Marked

Waking of Wednesday, June 20, 2018 ~ 5

Marked

From the Kuh Takkar Shrine I hiked all the way to a point called Zirco Mesa, and, as I had done on many mountaintops before.... I found a Korok, hiding under a rock and thinking he was just so clever....

Maybe this was when I had looked at my map. All the land around me was so rugged, and I wondered where Vah Naboris might stand when I was done with it—until I remembered running across the weird, flat, empty top of Spectacle Rock.

....If I were gonna park a Divine Beast somewhere.... I might just do it there.

The thought was encouraging anyway—I had already visited the spot, and besides that, there was nothing of terrible interest there that I would miss should it become inaccessible.

Maybe this was when I had looked a little longer at my map.

Maybe this was when I had looked a little closer.

At some point, in scanning over the towering steeps of the Gerudo Highlands, I chanced to skim across the Yigas’ Nest up Satan Canyon.

There was something new there.... something else that had not shown up on my map before.... Very close to the habitation-icon, almost right underneath it.

It was a red X.

And it was labeled RIP.

D:

That was because I had clicked “continue” instead of “quit”.

That was because I had clicked “continue” instead of “quit”....

That was when the Yiga had killed me. I had perished using the World’s Most Interesting Bomb.

And I thought of Mario Maker videos I’d seen, showing where so many players had died in each level.... that little red X....

My map was marked. It was marked now.

I looked at my saves.

I could go back. If I wanted to.

I could.

....

I wonder why I didn’t.

Hm.

I bet there were a lot of players whose maps may have been peppered with X’s.

But mine never had been.

And so, so long ago when I had gone back at the Eastern Abbey, after that very first Guardian had shot me—

I had erased that death. I had wondered about it at the time.

But this one....

So this is what happens. This was what happened when you died in Breath of the Wild.

Mipha didn’t save me.

....

I chalked it up to that, and—I could’ve gone back....

But I didn’t.

I don’t know why I didn’t.

—And carried on.