Something about Zelda has been bugging me lately

[King Aquamentus]

Death Mountain.

Just, Death Mountain in general. The name makes it sound like it should be one of the last places Link needs to go, or at least the most climactic. As of late in the series though, It has generally been Hyrule Castle or something, and Death Mountain is just a token fire area you might only visit once halfway through the game. This isn't to say it always came last back in the day, but the way earlier games handled it still made the name seem more appropriate for visiting later on.

I don't know, maybe its just me.

[CJC]

"It's just a name, like the Death Zone or the Zone of No Return. All the zones have names like that in the Galaxy of Terror" -Professor Hubert Farnsworth

It never bothered me, probably because the place was pretty deadly. I mean, you can't even APPROACH Lava without protective gear or you'll die (Wait, only Ocarina of Time handled that correctly).
I think the problem was the addition of a settlement in the mountain proper. The Goron presence made it a friendly place as opposed to a maze filled with Diaras.

[King Aquamentus]

It wouldn't be so bad even with Ocarina if they switched the order of a few spiritual stones. It seems very unusual to me that Ganon goes from Level 9 and a tower and all that to a desert.

Interestingly, his tower in Wind Waker *is* located on Death Mountain. Though no idea why.

[mrz84]

Interestingly, his tower in Wind Waker *is* located on Death Mountain. Though no idea why.

Didn't know that. Interesting fact.

[King Aquamentus]

Don't forget you do visit Hyrule in The Wind Waker. Not just theorize based on islands. Anyways, yeah When you go to Ganon's Tower at the end, you walk into Death Mountain to do it.

That's something I miss about the series now, though. Ganon should make that mountain his crib more often.

[TheDarkOne]

What I found interesting in Zelda II is that Death Mountain was at the southern part of the world map instead of the north and you only need to visit it once. Very different from other games, especially in LTTP when you need to visit the area frequently.

[King Aquamentus]

I like how in Alttp it is both the site of the last pendant *and* the last two dark work dungeons. In a meta sort of way, Tal Tal Mountain Range was effective in the same way with the last THREE dungeons.

And yes, it was an interesting bit of continuity that Zelda II put Death Mountain down south, yet you could see the original game's overworld below it. Even if it wasn't that climactic in Zelda II, we got the Valley of Death instead, which fulfilled the same general role (and may also be on a mountain)

[TheDarkOne]

Of course, LA had to have a mountain range just like Death Mountain, but they couldn't call it that since it didn't take place in Hyrule. I think it was the first one, and also the only one with no appearance of Zelda (Marin doesn't count since she isn't actually Zelda).

As per seeing the original game's overworld below Death Mountain in Zelda II, I never really noticed. I haven't played Zelda II in ages, though. I never liked it as much as the other Zelda games.