We are, we admit, fans of T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. And as a child, who didn’t love the Disney classic, the Sword in the Stone, watching it either on the (what then passed for big) screen in the theater, or better still, bundled in pajamas with pillows and blankets, gazing out the back of the station wagon at a drive-in theater? Ah, the sweet memories of youth…if only where we left our car keys on any given morning were as clear.
Perhaps it’s no surprise we also love the Legend of Zelda series. A knight in training, Link is very much like the young Arthur. We can envision BOTW’s Old Man (aka King Rhoam) as Merlin, and while Madam Mim might not have Impa’s coloring (and besides, Mim was not Merlin’s ally, but we digress), one could draw plenty of other character parallels between Zelda and the classic Arthurian story. Indeed, it’s noteworthy that Link is often held in as little regard as young Arthur, who was even known as Wart in the cartoon; and that Revali fellow reminds us quite a bit of the overbearing and arrogant Sir Kay.
And we digress again.
Here’s the one parallel between the two stories that is impossible to miss for a fan of both: a sword that can only be claimed by one found worthy. And in BOTW, that’s the Master Sword.
When Link first wanders into the Korok Forest, he spies a sword, upright, in a clearing. Naturally he’s going to try to pull it out, right? Problem is – it’s not coming up easy. Indeed, the more Link pulls, the more hearts he depletes, until he must abandon the effort.
Zelder Tip #1: You’re going to need lucky number 13 hearts to get that sword out of the ground. And – oh, stop, clever people, we thought of it, too – temporary hearts from an elixir or meal won’t fit the bill.
Zelder Tip #2: There’s still a way to – kind of – cheat your way to an early successful run at the sword.
(Sort of) Cheaty Way to Assemble 13 Hearts
When we first began playing, we were torn between choosing hearts or stamina whenever we gathered the requisite four spirit orbs. We needed the hearts, surely, because it didn’t take but 15 seconds for a Lynel to decimate Link when the latter was sporting only a half-dozen of the red containers. And before we learned to parry, we could go through seven or eight hearts (not to mention shields) in short order facing off with a Guardian. At the same time, we craved stamina. Itzal doesn’t like to climb mountains slowly; he gets impatient and wants to jump everywhere, often resulting in Link falling off a mountain just shy of its summit when his energy runs out.
Balancing our two needs, we would choose a heart one time; then exchange our orbs for stamina the next. (It bears noting that it annoys Itzal no end to have an incomplete stamina wheel, so our ratio of hearts to stamina choice was not one to one; it tended to skew stamina.)
Eventually we found ourselves with two complete stamina wheels –that’s Itzal breathing a sigh of OCD relief– and, let’s say for argument’s sake, eight hearts.
But we really wanted that Master Sword. We’re not saying we didn’t cherish our stamina upgrades, although maybe…just maybe we were rethinking our choices.
Turns out, there’s a statue for buyer’s remorse.
Teebo, one of the annoying urchins running around Hateno, will lead Link to something he’s discovered: a horned statue. You may yourself stumble upon the statue on the path to Firly Pond without Teebo’s assistance, however. It’s scarily evil looking, like a parody of the goddess statues one uses to exchange one’s spirit orbs for hearts or stamina.
And as it happens, the horned statue, like the goddess statues, is also in the business of exchange. In this case, you can trade stamina “essence” for heart containers and vice versa.
Zelder scam alert: The first time, the horned one steals from Link; but he reverses his thievery in the pursuit of a longer-standing business relationship.
Should you desire to exchange stamina for hearts – precisely what we desired – you can do so at a cost of 100 rupees per exchange.
Armed now with 13 hearts, albeit diminished stamina, we headed to the Korok Forest to try our luck at the sword.
As Link began to pull, we saw our hearts slowly pop away. But just like young Wart (soon to be Arthur) in the Sword in the Stone, our hero Link persevered, until he extracted the dazzling Master weapon and triumphantly held it aloft!
Master Sword, how we missed ye. Weapons break plenty in BOTW, and we’ve learned to live with it. But the Master Sword? It doesn’t break, as such. It only runs out of energy. (We know the feeling.) Then, after a given period of time, its energy is restored, and you can come out swinging again. Thus, we tend to choose this sword when we need to slash at something we don’t want to break another weapon on. What’s more, the Master Sword has twice the attack power in Hyrule Castle!
Zelder Tip #2 ½: Once we retrieved the Master Sword, we returned to the horned statue and asked for our stamina back. The statue was willing to oblige, at a cost to be sure; to reverse the transaction was 120 rupees, resulting in a net cost of 20 rupees for each of our transactions. We considered it well worth the money, to have both the Master Sword and our two wheels of stamina restored.
Tidily, we wish to wrap up our Sword in the Stone and Zelda analogy with words of wisdom from Merlin, words which might also be voiced by King Rhoam: “It’s up to you how far you’ll go. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.”