Summary
With a franchise that’s been around as long asThe Legend of Zeldahas, there are bound to be a fewgood Easter eggscropping up in popular culture, but there are also someweird Easter eggstoo. Not only are some of these cropping up in other video game franchises, butThe Legend of Zelda’spopularity has led to references making their way into various movies and TV shows as well.
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While some of these references require a bit more experience with the series to recognize, others are pretty easy for anyone who knows the basic details of the game to catch on to. Of all the Easter eggs out there, these are the ones that made us stop and say, “Wait, what?”
6"Hey, look, listen."
Gravity Falls – “Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons”
Gravity Fallsis a Disney show created by Alex Hirsch about siblings who are spending their summer with their great-uncle Stan in a town called Gravity Falls. While they’re there, they experience a series of weird events due to paranormal activity and other local mysteries. It began in 2012 and only had two seasons, the second ending in 2016. Season 2 Episode 13 was titled “Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons” and was based on the RPG Dungeons and Dragons, which leads players to anew adventure with each campaignbased on their individual character decisions.
RELATED:Sonic Superstars Hides a 32-Year-Old Easter Egg in Plain SightAlongside the DnD references, many viewers also noticed a familiar call to listen from a certain fairy. InThe Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of TimeLink is followed around, some may even say bossed around, by his fairy companion Navi. She regularly calls out “Hey! Listen!” to players while they are trying to focus on something or get somewhere. While there is somedivision among Zelda fans about Navi, in Gravity Falls, she gets smacked like a fly on Stan’s back as she calls out, “Hey, look, listen!”
5Gumball’s Majora’s Mask Moon Costume
The Amazing World of Gumball – “The Ghouls”
Another children’s cartoon,The Amazing World of Gumball, has also shown its video game knowledge by inserting a slightly obscure character. In this Cartoon Network series, viewers follow a cat named Gumball and an assortment of animal and object characters in their humorous day-to-day activities. In Season 6 Episode 26, “The Ghouls,” the characters go to school in their Halloween costumes.
Sarah’s character is normally an ice cream cone, where her head is a scoop of ice cream with some drips and her body is an ice cream cone. This structure for the character makes her costume design genius. Those who have playedThe Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Maskmay immediately recognize the terrifying moon that plagues their anxiety throughout the whole game, and haunts Link through one of thedarkest “Game Over” screens. She has her face painted as the moon with the design of a town on her cone body, displaying the impending doom of the moon coming closer and closer to impact with the ground below.
ThisZeldaEaster egg comes off as funny and is mostly light-hearted and cute, but when you stop and think about the details of this interaction, it’s a little bit weird.Super Mario RPGcame out in 1996 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and is being released again for the Nintendo Switch in November 2023. It follows Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom crew as they look to collect all seven Star Pieces to repair Star Road after it was shattered by Exor.
In the game, there are many Inns to stay at, but it costs coins to do so. However, at the Rose Town Inn, Gaz lets Mario stay a night for free after talking with her. When Mario wakes, he sees that he now has a random roommate. The green hat and blonde hair, as well as thedistinctive music theme that plays, reveal that this is the silent hero, Link. While it’s cute to have a cameo appearance from a familiar face here, how weird would it be to wake up in a hotel room to a stranger in the other bed? A stranger who comes with their own theme song!
2Ricardio’s New Body
Adventure Time – “Lady and Peebles”
Season 4 Episode 19 ofAdventure Time, titled"Lady and Peebles," sees Princess Bubblegum and Lady Rainicorn searching for Finn and Jake after the pair went missing following a battle with Ice King. Princess Bubblegum and Lady track the duo to Black Ice Cave, where they find Ice King with a gaping hole in his chest. Just then, Ricardio the Heart appears, informing the two that he burrowed into Ice King’s chest to make himself a new body.
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That new body bears a striking resemblance to Majora’s Incarnation, which Link battles after first defeating Majora’s Mask, the villain’s first form. Majora’s Incarnation is a challenging boss fight and gives Link a lot more trouble than Ricardio gives Princess Bubblegum. She merely rips Ricardio’s newly-formed arms off and then repeatedly punches him in the face. She then constructs a new heart for Ice King out of Ricardio’s “sinews,” some toffee, and maracas. The whole thing is weird, from theZeldareference to the plot of the episode itself, althoughthat’s nothing new forAdventure Time.
Another long-lasting franchise still around in video games today isFinal Fantasy.The very first game in the series was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987. Upon its release, it was in direct competition withThe Legend of ZeldaandDragon Quest.Players journey as four Warriors of Light trying to bring light back to the crystals and protect the world from darkness.
In Elfheim, there’s a set of three gravestones where the left one reads, “Here lies Link.” In the original NES version for the US, it read “Here lies Erdrick,” but was updated to the former when it wasreleased again on PlayStation Plus. The combination of the town name, Elfheim, and the appearance of the characters there matching Link’s look makes it clear that this is meant to be a joke toward the Nintendo icon, and perhaps a bit of a challenge as well. WasFinal Fantasydeclaring itself theZeldakiller?
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