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Mystery of the Dwarf

By Ice

Any of you who played Zelda II: The Adventure of Link many years ago (or even recently, for that matter) know that it is a very innovative and unique game, especially for the Zelda series. It was the only game not to include the boomerang, and it's also the only game with heavy side-scrolling elements (though Zelda 1 and Zelda IV had a bit of it). You also know that it is a very challenging game, perhaps the hardest in the Zelda series, and beating the game is not an easy task. But I'm sure what you don't know is who that little dwarf was at the end of the game that was guarding the Triforce of Courage. When I first played the game back in the late eighties, I remember expecting the enemy to be Ganon. And with the awesome silouette of him that is displayed when you extinguish all of your lives, I was eagerly waiting for the awesome graphical masterpiece of a huge, power-mad Ganon towering over Link, his evil power and glory floating magestically around him, contaminating everything within it's poisonous grasp. But what I got instead was a stupid little elf. Imagine the disappointment. "How much challenge could this fool give me?" I thought bitterly. And the answer was... NONE! But what did give me trouble, however, was what his little spell did. There I stood, face to face with... myself! And thus began the greatest challenge in the game. But after a long, bloody battle, when the smoke cleared, I stood victorious. My shadow was defeated. The Triforce was mine. And the dwarf was gone. I watched the ending (which was a little sorry, but hey, it sure beat Zelda 1's!), and I went to bed, tired from a long night of exciting video gaming. But sleep did not come easy to me, as I soon found out. Before I attemted sleep, my mind went over the game's final events. And something occoured to me. Who was that little dude at the end? I hadn't seen him in any other Zelda game (all two of 'em), and the game didn't explain him at all. He just showed up, tried to kill me, and vanished. Now, I don't like loose ends (but the Zelda storyline has taught me to deal with them), so the inclusion of such a mysterious character completely baffled me. The next morning, I played the game again, and eventually beat it again on the file that I had previously beaten the game with. Same series of events. Nothing new. the character was still a mystery. Well, time went on, and the upcoming Zelda for Super NES put that little guy on hold in mny mind for awhile. Zelda 3 finally came out, and I played and beat it, finding every heart piece and everything. Then, being in the Zelda mood again, I went back to the other two games, and beat them both once more. And the Mystery of the Dwarf was brought up once more in my mind. And this time, I wasn't going to settle for guesses or anything else. I wanted answers. So here we are, years later, and after hours of research, here are my findings:

1: Many think that the wizard guarding the Triforce of Courage is, in fact, Agahnim, the power-hungry wizard from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. While this is the most populart theory, I can prove that it's not correct. A Link to the Past takes place BEFORE Zelda 2 (Zelda 3 is chronilogically second, and Zelda 2 is chronilogically fourth). And, if you recall, Agahnim died in Zelda 3. But he is a wizard, and may have possesed some immortality or something. But if he's dead, hey, he's dead. We saw him die with our own little eyes. And the little gray-bearded dude at the end of Zelda 2 looks nothing like our friend Agahnim. But, still, there is a slight possibility, but I seriously doubt that it is Agahnim.

2: The most popular belief among Zelda historians is the belief that the little wizard guarding the Triforce of Courage is the same wizard that cast the sleeping spell on Princess Zelda. This is the one I that I pretty much believe to be true, especially since the wizard seemed as if he would do anything to keep her from awakening. But who was the wizard that cast the sleeping spell on Zelda? Sheesh. I'll tackle that one another day.

3: One of the more simpler explanations is the belief that the wizard at the end of Zelda 2 is just a guardian that the gods of Hyrule placed to protect the Triforce of Courage. I do not believe this to be true, since the gods created the Triforce complete. No one is exactly sure how it got split up, but I assure you, the gods did not do it. So, therefore, the little guy couldn't be entrusted by the spirits to guard the supreme treasure.

4: The final explanation that I can think of is the belief that the King of Hyrule or someone like that entrusted the wizard to guard it. Maybe the wizard is actually one of the Seven Wise Men. Maybe if Link just told the little dude that he needed the Triforce to wake up Zelda, he could have saved himself quite a battle.

And those are my findings. Honestly, I think that it's either someone that a great King or maybe even Zelda herself had entrusted to guard it, or perhaps it was the wizard that cast the sleeping spell on Zelda. Someone wrote to Nintendo and asked them about it, and they just gave a sacrastic reply. So, since no facts are really known, it's all pretty much guesswork. It's up to you what you will believe until the facts are known.