting with has, at most, only been around since The Wind Waker.
  • The Hyrule Encyclopedia provides an alternative explanation; the book implies that the Lokomo were once a much more far-reaching and established tribe than the seven of them we see in the game. It could be that Link has some Lokomo ancestry in him, and that's why he's able to see Zelda's spirit like they can.
  • Later games have made it explicit that the Links are innately more sensitive to spiritual and magical phenomena than normal people. That's part of why they can see and interact with things that would be completely undetectable to normal people like ghosts and fairies.
  • Indeed, the guards that Zelda tries speaking to as a ghost both mention thinking that they heard something faint or saw something out of the corner of their eye, implying they just aren’t observant or spiritually attuned enough to fully notice her presence.

Knowledge of Anjean

• Seriously, how could no one in New Hyrule know who Anjean is? The Tower of Spirits is the centerpiece of the land, and with the turntable in the lobby, it's undeniably the most convenient way of moving between realms quickly. Is it just that somehow no one has ever gone inside it?
  • The turntable was inaccessible because the petrified Spirit Train was sitting in the center of it. As for Anjean remaining in obscurity, it could be that she would hide herself higher in the tower or was genuinely busy with her sage duties whenever someone tried to enter the lobby, and that in time the tower came to be regarded as some historic landmark that didn't deserve any special attention, even as rumors of the sage living inside it persisted.
  • Given the track record of the series, it's entirely possible that normal people couldn't even see Anjean as she is more of a spiritual entity than one of flesh and blood.
  • It's certainly hinted that the existence of the Lokomo isn't meant to be a secret to commoners. Alfonzo has no trouble being able to see Byrne, the residents of Whittleton are all aware of Gage as a forest guardian who lives in the Lost Woods, Carben openly goes flying around in broad daylight in Papuchia Village, and the Goron elder personally guards the tunnel to the Fire Sanctuary where Embrose lives. Anjean first dismisses the notion that she’s a sage and claims she's just there to look after the tower. Anyone she were to tell that to would assume she was just a hermit who took up residence there.

Lokomo Sword

• There is really no reason for Anjean not to give Link the Lokomo Sword at the very beginning of the game.
  • That's true, especially since she only gives it to you after you find the Bow of Light, which already has the Lokomo Sword's ability to stun Phantoms. The explanation the game seems to go with is that Anjean didn't think Link would need it up until Malladus came back or that she didn't think he was worthy of it initially.

Fate of the Lokomo Sword

• What happens to the Lokomo Sword after the Lokomo depart for the heavens? Does Link keep it, or...?
  • Most likely, it'll be entombed or otherwise protected until it is needed again like the Master Sword before it. Link went through almost the entire game without it, so he clearly doesn't need to save the day from threats short of another demon king, so it's better to ensure that it will be preserved in case some future hero requires it to fight another great evil.
  • The slideshow of images showing the game's epilogue during the credits show that Link went back to wielding the Recruit's Sword by that point, which seems to disprove the notion that he kept the Lokomo Sword. You also briefly glimpse Anjean's wheelchair in Zelda's study during the final scene, so maybe she took it upon herself as a royal family member to safeguard important relics like the sword, and the Compass and Bow of Light — although she did apparently let Link keep the Spirit Train, as evidenced by the ending where he becomes an engineer.

Cole should zap him, too...

• After he zaps Zelda's spirit out of her body, Cole has no reason to leave Link or Alfonzo alive in the field. He gains no benefit from letting them live, even if he didn't know that Link was capable of seeing Zelda's spirit, and Link would be just as likely to head to the tower for help on his own even if he and Zelda couldn't communicate anyway.
  • Remember that Alfonzo had just been punched into the train by Byrne, so Cole likely thought that Alfonzo was killed by it, or at least out of commission. As for Link, as far as Cole knew, he was just an Engineer, and thus couldn't do anything, so he wouldn't be a threat.
  • Engineer or no, Link still saw what happened. He was wearing a guard recruit's uniform, and he still had Zelda's letter asking for his help. The only reason Cole got as far into his plans as he did was because the guards were too stupid to take sufficient action when their princess disappeared.
  • An earlier headscratcher posited that Cole's plans had advanced beyond the point where he needed to keep up appearances. He may simply have figured that the existence of a witness couldn't possibly derail his plans.
  • Byrne also hits Link pretty hard during that cutscene—hard enough for him to go flying through the air and lose consciousness. Maybe Cole didn't follow up on killing Link for the same reason he didn't bother to finish off Alfonzo—he thought he was too badly hurt to interfere any further. He may have also counted on Cassandra Truth coming into play if Link tried to tell anyone he was responsible for Zelda's disappearance (which it indeed does, to the best of my recollection). Not to mention that the ritual to resurrect Malladus into Zelda's body was carried out atop the then-shattered Tower of Spirits. As far as Cole was concerned, even if someone did believe Link, they had no real way of even reaching him, let alone stopping him.
  • Alfonzo was well known as an exceptional former knight while Link was just an engineer dressed up like a fresh recruit. Alfonzo was the obvious potential threat, but he was left so injured after fighting Byrne that he was out of commission for the rest of the game. If the great Alfonzo couldn't do more than barely survive facing Byrne, then the pitiful little rookie kid tagging along with him isn't worthy of a second glance. Why waste time crushing a little grunt when they have their prize and need to get to work?

Zelda's arrow wound

• Zelda doesn't seem to be injured in any way after regaining her body, even though Link shot a light arrow through its chest moments earlier.
  • Possibly because bolts of divine light don't leave physical injuries or wounds. Electrocution would be a more likely injury to have sustained — Link is electrocuted if shot with a light arrow during the final battle of The Wind Waker — but even in that case, Malladus would've bore the full brunt of it, anyway, as he was inhabiting Zelda's body at the time.

Anjean, you couldn't have given us that a little sooner?

• If Anjean had the power to conjure a suit of Phantom armor at her leisure, why didn't she consider doing that earlier in the game? Just give that right to Link, have him leave it in his train's passenger car, and then Zelda could possess it and follow Link through dungeons to help Link when he needs her. It would've been a cool way of involving Zelda more in regular gameplay.
  • Early in the game, Anjean says that she's too busy holding the tower together to risk leaving her post. It could be that any Phantom she summoned in the lobby would be possessed by the same evil that had taken hold of the others, whereas she could summon it safely once she was able to leave the tower.

Princesses who do nothing

• So apparently, princesses just sitting around doing nothing is a family tradition. Who started that? Tetra's rebellious daughter?
  • Tetra didn't know she was a princess throughout most of The Wind Waker, and she did just wait inside Hyrule Castle for Link to come save her after she found out. Plus, all iterations of Zelda that have appeared across the series are distantly related to each other, recall it? Her family doesn't just go back to Tetra and stop there.
  • It's just an in-joke about the various other Zeldas usually being unable to directly act in their games' plots. Don't take it too seriously.

They wasted a perfectly good vessel...

• Instead of destroying Byrne and then taking over Cole's body to fight Link and Zelda, why didn't Malladus just possess Byrne? He's bigger and physically stronger than Cole, has a huge metal Hookshot on his arm, and as a Lokomo, he would probably have some sacred power in his veins for Malladus to feed off of...Not as much as Zelda's, of course, but certainly more than Cole would have.
  • Byrne was still injured from the fight against Link and Zelda, and stopping Malladus with a force field may have used up the last of his energy, so his body was too weak for Malladus to use. Had Byrne been in better condition, he probably could have kept Malladus in the force field and survived.
  • By that point, Malladus' plot had gone completely Off the Rails, pun intended. He was angered beyond belief that Byrne protected his only suitable vessel and promptly killed him for it. When Cole dared to order him to take her body again when it wasn't possible, Malladus had enough and just swallowed him up instead. Taking a body besides Zelda's would kill Malladus quickly anyway, but he was so angered by that point that he didn't care anymore and just grabbed the closest one to him in hopes of bringing the whole world down with him.

Fresh wounds

• Anjean and Byrne can't help with the fight against Malladus because they're still injured from their battles earlier. Why not give them some potions?
  • Apart from Gameplay and Story Segregation, it's possible their wounds were too deep for the potions to heal — most of the damage Link sustains is only done to him a little at a time, meaning it's a bunch of smaller wounds that a potion to heal easily. Or the bulk of their wounds were caused by magic (we know Byrne's was, having been attacked by Malladus), which the potion might not be capable of healing, or it won't work on them because they're both members of the sacred Lokomo tribe.
  • Potions are helpful, but their ability to fix anything short of death doesn't necessarily apply in-story. Especially given that both these two are magical entities that don't seem to function like humans.

The Spirit Flute

• If Zelda thought that the Spirit Flute was meant to protect her, then why didn't she bring it with her to the tower on the first trip instead of asking Link to take it with him on the second? She's little more than a ghost at that point - what is there for her to need protection from that she didn't before?
  • She might have thought that the flute could help protect her earlier, but dismissed it as pointless superstition up until Cole revealed himself. Once things became more serious, she decided to follow up on her earlier hunch, since even if her ghostly form doesn't need protection, she still wouldn't want Link to get hurt.
  • The original plan was to go to check on the tower with the legendary former knight Alfonzo as an impromptu bodyguard. She didn't take the flute because there wasn't supposed to be any real danger to her. Unfortunately, nobody could have for them being ambushed by Cole and Byrne on the way. By the time she could even get to the flute, she was left as a disembodied spirit and incapable of interacting with it at all. Besides, unless you know some specific songs for it and/or have it at certain places to activate its magic, it's little more than a fancy set of pan pipes: all but useless in a dangerous situation.

Recruit's Uniform

• Why would Zelda have a guard's uniform with her in her office? And if she had one all along, why not use it to disguise herself and sneak out of the castle that way?
  • She probably took the uniform from the barracks as a plan to escape the castle. If she were to escape alone, a guard in uniform ditching the castle would look suspicious, and a princess wandering in public without an escort would attract attention. The uniform probably wasn't designed for girls either, so the poor fit would give her away.
  • Besides obviously being a young girl, Zelda is the princess of the kingdom. The guards' biggest job priority is to ensure her safety. Even the dumbest, laziest ones would know her well enough to recognize her undisguised face. The uniform wouldn't let her cover her face convincingly, so it's not a option for her.

Ceremony

• Shouldn't Alfonzo, as Link's mentor, have attended the ceremony with him in the beginning? Link didn't seem to have any sort of paperwork or other certification of being ready to become a full-fledged royal engineer, so it seems as though the one who taught and tested him would be an important (if not necessary) person to have around for the event. Why does he stay behind?
  • Regarding the paperwork, I assume all of this was already prepared in the background. When you get your A-Levels degree (or Bachelor, or whatever) it's not processed on that very day. This is proven by the fact that you can completely ditch your "final exam" and still get awarded engineer. Why Alonzo didn't join the ceremony, one can only speculate. Maybe only the awardees are allowed to join. Alfonzo seems to be completely aware, as he doesn't even show remorse that he cannot participate.
  • Regarding why Alfonzo didn’t attend, he does have that backstory as a master swordsman and former guard member. And he seems to be pretty humble about his past when confronted about it by Zelda, and later on by Ferris. Seems in-character that he would stay away from the castle where people might recognize him and make a spectacle during what’s supposed to be Link’s big ceremony.

Thinking things through

• After shooting Malladus with a light arrow, Link ignores Zelda's warnings to keep his distance and charges the two of them with his sword and shield drawn. The scene fades out before showing the result, but the suggestion seems to be that he did or was going to stab Malladus with the Lokomo Sword. Wouldn't that run the risk of damaging Zelda's body beyond recovery? It's not as if Malladus was posing a particular threat at that point — he was already shot with the Bow of Light — so why take such a risk? Alternatively, if attacking Malladus wasn't his plan, what was Link going to do once he closed in?
  • Link wasn't thinking. It was a very stressful situation where everything on the line. He saw his closest companion grabbing their most dangerous enemy while they were trying to escape and reacted on impulse to prevent it any way he could. It's not like Zelda's plan of "hang on to the agitated demon king for dear life" was much of a better idea.

Zelda accompanying Link

• The initial reason given for Zelda to partner up with Link is that there are puzzles in the tower that make it impossible for one person to traverse by themselves, as Anjean puts it. However, at this point, she still thinks the Phantoms who patrol the tower are on their side — it's not until Link goes upstairs, gets attacked by one, and then comes back down that it occurs to her they've been possessed. And enlisting the help of Phantoms definitely seems to be the intended way to progress in the tower, as there are several puzzles that can only be solved thanks to their abilities. So why did Anjean act as though Link would be on his own if Zelda didn't go with him?
  • It's possible the non possessed Phantoms would have allowed Zelda to possess them...Anjean just didn't know Link would need the tears of light.
  • Anjean also may have disapproved of Zelda trying to saddle Link with so much responsibility, so she butted in and told her about the puzzles as an excuse for her to stop acting so entitled. The Phantoms don't seem especially smart, so her logic may have been that Zelda could help Link to figure out the solutions to puzzles even if he already had the muscle to properly solve them.

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