thisavrou | text

Dear everyone,

Hi. My name is Link. I have been on the ship for seven months. [And still formats everything he writes on his MID like a letter, apparently.] A lot of things have happened. They've made me think a lot about something I didn't think about at all back where I'm from. But I still don't have an answer. So I thought I would ask everyone what they thought.

When is it OK to kill? I know sometimes you have to hunt in order to eat. So as long as you are not wasteful or mean about it, that's OK, I think. Sometimes you have to defend people or stop a bad person from hurting other people. I know that's very important. But sometimes it's good people hurting other people and they won't listen to you. Sometimes it's someone who doesn't know better. Sometimes you fight because you don't understand them and you think you are defending others. How do you know when it is right and when it is wrong?

One time my previous teacher Alice told me that it's hard even for grown-ups to know what is right and what is wrong. She said everyone has to decide for themselves. I am still thinking about what she meant every day. I think there have to be some things that are always good and some things that are always evil. But it's getting harder to know what those things are the more I think about it. So I would like to know what everyone else has decided for yourselves, if that's okay.

Thank you,
Link

[With just the slightest bit of poking around at the information about the MID that posted this, it becomes clear very quickly that this is coming from a kid... Yeah.]

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There have been a lot of things I guess. Not long after I came here, I talked to another kid. We thought maybe we were from the same world. They talked about monsters being trapped underground by humans. They're the one who made me first think about whether killing monsters was a good thing or a bad thing.

["Okay, okay... I guess if you really want to think of yourself as a murderer, you can."]

And then Alice helped attack someone, and we talked about that, too. That's when she told me what I mentioned. And then the Caducans attacked us.

I remember being pretty angry at Alice because Rinzler is my friend. But I saw him do things she never did. And Peter did things she never saw, either. I'm angry, but she did what she thought was right under the circumstances.

Are those monsters very much like the monsters here?

If she did what she thought was right, but then is wrong instead

[There's a long pause here. Link doesn't know how to explain why that confuses him. But it's been a big stumbling block for him.]

How are we supposed to know what's right and wrong? I don't want to hurt anyone because I thought I was doing the right thing. I'm supposed to help people, not hurt them.

The monsters here are a lot nicer. The Stalfos in Hyrule and Termina are dangerous. They don't try to talk to anyone, they just attack people. Stalfos happen when grown-ups get lost in the Lost Woods.

Are you pretty confident the monsters here are different?

Maybe you could talk to Fi about yours.

[There's another long delay.]

No.

But if the Stalfos back home are like the Stalfos here, I

What do I do?

[Miller's taken killing so casually for so long, accepted it as a part of his life. Describing to a kid how he shouldn't feel guilty? ...This boy should have had a chance to grow up before these questions came up.]

Sometimes you have to be okay with deciding your life is more important than the person that's coming after you, threatening to kill you. Good or bad, you need to survive. And sometimes other people need you to help them survive because they can't do it by themselves.

Did I tell you the monsters here made me nervous when I met them?

[Link takes a couple of deep breaths. That's an okay way to think...? He -- He thinks he can do that. Even if there are still some questions he has about it.]

Yeah. I am okay with protecting other people. I am okay with fighting for the people who can't. I am still worried though about maybe if there's a way to stop monsters without killing them. The ones that aren't doing it because they're evil but because they're hungry or something.

No, you didn't.

Sometimes you don't get the time to stop them peacefully. Or they don't leave you with a choice even if you do, like the Cadacuns. And sometimes it's not possible for you to make someone changed into something terrible better, even if you would like to.

While the monsters here don't exactly look like them, the dark eyeholes, the pale parts, they don't look exactly the same but it's close enough to remind me of the things that took my arm and leg. They're a lot different, though. The things that attacked me only wanted to kill. They couldn't think. The monsters here have thoughts and emotions and motivations.

Sounds like yours don't have all that much to think about.

One time, I signed up to the buddy system to help new people. The person I was sent to help said something like that, too. We were talking about the hunters and the whales then.

Most of the monsters back home didn't talk. But maybe they just talked in a way I couldn't understand without magic, like the whales. Stalfos attacked me first, and I thought it was because they were evil, but the monster here said maybe they were scared and that's why.

I don't know. I think about it a lot. I don't know if there's a way for me to find out while I'm here. But I'm scared I killed monsters who weren't bad. Not just Stalfos, but all kinds.

Edited 2016-08-15 11:50 (UTC)

Were they dangerous?

If you had to protect yourself or other people from them, whether they were bad or not, you didn't have much of a choice. And as much as I like the idea of being a warrior personally, being a fighter, a soldier, I do wish for more peaceful solutions sometimes.

Maybe just keep protecting the people better at finding conflict resolutions until they manage to work it out.

I think so, yes. A lot of the monsters I fought were inside temples. The evil in the temples were making it difficult for the Sages to awaken. I always thought the monsters were there because of the evil, because they were evil. And I have been worried that I was wrong.

I think I can do that. Protect the people who know how to find peace. I like that.

What do you like about being a warrior?

Well, as a soldier fighting with other people gives me a sense of family. We're people that depend on each other to survive. I think people that bleed for each other might as well be joined by blood. You have to have faith and compassion in those people, recognize you're fighting for each other, with each other.

As a warrior...

When I was your age, because I looked different, I wasn't treated well by other kids my age. Beat me up for having blond hair and blue eyes, because I looked like an enemy. So now the prospect of victory and success drives me. Coupled with the idea of fighting for someone I believe in [or against someone he doesn't] and it's about as close to content with life as I can be.

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