My name is Laurie, and I am fourteen years old. It is ten o'clock at night on January 22, if I'm correct, and my parents are upstairs, bugging me to go to sleep. Yeah, right.

For some background information on me, I've always had a deep, and very intimate aquaintance to some of the most vague and elusive aspects of the mind, the most prominant being dreams, prophecy and divinity. These three things are the basis for my personality almost entirely. But enough about me alone.

I believe my dad first got the origonal Zelda game in 1989, although my awareness of this legend might have preceded that year if the cartoon came out before then, which I'm not sure of; I have memories of that series, but the timeline of it is confusing for me. Anyway, I don't remember seeing my dad first playing it, and I certainly don't recall (or even believe) what my mother accounts, of how my politic-buff father stopped reading newspapers and watching tv so that he could play all day. I still laugh at the idea even now. But I do remember being entranced by that vibrant overworld theme, and I do remember subconciousely entertaining whimsical dreams of being Link and venturing out on rather bizzarre "quests". One included my finding a notebook that had Link on the cover (though it looked uncannily similar to Ranma from Ranma 1/2...). As soon as I picked it up, Princess Zelda appeared and informed me that I must retrieve, in an eroded field, a small shining sphere (which seemed suspiciousely similar to a tennis ball...).

Zelda and I have so much in common. We look alike, we think alike, I mean, come on! Even down to the dreams! But Link and I... we might as well be the same person. We're both archers, we're both into the fighting arts (more martial arts for me). Again, the whole dreams thing(this time both in Ocarina of Time AND Zelda 2), we're both very musical, and we even share the same sense of fashion. Of course, I don't have access to any Goron throne room entrances or Ice caverns. Not that that keeps me from wearing my favorite pair of tight white pants, or anything ;) ;) ;)

Basically, I've grown up with Link. He's just become a part of me that seems to shine through to anyone who can recognize it.

Of course, there's a slight problem with this- I'm a girl. I mean, the fact that I'm a gamer and a girl at the same time is wierd enough to my peers at high school- but the fact that I'm a gamer and a girl who idolizes and even identifies herself with a videogame character- a MALE videogame character- well, let's just say my peers...tolerate it. At best. I mean, way back in elementary school, and even now, the only girl characters in Nintendo games that are actually talked about by the guys (who seem to be the only people at my school who I can talk to about games whatsoever) are the incredibly sexy damsels in distress. Not to mention the even more sexy (or should I say slutty?) girls on systems like playstation, who don't have an ounce of intelligence or even ability outside firepower that any guy could use, too (you can tell I'm a huge femminist). So, I guess you could say that I was in a bit of emotional turmoil. Okay, so I was having a full-blown out identity crisis.

See, this was my logic: Certainly, there was no videogame character I could be identified with better than Link, and hopefully, that could maybe even be accurately said the other way around too. Okay, so I'm wishing. But, being the femminist that I am, I desperately needed to be able to identify with Zelda, too. I mean, it would certainly be easier with Ocarina of time, because in this game they put much emphasis on the princess being intelligent as she was beautiful, and having special telepathic ability, prophetic dreams, should have been a piece of cake for me to be able to admire Princess Zelda, but there was still something wrong. Maybe it was the fact that I had spent so many years playing as Link, I was simply more used to being the hero himself, of course. Or maybe it was the fact that I was still very uncomfortable with the fact that she gets kidnapped by Ganon- I mean, I guess the story wouldn't be the same, but I still felt some disrespect for her for not being able to prevent getting captured, I mean with the dreams, and all- even if it was inevitable, still... But even more than that, I felt fear for her. Being trapped for seven years by Ganondorf, held hostage in his castle, who knows what she had to go through... that idea was certainly not something I would want to identify myself with. And don't tell me if I'm wrong- I haven't beaten the game yet. But I think the most important thing to me was that she didn't have enough involvement in the game. We only saw her about a maximum of three times before saving her, right? And if Link and Zelda really are destined to be together (whether in this game or just the series itself), then shouldn't there be some sort of romantic involvement between them during the game? I mean, I know, I'm a romantic, but really, here!

Okay, the next part here is a pretty big spoiler if you ask me- one that you already know if you beat the game, or read the entire Most Wanted Tricks page on this website. But I'm just warning you now so you don't flame me or anything. Okay. Here goes.

A few days ago, I had the wierdest Zelda dream that I ever had. Not wierd as in the tennis-ball one wierd, more wierd as in, it was very, very emotional, and it even looked like it might if it happened in the videogame! It started out where Link was in this secret grotto (oh, yeah! This is the first one I had where I wasn't Link!), and he found out somehow that Sheik was Zelda's father! This was definately just a product of my subconscious imagination. I assure you I didn't hear any rumors before then about Sheiks identity, though I did have a theory. I believed that Sheik was an older version of Link himself- the red eyes were just an illusion. I thought this made sense because I had heard before that there might be a secret way to play a secret character, and I naturally assumed, once I heard about him, that Sheik was it, so I thought it was only logical that you could get a lot of replay value out of playing by an older, more experienced, (and still incredibly sexy) Link. It made sense, right? I mean, Link could travel through time, right? Also, I don't know if it was just me, or if it was intended to be this way, but I felt some sort of... connection between Sheik and Link, as if Sheik knew how Link felt. It was almost as if there was an... affection... that I sensed Sheik felt for him, especially when Link learned the Bolero of fire. But, no... that wasn't right. I mean, Sheik, and Link? I personally would have found that very interesting, but... no, of course not. Link and Zelda were destined to be together. In the dream, though, Sheik was Zelda's father? That would mean that he was the king of Hyrule. That would mean that he had invited Ganondorf into his castle and jeopardized the safety of his daughter, so on. Link was completely, utterly amazed to hear this. He asked a gossip stone a question about where to find Zelda. Of course, it said, in the royal castle. Link set out to find her, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sheik lying in the field, near a wall. He was dying. No movie-type scene happened, either. He could have passed right by, I mean, he wouldn't have even seen him if he didn't look over there. He came over, though, and Sheik was growing paler by the second. He whispered something to Link, but he couldn't hear it. Somehow, though, Link knew what he had said- "Bring her home." Sheik knew. He knew that Link had found out. He died shortly after.

Don't believe me? It gets worse.

A day later, I revisited this webpage, checking out the Most Wanted Tricks page, and guess what I saw under Playing as Sheik? Yup. You guessed it. If I may quote Video Gamer X, "but then again we know that Sheik is actually Zelda (oops, sorry for the spoiler) so you would actually be playing as Zelda..."

You know, I can have prophetic dreams, and I can have dreams about Zelda, but the two combined? That's just a little wierd, even for me. I still don't really believe it, but it makes so much sense! Of course! I don't know all the info yet, but think about it here. Who was Zelda's primary influence when she was a child? Impa, of course. The sheikah. Where do you think she got the idea to disguise as a sheikah? And it's not like a princess dressing up as a guy was normally unacceptable to me anyway, I mean, I write stories like that all the time, I can't believe the thought never crossed my mind!

The idea, though, that Zelda actually did that... I think that is the coolest thing on the planet. I mean, she actually went out, dressed up as a guy, and really helped Link out on his quest! I mean, that was relieving, in a way, finding that out, because then I know that she's alright, and I know that Ganondorf dosen't have complete control over her. Also, the fact that she's involved... and then the Bolero of Fire...

It's no coincidence that I found this out the way I did. I don't know. Maybe I just always had an angel on my shoulder as well as a song in my heart when it came to Zelda. Maybe I dreampt that for a reason. To change me. To help me be more compassionate towards Zelda. I mean, I know it sounds corny, but things change you- experiences, whether real or virtual, change you, especially when you're that young. I mean, so many people are so affected by the more perverse games like Final Fantasy 7 and Colony Wars and they don't even think it's wierd that they might have disturbing nightmares afterward, that they might find themselves thinking darker thoughts, responding to things more sarcastically, whatever characteristics they've adopted from those games and their characters. So then why is it thought to be wierd that someone would adopt more admirable characteristics from a cleaner, more wholesome game like Zelda? Why is it thought that the things we put our lives into don't become a part of us? And that we don't become a part of them? Oh, sure, it's just a videogame, right? But it was thought up by someone, right? It was tested by someone, edited by someone, played by someone, and these people have put a part of themselves into it by doing so. You get a little out of it, you put a little into it... It's a whole process. Like Link would be defenseless without his sword and weapons and intuition and experience, so would the game be without creators, fans, and obsessive's like myself. I mean, really- by now you must have thought up so many sarcastic responces, how could you and all that effort not become a part of the game? ;) ;) ;)