The tunnel leading into the Lakebed Temple – before the location title pops up, even – has Shell Blades and Baris, two enemies that have historically favored the hookshot as a means of elimination. There are little targets all over the place inside the dungeon, as well as Helmasaurs (which should be the ideal target to practice the back slice on, but the bastards move too fast; by time Link’s rolling around behind them, they’ve turned to block). I put none of this together, nor the fact that the Water Temple in Ocarina dropped the Longshot, so I was pleasantly surprised when the dungeon’s treasure turned out to be the latest hookshot variant, the Clawshot. (And even then, I fought a couple Helmasaurs before remembering the “hookshot their masks off” trick.) In addition to its obvious functions, it can hold on to the ceiling while Link dangles and let Link skip some tedious climbing by grappling straight to the top of vine walls.
The central room of the dungeon has two main levels and a giant staircase that can be spun around. The goal of the dungeon is to raise the water level to the point where Link can swim to the platform on the central column with the boss door. There are two sets of water gates to open, one to the east, one to the west. The central room has the map and Ooccoo (how’d she get into an underwater temple?), the east side has the miniboss who drops the Clawshot, and the west side has the compass and big key. The water puzzles are thankfully not nearly as hard as they’ve been in, say, Ocarina or Oracle of Ages. The only really bad sequence is remembering there was a chest way up one of the ramps that got turned into a waterslide that he can maybe get to now with the Clawshot. Link has to use the iron boots to make his way up the ramp/slide, and it’s a long fscking way to go at iron boot speed. He can speed it up a little by walking on the ledge and Clawshotting, but it’s still rough. Oh, and that chest had rupees, which I couldn’t take because my wallet was full. (There are two heart pieces in the dungeon, but they come rather late.)
The miniboss fight appears to be empty aside from a few small enemies that fall to the floor. Midna has a bad feeling about it (her words, not mine) and encourages Link to look around; he spots Deku Toad against the ceiling. (Very reminiscent of the start of the Gohma fight in Ocarina.) Deku Toad is a giant bloated toad that carries the proud Legend of Zelda tradition of “boss-type creature with a bajillion eyes” (Patra, Arrghus, Vitreous, Wart). The "eyes" are actually eggs that hatch when Deku Toad shakes them loose, and Link needs to destroy all of them. Once that’s done, Deku Toad jumps up and tries to land on Link; if it fails, it belly-flops with its tongue lolling out in an obvious invitation to whack it with the sword. In its death throes, it coughs up a treasure chest with the Clawshot. The music for this fight is oddly comical, and I swear I hear the first few notes of Ballad of the Wind Fish in there.
The final boss fight takes place entirely underwater, which I believe is a first for the series. At first the boss resembles Morpha – a tube with an eye floating in it. Then it pokes its mouth out, surrounded by a lot of other tentacles, so, not quite the same, although its name is similar: Morpheel. (“Twilit Aquatic”? I get that they have the whole “twilit” thing going like Majora’s Mask had “masked,” but this is the best they could do?) There are two phases to this fight: First, the eye rolls around between tentacles, and Link can Clawshot it out and whack it a few times. After enough of this, Morpheel emerges from the ground in full, revealing itself to be a giant sea worm/serpent/eel, with the eye nestled on its back. So Link needs to take the iron boots off, and Clawshot to the eye to land on Morpheel’s back and strike at the eye some more. Like Diababa and Fyrus, this is an easy but very dynamic and fun fight.
Midna claims the last Fused Shadow, and says she’s ready to prove Zant’s power a false one. She tells Link not to resent her for dragging him all over Hyrule, but also apologizes for it. When Link’s ready to go, she teleports him outside.
Next: Link and Midna confront… no, wait. In Twilight Hyrule, villain confronts you!
