King Bulblin rides into Kakariko Village with a couple Bulblin lackeys. Most of the children run to get out of their path, but Beth freezes. Colin sees this and runs to push her out of the way, getting nabbed himself. Just then Link rides in on Epona; King Bulblin sees Link coming and holds up Colin to taunt him, and the Bulblins ride off. Link gives chase out into Hyrule Field, where King Bulbin invites Link to come after him before summoning archers to make Link’s job trickier. Link has to ride to catch up to King Bulblin’s boar, which is tough enough, plus he has an annoying tendency to turn around just as Link catches him. Still, after Link’s hit King Bulblin enough, King Bulblin rides for a nearby bridge. Link and King Bulblin size each other up across the way and ride at one another. Once Link’s hit King Bulblin a couple times, the King goes flying off the bridge. The game stops to savor Link’s victory with Link and Epona posing dramatically (Epona rearing back and Link holding his sword aloft).
Link takes Colin back to Kakariko Village, where he’s glad to see that everyone else is okay. He gives a short speech, then passes out again. Renado takes him to then inn and lays him in a bed, where Beth and Luda fuss over him. He’ll be fine, he just needs to rest. Elsewhere in town, Malo has taken over the town’s store, and sells a Hylian Shield. There’s a pair of golden ants in the village area: one in the graveyard, one in a building in town. So, scorecard: 6/24 golden insects collected, 0/? knowing what the heck they’re for. I’m just glad I don’t have to keep them in bottles.
As Link starts up the mountain again, the Goron lookout tries to bowl him over again. With the Iron Boots and his goat-handling skills, Link wrangles the Goron this time and is able to continue his ascent. There are more rolling Gorons as Link makes his way up the path. Bulblin archers have set up in the area with the wolf stone. In the next big open area, there’s a cutscene where one Goron curls up, another jumps on his back, and the curled up Goron jumps up, sending the other Goron into the air to start rolling at Link. This is a hint for how Link’s supposed to make his way up the cliffs ahead: there are Gorons who’ll fight him and curl up when they get hurt enough, and Link can jump on them to be thrown into the air. After a brief rock shower, there’s another cutscene where a giant rock falls out of the portal in the sky, and Midna wonders if this is how Death Mountain welcomes all its visitors.
Link finally makes it to the main chamber, where six Gorons start rolling at him at once. Link prepares to try to take them all, but the elder, Gor Coron calls them off. He’s impressed Link’s made it this far, but still isn’t quite willing to let Link into the mines, which are sacred to the Gorons. He challenges Link to a sumo match, and since Link hasn’t had a chance to put on the iron boots, he’s thrown out of the ring almost immediately. A second match goes better, so Gor Coron explains the situation in the mines. The Goron elders and patriarch, Darbus, went into the mountain to investigate the cause of the mountain’s volatility. The Gorons have a treasure inside the mines, and when Darbus touched it, he was transformed into a monster, which only made the mountain even more volatile. They sealed the mines, but now Link may be able to help in ways they couldn’t. Gor Coron has the guards stand aside, and Link heads into the mines to see what he can do.
Back in my first post on Twilight Princess, I said I understood the game followed the template of Ocarina of Time, while not quite knowing what that meant. Well, now I can say I get that a little better: the story beats have largely copied over; Link even has to go back to Ordon Village to learn a trick to convince the Gorons to let him help them. Some have shuffled around (the trip to Hyrule Castle to meet Zelda and get an idea of the larger plot happens before the first dungeon). There’s more story in Ordon Village than “Hey, it’s me, the Deku Tree. Here’s a fairy and the first plot coupon. Go get the other two. Oops, I died.” The Fused Shadows don’t seem connected to the goddesses or the virtues of the Triforce, but the two spirits watching over the dungeons are Faron (cf. Farore) and Eldin. Even what I’ve seen of the map is fairly similar, although Kakariko Village connects to Hyrule Field in two locations, and there didn’t seem to be an exit for Zora’s River/Domain.
Next: Walking on the ceiling.
