Excuse me, Valiant Comics

After watching the TV series again, I also decided to reread the Valiant Comics, which are basically a follow-up of the show. You can find them on Zelda Legends, if you want to read them as well.

Overall the comics follow the concepts of the Animated Series, but it goes more into detail and tries to incorporate the source material of the Zelda NES games a lot more, which makes the whole thing feel a lot richer. While they still play Capture the Flag with the Triforces of Wisdom and Power, Link actually carries the Triforce of Courage in himself, following the events of Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. This is even true to how the Triforces rest inside their bearers in later games.

The castle from the the show here now is confirmed to be the Northern Palace and you get to see many other places from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, like Saria, the "City of Tombs", Parapa Palace or the Ocean Palace. Even "Dark Link" and the Thunderbird get to be the villains in one of the chapters, though they are vastly different from the game. Dark Link is more like some imposter being, who can be the mirror image of anyone, while the Thunderbird is more like his small sidekick. And he gets defeated in a Game of Thrones style trial by combat.

Now, the overall tone of the comics is a lot more serious than the show, which isn't saying much. But while this is still the last part of my "Excuse me" blog series, only Zelda ever uses these words in the comics and Link's infamous "Excuse me, princess" catchphrase is completely gone. He still tries to steal a kiss from Zelda every now and then, but that feels very out of place here, because the two seem to genuinely love each other in the comics and treat each other with much more respect than in the TV series. The only real bickering happens in one of the extra pages, where they tried to went on a date.

For some reason they also decided to replace the fairy Spryte with "Miff", who isn't all Lana over Link or fond of Link at all. She just criticizes him for being a dumb brute. Spryte sadly only gets mentioned on one of the maps, where she has her own spring in the world of the first game (the one close to Level 1, while Miff has the spring next to Level 7).

Despite the changes in tone, you still can't take the characters seriously, because their faces look really weird in the comics and there are still some quirky moments, like Link pushing Zelda into a Wallmaster to get her to safety. And you also have stuff like this:

That's probably one of the weirdest things in the comics. Link actually comes from a kingdom named Calatia, which is where his parents live: Arn and Medilia. Other than one chapter taking place in this kingdom and them mistrusting Link, because his evil doppelgänger has taken control of the throne, they are not really important for the story, though.

There's a similar story idea, where the townsfolk of Saria gets tricked by Ganon into believing that he's actually the good guy, while Link and Zelda are the true evildoers, who try to harm the poor Ganon. They also tried to give some character to the overall generic characters from the Zelda II towns. There's one entire chapter devoted to Bagu, who's Link's best and quite strong friend and who lives together with two frogs. They also portray Saria's healer woman in another chapter, but sadly not in the Grand Theft Auto style of perverted minds. Instead she has a son with some older dude... In that chapter and in others Zelda is actually out questing on her own, where the Bow (combined with Silver Arrows) seems to be her weapon of choice, which only adds to the list of ideas that later would become a reality in the Zelda games.

One of my favorite chapters is probably the one, where Link acquires the Triforce of Power, but its power is corrupting him to a level, where he actually becomes the next Ganon. That was an interesting idea and they went all Anakin Skywalker with his role. One of his hands even got bit by Ganon and they kept drawing it in a red color...

In total there used to be 6 issues with two chapters each, so there are about as many chapters as there were episodes. Overall the story ideas feel richer and more serious, but the quirky drawing style and the leftovers from the TV show let this fall flat, where these comics are really forgettable. The included maps were really nice, though, and certainly worth a look.

Excuse me, Episode 13 - The Moblins are Revolting

Hyrule's monsters are on strike, so the series had to end...

Originally this was produced as the tenth episode, but it aired as the final episode of the series' first run. However, "The Missing Link" does a much better job as a potential finale and this episode ends on a bad touch, which leaves you quite unsatisfied.

As in many episodes, Ganon has a new toy, which can put anyone in a magic-proof bubble. However, this immediately backfires. The Moblins put Ganon in the bubble instead, because they are very unhappy with their working conditions. So, they get rid off Ganon and take over the underworld.

At first it looks like they are actually getting somewhere with this. They are laying siege on Hyrule Castle with ladders, catapults and battering rams. That's something that Ganon never has tried and it does look very dangerous at first. However, the monsters fail to communicate and are so disorganized that they just keep hitting each other. Zelda and Link just laugh at the theater and the stay so relaxed that they even decide to leave the castle in siege, while they try to steal the Triforce of Power. On their way they meet a Dodongo for the first time in the show, which Zelda quickly defeats with a bomb to save both of them again...

This is where Link realizes that he will be out of a job soon, so he starts fooling around and frees Ganon in the process. So, it all reverts back to the status quo of the series thanks to Link's selfishness, who's just happy at the end that he still does have a job. What a jerk.

"No, not the bottomless pit. Nooooooo!" - Ganon

---

This ends this series. I will do another post about the Valiant Comics, but that's it for the TV show. I personally had quite some fun rewatching the whole thing, as you may have noticed. It's goofy and certainly not the way you want to see some epic Zelda Adventure, but it's still entertaining in its own way. Most of the fun comes from Link constantly trying to get first base with Zelda, the whole dynamic between the two is simply hilarious and if they really do a Zelda anime movie in the next years, I will probably miss the whole "Excuuuuse me" talk. At least a little bit.

The music and sound effects from the games are good, I just wish that they had done more with Zelda II - The Adventure of Link instead of just using some monsters from the game.

Excuse me, Episode 12 - The Missing Link

This is actually the final episode in production order and it probably would have made a good finale for the show. Throughout the episode it gets confirmed that Zelda actually loves Link, even though she hates to admit it, and at the end they completely destroy Ganon's lair and its Evil Jar. So, it's probably best to view this as/at the end.

The main idea of this episode is essentially a role-reversed Spirit Tracks. Ganon plans to zap Zelda into the Evil Jar with his new Magic Wand toy, but she reflects the magic and Link gets hit instead. Like in Spirit Tracks only his body gets abducted, while his spirit stays by Zelda's side, who's the only one, who can see Phantom Link, because she's apparently in love with him.

Now, for Link this whole situation is perfect to be even a bigger jackass than usual. But after Zelda called him useless so many times, I guess it serves her right, how Link keeps making fun of her swordplay. They had to make it look like zapping things with some Magical Sword is actually not easy, because otherwise Zelda really wouldn't need Link at all. He even gets her in danger by hilariously announcing all over Ganon's lair that she loves him.

Zelda then goes all Daenerys and torches the place (by pushing down a torch), while Link blows up the Evil Jar with a bomb that he got from a Stalfos, who really are afraid of Link for some reason, even if he's just a ghost... They never really die, they all just get transported into the Evil Jar. If anything, the Stalfos should vigorously try to defend the jar at all costs, instead of letting Link blow it up.

"Zelda in love with Link? Arrgh, how disgusting!" - Ganon

Excuse me, Episode 11 - Fairies in the Spring

Zelda: "Speaking of all wet, where is our local hero?"
Link: "You called for a hero, princess?"
Zelda: "Yes, but I guess you'll have to do..."

Ouch. If I were Link, I would have quit my job a long time ago and look for a nicer princess to save elsewhere. Even Princess Midna would probably be nicer than this bitchy version of Zelda; I heard she likes to ride.

Okay, this is a refreshing episode (pun intended), mostly because at least for once the threat doesn't come from Ganon, but from fairies, who were defending a fairy spring. And their monster creations are seemingly much more scarier and effective than anything that Ganon ever pulled off.

It's also one of the most ridiculous episodes with its ideas, where our goofy King Harkinian wants to build a water park for everyone to enjoy. But for whom, really? Up to this point the only people in Hyrule seemed to be the king, Zelda, Link, Spryte and that Doof guy from the last episode. This is where they really added some extras at the end and during the construction in the beginning to give the impression that actual people would be living in Hyrule. But I bet that those actually came to visit from Holodrum just for this episode.

At least they returned to the fact that Spryte is actually a fairy princess, they even showed us the fairy king, who is simply a tiny winged version of King Harkinian. Now, if Spryte was a miniature version of Zelda, Link probably would show more interest in her...

"I hate wet kisses." - Zelda

Excuse me, Episode 10 - A Hitch in the Works

The episode opens with Link trying to steal away, because he wants to secretly go fishing. Link's affinity for fishing is curiously yet another thing, where the show predates ideas from later Zelda games. And I'm starting to think that Nintendo and DIC Entertainment just both went with the most obvious ideas for the franchise. "What would Link do in his free time? Fishing, of course!"

He gets caught by Zelda, who insists that he should do chores around the castle instead. And I kind of can understand, why Link's complaining here. His job should be protecting the Triforce of Wisdom and the Princess, not replacing candles or scrubbing the floor. I can understand, when Zelda insists that he should stay around for protection, but her ordering him to do some servant's work is just a dick move.

But there's probably no one else around to clean the huge castle. For the first time since the first episode we actually see another person living there: Doof. Which means "dumb" in German, by the way. He's a handyman / newbie magician, who creates some Golem made out of junk. Link tells him to create some fake Moblins instead, so he can save Zelda instead of doing chores, but she overhears the conversation and then gets herself abducted by real Moblins, of course.

This leads to one of the most over the top scenes in the series. Link says "Time to kick Moblin tail", which is easily on par with "Can't wait to bomb some Dodongos" from the CD-i games, puts a bomb down and then uses the shield to get pushed off the explosion in pursue of Zelda. Yeah, right. And here I thought the flame surfing was ridiculous. Can we do this in the games? Please?

(I'm not entirely kidding here. It would be interesting to have some more uses for the shield, similar to the Trine games. It doesn't have to be flame surfing or bomb-propelled flying, but something new.)

Now, Link follows Zelda to the Underworld, where the interesting part of the episode happens, which sadly falls completely short. Ganon has some magic slave collar that lets Zelda do anything he asks of her. I bet, Link would make good use of that, but Ganon settles for marrying the princess, so he can become the ruler of Hyrule. But the wedding gets prevented quickly and Ganon gets defeated in yet another ridiculous way: three Gleeock heads just crash into him.

"I'm a hero, not a handyman..." - Link

Excuse me, Episode 9 - Stinging a Stinger

The "Stinger" in this episode is a conman with the name of Sleazenoze, who looks like Rumpelstiltskin had a love child with Pinocchio, but still not suspicious enough to Link. Link is actually so stupid to give him his Magic Sword, after Sleazenoze offered him some better Sabre as a present, which supposedly gets him all the ladies. As if.

Our hero quickly realizes his mistake and then gets to be completely useless. Link in the Legend of Zelda video games without a sword is still a skilled marksman, magic user, explosive expert and so on, but here he just ends up as Gohma food together with his beloved princess and the conman, who tried to rip-off Ganon by asking the ridiculous amount of thousand Rupees for the Magic Sword. Doesn't he know that they only had 8-Bit Wallets in the Era of Decline?

So, they all get trapped with Gohma, Episode VI style, and according to Link a Magical Boomerang won't stop the giant crab... But why? It worked fine on Ganon. Twice. But to be fair, Ganon seemingly can be stopped by anything. Like in this episode they attack him with beehives to chase him off and get the Magic Sword back. They probably could have just thrown some fruits at him for the same outcome. Worked fine with Gleeock.

Overall this is probably one of my least favorite episodes. The character Sleazenoze is even less likeable than everyone else in the show and he gets too much screen time. And the whole premise of the episode was that Link is nothing without his sword, while every child in Hyrule could actually beat Ganon with the right pranks.

"Whoops, it's hero time!" - Link

Excuse me, Episode 8 - Underworld Connections

Flame surfing is the new surfing.

Zelda and Link just should stop trying to kiss. Because whenever they are about to get close, something bad happens to interrupt them. I see a clear correlation here (called the "lazy comic relief writing" phenomenon) and maybe, if they just had no intentions of making out with each other, Hyrule would be safe for eternity. Maybe.

Anyway, today's episode's near-kiss lets some Vires appear, who show the audience, how Triforce Shards are actually made. It's very simple and anyone can do it: you just blow up the Triforce with a bomb. Genious! Well, here it only breaks into three shards instead of eight and for once in this show they really quest for "the three pieces of the Triforce", which got carried into the underworld by the Vires.

The shards do show some interesting connections. Link and Zelda have one piece left and its sides still are magically connected to the other two pieces. Link actually fires sword beams through it to kill the Vires and after the other pieces got dropped into water and into some hot volcanic area, the first piece has wet and hots sides. I have to give it to them that these ideas are pretty interesting, but the part, where the Triforce can be blown up with a bomb, is still very ridiculous.

The rest of the episodes went for the extremes. Link sets a record of saying "Excuse me" in one episode, I think he said it about five times, one time even after Zelda pushed him right down into the water. Besides endangering his life, she also saved his life twice in this episode, one time even with a risky stunt, and by now you're actually wondering, who of the two the real Hero of Hyrule is. Link on the other hand just enjoys to do crazy and dangerous things, like doing "The Walk" while sleeping and surfing on his shield over flames...

This is also the episode with Ganon maniacally teleporting all around the room after each sentence, which is pretty well known from the Nostalgia Critic Review and just absolutely hilarious. Attention teleportation disorder. Apropos Ganon, at the end he gets defeated by Zelda... with a Boomerang. Again! We really don't need Link in this, he's just there trying to get in Zelda's pants, while she does all the work. Nah, actually they work as a team with some fun dynamics, but usually it's Zelda who's finishing things.

But Link's the one, who gets shoved around by her and has to do the dangerous and dirty things. Like diving under water for a Triforce piece, where they took the "Aqua" in Aquamentus a little bit too literal. The classic first dungeon dragon really lives under water here and looks more like another unicorn Pegasus hybrid than a dragon. And I suppose that the dragon in the first episode wasn't Aquamentus after all... but whatever.

"Excuuuuse me again, princess." - Link

Excuse me, Episode 7 - Doppelganger

The episode starts with Link whistling the Super Mario theme, but this was part of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show after all... Well, he defeats a Moblin, who then drops Wizzro. Loot is really, really good in this, the monsters are dropping valuable stuff like Recorders, Magic Bracelets, the Blue Ring and other valuable items regularly. And here I thought you actually had to explore dungeons for that stuff.

Anyway, this episode actually follows an exciting idea. A mirror suspiciously appears in Zelda's room, but since it's not like Ganon tries some evil magic tricks all the time, she doesn't give it too much thought and just uses it in the evening. This basically creates a Dark Zelda, who replaces her, but where Link should have been immediately able to tell that this isn't the real deal, because the naughty Dark Zelda actually makes out with him like a slut.

He does realize what's going on after noticing that she doesn't have a reflection, but he doesn't give it away and let her keep kissing him for the fun of it. Can't blame him, because after all this time he's probably very needy, but after kissing a Gibdo in the Frog Prince episode he should probably know better... This might be naughty Zelda on the outside, but inside it's probably a pile of Ropes.

For a moment the episode gave the impression that Link would actually go and save Zelda, but she just escapes on her own and the two are hunting Zelda's doppelganger with the Triforce of Wisdom through the underground mazes. Of course it had to come to a scene, where both are indistinguishable and Link had to find out, who's the real one. And he certainly found the smartest solution for that... Well played.

At least Link was less confused about the Dark Zelda than the creators of the show were. The whole series has many animation mistakes, but this episode probably has some of the most obvious ones and for a second it showed the Dark Zelda instead of the real one, even though Link was only with her. The synchronization was also off a couple of times, where Links lips were moving, but it didn't match the words at all. Not that any of this could possible make the show any worse, but it's noticeable and adds to the entertaining trash factor of it all.

"A Force Field Ring, just what I always wanted for Christmas!" - Link

Excuse me, Episode 6 - That Sinking Feeling

Why do the shots of castles always look best in the series? Probably because there's no movement involved, since the castles all are completely empty!!

Link and Zelda are alone out there all the time. Based on the lore it's right that there aren't any knights, but it doesn't seem like there aren't living any people at all in Hyrule / Northern Castle save for Link, Zelda, King Harkinian and Spryte. In this episode Link and Zelda head out to make out (I'm not kidding) and only the king and the fairy are seemingly left inside the castle, when Ganon takes the whole structure to the underworld with a Magic Magnet... No mass panic, no countless hostages, but only a fat king and a small fairy trying to hide inside an armor and under the bed.

It's probably as curious as Zelda being completely in the mood lately. Last episode flowers got her all wet, now a romantic place instantly does the trick. It's actually a wonder that Link never gets a kiss from her in the entire series. She still can be a nagging shrew, but she's overall much more willing than in the first episodes, throwing herself at Link a couple of times.

There are also some hilarious moment between a Goriya and Ganon. You could almost feel bad for the poor, dumb Goriya, who's named "Goriya" and just was doing his job. But with Ganon as your boss, you will end up in the Evil Jar, no matter what... Together with a band of Tektites, who can create spider threads in the show, which they used to turn Zelda into a Gibdo. And she still was in the mood right after...

"Are you gonna talk or smooch?" - Zelda

Excuse me, Episode 5 - Sing for the Unicorn

Wall standing is the new blanking...

Today's episode opens with some carefree scenes inside the Northern Castle. King Harkinian enjoys the silent night and even supports Link to score a kiss from Zelda. Turns out that you only have to bring her flowers to get her royal highness into the mood, which for some reason Link never tries again after this episode, if I'm not mistaken. However, both get interrupted, because the good king gets abducted by Ganon... on a flying unicorn!

This episode had some of the craziest Ganon moments so far. In the beginning he appears out of nowhere on a unicorn Pegasus hybrid. You don't know, where he got it from, he just appears riding and laughing on it for some good old WTF. Turns out that a flying creature is all he needs to get into the castle and steal the Triforce of Wisdom. But because this would be too smart, he does steal the king instead in the hopes that he could blackmail Link and Zelda. That leads to some hilarious scenes between King Harkinian and Ganon, where Ganon stands horizontally with his feet on the wall, because the floor of the prison cell is slowly (veeery slowly) disappearing. That whole image looks just ridiculous, but it fits the humor around the character(s).

Link and Zelda chase together after the king, where they come to an area that looks like Skeletor's Castle, which probably is supposed to be Death Mountain. On their way they also meet some Mulan wannabe. Her name is "Sing" and she wants to rescue the unicorn, hence the title of the episode. She fights with two sai, where she is also able to shoot sword beams. Or shall I say "sai beams"? In general this episode has a lot of "zapping" going on, even Ganon zapping his own minions to get rid of Link. And apparently it takes two zaps to "de-energize" Ganon...

Now, Zelda was in a pretty good mood the whole episode. She agreed to kiss Link, twice, and she also saved his life, twice. The third time, where Link got himself into danger, however, he had to be saved by the other girl. Zelda apparently was out of ammo with her bow, but she then later reveals a boomerang, which she used to zap Ganon away... So, she probably just had enough of saving the hero.

But to be fair, she got him in danger at least one time by touching some gigantic Armos statues. Making the Armos so huge is certainly a frightening idea, something they may want to try in the games. Link also fought two Lynels, but he made it look easy. He got a "Magic Whistle" (a Recorder) as loot from the fight, which he uses at the end to get them all away in a giant tornado. He played the Recorder sound from the game, which had a nice touch. Even if it's cheap, I like how they incorporated sound effects from the game in the show.

Well, this episode had a little bit too much going on to a point, where it easily could have worked without its title elements, Sing and the unicorn. The unicorn existed in this episode for the sole reason to fly the king around and Sing didn't interact much with Link and Zelda, so overall it seemed quite rushed. But that's what you get with 15 minutes of runtime.

"I'll take a rain check on that kiss, princess!" - Link

Excuse me, Episode 4 - Kiss'n Tell

Believe me or not, but I'm actually enjoying rewatching this show. It's also good timing, because besides Game of Thrones pretty much all TV shows ended their seasons last week, so it's nice to have something to watch in the evening, even if it's just some 15 minutes of The Legend of Zelda Bizzaro-verse.

This episode starts out with Zelda saving a maiden from Gleeock, which she does by actually throwing fruits at the three-headed dragon. Yes, fruits. I liked, how they made the three heads talk with individual minds and then even get in each other's ways, it was an interesting way to display this classic foe.

Now, the maiden didn't want to be saved by Zelda, but by the hero Link. After the White Knight episode this at first gives the impression that this will be yet another jealousy thing, just the other way around this time, but the events change quickly after the "professional zapper of dragons and rescuer of fair maidens" appears. His words, not mine. The girl willingly made out with him, but then turned out to be a Gibdo, who put a curse on Link, who now looks like a frog. Zelda then gets kidnapped by Ganon and a tentacle-porn Octorok, while Link can't do anything.

The Rhymeforce of Wisdom guides the Hero of Frogs and Spryte to a weird witch, who lives inside a mosaic wall and even looks like one. There is also a tree made of steel for no reason and it's a very weird scene just to give some information, which the Triforce simply could have delivered in its rhymes. They obviously had some issues with filling all 15 minutes here.

Well, lifting the curse is "simple, but not easy". He has to get kissed by a princess to be put back in his original form. The Frog Prince says hello, but this looks like Link's one and only chance to steal a kiss from Zelda. She's even willing to help out, but both get interrupted by cock block Ganon. It's then Spryte, who saves the day by kissing Link and there's the revelation at the end that she's in fact a fairy princess. Cool thing is that this actually will be dealt with again in a later episode, where we also get to meet the fairy king, so it's not just some random fact that never will be important again. And that's something.

"What is this, ugly people day? - Spryte

Excuse me, Episode 3 - The White Knight

This is probably one of the better episodes, which isn't saying much, but it's still entertaining. It starts with Link and Zelda in a village, which gets attacked by Darknuts and an Octorok. Ironically the latter is the real problem, because most of the Darknuts get zapped by Zelda with a crossbow (Zelda's Crossbow Training), while the Octorok is huge and looks like the scariest Octorok ever. Here again the show predates Ocarina of Time with its concepts: the Octorok fires a shot at Link, but he reflects it right back, which isn't something that you could do in the NES Classics. But it's now measly defeated by that and things get out of control.

Enter Prince Facade from Arcadia. Could they have given him a more obvious name? (It's also the name of the Level 6 boss in Link's Awakening, but those are not related.) He's all handsome and charming and steals the girl, as well as the "Ruby", which was left as loot from one of the monsters.

Around the noble and narcissistic prince Zelda acts all like a "snoot", which is how Spryte accurately describes her, while she tries to intrude in Link's bath. She really takes the role of Lana in all of this and you could almost feel sorry for her. It even creates some irony in the situation, because Link essentially treats Spryte, the same way as Zelda treats him.

We also get to see King Harkinian for the first time. He used to be the King of Hyrule in pretty much all the North American Zelda works, including the Valiant Comics and the CD-i games, but he never was canon. He's fun though, he's like this very carefree and dopey person, who's probably incredibly incompetent at his job as king (it's really Zelda, who seems to do all the work), but he means good.

Well, everyone laughs at Link, after he tried to impress the nobles with fancy clothes, and he finally stands up for himself, riding off with his horse Catherine. If she had white hair, she would actually look quite similar to Epona. Anyway, Ganon uses the chance to kidnap Zelda, where he has some "Zola" drag her through the mud, because that's where Prince Facade would never follow her in fear of getting dirty. It's over the top, but lets that sucker Link be the hero again and get the girl and the "Ruby" back at the end. Nice one.

"Woah, loot!" - Link

Excuse me, Episode 2 - Cold Spells

Well, in this very well scripted and epic episode it's spring cleaning time in Hyrule. Zelda wants all of Hyrule Castle to be cleaned, Link bails by pretending to be sick, Spryte has then to do all the work and Ganon actually uses this clear opportunity to mess with Spryte's magic to cause chaos and steal the Triforce of Wisdom. Finally he has all two of the Triforce pieces!! That's funny, because the episode clearly shows a Moby enemy from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link and even calls it by its name, while completely ignoring the fact that the TRIforce is made out of three pieces. Who would have thought?

I think, they decided to simplify the whole Triforce thing for story reasons, since it was supposed to be a Kid's show. There are two parties, good and evil, each party has a Triforce and whoever gets both in their lair, wins. It's like Capture the Flag with Triforces and nearly every episode follows this formula.

Now, after Ganon got his hands on the blue Flag, errrhh... the Triforce of Wisdom, he let himself carried to the next Underworld entrance, exactly like he did in the first episode. But this time Link and Zelda actually used horses to pursue him. And I really wonder why... Weren't there any beanstalks nearby?

Anyway, interestingly Zelda is using some sort of Light Arrows in this episode. I take it that it's supposed to be the Silver Arrows, but it really looks like arrows made out of light and together with horses and companion fairies this again would predate a feature from Ocarina of Time nine years before the game got released. I'm starting to see a pattern here. There's no other explanation, but the development team of Ocarina of Time had to be inspired by the show!

Well, at least Zelda didn't end up as a total b*tch in the N64 game, because she really an unlikable person in this episode, all high and mighty. But this leads to the most hilarious moment of Episode 2, where Spryte makes farting sounds at Zelda, after the princess told her to clean everything. Good one. I wish, Navi would have been as entertaining.

"Oh, boy, smooching time!" - Link

Excuse me, Episode 1 - The Ringer

Let's watch the Zelda Animated Series! I'm not kidding, with the announcement of a possible Zelda Anime movie, I thought it could be a fun idea to watch the Zelda TV series again and blog some silly thoughts about the episodes.

The show is essentially a "guilty pleasure" for me. I know it's bad, you know it's bad, but I still enjoyed the show for what it was. It's different from the CD-i games, which are entertaining, because they are so terribly awful and trashy. Here I actually enjoy the setting and the whole humor of the show, even if it's nothing like the actual characters from the games. Link is a horny jerk, Zelda is a Tsundere and Ganon is just nuts...

There already has been a post on this blog called The Adventures of Stink, which summarizes both the show and the Valiant Comics. This time I will go through all episodes individually, so there's going to be a lot more quantity and a lot less quality. I will make one post per episode and probably keep this going until E3, where we finally should get some new topics to talk about besides Hyrule Warriors. You can also watch the series with me, if you really want, where you can find a playlist by Retro Gaming Shows on Youtube.

Let's start with Episode 1, "The Ringer". I'm not even sure, what "the Ringer" means. It means "wrestler" in German, but instead of a wrestling contest, there's a wizard contest held in Hyrule Castle, which Ganon uses to sneak in by disguise to steal the Triforce of Wisdom. The Triforce actually talks in the TV series and this leads to the hilarious moment, where Ganon essentially tells the Triforce to shut it, because it lectures him about good and evil.

Another funny Ganon moment is towards the end, where he shows a Stalfos, how to go at Link and Zelda. Ganon doesn't really strike you as a fighter in the TV show at all, while Zelda really does. There are some other ridiculous moments in this episode, where the most ridiculous one is Zelda's attempt of catching up to Ganon. Instead of saddling horses to pursue him, she uses the magic of some newbie wizard from the contest to create a beanstalk catapult for Link and herself. Very smart plan.

Link also does have a fairy companion. At least in that sense they were ahead of their time, because something like a fairy companion didn't get introduced until Ocarina of Time in 1998, while the show aired 1989. The fairy's name is Spryte and she essentially is the Lana of the show, because she has a crush on Link, while he runs after Zelda. And she has this CD-i character quality close-up at the end of the episode, which is really creepy...

I do like, how they handled the beginning, introducing the whole setting. Link fancily lives in Hyrule Castle (which supposedly is the Northern Castle from Zelda II) and gets bored from staying inside all day long, having to protect the Triforce of Wisdom. But he does enjoy the view on Zelda in the morning, where he whistles at her like your average street corner jerkboy, which just made me laugh hard. It's all so completely out of character, which makes this entertaining to watch in its own unique way.

"Eat dirt, Ganon!" - Link

The Adventures of Stink

So, last weekend Jade from ZeldaEurope and I decided to torture ourselves by watching the Zelda Animated TV series. *plays intro*




The show ran in late 1989 as part of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show on Fridays. Though Zelda II was already released at the time and enemies from the game even appear in the show (like the Moby or Deelers), the show mostly just takes the story from the first game into consideration. So, it appears that there are only two Triforces and the Triforce of Courage never gets even mentioned. Ganon resides at Death Mountain, where he has the Triforce of Power and his Evil Jar (this is where the enemies go, when Link "kills" them), and constantly tries to steal the Triforce of Wisdom from the castle, where Link and Zelda live. This is the status quo of the show and no matter what happens, it will be restored at the end of each episode. So, if one party has the chance to get their hands on the other Triforce, you already know that they will fail.

You also know that Link will always fail to hit on Zelda, no matter what. For the show the silent protagonist Link, who we all know and love, got turned into this jackass, who always try to get to first base with Zelda. It's weird, because normally you would identify yourself with Link, but here he can be hard to sympathize with. Zelda on the other hand literally wears the breeches in this show. She can be a bitch, but she is a lot tougher than in any other Zelda media. She even saves Link's life more often than he saves her.

And then there's Ganon. Like with all Zelda characters at the time there was only little known about him, he was basically just a big fat pig, which was able to cloak itself and teleport. So, they gave him Skeletor's voice, charme and character and made him teleport all around the room like he's drunken. And he has this ridiculous laugh, but that's about it.

One last thing of notice is that they used sound effects directly taken from the game. Like the sword beam or when Link gets items from his magic pouch, that magically shrinks all his stuff. This is actually pretty interesting, because no game so far tried to explain how Link is able to carry all his junk. Except for Skyward Sword, where you got the Adventure Pouch, which seems to be inspired by this.

We watched the German version of the show, but I've also seen the English original before. But the German dub definitely adds to the overall cheesiness of the show, the infamous "Excuuuuse me, princess" catchphrase gets replaced by two different catch phrases based on the situation. One is "Ich tuuuuuuu mein Bestes, Prinzessin" (I'm doooooooing my best, princess) and the other one goes "Es tuuuuut mir Leid, Prinzessin" (I'm soooooorry, princess). It's just sounds so ridiculously bad.

If I had to pick my favorite episode, it probably would be "The White Knight". Link and Zelda meet this snobby prince and Zelda totally has the hots for him. Of course Link, who gets called "Stink" by Zelda in front of the prince (hence the title of this post), gets jealous and lucky for him the prince doesn't like to get his hands dirty. But in the lands of the fantasy world Hyrule you would think that they could come up with more interesting problems. The Zelda universe was already pretty deep and exciting during the NES era and the possibilites for stories are exciting. However, instead they end up building a water park for King Harkinian or solve other ridiculous problems like Moblins building a labor union...

Well, we had a good time watching this. It's not as bad as the CD-i games, but for a Zelda fan it still can be quite embarrassing. However, if you manage to ignore the bad quality and the fact that the show was aimed for young kids, you can have a lot of fun with it. The show can be unintentionally hilarious. But it's not the end... Jade then pointed out that the Zelda Valiant Comics are based on the TV show, so I decided to check them out for the first time. And these comics are really the continuation of the show.... oh, my Din!

After the show got cancelled these Zelda comics appeared during the year 1990, there seem to be six or seven magazines in total. While the comic is based on the show, it also fully deals with the world from Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, which got mostly ignored in the TV show. The castle from the show is now the North Palace and other locations from Zelda II like the individual towns are mentioned and visited. You even get this nice map with the first book:

The scale of the area from the first game is way too large, but overall it's really cool. The world from Zelda II never really got so much attention as here and the comics make you wish that some game might return to Northeastern Hyrule in the future.

Also, Link actually carries the Triforce of Courage in the comics, which he got from the Great Palace. There's only one Zelda, however, so it's the Zelda from the show and the first game who fell asleep and Link had to safe her instead of a different princess from a distant era. I thought it would have been interesting to have a second Zelda next to the one from the show. You know, for jealousy and stuff, because after all Link hitting on Zelda is still part of the comic. Overall the tone of the comic is a lot more serious and darker than the show, for example there is one chapter where Link aquires the Triforce of Power, which then corrupts him and turns him into another Ganon. That's pretty deep stuff, but then comes the moment when Link tries to kiss Zelda (usually at the end of a chapter), which ruins everything and immediatly takes you back to the Super Mario Super Show's cheesiness.

And there's some other weird stuff in the comics. You actually get to see Link's parents in a land called Calatia. And Dark Link is not really a shadow, but more like a shapeshifter, while the Thunderbird is just a red eagle. So, while the comic is a lot better than the TV series, it's still quite weird.

If you're interested, you can watch the show here and get the comics here.