The Great Deku Tree and Navi

THE GREAT DEKU TREE AND NAVI  

"The time has come to test thy courage... I have been cursed... I need you to break the curse with your wisdom and courage. Dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?" (Legend of Zelda 1998). 

The Great Deku Tree plays a small roll as the mentor for the main character, Link. In this Japan oriented video game that has impacted video gamers including myself since 1998 The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time had introduced The Great Deku Tree as the "Wise Old Man" in the story.The physical appearance of The Great Deku Tree resembles the image of an Asian wise old man, for example in movies such as The Karate Kid's Mr Miyagi, Kung Fu Panda's Master Shifu, and Ninja turtles' Master Splinter. All these Sensei's traits have a couple of things in common such as their ways of guidance to success, they are all humble, and not to mention they all have the bushy eye brows and excessive facial hair. In the game, The Great Deku Tree is the guardian for all the age-less children also known as the Kokiri race. The Great Deku trees role durring the game is to send fairies to the age-less children to help guide them with advise. In a way, the fairies also play an important role that relates to the wise old man stereotype. Most importantly Navi, Link's usher that is a female, helps Link overcome obstacles, solve puzzles, and reminds him of his missions. The Great Deku Tree and Navi both resemble the wise old man stereotype because both guide Link on his journey to save the world. In my opinion, this is a positive encouragement towards the stereotype because having someone's guidance can help a person become more contemplative, tactful, and composed. The Great Deku Tree and Navi both add on to the idea of the Wise old man because they resemble the image that the media has created towards the wise old man stereotype.