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The Legend of Zelda series is full of fun and interesting characters of all shapes and sizes. However, one of the cutest characters to grace our consoles has to be Makar from The Wind Waker.
Makar is a Korok, showing up in their first series appearance, and is a stellar ambassador for them as a whole. Small, chubby, and downright adorable, his oversized violin and bow are the cherry on top of such a charming package. More than just a cute face (leaf?), Makar is crucial to Link’s journey across The Great Sea to defeat Ganon once again. Join me, and we’ll take a closer look at what makes him so special.
Warning, this article will openly discuss events in the late game of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Please proceed with caution if you want to experience this excellent game spoiler free.
Who is Makar?
- Game Appearances: The Wind Waker, Breath of the Wild (referenced)
- Race: Korok
- Family:Â Fado (distant ancestor), The Great Deku Tree
- Friends: Linder
- Key Locations: Forest Haven, Forbidden Woods, Wind Temple
- Related Dungeons: Forbidden Woods, Wind Temple
- Related Songs: The Wind God’s Aria
Makar is a character from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. He is a Korok, one of the residents of the Forest Haven, home of The Great Deku Tree. Like all koroks in this game, Makar is small, his main body has a wood pattern, and his face is a leaf with holes cut out to mimic facial features. Uniquely, Makar is tiny and round, and he plays a blue, leaf-patterned violin (which looks more like a cello considering how small he is) with a comically oversized bow made from a branch. He plays a significant role in the annual Korok Ceremony as a musician. As a Korok, Makar can fly using a leaf propellor and plant seeds.
Later in the game, Makar is revealed to be the Wind Sage. You need his help to access the Wind Temple and restore power to Master Sword. After awakening him as the Wind Sage, you take Makar to the Wind Temple and escort him throughout the dungeon, using his skills as a Korok to solve puzzles.
The Forbidden Woods
We meet Makar early on in the game during Link’s hunt for the three goddess pearls, but it takes some effort to get there. After visiting Dragon Roost Island, the King of Red Lions directs you to see the Great Deku Tree at the Forest Haven to find Farore’s Pearl. The Great Deku Tree is more than happy to help us on our quest. He will give us the pearl as soon as the Koroks have conducted the Korok Ceremony: a big party with music to greet a new year and send the Koroks around the Great Sea to plant new forests.
Unfortunately, the musician, Makar, has fallen into the Forbidden Woods, another island off the coast of the Forest Haven, and the ceremony cannot take place without him. So, as is standard in Zelda games, we must brave the dangers of the Forbidden Woods to save Makar and help the ceremony get underway.
We don’t meet Makar until we reach the very end of the dungeon. Upon entering the boss room, we finally see our adorable friend for the first time, happy that his rescue has arrived. Only to be swallowed by a Kalle Demos! The Kalle Demos is a creature that resembles a hybrid of a deku baba and a jellyfish. It hangs from the ceiling of the boss room by several tentacles and sends other tentacles out to attack you throughout the battle.
To fight the Kalle Demos and free Makar, you’ll need to use your new toy from the dungeon, the Boomerang. Cut the tentacles suspending the boss from the ceiling, exposing its weak center ripe for bashing. Be careful, though, as the tentacles grow back if you don’t take them all out quick enough. If you’re familiar with Ocarina of Time, this battle is reminiscent of the Barinade, the boss from the end of Jabu Jabu’s Belly.
This fight is easy enough in the HD remake for the WiiU, thanks to the motion controls, but if you’re playing on the Gamecube (like I do), it can be a little tricky to aim. Keep going, though; once you get used to the rhythm of the controls, it’s very doable.
After saving Makar, you return to the Forest Haven, and the Korok Ceremony gets underway! We have the delight of watching the Koroks dance around and hearing the music of our new little friend until they all fly off to spread forests across the world. After finishing the ceremony and receiving Farore’s Pearl from the Great Deku Tree, you can find Makar hanging out in the Forest Haven, at least you can until…
The Sage of Wind
Around the game’s midpoint, you’ll have drawn Master Sword and saved the girls Ganon kidnapped, including your sister, with the help of the pirates. However, you have also awakened Tetra as the reincarnation of Princess Zelda and must go on a quest to restore Master Sword to its full power. To do this, you require the help of the sages of Wind and Earth.
After obtaining the Iron Boots, you can access the Wind Temple, where you learn the Wind God’s Aria. Playing it with the Wind Waker will summon the Wind Sage: a Kokiri called Fado. Or at least you summon his ghost. Yes, we found the Wind Sage, but Ganon dealt with him long ago. Have no fear; Fado tells us we must find the next Wind Sage, his descendant. We’ll recognize this person as they’ll have a violin that looks just like his. A violin, you say? I think we know exactly who that is.
Finding Makar
So we head off to Forest Haven once more to find Makar and get his help. Before this part of the game, you could find Makar off to the side of the lily pad you stand on to talk to the Great Deku Tree. However, he isn’t there now.
To find Makar, we have to listen for his music; this will tell us where he is. Makar isn’t that hard to find; you’ll hear his music immediately as you arrive on Forest Haven island. Along the pathway up to the forest entrance, there’s a small pair of waterfalls. You can see little musical notes floating out from the right waterfall, so it stands to reason that he’s behind it. But how do we get back there?
I have to admit, explaining it to you now will make it sound easy- and it is easy- but I really struggled to do this when I played Wind Waker blind. And every subsequent playthrough as well, because I have a terrible memory. As such, while there is a very simple method of accessing Makar’s secret cave behind the waterfall, I have an alternate method of getting in that I want to share too.
The easy (and likely intended) way of entering the cave is using the grappling hook. Stand in front of the waterfalls and look at the grappling bar above you. Using the grappling hook on the ledge above you takes you towards the Forest Haven, but from down here, it will launch you directly into the waterfall. The alternate way uses the Deku Leaf and potentially the Wind Waker. Climb to the ledge before the grappling point, where the trail of deku babas is. Make sure the wind is blowing in the right direction using the Wind Waker if you need to, and then jump off the ledge with the Deku Leaf. You’ll sail the wind into the waterfall.
Whichever way you did it (I highly advise you to do it the sensible way), you’ll trigger a loading screen and find yourself in a small cave. We found Makar! He’s practicing for next year’s Korok festival in private to surprise everyone with his song. What a great little guy! Never mind that everyone can hear the music from outside.
As Fado told us, play the Wind God’s Aria for Makar to awaken him as the new Wind Sage, playing a jaunty little song with Fado. Makar understands what he has to do and asks us to bring him to the Wind Temple so he can help us restore power to Master Sword.
At this point, the screen will fade to black, and you’ll be blessed with what is, in my opinion, the single greatest thing a game designer has ever created. So that he can travel with us, Makar is sat on the head of the King of Red Lions as we sail. Every time I reach this part of the game, for the entire journey, I break out in uncontrollable giggles. Makar is just so cute that it destroys my brain function. I hope if you see it for yourself, you’ll understand what I mean.
With that, we’re on our way to the Wind Temple.
The Wind Temple
With Makar by your side, you can now enter the Wind Temple. Then, play the Wind God’s Aria with him by the giant stone tablet you learned the song from, and it’ll explode, allowing you entrance to the dungeon.
The Wind Temple is… a frustrating dungeon. At least in my opinion. It’s not nearly as bad as the infamous Water Temple, but it is eerily similar. The temple has a main room with branching paths on multiple levels. Thankfully there aren’t any water levels to contend with, but playing on GameCube, the controls weren’t the easiest to work with. Not only that, but it’s also an escort dungeon. At the very least, the NPC we’re escorting is both cute and helpful.
Since this is an escort dungeon, Makar himself is the main gimmick, along with the Iron Boots and a new item you obtain here: the Hookshot. You will need to use the Command Melody to take control of Makar at various points in the dungeon to solve puzzles. Makar can do two things while you’re controlling him: fly and plant trees.
Like all other koroks, Makar can fly on his leaf propellor. You need to press A repeatedly to keep him airborne, and he can only fly until you run out of a purple meter that appears when you start flying. However, while Makar can fly, unlike Medli (the Earth Sage and the companion character for the Earth Temple), you can’t use him like a glider. He’s just too teeny tiny. If you jump while holding Makar, you will just fall.
His other ability allows him to plant trees in patches of soft soil around the dungeon. These trees can then be used as targets for the Hookshot once you obtain it. The trees can also be used to reveal hidden chests in specific locations. To plant a tree, you must be controlling Makar. When you walk over a soft soil patch, the A button will flash the same way it does when Link can land a parry attack.
Halfway through the dungeon, Makar is kidnapped by Floormasters. Oh no! How dare they! You don’t have to go far to find him, but he’s stuck in a prison cell, and you can’t bust him out until you obtain the Hookshot. Once you have it, you need to use the Hookshot while also wearing the Iron Boots to pull down the giant stone barring his way out of the cell.
With Makar’s help, you make your way through the rest of the dungeon. Once you defeat the final boss, Makar will play the Wind God’s Aria one last time and restore some power to Master Sword. If you’ve done the Earth Temple already, you’ll have restored its power to the max! As you leave, Makar will say that he needs to stay and continue playing to keep Ganon at bay, so we won’t see him again until the end of the game. It breaks my heart to say goodbye to him, but this is farewell.
Makar and Fado: Lore Implications
As the Wind Sage, Makar is implied to be the descendant of the previous Wind Sage Fado. In the same way, Medli is said to be the descendant of the Earth Sage Laruto. But looking at the two, they don’t look like they’re even the same race, let alone related.
So let me explain. Fado is a member of the Kokiri, children of the forest introduced in Ocarina of Time. The Hero of Time is raised as a Kokiri until the game’s events when he discovers that he’s a Hylian. But, according to Wind Waker, aren’t the Koroks the children of the forest? While this wouldn’t ordinarily be that strange – The Legend of Zelda franchise has been known to add and remove races and enemies with reckless abandon – Wind Waker provides an answer to this.
The Kokiri, at some point between the events of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, became the Koroks.
Of course, this is all complicated when you begin to consider the multiple timelines. The Legend of Zelda timeline is a beast all unto itself, but implications like this are the main reason it exists. This isn’t even the strangest thing Wind Waker does for the Zelda timeline. Namely, as suggested by the relationship between Medli and Laruto, the Rito are the direct descendants of the Zora. And that just makes Breath of the Wild that much more confusing.
Regardless, the Koroks remain a recognizable part of the Zelda world, showing up multiple times in the rest of the franchise, most notably in Breath of the Wild.
Makar in Breath of the Wild
I must admit, this section is a little self-indulgent but is still very relevant. Many important characters are referenced in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild through the names of locations and natural landmarks. Makar is no exception. While his mention may not be as glamorous as his fellow sage Medli (we can’t all get a divine beast named after us), he is the namesake of a significant location.
North of Hyrule castle in the Woodland Region, you will find the Great Hyrule Forest, home to this incarnation of the Great Deku Tree and the Koroks. Great Hyrule Forest is surrounded by a great lake isolating the forest from the land around it and limiting its entrance. This lake is called Lake Mekar, named after our adorable little friend Makar. Within Lake, Mekar is also Mekar Island — a little island within the lake, west of the Great Hyrule Forest. It’s a barren patch of land with only a dead tree, but it’s still named for our friend and so worth mentioning.
Makar shows up one last time in this game through the DLC. The DLC for Breath of the Wild brought back many items from the previous games as fun collectibles, such as the Majora’s Mask, Ravio’s Hood, and Link’s blue tunic from the beginning of Wind Waker. Most important among these items is an extremely useful item called the Korok Mask. When you wear the Korok Mask, it will shake and jingle when you’re near a Korok Seed, items used to expand your inventory storage. The best thing about this mask, though, is that it’s modeled after Makar’s face! Now I get to look like him, too!
As the most noteworthy Korok in the franchise up to this point, it only makes sense that he’d be honored in these ways. I, for one, am glad to see him remembered in all his delightful glory.
FAQs
Question: Who is Makar?
Answer: Makar is a Korok that lives in the Forest Haven in the game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. He is also the Wind Sage and helps Link to complete the Wind Temple and restore power to Master Sword.
Question: How do you Find Makar?
Answer: Until you access the Wind Temple, Makar is found inside the Forest Haven. After you’ve learned the Wind God’s Aria, you can find him in a cave behind the waterfalls on the path into Forest Haven.
To access the cave, use the grappling hook while standing in front of the waterfalls. You should swing right into the cave. Make sure you’re not on the upper ledge but in front of the pool the waterfalls empty into.
Question: What Happened to the Kokiri?
Answer: At some point between the events of Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, the Kokiri transformed into the Koroks. It’s suggested this happened as a result of the great flood in the same way the Zora transformed into the Rito.
Question: How do you get Makar Out of Jail?
Answer: After Makar has been taken by the floor masters in the Wind Temple, you need to obtain the Hookshot before you can free him. Once you’ve collected the Hookshot, wear the Iron Boots and aim at the rock in front of Makar’s cell. This will cause the rock to fall over and break, freeing Makar.
Here’s to the Cutest Little Guy in Zelda
Makar may be small, but he has a big impact. At least he did on me. I may have gone on about how cute he is, but like the rest of the Koroks, it’s an integral part of his charm. Makar has influenced not just The Wind Waker but the whole franchise, giving us insight into the fate of the Kokiri and being remembered in the Breath of the Wild landscape.
A wonderful little friend, I hope I’ve helped bring Makar back to your attention or given you more reason to give The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker a go — or maybe the tenth playthrough like me. It’s truly an excellent game, no matter what platform you play it on. Either way, hopefully, Makar’s little jingle will bring as big of a smile to your face as he does to mine.
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